Above: my real-life, non-styled or cleaned-up, messy, cluttered desk. This is where I grind it all out. Solopreneur life isn't always as glamorous as it appears on Instagram, y'all!
Yesterday was tax day {ugh} + it's been almost 2 years since my last "How I Make Money" installment, so I figured it was about time we revisit this subject. There are quite a few reasons I think this subject is worth revisiting, but here are the two main reasons: 1. I want you to see how many revenue streams it takes [or can take] for a solopreneur to make enough money to make it work. As I've said many times before, I love what I do because it's so varied and every day is different, but there is also a tactical reason for this--so that when one revenue stream slows down, another one can pick up the slack and we can still pay all of our bills each month. Sidenote: sometimes I simply cannot believe how many bills come in every month when you're an adult with a child, a house, and two cars. They just keep coming, don't they? 2. I want you to see how quickly things can change in the life of a solopreneur with lots of different revenue streams! And how this life requires constantly tweaking your schedule and offerings in order to make room for what is working and let go of what isn't. So, to demonstrate the above, I've included the same "bucket" revenue categories that I did the last time I talked about this subject, but with two different pieces of info below each one--one note showing what I wrote two years ago, and then another about the state of that same category now (so that you can see how each particular bucket has changed in two years): YOGA TEACHING BUCKET
ART BUCKET
CONSULTING BUCKET
DESIGN BUCKET > Biggest area of growth in the past two years!
BLOG BUCKET:
But as you can see, the biggest change in the past two years is that the Design Bucket has grown immensely and thus, in order to keep things balanced, I've had to shrink the other buckets in order to make room for this increased workload. The great news is that the Design Bucket is also one of the few places where I can get help, so I was able to hire Sara to work with me on those tasks and thus, get more work done more quickly. Obviously this means my expenses have increased (because I'm now paying someone), but I can make more in this area now, too (especially since my time is much more limited now that I have a baby). The last thing I should mention is that in the past 2 years, my rates for almost everything listed above (except retail products, of course), has gone up. I've increased my hourly rates for consulting and design work, and have changed the way that I calculate my per project rate for bigger things like website designs. I also make more per class teaching yoga now. So, all of these slow but steady increases over the years have allowed me to do less and still make around the same amount, which is another great part of working for yourself and setting your own rates. I hope this post was informative for those of you getting started as solopreneurs and/or muddling through this world alongside me ;) I look forward to seeing how these things continue to shift in the next two years! 4/20/2017 05:45:04 am
I use Freshbooks! Click on my name (above) to learn more about them--they're great :)
Kristin
4/24/2017 09:24:38 am
Would love a post about how you were able to charge more to teach yoga classes. I never ask for raises, but rather let go of lesser-paying gigs and seek out higher paying ones when I don't think the compensation is fair. Comments are closed.
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HELLO!I'm Mary Catherine, a Cape Cod-based yoga teacher, painter, designer, writer, mom, and list-maker extraordinaire. My goal is to inspire you to start living a more creative, simple, joyful, + purposeful life.
{Learn more + read my story}
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