How is your photography business going, Steve?
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How is your photography business going, Steve?
Heh. When I found out we were doing okay-to-fine on just DW's salary, I retired. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
I kept the business name and insurance and all that. I think I'm going to -- err, focus -- the business on fine-art photography. That would have been my first choice all along, but I didn't think it would bring in the kind of money we needed. Now I think it will. That will, however, require some rejiggering of the Web site (still unpublished) and some of my equipment. I let myself coast through the holidays without doing much with the business; now it's time to get going on that.
Thanks for asking!!
I look forward to hearing about your progress. :D
I can't believe it's been a year since you started this topic Fidgiegirl!
How are everyone's business ventures going? Did you run your numbers for last year yet?
Last night I finalized our financial reports for 2012 and all of our business efforts are paying off, finally!
It's taken us 5 years to get to the point of making enough money that we're not dipping into savings every month, and we'll actually owe income tax this year. I guess that's a good thing but it kills me to pay it!
Our previous business which we sold in 2007, was started in 1998, when the dot-com craze was in full-swing. We grew fast, made decent money from the get-go, and boy was that much easier than trying to get our most recent business efforts up and running during a recession. At least now I can say "been there-done that" during all types of economic climates.
What IS your business, HumboldtGirl?
Unlike Iris' DH, I am lazy and a know-it-all and generally speaking a poor enough employee that the only way I was ever going to get a job was by working for myself. That was 30 odd years ago and nothing in that time has changed much. A couple of the ventures I tried ended up being pretty successful. I hated those, too much work. Some never got past the business card stage. Hated those, no money. Most were in the middle. I have now made it to that lovely stage where I can be a little eccentric and scheme to do what I enjoy and when I feel like doing it without a whole lot of pressure to make it pay off. That's nice. And its a good thing because at this stage God knows no one would hire me! Just hold your nose and jump Kelli, the water's fine!
Well, I decided some action was better than spinning my wheels deciding on the PERFECT business, so I made a post to my GF blog. Part of me wants to say to myself: BIG DEAL - but why the negative self-talk? It is! It adds up. I also figured out that you have to submit your blog address to the search engines so I did that. I also put up another page I'd been mulling over and changed my signature here on the forum to reflect the blogs I actually update. So! A few steps!
we did our numbers.
I doubled my clients last year, but we didn't gain any new practitioners (new goal for 2013 -- to get 4 half-day rentals sorted!). We also doubled our revenue again, which is awesome, and had several very successful marketing strategies pan-out.
We also decreased our workload. I have been pushing and pushing and pushing myself to get the business *MORE* successful. Of course, it was at the expense of my own health/wellbeing and family life. So, I worked on getting more life-work balance and we have a good plan going right now that is working *really* well for us.
First, we "work hard" during the school terms, and set up for the school holidays so that we can spend less time in the office and more time with the kiddo/family time. DH also aligned his writing schedule to this, which also opens up more family time. Thus, we technically take off about a quarter of the year -- we still work, but we cut the work-load in half with careful planning.
Second, we prioritize the work we want to get done, dividing it up. We gave ourselves 3-big-tasks for this year, one on each of our lists is training the other in an underlying system of the business so that both of us can do "all" of the work. That leaves us two tasks, and we divided that into quarterly goals. Each quarter is the 10-week school term, so it's set up to keep the work at work and the life just going outside of that.
It's been working really well so far.
Third, I decided to step back from high-intensive, low profit activities to develop the low-intensive, high-profit activities. For example, our Kids Yoga Training is proving really popular among kindergarden teachers. So, I'm making sure that the foundational information (our curriculum) is rock-solid and clear, and hten making sure the training is properly managed (so that's a secondary curriculum process). In the mean time, we are setting up more teacher trainings, and working with our first 'test batch' to make sure that their questions are answered as well as their training needs. This provides us with a good way to make sure the curriculum/etc is solid. Once those teachers are out there, it expands our brand (high visibility), and they pay an annual license to use our curriculum. This means it's less wear and tear on me (i'm not teaching the classes), and yet high profit.
To demonstrate the other side, a friend invited me to utilize her space to open a second location in a "slow growth" process. It would require about 10 hours of work per week (both teaching and admin), which would dramatically increase my work load (see above information about cutting work load). It would also take a long time to get to profitability in terms of the cost-of-time vs earnings, so it's just not the right time.
Since I'm training teachers this year, and I do have a plan to run a second location in the near-future, I will have teachers to take on classes here, removing about 10 hrs of hourly work, which will allow me to expand into a new market without having the struggle of need to find an "extra" amount of time under my current schedule.
It just means waiting until things are ready to move forward before moving forward, and not over-taxing myself.
So, I'm learning. :D
What a great thread! I have been AWOL from this board for a few days as I have had better luck doing secret shops lately - higher quality ones with better pay and fewer situations that give me pause - so I have been applying like mad with mystery shopping companies and am not looking to do this F/T but as a sideline. Something really cool is I am getting myself a digital voice recorder - not to tape shops - which legal in Arizona without consent but I'm not comfortable with that - but to record my impressions as soon as I leave a shop and am out of sight. This is a freebie, too, as points I have earned doing surveys last year are paying for it.
I have also bought the domain name for my first and last name and am now pondering what exactly to do with it.....Rob
Oh this thread is getting good!
What IS your business, HumboldtGirl?
I never did explain what we do, did I? We work on a number of different things (we call them "projects") that make us happy and allow us to work from wherever our home is parked. After having a single-focus marketing and design business for the last 15 years, we've found that now we would rather have lots of little ventures so we can diversify our revenue sources, which helps us live anywhere as full-time RVers. Most of what we do is internet-based.
Our main project is more of a labor of love...it's our Tripawds three-legged animal community. We offer support and resources like assistive devices to people when their dog or cat is losing a leg. It makes us very fulfilled to be of help to others, but it doesn't pay all of our bills so we do other things like: paid freelance journalism, graphic design, website development, small business coaching, jewelry making, and we are also marketing executives for a health and wellness company. I know it sounds like we don't have focus but it really does all gel together in the end.
Zoebird, you sound like you are right on target with how your business is growing. I like your long-term thinking and strategizing.
Gimme...I've always been curious about secret shopping work. Have you been doing it for a long time? Do companies want people who can move from location to location? Would this be something that I could do as full-time RVers? We move around a lot.
Very interesting, HG! Thanks for sharing.
Zoebird, I found your post very interesting as well. I've always been impressed at all the angles you take for your business. I wouldn't have thought curriculum development would be part of yoga, but heck, why not?!
Rob, glad the SS thing is going well. I've never heard of people being able to really actually get any of them! So congrats!
I am kind of working on one little "tweak" to my GF blog every night. Tonight I will populate the blog roll. I want to get some more readers, and from there will decide what to do about them. :)
I'd kind of like to do ads, but not the clickable ads - old fashioned ads that the business pays for. That way they are targeted and relevant and local. Some Google Ads are starting to appear but I must not have enough content yet, because they are for restaurants like pizza places. What a tease on a GF blog. I want all the stuff to be vetted . . . maybe that's naive to think I can do it.
Are there other ad server services other than AdSense?
Let me know if you could use someone to seed comments on your GF blog, Kelli. (I'm interested in your topic, and so there wouldn't be anything shady about it :) ) It's always good to have a community or conversation going on a blog, so it's not just us bloggers talking to ourselves LOL...... I need to get back to my own. It's super fun to do, but I've been too busy to give it much love lately. I don't plan on doing Adsense on mine, for just the reason you mention. I don't know of any service that's as pervasive as Adsense. Maybe direct ads for specific GF products? Have you signed up for any affiliate programs, and could maybe advertise those, as you could be sure they're helpful and relevant to your readers?Quote:
Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
I have another one I want to start that's about super-easy organic food gardening, and another still about growing your own medicines (herbs). Some day I'm going to have to find a way to get them to pay for themselves, but that'll come when it's time.
cow-hi
Affiliate is a good idea . . . I have some Amazon affiliate but meh . . . well, of course, I've had a total views of all time of less than 200! So that could be part of it :)
Would love any and all comments!! I enjoyed what I read of your blog, too, and would be happy to do the same.
Thanks - I'd welcome your comments too! I am always so surprised and delighted when people comment :)
For Amazon, have you considered doing a blog post or posts with GF book reviews, cookbook reviews, etc.? That might help.
Also, check out Googling "gluten free affiliate programs" -- some good possibilities there
Kelli and pug, I have just visited and enjoyed your blogs...Kelli, as I am a gazillion miles away I don't know how much use I'll make of your local information but hey, I could visit someday! Actually, in writing that I know of someone who could actuallY USE your info so I'll forward it.
Please keep your conversation going.....my little blog is not intended to make any money but only to provide a voice for my practice (and my inner writer) but I sure could use ideas about how to get some readers.
Pug, is Web Sites for Good also your business? Looks like a very friendly, comfortable company....which makes a difference to me.
[QUOTE=fidgiegirl;123397
I'd kind of like to do ads, but not the clickable ads - old fashioned ads that the business pays for.[/QUOTE]
You are right on track with this FG. Our websites have a combination of both, and the direct relationships we have with advertisers pay more than standard click-through ads. Have an advertising kit, even if it's just a page, then get out there and show relative businesses why they should advertise with you. You'll be so glad you did.
HumboldtGurl, do you have an sample advertising kits? I don't seem to remember it being anything common - maybe if I start to try to notice, I will see something on different blogs.
Pug, I did Google that, and am thinking about it! Lots of choices.
leslieann, I found this article really helpful. I also have my blog set up to connect to my Facebook through Networked Blogs. It's a bit of work to set it up but among my miniscule readership the bulk comes from FB - bless my friends! :) Then when you make a blog post it automatically posts to your FB feed.
ETA: Yippee!! Yippee!! Since I did some of the tips in that article, I've gotten comments two days in a rows, and today is my highest traffic day (on a day that I didn't make a post, thus no population over to FB) yet! So something is working! :)
Now I just have to go out to eat at more restaurants. ;)
Thanks, leslieann - nice to have another visitor :) And yes, that's my company too. I love what I do, and love who I do it for.....it IS a very friendly, comfortable little livelihood. How did you deduce that was me, by the way? This month I'm deep into a whole site overhaul (new theme, new material, new portfolio) and can't wait until my online "face" is more up-to-date and cool. What's that old saying about the tinker's children always being the ones without shoes? Seems like my own site is always the last to get worked on.....:treadmill:.Quote:
Originally Posted by leslieann
Pug! It was you who commented on my blog, wasn't it?! :) Thank you!
You are a really engaging writer! I'd like to think I could write like that, but I don't! :D
Hi Humboldt Girl!Quote:
Originally Posted by HumboldtGurl
Sorry it has taken me a bit to get back to you here. About secret shopping, one idea I have is to check out and possibly sign up with www.mysteryshopforum.com - it is free and there is a link at the bottom to some very good (and not so good) mystery shopping companies. About your constantly being on the go - there are people who make a living doing this by doing what is called a route - driving a long distance and doing one mystery shop after another after another in a very condensed time period, and then doing and submitting all the reports involved. I think you might need to be in good with a few mystery shopping companies before you can do this - but you could sign up and ask at that forum site I gave you, they are mostly very helpful folks there. I only shop Phoenix, so I am pretty much one location only.
I find mystery shopping for me is not going to pay all my bills BUT it is a nice side income. I have been doing it for two years now for one company and am trying to branch out to others but it is quite competitive here and it is hard to get your foot in the door with a new company I'm finding, though I understand that this varies depending on location. Sometimes you get nice reimbursements too for required purchases for shops. Lately I have snagged a free Tommy Hilfiger coffee mug (destined for ebay maybe) and a free lawn and leaf fold out bag (something I can really use). There are those in mystery shopping who are content to only do restaurant shops (which I will not do as I have too much experience in the business and will automatically side with the server most times) that involve reimbursed meals for a report, and those who shop only hotels which involve reimbursed stays (with frequent hotel stay points) at hotels. All in all, it is a nice side gig I think and it seems to attract an interesting sort of person that does it. Anything else you'd like to know, let me know, I'll be glad to advise. Rob
You're welcome.....and I LOVE the style of your writing, Kelli. It's so unpretentious, and so comfortable for me to read, like you're having a conversation with the reader. Don't change anything about it :) And I am totally going to find those Conte ravioli....Quote:
Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
Awwww . . . thank you!Quote:
Originally Posted by puglogic
Rob, funny, I looked up some mystery shopping stuff just now and found out I was already registered with a company! And have been for several years! LOL. Have never actually done a shop, though.
It's going well to keep doing one little task a night for my blog and/or other businesses. I told my girlfriends an idea today that I got from work - we have over 100 people signed up for an online course about iPads and a specific aspect of instruction. Like, wow. Why couldn't I try to run similar courses on my own time? If they were paid, I might not get SUCH a response, but if they cost a little but lots of people take them, then, well, wow, that could be fruitful. I was even thinking I could run something through Google+ Hangout or zoom.us live and even if 10 people took an hour-long online "class" at $20 a piece that's $200 for one hour of work (plus the planning, but that's the beauty of classes - once you've delivered them a few times, they are pretty much down and it's just a question of delivering again).
My one friend might be interested in the "mastermind" group idea, with the periodic meetings for accountability (in speaking actions aloud and having a "deadline" of the next mastermind meeting to report back). That'd be cool.
Oooh I'm glad I came across this thread! Although I am employed 28-30hrs a week, I have just registered as self-employed. I'm going to try and start up as a freelance translator in addition to being employed (if it goes well and I enjoy it, maybe I'll think about leaving employment). All the tax and contributions crap is incredibly confusing, but the bulk of my work at the moment is editing my resume and trying to get clients... the finance side of things only becomes problematic if and when I actually make some dough!!
Rob, thank you! I'm going to look into this and will let you know if it turns into something for DH and I.Quote:
Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife
Humboldt Girl - Wishing you the best with it! My experience has been that it can be a funky way to make some extra cash on the side. Am looking forward to hearing if it turns into something that works for you and your DH. RobQuote:
Originally Posted by HumboldtGurl
I think that's a great idea. What languages do you translate?Quote:
Originally Posted by mira
The finance side of things is a pain, but it's well worth your time to have systems in place so that when you do make money, you're ready to deal with it and not making stuff up on the fly. Take time to learn the basics and it will reward you for years to come both in your business and in your personal finances too. Good luck!
Resurrecting this thread! :)
The "is work a waste of time" thread has me once again thinking about this thread. I am a bit despondent about work lately. It's feeling somewhat negative and draggy. I get excited about DOING, but I am stuck in what feels like eternal meetings and also in working with negative individuals who do not want to engage in our mutual work anyway, so I'm feeling a bit discouraged. When I was in the classroom, even though I was exhausted, I could DO, and RIGHT NOW. Even that was probably unique. It's not all bad, really - there are a lot of positives and it's a leadership position so I am indirectly impacting a lot more kids than I would have impacted directly, and I have remind myself of that. But some days I'd rather just charge teachers directly for focused coaching to help the ones who really want to do something new or different DO IT. But then who'd pay for that . . . grrr. My boss and coworkers are great, too.
So anyway - puglogic, I am in looooove with Puttylike. I am thinking of joining her Puttytribe, a monthly fee-based group she has going but not sure if I am in the right place. Today's post has my head spinning! http://puttylike.com/the-lateral-fre...of-everything/
I think Life_Is_Simple's "how much do you want to work?" thread has revealed something for me: I couldn't even bring myself to respond. If I can't state my goal, how will I reach it? The harder part of what she posed was the "how much do you want to make doing it?" part of her question. I don't know! Lots! More than I make now! But HOW much? Or is it even important? I mean, we moved so I can't make nothing, but would I have to make what I make now? Or is it a case of visualization - if I think I will only make $X.00, well, then, I'll only make $X.00!
In Barbara Winter's Making a Living Without a Job, she talks about sometimes full employment being the biggest impediment to getting started in self-employment. I'm starting to really appreciate that sentiment, so to speak . . .
Well, sorry, it was kind of "stream of consciousness." Where are others at with this?
:laff: No one was responding to that thread initially, and I thought I was being too flippant with the "how much do you want to make" part, so I cut that part out ;).Quote:
Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
First, a comment on the Barbara Winter comment you had. When I jumped into self-employed the first time, I had gone to a bunch of workshops (Barbara Sher Success Team workshop), and read a bunch of books ("Why Aren't You Your Own Boss?") prior. And that helped prepare me a little bit. But what really helped was jumping in. There is a point where a person has to jump in and swim. If there are people who can fully prepare, and jump out of a (usually tiring) full-time job with ease and grace, I don't know who these people are.
I learned a lot while self-employed the first time (2004-2005), and wrote down that my ideal "job" was 1/2 my regular field, which is pretty high paying, and 1/4 maybe wellness coach-related, and 1/4 something else fun. Something Barbara Sher said, if you have read her books.... sometimes the job in your field funds the really fun or more meaningful jobs. I experimented a lot in SE #1, but was only making 70% of what I needed, so eventually jumped back into a Corporate Job to regroup. Oh yeah, and one time I went to a Barbara Winter seminar and had her sign my copy of her book ;)
Right now I am in Self-employment #2 (2009 to present). During SE #1 I learned that I had to take longer gigs in my field, instead of the really short ones I was finding. And during the Corporate Job in 2006-2009, I watched consultants we hired, to see what other ideas I could form about the in-my-field job that I could put into practice in SE #2.
I may have swung too far the other direction, because now in SE #2 I have a 30-hr-a-week gig (with a client I had met in SE #1, incidentally). And he has so much for me to do, that I am lax in experimenting and adding some fun income streams. I could also do more than 30 hours if I wanted to. But I don't want to :laff:
There's another book I read: "Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person," by Barrie Jaeger. She talks about work being Drudgery, Craft, or Calling. All my corporate jobs started out as Craft, and went to Drudgery. My SE #2 is probably Craft, but maybe sometimes borders on Calling. However, there are things I could do to SE #2 to make it more Calling-like. Like, part of Self-Employment is working ON the business, and part is working IN the business. In SE #1, I spent more time working ON the business, and I found that to be fun. Even things like workshops and training are fun to me, and would enhance SE #2.
Another book I read during SE #1 (are you tired of my rambling yet?) is "Creating Money," by Roman and Packer. This is like the part of my recent post that I deleted, "how much would you like to make?" The first part of the book is about Attracting Abundance. The 2nd part is more, discovering your life's work. Here's a quote "Ask for what you want, no matter how impractical or far-fetched it may seem."
Part of self-employment is to dream what may be possible, even though your rational self tells you to come back to reality.
Fidgiegirl, because you are here in Simple Living, saving your money carefully while 90% of Americans are blowing their paychecks.... I believe that you could err a little on dreaming a little for a while :)
Also, you could kick me and tell me to go out and find some workshops or training, or add other fun to SE #2. But I am waiting for the weather to improve :laff: Which is why I couldn't reply to your thread about "Spring Cleaning," - I see no signs of Spring!! :laff:
Also - the name "Fidgiegirl..." I don't know what that means. You fidget a lot? ;)
So I have been thinking about above whine-fest and I am going to recommit to doing one thing a night toward self-employment. Whether that is spending 15 min. researching a question online, refining some aspect of my blog SEO or marketing, writing up a post, organizing finances, laying out a new idea, working on my network, executing plans . . . something. Perhaps I'll post here, or maybe over in one of my blogs. Or maybe just on a calendar at our house.
Is it worth doing some visioning around this? I feel like I have no concrete goal! When I was in San Diego over spring break, it occurred to me that my friend, who I very much admire, always had the next goal in mind ever since high school. She went to community college, knowing that it would lead to a four year university program in sciences. Then she enrolled in the Navy, knowing the money she would get for schooling would carry her debt free out of undergrad and into a graduate degree. She mostly completed one grad degree while she was in the service and is using GI Bill to work on her second. Even though she's near the end she has a very concrete plan of how the actions she is taking now will get her into the position she wants later. I used to be that way but now feel kind of floaty la la la. Not saying I have to be driven or never satisfied or enjoying the present, but saying if I want to be self-employed so badly then why do I keep just conceptualizing it as a cutesy little side thing? I am a smart person - how can I envision my undertakings as a robust, sustaining business?
I was keeping a personal journal kind of blog a few years ago and wrote this on May 23, 2011:
Quote:
His most powerful question to us was what is our goal? And I think it’s something very important that we need to set. I hadn’t thought of this, but it makes so much sense I can’t even believe it didn’t cross our minds. What is our goal?
To the how much I would like to make I thought: enough to survive, maybe save a little bit, maybe a little play money. It could be considerably less than I earn now (though I earn good money) Remember I was positing a 30 hour a week job, so I'd expect and gladly take much less than I earn now, my thoughts to "what would I like to make" was more "how low can I go" and still get by.
I have to admit I don't really have starting a business fantasies (wrong thread :)). I have *different* employment fantasies. Like what if I had gone or went (no easy switch) into non-profit work, or what if my work made a difference to anything beyond a bottom line etc. etc..
LiS, we must have been doing a simul-post. :) And I am never tired of your ramblings. And yes, I do fidget a lot. :)
You know, when I first read YMOYL and decided that I WOULD get out of debt, people around me pooh-poohed it. They tried to convince me it was part of life, and just to stuff it away and try to be happy with it. But I wasn't. It was a weight on me. And I stuck with my guns, and within four years I was debt free. $30K in four years, and during two of those I was making not so very much. I didn't know how long it would take but I plugged away at it and it is quite amazing what focus will result in.Quote:
"Ask for what you want, no matter how impractical or far-fetched it may seem."
I was just telling someone at work yesterday that I think we have not been big enough dreamers there, either. When we DID commit to a single technology initiative, even though we thought it would take years to realize it, the community's support for it snowballed and we reached our equipment procurement goal within 3 years. That was due to focus.
I also really look forward to getting my hands on the Jaeger book you recommended. I feel like that's where I'm at - drudgery! At least my job isn't a HSSJ - like I said, lots of good things going on - but still . . .
I also think spring will help matters!!! :D
Oh geez, totally dominating this thread tonight.
I am inspired and ready to voice our goal:
Earn enough business income that both Bryce and I can leave outside employment if we choose.
It's a big goal, and it will involve many baby steps. I feel excited. Now to maintain it. . .
Well, you kind of know where I am... :)Quote:
Originally Posted by fidgiegirl
When I had to get out of my HSSJ, I chose something that I enjoyed doing (photography) in an area (real estate) that I thought needed my services. I knew it was not a unique widget to offer the world. I knew I lack the formal qualifications to do it -- I don't have a degree in fine art nor have I ever sold real estate. I knew I was not going to replace my old job's income. But we ran the numbers. I knew we could make it on DW's income and "something" that I earned, whatever that was and whenever I started earning it. We were prepared for several months with expenses and not much income. Long story short, maybe the answer to "how much do you want to make" can be nebulous -- "something more than expenses". It's not limiting and it's not discouraging when it doesn't happen right away.
The interesting thing about not working at a HSSJ for 45-50 hours a week is that I had time to examine and reduce our cost structure. In my mind, lowering the amount of money we spent each month was as good as making money and then paying bigger bills with it. So the "something" I needed to make became even smaller. And that opened up some opportunities -- or at least made exising opportunities seem more possible.
You and I have discussed (in this thread, I think) that I kind of let things sit for several months. I think I had to do that, partially because I wanted to address our expenses and partially because I was just so done. Finally, after almost a year, I feel creative and energized enough to take on the business again. It will be a mix of fine-art photography and some real estate. And now that I know it's not going to be 50+ hours a week and that whatever I make at it is good, the goal may be a bit blurry but the path is clear.
A book that really changed my life was The Two Income Trap. This talked about making sure that your fixed expenses were on one income. Then, secondary income is just there for support in case something happens to the primary income.
So, my husband and I set about on a 3 year process to get onto one income. It was great! We really started to understand our finances better!
Then, we learned about how our living expenses should go. There are lots of different formulas, but we decided to just "observe" how we lived on that 1 income over several months, and as such, we were able to discern what percentages of our income went where, and then how to decrease those expenses as best we could. Thus, I think something like 50% of our income was fixed expenses (home, debt payments, savings of various kinds), and 30% were floating (food costs, fuel costs, etc), and the remaining 30% went into entertainment/clothing/extra food/travel. And that's pretty high, but it allowed us to live comfortably/well. :)
This gave us a real foundation for understanding how to make adjustments to our way of life and thought processes in terms of spending so that we could adapt to different kinds of financial conditions.
And then another thing came to our attention: we were never going to get ahead with what we were doing. My business, as it was formed at that time, was never going to create a good enough income on it's own. It needed a different formation. And then my husband's work -- well, he did have options to move towards management, but to be honest, he preferred the basic work and it wasn't really in the field he wanted to be in anyway. So, if he didn't move up into managmeent, his job would cap (and it was about 1$10k away from capping), and then it would just be COL after that. This meant, of course, that we wouldn't ever reeally meet any of our financial goals, and that ultimately, we wouldn't be too cheery about it.
That's when we decided to take the risk -- start the business because I knew that I could make it work AND make it profitable for us. And not just "enough for us so that we support ourselves at a basic level" -- but truly a big, successful business. But, our first goal was to get to sustainability (sustaining the business and ourselves), and our second goal financially was to get to our income level (DH's) when we left the US. We are just about there now.
Expenses are higher here, which means that more of our income goes to COL and less to savings/paying down the SL debt, etc -- but because we did this frugality work before starting the business, it's been easier for us to do that and still "live well."
Our next goal is to get into the higher tax bracket and see what the effect is. We have a financial planner who works with our accountant who is helping us to figure it out, because it may mean that we go a bit under our current earnings in terms of "take home after taxes" -- which means a less going to savings/SL debt for a bit -- and then seeing where we need to be to break through that impact and to a comfortable income.
By this point, we figure that SL debt will be paid off (and the financial planner thinks it's do-able). From there, it's just growth from tax bracket to tax bracket. I know that seems a bit of a weird way to look at it, but basically NZ has three tax brackets, so the goal is to get to the top one there. And then the US would have it's tax bracket -- which means we need to jump beyond both of these so that we have the take home of the bottom line of both tax brackets (i don't know if that sentence makes sense).
But, I do know that it's possible because of how it's happening step by step.
And that's just the financial goals, not the other goals that are. . . how to reach those financial goals.
But yes. Having goals helps. And an impetus.
We know how we want to live. We know that we need a certain level of income to achieve that lifestyle. Therefore, we created a way to get that income. And now we're working to it.
It's possible.
This sound extremely practical and right. That's your market research right there--plunge in and do the work, do it for 3 people, see how long it took to get them as customers, see how the work went and how your estimating skills are. Didya make any money?Quote:
Originally Posted by lhamo
and, you might actually work out the kinks by doing things low cost or gratis.
one of my friend's friends is a free lance writer. she's looking to start a new process where she creates and curates content for small business blogs/social marketing.
i am, personally, very interested in this as a service. I know what kind of content that I want, but don't have any time to write it. I have a long list of ideas and also if you just sit around and chat with me a bit, you'll discover that there are lots of other areas to explore that -- honestly -- i just don't have time to do. Also, just finding content in general -- not something I want to spend a lot of time on (ie, funny/uplifting videos or whatever to post on FB).
her first foray is to develop the timelines that it takes. understanding the blog's/business's marketing tone, audience, and so on. How long does it take to curate and/or produce and publish content? How much is that time worth?
From there, she wants to create packages (one blog per week plus X facebook per week; two blogs plus Y facebook, plus D tweets) and the acquire clients. From there, she wants to train other writers and subcontract them as she takes on more clients.
Once she understands the time-rhythms of the business, she can understand how many clients she can take on (and therefore the overall value of her time), and then the number of clients she can get per person whom she sub-contracts to (and the value of her time managing the sub contracting and client interface plus then the amount she needs to pay to the sub contractor).
Smart, really. There are lots and lots of us. There are lots of us who wouldn't pay jack-crap for this service, but there are another group of us who would love to have this service if it was affordable and on-brand.
Such a good feeling!! Or, at least a better one than immediately after you left HSSJ! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveinMN
How did you "know?" Do you mean in the self-confidence sense, or in the market research sense?Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoebird
I like the one income premise. It's somewhat similar to our focus on frugality and reducing expenses, but this gives it a whole new twist. A huge part of being able to reach the goal of "earn enough business income that both Bryce and Kelli can leave outside employment if they choose" is reducing EXPENSES enough that the income doesn't need to be as much. Just like Steve said, too!
I wonder why this particular goal that I've set, even though it's similar, feels so different from a goal like becoming FI3? It's essentially the same thing, although it acknowledges that we'll still have to be earning money through work, not simply through investments. It's just that the work will be through business(es) rather than through outside employment. Perhaps feels more doable? More real? More of what we want our lives to look like, anyway? Interesting.