December 2019 Online Business Income Report: $41,224.78
With most career paths or businesses, you can search online to find out what could be expected in terms of income. But running an online business is pretty new and unknown territory.
I hope to show you with these income reports just what is possible when you build an online business! It’s my hope that if you dream of running an online business too, these reports encourage you to work towards making that dream into your reality!
Personal News
Canada Christmas party:
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know my friends and I from uni throw one heck of a Christmas party every year. This year was no different, I headed home at the beginning of December to catch up with fam and friends for some early Christmas celebrations.
At our party bacon-covered-turkey was made, ridiculous outfits were worn, crackers were cracked, karokee was sang and mulled wine was over spiked with whiskey.
In the past 6 months, adult life seemed to hit my friend group. This year we toasted to 1 pregnancy, 2 engagements, 2 houses bought and 1 new boyfriend!
Ireland for NYE:
I went to the County Kerry in south west of Ireland a couple years ago and knew my fiancé would love it, so we decided to head there for NYE. We went to the Ring of Kerry, the Cliffs of Moher and Ashford Castle. It was one of our absolute favorite vacations to date.
If you’re heading there, here’s a few recommendations on must-hit places.
Ring of Kerry:
Muckross house
Ladies view
Kerry Cliffs
Kate Kearney’s Cottage
Gap of Dunloe
Killarney
We took 2 days to complete the Ring of Kerry and I would definitely recommend that, I don’t know how on earth we would have fit it all into 1 day.
We stayed in the town of Killarney and it was fabulous! It’s the most lively, beautiful, quaint little Irish town! If you stay in Killarney, be sure to go to the pub John M Reidy. The live music was potentially the most fun I’ve had at a bar in years. Also they make a mean Espresso Martini.
If you’re hungry while in Killarney, we had a super tasty lunch at the Celtic Whiskey & Bar Larder.
I would honestly argue that we actually liked the Kerry Cliffs more than the superrrr famous Cliffs of Moher. We went to the Cliffs of Moher in winter (read: not high tourist season) and it was still packed. The Kerry Cliffs were honestly reallyyy impressive and you had the place to yourself which we liked a lot more than the very touristy Cliffs of Moher.
We also stayed at Ashford Castle which is hands-down our new favorite hotel.
Their rooms are jaw-dropping, their restaurants and afternoon tea are exceptional, and they have a ton of activities to do (we went horse back riding and clay shooting) and their staff are so kind and attentive!
They also have 2 Irish Greyhound dogs that you can go for a walk with daily. Irish greyhounds we learned are the biggest dog in the world, and they get their name from the fact that they’re the only dog able to kill a wolf. They were also used in wars back in the day because they were the only dog big enough to pull a rider off a horse. Thankfully, Irish greyhounds at Ashford are pretty domesticated.
If you want a splurge-hotel to stay at while in Ireland, Ashford Castle is where it’s at!
Business news
Corporation problems:
The month continued with my corporation establishing issues dragging on. I spent the month speaking to a zillion different tax advisors and lawyers regarding setting up a corporation in a variety of different countries.
I was adamant about NOT wanting a German corporation because I knew it was going to be near impossible manage simple day to day operations as a non-German.
Want a preview of what it took me in my specific situation to start a corporation in Germany? I have to get legally married, change the visa I hold, save and invest €25,000 of my own money into the company, and take a trip to Munich to sign paperwork…
Slice of cake right? Wrong. *eye roll* An American LLC would have been 103x easier to open as you can imagine.
Turns out, Germany doesn’t like it when you establish a corporation abroad because they loose out on tax revenues and will destroy you financially if you try… Thanks for that one Germany.
I eventually gave in and gave the go ahead to start a German corporation, even though I know it’s going to be an ongoing pain-in-the-you-know-what to manage and run as a non-German native.
Anyways, suffice to say I spent the month pretty displeased with Germany.
I’ll just give some words of advice to anyone else who is currently between countries and starting a business.
Don’t start your business while abroad if you want to return home at some point.
After deciding I was stuck with a German corporation, I had a rather hilarious thought. In Germany you need to have the letters GmbH after your corporation name (kinda like LLC or Ltd). I seriously considered naming my corporation ‘I wish I didn’t have a’ and then ‘GmbH’ would be automatically tacked onto the end, so my company name would be ‘I wish I didn’t have a GmbH.’
After laughing about that for a while, when push came to shove, I decided to be slightly more professional and just name it Paige Brunton GmbH.
Rant over.
So to summarize this update, I’m now a corporation.
Which kind of reminds me of Jay-Z’s lyrics “I'm not a businessman; I'm a business, man!” 😂
Course updating to Squarespace 7.1:
This was the most important thing I should have been doing in December, but I’ll be honest, I was so wrapped up with corporation stuff that I didn’t work on this much. I got familiar with Squarespace 7.1 myself, but didn’t have much time to actually rerecord videos.
New Year planning:
Wanna know how much new year planning I did? Not a whole lot, lol.
I did a bit of a reflection on the past year so I could publish my annual business review post, but didn’t get around to actually making a game plan for 2020 yet. Again, corporation stuff took up my month pretty much.
Before I can get to any dreaming and scheming for next year, I need to re-record my course to update it to Squarespace 7.1 and I needed to wrap up a bunch of work that comes along with changing your business formation.
So after that’s complete all in January (hopefully), I’ll do a little late planning session for 2020 and get to move on to new projects!
Update: Square Secrets 7.1 has officially been released! If you’re a past student, go ahead and log in! Your brand new course should be waiting for you in your course library!
And did someone say bonuses? Because we totally added a new module on e-commerce, too! 🎉
Content created
Currently reading
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
I’ve read this one before and it’s a favorite of mine. I decided to start of my new year by re-reading some of the most impactful books I’ve ever read, and this is one of them.
Aesthetic Intelligence by Pauline Brown
Honestly, maybe wouldn’t recommend this one if you run an online business. I struggled to see how the teachings in the book would relate to my type of business.
Traffic numbers
Income report:
Income:
Square Secrets course: $11,089.00
Square Secrets Business course: $8,754.40
SS + SSB course Bundle: $7,303.50
How To Build Squarespace Templates: $10,073.75
Hiring + Outsourcing Mini Course: $775.00
Affiliate income:
Squarespace: $1,400.00
Honeybook: $200.00
Convertkit: $46.80
Buzzsprout: $33.60
Amazon: $11.35
Creative Law Shop: $1,537.38
Total November Income: $41,224.78
↑Those are affiliate links!
Expenses:
There you go! That pretty much sums up the month!
If you want to see the behind-the-scenes of the business in real-time, def come hang out on Insta, as that’s where I show you what I’m up to and working on every day.
