October 2018 Income At-A-Glance
Gross Income for October: $176,264
Total Expenses for October: $23,915
Total Net Profit for October: $152,349
Difference b/t October & September: +$15,392
Why We Publish An Income Report
This monthly income report is created for you, Fire Nation!
By documenting the struggles we encounter and the successes we celebrate as entrepreneurs every single month, we’re able to provide you with support – and a single resource – where we share what’s working, what’s not, and what’s possible.
There’s a lot of hard work that goes into learning and growing as an entrepreneur, especially when you’re just starting out. The most important part of the equation is that you’re able to pass on what you learn to others through teaching, which is what we aim to do here.
Let’s IGNITE!
**We’ll receive a commission on the affiliate links below. If you click on my affiliate link and sign up for the products and services I trust and recommend, then I will earn a commission.
Josh Bauerle’s Monthly Tax Tip
What’s up Fire Nation, my name is Josh Bauerle. I’m a CPA and the Founder of CPA On Fire, where we specialize in working with entrepreneurs to minimize their tax liability while keeping them in line with the ever-changing tax laws.
I’ve been working with JLD & Kate at Entrepreneurs On Fire for years now, and they’ve included me in these monthly income reports with unlimited access to all their accounts so I can verify that what they report here is complete and accurate.
And because they believe in delivering an insane amount of value to you, my job doesn’t stop at the verification level; I also provide a new tax and accounting tip every month!
Josh’s October Tax Tip: What would my tax savings be if…
One of the most frequent tax questions I get is: “How much will I save in taxes if I buy a new vehicle this year?”
I’ll be honest, I hate this question.
Typically when someone asks me how much they’ll save in taxes by purchasing a new vehicle they’re trying to justify purchasing a new vehicle they don’t really need and/or can’t afford.
But I want to revisit the topic of tax deductions for vehicle purchases for two reasons.
- The new Tax Cut and Jobs Act increased the deductions for purchasing a vehicle starting in 2018
- I just bought a new vehicle myself and went through the various tax deduction scenarios as a part of choosing which vehicle to buy.
How it Works
The first thing to understand when it comes to purchasing a vehicle in your business is that how much you use it in the business vs. personal is incredibly important.
A vehicle has to be used more than 50 percent for business to qualify, and the deduction is always reduced by the percent of personal use.
But even with that restriction in place, the new tax laws have significantly increased the deduction for vehicle purchases.
If you buy a “passenger vehicle”, which is basically most cars and smaller trucks and SUV’s, you are now entitled to up to $18,000 in a bonus depreciation deduction the first year you buy it.
If it costs over $18,000, the remaining balance is depreciated over future years.
Not only is this $18,000 deduction a $10,000 increase from previous years, it also now applies to both new and used vehicles instead of just new vehicles under the old tax code.
And for larger vehicles that weigh over 6,000 pounds, you can deduct 100 percent of the cost of that vehicle in the first year. HUGE!
Note: These are just the purchase deductions!
On top of these you can still deduct the gas, maintenance, repairs, and so on that are all involved in using a vehicle.
A real life example
Up until yesterday, I was driving a 2004 Ford F150 with 185,000 miles on it.
I have 17 investment properties and I manage them all myself, so it is used almost entirely for that.
The truck was fine, and I’m not a big car guy, so I didn’t have much desire to upgrade. But it recently started getting hit with several expensive repairs.
So I bit the bullet and looked into upgrading.
Here’s what I did and how the taxes will work…
I ended up purchasing a 2015 Chevy Silverado, which was over the 6,000 pound heavy vehicle limit. With purchase price, taxes, and warranties, the total ended up being about $30,000.
Since it qualified as a heavy vehicle, I can deduct 100 percent of that cost in my business this year (it is used entirely for business).
And since my overall marginal tax rate this year will be about 45 percent, I’m going to save about $13,500 on taxes because of this purchase, taking the true cost of my truck down to $16,500.
Should you buy to save on taxes?
Overall, my stance hasn’t changed much on purchasing a vehicle for your business. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it, regardless of the tax benefits.
However, because of the changes to the tax laws this year, if you are going to be purchasing a new vehicle in the next few years and you use it over 50 percent of the time for business purposes, it is absolutely worth looking into doing it before year end this year.
Run the numbers, find out the true cost of your purchase after tax savings, and make an informed, financially responsible decision on this very expensive purchase!
As always, please feel free to contact me if you’d like to discuss what would be best for YOUR business. I LOVE chatting with Fire Nation!
What Went Down In October
Our Case Study with Thinkific
Leading up to launching Your Big Idea on the Thinkific platform we started a convo with the Thinkific team about tracking the entire process – from start to finish.
You know we love sharing the behind-the-scenes with you, Fire Nation :)
The result? Well, Thinkific went above and beyond (as they always do) and not only helped us track the entire process – but they documented it, too!
With a little back-and-forth, together, we created a case study: How one free course generated thousands of new leads and $50k in revenue in less than 2 months.
Now this isn’t the first (or the last) time you’ll hear us talk about the power of creating a free course. Doing so has helped us open up multiple funnels that lead to some of our highest generating revenue streams, like Podcasters’ Paradise (with Free Podcast Course), and in this case, Real Revenue and The Revenue Crew with Your Big Idea.
So if you want to check out the entire case study – which you should definitely do, because again, it breaks down the step-by-step of how we created Your Big Idea, launched it on Thinkific, AND put together a revenue-generating funnel around it – then head over to Thinkific’s site to download it today!
Puerto Palooza
It’s coming up quick, and we only have a few spots left… Are you interested in sharing 3 full days masterminding and enjoying Paradise in Puerto Rico with us, plus a handful of incredible attendees?
If yes, be sure to submit your application today!
Over our 3-day mastermind here in Puerto Rico we’ll have 2 full days of hot seats, where you’ll get 2 full sessions: 1 with John on creating your funnel, and 1 with Kate on creating your content plan.
The 3rd day will be a fully planned day of fun in the sun on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico!
Limited spots are available and they’re going fast. We’ll be closing out applications in November, so be sure to submit yours today!
31 days, 11 countries, 1 cruise
In our last income report we talked about the start of our 60-day Euro Adventure, and in October our adventured continued through 11 countries and 1 Mediterranean cruise!
Our stops in October included:
Berlin, Germany, where we got to meet up with Christine Schlonski and spend an entire day chatting about how each of us got started on our entrepreneurial journey – plus where we’re headed in 2019.
So many amazing conversations!
Oh, and we got to see a few monuments and historical sites, too, of course! :)
Vienna, Austria, where we did quite a bit of research around what it would be like to create an audio walking tour for Cities by Sound.
With how many amazing monuments, museums, churches, palaces, and castles there are around Vienna, it’d be hard to pass up as a key location for Cities by Sound!
Bratislava, Slovakia, where John actually came up with the idea – and launched – our Bluehost + Real Revenue offer.
Fun fact: John’s video is from our balcony at our AirBNB in Bratislava – our favorite AirBNB’s (and John’s favorite place we visited) over our entire trip! :)
Budapest, Hungary, where we got into some pretty deep convos about where we’re headed with Entrepreneurs On Fire, in addition to sharing some of our ideas for passion projects we’ll both be working on in 2019.
For John: it’s all about health and wellness.
For me: I’ve got several ideas I’m tossing around – all of which involve writing a book. The ideas don’t intersect in any way (not that I’ve found yet, anyway), so I have a lot more brainstorming to do as we close out 2018!
We loved the vastness of Budapest and especially loved our nighttime cruise down the river:
We covered A LOT of ground in Budapest, and a couple of our favorite stops included: the view of Buda, Pest and the Danube from above, and our time exploring Margaret Island.
Naples, Italy was our last stop before jumping onboard our Mediterranean cruise.
We did a little bit of catch up on work stuff (and preparation for potentially being “offline” during the cruise), and we also enjoyed some of our best meals of the trip – especially the pizza!
We wrapped up our time in Naples with a day trip to explore Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello. This day trip was amazing!
Our 10-day cruise departed from Civitavecchia (Rome, Itlay), and made stops in Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kotor, Montenegro; Corfu, Greece; Olympia, Greece; Athens, Greece; Santorini, Greece; and Naples, Italy.
We had 17 friends, fellow entrepreneurs, and family members onboard the cruise with us, and we had a blast exploring the Mediterranean and masterminding with the crew!
We came full circle back to Civitavecchia and then spent three full days exploring Rome, Italy before ending our trip in Lisbon, Portugal (Nov 1 – Nov 6).
Rome, Italy was amazing! We spent a lot of time revisiting conversations started on the cruise during our mastermind sessions and totally crushed seeing everything there is to see in Rome!
We haven’t completed updates from all of our stops just yet, but if you head over to EOFire.com/travel that’s where we’ll be posting a full rundown of our travels and everything we did at each stop!
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October 2018 Income Breakdown*
Product/Service Income: $131,303
TOTAL Journal sales: 379 Journals for a total of $14,068
The Freedom Journal: Accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days!
- TheFreedomJournal.com: $3,345 (82 Hardcovers & 5 Digital Packs)
- Amazon: $5,421 (154 Freedom Journals sold!)
- Total: $8,766
The Mastery Journal: Master Productivity, Discipline and Focus in 100 days!
- TheMasteryJournal.com: $486 (11 Hardcovers & 2 Digital Packs)
- Amazon: $3,120 (90 Mastery Journals sold!)
- Total: $3,606
The Podcast Journal: Idea to Launch in 50 Days!
- ThePodcastJournal.com: $226 (4 Hardcovers & 1 Digital Pack)
- Amazon: $1,470 (30 Podcast Journals sold!)
- Total: $1,696
Puerto Palooza: $15,500 (In-person Mastermind in Puerto Rico, Feb 2019!)
Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 Podcasting community in the world!
- Recurring: $21,662 (181 monthly)
- New members: $7,922 (26 new members)
- Speak to Sell: $555
- Total: $30,139
Real Revenue: Turn your BIG IDEA into Real Revenue
- New members: $1,950
The Revenue Crew: An Elite Mastermind ON FIRE!
- New Members: $2,950
Podcast Sponsorship Income: $61,500
Podcast Websites: $5,000
Podcast Launch: Audiobook: $172 | eBook: $24
Free Courses that result in the above revenue:
Your Big Idea: Discover your big idea in under an hour!
Free Podcast Course: Create and launch your own podcast!
Funnel On Fire: Create a funnel that converts!
Affiliate Income: $44,961
*Affiliate links below – if you click on my affiliate link and sign up for the products and services I trust and recommend, then I will earn a commission.
Resources for Entrepreneurs: $30,554
- Audible: $225
- BlueHost: $600 Step-by-step guide and 23 WordPress tutorials included! Disclosure: This is my affiliate link and I will receive a commission if you sign up through my link
- Click Funnels: $28,995
- Coaching referrals: $445 (email me for an introduction to a mentor for overall online business or a Podcast focused mentor!)
- ConvertKit: $142
- Disclaimer Template: $147 (legal disclaimers for your website)
- Fizzle: $0
Courses for Entrepreneurs: $11,892
- Create Awesome Online Courses by DSG: $2,667
- Webinars that Convert by Amy Porterfield: $776
- ASK by Ryan Levesque: $1,645
- Bio Hacking Secrets by Anthony Diclementi: $2,300
- Boost Blog Traffic by Jon Morrow: $4,090
- Virtual Staff Finder by Chris Ducker: $0
- Opesta by Ethan Sigmon: $414
Resources for Podcasters: $2,141
- Pat Flynn’s Fusebox Podcast Player: $0
- Podcasting Press: $464
- Tim Paige’s Make My Intro: $250
- Libsyn: $1,312 (Use promo code FIRE for the rest of this month & next free!)
- UDemy Podcasting Course: $115
Other Resources: $374
- Amazon Associates: $197
- Other: $177
Total Gross Income in October: $176,264
Business Expenses: $21,085
- Advertising: $0
- Affiliate Commissions (Paradise): $2,136
- Accounting: $981
- Cost of goods sold: $1,875
- Design & Branding: $942
- Education: $17
- Legal & Professional: $70
- Meals & Entertainment: $442
- Merchant / bank fees: $1,287
- Amazon fees: $4,094
- PayPal fees: $400
- Shopify fees: $329
- Office expenses: $177
- Community Refunds: $665
- Promotional: $111
- The Freedom, Mastery & Podcast Journal: $0
- Travel: $4,522
- Virtual Assistant Fees: $2,723
- Website Fees: $314
Recurring, Subscription-based Expenses: $2,830
- Adobe Creative Cloud: $100
- Boomerang: $60 (team package)
- Bonjoro: $45
- Authorize.net: $70
- Cell Phone: $212
- Google Suite: $50
- Internet: $80
- eVoice: $10
- Focus at Will: $45 (annual fee)
- Infusionsoft CRM: $309
- Insurance: $648
- Libsyn: $152
- Chatroll: $49
- Shopify: $214
- TaxJar: $19
- Taxes & Licenses: $523
- Zapier: $15
- Xero: $15
- Vimeo: $199 (annual fee)
- Zoom: $15
Total Expenses in October: $23,915
Payroll to John & Kate: $15,900
In our May 2014 Income Report and our June 2016 Income Report, Josh focuses on how to pay yourself as an entrepreneur. Check them out!
Wondering what we do with all of our net revenue? We share all in our April 2017 Income Report :)
Total Net Profit for October 2018: $152,349
Biggest Lesson Learned
What type of business are you creating?
Throughout our 60-day Euro Adventure I learned, discovered, and thought about a lot of stuff.
John and I also had the opportunity to engage in multiple drawn-out conversations about our business, where we’re at in life right now, and what we see ourselves doing in 2019.
These were really fun conversations to have, and they opened up a lot of possibilities, not just related to Entrepreneurs On Fire, but other stuff, too.
For the first time in several years we both stepped away from the business – almost completely – and focused on everything but being at our computers.
Sure, we had at least an hour or so of work time every morning while we were away, but in relation to the other activities and things we were doing throughout our trip, it was a very small chunk of our time.
This is not to say that we weren’t thinking about our business and doing everything we needed to do to stay in touch with our community and serve you. But it is to say that it proved a lot when it comes to where our business is at – and what type of business we’ve created.
It doesn’t just show in our income numbers (the fact that we haven’t lost any ground despite traveling for 60 days).
It doesn’t just show in the pictures we took and the stories we share with you about our travels (as we’ve done here in this post and via social media).
It shows up everywhere. It shows up in the lifestyle we’ve created (and are very grateful and lucky to be living right now), and in the stories you share with us about your successes and progress with your own business.
Thanks to you, the ripple effect we’ve created with Entrepreneurs On Fire continues – even when we’re not at our computers.
So ask yourself today: what type of business are you creating? And more importantly, is that the type of business you want?
Alright Fire Nation, that’s a wrap!
Until next month, keep your FIRE burning!
~ Kate & John
Note: we report our income figures as accurately as possible, but in using reports from a combo of Infusionsoft & Xero to track our product and total income / expenses, they suggest the possibility of a 3 – 5% margin of error.
