February 2021 Income At-A-Glance
Gross Income for February: $160,883
Total Expenses for February: $17,067
Total Net Profit for February: $143,816
Difference b/t Feb & Jan: -$33,783
% of net profit to overall gross revenue: 89%
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 February Tax Tip: PPP, EIDL, Stimulus, and Unemployment Updates
Like most of the rest of the world, the tax world has been rocked by uncertainty and constant change over the past year of Covid.
And that doesn’t even change in the middle of tax season.
As I write this, the House is voting on a bill that would not only provide another round of stimulus, but would also change the tax code retroactively for 2020!
I want to give a quick update on many of the tax related issues for all the Covid bills that have passed, but first here’s a general piece of advice I’m giving all clients:
If you haven’t already filed your 2020 tax return, don’t file it.
If you have already filed it, no big deal, but be prepared to amend it. Especially if you received unemployment in 2020.
PPP and EIDL Funds
By now you should be going through the process of forgiveness for the first round of PPP funds.
You also can still apply for the second round of PPP funds.
When it comes to your taxes the major thing to note is that PPP funds and EIDL grants are not taxable.
And the expenses paid with those funds are still deductible.
There was a lot of uncertainty throughout the year on this issue, but the final determination is that they will not impact your taxes, so make sure those funds are not included in your 2020 income.
Stimulus Checks
Like PPP and EIDL funds, the stimulus checks sent out to individuals twice in 2020 are not taxable.
Additionally, if you did not qualify for the stimulus based on 2019 taxes, but would have qualified based on 2020 income, you will get both stimulus amounts as a part of your 2020 tax return.
No matter what, you will need to provide your tax preparer with the exact amount you received in each round in 2020.
You will not need to pay back any of the stimulus if your 2020 income pushed you above the income thresholds.
And finally, the new bill will provide $1,400 per person claimed on your tax return. The income limits remain the same as the first two stimulus checks, aside from a harder cap on the top end of the phase out.
Unemployment
The Covid bill set to be passed this week will impact unemployment in two ways.
First, it will extend the Federal portion of the benefits through Labor Day, allowing an additional $300 per week on top of what you receive from the state.
And second, it will make the first $10,200 of unemployment received in 2020 non-taxable for those with incomes below $150,000.
This is a huge decision that will drastically change the tax season we are currently in. As a result, the IRS will likely extend the tax deadline from April 15th to June or July.
I’ve been in the tax world for almost 15 years now. This is the by far the most uncertain tax season I’ve ever seen.
If you have attempted to do your own taxes in the past, this is the year to hire a professional. And again, I highly recommend waiting to file, especially if you received unemployment in 2020.
By next month I’m sure I will have a whole new set of updates to give you. We will get through this tax season and hopefully a return to normalcy in all area is around the corner!
And if you have questions, be sure to send them to us so you can be featured on a future income report!
And 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 February
Interviews, interviews, and… more interviews!
The Common Path to Uncommon Success book launch is coming up fast! March 23, 2021 to be exact.
So in February we started weekly meetings with our HarperCollins team to check in on orders, discuss which of our marketing strategies were working best, and to chat about new ideas to continue improving our pre-launch efforts.
These calls have been going great, and they’ve been a fantastic way to check-in on what’s working so we can double down on those efforts.
Something that’s working really well for us right now?
Interviews.
This isn’t the first time you’ve heard us talk about our love for guest podcasting – that is, being a guest on other peoples’ podcasts in your industry or niche.
Not one time, not five times, but consistently – over long periods of time – can make this podcast growth strategy a huge winner.
And because we believe so wholeheartedly in the podcast guesting strategy, it’s one we’re leading our book marketing strategy with.
To show you just how much we believe in the power of guest podcasting, I went back to John’s calendar for the month of February to count the number of interviews he’s done on other podcasts to spread the word about The Common Path to Uncommon Success.
The total number of interviews John did in February?
Let’s break it down by week.
In week 1 of February, John did 32 interviews. Week 2, he did 31; week 3, 24 interviews, and week 4, 52 interviews! That’s a total of 139 interviews in the month of February alone!
So you can imagine that January – and March – are looking quite similar.
Want to support the launch by sharing The Common Path to Uncommon Success with your own audience? Check out the swipe copy and social media assets we’ve put together for you here! Thank you in advance for your support, Fire Nation!
How do we know the interviews are working?
Great question.
The pre-order website we’re using for every call to action in all of our marketing is UncommonSuccessBook.com. This is where we have all retailers linked up so it’s easy for people to preorder from whatever outlet they prefer.
But before we share links to order the book from the retailer of your choice, we start with asking for your email address.
We went this route on our marketing teams recommendation, and we’re SO glad we did.
- It’s guaranteeing we have a way to communicate with those who have expressed interest in the book. Even if someone doesn’t “complete” their pre-order, we still have their email address to send them messages.
- It’s guaranteeing we have a way to send people their pre-order bonuses.
- It’s allowing us to gather critical information about how people are finding out about the book.
The funnel flow for our pre-orders
So let’s say you’re listening to Hal Elrod’s podcast, and you hear John do an interview where him and Hal talk about how awesome The Common Path to Uncommon Success is.
The call to action in that interview is to visit UncommonSuccessBook.com to pre-order a copy of the book and grab your 5 bonuses.
Listeners visit that page, click the “pre-order now” button, and enter their email address.
Next, they choose which retailer they want to use for their pre-order (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc).
Before they’ve even completed their pre-order they have an email in their inbox from prompting them for 3 things in order to get the link to download their bonuses:
- Reply to this email and attached your pre-order receipt
- Tell us where you heard about the book
- Why did you decide to pre-order?
This has given us such amazing insights into which marketing channels are working the BEST for us, plus why people are interested in the book.
We’ve been able to take this info in real time and let it help inform how we move forward with our marketing strategy.
Much more to come on our book launch, but until then, be sure you head over and pre-order your own copy TODAY!
Audiobook Recording
In February John not only jumped on the mic to interview on other podcasts 139 times – he also COMPLETED recording the entire audiobook for The Common Path to Uncommon Success.
That’s 71,000 words and 273 pages.
In John’s own words, when he sat down to record that audiobook… it was a doozy!
But true to his discipline and focus he set aside time every morning. And every morning he recorded and edited 2 chapters.
Staying on point, he was finished in 9 days (Chapter 7, all about Your Content Production Plan, is about 4x longer than any other chapter in the book… and happens to be the chapter I’m featured in!… so that was a “solo” chapter day).
I’m sure we can all agree that this book had to be read and recorded by John himself. Given the personal experiences in the book and the time, love, and energy he’s put into writing it over the past year, I can’t see it happening any other way.
We’re both very excited about the audiobook version being complete and off to the studio!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2021 Income Breakdown*
Product/Service Income: $154,060
TOTAL Journal sales: 672 Journal Trios (Bonus) + 306 Journals Sold for a total of 2,322 Journals: $9,986
The Freedom Journal: Accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days!
- Total: $3,392 (115 Freedom Journals sold)
The Mastery Journal: Master Productivity, Discipline and Focus in 100 days!
- Total: $2,178 (67 Mastery Journals sold)
The Podcast Journal: Idea to Launch in 50 Days!
- Total: $4,416 (124 Podcast Journals sold)
Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 Podcasting community in the world!
- Recurring: $12,794 (138 recurring)
- New members: $7,394 (19 new members)
- Total: $20,188
Real Revenue: Turn your BIG IDEA into Real Revenue
- Total: $450
Podcast Sponsorships: $97,031
The Common Path to Uncommon Success Bulk Buy Packages: $26,350
Podcast Launch: Audiobook: $40 | eBook: $15
Free Courses that contribute to 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: $6,823
*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: $5,527
- Audible: $0
- Bluehost: $0
- Click Funnels: $4,536
- Coaching referrals: $930 (email me for an introduction to a mentor for overall online business or a Podcast focused mentor!)
- ConvertKit: $61
- AWeber: $0
- Fizzle: $0
- Virtual Staff Finder: $0
Courses for Entrepreneurs: $135
- Knowledge Broker Blueprint by Tony Robbins: $135
Resources for Podcasters: $976
- Pat Flynn’s Fusebox Podcast Player: $0
- Podcasting Press: $158
- Designrr: $0
- Splasheo: $99
- Tim Paige’s Make My Intro: $0
- Interview Valet: $150
- Libsyn: $528 (Use promo code FIRE for the rest of this month & next free!)
- UDemy Podcasting Course: $41
- Streamlined Podcasts: $0 (Use promo code FIRE for a special discount!)
Other Resources: $185
- Amazon Associates: $175
- Other: $10
Total Gross Income in February: $160,883
Business Expenses: $15,205
- Advertising: $0
- Affiliate Commissions (Paradise): $71
- Accounting: $1,123
- Cost of goods sold: $1,510
- Consulting: $75
- Fulfillment: $0
- Design & Branding: $0
- Dues & Subscriptions: $1,079
- Education: $81
- Legal & Professional: $169
- Meals & Entertainment: $644
- Merchant / bank fees: $117
- Amazon fees: $4,036
- PayPal fees: $258
- Shopify: $20
- Office expenses: $379
- Community Refunds: $388
- Promotional: $29
- Travel: $621
- Virtual Assistant Fees: $4,536
- Website Fees: $69
Recurring, Subscription-based Expenses: $1,862
- Adobe Creative Cloud: $100
- Boomerang: $50 (team package)
- Authorize.net: $70
- Bonjoro: $45
- Cell Phone: $50
- Google Suite: $40
- Internet: $59
- eVoice: $10
- Infusionsoft CRM: $241
- Insurance: $89
- Libsyn: $163
- Linktree: $6
- TaxJar: $19
- Shopify: $312 (annual subscription)
- Taxes & Licenses: $523
- Zoom: $55
- Xero: $30
Total Expenses in February: $17,067
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 February 2021: $143,816
Biggest Lesson Learned
The Power of Organization
If there’s one thing that has been spotlighted in February, it’s how critical organization is to the success of our business.
But more specifically, there’s no way I could manage and successfully achieve what I do in our business without being as organized as I am.
That’s not to say that organization is always easy for me. It takes a lot of intention and accountability to stay on top of being organized. But the rewards are through the roof.
Throughout the pre-launch for The Common Path to Uncommon Success I’ve been hyper focused on organization. I know that without it, I’ll end up wasting time, spinning my wheels, and spend a lot of time feeling frustrating – all of which I do not want to do.
So here are a few things I’ve been heavily relying on in order to help myself stay organized – and on top of all the moving pieces – throughout our pre-launch phase.
- Bookmarks for sites and shared docs: I use Google Chrome, and having a folder on my bookmarks bar specifically for sites and shared docs related to the book has been a game-changer! It saves me SO MUCH time to be able to go directly to stuff quickly and easily.
- Google docs: We have a shared doc with our HarperCollins team that outlines the agenda for each of our calls and recaps previous calls. This is super helpful in recalling past convos and decisions fast, in addition to helping us stay on point during our calls.
- A “master” Google doc: I’ve created a “master” Google doc for myself where I keep notes and answers to questions I’ve had throughout the pre-launch period. Working with multiple teams at multiple companies and trying to manage all the conversations and contacts is not easy! Having a central location where I know I can find stuff is super helpful.
- Google spreadsheets: Bulk orders have been one of our major focuses during our pre-launch period, and being able to track those orders in a Google spreadsheet has saved my sanity more than once! It might seem pretty straight forward: someone places a bulk order, and then the books are sent to them. There are about 5 more steps in between, and I’m responsible for all of them happening seamlessly and smoothly. With 80 bulk orders placed to-date, I’m in charge of making sure the books end up where they’re supposed to.
- Boomerang for Gmail: As a project manager, I’m responsible for making sure all the separate teams and moving pieces are all working together and bringing the project closer to a successful completion. Sometimes this means A LOT of follow up, and other times it means figuring out things you don’t even know you need to know (which requires a lot of communication!) Boomerang for Gmail has kept me focused and on top of the hundreds of conversations I’m having with different people and different teams to make sure this launch is a success.
Organization isn’t something to “save for tomorrow”.
If you’re currently working on a big project, have something coming up soon, and are thinking about launching something down the road, make organization a priority from the start. I can assure you it will save you so much time and frustration throughout the life of your project!
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.
