January 2015 Income At-A-Glance
Gross Income for January: $269,971.50
Total Expenses for January: $96,709
Total Net Profit for January: $173,262.50
Difference b/t Jan & Dec: -$26,188.50
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 business owners every single month, we’re able to provide you with a single resource that tells you 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 what you’re able to pass on to others through teaching, which is what we aim to do here at EntrepreneurOnFire.
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.
CPA On Fire
Our CPA, Josh Baurle, shares his January Income Report 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 EntrepreneurOnFire to make sure their accounting systems are running smoothly and their taxes are as low as possible. John and Kate have included me in the 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, my job doesn’t stop at the verification level; I’ll also be providing tax and accounting tips to you along the way!
I have a serious question for you…
Did you make a New Years Resolution to stay on top of your taxes from day one?
If you’re tired of not knowing where your business stands from day to day, or you find yourself uttering the words “Why do I do this to myself ever year?!?” as you scramble to piece together 12 months worth of transactions for tax purposes, then you’re in luck!
This month we’re going to discuss bookkeeping and how to stay on top of your taxes throughout the entire year.
Proper bookkeeping throughout the year will help you track the health of your business, tell you which parts of your business are most (and least) profitable, and save you significant time, money and stress come tax season.
3 bookkeeping methods you can use in 2015
1. Spreadsheet With Manual Entry
Maybe you’re a new business, have very few transactions coming in and out each month, or you’re one of those strange souls who actually ENJOYS the bookkeeping side of things ;)
If any of these describes you, then a simple spreadsheet where you manually enter your income and expenses as they occur will work great! All you have to do is record the date and description for each transaction hitting your business bank account each month.
If you want a ready-made spreadsheet to use, you can get one for free at CPAOnFire.com. All you have to do is sign up for our mailing list!
2. Accounting Software
If your business is growing and you’re starting to accumulate 25 – 50 transactions per month or more, then it’s time to consider using some type of accounting software. There are plenty of options out there, both cloud-based and desktop.
What’s great about using accounting software is that it links to your bank accounts and credit cards so you don’t have to manually enter each transaction. All you have to do is go in and code the transactions so they are recorded in the proper categories.
A couple of options include Quickbooks Online and Xero.
3. Outsource
If you can’t stand the thought of doing your own bookkeeping, or if your business has grown so much that you no longer have the capacity to handle it yourself, then it’s time to consider outsourcing it completely.
Perfect example: we recently realized here at EntrepreneurOnFire that our bookkeeping had grown beyond the time and resources John and Kate had to dedicate to the task. We did some research and found a great company willing to take the job off their hands at a very reasonable price.
This option is probably more affordable than you think, and it’ll almost completely eliminate the time you spend on bookkeeping.
Bottom line
The bottom line with bookkeeping is this: it has to be done and it’s up to you to choose the option you know you can commit to. Let’s start 2015 off on the right foot! Come this time next year, you’ll be thanking yourself!
I’m always here as a resource if you have any questions! 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!
Fire Nation Feature
We’re starting to hear about so many amazing creations from our Fire Nation faithful – how could we NOT feature some of them in our monthly report?! We love you, Fire Nation, and we think it’s awesome that you’re making big things happen.
This month, we want to share a project with you from Austin G. Netzley, who recently self-published on Amazon with incredible success. In order to share his lessons learned with a wider audience, he’ll be hosting a Webinar and creating a course around self-publishing called Epic Book Launch.
So how did Austin go from Corporate America to a full-time entrepreneur, a #1 Best-selling Author on Amazon, AND on the path to creating his own online course? Let’s take a look…
The Journey
Going into college, Austin knew one thing: the corporate world. So, he earned his engineering degree and headed towards his dream of becoming a future CEO for a large company.
A few years into his career, he started to read business-focused books and learned that there was a lot more opportunity outside of Corporate America than he knew. Austin always had an interest in the stock market, so he started to invest more and more, until he eventually started his first business “on the side”.
He built up his fund and business to where he was making more money passively from his automated investments than he was from working full-time. However, he still wasn’t ready to take the leap.
The corporate world was all he knew growing up, and it took him two years of making great money on the side before he finally overcame his fears and officially left his job to become a full-time entrepreneur.
It was by far the greatest decision I’ve ever made.
Austin’s Book Inspiration
As Austin was leaving the corporate world, he started a project called YoPro Wealth: a blog and podcast to help teach young professionals throughout the world what true wealth is and how to obtain it.
As he started to interview some great guests on the podcast, he realized that every single one of their journeys were very similar; sure, the details were different, but they all made the same decisions and went through the same steps on their way to wealth.
As soon as he had this realization, the light bulb went off and the idea for his first book was born: he wanted to use the interviews with these great guests and pull out the common traits, actions and methods they all used in order to teach his reader the steps they, too could take in order to achieve true and massive wealth.
Austin’s book, Make Money, Live Wealthy, is about money, but it’s also about more than that: it’s meant to inspire and give people the direction that we so often need through sharing the wisdom of 75 great entrepreneurs.
The Strategy
Austin started with outsourcing the transcription of all of his podcast interviews.
He then took the great quotes and stories from each interview and sorted them by various categories.
He knew the major themes and messages that were repeated regularly, so it was really about creating a very clear outline and flow before he even started the book. He did nearly two months of part-time prep work, and then he got 80,000 words completed in the following two months.
From there, he hired content and copy editors to refine the message and clean up the book to where it was ready to be released.
All in all, Austin says it wasn’t nearly as difficult, and didn’t take as long to publish as many had said – thanks to the up front planning he did.
How to Self Publish With Massive Success
During Austin’s upcoming Webinar and in his course, Epic Book Launch, he’ll share a road map that simplifies the process and shows you step-by-step how to create your own Epic Book Launch.
What did Austin’s stats look like?
- 31,336 free downloads in the first 36 hours;
- 27-time #1 Best-seller in 3 days;
- #4 in all Kindle books on Amazon;
- #1 Best-seller for the first 60 days (and counting) since launch
- Email list went from averaging under 5 new sign ups per day to now, consistently over 70
The opportunities and relationships this book opened up are amazing. There isn’t a such thing as an overnight success, but there is a such thing as an overnight sensation, and in my opinion, a book is the best way to accomplish that. – Austin G. Netzley
If you want to register for the Webinar and learn more about Austin’s course, Epic Book Launch, just click here!
What Went Down In January
An update: The Fire Path Course (TFPC)
What’s next
After successfully launching our TFPC beta round within our Elite Mastermind Tribe, we’re ready to take the next steps!
We’ve gained some incredible insights from the 13 members of Fire Nation Elite who have gone all-in on the beta launch of TFPC with us.
During our weekly calls we’ve been able to discuss each module as a group, get feedback from our course participants, and gain priceless knowledge around exactly what our target audience wants and needs from this course.
One of the most exciting parts of our beta launch? Well, we’ve definitely received some incredibly positive feedback from everyone involved, but even more exciting: it’s give us the opportunity to put all 13 of our beta members in the hot seat, and we can’t wait to share those exclusive recordings inside TFPC!
If you’re sick of feeling lost on your entrepreneurial journey – wondering what the next step to take should be, or whether or not what you’re currently doing is working – then TFPC is for you.
Head over to The Fire Path to download your free Fire Path Guide, and jump on The Fire Path today!
The Webinar Course
Free Podcast Course has been a BIG hit, and the best part is, after the initial setup, it’s been completely automated. In the spirit of doubling down, we knew that if it worked with podcasting, chances are it would work with Webinars, too – IF we could bring the heat =)
With a very similar model and a whole new set of value-packed video tutorials, we launched The Webinar Course with great success.
How do we know it’s working?
Since launching FPC and TWC, here’s what we’ve seen:
FPC Opt ins: 4,341
Invested in Complete Podcast Course: 39 (for an invoice total of $585)
Invested in Paradise: 72 (for an invoice total of $83,808)
TWC Opt ins: 1,731
Invested in WebinarOnFire: 22 (for an invoice total of $12,034)
Fire Nation, these are campaigns that we set up 1 time, and that are continuing to bring in new members to our communities 24/7 thanks to automation.
Tools we use to make FPC and TWC happen:
Easy Webinar
Allows us to offer multiple streaming webinar dates and times based on an individual’s time zone (+ email reminders based on that time zone)
Infusionsoft is our Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool and it helps us do everything from collect the contact’s information at optin; set up our campaigns (emails); tag contacts based on their behaviors (opportunities); create order forms; and perform follow up actions (like welcome campaigns if they join the community).
We use a LeadPage template to actually deliver the video modules to those who sign up.
If you want to check out the flow we have going on in either of these free courses, all you have to do is opt in!
Free Podcast Course | The Webinar Course
A Celebration
In our 2014 in Review we shared our BIG goals with you and also gave you an inside look at whether or not we reached them. Of our 3 BIG goals, there was 1 we weren’t able to hit: reaching 1 million podcast downloads for EntrepreneurOnFire in a single month.
In January 2015, we reached that milestone with 1,049,726 downloads!
We wanted to share this with you to prove that, like with anything else in business and entrepreneurship, podcasting is a marathon – not a sprint. It’s taken us 2.5 years to reach this milestone.
If you’re thinking about starting a podcast – or you already have – and are truly excited about your topic, and you feel good about the content you’re providing, then nothing but time and hard work stand in your way.
Lesson learned: don’t judge your podcast day to day; instead, take note of your trends month over month. There will be times when you plateau, but over a 6-month trend you should be seeing up and to the right.
Workcation
Amidst all of the projects we had going on in January, we were lucky to be able to spend 5 days down in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with our good friends Jill & Josh Stanton of Screw The Nine to Five.
What’s a “Workcation”, you ask? Well, it includes mastermind sessions, hot seats – and a lot of fun! We did an all-day boat tour excursion and enjoyed dinner on a pirate ship :) …tons of laughs and a lot of great ideas later, this getaway was the perfect treat!
A new look: EOFire.com
If you haven’t checked out our new look on EOFire.com, then here it is!
We teamed up with our good friend and designer/developer extraordinaire (oh yeah – and the one who designed PodcastersParadise.com and WebinarOnFire), Zach Swinehart, to give EOFire.com’s homepage a new look.
Our #1 goal? To make the user experience top-notch.
Without a quick and easy way for new visitors to know exactly what it is you have to offer, along with a clear call to action and straightforward navigation tools, they’re gone! With the new layout, we hope to get people exactly where they want to go with ease and quickness.
We’d love to hear what YOUR user experience is like on EOFire.com! Drop a comment below!
RescueTime summary
RescueTime is an incredibly powerful tool for anyone looking to manage their time more efficiently. In fact, John and I both attribute a huge chunk of our time management and efficiency skills to the RescueTime App itself. Honing these skills starts with fully recognizing what it is you’re spending your time on, and most people don’t take the time to track this because it’s difficult to write down every single thing you do in a day.
With RescueTime, you have software constantly working behind the scenes to log your time for you. Simply, easy and so powerful!
Kate’s January: 225 hours (vs. 217 in December)
Kate’s top 3 sites for the month:
1. EntrepreneurOnFire.com
2. Keynote (TFPC creation)
3. Screenflow (TFPC creation)
John’s January: 245 hours (vs. 248 in December)
John’s top 3 sites for the month:
1. Gmail
2. Adobe Audition
3. Skype
Our team
The EntrepreneurOnFire team continues to grow! In January, we brought on our first US-based Virtual Team Member, Lisa.
Lisa will be helping us part-time with some of our higher-level projects, so if you see a note from Lisa, please help us welcome her to the team!
We’re so grateful for each and every one of our team members, who without, we couldn’t be doing what we’re doing. JM, Jess, Tipu, and now our newest team member, Lisa: thank you!
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January 2015 Income Breakdown
Product/Service Income: $251,801.50
Podcasters’ Paradise: $137,356.50 (invoice total)
Create, grow, and monetize YOUR Podcast.
Free Podcast Course: $0 (it’s free, but also automated & generates sales of Podcasters’ Paradise!)
A free 15-day Podcast course on how to create, grow, and monetize YOUR Podcast.
WebinarOnFire: $25,560 (invoice total)
Create and present a Webinar that converts.
The One Thing: $35
$7 mini training about how to craft YOUR Avatar.
Sponsorship Income: $71,680
Fire Nation Elite Mastermind: $12,810
Total Launch Package: $3,980
Podcast Launch (Audiobook on Audible): $124
Podcast Launch (eBook on Amazon): $91
Affiliate Income: $18,170
*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.
- BlueHost: $1,500 Step-by-step guide and 23 WordPress tutorials included! Disclaimer: This is my affiliate link and I will receive a commission if you sign up through my link
- LeadPages: $1,426
- Tim Paige Voice Over: $150 (ask for the Fire Special)
- Audible: $1,000
- Aweber: $0
- Amber Ludwig-Vilhauer: $170
- Infusionsoft: $0
- Music Radio Creative: $69.25
- LifeOnFire: $2,485
- Business Podcasters Summit: $645.49
- Libsyn: $366 (promo code Fire)
- Coaching referrals: $3,652 (email me for an introduction to a mentor for overall online business or a Podcast focused mentor!)
- Greg Hickman: $1,639
- Ramit Sethi: $3,015
- UDemy: $434
- WP Curve: $0
- Fizzle: $0
- Optin Monster: $0
- Virtual Staff Finder: $150
- Social Media Marketing World: $0
- Amazon: $902
- Other: $567
Total Gross Income in January: $269,971.50
Business Expenses: $94,931
- Advertising: $1,048
- Affiliate Commissions (Paradise): $7,631
- Accounting: $500
- Design & Branding: $465
- Education: $317
- Fire Nation Elite expenses: $5,542
- Meals & Entertainment: $564
- Office expenses: $1,195
- Paradise expenses: $3,412 (SendOutCards & Conference Swag)
- Libsyn: $398
- Other Business Expenses: $70
- Paradise Refunds: $45,600 (invoice total)
- WebinarOnFire Refunds: $5,180 (invoice total)
- Fire Nation Elite expenses: $5,542
- TheMidRoll (Sponsorships): $12,922
- Total Launch Package Fees: $1,950
- Travel: $(504)
- Virtual Assistant Fees: $1,200
- Website Fees: $1,899
Recurring, Subscription-based Expenses: $1,778
- Adobe Creative Cloud*: $100
- Boomerang*: $15.99
- Authorize.net*: $91.10
- Cell Phone*: $194
- Internet*: $171
- eVoice*: $9.95
- Infusionsoft CRM*: $388
- Insurance*: $551
- Chatroll: $49
- ScheduleOnce*: $50
- Skype*: $2.99
- Workflowy*: $4.99
- MeetEdgar*: $49
- WPCurve*: $29
- Taxes & Licenses (recurring): $72
Total Expenses in January: $96,709
Payroll to John and Kate: $13,193
In our May Income Report, Josh focused on how to pay yourself as an entrepreneur. Check it out!
Total Net Profit for January 2015: $173,262.50
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Lesson Learned In January
Keeping Up: When It’s Time To Delegate
As we closed out 2014 and welcomed 2015, we sat down and did a deep dive into what it is we’re looking to accomplish in our business this year. In doing so, we also took a look at the bandwidth reaching those accomplishments will require.
With big launches in the works, like The Fire Path Course, it was time to figure out what tasks we could take off our own plates and delegate to our team members, allowing us to focus more on bigger picture projects and less on the day-to-day administrative tasks that we’ve been handling ourselves.
Here’s what that process looked like for us in January:
Step 1: What tasks are we working on right now that don’t require us to still “work”?
Step 2: Who on our team has the skill set and desire to handle this type of task?
Step 3: If needed, hire for that skill set (which we did in bringing on a bookkeeper)
Step 4: Create a training process around those tasks you’ll be delegating (it would be nice to just hand it off, but it doesn’t always work that way!)
Step 5: Start the on boarding process
A lot of January was just that: going through the steps outlined above to figure out what types of tasks we could start delegating, and who on our team would be able to handle those tasks (based on both skill set and bandwidth).
We were not only able to hire a bookkeeping team to help us with reconciling transactions every month, (which will probably save me about 8 hours per month in bookkeeping time), but in walking through the process I laid out above, we also came to a decision to hire our newest team member, Lisa, part-time to handle a lot of the tasks on our list.
It can be really tough to keep up when you continue adding things to your plate without ever taking anything off from it. We found this out firsthand in December, and in January we were happy to take action in order to delegate a lot of the tasks that we’ve held on to for too long.
Alright Fire Nation, that’s a wrap!
Until next month, keep your FIRE burning!
~ Kate & John
PS: Click to Tweet… we’ll love you for it!
Note: we report our income figures as accurately as possible, but in using reports from Infusionsoft to track our product income, they suggest the possibility of a 3 – 5% margin of error.
