As I was reviewing Quickbooks for my 2022 business year to prepare for taxes, I was quite astonished at my overall revenue. In 2022 my business made $597K. Yet, beyond my personal small salary from the business, I had very little to show for it.
The more money the blog made, the more money I was spending to offload tasks I didn’t want to do. And I was netting the same personal income year after year, even though my business was making so much more money.
That’s when I decided I wanted to SEE that money in my pocket, not someone else’s! I wanted to pay off my mortgage, and get rid of all excess spending. I wanted to simplify everything, pay off everything, and have a sustainable business that didn’t require me to chase the next algorithm change, the next shiny object, or the next course that would be the game changer. I was done hiring things just because I didn’t feel like doing it. I was done letting other people get rich off of my hard work.
My advantage as a blogger, is my passion for creating recipes. As soon as the motive becomes a money grab, just to make payroll, creativity and passion die with it. While the money is nice, it never satisfies my core desire to create.
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My backstory:
I started my first blog in 2008 and sold it at the end of 2018, swearing I would get off the internet forever. I was truly burned out and didn’t want to blog any more.
But within a year I found myself launching a NEW blog, because I actually couldn’t stay away. I realized how much I missed it, what a fantastic job it truly is, and that I truly have a passion for blogging.
So, in January of 2023, I decided that year was going to be a “no spend” year in my business and use the profits to pay off my home mortgage and invest in funds that paid dividends. I dropped EVERYTHING. Contractors, courses, services, software, conferences, retreats, etc. Almost all spending beyond the necessities came to a halt.
I paid off my mortgage within the first few months of 2023, and paid all our families bills ahead of time. I then started putting the money in accounts that paid high dividends and kept adding to it. And when your dividends can replace one of your revenue streams from your online business, it makes you realize you won’t have to ‘grind’ forever.
KEEPING my money from blogging actually brought back all the passion for blogging. The burn out went away, because the passion returned.
After my 2023 no-spend experiment, I brought some services back that I missed, but my expenses are so much lower than they’ve been in the past.
I realize, I didn’t need to spend money on courses or guru’s or contractors that could do work I was fully capable of doing myself.
When you go back to ‘creating for passion’ it makes it easier to pivot or change with the changing way people use the internet. I decide when and where to show up, based on my current internet habits. And for the past year, I’ve actually been ADDICTED to Reddit. I am probably one of the few people that loved seeing Reddit in the SERPS when they arrived. It’s the first app I open each day. I even bought stock in Reddit. I’ve also bought a second blog to fulfill other business goals I have.
Bottom line:
Burnout is real and creativity tanks when you get stuck in a position where you have to make a certain amount of money each month. If you can set up your life in a way that leaves that to a minimum, the joy of blogging returns!
Here’s the steps I took to make this my reality”
- I read Profit First! This book is a must-read for anyone in business.
- I started a spreadsheet to list EVERY expense I had in the prior 12 months. Then, I color coded them by “Things I could eliminate, Things I could reduce the fee, and things that doubled as personal expenses (like my cell phone), that I would keep in because it made sense.
- I also did this same exercise in my personal life to simplify and eliminate ALL unnecessary monthly bills.
Things I got rid of during this process:
- SEO Experts & software
- Software like Zapier, leadpages (hired someone to hard code my sales pages instead)
- Contractors
- Courses
- Video editors
- Photographers
- virtual assistants
- Ad spending (huge savings here!)
- Domains I never planned to renew
- Things that made my job easier like SmarterQueue, tailwind, etc.
- A bookkeeper (not my tax lady!!)
- Cancelled paid version of Zoom
- Cancelled MANY photo editing apps I never used.
Things I reduced the pricing of. This was sometimes by paying an annual fee instead of monthly, or finding competitive rates:
- Extra users I didn’t need on platforms like canva
- Transferred my $800/month Active Campaign subscription to $250 through Mailerlite!
- Changed my UPS pickup schedule to 3X per week, rather than daily
- Lowered my phone bill
Altogether, bringing my spending down to a minimum has brought so much relief to my life, eliminated the stress, and brought back my passion and creativity!! I LOVE my job once again.
Personally, my husband and I only need $400/ month to pay all our bills. And that is PRETTY AWESOME.