Behind the Scenes of the Side Hustle Launch

Transparency is major in my business.

Being open with you about what’s going on behind the scenes in my business shows you that I walk my talk. Looking at the numbers also reveals who I am and what my values truly are.

That’s why in this latest podcast episode I’m revealing my finances for previous years, what I’m projected to make this year, and where my profit is being allocated.

I’m also going to share what worked, what didn't, which launches were successful, and what didn't go off anything like I thought it would.

Come listen to the latest episode for the full financial breakdown.

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN!

Show Notes:

Hey, Risers. Welcome to episode 142 of Empathy Rising. I'm excited about this episode because it's going to be a little bit different than anything I've ever done in the three years of this show. This is actually also part two of a money series. 

So if you haven't listened to part one that came out last week, you might want to pause and go back to that because I talk a lot about setting your money goals and figuring out where do you want your money to go and why you need to be intentional about that. In part one, and here in part two, what I'm doing is sharing my exact numbers for 2022. In the last episode I talked about the house goal, the big house goal, if you've been following along for a while, you know exactly what I mean by that.

But if you're new, that is what I'm going over in part one, so I'd go back and listen to that. I think it's going to give some insight into some of the reasons I make the decisions that I do around my numbers for my business and for my goals. If you have a different money goal, then your numbers are probably going to be different than mine, and not necessarily the numbers themselves, but the way you allocate the numbers, the percentages.

So definitely if you want some more insight into why I'm making the decisions that I am making, go back and listen to part one, and you can also get some guidance on how to set your own money goals. But here in part two, I'm going to share down to the dollars and cents of the amount of money that I am projected to earn in 2022 as a minimum.

And I will go into explaining what that means a lot more in just a minute, but you guys know that one of my biggest values in my business is transparency. I share a lot about my family. I share a lot about our ups and downs and our struggles and our wins and our losses and all of the changes that we have going on here.

And I want to share transparency from the business standpoint too. So what worked, what didn't, how launches were successful, what was hard, what didn't go off like I thought it would go, and we're going to start that by dissecting my numbers. So I will be sharing my annual projected revenue with you this year, as well as my projected expenses for this year, show you what my profit margin is percentage-wise, as well as where I allocate that money into different categories by percentage. 

So really you're going to know exactly what my bank account looks like for the remainder of 2022, and I think it's neat. Is it a little nerve-wracking? Yeah, of course. I don't know a lot of people who have shared this level of detail. But I think it's important. I think it's important for you guys to know me and where my business is at and what I stand for, but also for you to understand what it takes to operate a multi six-figure business and what that looks like from a revenue standpoint, from an expenses standpoint, and all that kind of stuff.

So let's go ahead and dive in. I did not script this or outline it at first. You may hear some clicking. I don't know if you can hear that I'm clicking right now. I have a master spreadsheet that I run every quarter four. I build it usually in quarter three and it starts trickling in quarter three, but the bulk of my revenue for the next year always comes in quarter four.

Now what that means is I have a set price for my program, which as of right now is $7,000 for Side Hustle Support Group. That price is due to me at the end of the calendar year that the program is running. So the end of 2022. However, I have students who joined me very early. This year my first student joined me in September.

I have had rounds where students have joined in July and in August for the upcoming program. The benefit of that is those students still have the same pay-in-full date of December 2022 or December of the calendar year, but because they start paying so early, their payments are like $200 a month.

I've literally had that happen before. This year my first student joined in September. So technically that's still quarter three, even though the vast majority bulk of my revenue comes in quarter four. Now this year has been interesting because I always say there are a few stragglers or a few last-minute owners who come in January.

And let me see... again, like I said, I didn't script this out. But let's see the difference in revenue from January to February, from December to January, because there are probably like six or seven students who joined in January when usually it's one or two. So this year 2022 has had a little bit of a different pattern.

Students didn't join as early this round, but there are more joining a little bit later. Also, I want to preface before I start sharing numbers: At the time of recording, I still have three proposals out and I have two sales calls. It's still scheduled to have to be conducted, and the last day for people to join is Sunday.

So out of three proposals in two sales calls, I based on my numbers, I will bet that two to three of those people will come in. That's just my average. And I'll share that in just a moment. So the numbers that I will reveal today, or go through with you today, are a little bit lower. They may be as high as $14,000 or $21,000 higher just because I still have some pending sales.

And I debated waiting on recording the episode until Sunday, but Hailey would have been like: Where the hell is my episode? So I decided to go ahead and just get it out now. And then you guys can understand that the numbers might be reflected a little bit higher. Also, I think it's really important to emphasize that this is my projected revenue or what is on my books.

I love to say that this is a minimum revenue and that I will make more than that this year. My revenue goal for the year is 300,000. That is up 50 grand from last year, which my goal was 250. I have not done my taxes yet—my final taxes. I don't know what my actual or my final books are. I don't know what my actual revenue for 2021 was yet, but it's about 250-260 in 2020.

Yeah, 2020 it was 270+, 270 and some change. So I didn't quite hit my 2020 number or exceed my 2020 number, but I got close in 2021. A lot of accountants are recommending that you take your 2020 figures out of when you're looking year by year because it was an anomaly of the year. Some people made way more in 2020 than they normally do. So that might've been you if your practice boomed in 2020 or some people made way less like retail companies, restaurants. 

We can expect that they just made a crazy amount less than normal in 2020 because the year was so funky. So if I look at my 2019 revenue, which was off the top of my head at 125ish, and then compare that to my 2021 revenue, which was off the top of my head to 250-260. It was still growth so super happy with the way that looks now, I am upping my goal for 2022 to be 300,000. You have heard me talk about the fact that I have a number that I have to hit in order to meet my goals.

And I can give you that number off the top of my head right now or not off the top of my head from my spreadsheet. So the gross income that I need to make per calendar year to hit my goals is $246,286. That is the gross amount of money that I need to bring in from the business that allows me to do a few things that allows me to pay my own. It allows me to put—and I'll share my overhead numbers with you in a minute—but that revenue of 246 plus pays my bills and pays my people. 

It gives me $15,000 of spending money for the year, and it gives me $100,000 put into a mutual fund for my forever house. And so I have a very high savings goal before we move on, I do want to talk and acknowledge my privilege and the privilege within our family from a financial standpoint, the fact that my husband is a high ranking and in the army means that his money is income more than covers our bills more than covers our car payments. 

And we are fortunate to be able to do some extras. Sawyer is in horseback riding, Logan is in ballet, and that is all from his income. We've very strategically lived off of his income our entire marriage. The very beginning of our marriage, I was in grad school, all that. And over the 12 years now that we've been married we've still just continued to live off of his income. So the spending money of $15,000 that I am like, not giving, but like just putting into our joint finances or whatever is for vacations. For the year of 2020, we got a deck put on the house because we were home so much.

So those kinds of things, that's what my spending money goes to. Going to date nights and splurging and being able to not worry about do we get the bottle of wine or do we get this, that's what that $15,000 spending is for. The hundred thousand dollars to the house, that goes in an investment account, we don't touch it and it's going to accumulate and grow hopefully as long as the market does until July, August 2023, when we retire from the army. So that is my main goal, is to not really touch the money that I make but for a very small portion of it. And it's fun money. 

I do feel very fortunate as well, that if something financially were to change we could easily stop saving for the house and easily start tapping into that money. Like it could totally go where we need it to go, but right now it goes all to savings. Now I talked about that in the first part one of the series about the money goal and why that is. So when we get to things like profit margin you'll see why my numbers are high, and you'll also see why I make some decisions.

If I were trying to grow this business, or if I were trying to, like, put like light a fire under this business, I'd be taking $60,000 and spending it on ads or spending it on the business to just explode it. And instead, I keep it because I'm going to buy a house in cash in a very expensive part of the country. Savings and liquidity and cash to me is more important at this stage of my business than investing in things like growth or ads or team or things like that. Your decisions might be different depending on what your goals are. 

So the first place that I want to start is with conversion rates and with sales. So as of right now, there are 36 people enrolled in Side Hustle, and that is a jump from previous rounds. Something I think is really important to know is the first time I ran Side Hustle, I had nine people in it. And then we went to 13, and then we went to 21, and then it was COVID and I went to 28, and then I went to 28 again.

And so that's why that 2020 revenue was so high was because my product just happened to be more in demand because of COVID instead of less in demand. So that year I had 21 in the first round in 28 and the second round because it was still a six-month program at that point, the first round of the nine months, which was last year, 2021 had 28 students again.

So even though it was the same number of students as before, the price point reflected the nine months at 7,000 instead of the six months, which at that price point was 5,000. So there is room for the price point of Side Hustle to go up, and it is something that I debate and think about. My coach tells me I'm way underpriced and she encourages me to raise the price every round.

I also know my market. I know my audience, and I think it's a very fair price. I also would rather have conversions come in at a high rate. And so that affects pricing as well, but going from 28 now to 36 and potentially there's a very real reality that I'll have 40 students this round. There are some logistical challenges with that.

And I have a whole episode coming about that about sometimes going to one to many is a challenge. It's the dream, right? That scalability, but it's also holy crap. This is the most people I've ever held space for in a program before ever, and we're cohort style. We're family style. This isn't people come in and come out and graduate and join every day.

We get really close in this program. So I've had some logistical changes that I've made, and I'm going to go over those in a full episode for you, but as of recording 36 and a very real possibility of 40. So the numbers that I'm sharing will be based on 36. The first thing that I want to go into is my waitlist.

When I started promoting Side Hustle, what I call this really is an enrollment period, rather than a launch, because a launch is really time-bound. It's five days till the cart closes, last chance. And those of you in my audience know I don't do those types of emails. I don't. 

When I'm selling Side Hustle, when I'm selling Space Holder or other programs that have a more traditional launch model, I certainly do because it's a proven way of selling and it works well for me, but for this program, I call it more of an enrollment period because I just let you guys know, applications are open and they start to trickle in and then I let you know, okay, applications are now closed and that's the end for that year.

Casually, in September, I started emailing my waitlist saying, hey, are you interested in coming into Side Hustle? Now this waitlist was new to me in 2021 because I never had something like that set up before when it was a six-month program because when I started getting applications in March, I would just start talking to them and enroll them in June for the June round or the July round three months early, four months early because as I've mentioned, there's never been an issue enrolling early because people get lower payments that way.

So there's no issue enrolling early. Also, I have a lot of trust. I know I have a lot of trust and authority built up with my audience. So they don't have an issue enrolling in a program a month, or two, or three months early because they know I'm going to deliver. They're not like, oh, I spent this money and then the person goes to me, they know that I'm going to deliver.

So when I moved to the nine months, this was an adjustment that I had to make because literally in 2021, we started on February 8th. And by the end of the month of February, I had six more applications come in and I debated. I chatted with Jaclyn, my coach, I chatted with some other people: Should I just scoot them in two weeks early and have them play catch-up?

But because the family cohort style of this program is so important to me, I didn't feel like it would be fair to other students or fair to me, really, to try and squeeze people into something that was already underway. So instead Haley and I quickly put a waitlist in place. So people who had applied between February and August went on this waitlist.

And in September, when I started... sorry, casually marketing the waitlist, there were 32 people on the waitlist. 15 people enrolled from that 32, and so the waitlist converted at almost 50%. 15, I'm going to do some math for you guys on this episode. Again, like I said, it's real-time.

I didn't script any of this ahead of time, but 15 out of 30 is 46%. So 46% of my waitlist came in. What we say the waitlist converts at is between 25 and 50%, depending on how warm the waitlist is, how long they've been waiting, how interested in the program they are. There's a lot of factors, but it's fair to say that your waitlist for your program should convert between 25 and 50%.

So if you've got 20 people on your waitlist, you can expect five to 10 sales. My numbers are right indicative of that range, 15 out of 30 to 46%. And so this was great because that happened in September, and by September, like by the end of October, I had a really good feeling about the launch. I was like, oh, 15 people already. Cool. We are good to go. 

And then there was zero movement in the month of October. I'm talking like zero movement, zero new applications, zero sales, zero anything. And it was like everything came screeching to a halt. And I was like, oh crap. This is my revenue for the entire year. And while 15 sales at $7,000 is nothing to sneeze at whatsoever, having such like a hot start or like a hot out of the gate month and then having nothing I was very nervous, and making secondary plans: What am I going to do with this? So I'll do a workshop here. I'll do this. I'll do that. Like coming up with plan B through plan Q of trying to work on where's my revenue going to come from. 

Obviously, now talking in the second week of January, we're at 36 and we have more people potentially going to come in. So things turned around, but there is a solid three weeks where I was freaking out. So when I go into a launch, I always have a good, better, and best goal.

I learned this from my friend, Megan Hale, some of you might know her. So rather than get really attached to a single number, I like to have a range of sales options that would work for me. So my good goal was 29 because I just wanted to have one more than the last two rounds that I had 28 and then 28 again, I was like, okay, I just want to get 29.

Can I just get one more? It'd be so cool. So that was my good goal. And then my better goal was 32, and then my best goal was 35. So this round has surpassed my best goal, which is really exciting where those numbers come from is that amount that I need to make for the year. Going back to what I shared a minute ago, that $246,286.

The good, better, and best goals center on that. So with 34 sales, I knew that's what I needed to hit the 246. Actually, I guess it's 35 sales, technically 34 and point, whatever. And then I was like, okay if I come in at 32 and then I'll sell some Space Holders and I'll make up for the difference.

And then at 29, again, that good goal was like a pride thing, because I just wanted to have one more than the 28. So they weren't just arbitrary numbers. They were centered around what is the gross income that I need to hit my goals for the year now in 2021. A lot of sales came in that year or yeah, that year for Side Hustle in the end of Q3 and the bulk of Q4.

So this is where it gets a little bit tricky for me is because the total amount of the launch, which I'll share with you in just a second, reflects highly, but I have to remember that a good portion of that, not a good portion of that.... 25% of it, let's call it, comes in the year prior in 2021.

So it doesn't actually come in on my 2022 books. It's like the launch made what I needed to make, but when it comes in a different time period if that makes sense. So even though I've more than hit the 35 sales that I needed, my books still look like I am not bringing in 2022 exactly what I need to bring in.

So let me dive into that a little. Remembering that my goal for the year is $246,286, that allows me to pay my overhead, my people, my Facebook ads, all of those things, it allows me to have $15,000 fund money to put into the family funds. And then it also allows me $100,000 to put towards the house.

Now, the total launch revenue for this round of Side Hustle was actually 263,462. So that number is $20,000 more than... well let's be as accurate as possible, $17,000 more than what I need for those numbers. But let me show you how much came in 2021 was actually $66,159. So what I'm actually going to bring in the calendar year of 2022 is 197,302 which is 48,983 less than technically what I need in the calendar year. Now, this doesn't freak me out at all, because I know starting in September of this year, I will be launching for 2023. And if 66—what was that number? If 66 came in 2021, then I have a really... I think it's safe to say that at least 48 will.

Cause that's 20 less... like that's several less students. Again, I guess I shouldn't be as accurate as possible. That's three less students that need to come in 2021—or in 2022 than in 2021. And remember, I've had a lot of students joining in January this year as well. Now, one thing that I need to add, the caveat that I need to add in here, is that 266 includes the Side Hustle Mastermind. So there is a program that is available after Side Hustle. I don't really market it. I don't really advertise it. It is only available for side hustle graduates and they can continue beyond Side Hustle with me and just set some annual goals, and this is where we really start to see people hit those bigger launches.

They might've launched in Side Hustle and had a $3,000, $5,000 launch, or whatever. And then within the next 12 months, they want to have a $10,000, $15,000 launch. And those are the things that we're working on inside the mastermind. So let me give you the numbers for that. The number that came in from the mastermind proper is $24,000.

So if we look at just what Side Hustle is going to bring, it's 263,462 minus 24,000. So Side Hustle itself between 2021 and 2022 so far has $239,462 on the book. But the total revenue that I will see between the Q4 of 2021 and 2022 is 263,462. So I know that I have, in order to hit that hundred thousand dollars in the house account, I need a gross revenue of 48,983. But again, repeating myself because 66 came in 2021, I really think that 48 is very possible. So I'm not sweating this. I'm not worried about this at all. Also, I have my Space Holder program. Some of you listening might be Space Holder students, and some of you might want to be Space Holder students.

So I will surely tell you about that program. But Space Holder is my self-study course that sells at $500. $500 for the course. And it is set up on the masterclass funnel. If you go through the masterclass funnel, you get the course for $397 instead of $497. So you save a hundred bucks. So if you're interested, go to marissalawton.com/masterclass because you save a hundred dollars.

But last year I sold, oh goodness... Haley told me, I think it was like 25—25 space holders alone inside the funnel. And so those that's another 25 times 500. 25 times 500. That's another 12,500. That's really reasonable. 

When I had Summer Slowdown last summer in 2021, if you're familiar, that was about a $26,000 launch altogether. And then Space Holder Live last fall was another $20,000 launch or so. To have an outstanding balance of 48 does not worry me in the slightest between next Space Holder or next Side Hustle launch, or some of the fun things that I get to do with you guys, like workshops or events, I'm not concerned about that revenue as it stands. 

If I did not make any more money whatsoever this year, like not a single other penny came in, I would pay my expenses. I would have $15,000 spend money, and then I would have $65,712 in the house account. So that still feels really fine for me.

This still feels really... it makes me feel really happy. It makes me feel really proud. It makes me feel really fulfilled. Of course, I want to hit that $100,000. It's just an arbitrary number, but it helps me feel really good about what we will have in cash. By the time we go to build my original goal was to pay for the entire house in cash, and that won't be happening because Josh will be retiring two years early from the army.

So basically cut two years off my timeline, but now I want to just have as much cash as possible to put down on the build and then I will still try and have the balance paid off in the two years that were the original timeline. That's my goal for myself. Even if it doesn't work out that way, if I'm paying the house over three or four or five years, I think most people take a 30-year mortgage.

If I could pay it off, pay off the balance in five years, that's still 25 years earlier than most people or than what's conventional. So I still feel really happy with it, really good with it, but I like to know where my numbers are. So that is the revenue standpoint. 

The other places where I measure my conversion rates, I know what my waitlist converted at, and then the other place that I measure conversion rates is through my sales process. So the total amount of people who fill out an application—actually, I should go back—the total amount of leads. Because something that has happened for me more this round for sure, last round it happened, and the round before that had happened, like once, but before that, it didn't happen at all is what I call personal reach outs.

So these are people who are coming to me in the fall and saying, hey, when is Side Hustle going to open again? Can I get my name on the list? Sometimes they will bypass the application because they're so familiar with me and so familiar with the program that they're like, just send me the invoice I'm ready to get started now.

And they jumped the line, so to speak, in my sales process, they skip some steps. And that's fine. So that's the topline number that I track. And then I track the number of applications. I have a personalized response that every person gets from the application, so I tracked how many of those I give out.

Sometimes they're one for one, but once in a while, I get an application that I just know isn't going to be a fit. So I don't reach out to application. So let's say I had 10 applications, but there was one that wasn't good. Then I would have nine reach outs or something like that.

Usually, it's 10 for 10, but once in a while, there's a few just bogus or ones I can tell just aren't ready or aren't a good fit personality-wise. Usually, there are the people who give me, like, one-word answers in the application. So if you are thinking about applying for the 2023 round, please put some meat into the application.

It really helps me after the personal reach out that I do after the application. Then I invite people to hop on a chat to talk about the program, talk with me, and really get a feel if it's going to be the right fit. So I track that and then after the sales call, I send a proposal and then enrollment.

So there's quite a few steps in this enrollment process. There's the application. There's the personal reach out. There's the call. There's the proposal. And then somebody is considered enrolled in the program once they pay their first payment. This is something that I do that goes against the grain a bit.

A lot of people will say, you need to take steps out of that. You need to automate that. Why are you still doing sales calls? It's 2022. And I do sales calls because they convert at 80%. That's the truth of it. That's why when I told you guys I have two proposals out or three proposals out and two come upcoming sales calls, that's five.

And I know I will probably get three, three is super safe to say, potentially four because this process converts so well. Yes, it is very personalized and it takes my time and it takes my effort and my energy, but my students appreciate it. They appreciate that I am showing up. They appreciate that I am a real person. They appreciate that I'm the one reading their applications, not somebody I've hired to do it. And so I believe that it makes a difference in how the program fills. 

Also, it's a bit of screening. Like we know as clinicians the importance of screening your groups. So it does allow me to screen because once in a while, someone will get to the call part of the sales process. And then I won't send them a proposal because they're not a fit for the program. And I can just tell that by the way we jived on the phone. These are all of the places that I track. 

So out of the 36 people that are enrolled, I had... let me get the number for you… I had 69 applications and I had 71 total leads because some of the people were personal outreach, right? Can I get in the program? So 36 out of 71 is just about 50%. 50.7%. So you can round up and call it 51 if you want. I'll just call it 50%. Half of the people who were interested in the program ended up enrolling in the program.

Now let's say that 40 come in, 40 out of the 71, then that's 56%. That's almost a 60% conversion rate. Okay. Now out of my total audience, let's do that. And I don't have the exact number of my total audience, but what's on my email list, what's in the Facebook group, whatever, 36 is 1% ish.

A little less than 1% of my total audience. And when we say you're going to do a launch, we say, expect 1-3% of your audience to enroll. So if I were to have done it like launch style, perhaps it would have been the same amount because I would have been launching to my whole audience.

However, I prefer to talk to people who have already self-selected as interested. It wastes less of my time and it wastes less of my audience's time. Some people just don't want to be sold to all of the time. And I sell in my launches. I do. I believe in launches, but I handled this program differently.

The reason I handle it differently, just off the top of my head, as I'm talking, we're together for almost a whole year. We've really got to like each other. We've really got to be committed to each other and we've really gotta be invested in the outcome, me and yours and you and yours. And so that's why I do this differently.

So to have something like a 60%, let's go with the numbers, who are enrolled, which is the 36. So a 50% conversion. Yeah on an enrollment period. It's pretty intense. It's pretty insane. I'm not going for quantity here. If I had pushed and promoted and kept going and you guys probably saw a lot of Side Hustle stuff, but it wasn't as much as I "could" have done or could have had my team do.

I probably could have enrolled 60 people perhaps, but would that have been the type of quality I'm looking for this program? Would I have been able to surely say I want to spend the next year with that person? Probably not. I don't think I would have the capacity to do that if I was going for volume, if I was going for quantity. And so I have a lengthy in-depth sales process for that reason. And it converts really highly, as you can see. So this is just one approach. It might not be your approach, but this is my approach and this is why I do it this way. 

So I've talked about revenue, what is on my books for this year. I'll quickly recap that. So the total launch between Side Hustle and the Mastermind, I wrap it in there because it happens at the same time and it's with graduates of the program so it just makes sense that it's all happening at the same time, but the total revenue from the Side Hustle launch and the mastermind is $263,462 and 1 cent this.

This is from one program, well to two programs, but 240 of it, 239 of it is from one program. So if you're thinking like, oh, I've got to have a ton of courses or I've got to have so much output to hit real,  big numbers. That's not true. You can hit multiple six figures with one offer. You can hit multiple six figures with one offer.

Now 66,000 and some change came in 2021. So that means that $197,302.68 will come in 2022, which leaves me with a deficit, you can say, of $48,983. But I just know it's already covered. Like you can call it like trusting the universe or whatever, but I just know I count that as zero because I just know it's already there. I have more than the capability to make that, and so I'm not worried about it. 

In fact, my goal for the year is 300,000, which is 103,000 more than what is on my books currently for 2022. If I was to make zero more pennies for the year, I would pay my people, and my team, and my overhead, and my expenses, and my ads, and all of that. I would give $15,000 fun money and I would have $65,712 invested for my future house.

So now let's go over to the expenses side of things. Things got interesting with my expenses this year because I did have several students who wanted to pay in full for a Side Hustle. And if they didn't want to pay in full a lot of times what students like to do, because they're talking to me right at the end of the year and they want to get one more tax write off, so they might do 2000 down or, a couple thousand down and then it'll make their 2022 payments smaller.

So several of my students wanted to do something like that. And I just had a bunch of money in my business checking account. I'd paid the taxes on it, but it made my business checking account look inflated, in my opinion, because money that was supposed to be allocated for like next October was still in there.

So what I did is I approached Kristin and Shayna. They're the copywriter and the designer within my program. And I asked if I could pay them in full. And so I paid them their 2022... we can't say salary because they're contract employees, but I paid them out right now in 2021. I paid them each $10,000 for their services in the program.

So it was $20,000 total. But for this round, I gave them a raise because we have more students, so I needed to compensate them for that. And when I told Shayna and Kristin I was giving them a raise, they were both like really they were both really honored by that. And they commented on the fact that sometimes in the online industry and in online businesses, the owner would have just took that as extra.

And I didn't see it that way. I saw they were going to now have to support 36 students instead of 28, and that's a job. And so I bumped them up $250 a month, which ended up being $2,500 for their term of contract because I pay them for over 10 months. So they both went up to $12,500 and I paid them in full already.

So out of that 66 that came in 2021, I paid Kristin and Shayna in full their 25. So total expenses for the launch are $82,400. However, $25,000 of that was already paid in 2021. So my expenses for the remainder of this year, this calendar year are $57,400. And let me tell you how that breaks down. I invested in two programs for myself this year, one program was priced at $8,000 and another program was priced at $12,000. So that is $20,000. So of that $57,450, 7,437 of it is actually associated with my business expenses, and 20,000 of it is split between two different coaching programs. So not necessary to run my business at all but still counts as business expenses. 

The expenses that are necessary to run my business are to Hailey, my wizard, Hailey does so much for me. She manages this podcast, or her team manages this podcast, and she also basically she's like my lead generation. So she runs my ads, she runs my social, she runs my podcasts, anything that is getting me to new people, as well as... everything. Hailey does everything in my business. I pay her $1,500 a month and that comes out to about $18,000 a year. 

Now there are some months where Hailey does extra projects for me and I go over that $1,500, but we're having just my average budget is $1,500 a month. And so the remainder of that, after we take that $18 off of the $37 is $19,400. I spend about... my budget this year is to spend 10,000 or 12,000 for the year on Facebook ads or Pinterest ads, advertising in general, and so that ends up being $1,000 a month. And so that's $12,000 that is not an expense that I've had in my business for, like, this is new. 

I started running ads consistently last year and we worked on a $500 budget per month. And now we're going to be stretching that budget this year. So this is an expense that is not normally on my books, and it's not something that I recommend you have in general in the beginning either. 

If you want to hear what my expenses looks like before I brought on a team and before I brought on ads, there is an old podcast episode called "How I run my business for $140 a month or $160 a month", and that is really reasonable when you're starting because my last category here is my overhead and that is I say 5,000 for the year, but that's really stretching it because $150 a month x 12 is $1,800.

And then I know I have a few programs like teachable. I pay $1,000 for the year for my quiz software. I pay $200 a year for... that gets us to 3000 and there might be a couple other softwares in there, but $5,000 is really an overgeneralization. So altogether my expenses are $82,400. But remember I paid Kristen and Shayna last year out of that $66,000. 

So my expenses for the remainder of the year are $57,400 and $20,000 of that is coaching as my own development. So really $37,400 is what I will spend this year on expenses. Now, if we add Kristen and Shayna back in... do that really quickly for you... Oh, wait—Yeah, $62,400. Oh yeah, I could have done that a different way. I could have taken the $20,000 off of the 82. So $62,400 is my expenses without getting any coaching and that. Three people on my team that includes advertising spend, but my overhead for what if I was to run everything myself is less than $5,000.

So those are things for you guys to chew on expenses-wise. So here's where we get the profit margin. Now to calculate your profit margin, you take your total revenue, you subtract your expenses, and then you divide that by your total revenue again. So my profit margin for 2022 is 68.7%. So you could round it up if you want to call it 69%.

Oh, sorry. That's for the launch. Okay, my profit margin for 2022 is 64%—64.6. We could call it 65 if we wanted. 64.6% profit. Now, remember, I have an extensive savings goal. That's why my profit margin is so high. Brick and mortar businesses usually operate around like a 10% profit margin, and what's recommended.

for online businesses, because we tend to have less overhead, we're not paying for buildings and things like that, but what's recommended for online businesses is closer to 30. 30, 35, 40. So I'm 24% over that for my profit margin. That means I could have 24% more of my revenue that I was investing in growing the business.

And once my house is paid in full, I may do that. Or I may just choose to save a lot of my money, and there's nothing wrong with that. You do not have to have the same percentages that people tell you are necessary. Run your business the way that you want to run your business. And if you want to have more cash and more savings for you, you totally can.

If you want to invest and pour wildfire on things and grow it really fast, you can totally do that too, but make sure you're making the decision for you, not for what other people are telling you. So for the launch, it's a bit higher profit margin for the launch itself. Cause that includes the $66,000 that came in 2021 is 68.7%.

So closer to 69%. I feel really good about that. I save more money than I spend, and I feel really happy with that. Now how this money is then allocated: 30% of what I make goes to taxes. I know with profit first, I could do that differently, but I'm not going to, I'm going to pay high on my taxes and I'm going to get a refund at the end of the year. Like I would much rather do that. 

So 30% straight to taxes right off the top. 29% technically goes to overhead, so I just round that up and call it 30 anyway. So the same amount that I put in taxes I leave in my business checking account, and it's easy math for me, and it's simple. That leaves another 40% that gets split up between the house account and the spending account. And that allocation is 33% to the house and 7% to spending. And that is the way that my money breaks down. 

I hope that this has been helpful for you guys to hear not only what my revenue is going to be this year so far, what's on the books. I'm going to make another $100,000, so 48 to cover the necessities, and then another 52 just cause I want it. Cause I want to $300,000 this year. That's my goal. But I'm also not attached to it. 

Whatever happens, happens. I feel just so blessed and so thankful and full of gratitude to be at this point because this is not where I was in 2021. Instead of 48 that I had a deficit, I had a 98 deficit, and I was very nervous last year. So this year, I don't feel that way. I feel very light. I feel very grateful. I feel very excited. I feel like I can play in my business this year and do events with you guys that are going to be fun and lucrative, sure, but not from a necessity standpoint, from a "want to" standpoint.

And that just has a totally different energy around it. So I hope that hearing not only the money that's coming but where the money goes and how much it costs me to run this business with a team now, with an ad spend now, and investing in my own personal development, which I think is important as well.

So that's what my business looks like this year guys. Maybe I could give, if you guys want, let me know in the Facebook group if you want an update at the end of the year. And I could say if I hit that 48, if I hit above the 48 that I need, and all that stuff. So I'm happy to do an update on this if it would be helpful, but I think transparency is king—queen, transparency is queen—and really important.

So let me know what you guys thought about this episode, and I will talk to you guys next time. Until then keep on rising.

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