Oh, hey there. Nice to see you back for my November recap.

If you haven’t read my first few goal and income reports, you can do that here.

So, let’s get started…

My mantra for the past month seems to have been - sit down, turn on the computer, get up to deal with a crisis (life of a mompreneur, y’all), repeat a handful of times, get frustrated, cry about it, and ultimately, get nothing done.

Rinse and repeat almost every single day.

No one seems to talk about how freaking hard it is to get in that work groove - and maintain it - to get shit done when you have tiny humans that need you 24/7.

And those tiny humans dare not ask dad for anything even if they have to walk right past him to get to you.

But hey, for us work-from-home moms, our tiny humans are the reason for doing this whole build-a-business-so-I-can-be-home-with-them thing anyways - even if they drive us a little nutty.

...So, here we have a self-created problem spawned directly from the solution to a previous problem - the endless loop… but okay, enough ranting. Let’s dig into the details of failing as an online entrepreneur.

Failing may seem like a harsh word, but I’m cranky, so my pessimism is showing…

...but if you’d rather look on the brightside, I have a relevant quote specifically for the optimistic downer in us all:

“Dude, sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something.” - Jake, Adventure Time

You’ll only succeed after you’ve seen more than a few failures, so without further ado, let me fill you in on a few of my failures from the past month… but we’ll call them my “steps towards success.”......November wasn’t the best month by any means, but it was eye-opening nonetheless.

I read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson with my copy editor in preparation for our first live book chat - you can watch a replay of it in the Facebook group here.

This Virtual Book Chat is something we plan to continue doing every month where we dig into an industry-related or self-help book (that can at least be applied to our businesses in some way) and share our thoughts via Facebook live in The Creative Boss group and a book review on my copy editor’s Medium blog.

I’m happy to say that project went quite well and I’m excited to see if it picks up involvement in the group and a little buzz around our businesses.

However…

I’ve had some other issues. I’m trying my best to handle them, but I can’t deny they’re holding me back. I dare not complain about these issues because that will inevitably create even more issues.

The solutions to my issues involve money. In order to obtain the money, I need to work. But to find the time necessary to work, I need a few extra hands on deck.

It’s like a broken record that never seems to end.

But I finally realized, I just need a better plan.

My previous plan involved waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to tackle the day annnnd…

...that’s about all I would do - I’d eventually get frustrated and nothing would get done.

So, how did this cycle impact the goals I set for November? Let’s go ahead and break down the month, then I can fill you in on how I plan to do things differently next time.

After all, this just one big learning process.

...November Traffic Goals

November Goal: 1500 Page Views

Go ahead… have a good ole’ laugh. Somehow, my traffic for November was worse than October - barely passing the 1k mark.

What happened? Remember how I just mentioned that whole “let’s get started” cycle I kept finding myself stuck in? Yeah, that might’ve had a lot to do with it. I just couldn’t seem to get anything accomplished.

I had tons of content needing graphics and needing to be scheduled… but it just never got done.

But that’s entirely on me - I take full accountability for missing my mark.

I had piled entirely too much on my plate. I was running an Etsy shop that demanded my quiet hours after the kids were in bed to fill orders, so by the time I could focus on The Creative Boss - I was completely exhausted. ...

Lesson learned? Know your limits- this is one that I have to keep teaching myself repeatedly.

I became more and more frustrated with myself while accomplished less and less.

That was a big reason I was determined to dedicate time to finish Mark Manson’s book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - if nothing else.

...December Goal: 1500 Page Views

I’ve already mapped out my December plan and set it into motion - and it’s working!

I took the content I had started, created the graphics, and scheduled it. So, it’s already freed some of my time for other tasks. I’ve also decided to put a hiatus on the Etsy shop to dedicate more time growing The Creative Boss.

I just need to make sure I stay on task since my Etsy shop essentially funded The Creative Boss.

Here goes nothing!

(Keep reading to find out the details of how I mapped out December.)

Social Growth

Last month, I announced my plans for scaling down my goals for growth and focusing on the percentages rather than the actual numbers when it came to growing my business through social channels - you can check it out if you missed it.

Although I have definitely put some time into it, I’m excited about my growth again this month.

Facebook

November Goal: 460 fans, 75 group members

I didn’t quite reach my goal this month; however, I didn’t put forth much effort to grow my Facebook either.

I ended the month with 442 fans - a 4.2% growth, and the Facebook group reached 68 total members - a 1.5% increase from last month.

In all honesty, not too disappointing since I didn’t put much effort into promoting it like I did in previous months with the free website audits. I’m also reevaluating the Facebook group to determine how I can better serve my audience and increase interest and activity - one of those things being the Virtual Book Chat that we have just started.

Our first live chat just aired December 6th.

December Goal: 460 fans, 75 group members

I’ll be transparent here and say that I’m unsure of the direction I plan on going for Facebook at the moment. I don’t want to spend too much time focusing on its growth until I decide how I’m going to align it with the big picture I have set for The Creative Boss.

Instagram

November Goal: 640 followers

I wasn’t too far off from hitting my mark on this one landing at 601.

In past reports, I’ve mentioned my love/hate relationship with Instagram. I love what it’s capable of and I know that my audience is there, they engage with me, and it generates traffic to my site.

However, I hate that I can’t seem to land on a solid plan to scale and make it profitable.

What happened? My Instagram schedule was sporadic since I didn’t schedule regular updates nor was I active. I know that scheduling regular posts with consistent content is essential to growth, but it was hit or miss for me this month.

Lesson learned? Consistency is key. I know I keep saying that… but although I know what to do and how to do it, I still struggle with it.

December Goal: 650 followers

I’m going to try and tackle my biggest struggle by blocking specific times every week to schedule posts for Instagram. Since deciding this tactic, I’ve already created enough posts to two per day for the first week with a pretty photo and a quote.

All I need is my phone in hand to quickly publish and see how the scheduled consistency grows my audience and their engagement.

Pinterest

November Goal: 1020 followers

For the first time, I’m proud to announce - I freaking slayed my Pinterest goal!

By the end of November, I had a total of 1040 followers.

What happened? I automated like a crazy person. I spent tons of time setting up secret boards with BoardBooster and keeping them full. I scheduled three new pins for every board totalling about 140 pins per day.

Yep, that’s kind of a shitload, but I not only met my goal, but exceeded it. I think it’s safe to say my plan definitely worked. #winning #killinit

Lesson learned? Automation is your friend and it works. Block an adequate amount of time to schedule what you need to and move on to the next task. I only took a couple of hours a week to fill the secret boards to the rim, then set back and let BoardBooster work it’s magic.

This also means that I’m spending tons of time on social media scheduling tools, but I’ll elaborate more on that later.

December Goal: 1150 followers

I’m probably being a bit overzealous with this goal, but I’m excited about the growth I’ve seen with my Pinterest this month. The results make me more comfortable since what I’m doing is obviously working, so I’m confident in my ambitions. I know I’ll put more time and effort into it having seen the progress I’ve already made as well.

My plan of attack for December is to continue what’s been working for me. I plan on scaling back a little with BoardBooster just to save some cash, and it’ll help me reevaluate if I should find an alternative tool or not.

Twitter

I recently added Twitter to the social mix to see if it would impact growth for The Creative Boss.

November Goal: 1000 followers

Since this was a new platform for me, I had no idea how to set a realistic goal. I just picked a number that sounded good based on how quickly I had already started growing.

Believe it or not - I ended up with a total of 945 followers. Even though it didn’t quite hit the mark, it was pretty close for what was basically a shot in the dark.

And when you consider I only had around 200 in September, I’d say the growth has been incredible. However, it’s still not bringing more than 5% traffic, so I’m not seeing any real engagement for that amount of growth.

I’m still scheming to come up with a plan on how I can maximize Twitter’s effectiveness for The Creative Boss.

What happened? For such an arbitrary goal, I’m surprised at how close I came to reaching it.

I’m still new to this platform and actively looking for others to follow with similar content, and likewise a similar audience to that of The Creative Boss.

Lesson learned? Experimenting with different social platforms can help find new ways to increase growth for your business - and definitely worth it if you find engagement with your audience on a new social channel increasing your overall traffic and brand visibility..

December Goal: 1200 followers

My plan is to use the same methods that I have been for the past couple of months to see if I can drum up more traffic to my site from the platform to determine if it’s worth the time I’m investing or if I should just let automated posts go to the platform and not engage with others as much.

Email List

November Goal: 500 subscribers

I managed to reach only 375 total subscribers by the end of November.

The reason I didn’t hit this one reverts back to the whole “let’s get started” cycle I mentioned finding myself caught in this month. Letting myself fall into that loop meant I put next to zero effort into some things - like my email list.

But next to zero effort yields next to zero results.

What happened? I had this grand idea that I was going to launch a course around the holidays, but yeah… that didn’t happen. I simply couldn’t find the time or motivation to get it done with everything else overwhelming me.

Lessons learned? In hindsight, the holiday season probably isn’t the best time for a big launch. I just need to get better at stopping after the initial excitement of my big ideas to breathe and create a plan of action.

I know that if I continue to skip this step, I’ll only continue feeling overwhelmed and frustrated… and I’ll end up right back in that vicious “let’s get started” cycle.

December Goal: 400 subscribers

I’m still working on growing my list, but I’m rescheduling my course launch closer to the end of January.

Income and Expenses

Finally - the numbers you’re really interested in seeing.

We all know why you’re really here… to see how much The Creative Boss is making (or losing).

Before going any further, I feel it’s important to reiterate that The Creative Boss is not my primary source of income, but my biggest goal for 2018 is to make it my bread and butter by the end of the year.

Now let’s crunch these numbers...

November Goal: Break Even

Well, given my track record, we can all take a moment here to chuckle at these glorious numbers.

🤣🤣🤣

Income: $6.08

I know, I know… impressive, right? How did I manage such a number?

Well, if it’s not too overwhelming, here’s the detailed breakdown…

Digital Products: $4

Ads and Affiliates: $2.08

Client Projects: $0

I currently have three digital products for sale: The Creative Biz Toolkit (an upsell for the free Trello editorial calendar board), the Get Your Blog On! eBook (an upsell for the free Get Your Blog On! course), and Create the Ultimate Opt-In Offer (a course dedicated to helping you create opt-in offers that will simultaneously grow your list and bank account).

I have yet to figure out an effective way to market the course, but the Trello board upsell still generates a sale or two a month which keeps it on par with the traffic to the pages promoting it.

I dedicated part of November to working on a client project for a family member that I did for no cash exchange, and I primarily focused on my Etsy shop which, again, I decided towards the end of the month to put a hold on for the time being to focus all of my energy on The Creative Boss. I’m hoping to find a better balance on everything, so I can establish a more well-thought out plan for growing this business at a quicker rate without bouncing back and forth between everything just winging it.

In theory, after I’ve implemented a plan of action, added some necessary automation, and have a better defined strategy, I should be able to pick back up my Etsy shop without getting completely flustered and overwhelmed.

Now, let’s talk expenses...

Expense Total: -$304.39

...and the detailed breakdown looks something like this:

ConvertKit: - $29 (monthly)

SmarterQueue: - $19 (monthly) * see below

BoardBooster: -$5 (monthly)

Adobe CC: -$53.11 (monthly)

Ivory Mix: -$15 (bimonthly)

Buffer: -$10 (monthly) * see below

Calendly: -$10 (monthly)

Epidemic Sound: -$15 (monthly)

Education:

Treehouse: -$25 (monthly)

Code College: -$29 (monthly)

The Savvy Community Mastermind: -$39 (monthly)

Independent Contractors: -$49.54

Total Loss: -$298.31

Expenses were a mess this month and I took a hit by signing up for new tools and forgetting to cancel the trials before getting charged.

🤦🏻‍♀️

I also realized that I’m spending quite a lot on tools that I don’t need, so there was an overlap in my attempt to switch to alternative social media scheduling tools.

My primary reason for opting for SmarterQueue was for their post recycling - not having to remember to post in the Facebook group every single day was an amazing perk.

But I found a free alternative - RecurPost - with the same great benefits. For the rest of the features, I simply moved back to Buffer since it’s only half the cost.

I chose to cut my BoardBooster plan back to $5 to re-examine how the other way of scheduling pins was working by scheduling with Buffer....

December Goal: Break Even (Again)

Okay, let’s do this.

I’ve already written a few blog posts geared towards promoting affiliate products that I’m hoping to see more of a return on.

Additionally, I’ve devised a new plan to avoid actively seeking new clients until February, so I can stay focused on my primary goal to prep my new course for a late January launch and not get overwhelmed with the demand client work.

(Join the Website Warrior wait list for more information on early bird access!)

The constant “let’s get started” cycle took its toll on me this month and I ended up finishing nothing. But I’ve since talked with my husband about establishing a better plan to manage time with the kids, so that I will definitely have a few solid hours per day to solely focus on the tasks that will help generate revenue for The Creative Boss.

I opened Google Sheets and began mapping out my big picture goals for the first quarter of 2018 narrowing down my three big pillars - profit, list growth, and content - making a point to align my list growth and content with my profit ideas each month.

For example, January 2018 will be all about launching Website Warrior, so I’ve decided my focus for list growth will include a challenge for Website Warrior and maybe a webinar, if time allows. All of my content ideas are circled around the new course in a way that the blog posts still remain valuable - not only to course students, but for any site visitor - while still promoting the upsell of the course. ...

With these three pillars in mind, I opened a new sheet in the same document to list all the tasks I would need to accomplish to meet these goals and estimated the time it’d take to complete them.

Since my biggest struggle was following things through to completion, I wanted to map everything out to know what I had on deck and how much time I needed to accomplish each individual task.

But this time I went a step further - if I estimated a task to be over three hours, I knew I’d have to break them down into smaller chunks because I can’t ever work for a solid eight hours to complete something. In order to make it work for me, I broke things down into 1-3 hour sessions that I placed in a section marked Spot A underneath the area I originally mapped out the time needed to complete each task. I even included housekeeping tasks to this list such as email and client work. ......That still didn’t satisfy me so I continued tweaking and improvising by color-coding tasks so I knew which ones I could do even if I had distractions - like email or social media - the more mindless tasks I knew I could do from the kitchen between cooking and wrangling up the kiddos.

The more important tasks that required my undivided attention - free of interruptions - received a different color. This helped give me a visual so I could see how much time I’d need to set aside for every different aspect, therefore I could adequately make plans for the kids or schedule certain things for after bedtime.

But get this - it turns out that most of these days ended up not including any more than 4-6 hours of actual work with only about two hours that needed interruption-free time. All I need to change to get that necessary focus time is maybe get up a couple hours earlier or stay up that much later.

In reality, that doesn’t involve much altering to my schedule at all.

Okay, I had a plan for the whole first quarter of 2018, so I decided to add December to the mix incorporating it into January’s sheet in hopes that I could get ahead of the launch game.

Then I’d be even more motivated than ever to get shit done!

I’ve discovered that I’ve always had the time - it was just hidden beneath all that silly overwhelm.

In fact, by laying it all out in a structured way that I can make sense of has shown me that there’s more than enough time to accomplish everything and still be present to homeschool my oldest with enough energy leftover to juggle the littles ones too.

I’m so stoked for 2018 since I planned out my big picture goals. Creating the sheets was pretty eye-opening, so I’ve made a copy of the same template I used to map everything out that I’m excited to share with you.

Book your private planning session, and drop by the Facebook group to let us know how it’s helped you make sense of #allthethings.......