Blogging Over Everything’s One Month Income Report

Hey loves! How I’ve missed thee. It’s been over a month since my last blog post and that is not how I want to start out this year. I plan on being more diligent about keeping up my responsibilities as a blogger. Although I have taken a small step back from blogging, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been working hard behind the scenes. Hence the title of this post Blogging Over Everything’s One Month Income Report.

How It Started

As most of you know, I launched my blogging apparel and accessory business December 14, 2020 called Blogging Over Everything. The idea came to me when I realized that there wasn’t a site on google specifically for bloggers like myself where I could buy blogging apparel. Something that yelled “I’m a blogger hear me roar”. (Not literally, but you get my point. I explain more about this is my blog post on Blogging Over Everything.

The Ugly Truth

Starting a business is NOT easy. You will have to overcome a lot of obstacles and even more so have a strong support system. I can not tell you how many times I thought about (dare I say it….quitting). 😱 But I’m no quitter! Those thoughts usually crossed my mind on weeks where sales were extremely slow or non-existent.

During those times when I have those thoughts of “Did I make the right decision? Will anyone else buy from me?” And I don’t want to jinx myself, but typically when I have those thoughts, a sale would come in, like God was reading my mind and wanted to give me a sign to keep going, to keep pushing through. On those days I get a extra pep in my step, I get hype, I get motivated.

When you feel like giving up you have to find that light at the end of the tunnel, even if it may seem dim. I think this lesson is one I learned the hard way. If you’ve been following me for a while then you may know that before I started my blogging apparel shop, I use to own a online clothing boutique. It didn’t fail, but what did happen is my little site got caught up in a hack that happened to millions of companies a few years ago. Completely crashed my $1,500 site, and guess who didn’t have another $1,500 to build another one?? 🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️

Looking back at it, I could’ve done more to make it work, but I gave up. I moved on, and sat on merchandise that could’ve sold. So when starting a new business just keep in mind that being an entrepreneur is a gamble, in which you have to be ready to risk it all. You never know how great the ride can be if you never get into the car. Take a chance and bet on yourself, I did. 🤷🏽‍♀️☺

Building A Strong Support System

There might be a lot you can accomplish on your own, but starting a business is not one of them. It’s extremely too taxing. Now don’t get it twisted, I am not saying that you can’t start, run, and completely operate a business as a one man/woman shop. But what I am saying is that no one can start ANY business without support. Rather it’s a listening ear, someone to hype you up and keep you motivated, financially, or having an actual partner. You have to have support.

I get most of my support from my friends, a few family members and my Instagram community. And on those days when I have that split feeling of “did I make the right decision” I go onto Instagram and my community get’s me right back in line. I honestly don’t think they know how much they motivate me. How much their comments touch me and how their shout out’s make me smile. I can promise you this, having a support system will make or break your new business.

How’s It’s Going

So let’s chit chat a bit about where I am now. My last income report went a little like this: Blogging Over Everything One Week Report. No lies told, I was completely impressed with my support system. I set a goal for myself, a goal that I didn’t tell anyone that I wanted to accomplished. My secret goal was to make a hundred dollars my first week in business. I wanted it so bad and I felt like I set myself up in a good position to accomplish that goal but you never know in this line of business. Never wanting to doubt myself, I fall back on the fact that I’m a realist. Making my first goal for my business would allow me the confidence to move forward. To let me know that I REALLY had a chance at this.

Once the first week was over I was pumped, I knew that I had what it took to succeed. So I wanted to implement the things I learned, not just through my first week in business but the entire duration. Mapping out what worked for me and what didn’t will allow me to figure out what I should continue to do but also what I should change and pivot from.

Mapping Out What I Did This Month

During my very first month in business. I did not set a goal for myself. Partly because the month snuck up on me and partly because I didn’t know what to expect. I wanted to just go with the flow and see what kind of sales I could accomplish with no pressure. So let’s get into what I did in the month of January that allowed me to set my new goals moving forward.

Instagram

In the month of January I posted a total of 45 pictures/reels. Out of those 45 post 3 of them were reels. I gained over 500 followers in the month of January. Most of those followers came from the Motherhood Connection Loop which consisted of mothers, entrepreneurs and creatives. I also joined a Bloggers Bloom Loop which consist of bloggers. I felt like these two would be perfect ways to build up clientele.

Although I gained more followers and fast that did not equate to sales for my website. During the month of January I tried to post at least twice a day. I even did a couple of days where I posted four to five times a day, just to see if that would change anything for my business. It did not, but I do believe that it allowed my post to be seen a lot more then if I posted once a day. 🙃

I also made sure to post consistently on my Instagram stories. I never let a day go by without something being shown on my stories. Rather is was quotes that inspired others, or simply supporting my followers and promoting their businesses. Out of all of the 45 post that I posted in January, I got the most love off of these two post.

Inventory

During the month of January I promoted everything I had in stock on Instagram. Part of having a successful first month in business is having adequate inventory. There is absolutely nothing worse than going to a website where there are no choices or better yet, everything is sold out.

Now don’t get me wrong, selling out of inventory is great, but not if you can’t keep up with supply and demand. You could actually lose more money by not having inventory than having too much inventory. I’m sure you can relate to what it feels like to shop on a new website especially in the year of 2020 when everyone was shopping online. Honestly I think everyone took a risk buying online last year knowing that 90% of the world was on lockdown and absolutely no one felt safe shopping outside of getting groceries.

When starting a business have a clear idea of what you want to sell and how many you can start out with per item. In business you have to have plan A, B, C and D. You can never plan how your first month will go but you can be as prepared as possible. You can accomplish this by setting goals.

Setting Goals

I’m one of those people who have a hard time staying in the now. I’m always thinking about the future and hypotheticals. 🤫😬 So setting goals for me, is LIFE. I have a saying “stay ready so you never have to get ready”. This is extremely true with running a new business. You always want to be as far ahead as possible.

My goal for January was to sell something, anything, and that was all. I figured once I got a good grasp on what my customers wanted and how they wanted to be sold too, I would be able to set more obtainable goals for the next few months. Going into February I knew that I wanted to post more on Instagram and Facebook. Most if not all my sales came from social media and most importantly Instagram.

How I Made $580.17 in One Month

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. I’m about to be 100% transparent with you, so you know exactly how I made my money and what I did during the process. In the month of January I had 15 sales, I repeat 15 sales in the month of January. That equated to my $580.17 and most of my love came from Instagram.

Remember that support system I was telling you that you needed? Well my Blogging Over Everything community came through and showed all the way out. I can’t say that I made my money on one or two particular items because they bought everything on my site. There wasn’t a collection untouched and I am so grateful for that.

Now when I said I was going to get 100% transparent I meant that. Let’s look at facts verses fiction. I say that because there are sooo many blog post circulating around the internet that could make you think that your new business could be a overnight sensation and you will be making hundreds dollars a day, on day one. And I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen but realistically it’s going to take a lot longer to get there. Now what we’re going to discuss next is FACTUAL. The great thing about Shopify (which is the platform my blogging apparel shop is on) is that they give you everything you need to be successful, and I love it!

My January Dashboard

So what you are looking at right now is my January dashboard. From January 1 until 31, I made $580.17. The Online Store is where people actually came onto the site and purchased items. As you can see I made $457.30 from the actual site. I then made $122.87 on Shopify Mobile for Android. Which is where I made sales on my phone.

I had 252 sessions in the month of January. Sessions are where my customers are surfing my site. I had 239 visitors on my site during my first full month in business. Now as you can see I have a red arrow downwards with 36% which means this time last month I did better then this month. But in my defense it doesn’t give a true depiction of December to January because I didn’t launch my business until December 14, 2020. So technically we’re only working off of two weeks more or less.

Average order value is $38.68, which to me as a business owner means that if I want to continue to make around $580 a month that I will need to make at least $38.68 per order. And as I mentioned before I made my $580.17 off of 15 orders.

Let’s talk about my stores conversion rate. Now keep in mind it’s basing it’s numbers off of a month in which I was only in business for two full weeks. But nonetheless, let’s break down what you are looking at. I had 20 sessions where people actually Added something to their Carts but as I previously told you I only had 15 orders. Which is why the next number below it says 15 sessions for my Reached Checkout. I’m not going to lie and say I know what the Sessions Converted is, but I’ll know by my next income report so sick around.

Right now you can see what my Top Products are that I sold and the unit number. From my dashboard you can see that my i blog pen was one of my top sellers. Even though I sold a little bit of everything on my site, the pens were rolling off the shelves. Next is the Online Store Sessions by location and of course most of my traffic came from right here in the United States. 232 people to be exact came to my site from the United States. Canada was next up with a strong 5 people, France with 4, United Kingdom with 2 and Sweden with 2. I’m world wide baby! Then you have the Sessions by the Device Type. Looks like most of my customers came to my website via their mobile device.

This is all amazing information when you are designing your site. Since 90% of my customers view my site from their phones, that tells me when designing the site to focus on what it will look like on a cell phone versus a laptop or desktop computer. You want your site to be super easy to use and even easier to checkout. No one wants to jump through hoops especially when there apprehensive about buying from your site as it is.

Goals for February

So of course I have to give you my goals for the next month. The first thing that I want to do is, increase my Instagram following by another 500. It would be amazing to end February with 2,000 followers. It would also be great to get 100 likes on one of my pictures on Instagram. I am also setting a goal of making another $500 for the next month. I do have to battle only having 28 days verses the 31 days I had this month but I’m going to push hard to accomplish my $500 goal.

Another goal I would also like to accomplish is growing my email list. This month I had 7 people sign up for my email list and I would like to get another 7 next month as well. I also plan on incorporating more color into my line up along with some inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs. The goal ultimately is just to GROW! I just want nothing but great things for my business. And maybe I’ll even get over 3 orders in a day 😱.

Before You Go!

I know this was an overload of information but I promise you that it was necessary if you plan on ever going into business for yourself. There are a few things that I want to recap with you so you can remember them as you start your new business venture.

• Make sure you have a strong support system
• Know what you want to sell and check your inventory
• Be consistent on social media
• Set goals and then CRUSH them
• Show up for your business everyday no matter how hard it may be sometimes.

If you start your business with those key points I do believe you will be off to a very successful start. I really hope that this post inspired you to push forward with your goals and aspirations in starting your very own business. I also hope that you found some if not all of this information useful. If you have any questions while on your journey to success reach out to me, I’ll be more than happy to assist. Thank you for all your time.