It’s time for another income report! If this is your first time, I’ll be walking you through my sales and expenses as a freelance web designer/developer. We’re going to look at two months side-by-side: September and October.
September
September Sales
- Design & Web Services: £800.73
- Hosting: £455.95:
- Pre-Mades: £849.59
Total sales: £2106.27
Ugh this was a crappy month. I don’t even remember why. I think I just didn’t get a lot done for some reason…
September Expenses
- Commissions: £17.84
- Hosting: £193.82
- Licenses & Subscriptions: £23.70
- PayPal Fees: £65.38
Total expenses: £300.74
Profit (before taxes): £1,805.53 / $2,889.53
Okay so September was a crappy month. As I said before, I don’t even know why at this point (hey, it’s been over a month since then!). I think I just didn’t take on many projects and didn’t get much done in terms of pre-mades. Bleh. But after seeing these poor results, I was SO DETERMINED for October. I had big plans. I was going to finish my e-course, rock the pre-mades, and take on custom projects again. And that’s all on top of my 9-day honeymoon trip as well! Luckily, I think my efforts paid off… 
October
October Sales
- Affiliates: £240.40
- Design & Web Services: £730.67
- E-Courses: £614.84
- Hosting: £487.07:
- Pre-Mades: £1028.81
Total sales: £3,101.79
This was my highest month of sales… EVER! Ever ever ever! I think this proves what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it. I decided I was going to rock the hell out of October, and I did. And as I said, this was including a 9-10 day work-free vacation. Holy cow!
Here are some things I did to rock the hell out of October:
- I withdrew my affiliate earnings (is that cheating?).
- I started accepting custom design work again, so I took a few deposits for that.
- I finished and released my e-course. So far the feedback has been terrific, so that makes me a happy girl.
- I increased my hosting prices. I didn’t just do this to make more money. I don’t want Book Host to get too crowded, in order to keep the server “clean”, small, and fast. So in order to have fewer customers, I decided to raise the prices. Plus I think I was way under-valuing it before. My prices were in line with other hosting companies, when they shouldn’t be. Other hosting companies don’t give you managed WordPress hosting and free premium themes/plugins. It’s time to start charging what it’s worth! (And I’m probably still under-valuing it to be honest.)
- I created a new pre-made theme, which has been a huge hit so far!
October Expenses
- Commissions: £25
- Hosting: £254.91
- Licenses & Subscriptions: £176.77
- PayPal Fees: £65.77
Total expenses: £497.45
Profit (before taxes): £2,604.34 / $4,167.32
You can see that an increase in sales results in an increase in expenses. 
But who cares? The month was awesome! Hell yeah, October!
So far, the outlook for November is: busy, busy, busy. I’ve booked a lot of custom projects and my schedule is filled to the brim. I’m actually booked through mid-January right now, so I might be closing my order form again for a few months.
That’s awesome! Congrats on doing so great last month!
Thank you!
I think it’s really good that you post this for everyone to see. It’s definitely an eye-opener into what income and expenditure is like for someone working in that industry. Thanks.
Those numbers look amazing to me… even the September ones. I can’t imagine how much higher they must be now!