February was yet another month with unexpected expenses on top of my planned budget of -2500. They were again family related.
The lesson here is that my personal budget is way too tight without much margin for any unexpected expenses, especially with two growing kids and parents on the other side of the equation.
Overall, it seems that every month, I'm about -500 in the hole. However, I don't want to round my monthly budget to -3000 and witness yet another -500 "unexpected expenses" on top of that ?
from my Open Personal Finances
What was February like?
Sales wise, 34% down from January. Specifically speaking, 497.76 now compared to 751.58 a month ago.
from my Open Business Finances
Click here to view my Open Finances (Google Sheets)
For these negative results, I blame myself since I didn't do much marketing in January and midway through February. Then Dagobert came up with this gem of information, which made me feel better.
However, without overanalyzing much of what went on, I want to focus on what can be done moving forward in March and beyond.
One quick thing to note is that after February 20th, things picked up quite a bit, with 3 to 4 new payments on average.
in the last part of February
Doomsday pushed by 2 months! ✊
Also, "Doomsday" at the beginning of February was coming up in October. However, we're now back to December — as $500 MRR to my personal account is here to stay as long as I keep up the same efforts.
So what is next?
A few things, actually. And more goal settings on my part!
Not just floating around in the open sea.
I have to keep deliberately looking for land.
More Marketing
Updates on my blog here and on Twitter do a pretty good job of reaching more people who might not have previously heard of blogstatic.
Newsletters and updates on the blogstatic blog are another channel.
More SEO Articles
In February, I wrote my first "SEO driven & researched" article around "Amateur Blogging," and it has been doing pretty well for an SEO amateur like me. Pun intended! ✊?
More Themes
Gridlock is the latest theme I introduced a week or so ago, and a few paying clients have purchased it already. The goal is to introduce more themes for various use cases and modify them to fit various needs.
Also, the blogstatic Theme Store launched!
Increase pricing?
This is something that all of my friends are suggesting, and even a few customers, actually.
Even though I am thinking about new plans, I do plan to keep offering the $19/year plan as it's the one that has generated the most attention.
I am currently considering two ideas as far as "new" pricing goes:
- Keep offering the single plan of $19/year and offer advanced features and options as "Add ons." Advanced features are mostly used by seasoned bloggers anyway.
- Keep offering the $19/year plan with limited features and introduce higher plans for more advanced users.
Changes in prices and feature limitations will be applied to new payments only.
Growing a sustainable business
The idea is to keep running blogstatic for years to come, and for that, I need a more sustainable operation.
While I'm grateful that blogstatic has hit close to $800 in two consecutive months, it's still not enough for me to feel safe and convinced that it's a healthy business.
blogstatic needs to net me personally at least +3500 each month in order for me to feel comfortable running and growing it.
Hence the conundrum with new pricing plans.
The bottom line
I want to give those who are just starting out in their blogging journey an accessible way to start writing.
And I want to give the most advanced users all the tools they need to succeed at an affordable price compared to anything else out there.
Doing all these while growing a self-sustaining business.
