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It’s been 120 days since I quit my day job.
Since I’m starting this site “anew” I wanted to give you an idea of where I am and have been over the past four months.
If you didn’t know, I run a marketing agency focused around helping small business owners with their marketing, specifically Google & Facebook ads, and Local SEO.
That may mean nothing to you but it doesn’t have to. I feel like there are a lot of similarities between running an agency and being an entrepreneur in another space. While there may be times where I talk about agency specific problems, for the most part I will be talking about non-industry-specific business and side hustle concepts.
Okay, so for this to make sense, I feel like I should give you an idea of where I was in May 2017, right before I left my full-time job.
Snapshot of Income Before I Left My Job
# Clients: 2
Monthly Recurring Gross Income: $600
Monthly “Day Job” Gross Income: $5,250
Total Gross Income: $5,850
Savings: $18,000
This actually surprised me, and I’m so glad I didn’t do this exercise before quitting my job – $600 of gross income? Was I insane?! Haha
Looking back I did have some potential projects lined up, but it wasn’t that much additional, so I’m actually surprised I didn’t try and back out 🙂 I also had a client stop working with me right before I left too.
However, I was extremely lucky to have the people around me supporting me. I posted this on my Facebook page a few weeks before leaving my job:
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fchenelltull%2Fvideos%2F10101454271320838%2F&show_text=1&width=560
From this post, I got two really strong referrals after I did leave my job who are still amazing clients. The people around me really did help lift me up a bit during what could have been a very stressful time.
Snapshot of Income 4 Months After Leaving My Job
Okay so as for the updated numbers, here is where I am now:
# Clients: 9 (kind of – more on this in a bit)
Monthly Recurring Gross Income: $6,515
Monthly “Day Job” Gross Income: $0
Total Gross Income: $6,515
Savings: $18,000 ← thankfully, haven’t needed to touch this.
In 4 months I’ve been able to exceed my day job income, which makes me extremely happy. I also feel a lot more confident about what I’m doing, because there are times when the “day in the life of an entrepreneur” image is SO ACCURATE.
I see this image shared pretty regularly on social media and I just laugh everytime. It never gets old because it’s so true. You go from so excited, to depressed feeling like you’re worthless, and then ten minutes later you get an email that just completely changes your day.
Okay, back to the update post.
How Did I Grow the Number of Clients/Revenue?
Referrals and connections. That’s pretty much it.
Through the Bright Cents blog, I was able to make some great connections and friends who have been more than helpful in sending people my way, or coming to me in need of marketing themselves. I’m part of some really great communities online that have been extremely supportive and helpful in keeping me focused and motivated. I’ll share more about them in future posts.
I’ve also found these to be the best kinds of people to work with because we have a lot in common and know more about each other than we would have if I just cold-called them. Many online blogger-type folks have quite a bit in common, especially when it comes to knowledge of how the online space works, so it makes it easier to work together.
While I know the referral thing probably won’t be this fruitful forever, I’m doing what I can to take advantage of it now and improve upon how I manage referrals.
How Do I Have “Kind of” Clients?
I’m working as a subcontractor for a friends marketing agency, helping out with some of their clients. On the list above I considered them one client, but there are actually multiples in there. So I guess you could say I have 12 clients, but it’s really 9 who pay me directly.
I also have some clients that were just one-time payments, where they just needed a website built, or to get setup for Local SEO but weren’t ready to commit to a monthly arrangement just yet. They aren’t included in the client list or revenue numbers above.
What’s Happened During the Last 4 Months
I grew my agency revenue from $600 to $6,515 in 4 months, that’s a 985% increase – but who’s counting? 🙂 Hell, I am – I’m very proud of myself!
Other than that:
- I’ve worked out of a few different coworking spaces, and found that I am really productive when I get out of my house and work somewhere different.
- I’ve implemented some processes for my business, but need to get much better at this and I plan to in the coming months.
- Met some really great Philadelphia-based entrepreneurs
- I was able to go visit my mom without needing to ask my boss for permission
- I went to Australia with my girlfriend to attend her best friend’s wedding – and see some other epic things. Also, no permission from the boss needed.
- I went to a few conferences, and have 2 more left for this “conference season.”
- I changed my morning schedule. I was waking up at 3:30am when I had my day job, but transitioned to 4am, and am now waking up at 4am or 5am.
- I found a great new invoicing system that I really love.
- Lastly, I’ve been thinking about creating this site for sooo long and am ecstatic that I finally put time in my schedule to do this.
I’m channeling my inner Xanga addiction from the early 2000s, so here is my current music: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium album.