Income Report – December 2019

Well, if last month was a crater, at least we couldn’t go much lower, right?

I am BUMMED I couldn’t beat the $4,256 I made last December, which was my least last year, but to be fair while I BARELY made anything in December this year, I didn’t try much, either.

I DID try in November, but I usually take December off, since every industry I work in basically takes December off. I used to hate doing it, but now I quite enjoy it. It’s not like I have much choice in the matter unless I start working in another industry, which I have no desire to do, so I try to just roll with it.

Honestly, taking December off is the best thing I do for my business. I’ve talked about it before, but I come up with my BEST ideas in December, and the things I implement in December have saved my business more times than I can count. You can read all about it in this post.

Income:  $3,325

Ugh. This is the WORST month of the whole year. Last year, without much effort, I made $4,256 and this year I couldn’t even come up with that. In fact, I only really had a Verizon payment and an unexpectedly high payment from Teachable that I wasn’t expecting.

How did it shake out this month? Let’s see.

Teachable – $1,184.25

Online book sales – $118.15

Verizon – $1200

Cons – $0

Book Marketing – $822.60

Expenses: $25,217

I had $19,426 in expenses last December, and while I tried to lower that this year, I ended up increasing it. However, $14,883.87 was my payment to myself as the only employee of my company. However, it still comes off my company books, which is an odd function of having a corporate tax structure.

Year to Date: $126,242

–YTD w/o Kickstarter: $111,057.42

–Expenses to date: $139,142

Well, this year WAS looking better than last year, but I got hammered in the last two months and had almost all my expenses come due in December, so I ended up getting my ass kicked.

It’s funny, because in 2018, I was down for 10 months but ended up doing well, and in 2019, I was good for 10 months and then got hammered in the last two months to wind up with a worse profit margin than last year.

I ended up at a -$12,900 profit margin, swinging almost $20,000 in a single month, going from an $8,993 profit margin to a -$12,900 loss in 30 days.

Of course, I had a $14,000+ payment to myself in December, so I didn’t really end up in the negative, but it does feel like a kick in the gut looking at it right now, and I’m right upset about it.

–YTD 2018: $141,813

–EXPENSES TO DATE 2018: $147,492

Last year I went from a $9,491 profit margin in November to a -$5,679 profit margin in December, a $15,000 swing in a single month, and that is why I HATE December so much.

This happens every December because I pay for almost ALL of my conventions for the following year in December PLUS I have to pay collaborators and year-end taxes.

Insights: 

I did not like this year, and even though I started this year REALLY well, I ended it worse than last year, at least on paper, which just shows you absolutely never know how a year will turn out until THE END of the year.

My hope next year is that I will be able to merge the first nine months of 2019 with the last two months of 2018.

I actually think this is a really appropriate arc to my financial year, because every time I thought I caught a break this year, it ended up blowing up in my face in the end, which is the thematic throughline of 2019 that played out in this report.

Now, despite all of this, last year I ended up with $55,000 in cash reserves, and this year I have $70,000 in cash reserves, meaning that with everything that tried to break me this year, I still ended up with $1,000+ every month in my coffers, along with being able to max out my IRA contribution and my wife’s 401k.

So, now for the bad news about these reports. This was the most raw I’ve ever been with my company, and I think it’s a little much for even me, so after this, I’m not going to be publishing monthly stats for my business in 2020, mostly because I just can’t take it emotionally or mentally

Every month I went into a deep funk putting this together, and it took me days to get back into a decent mental place. I promised to leave everything that didn’t serve me back in 2019, and that includes this income report.

I might do a yearly review, but it’s too much work to do it monthly, and too much effort to put it together, and it’s just…too raw for much rawness for me, and this comes from a person who has been called the raw nerve of the comics industry since 2010.