Ahh, the elusive “full time income” in your business. We hear numbers splashed all around social media: 6 figures, 7 figures, hell, even 8 figures (uh, that’s $10 million). You hear about the result (i.e. the money), but you don’t hear about the conversion rates, funnels, content marketing, and ads that make the result. I’m here today to teach you EXACTLY how big your audience needs to be to create a full time income.

I’m not talking general (and completely obvious) "you need to have social media followers” bullshit, I mean down to the exact number your email list needs to be and how much traffic you need to be getting to your website to build that email list.

What does it look like to almost completely change how you make money in your business? How long does it take to create an entirely new sustainable revenue stream that creates a full time income? How do you pivot your business (whether it’s a want to or a need to)? That’s what today’s post is all about.

2020 was THE year of the pivot, our entire world changed in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

If you didn’t already have an online business, you were quickly forced to when the entire world shut down in March 2021. Frankly, I thought getting online was kind of overdue for some industries, and also couldn’t figure out why teachers were having such a hard time switching to online learning when us online course creators have been doing it for years.

Granted, I’m not teaching a group of 30 5-year-olds in a Google hangout (small kids aren’t designed to sit in front of a screen all day!), and those teachers didn’t sign up to either (teachers, and nurses for that matter, deserve a god damn Nobel Prize), but I just think it’s funny that no one seemed to ask anyone who was already part of the $187 US billion online education market for any advice.

I digress.

Last year I released a year in review of my 2018 numbers, and you all loved it so much that I wanted to do it again this year with my 2019 year in review. This is my chance to be open and transparent behind the triumphs and struggles of running a 6 figure business, because it’s both the best and worthwhile journey you can ever be on, while putting you through the lowest of lows that will force you to grow in ways you never imagined.

I had a very specific vision of how 2019 was going to go, and by the end of it, I was somehow nowhere near that vision, yet never closer to it. This probably makes no sense to you, but hopefully will by the end of this post.

Big question for you, and one that 99% of wellness entrepreneurs can’t answer: how much money do you really need to make in your business?

Why can’t most people answer this? Because very few know their important business numbers, and we’re going to talk about this today because it’s the basis for ALL your goal setting, business development, and marketing efforts you’ll do over the next year.

Are you telling yourself you need to make “more”? What does “more” even mean? Do you want “more” money to buy a bigger house? For local organic groceries? For a family trip once a year? To build up your retirement account so you can retire at 55?

How much “more” do you actually need? And how much of your product/programs/services do you need to sell to make that?

I meant to start this year off with a “2018 year in review” post, like you see so many business owners do. I already have a blog post about my journey to making $5,000 a month as a holistic nutritionist, and I shared all my income and expenses from the start of my business in 2008 all the way to 2016, when I finally started making the equivalent to a full time income. I decided that I wanted to write about my income from last year, but in a way that included some very tangible lessons that you could use to manage your money as a health business owner.

And P.S. even if you don’t own a “health business”, like I focus on, these lessons are totally translatable to any other type of business.

You see, money in our industry (and what I’m learning is that ALL industries have the same problem!) is kind of a taboo subject. Us health practitioners or wellness entrepreneurs don’t want to talk about making $5,000, $10,000, or even $20,000+ a month. Hells no, that’s selfish. That’s not enlightened. That’s dirty, icky, or insert any other negative adjective here.

No, we want to talk about helping people, and spreading the word about health and how people can feel better …. not about money.

But guess what? You can’t pay your bills with Instagram followers. Or emails in your inbox saying “your blog post helped me so much!”. Those are all well and good, but the bank and other companies only accept MONEY in exchange for your mortgage, rent, phone bills, car insurance, etc, etc, etc.

Stop thinking about money as evil, and start thinking about it like a tool to serve not only other people, but yourself in a healthier way.

I'm going to do something that most other business owners don't do, and share my real income numbers from every year of my business, up to and including the time of writing this.

Why don't more business owners/coaches do this? Because, frankly, it's terrifying to think that a whole bunch of my ideal clients (i.e. you reading this right now) will see my real numbers, know that I'm not running a 6 figure nutrition practice, and immediately dismiss all the knowledge I have about running a "successful on the outside" holistic business.

Well, screw that, you need to see these numbers and the timeline so that I can show you what I was actually doing in my business, and what happened to my income because of it. There are some really good lessons hidden in these numbers, and I think you deserve to see them, even if *I* am terrified of showing them to you.

I'm a total bookworm, and have been my whole life. My idea of the best day ever includes hibernating under a warm blanket, tea in hand, some dark chocolate covered almonds, and a book that I can devour.

Somewhere along the way, I lost the want and need to read. I suspect the birth of my son was to blame, but in reality, I wasn't giving myself enough self-love in the form of alone time and sleep to even consider reading new books. Now that I've put me back on the list of my top 3 priorities (the list now goes 1) me, 2) my family, and 3) my business ... instead of the other way around), my love of reading has come back with a vengeance.

I've already talked about how reading has increased my business profits a few months ago (click here to read the article), and I'm happy to report that the more I make reading and self-development a priority, the more my income goes up. In fact, my January income was at least double what it has been on a monthly basis in 2015. Did I hustle over the end of December? Nope! I had a fantastic holidays, napped, read, snacked, and spent lots of time with my hubby and son.

Some of you may be thinking that you absolutely hate reading or truly don't have time for it, and that may very well be the case. Let me introduce you to audiobooks. Boom, life changed.

I have a member on my essential oils team who works full-time, teaches yoga and personal trains clients part-time, runs her essential oil business part-time, and has a 5-year-old and husband. She really wasn't making excuses when she said she doesn't have time to read. However, she does have a 20 minute drive to and from work, during which she's now turned her car from a total time-suck into a university on wheels thanks to audiobooks. Last month she finished 3 new books this way that have been on her list for the past year.

It's not how you do it, it's the fact that you get over your excuses and just fucking do it already.

There is one-drawback to this whole investing time in book reading, though ...

I remember going into Staples when I first started my business back in 2008, and looking for some sort of software to help me out with my income and expenses. I looked at Quickbooks and Sage, and thought "I have a Geophysics degree and worked at a bank, I should be able to figure this out!".

It turns out that business accounting can be a lot more complicated than it looks.

I tried Sage, and returned it a few weeks later because it was so damn complicated that I wanted to cry whenever I tried to use it. I now know takes a special sort of person to be into all that double-entry bookkeeping stuff.

I'm a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, not an accountant. I just wanted something to show me how much HST (then GST) I owed, and if I was making a profit or not from month to month. i.e. could I pay myself anything this month?!

Depending on where you are in your business, you might have a few options, so let's talk about them: