So it’s been a year since blogging became my full time business. I feel like I’ve learned so much about myself this past year. I’ve better understood what’s necessary to make blogging a viable source of income and what areas I need to improve upon to increase my revenue (monthly collaborations and affiliate sales), how to appear more professional, and I learned a lot about the backend of my business. I’d say this year was a benchmark year and now I’m implementing so many changes to the way I run my business to hopefully meet or exceed the goals I’ve set out for myself.
I decided that I’d share all the things I’ve learned and the mistakes I made last year and what I’m proactively doing to improve. I know for many, taking your blog from a part-time hobby to a full time business is daunting and many don’t ever take the plunge for fear of failure. I know for years I was fearful of the unknown even though I knew I wanted to do this full-time. It’s scary to not have a guaranteed source of income. Knowing one month could be really good and another month nothing! It’s super scary and anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.
I was in a sense pushed into making Have Need Want my only source of income. Last year at this time, I had just gone back to work after my maternity leave. I wasn’t ready to go back full time and my company wasn’t in a position to pay me my full time salary anymore. I was working part time and working remotely. In the end, it wasn’t working out for my boss, I was still too expensive for part time work so he had me search and hire my replacements. They ended up hiring two people to fill my position and within a two week period I was unemployed.
Now granted it was in the end what I really wanted, I was in no way prepared for taking my blog full-time at that point. I always imagined I would continue working my job through summer and work hard those months beforehand to secure upcoming collaborations so that I had a projected income stream before leaving my job. I had plans to reach out to New PR firms and find new platforms where I could apply to opportunities. I also knew I needed to make a list of brands that I wanted to collaborate with in all the different areas of my blog so that I had a list to start reaching out to.
This all takes so much time and as a full-time Mom the time I had available was minimal during the day so I mainly only had nights to work. I ended up having to put aside a lot of the busy work so that I could keep up with my posting schedule. This meant I was more reactive than proactive last year and not at all what I wanted to be. But I responded to collaboration opportunities that came my way and was able to make some profit last year…not much, and no where near my prior salary but at least it was something.
This is the first major area that I am working so hard to change this year. I’ve already made major improvements to my pitch that I send to PR companies and brands alike and have started to slowly work down my list of preferred brands to collaborate with. I know this is so necessary to improve the profitability of my business and to make Have Need Want my full-time business for years to come. While I’ve had a lot of one off collaborations this year I want to focus on growing my long term partnerships as well as work on getting fairly compensated for all the projects I take on. I’ve already passed on so many opportunities because they were in-kind only. This doesn’t pay our mortgage or bills. This won’t put food on our table.
I still have PR companies sending me samples but I’ve made it clear that there is no guarantee for coverage unless it’s a paid collaboration.
The one area of this business I think I hate more than anything is the accounting aspect and making sure I’m getting payments in on time per my contracts. It’s so hard to juggle every aspect of blogging but it’s so important to make sure you’re receiving payment for the work you’ve done and sometimes that means following up multiple times with a company to receive payment. I hated this area when I worked for my last job and so it’s no surprise that I don’t enjoy doing it for my blog either. Of course, I take it very seriously and will and have had to charge a late fee a number of times. Most collaborations are anywhere from NET 30 to NET 90 days. I try not to accept ones that are NET 90 only because that payment is so far out from when my work has been complete but usually I’m dealing a lot with NET 60 days which can still be a challenge to keep track of. I need to get better about using my spreadsheets regularly to see which collaborations are coming up for payment so that I can follow up with those that are late immediately as opposed to several days or weeks after I should have received payment. This is on area where I can improve on my professionalism. Follow up on every area of your business is so important and if you’re on top of your accounting it shows that you are professional and running your blog like a business. But anyone who is creative will tell you the same thing, numbers are not their strong point.
Another area I had been majorly lacking in was my editorial calendar. I’ll admit that I never really had one. I mean in my head I did but I didn’t implement having a physical calendar until this year. {insert loud gasp as I know if any other blogger is reading this post they’re probably thinking what the heck is wrong with me} I now have weeks in advance planned what I will be posting about. I leave some wiggle room for Kat minute collaborations that I get, you always have to be flexible in your posting schedule, but for the most part I’ve got things planned out. I know on Tuesday it’s my Eat, Shop, Do series. I’ve lined up a number of contributors for the next few months to post about their city so it should be a lot of fun to get to know new areas and all the amazing things you can do when you visit!! I know on Wednesday’s I will have my Label for Less post and I’m trying to mix up the type of things I’m finding so that it’s not always shoes or handbags but also clothing, home decor, etc.
I know this post has been a lot to take in so far so I think that I may just wrap this up and schedule in a follow up post to continue the conversation with you all. If anyone is interested in hearing more about a specific aspect of blogging or wanting to get some advice in a specific area feel free to email me or comment below and I’d be happy to include it in my next post. Also if you’re new to blogging I’m doing A Q&A for a friends blog where I answered some of the most frequently asked questions of newbie bloggers! It’s going LIVE next Tuesday so be on the lookout for that post! 🙂
Top: Target Style, old (similar option). Cardigan: Peach c/o. Jeans: Treasure & Bond, old (similar option here and here). Shoes: Franco Sarto. Handbag: Rebecca Minkoff, old (love this option here that comes in 8 colors). Guitar Strap: Ted Baker (on sale for 40% off).
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As always, thank you so much for stopping by the blog today!
