The Small Business Doer

Overview

December was a quasi-frustrating month. I had big ambitions for December, I was supposed to get a lot of business growth work done. I got some done, but nothing close to what I was going for.

What I was going for, was outlined in my September post.

Goals vs. Reality

It was really weird, every time I got close to working on my growth goals, something came up. This felt like August, where I had what I thought was free time, but ended up feeling as busy as I did in my big revenue generating months. I mean, how could I be as busy in a month where I had $3,500 (December) in sales as I did when I had $13,000 (November) in sales?

I’m sure that in busy months, there are certain admin tasks and other non-revenue generating things that I save for times when I don’t have paid work. No doubt. But that just can’t account for such a large gap. Vacation time does account for some time as well, so I can’t discount that, as I took time off both in August and December.

I didn’t put any posts up, besides my November business plan update.

Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual – December 2011

Not much to say about December. It actually went fairly according to budget, 90% of revenue, 87% of expenses, 90% of net income.

A couple minor things I would like to note are the subcontracted services and the dues, subscriptions and education.

The subcontracted services are $600, more than budget, but the actual services were for projects done in the previous month, so they really should have been on that month’s income statement. They showed up on this month’s since that’s the month the bill was dated.

The dues, subscriptions and education is negative because I received a refund for a product I purchased in November, making my November’s expenses to high and this month’s expenses to low.

In the end it all evens out and is reflected properly in my annual income statement.

Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual - December 2011

Conclusion

I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t get more work done. Even though I didn’t post items up on the website, I was working on small business education products. So it’s not as if I wasn’t doing anything. Perhaps it’s the fact that if I could have squeezed out 20-40 hours more worth of work, I would have done what I wanted to do. I felt I could have found that time if I had managed my time better.

The last thing that I will say, is that persistence has got to count for something. I know finding the time to work on business growth is possible. I know because I always find the time for revenue-generating activities when I’m getting paid by the hour. It’s a matter of having that same work ethic and determination for work that’s not giving an immediate payback.

There’s always next month and next year. Here’s to 2012, the end of the world according to some!

Updates

1. Check out the next update 2011 Biz Plan Review and 2012 Goals – Oh the Excitement!
2. Check out the previous update Business Plan Update November 2011
3. Check out all the updates