Fully Booked VA Blog

2016 Business Goals (and a Recap of 2015)

Who’s ready for some 2016 business goals?

What a whirlwind the first few days of 2016 have been!

It’s possible (ahem) that I might be trying to do too much… it’s hard not to though – I have so many good ideas that I’m excited about exploring!

And it’s possible I’ve overcommitted myself just a little…

But if there’s anything I know about myself, it’s that I don’t quit and that I almost always figure out a way to get it all done anyway. And the beautiful part of trying out different things, is that if one of them doesn’t work out so well, you have other initiatives to fall back on and put your energy into.

So how’d 2015 go? Pretty good, I think!

2015 in a Nutshell

Gross Income: $120,143

Expenses: $37,034

Net Income: $83,109

Dec YTD Chart

When you take into account my business expenses, what I basically did was replace my previous salary. So although it seems like I’m “rolling in the dough,” I’m really not. But it’s enough to support our little family of four and that’s what’s important!

Where’d it come from?

I’d have to do some heavy analysis to figure out the exact breakdown, and honestly, I ain’t got time for that! If you’re curious, you can always peruse my past income reports to learn more.

If I had to guess, I’d say that it was pretty evenly split between:

  • Writing Income
  • Virtual Assistant Work
  • Product Sales

I also had some consulting (with my former office) and coaching revenue in the mix.

I recently did a review on my main goals (replace my former salary, pay off our second mortgage and buy a used RV in cash) for 2015 in this post, so I won’t bore you with that recap again.

12 highlights from 2015:

  1. January was my first month as a full-time freelancer.
  2. In February, I picked up my second VA client and just love working with him!
  3. In May, we legitimized Fully Booked VA and are now an S-corp.
  4. In June, the private Facebook group associated with 30DOL to Freelance Writing Success was born and it’s thriving – I’m REALLY proud of how active and supportive all of the members are.
  5. In July, I surpassed the $10,000 gross income mark for the first time.
  6. 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success officially launched in November.
  7. That was immediately followed by the Virtual Assistant MatchMaking Service.
  8. In December, Kickstart Your Freelance Writing Biz went live, which is a free 5-day email course to help people jumpstart their freelance writing careers.
  9. And a few days before the ball dropped, the Mamapreneur Mastermind was born!
  10. By year-end my email list crossed 2,500 subscribers.
  11. And throughout the year I received dozens of amazing testimonials from students that were getting real results from my material.
  12. I transitioned from being “just a freelance writer and VA” to a full-blown online business owner.

Of course, 2015 didn’t come without it’s fair share of challenges. I parted ways with clients, didn’t get hired by others and spent a lot of the year putting myself out there and trying to find the balance between promoting myself and my business and just being helpful.

Overall, I learned a ton, enjoyed myself and finally was able to work on building a business I was truly passionate about. Some much so, that my problem is wanting to work too much, rather than not enough.

Looking Forward to 2016

I feel like a lot of the work that I completed towards the end of 2015 was really in preparation of 2016. I’ve been talking up the new year quite a bit socially – I hope it doesn’t disappoint!

Here are my top 2016 business goals:

My ‘A’ Goal: $250k+ gross income

My 3 ‘B’ Goals:

  1. Pay-off land loan (1/1/16 $22,889)
  2. $20,000 in savings (1/1/16 $8,100)
  3. 20,000+ newsletter subscribers (1/1/16 2,556)

Here’s a sneak peek at my business plan, which will support my 2016 business goals:

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I have a more formal one in a Google doc, but above is the basic breakdown.

Ultimately, my focus will be on the following in 2016:

  1. Maintaining for the most part my writing, VA and coaching clients.
  2. Doubling my course sales.
  3. Growing the Mamapreneur Mastermind group to 125 members by year-end.
  4. Taking 200+ people through the VA MatchMaking Service during 2016.

One thing I forgot to add on there was affiliate sales. I’d also like to grow that area of my business quite a bit.

Although I don’t have any tangible goals currently, here’s how I’d like to grow my affiliate revenue:

  1. Promote my new free website tutorial, 7 Days or Less to Branded Website Success. Currently, the only affiliate link that’s listed is hosting, but I plan to add a couple more (as long as it’s a natural and helpful fit) and start offering website reviews (or tear downs) as a service.
  2. Add affiliate links to blog posts when appropriate.
  3. Direct traffic to my resources page.

I know some people make mad money from affiliate sales. For many webpreneurs, this is where their “passive income” comes from.

There’s nothing wrong with passive income, I just don’t mind working for my money. I also only rep stuff I believe in and usually use myself on a regular basis.

What happened to that agency I talked about?

Ultimately, Carlos, Ariel and I tried to give it a go. We came really close to landing our first client and spent a fair amount of time working with the prospects for free.

And it was a good learning experience.

It basically came down to the fact that what we wanted to do was really Carlos’ primary business and Ariel and I didn’t have the amount of time needed on a weekly basis to really grow it.

And all three of us already have our own platforms, so producing content and marketing another business/website/blog didn’t make a lot of sense. For us, it makes more sense for Carlos to continue to grow his brand, Conversion Surge and for us to partner on projects as they come up.

We’re not killing it off for good though. We’ll revisit Rebel Marketerz later this year and see if things have changed. You just never know…

Go Big or Go Home!

So there you have it folks – my 2016 business goals in a nutshell! My primary goal is to basically double my income (but hopefully not my expenses) from last year, grow my email list and use the extra funds to pay off debt and save (boring, right? #FinancialNerdAtHeart!).

A lot of people find my transparency of goals, income, etc. motivating, which is why I continue to be so open with the numbers. I hope it helps you as you cultivate your own business goals.

BTW, I’m totally keeping my mantra from last year and carrying that over it 2016 too!

Why not me, why not now?

Who’s brave enough to share their “A” and “B” goals for 2016? If you are, sound off in the comments!

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Gina Horkey

Gina Horkey

FOUNDER & CO-OWNER

Gina Horkey is a married, millennial mama from Minnesota. Additionally, she’s the founder of Horkey HandBook and loves helping others find or become a kickass virtual assistant. Gina’s background includes making a living as a professional writer, an online business marketing consultant and a decade of experience in the financial services industry.

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