May 2024 monthly income report

Each month I publish Every Cloud Accounting’s income. Here is the May 2024 monthly income report, along with a review of the month.

I made a huge decision in my business.

I decided to share the yearly revenue for Every Cloud Accounting. It was a big step and one I debated for a long time.

Could I post the results? Would people think it’s too low/too high? What happens if clients know?

The reality is that some people will be impressed, others will think it isn’t great, and some won’t care.

I want to grow a 6-figure lifestyle business and share learning on the way. I will still do the technical posts, but this is the bread and butter, the real, ‘living-in-the-trenches’ post.

Since posting the results, I have had some great feedback and it already it doesn’t feel so daunting.

Even though that post is live, it’s only going to be updated every year, which feels slow and you may miss out on the day-to-day progress.

Monthly income reports

I have decided to take it one step further and publish the results every month going forward.

This feels scary because what happens if I have a good month? A bad month? What happens if I don’t produce the results quick enough and I am deemed a bad accountant? (More questions!)

Screw it, let’s try it!

All results will be completely honest, whether it’s £1/month or £1,000,000/month.

Why hide the information? It’s not sacred.

I remember reading the Smart Passive Income monthly reports and they were a huge inspiration, I was blown away that someone could be so honest with their income.

Clients trust me with their most private finances, so this is about being equally transparent.

Along with the income report, I will also give a review of the month; what went well, what didn’t go well and am I living in line with the lifestyle business I want to build.

Ahhhhh, let’s get stuck in

What went well

I received 7 new enquiries in May, a joint record. Mainly from local SEO (search engine optimisation) – a lot of work has gone into SEO and I am starting to get enquiries from other areas such as Burton, Tamworth and Sutton Coldfield.
I launched Fee Protection – an additional service where clients pay a small amount per month, which covers any accountancy costs for an HMRC enquiry. A lot of clients went for it, I am not going to retire on it, but it’s an extra income stream and hopefully a win win for both parties.
I wrote content for 24 days in May, and deciding to write more is where the idea of this post came from. It all started publishing Every Cloud Accounting results and also included posts; Building a 6-figure lifestyle business, how my business helped pay for a £11,000 IVF bill and my new content marketing strategy, it got personal.
I welcomed 4 new clients in May, which is quite a lot for Every Cloud.
I carried out a lot of client work in May which meant the oldest year-end which hasn’t been prepared now is March 2024, so most client accounts are up to date.
I signed up to Tide bank account to test out their bank and good savings rate.
I had a positive meeting with a local bookkeeper and discussed the potential of doing some outsourced bookkeeping for Every Cloud.
I got a lot clearer on my perfect client, helping service business owners who want to build a lifestyle business.

What didn’t go well

The mix of onboarding 4 new clients and having a lot of delivery; turnaround times, and onboarding took longer than I would have liked.
I fractured my finger in April playing football, so May has involved a lot of hospital appointments which took me away from the day job on certain days. It’s been tricky doing day-to-day activities but luckily I am sitting at a computer and accountancy isn’t very manual, apart from all that spreadsheet wrestling!
I had a really good run with writing content, but it dropped off towards the end when I got busy with a battle between consistency vs just accepting I am trying to do too much (story of my life).

Building a 6-figure lifestyle business

I have taken every Friday off, bar working a few hours, to spend time with my little boy, Jesse.
The flip side is that taking Fridays off has been challenging at times with increased workload and the bank holidays in May. I am still trying to work out whether taking every Friday is sustainable, but being flexible is really important to me.
Since having a baby and also having a very energetic Cavapoo, it means our house is very busy, so it’s positive that I am around, but it can also be very distracting. We are looking at converting our garage, so we have a separate space and which should hopefully make it easier to switch off too.
I would say you can count the hospital appointments I have had on one hand, there has been a lot, so I appreciate the flexibility to be able to do that.

Overall I am really happy how May went, the business income is in a good place and I am writing more open and authentically.

I have had more comments about the content in the last few weeks than I ever have, so I am going to take that as a good sign.

If you would like to read the first post where publishing the results all started, here are Every Cloud Accounting results.

If you like the content, please drop me an email tom@everycloudaccounting.co.uk, the feedback loop is so important to know whether to do future income reports.