Welcome to my May 2017 Monthly Income Report!
There are lots of things happening in SPI land these days. Lots of investments back into the business, to be precise, but I’ll report on those in just a moment. First, for those of you who are seeing this income report for the first time, these reports are something I’ve been creating every month since October 2008.
Income Summary
- Last month: $102,915.99
- This month: $111,820.46
- Last 12 months: $1,748,139.45
Expenses Summary
- Last month: $50,460.77
- This month: $78,720.97
- Last 12 months: $517,879.24
Net Profit Summary
- Last month: $52,455.22
- This month: $33,099.49
- Last 12 months: $1,230,260.21
For the complete breakdown of income and expenses, visit the full report here »
Note: Items with an empty difference percentage were not present on the previous month’s income report.
Lesson Learned in May
Beyond getting the studio set up, a good portion of May was used to gear up and get ready for the relaunch of Smart From Scratch. The interesting thing was that all of the work we completed was either technology or website-related. Content-wise, nothing was touched, because the course was already created and fine-tuned from previous launches.
This was the first time I’ve experienced this with an online course, because I actually haven’t had a course before this one. Smart From Scratch first launched to a founders group in October 2016. For that beta launch, a lot of work was done related to the content, although a lot of it was also created with the group as well.
For the first public launch in February 2017, there was still a lot of content work to do. Based on the feedback from the founders group, a number of content-related upgrades were made to prepare for that launch:
- Every lesson was re-written with more information leading into the lesson’s video.
- All of the videos were updated to include graphics, such as lower-thirds, full-screen cards, and call-outs for action items.
- And the sales page was also tweaked a bit.
Last week, however, when Smart From Scratch reopened, none of that content was touched, and it was amazing. That’s the awesome thing about working hard now so you can reap the benefits later. Specifically, with an online course, once you make it and fine-tune it, it’s ready to be shared with the world—not just once, but many times over.
With that said, it’s important to keep an eye out for ways to improve what you’ve created. Always be collecting feedback, and take that into consideration as you continue to iterate, launch, improve, and serve.
With some courses, the content may be less evergreen (e.g., if you have a social media course, especially one related to Facebook). You may need to include certain updates over time so the content doesn’t feel out of date. I remember buying a course recently and immediately it became obvious that the course creator didn’t seem to keep things up-to-date. The software that was being demonstrated didn’t look anything like the updated version, so I found myself struggling a bit.
Smart From Scratch is currently closed until September and I’m working with the new students to help them through the content via office hours each week and participating in discussions within the Student Center. If you’d like to sign up for the waitlist to be notified of the next launch, all you have to do is click here and put your name on the list.
Next month is another big month for SPI, because I’m using what I learned from Smart From Scratch to promote a brand new course coming out—a podcasting course for those looking to streamline the setup of their own show. It’s called Power-Up Podcasting, and it’s coming soon. It’ll be a little different because I’ll also include an upsell to a two-day intensive workshop in Southern California. I’m nervous, but excited at the same time. Let’s do this! If you’d like to put your name on the waitlist for Power-Up Podcasting, click here!
Thanks again for your support, and all the best to you and your projects.