December 2014 Income Report! Year in Review!

Man, I can't believe I'm writing this. 2014 has been such a life changing year and I honestly have no idea how it all came together so seamlessly.  At some point of the year I was worried about my dropshipping store and actually considered selling it, thought about getting into Amazon FBA, thought about moving to Saigon, but at the end of it all, I've decided that I love living in Chiang Mai, redesigned my main store to be more profitable than ever, and even started another dropshipping store which is now a completely new stream of income!

This year instead of going on one 2 week vacation like most people do, I took two weeks to Scuba Dive with Manta Rays in Koh Lanta, three weeks to Saigon to see the digital nomad scene in Vietnam, three weeks around Europe to see the Berlin Wall, the castles in Prague, history of Vienna, and Thermal Baths of Budapest, spent three weeks in Borneo with Orangutans, three weeks back in the US for friend's weddings, two weeks in South Africa with Lions, Cheetahs and Penguins and somehow recorded over 45 episodes of the Travel Like a Boss Podcast, started a new dropshipping store, created two Udemy courses, and published a new book.  Keep reading for how December went and a for a detailed breakdown of how I did it.

If you have been reading the blog, Larissa and I started a 30 Day Challenge to start a new dropshipping store together during the month of December.  We had just got back from a three week vacation from Borneo where hardly and any internet, so we had to make our short month back in Chiang Mai count. We decided that our goal was to start an entire new store during the 30 days we had back before we were to go to South Africa to visit her family over the holidays.

You can read more about the 30 day challenge here. But for now here's a breakdown of my various online income streams that have allowed me to work location independently, travel while earning semi-passive income and has given me the financial freedom to enjoy life while saving up for an early retirement.

Income from Udemy Courses:

We had a really good November because of the Black Friday sales, but December was a bit slower...however we really didn't do anything with our course during the month, so it was 100% passive income which is always nice. However, we're still having trouble getting our Relationship Ready course to sell well, which even though it's a really good course, possibly better than our Small Talk course, we need to record a better promo video for it and just haven't gotten around to doing it yet, which I believe may be the reason why we are struggling to get students.

You can check out the two courses here:

Our First Course: Small Talk: How to Talk to Anyone 
Our New Course: Relationship Ready: How to Attract Your Perfect Partner

Total income from our Udemy course: $359.47 each for Larissa and I which we split the courses 50/50.

Income from Book Sales:

Although the income from my books is semi-passive since I don't have to process the orders myself and the books are already written, I do actively promote my book during interviews, podcasts, and whenever I can, but mainly because I genuinely want everyone to read the books and benefit from my struggles and life lessons. It's still a tiny portion of my actual income but it's my passion project, and almost 100% of the profits from it go to supporting charities such as Teachers that use DonorsChoose,org and more recently directly to helping poor Thai kids get fed, have a home, and go to  school here in Thailand.

If you want to read either of the books you can find it at 12 Weeks in Thailand: The Good Life on the Cheap and Life Changes Quick: 7 Steps to Getting Everything You've Ever Wanted

Total income from the book sales: $400US (approx. you can do the math below if you really want)

PDF Sales

Kindle Sales

Income from the Blog and Podcast:

As always I constantly update my recommended resources page with the books that have made a big impact on my life, the websites that have helped me become successful in business, and the tools I use to run my dropshipping stores.

You can check out my recommended resources page here and if you do end up signing up for any of the tools I have listed, please use my link so I can get credit for referring you. Thanks!

Income from my Dropshipping Store:

Even though I like the quote: "Multiple streams become a river" and try to have multiple streams of income, my main income source is still from my dropshipping stores. Knowing that, I finally decided to start another store, this time with Larissa.

The great news is that it's completely up and running, although we still need to add more suppliers and products, and we finally just started getting sales!  Yay!

Total profit from my main dropshipping store:  $4,239

Sales from the new dropshipping store

Sales from my main dropshipping store

Overall December was a very successful month especially considering I flew to South Africa on December 14th and didn't work more than three hours a week while I was there.  But a lot of it was due to the work I put in the months prior to get everything up and running and the systems in place. If you want to learn how to start your own drop business in 2015, I highly recommend following Anton's Dropshipping Course which is the step by step system I followed to start my own stores.

If you want to know more about the journey, Start Here.

Best of luck to everyone in 2015! May this be the year we all become successful, location independent, healthy and happy! This is the first year I've had enough extra income to do something really nice for my parents who live in San Francisco. They have done so much for me over the years, raised me the best the could, so now that I'm able to help them out, I paid their property tax for the year.

Working hard and becoming successful doesn't just help you...it helps everyone around you.  Make it happen in 2015 and make it your goal to not only become location independent yourself, but be able to support your loved ones as well.

Keep in touch!
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Warm Regards,

Johnny
www.LifeChangesQuick.com