Hitting an Income Milestone: The Real Story Behind My First $10k Month and How It Quickly Became My New Norm

There’s something about having your first $10k month that makes you feel like you’ve “made it” as an entrepreneur.

And it’s true. Achieving a five-figure month is usually a sign that you have connected all the dots: your packages, pricing, copywriting, sales, systems… everything, really, are all operating at their best.

I remember that magical month when things really started to click into place and when I had my first $10k month.

After that, everything changed… in more ways than I could have imagined.

But how did I do it? How did I get to that point and what did the road beyond 10k look like?

Today I’ll share not only my business’s actual numbers (yes, really) but also how I got there, so you can, too.

Before $10k

When I quit my job, I wanted to replace my six-figure corporate salary, about $8k/month.

“Easy,” I thought.

If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know that my path to success was absolutely NOT easy. And I certainly didn’t hit six figures as quickly as I hoped.

When I was first starting out, I did like most new business owners do: read every business blog out there, take class after class, obsess over Facebook, and try to figure out the online success formula.

But as is the case with most new business owners, not much was working, and I wasn’t getting clients.

Slowly, eventually, I found the right business (as a VA and project manager), found my confidence, and figured out why we shouldn’t sell coaching (and what to sell instead).

And slowly, eventually, I started making money. Not a ton, but I was on the right track.

I learned a lot about what worked and didn’t, and most importantly, that I would and could “make it.”

But I still wasn’t bringing in as much money as I wanted to. Our finances still felt tight, we had to watch our household budget closely, and there wasn’t anything left for fun things like a new sweater, a vacation, or even a fancy dinner out.

Luckily, I realized this:

I NEEDED HELP.

We all have a moment when we realize that we simply don’t have enough of the right information to surmount a challenge. We may see pieces of the puzzle, but it’s not enough to create the breakthrough we want.

Even the smartest among us know that we can’t get to the next level in business without learning new things. We realize that we can’t know what we don’t know, and we need to find a way to close that gap.

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Hitting $10k

This means that the first step to hitting $10k/month is realizing we need help; that we can’t “figure it out on our own.”

Click to TweetThe first step to achieving your goal is realizing you need help and can’t do it all on your own.

The second step is identifying what we need help with. Sometimes we can see something specific, like help with our consult process or with social media. Other times, it’s a big picture problem, like understanding the strategy we need to break through our current financial ceiling.

Once you see what you need, you can look for the resource (class, book, program, coach, etc.) to close that gap and help you hit your goal.

And that’s exactly what I did at the end of 2011.

I saw that I didn’t have enough information to get past my current setpoint, and I realized I had multiple gaps.

I needed to better understand how to put together packages and price them properly, write stronger copy, and improve my consult process.

Once I identified the gaps in my own knowledge, I was able to find a resource that closed those gaps. And when I dove in headfirst to learn and implement, big things happened… eventually.

That’s because simply having the resource wasn’t enough. As you know, we have to take action to make the shift happen.

Sometimes our actions pan out perfectly on the first try; other times it takes several different attempts for everything to click into place like we want it to. But in the end, if we chose the right resource and took the action steps (with dogged determination and multiple iterations), we will hit our goal.

In April, I had my first “click into place” moment.

[Then I freaked out in May and June! I had to readjust my financial setpoint after having been in struggle mode for so long.]

After that mindset adjustment, I settled in and realized I had finally created what I had been working toward for so long.

(Yes, this is the actual chart from my bookkeeping system from March 1, 2011—the launch of jennyshih.com—to early 2013.)

And just like that, $10k became my new norm.

After $10k

Hitting $10k/month, and staying in that ballpark consistently, was game-changing for me.

My money freakouts subsided. I knew, deep in my bones, that I wouldn’t have to ever go back to a traditional job. I knew with certainty that my business dream wasn’t a dream but my actual reality!

Truly, making $10k a month changed everything. (And it changes everything for my clients, too.)

And as a chronic achiever, at this point, the game of business became fun. Meeting my monthly financial needs (mortgage, groceries, dog food, etc.) was taken care of. Now I could start dreaming bigger.

A two-week vacation to Hawaii? Extended time off in the summer? I had new goals…

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Going Beyond $10k

So I set out to see if I could go beyond $10k months.

And here’s what I realized:

What got me from $0 to $3k didn’t get (and couldn’t have gotten) me to $10k.

But what I learned in going from $3k to $10k/month turned out to be everything I needed to know to also get me to $25k/month.

Meaning, the beginning is one game. After that, it’s a different game.

By learning to think at a $10k/month level, I also learned to think at a $25k/month level.

And once I knew I had the mindset and the strategy to average $25k/month, I did.

Imagine what your life would look like if you experienced the same mindset shift.

How would life change for you if you averaged $10k/month… or more?

For me, in many ways, this $10k mark brought me back to how life had been before I quit my corporate job. I could buy organic food, eat out from time-to-time, buy a nice pair of jeans, and take a vacation. If the water heater broke, we didn’t panic that there wasn’t money to buy a new one; if the car needed servicing, we could swing that, too. For me, everything just felt easier.

For you, $10k/month might mean that your budget doesn’t feel so constricting or that you can travel to exotic locations or you can simply start saving for retirement or your kids’ college educations.

Know This: It Is Possible

The good news for you is that $10k months are doable for you just as they are for my most successful clients.

Just remember that what got you here won’t get you there, but with the right strategy and right information, it is possible for you.

Click to TweetWhat got you here won’t get you there, but with the right strategy and right information, it is possible.

Your Turn

Now that you see what has to shift to get to that next point in your business, I want to hear from you!

Tell us…

Have the strategies that got you here stopped working for you?

How would your business and life change if you could regularly have $10k months?

What do you think is holding you back from getting to that point (or to our next financial target, whatever that is)?

Share your insights and post any questions you have about this in the comments below!

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