October 2017 Earnings and Reflection

In Symbology and Action, I talked about how despite all my dreams of running my own business, I hadn’t earned even $1 outside of my regular 9-to-5 job. So this month I set out to change that.

I had the following money hit my account:

And I earned the following, though it won’t hit my accounts until next month:

All amounts are pre-tax, and the Upwork numbers are from after Upwork’s fees are subtracted (which are substantial).

People say frame your first dollar, and while technically Rev paid my first dollar, this feedback on Upwork is what I’m choosing to hang on my virtual wall:

There are JavaScript developers and then there are developers who claim then selves to be JavaScript developers but to them JavaScript just means DOM manipulation etc. Tyler IS a JavaScript developer! Beautiful code! Structured with best and up-to-date practices. He also included testing code, even though he wasn’t requested to do that. I recommend Tyler to everyone - especially to clients who know to appreciate clean and reusable code! I’ll definitely hire Tyler again!

I have so much fear of the unknown and of whether or not I’ll be able to make things work, but at the very least I’ve got some proof that I can make customers happy.

While these are humble beginnings, I think this month was the kick in the pants I needed to start actually figuring out what needs to happen to turn my dreams into reality.

I’m excited to see where this goes!