2023 Monthly Expenses as an Online Business Owner
Running an online business can be an expensive endeavor, so keeping a close eye on your monthly expenses is super important to make sure you stay as lean as possible.
I recently did an audit of my own expenses and subscriptions and thought it would be interesting to share what I’m spending on what to run my business!
So here’s a run down of my monthly expenses as of June 2023.
Current Monthly Expenses
Google GSuite - €7.20 - Email domain & hosting
Simplis - €19.99 - my French business insurance
Adobe Creative Cloud - €16.25 - Photoshop, Illustrator & XD for design projects
SEO Space* - €9.99 - Squarespace SEO plugin that identifies opportunities to optimize your website
Bucketlist Bombshells Membership - €32 - Community of female entrepreneurs with promotional opportunities on the paid plan
Unapologetically Salesy Membership* with Sandra Van Der Lee - €9 - Super fun community focused on selling more confidently and consistently
Collab Club with Nicole Batey- €17 - New community I joined focused on creating more collaborations
Total Monthly Expenses: €111.43
Current Annual Expenses
I try, whenever possible, to pay annually for tools I know I’ll be using long-term to take advantage of the lower annual plans.
Squarespace* - €204 - Website hosting & design platform
ConvertKit* - €790 - Email marketing software <- Yep, it’s expensive so I’m keeping an eye on my subscribers and regularly cleaning my list to make sure I’m not paying for people who aren’t engaged
Loom* - €99 - Screenshare & video recording and hosting for my courses & digital products
Google Drive - €19.99 - Additional digital storage
Square Websites Chrome Extension* - €144 - Squarespace tool with additional design functionality
Email Marketing Membership* - €108 - Weekly email newsletter templates
Hello Audio - €425 (Spilt with my second business, full price is €850) - Private podcasts <- I LOVE this tool and have been adding private podcasts to all of my products!
Wendy Brookstone Premium Membership - €190 - Community for summit speakers with promotional opportunities
Virtual Summit Speaker Directory - €50 - Listing to be considered for summit speaking opportunities
Total Annual Expenses: €2,029.99
Other tools & resources I use with Free or Lifetime deals
ThriveCart* - Checkout cart and course platform
ConvertBox* - Super cool custom pop up software
Countdown Hero* - Deadline countdown timers for emails & websites
Pabbly Connect* - Automated software connection like Zapier but for a one-time lifetime deal!
Wandering Aimfully* - Fantastic membership about building an unboring business
Ubersuggest - SEO tool
TidyCal* - Call scheduler
Postly - Social media scheduler
Canva* - Graphic design software
Chatra* - Chat software for my website and carts
Airtable* - Database & information organization
Notion* - Project management & data organization
Squoosh - Image compressor
Formaloo - Custom form builder
Things I’ve let go of recently:
Zapier - replaced with Pabbly Connect *
17Hats - replaced with Notion*, TidyCal *, Pabbly Connect *, and ThriveCart *
Tailwind - decided to pause my Pinterest efforts
Deadline Funnel - replaced with Countdown Hero *
Plausible.io - replaced with Google Analytics (I still think Plausible.io is a great software but wasn’t proving to be a good solution for me)
Final thoughts
Overall, I try to keep my expenses pretty lean and take advantage of lifetime deals whenever possible. I’ve also added to and updated my tech stack as my business has grown, and it definitely didn’t start here!
But I’ve also had times where I was spending more than this, so regularly checking in with your needs, budget, expenses and the tools you’re using is a good opportunity to see if there are opportunities to scale back & save.
Also, if you have any questions about how (or why) I use a certain tool, just ask! I'm an open book and an email away at hello@michellepontvert.com!
