When you start running your own business you are going to find that some months are awesome income wise and others are less than stellar.

I’ve noticed that there is a yearly cycle in my income and I’m going to share it with you today.

Yearly Cycle

The biggest trend that I’ve noticed is that there is a yearly cycle to income. My typical year sees 60% of my income (sometimes more) come in from January – June.

Summers are slow so I only see about 15 – 20% of my yearly income during the summer. The rest of it comes in during the September – December timeframe.

For the first few years I did not recognize this cycle at all. I figured that I had made so much when it got to June and of course I’d just double that and have my income (or at least really close to it) by the end of December.

That got me into hot water a few times when I decided to raise my salary in May based on my income for the year so far and then August rolled around and to keep the same level of income I was burning through my extra savings.

If I had recognized the cycle then I still could have given myself a raise just not a HUGE raise.

As I’ve paid attention to podcasts and talked with other theme developers, plugin shop owners and theme shop owners it seems to me that the cycle holds for many. No not everyone will have the exact same cycle but many in the WordPress space do.

Huge amounts of income come in during the first chunk of the year and then it slows down.

What’s your cycle

If you’ve been running a business for 2 years do you know what your income cycle is? Can you tell me right now what the best months are in your year and what the worst months are?

No 2 years won’t be a statistically valid sample, but it’s better than 1 year. Every year you run the business you’ll learn more about your business and what months are the best income wise.

Figure out what your cycle is and then make sure that you plan for it in 2014.

photo credit: CJ Isherwood via photopin cc