Holy Moley Reader,
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I spent $22,530.97 in my business last year.
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Yep. Ouch - That’s the real number I pulled off of my spreadsheet.

Honestly - this isn’t quite as bad as it sounds.
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$4,458.07 were fees from Paypal or Stripe which is just a part of doing business.
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About $5k of the contractor expenses were for a very specific one-time project I did for bigger corporate type of company where I needed to sub-contract out a specific piece of the project.
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It’s not something I typically do in my biz so those expenses were a one time thing.
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There’s definitely still some major fluff on this money list though. ​
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Here’s what I’m (hopefully) not spending money on this year: ​
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​❌ Education +$1100.00​
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​I'm 6 years into my business and while there is a time and place to buy online courses and programs - I don't think this year is it for me.
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I have so many other resources I can use.
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For me 2025 is about learning less new things and just refining what I’m already doing.
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​❌ Tailwind - +$120​
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​Love Tailwind - use and recommend it all the time to clients.
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BUT I'm not that active on Pinterest (<---you can peek here and see how stagnant it is)
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​❌ Email Software - +$150-$500? ​
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​I currently use and love Kit/ConvertKit (<-affiliate link).
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​Overall it's great, but has gotten pricey as my subscriber count grows.
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I'm going to explore switching to Substack or Flodesk (<-affiliate link). Both are great options - though I'm not sure either are the right fit for me.
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If I decide switching isn’t worth it. I’ll still clean off my email list and remove subscribers who aren't reading my emails. Which will save me at least $100 by dropping to a lower subscriber threshold.
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​❌ CHEAP coffee +$100 ​
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I have a tendency to order a fancy latte instead of just a plain cup of coffee when I'm working at local coffee shops.
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It's delicious. I enjoy it, but I don't think it's that big of a difference on my happiness or productivity.
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​❌ Calendly +$100 ​
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​Love Calendly, but I think Tidycal can do all the same things for me and it's way cheaper.
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​❌ Zoom +$160​
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Not actually sure this one is possible but I'm going to try!
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​❌ Dubsado +$200
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​I love Dubsado (<-affiliate link), but I don't take on many new projects in my biz. I mostly work with existing clients so I don't need a robust CRM.
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​In total that's a $1,940 raise I could give myself this year by cutting out these expenses.
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​Not too shabby if you ask me.
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What about you?
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Have you looked at your business expenses lately? What’s one thing you’re cutting this year?
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Hit reply and tell me.
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Here’s to leaner budgets and bigger dreams.

❤️ Mara ​
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PS - Also if you don't pay for Zoom could you hit reply and tell me.
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Do you use something else instead? Just deal with the meeting time limit?