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What I earned and learned in Q1 as a first-time solopreneur

Part 1 of 2: Sharing real numbers and the highlights from Q1

Author

Maggie Blackburn
March 31, 2025

It’s been 5 months since I traded in a steady paycheck to go all in working for myself. Since then, I’ve worked with a few amazing clients, started to see the signs of burnout, and realized there are advantages to a steady paycheck.

In Part 1, I’m sharing my revenue breakdown not for comparison or judgement but to give you insight into my real journey as a solopreneur who’s still figuring many things out.

❄️ January: $358.75

In January, I helped onsite at my first Recess Retreat in San Diego ☀️, hosted a goal-setting workshop at my apartment where 3 new people I had never met showed up, and started to post consistently 1x per week on LinkedIn. Most of the revenue I received in January was from work I did in December.

💘 February: $7,159.04

In February, I booked my first three clients! All were very different.

The first was Camp Chateau, a summer camp for women in the heart of Southern France, that needed help identifying if there was an opportunity to open up retreats outside of camp season. The next was a coaching client, who I met through Women in Innovation, who needed help figuring out the next step in her career. The third was Cocoon, a modern leave management platform, where I’m helping them as a Fractional Product Marketer.

I started to increase my posting on LinkedIn a little more on weeks where I had time and even saw one of the posts reach 48K impressions. Cool!

🍀 March: $3,081.70

Most of the revenue from March came from the client I had a retainer (certain # of hours for certain amount of $).

After a few follow-ups with Trademark, an event production and experiential marketing agency I was talking to in December, I started event freelancing with them and will be doing so until at least June. I also have a few new potential retreat/events clients of my own that I’ll be talking to going into April and hopefully helping out with another Recess retreat.

I hosted two community events—one virtual, Making the Leap from Consulting to Creative Entrepreneurship (recording is here), and one IRL in Williamsburg.

🤑 What I earned in Q1: $10,599.49

Breaking it down, most of my revenue in Q1 came from Consulting and Freelancing opportunities. The blue sliver is community events I hosted.

From a long-term standpoint, I don’t want to trade time for money forever and would love to grow the community, coaching, and content arm but for now, it’s helping me learn new skills and maintain a predictable stream of revenue.

Final thoughts

These first three months have been freeing but also unpredictable. Sometimes I get distracted on making a certain amount of money but when I zoom out, I know that’s not my end goal.

Obviously I need a certain amount of money each month to live my life, which I know will take a little time to get there! More importantly though, I want to reach my maximum potential and live a joyful, authentic life—that isn’t measured by obtaining the highest salary. I have a number in mind but beyond that, everything else is icing on the cake. 🍰 

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I’ll share my most valuable lessons I learned as a first-time solopreneur these past few months.

💬 Your turn

What did your Q1 look like this year? Reply back to this email or lmk in the comments ❤️ 

✨ Weekly Feels ✨

Feeling Wealthy: I hosted a cute little “Wine & Wealth” night at this cute little wine bar in Williamsburg. Loved creating an intimate space for folks to share what they’re working on, and I’m excited for more events that bring growth-oriented women together.

Wine & Wealth night at Plus de Vin in Williamsburg

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