My actual document automation revenue - every ugly detail from $0 to $14k/month
Sharing real numbers because the fake guru stuff helps nobody. š **MONTH 1-3: The Delusion Phase** - Revenue: $0 - Expenses: $400 (tools, courses, domains) - Clients: 0 - Projects: 12 "portfolio builds" nobody saw - Confidence: "I'm gonna be rich" - Reality: Eating ramen š **MONTH 4-6: First Blood** - Revenue: $1,800/month average - Clients: 3 small businesses - Pricing: $500-800/month (way too low) - Mistakes: Promised too much, delivered chaos - Lost: First client in month 5 (overengineered their solution) - Lesson: Simple beats complex š **MONTH 7-9: Finding The Groove** - Revenue: $5,400/month average - Clients: 5 (lost 1, gained 3) - Pricing: Raised to $1,200 average - Breakthrough: Focused only on invoices/contracts - Stopped: Building custom solutions - Started: Reusing templates š° **MONTH 10-12 (Current): Actual Business** - Revenue: $14,000/month - Clients: 8 active - Pricing: $800-3,500/month - Sweet spot: Law firms and accounting ($2,500 average) - Retention: 100% past 3 months - Referrals: 3 new clients from existing ones THE REAL COSTS: - PDF Vector Pro: $79/month (handles everything) - n8n hosting: $20/month (DigitalOcean) - Make/Zapier: $58/month (for clients who insist) - Random tools: $43/month - Total: $200/month Time investment: - Week 1-20: 60 hours/week (unsustainable) - Week 21-40: 40 hours/week (still too much) - Now: 20 hours/week (finally balanced) Net profit: ~$13,800/month THE HARD TRUTHS: - First 6 months sucked. Made $67/hour at McDonald's in college. Made $0/hour for 6 months here. - Almost quit in month 5 when client said my work was "unusable" - Wife questioned my sanity daily - Imposter syndrome hit different at 3 AM debugging webhooks WHAT ACTUALLY WORKED: - Picking one thing (document processing) - Building boring solutions that work - Charging for value, not time - Saying no to complex requests - Using reliable tools (stop trying to save $50/month) Currently building toward $18k/month. Not there yet, but the path is clear now.