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Honest counterpoint — some things genuinely don't work and eight months of hope is a real cost. What would need to be true in six months for you to call it? If you can't answer that, that's the thing to work on first, not the marketing.

Check one practical thing: what are you actually paying in fees and platform charges? On small balances a flat monthly platform fee can be a meaningful percentage. A £5/month charge on £6,000 is 1% a year, which really would eat your return. Percentage-based fee platforms are usually better until balances get large.

That's fine. Nothing to fix there.

Two rounds of copy rewrites is the part that jumps out. Copy should almost never be your problem on a £600 site. Next time write 'client supplies final text before build begins' and mean it, because waiting on copy is where these projects rot.

The common rule is bands: rebalance when any allocation drifts more than 5 percentage points absolute from target, or 25% relative, whichever you prefer. At 78 vs 70 you're at 8 points, so by the band rule you're overdue.

But given it's taxable, do it without selling first. Direct all new contributions and any dividends into bonds until you're back at 70/30. If you're adding meaningful amounts monthly this closes an 8 point gap surprisingly fast and costs you nothing in tax.

If you have any tax-sheltered accounts, do the selling side in there instead. Same portfolio, no tax event.

Then that's your answer. Sell bonds-to-stocks or stocks-to-bonds inside the sheltered account and let the taxable account drift within reason. Look at the two together as one portfolio, which is how it actually behaves.

Ten hours a week of evening work on top of a day job and family is more than it sounds. Whichever you pick, plan for eight and treat the other two as slack, or the first bad week will put you behind and you'll never catch up.

The 'fixed claim on income' framing is what I was missing. Makes the certainty side feel less like a soft factor.

Checked and it's APR on a reducing balance, so 4.1% is the real number. Good thing to flag though.

Don't sell, just stop buying. Redirect all new money into the cheaper fund and let the other one sit. You keep the tax deferred, the fee difference on existing holdings is usually small in absolute terms, and over a few years the cheaper fund becomes the majority of the position anyway.

Run the actual numbers before deciding, though. If the fee gap is 0.03% versus 0.05% on a £40k holding, that's £8 a year and absolutely not worth realising a gain over. If it's 0.05% versus 0.55%, that's a different conversation entirely.

Yes. £39 a year against a tax bill today is an easy no. Revisit if you ever have a year with low income or capital losses to offset.

Nine clients from one referrer is actually a strong signal, not a weak one. It means your work is good enough that someone stakes their reputation on it repeatedly. Worth asking each of those nine for one introduction — you have social credit with them you're not spending.

The gross vs profit distinction is what I've been getting wrong in my head. I've been thinking of the payout as the number that matters.

Quick way to confirm: check the fund's name or ISIN. Accumulating classes usually have Acc, C, or similar in the name; distributing ones have Inc or Dist. Same underlying fund, two wrappers.