Does your current career match that vision?

Today, we’ll look at a reader’s question about pitching “vision clients” and discuss why your freelancing vision might change over time.

First, my numbers for October:

Completed pieces: 61

Work billed: $11,734.33

Income received: $11,774.81

In October, I earned over $10,000 in freelance income — a new milestone — and I should earn over $10,000 in November as well.

These earnings are due in part to a large project that’s scheduled to complete by the end of the year, so I don’t anticipate $10K monthly earnings being “the new normal.” However, it’s a nice temporary normal.

What am I doing with these high earnings? I’ve paid off my last outstanding debts, I’m putting aside a little extra for taxes and I’m saving as much as I can for the future. Freelancing is unpredictable, so I want to be prepared for income downturns, as well as upswings. It’s what the financial advisors would recommend, right?

Advice on pitching higher-paying clients

On the subject of advice: A reader recently asked if I’d give some advice on pitching higher-paying clients as well as pitching what she called “vision clients:” the clients or publications that represent where you want your career to go in the future.

I have a lot of advice on pitching, so I’ll start with two links. If you’re looking for advice on how to write a pitch, please check out my Write Life “Pitch Fix” series, where I workshop real pitches from writers and make those pitches stronger.

If you’re looking for a specific and actionable guide on getting better clients and earning more money, I wrote an ebook for The Write Life called “Get Better Clients and Earn More Money.”

(Seriously. It’s worth reading.)  

But let’s look closely at this reader’s questions: how do you pitch higher-paying clients, and how do you go after those clients that represent the next stage of your career?

The short answer is that you pitch higher-paying clients the same way you’re pitching your current clients. You craft smart, tailored pitches that focus on how your skills and ideas can benefit that client’s audience. You also highlight your previous work to prove that you can deliver a quality product.

I often reference Shane Snow’s video “Hacking the Freelance Ladder” for a great analysis of how a writer can use the clips and connections they build with their current clients to move “up the ladder” to better-paying clients. (Watch the video. It’s so good.)

From my experience, the first steps on the ladder are close together, and don’t always represent a significant increase in pay; I remember feeling like it was a huge deal to go from 3 cents a word to 5 cents a word, for example. As you continue to build your freelance career, the steps on the ladder might feel more like jumps; instead of getting $100 more per piece, you might get offered $500 or $1,000 more per piece.

As I moved up in my freelance career, I spent less time pitching potential clients and more time working with clients who had contacted me. When you’re pitching a client, they have most of the leverage; although you can negotiate, you often have to take or leave what they’re offering. When a client reaches out to you, you’re the one with the leverage and they’re the ones who have to take or leave your rates.

Finding your “vision clients”

Which brings me to those “vision clients.”

Here’s one of the hardest truths about freelancing: you might have a vision of where you want your career to go, but there’s going to be a lot that you can’t predict. I would never have guessed that my primary freelance beat would end up being personal finance, or that I would become an editor, as well as a writer. I didn’t plan to earn much of my income through content marketing, either; when I started freelancing, I didn’t even know what that term meant.

If you had asked me who my “vision clients” were four years ago, I probably would have named a few highbrow publications that focused on intellectual and cultural commentary. As it turns out, my greatest freelance success has come from the areas where my skills match a client’s vision; in my case, my willingness to be open about my finances and my earnings, or my ability to quickly research and analyze a subject in a way that is interesting to a client’s target audience.

So here’s my advice: if there’s a client or publication that represents where you want  your career to go, absolutely pitch them. But pay attention to the clients and publications that are interested in you, even if they might be taking you in a slightly different direction. Sometimes your career might not match your vision — and that’s a good thing.

Four years ago, I couldn’t have imagined the career I have now. I didn’t know the freelancing industry well enough to know which opportunities were available to writers, or which opportunities might be the best match for my skills. But I kept climbing the ladder, paying attention to which clients were most interested in my work, and my vision changed as my career grew.

Expect your vision to change as well. That’s the best advice I can give.

What was your first “freelancing vision?” How close or far away are you from that original idea?

This month, I ask freelancer — and freelancing expert — Gina Horkey how to set smart goals for 2017, as well as how to take those first steps towards achieving them.

First, the numbers for September:

Completed pieces: 65

Work billed: $9,751.83

Income received: $9,628.65

This is the highest income I’ve ever billed or received as a freelancer. I’m still putting in roughly the same hours, writing (and revising) a relatively steady 40,000-50,000 words every month, but I’m earning twice as much as I was when I started tracking my income on The Write Life two years ago.

How did this income boost happen?

Part of it was luck — one of my clients was able to offer me a large, high-paying project — and part of it came from consistent work, strong client relationships and steadily increasing rates.

In my very first income report, I set myself the goal of earning $5,000 per month. Now that I’ve more than achieved that milestone, it’s time to think about my next big goals — and seek advice from an expert who knows a thing or two about setting goals.

Talking to Gina Horkey about developing smart goals

Last month, I wrote about planning for 2017, including preparing my finances for a potential drop in income and transferring my freelance tracking system to a software program like FreshBooks, Harvest or QuickBooks (which my CPA recommends). Since I’m in the middle of a large project right now, I haven’t had time to test out any of these new programs yet. I don’t expect to get to spend time with them until December.

However, thinking about what I want to do in 2017 is the first step in figuring out how to get there, and “test small business software” is on my to-do list.

One of my 2016 goals, as you might remember, was to turn this column into a collaboration — so I reached out to Gina Horkey, a freelance writer and webpreneur who has developed many courses and resources for freelancers, including the Write Life-recommended 30 Days to Freelance Writing Success.

I wanted to talk to Horkey about how she develops business goals, and what advice she has for freelancers who are planning for 2017.

“I’m of similar belief that you should get started before the actual year starts, ,” Horkey told me. “Even though I’m not ignoring the rest of 2016, we need to get started on 2017.”

Like me, Horkey often focuses her goals on metrics.

“I’m a fan of minimum and stretch goals,” she said. ” Horkey looks at the money she’s earned in the previous year, calculates where she thinks her business might go in the next year and asks herself, “Do I want to do the bare minimum and work less, or do I want to grow?”

A successful business, as Horkey told me, isn’t always about the money. Having financial security is important, but so is having a solid work-life balance.

Freelancers who are thinking about how they want to grow their business in 2017 should ask themselves what financial goal they hope to achieve: “Is it to leave work behind and replace their salary, or is it just to add some extra income to the household so things aren’t as tight or maybe [to] pay off debt?”

You can ask that question at every stage of your freelancing career, whether you’re just getting started or whether you’re in your fourth year as a full-time freelancer (like me!).

Understanding what you hope to achieve as a freelancer can help you set goals that will help you get there.

Measurable milestones and simple steps

For me, a minimum goal for 2017 might be to continue earning $5,000 per month, since that’s an income level I’ve proven I can consistently achieve — and an income that comfortably covers my expenses.

A stretch goal for 2017 would be to earn $100,000 for the year, or a little over $8,300 every month. Since I’ve increased my income by about $20,000 every year for the past two years, this goal feels reasonable — but it will also take work, good client relationships and a little bit of luck to get there.

“I try to follow the SMART goal philosophy,” Horkey explained. “Specific, Measureable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-Sensitive.” She asks herself what end result she wants to achieve, and starts breaking that result down into measurable milestones and simple steps.

“Every goal has multiple steps. I’m a fan of breaking things down into their simplest form: what’s that first, smallest action I can take right now to get me closer to that bigger goal?”

For me, the first, smallest action I can take to get me to next year’s income goal is to renegotiate my current rates. I can’t control whether or not an individual client will be able to do a rate increase for 2017, but I do know that having this conversation with all of my clients is likely to increase my overall income — without increasing my workload. Renegotiating my rates will also help buffer against the potential drop in income after my large project ends.

Horkey also stressed the importance of flexibility: “If I’m trying something and it’s not working, I need to shift my plan. I don’t usually get too disheartened, I just try something different in order to make progress.”

I don’t know yet what will happen in 2017, but I know that if I want to both increase my income and streamline my small business tracking and accounting, I need to start with small steps and be ready to make changes if the steps I take don’t actually lead me to my goal.

In both cases, I can get started on my 2017 goals in 2016 by testing software programs and setting up rate negotiation conversations. Once I’ve completed those tasks, I’ll be ready to take the next small steps — and be one step closer to achieving my goals.

Are you ready to set some smart freelancing goals? Share your goals and the next steps you can take to achieve them!

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We’re getting ready for the fourth quarter of 2016, which means it’s time to think about where my freelance career might be in 2017 — and the work I need to do now to prepare myself for the year to come.

Here are my numbers for August:

Completed pieces: 67

Work billed: $8,449.91

Income received: $8,553.89

I wrote a little over 44,000 words this month, although that number is starting to make less sense to me as a metric because half of my workload is now longform writing that involves multiple drafts and revisions – and I only track the words I turn in on the first draft, not the words I add/delete/revise.

So that’s a metric I’m going to want to rethink for 2017. Is it worth it to keep a running count of the number of words I write every month? If so, do I need to start tracking the number of words I add or change during revisions?

I like keeping a word count because it’s a useful metric for clients. Saying that you write 44K words a month establishes that you’re producing content at a certain level, and it also implies that you can turn around a lot of assignments quickly. I also like being able to say I write the equivalent of a short novel every month.  

But if my workload is changing, the way I track word count needs to change as well.

Upgrading my bookkeeping

My word-count system isn’t the only thing that needs to change for 2017. Ever since I’ve started freelancing, I’ve kept my books via a series of handcrafted spreadsheets — and I’m at the point where I want to invest in a better tool.

Right now, I spend a lot of time setting up spreadsheets, making sure my formulas are correct, typing in numbers, tracking paid and unpaid invoices, and comparing all of this against the money that goes into my bank account — not to mention the hours I spend trying to figure out why I’ve made an error! I’d like to outsource this to an online system, in the hopes that it will streamline not only my day-to-day income management but also my quarterly and yearly taxes.

I know that The Write Life recommends both FreshBooks and Harvest, so it might be time to start exploring small business software and see what tool I want to use in 2017.

Planning for 2017’s workload

When I started freelancing, I thought it was a huge deal to have assignments booked two weeks in advance. As you might remember from last month’s earnings report, I currently have assignments booked through the end of 2016.

This means I need to start thinking now about what might happen in January 2017, when those assignments end.

I’m guessing that my current clients will continue to offer me new assignments, and that we’ll probably start discussing those assignments at the end of the year — which will be an ideal time for me to open a conversation about renegotiating rates. (I try to have this conversation annually, usually in early December.)

If something happens and I don’t have enough work to fill my time, I have a list of clients I’ve written for who have expressed interest in working with me on future projects. I’ll reach out to them to see if they’re still interested.

I’ve also been saving money to make sure I have an income buffer in case I see a drop in my workload. I just met my three-month emergency-fund goal, so I have enough money to go three months without earning any income — although I hope that won’t be the case.

The big question is whether I want to change anything about my workload for 2017. I’m happy with my current clients and the assignments I’m completing; the work is interesting, I get to work with great people, and I’m getting it all done in 40-hour weeks.

I’d like to keep this balance for as long as I can, which means I’m not thinking about changing my workload as much as I’m thinking about how to sustain it — and in my mind, that means doing the best work I can and maintaining those good client relationships. That’ll set me up for the rest of the year and give me a good foundation for whatever comes next.

Three questions for this month: Have you started thinking about 2017? How do you track word count on assignments, especially when several rounds of revisions are involved? Also: what’s your favorite bookkeeping software?

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When most of your income comes from one or two clients, however, you need to be prepared for what might happen if you no longer have those income sources.

First, my numbers for July:

Completed pieces: 55

Work billed: $6,424.13

Income received: $8,530.55

I wrote 36,300 words this July, which is not only fewer words than usual but also significantly fewer words than the 53,600 I wrote in July 2015. I also earned more money: $6,424 compared to July 2015’s $5,034. My career — and my earnings — continue to move forward.

Booked through the end of the year

On the subject of moving forward: right now, I have freelance work fully booked through the end of 2016. There will still be opportunities for me to take on the occasional small project if one comes up, but for all intents and purposes, my calendar is full.

How did I get to this point? By building long-term relationships with clients who, in turn, offer me recurring work or long-term projects.

When I started out as a freelancer, I booked my writing work one day at a time.

As I continued pitching and building client relationships, I began to book work two weeks ahead. It took until my third year of freelancing before I was able to book work one month ahead — that is, to have a full month of work booked before that month began.

In 2016, I started being able to book work two months ahead, and now I’m looking at five months of fully-booked work.

The drawback, of course, is that this limits my ability to take on new projects or develop new client relationships. I have enough room in my schedule for maybe one additional piece per month, if the piece is something I really want to work on.

However, if someone asked me to take on a dream project — let’s say an editor asked me if I could fly to London and spend a week with the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — I’d have to say no. Or “could we do that in 2017?”

Thinking of freelancing like a job

Last month, I wrote that the majority of my income came from two big clients. I’m being very careful to ensure that I keep writing for a handful of additional clients, first to make sure my byline is being seen in multiple publications (and by multiple groups of readers), and also to ensure that I’ll have at least some income if something happens to one of my two big clients.

Freelancers often say that one of the benefits of freelancing is being able to diversify your income sources. If you lose a client — and I have lost more than one client, over the course of my freelancing career — you still have other clients and other work.

This equation changes slightly when the bulk of your income comes from one or two sources. I’ve always thought of freelancing as a job, but now I’m thinking of it in the so-called “traditional job” sense:

I need to be prepared for the possibility that I might “lose my job,” or lose one of my primary clients, and I need to be able to spend at least two months living off my savings while I look for a new large client (or, potentially, a group of smaller clients).

In the past, ending a client relationship meant, at most, losing 25 percent of my freelancing income. Now that the majority of my income comes from two clients, I’m beginning to think about what might happen if I lose 50 percent or more of my income.

I’m very close to having a three-month emergency fund, but I want to continue adding to my savings account as my own form of “unemployment insurance.” That, and continue to stay active in the freelancing community and build as many relationships as possible — even though I won’t be able to take on a new big writing project until 2017.

How do you diversify your income sources? Do you have one client that provides the majority of your income? Do you have a plan for what you’ll do if that client relationship ends?

Do you always have to drop a client when you start working for a new one?

This month, I explain why keeping a few of my favorite clients helps my career.

Here are my numbers for June:

Completed pieces: 58

Work billed: $5,586.47

Income received: $4,119.11

Here’s a fun fact: I wrote just about 40,000 words in June — the same number of words that I wrote in June of last year. I wrote 58 pieces this June, and 54 pieces last June. I also billed $5,805 in June 2015, which is slightly more money than I billed in June 2016.

The difference is that in June 2015, my year-to-date billings totaled $30,515. This year, they’re $34,288. My earnings continue to grow, year over year.

The other difference is that in June 2015, I wrote for eleven different clients. In June 2016, I wrote for seven clients. Adding higher-paying clients to your portfolio means needing fewer clients to hit your monthly income goal.

I could probably reduce my client load even further, but I don’t want to. Let’s look at why.

Keeping my byline in the conversation

At this point, the majority of my income — and the majority of my workload — comes from two clients. My other clients take up less than 25 percent of my writing time. They also bring in less than 25 percent of my income.

Why do I keep writing for these additional clients? First, because I’ve been working for each of them for years now and I have a good relationship with their editors. Second, because I can complete their assignments quickly and easily; these no-stress gigs are fun to write.

Most importantly, however, I keep writing for these clients because they keep my byline in the conversation.

Having bylines in two publications is great. Having bylines in six or seven publications is better.

My readers don’t know how long it took me to write a piece or how much I got paid to write it. All they know is that they read something worth commenting on or sharing on social media.

The more writing I do for high-quality publications with strong readerships, the more my work is shared and discussed — and more people have the chance to see my byline and become familiar with my writing.

I also like writing for multiple publications because it gives me more opportunities for referrals.

The more editors I work with, the more people I have to recommend me or connect me to gigs — and because I have a larger chance of another editor reading something of mine, liking it and offering me a job.

I know that my two biggest clients won’t last forever. When it’s time for me to start looking for a new client, I’ll have a larger pool of resources to draw from.

I’ll also continue earning income even if one of my big clients goes away.

A year of routine

In last June’s Tracking Freelance Earnings, I wrote about wanting to change my writing routine to make more time for exercise and breaks — and to make sure I got up and got out of my pajamas right away, instead of working in my PJs until noon.

I’m happy to inform you that this new routine stuck. I’m still working off the same basic schedule and work plan that I built for myself last year, and giving myself time to wake up, have breakfast, do my yoga practice and get dressed before I start my workday.

I’m also giving myself a lunch break, which has evolved into a lunch-and-half-hour-walk break. It’s great to spend that half hour outdoors, away from my computer.

Sure, there’s the occasional day that I wake up to an email that has to be answered right away, or a revision request that a client wants ASAP, but I’d say I get to keep this routine at least 90 percent of the time.

I’m still doing pretty well with keeping regular hours, too; I rarely write in the evenings anymore, although I still end up doing a little bit of work over the weekend.

I’d love to see where I am a year from now. Ideally, I’d like to be pretty much where I am today: writing for clients I really like, earning more money than I did the year before and sticking to a routine that keeps me healthy and productive.

What about you?

How does your freelance career compare to where it was last year? Where would you like to see it grow next year?

First, my numbers for May:

Completed pieces: 64

Work billed: $7,074.31

Earnings received: $9,463.57

Between January 1 and May 31, I’ve billed $28,701.68 worth of work and received $27,674.24 in freelance checks. That’s well over my $5,000/month income goal — I’m averaging about $5,700 a month in billings — and I have enough work already booked that I can predict I’ll continue to hit and/or exceed my income target.

Nothing is guaranteed in freelancing — my client relationships could change at any time, just like they’ve changed in the past — but I’m very happy with my 2016 earnings, both current and projected.

I also set a goal to keep my workload manageable. I haven’t been as successful with this goal as I have with the income goal; you might remember me writing about working long hours in April. However, May was a much better month for keeping reasonable hours, taking lunch breaks, and ending work by 6:30 p.m. — and it looks like June will be the same.

Lastly, I set a goal to make this column a collaboration. With that in mind, I’d like to introduce another freelancer and her set of 2016 goals, as well as her progress towards achieving them.

Q&A with Jessie Kwak

Jessie Kwak is a freelance writer and author who writes everything from B2B marketing copy to short stories and novellas.

I interviewed Kwak in February to learn more about her 2016 freelance goals. I haven’t had the chance to share this interview with you yet, so read it below and then keep reading to learn about Kwak’s progress.

ND: What is your current freelance life like?

JK: Right now I work for about five-six clients, with some recurring blogging deadlines every week, and some [clients] giving me projects just as they come up. I’m definitely getting better at understanding my workload and scheduling out my deadlines so that I don’t get as overwhelmed — but of course it still happens sometimes that several clients need something all at once.  

Along with my freelance client work, I also write fiction. I try to get at least an hour or two on the schedule every day for fiction writing and marketing, but paying client work always takes priority for me. Most of my day is spent in my home office writing and researching, though I do sometimes have phone interviews and meetings scheduled in there, too.

And some days, when I get everything done early, I like to cut out in the afternoon and hit the climbing gym or go mountain biking. It’s nice being your own boss!

What would you like to improve about your freelancing career?

Right now I’m working on becoming more efficient in my writing. I’m getting good rates from my clients, but if I squander my time dithering on research or puttering around when I should be writing, my hourly rate totally tanks! I’m pretty happy with my clients and workload, though I’d like to narrow down on my niche even further.

What steps are you taking to help you get there? Have you had success so far?

This is my third year of freelancing, and it seems like each year has had a theme. Year 1 was, “Say yes any time someone offers you money for words.” Year 2 was, “Come up with standards in terms of types of clients and pay rates, and only say yes to those people.” Year 3 has been all about narrowing that focus even farther, and being really ruthless about saying no to clients that don’t fit into my niche.

For me, [that niche is] B2B software companies who want to hire me for ongoing content marketing work (blogging, case studies, white papers, special reports, etc.) I’ve had to let go of some clients I enjoyed, but it’s been worth it in terms of sanity.

I’m also starting to say “no” to one-off projects, because the amount of time spent onboarding and getting to know a new client just isn’t worth it if all I’m going to do is a single article or brochure and never hear from them again.

Do you have an income goal for 2016?

In 2015 my freelancing income surpassed that of the desk job I left to start freelancing, even after accounting for the higher rate at which that income is taxed. It felt amazing to realize that! In 2016, I’m less interested in growing my income, and more interested in growing my free time so I can spend that time writing fiction.

That said, I’d love to boost my income to $70,000 this year, but I view writing fiction as an investment in future earnings, so I’m OK with some stagnancy so long as I can become more efficient with my time and carve out those hours for fiction.

What steps are you taking to hit your income goal? Have you had success so far?

The mechanics of boosting income and free time are the same: take on better-paying projects from better clients, and learn to work faster. The biggest thing I’m doing this year to boost my income/free time is to narrow down on the type of clients I work with. Since I’ve started specializing in working with B2B software companies, it’s been easier for me to charge higher rates. And since I’ve got a full client list already, it’s been really easy to quote higher rates to potential clients.

That’s a catch-22 of freelancing. The more booked up you are, the more confidence you have to ask for the rate you want. When I was first starting out, I’d say yes to a $50 article that required two interviews because I needed to pay rent. Now there’s no way I’d take a project like that!

The last time a potential new client contacted me, I quoted them almost twice what I currently charge my lowest-paying client, and they said yes. I was blown away — both at my audacity and by their agreement. I never would have had the guts to quote so high if I was desperately relying on winning them as a client.

What is the hardest part of freelancing for you?

Despite all my big talk about rates above, negotiating and talking about money is the hardest part for me. I’m pretty shy, and building up the confidence to believe that I’m worth what I’m charging has been tough. I just keep going back at it, and the more I do it, the better I get.

That’s one of the great things about freelancing — you can learn a lot through trial and error. If you do your best but still screw up, it’s not that big of a deal. I’ve had awkward client breakups, but I went on to work with clients who really loved me. I’ve definitely quoted too low, but then I went on to quote higher to the next client. You can constantly experiment and get better at your craft and more confident as a negotiator each time.

What do you feel like you do really well as a freelancer?

I’m great at research and getting to know a new product or industry, which is a huge selling point. Most of my clients are in really esoteric fields, and they honestly aren’t expecting to find someone who’s an expert and also a good writer — they just want a good writer who’s knowledgeable about B2B sales and willing to research the hell out of their industry.

I’m also really organized and really reliable. If I say I’ll have something to you on Monday, I’ll have it. This sadly seems to surprise some of my clients, which makes me think that if you want to make it as a freelancer, the ability to nail deadlines is almost better than being a good writer. Apparently a lot of people are flaky out there.

Basically, I try to make myself as easy to work with as possible. After the first few assignments are turned in, my clients generally start to trust that I’ll work reliably with minimal hand-holding, and that’s a huge relief to them. They want to hire freelancers who make their jobs easier, not who require tons of micromanagement and editing!

What advice do you have for other freelancers?

First up, you need to treat your business as a business. Expect to hustle, and work evenings and weekends sometimes. Expect to invest time and money in equipment and marketing and a kick-ass website. Expect to have lean months and abundant months, and budget accordingly. Expect to keep track of your finances. Expect to deliver exceptional customer service. You wouldn’t open a coffee shop without these expectations — why start a writing business without them?

Next, don’t sit around waiting for the right opportunity to come along — just get started, and experiment as you go. I’ve had friends tell me they don’t have the experience to get hired as a freelancer, they’ve only written a bunch of press releases (or something like that). It blows my mind — that’s experience, and they’re completely discounting it! You don’t need a degree, or someone to tell you it’s OK to start freelancing. If you really want to start freelancing, you’ll do it. But it’s also OK to realize that you although you like the idea of it, you don’t really want to be a freelancer. It’s not for everyone.

Lastly, when you’re getting started, cast your net wide — but always be looking toward niching down into an industry or a type of writing. You might be surprised at what you like to do! If you’d told me two years ago that I’d specialize in content marketing for B2B software-as-a-service companies, I’d have said, “What the hell does that mean?” But by trial and experimentation, I’ve found a niche I like, I’m good at, and pays well.

May 2016 update from Jessie Kwak

Last month, I got in touch with Kwak and asked if she had any updates to share on her freelancing goals.

ND: I’m curious if you wanted to share a quick update on how your goals were going. I really liked your interview and I’d love to share how your year has gone so far.

JK: It was really fascinating to read through that interview and check in with my goals. Here’s an update:

One of my big goals at the beginning of the year was to narrow down my niche and start taking on bigger projects. I was doing a lot of blogging, and the constant deadlines were starting to wear me out! As of April, I dropped all my pure blogging clients, and have been starting to land some bigger projects, like white papers and an ebook. Right now, the bulk of my work is for three clients: copywriting for a big local website agency, writing regular reported articles for a B2B software company, and doing a variety of work for an editorial consultant who works with education technology companies. I still take on random projects for other people from time to time, but I’m not planning on picking up any more regular blogging contracts.

One thing this has done is created space in my schedule for writing fiction. I’m able to take at least one day off a week to work on fiction, which is letting me get so much done! Just this month I published a novella, Starfall, and turned in a draft of a novel set in the same world, which is coming out with a small press next year. I’ve worked hard over the last few years to level up my freelance career in order to balance it with fiction, and I’m excited to be closer to that goal.

How has your freelancing year been so far? If you set freelancing goals at the beginning of the year, have you met those goals? Did anything unexpected happen? I want to hear your updates!

Also: I’m looking for volunteers for my Pitch Fix column. If you have a pitch that’s striking out, email me at dieker.nicole@gmail.com.

First, let’s check in with my freelancing stats. Here are the numbers for April:

Completed pieces: 60

Work billed (including prorated work): $5,516.81

Earnings received: $3,688.86

As my career has evolved to include more projects that take longer than a month to complete, the way I approach saving and budgeting has to change as well.

I created my $5,000/month income goal at the beginning of 2015 both because it was an achievable stretch goal for me at the time, and because it was an amount of money that covered all of my major financial needs: Living expenses, business expenses, savings, and debt repayment — with a little “Fun Money” left over.

In April, I had to take money out of my savings account because my freelance checks didn’t cover all these financial needs. In May, I’m expecting to receive a large number of freelance checks — around $10,000, I hope — but I can’t treat those checks like spending money.

First, I’ll continue my habit of putting a percentage of each freelance check towards taxes, savings and debt repayment. (I’m putting 22 percent towards taxes, 10 percent towards savings and 20 percent towards debt.)

Then I’ll pay back the $1,500 I took out of my savings account in April.

Then I’ll pay my living and business expenses.

I should have a chunk of money left over, and although I’ll spend a little of that on fun, I’m going to save the rest for the next month I don’t get a lot of freelance checks.

I’m used to earning about the same amount every month, give or take a few hundred bucks. Now, I’m going to need to get used to big check months and smaller check months — and budget accordingly.

Setting aside more money for freelance taxes

April is tax month, and although I did pretty well with my estimated taxes this year, my CPA and I still discovered I had slightly underpaid my 2015 taxes — which meant writing a check instead of getting a refund.

What happened? Well, after talking with my CPA in 2014 about my probable tax burden, I set aside 20 percent of everything I earned in 2015 and made my four quarterly estimated tax payments. It turns out 20 percent wasn’t enough; my actual 2015 tax burden came out to 22 percent of my 2015 earnings.

This means I’m now taking 22 percent out of every incoming paycheck and putting it into a special savings account I’ll use for estimated tax payments.

As a reminder: I live in Washington State where there is no state income tax, so my tax burden is likely to be different from yours. If you want to estimate how much you need to set aside for taxes, my best advice is to talk to a CPA who has experience working with freelance writers.

Also, let your CPA know if your income changes significantly during the year. Some CPAs will give you estimated tax vouchers (that is, they’ll give you pieces of paper that tell you how much to pay on each of the four quarterly estimated tax dates) based on how much you earned in the previous tax year.

But if you get a boost or a drop in income, those vouchers may no longer accurately represent your tax burden.

I’m not a tax adviser, but I can advise you to find a CPA. You don’t have to wait until next April, either; if you haven’t yet had a conversation with a CPA about what you expect to earn as a freelancer and what you should be prepared to set aside for taxes, make that appointment.

It’ll be a smart business move — and CPA fees are tax-deductible!

Checking in with my freelance workload

In last month’s Tracking Freelance Earnings, I wrote about phasing out some of my old freelance metrics, such as per-piece earnings, and focusing on two metrics of success:

• Did I meet my $5,000 monthly earnings goal?

• Was my workload manageable?

I’ve already written about my earnings, so let’s take a look at my workload.

In March, I did pretty well in terms of manageable workload. In April, however, my workload felt unmanageable — which is to say I worked a lot of evenings and weekends, and in many cases squeezed work into every possible minute.

I traveled to Alaska in April for Alaska Robotics’ Mini-Con and Artist Camp (and led a panel on making art and making money), and I had so much work I was literally writing articles in the 20 minutes between clearing airport security and needing to board the plane.

Once I was on the plane, I opened my laptop and kept writing during the 15 minutes between finding my seat and the “please put away your electronic devices” announcement, and re-opened my laptop as soon as we were in the air and it was safe to continue working.

I think April’s workload would have felt slightly more manageable if I hadn’t also had the trip to Alaska, but I also assumed that I could complete a standard “month of work” even though I was going to spend several workdays on a plane or at an event.

The truth is, even though I can almost get a regular freelance workday out of a travel day (by writing in the 20 minutes between security and the gate, and so on), it’s twice as exhausting.

I need to accept that if I’m going to be traveling, even for work-related reasons, I can’t also treat that time as “writing time.”

Yes, I’m probably going to still look at a three-hour flight as a chance to get a little writing done. But I can’t be the person trying to get out as many words as possible before the flight attendants tell everyone to close their laptops.

If I’m going to balance writing and travel, I need to find a better balance — and that’s something I’ll need to start thinking about a few months in advance, so I can continue to hit my income goals, meet my clients’ needs and take the trips that help me grow my career.

How do you balance writing and travel? Also, do you have a CPA? Let’s talk travel and taxes in the comments.

First, the numbers for March:

Completed pieces: 74

Work billed: $5,763.08

Earnings received: $6,307.33

I wrote a little over 52,000 words in March, with an average per-piece earning of $77. However, I don’t think “average per-piece earning” is a good metric for tracking my work anymore.

At this point, my earnings are divided into three categories:

1. Work performed as a writer and editor at The Billfold, which takes about 40 percent of my freelancing time and includes both longer essays and articles as well as a number of short pieces. In March, 65 of my 74 completed pieces were for The Billfold.
2. Longform research and writing projects that take about 40 percent of my freelancing time. My article The Best Online Personal Loans at The Simple Dollar, for example, took more than 30 hours of research plus writing and revisions.
3. Shorter pieces (like this one!) for a variety of clients. These take about 10 percent of my freelancing time, with 10 percent of my time left over for admin.

At this point in my career, my work is so disparate that I can’t compare something like The Best Online Personal Loans to a Billfold Monday Check-In post. So I want to phase out the idea of per-piece earnings as a metric of success, and look instead at two larger metrics:

• Did I meet my $5,000 monthly earnings goal?

• Was my workload manageable?

Here’s how I’m thinking about these metrics going forward.

Prorating my assignments to accurately track earnings

As I mentioned in February’s update, I have a number of projects that take longer than a month to complete. What I’ve started doing is prorating these assignments into weekly earnings over the length of the project, so I can keep track of whether I’m on target to meet my $5,000 monthly earnings goal.

For example: Let’s say a project pays $1,500 and the final draft is scheduled five weeks out. Let’s also say the project starts on Monday, April 11 and the final draft is due on Friday, May 13.

Here’s what my freelance tracking spreadsheet typically looks like (with the earnings column redacted):

For the next five weeks, I’d add one more line item to the spreadsheet, labeled “Prorated [Project Name].” I’d then add $300 to the “earned” column to represent the prorated amount I earned that week.

This way, I can accurately track my project earnings over time, even though I won’t be able to bill the entire $1,500 until the project is completed. I can also accurately gauge whether I’m earning $5,000 every month, even if part of those earnings are associated with a project I won’t complete until the following month.

This prorating method also helps me plan my freelancing schedule. If I have a five-week project, I should complete roughly 20 percent of the work during Week One, and so on.

Planning project time into my workload

The spreadsheet example I showed you above is from April of last year, when nearly all of my articles could be started and finished on the same day.

Now that I’m working on longer projects, I need to schedule fewer short pieces and more uninterrupted project time — and I need to add that project time directly into my freelance-tracking spreadsheet.

Here’s a mockup of what this April’s spreadsheet looks like:

In this example, I need to complete two pieces for The Billfold (that’s what P1 and P2 stand for, and I’ll replace those cells with the pieces’ titles when they’re done) and then I need to WORK on a KlientBoost project. I won’t finish that KlientBoost project on April 7, but blocking off the time ensures I won’t schedule anything else for the afternoon.

Planning WORK time also helps me keep my workload manageable. Right now, all of April and half of May are completely booked with The Billfold, large projects, and my recurring monthly articles.

If another client approached me, I could say with confidence that my schedule was full — because I’d already filled in all of the work and I’d confirmed I was earning at least $5,000 a month, prorated over the length of my larger projects.

In March, I also set aside Monday afternoons as “overflow time.” I could use those afternoons to work on a revision that took longer than expected, do administrative work I’d been putting off, or pick up one quick assignment that was too good to turn down. Scheduling overflow time worked out really well, so I’m keeping it up for April.

I should warn you: Despite all of this planning work and the overflow afternoons, I still spend about one day a week working on freelance assignments “after hours.” Sometimes it’s because something is unexpectedly added to my workload, but often it’s because I want to spend more time with an essay or a project.

This means I’m still not blocking enough time off for writing; as my career continues to evolve, I’ll want to schedule even more WORK time so I can give every post and project the attention it needs.

Still, I am for the most part hitting my metrics: I’m earning $5,000 a month, and I’ve got a manageable workload. It feels like freelance success to me.

How often do you re-evaluate your metrics and your tracking systems? Has what defines “success” changed since you started freelancing?

Here are my February numbers:

Completed pieces: 55

Work billed: $4,670.93

Earnings received: $3,330.38

I wrote nearly 56,000 words in February, with an average per-piece earning of $85. I didn’t hit my $5,000-a-month income goal in February, but I didn’t expect to. Every February, I take a week off to attend the JoCo Cruise, so I knew my “work billed” number would probably come up a little short. (The cruise is totally worth it.)

On the subject of “work billed”: It’s a little complicated this month. If I were to calculate all of the fully completed and billed work, February’s number would only be $3,420. I spent most of February doing work on projects that will be complete in March, so I’m listing the $4,670.93 number because it more accurately reflects the amount of work I got done this month — and helps me determine how close I am to my $5,000 income goal.

Taking on larger — and longer — projects

My income tracking is becoming more challenging because I’m taking on bigger projects that can’t be completed in a month. When I got started as a freelancer, I wrote six short pieces a day for content farms; now I’m working on pieces that require significant research and take several weeks to complete.

The longer a piece takes to complete, by the way, the more likely the deadline will shift at some point during the process. This has less to do with the dreaded “scope creep” than it does with the idea that it’s difficult to plan out all the details of a complicated project in advance.

As my clients and I begin working on these projects, we often find we need to go after an additional source or spend an extra day looking for answers to a question — which in turn pushes back the deadline.

What does that mean for me? Well, it’s harder to accurately track how much money I earn every month, for starters. If I spend two months working on a project, it isn’t useful to me to say “In February I earned nothing on this project, and in March I earned $4,000.” When I make my freelance spreadsheet, I need to prorate that $4,000 over the length of the project so I know that $2,000 counts for February and $2,000 counts for March — and I still need to earn $3,000 extra each month to hit my income goal.

In case you’re an accountant: This is my informal income-tracking spreadsheet that helps make sure I’m on target, not the spreadsheet I use to do my taxes! That’s a different system, and tracks income in the month it was earned.

It’s also harder to plan my workload, since I have to include overflow time for deadline changes, last-minute revision requests, and other tasks. This month, I’ve tried to solve this problem by turning Mondays into “buffer days” — instead of scheduling other work for Mondays, I’ll keep them open and flexible for whatever needs to be done. I’ll let you know how it goes!

It’s one more thing you might have to figure out, as you move up in your freelance career: How to track long-term projects against your monthly goals, and how to manage a workload that might include shifting deadlines.

Let’s switch focus and look at a freelancer who is just starting out. What are his freelancing goals, and what steps is he taking to achieve them?

Q&A with Robert Lynch

Robert Lynch is a freelance writer in Adelaide, South Australia. He recently started working as a freelancer, and has already picked up a weekly contract. He’s also making smart choices — like negotiating better rates, investing in his business and improving his pitches — to help build his career and grow his income.

ND: What is your current freelance life like?

RL: I’ve just finished university and finally have the time to pursue a writing career. At this point I’ve been freelancing for only three and a half months. In that time I’ve had some significant breakthroughs. I’ve sold one-off pieces and I picked up a regular weekly contract copyediting, which paid $170 a week. After two months at $170 per week I successfully negotiated with the client to increase my workload to [earn] $300 a week.

What would you like to improve about your freelancing career?

At the moment copyediting is my only freelance income. I’d like to build up other income streams to support me. I’ve written short stories, some accepted and some rejected. I’d like to be able to know whether what I’m writing is a good fit for a publication, so that I decrease the chance of rejection. This is something I’m sure I will get better at with time and practice.

What steps are you taking to help you get there? Have you had success so far?

I try to send one piece of fiction work away each week for consideration to be published. I write sci-fi mostly. This kind of freelancing has an 8-12 week lag from sending in the work to getting feedback, so if I send in work regularly after that initial lag I will get feedback regularly. At this point, I haven’t received feedback for the first piece that I sent away, so I have no idea whether this has had success or failure yet.

I’m also trying to view freelancing as a small business, so there are business aspects that I have focused on. I’ve dedicated a lot of time in the last 14 weeks to building a writing platform. Getting my website/personal blog (www.robert-lynch.com) built and published; building a twitter following (@BobLynchBSc); and to a lesser extent commenting and replying to content that other people have produced.

Success in this endeavour is hard to measure. People have come to my website and have read the content I have posted there. That’s good. I have no comparison on whether those numbers are high or low for a blog about a writer’s journey. I’m happy with what I have so far and I look forward to growing that following by producing content that helps other writers with their own journeys.

Do you have an income goal for 2016?

My income goal is to earn more than $500 [AUD] a week, which amounts to earning more than $26,000 in 2016. This is the minimum I can earn where I can then devote myself to writing full time. This is the number in which I get freedom from looking for work elsewhere. At the moment I’m working as a barman to make ends meet and I’d rather spend those hours writing.

What steps are you taking to hit that income goal? Have you had success so far?

I’m trying to get a few blogs published off of my site. From there I intend to start pitching regular blogging series to websites. I have already learnt a lot from your Pitch Fix series, so hopefully I will have some success. Some of these pitches will be to writing sites like The Write Life, but also some specifically science-based blogs. I have a science degree after all and since scientists are not known for their creative writing skills, I’m hoping to be able to help bridge the gap between real science and the general population. I don’t think that I’m going to build up these relationships overnight, but if I can, I see a future where I’m regularly earning as much from blogging as I am from copyediting.

Another revenue stream I see as achievable this year is to be regularly selling fiction. I have found a number of magazines and websites that will pay for fiction. By sending in regular stories for consideration for publication I’m hoping to better my writing and be regularly aligning with editor’s needs by the end of the year.

There are a few other revenue streams I’d like to try, but their ability to earn scales directly with the size of my writing platform, so they aren’t viable in the short term.

With the $300 a week I already have coming in, I think that from just blogs and stories it’s more than achievable to be earning above that $500-a-week goal.

What is the hardest part of freelancing for you?

Fitting everything in. I want to transition to writing full time this year. At the moment I’m working 15 hours a week copyediting, trying to learn the writing business, trying to write 1,000 fiction words every day, keeping an active Twitter presence, trying to start blogging, running my own website and blog (which includes fortnightly videos on YouTube), working in a bar, still looking for work that I might get using my degree, volunteering as head medical trainer at my local football club and acting as the chairperson of my local writing group. After all of these things I still need to find time to spend with my girlfriend.

Generally, I can’t fit everything in. That means that I have to prioritise those things that pay me money right now and some of the long-term business stuff suffers for it.

In order to get better at this, I’ve mapped out a time management plan. If I stick to it then I think I’ll be able to fit everything in. I don’t have a history of sticking to routines though.

What do you feel like you do really well as a freelancer?

I have a strong work ethic and I’m actively pursuing feedback or advice to improve myself.

Neil Gaiman did a commencement speech a couple of years ago where he said that to be a successful freelancer you need to do three things: Submit work on time, do good work, and be nice to work with. I am completely in control of whether the work is done on time, so I make sure that I don’t miss deadlines. Whether my work is good or not I can only know if I get unbiased feedback, so I actively seek it out. And I try to build good business relationships, which so far has got me repeat work and better pay.

What advice do you have for other freelancers?

In the short time I have been freelancing, all of my successes have come from taking risks and trying new things. In every case the worst thing that could have happened was that people didn’t like what I was doing or contractors just said no to my proposals.

If there is anything that I have learned so far, it’s that you have to take a risk to get anywhere. If you never try, you’ll never have any success.

What advice would you offer Robert Lynch? Also, what advice would you offer me, as I start working on longer projects? Share your thoughts in the comments.

First, my January numbers:

Completed pieces: 64

Work billed: $5,676

Earnings received: $4,884.30

I wrote roughly 57,000 words in January, with an average per-piece earning of $89. My highest earning piece was $1,029, and my lowest-earning piece was $78.

I would have earned more than $6,000 this month, except one client canceled an assignment. This is the kind of thing that happens once in a while, which means it’s always important to plan more work than you need. When I say I want to earn $5,000 every month, I know I need to plan to earn a little more, just in case something like this happens.

Checking in on my freelancing goals

How am I doing on my freelancing goals?

I’m on target to maintain my $5,000 monthly income. I’m also working towards building new client relationships. However, I fell behind in my goal to work reasonable hours. I spent the first half of January ending my workday — and turning off social media — by 6:30 p.m., but during the second half of the month the hours started creeping up again.

I’ve heard other people say 2016 already feels busier than 2015, so I’m curious if you feel that way as well. I have a lot of opportunities available to me this year, which means putting in extra hours to make sure I both manage my workload and build the foundation for the work I want to be doing in the second half of 2016.

However, I have already made changes for February. The biggest change? Telling clients I already have a full workload for the month, and can’t start any new projects until March. Let’s hope I can keep that resolution and keep my workload manageable!

But enough about me. I also made a goal to turn this column into a collaboration, so today we’re going to look at another freelancer and her 2016 goals.

Q&A with MaryBeth Matzek of 1BizzyWriter

MaryBeth Matzek is a freelancer whose work includes journalism, blogging and content marketing. She also owns a quarterly agriculture publication, Midwest Agriculture Almanac. Learn more about Matzek’s work at 1BizzyWriter, or follow her on Twitter at — you guessed it — @1BizzyWriter.

ND: What is your freelance life like?

MM: Busy. I feel like I constantly have multiple irons in the fire at all times, but it’s better than the alternative — not having enough work. 2016 marks my 10th year as a freelancer and honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love the flexibility it gives me to help out at my children’s school, with their sports teams and not having to worry or explain why I need time off for doctors’ appointments, illnesses, etc. I write primarily for publications — mostly business and trade focused.

What would you like to improve about your freelancing career?

I would like more balance — at times, the work can seep into my family time, which is not what I want. I would like to replace lower-paying clients with ones that pay more so I can earn more and work the same amount (or less).

What steps are you taking to help you get there? Have you had success so far?

I have let one client go that was too much work for the money to free up my time to find additional, better-paying work. After doing that, I was able to connect with a trade magazine publisher that provided me with a lot of work. As for finding a balance and being more organized, that’s still a work in progress. I always start out Mondays with good intentions, but by the end of the week, my desk is a complete mess.

Do you have an income goal for 2016?

In 2015, I grew my income by nearly $20,000 so I would like to maintain that gain in 2016 and if possible grow it by a few more thousand.

What steps are you taking to hit that income goal? Have you had success so far?

We’re only a month into the year so I haven’t had too much time to find new partnerships, but I continue to work on growing the ones I have with clients and publications. I know I need to send out additional letters of inquiry and pitches to publications and websites that I’m interested in writing for and need to build that time into my schedule every week.

What is the hardest part of freelancing, for you?

Finding balance between too much work that I can’t breathe and that not having enough work that I panic about never finding work again, which is ridiculous I know since I have several clients I can consistently rely on for work each month. But as I found out in 2015 when two smallish clients cut their budgets and I lost work, I can’t always rely on that.

What do you feel like you do really well as a freelancer?

Write compelling, well-written articles on time. Editors also love that I’m easy to work with — want me to find another source or have the story in by Friday? Sure, I can do that. My 11 years of daily newspaper experience provided me with a great skill set that allows me to just do that.

What advice do you have for other freelancers?

Don’t give up and always make your deadline. And if you need more time, ask for it and explain why at least one day before the deadline. As an editor on the other side of the table, nothing is worse than when you expect a story and then have it not show up.

Share your January stories

Now that you’ve seen my freelancing update and learned how MaryBeth Matzek is planning to structure her goals for 2016, it’s time to share your January stories. How did you do this month? Did you make your income goal? Did you pitch a new client? Did you write something you’d like to share with us?

Share your January successes and struggles in the comments.

If you’d like to be part of a future Tracking Freelance Earnings column, email me at dieker.nicole@gmail.com. See you all next month with a new update!