Freelancing Mistake #5 - Trying to Make as Much Money as You Can
Why "As Much as I Can" Doesn't Work
Hey there. I have one simple question for you:
How much money do you want to make this year?
If you're like me your answer might be, “As much as I can!” It’s an honest answer, but not one that helped me run a successful business. Instead I found myself saying “yes” to every project I could find, working too many hours, and eventually burning out. Something needed to change.
If You Want Stability, Start by Setting a Goal
Things started to turn around quickly when I took my first step towards financial stability. “As much money as I can!” wasn’t cutting it. Instead I set a specific yearly revenue goal for my business. I figured out exactly how much revenue I needed to generate each year in order to cover my expenses, make a healthy profit, and live the lifestyle I desired. Setting a yearly revenue goal was one of the keys that helped transform my business from an unpredictable roller coaster ride into a stable, enjoyable business making well into six figures a year.
Calculate Your Yearly Revenue Goal
A simple way to figure out a yearly revenue goal for your business is to use a free goal calculator like this one from our team at Harpoon:
Free Yearly Revenue Goal Calculator
This calculator will help you get specific on all the different categories of your business and personal life you need to account for. And don’t limit your categories to expenses only. If your business is simply covering your expenses then you’re only breaking even. A healthy business is one that profits and grows. So you’ll want to include categories that take advantage of a surplus of revenue you’ll be generating that goes beyond simply covering your expenses. These would include categories like savings goals, investments, retirement, new side projects, and even vacations.
Break Your Goal into Monthly Targets
Once you have a yearly goal you can work backwards from that goal by breaking it into smaller, more manageable pieces throughout the year. For example, if your yearly goal is $96,000 then you know your average monthly goal is $8,000. And knowing that can help you determine when to schedule projects from month to month, and how much you'll need to charge for those projects. In other words, you'll be running and building your business up to the level of your goal, letting your goal lead the way as you make decisions that foster better projects, better clients, and ultimately a more profitable business.
Track Your Progress with Harpoon
This is why we built Harpoon.
(Here comes the shameless marketing pitch!)
Harpoon provides a beautiful interface where you can visually plan all of your projects for the year and see at a glance how the expected revenue from those projects affects your yearly revenue goal progress. And Harpoon provides all the tools needed to actually invoice and collect money from your clients too. As the money comes in you'll see a variety of goal-tracking metrics come to life. No more wondering about the financial health of your business. No more guessing how much money you should be making this month or next month. And on top of that Harpoon handles time tracking, expense tracking, and even generates financial reports for your accountant to make tax time a breeze.
Now, marketing pitch aside, we really did intend this email to educate and not just promote our own product. So even if you don’t use Harpoon, I still encourage you to set a yearly goal, broken down into months, and find a way to track your current progress towards that goal. Doing this you will relieve much of the stress caused by not knowing how much money you should be making, and may even help you enjoy more time off for vacation, or for working on a side project.
If you’ve enjoyed this series—especially if it’s helped you take action towards becoming a more successful freelancer—hit reply. We'd love to hear about it!
