I’m sitting across from her because my husband found me sobbing into the carpet of my home office, again, some more. She’s sitting there because I’ve reached the point, now, where I need to pay people to listen to me.

“I thought this was about huge, huge amounts of anti-depressants.”

“No. For the first time in your life, you don’t have outside structure dictating your every move. And it is affecting your writing, and you are very angry.”

“Even though I hate structure.”

“Even though you hate structure.”

I sat for $7.28 worth of silence. Then: “Well, how do I fix it?”

“How do *you* think you need to fix it?”

This is why I have never seen her in the same outfit twice, and it is often a struggle for me to find clean shorts to climb into for the sessions.

How I wish this were a cheerful, ten-bullet list detailing how freelancers produce creative work in structured circumstances. But outside of “How to Build a Particle Accelerator For the Production of Synchrotron Radiation,” there’s perhaps no article I’m less equipped to write.

There are few lamer excuses for a squandered career than “Well, I’m creative. I’m made this way.” I cannot imagine how pissed off God would be if I stand before Him at the end with a blank sheet of paper but a really, really thorough knowledge of ‘80’s commercials on YouTube.

I never used to be like this. “What happened?” I asked a college friend. “You knew me when I was a student. I chaired four committees at once. I wrote for the newspaper. I dealt with a job and a boyfriend and sixteen credit hours. I got things done.”

“Of course you did,” she said. “And then you got a full-time job and cookware and then you got married.”

Well, yes, adulthood. It’s one thing to structure a life when the cooking is done at the dining hall, and one’s entire livable space is the size of a crayon box. But how many people successfully balance a writing life and a day job, a spouse, volunteer work, a household, children? Multiple children? What was so hard about looking at a day planner and checking off the little lined tasks in the little white boxes?

It’s not for a lack of inspiration, or caring, or even, in this era of gold-plated corn on the cob, absolute budget-based terror. I have projects and deadlines and segmented-out plans. Why, why, why, did I suddenly decide it was time for my daily workout and notice it was a quarter after ten at night and nothing was accomplished for the day but a self-proven truth that yep, Google really works as a search engine? Another day goes by, and at the end of each wasted hour, every single one of my German ancestors spin a few centimeters closer to the center of the Earth.

I recently watched an interview with David McCullough, the famous and prolific American historian, who announced that his best advice for writers was to knock out four pages a day. Four pages. A day. I leaned forward, wondering exactly how this came about, but then the host asked something about Teddy Roosevelt and that was that. Whatever McCullough had to say about Roosevelt, he said it first as part of a four-page chunk, the magnificently persistent bastard. How’d he do it?

He sat, I imagine, and he wrote. He let the car’s oil sit unchanged until it was time to change it. If he were struck with a reminder to return a phone call, he made careful note of it on the afternoon’s agenda and continued on with his work. Bills waited until a designated bill paying time, thus neatly avoiding interrupting the writing flow and avoiding frantic drives to the post office a minute and a half before closing time. What simple things to do. What simply impossible things to do.

“You,” said the therapist, “are going to make friends with structure, and on your own terms.”

Structure had better buy the drinks.

Mary Beth Ellis runs BlondeChampagne.com. Her first book, Drink to the Lasses, was released in 2006.

Zac Gordon, 26, graduated from this Maryland high school just eight years ago. For the past four years, he’s been freelancing in the design business. Because he’s got a side career going, it’s the perfect platform for his students to see what being a designer is really like. Now he’s created a business platform that will enable him to work with his students after they’ve graduated. He’s still teaching in the classroom, but has found that the benefits of his full-time job have translated into a thriving business.

He’s also incorporated things he’s learned on FreelanceSwitch into his teachings—and his students enjoy Freelance Radio every other week. Find out more about this interesting designer!

What class do you teach? Where? How many students are in the class?

I teach an intro to Web design and an advanced Web design class. The intro class is full: 35 students and 28 computers. However, this is our first year offering an advanced Web class, so we only have a little more than a dozen students in that one. Additionally we have team of interns that are working to release a rocking Website for our high school next semester.

My undergrad and graduate degrees were in history. I also teach Modern World History, which I love. At this point, though, I am moving towards working full-time with the Web program and Web education. Because of my experience, though, I encourage kids to study whatever interests them in school, not just art or programming or Web design. I don’t feel that studying other subjects interferes with or holds you back from doing freelancing. If anything it makes you a more well rounded person.

Tell us about how you’re integrating your students into your freelance business.

I have done freelance Web design for about four years, however, I like to work with other people so I usually have a team of another designer or programmer (or two) on most of the projects that I do. Now I am trying to give more work to my students, whether it means giving projects over to them before I get my hands on them or get them to help me with existing or large-scale projects.

I am trying to build up our high school as a place to go to get professional Websites done at a tenth of the price. All of the money goes straight to the students, but I ensure that the work is quality. Over the next few years, I think it will grow into something really amazing. It really sunk in for me after I met with a client with one of my students… I was thinking, I would charge about 2500 for this project, but the client ended up paying $500. Everyone felt it was a fair price, from the client to the student to the student’s parents.

After students graduate I try to either employ them directly as freelancing contractors through my private business or refer clients to them straight out. Over time I hope to transform my business into more of a network of trained freelancers that I can personally vouch for because I have known them, taught them, and worked with them on projects for at least two years. It is in its early stages, but I think the business model has potential.

How did you find out about FreelanceSwitch?

I came across northxeast.com recently after it launched and have been following Collis and his crew’s work ever since! I found out about FSW through northxeast and have been digging the forums, book, etc. since it all got started.

How did you hear about the podcasts?

I learned about the podcasts from just following the site. They were a big boon early on for me because I would wait anxiously until the next episode came out. I never really followed podcasts before this, but I learned how nice it was to listen to Freelance Radio while doing the more routine or design related freelance Web design tasks. Unfortunately I can’t listen while programming!

How have you incorporated these into your class teachings?

My buddy who teaches Web design at a nearby high school started bringing in guest speakers every Friday. It got me thinking about what I could do that was cool on Fridays. Since the advanced Web class works on projects for themselves or for clients outside of school, I thought we could have what we now call “Freelance Fridays” where students work on their portfolios, paying/charity sites and listen to Freelance Radio.

We have recently switched our process because we can’t listen to an entire podcast in class, so now students listen to an episode during the week and we talk about it at the beginning of class on Friday. Every week students also get a grade for participating in the FSW forums. I am a big believer in the community and feedback on that site and feel that they are getting invaluable guidance from the podcasts and forums. I mean imagine learning all of this stuff when you were sixteen years old!

How do you think freelancing impacting the younger generation? What’s your advice to high-school-age kids who want to freelance when they “grow up?”

Again, I let the students answer this one. However, my goal in teaching Web design is that after the first year they can all make static Websites for clients if they like, and that in their second year they will make dynamic, easy to update sites with WordPress or ExpressionEngine in class and get paid for it. They must all also do charity work, because I believe it is important to realize how much your skills can help other people reach some pretty noble goals. (And it keeps them from just thinking about money).

That’s because many freelancers love an ongoing gig—so when you get a new contact at a company, the shift can be unsettling. What if they use another freelancer? Will they communicate as well as your old representative did? What can you do if they’re not performing well? Is it your job to intervene when you’re a contractor?

As you watch a client’s organization change as a freelancer, you’re not always privy to the who, what, when, where, and why of it all. Who knows why Chuck left the company—he may not even send you an email to let you know that he’s moved on. You may not hear from him for months and contact the company only to realize that he’s left. The worst is when he doesn’t pass along his freelance contacts to his successor. Then you could get lost in the shuffle and you could lose the client!

While you may be happy to be the veteran when a new contact comes on board, the change can also make you feel a little on the offense (or defense). It’s crucial to approach the new contact with caution and not let your emotions about the shift affect the new relationship you’ll need to forge.

Here are some things to consider when you meet the new replacement.

Be polite

Whenever I hear that my contact at a client’s office is changing, I am always polite to the new person. Whether they email you an introduction, you send them a note, meet in person, or talk on the phone; it’s best to be respectful. I always stay away from telling them things I didn’t like about their predecessor. If asked I can offer feedback and am more than happy to tell them how things worked with that person in the past and how we can improve it, but I try to give them time to show me how they operate before I rush into anything. Most importantly, being courteous is a huge first step. Chances are that new person will appreciate you giving them time to assimilate.

Accept change

The new guy will never do things exactly like your old contact did. You’ll either find the new person is swamped and overloaded and unable to handle the workload, or you’ll find that they’re 110 times better than your last contact and you’re happy about the change. In many cases, you may not get the best vibe at first, but you’ll eventually mesh well and the new person won’t be worse or better—just different. Regardless what kind of relationship you have with any new company representative, you should expect some change. Hopefully the switch is as smooth as can be.

Observe their form

It’s easy to say that you want Mary to come back, but Mary’s long gone and you’ve got to move forward. The best way how to gauge the new guy’s manner is to observe. Does the new contact email you when projects come in, or will you need to call? Is he or she better reachable by phone? Will she let you interact directly with their customers? Is he or she a micromanager? Do they fill you in on why the company does certain things that affect your job? What needs to be done to make working with him or her easier? Before you can figure it out, give the person a chance to show you how they operate.

Step up, nicely

So, in the case that the new guy isn’t working out to well, it’s time to step in or you could be phased out. For example, if your new contact tells you about things last minute when Mary used to give you two weeks notice, it’s okay to ask him or her for more notice. I wouldn’t mention how kind Mary was, but I would politely ask if it’s possible to give you more notice so you can be sure to accommodate the project. In one instance, I had a “newbie” come in and cut out half of my work. After a few weeks, I had to gently ask her what was going on. I simply let her know how many hours I previously had and asked if I could expect the same—they soon after resumed and it turns out she wasn’t sure how much she was allowed to give me. Point is, don’t rely on Mary to have relayed everything to your new contact. Once you see how they work, you’ll have to ask for the adjustments you need.

If your new contact person isn’t all that you’ve dreamed of, try not to fret. With a little thoughtfulness, time and professionalism, you can most likely pick up your regular working relationship where it left off—and hopefully make this one even better.

Kristen Fischer is the author of Creatively Self-Employed: How Writers and Artists Deal with Career Ups and Downs.

Some have questioned the point of jumping on a job quickly. Let me tell you, as someone who has advertised for and applied for many, it counts. I know a whole slew of people who employ freelancers who stop reading applications after the first 50 or 100 come in, and that can be anywhere from twenty minutes after posting the job, to twenty hours later.

That’s not the only reason to get in early, of course. If a client only has to see two or three applications before finding the perfect match, they’re usually ecstatic. Nobody enjoys wading through applications.

To get inside that first batch of responses, we’ll be using a little bit of automatic “here’s one we prepared earlier” magic, but piecing these together in a way tailored to each job —as such they’re not canned responses, but we’ve made sure those things that will stay more or less the same across the board are quickly dealt with.

RSS Feeds Are Your Friend

If you don’t find out about a job until the day after it has been advertised there’s little point in using efficient techniques, so you’ll need to get the job boards you rely on in your feed reader, or via a feed to your inbox. Don’t rely on mail-outs manually compiled by the job board owner; they wait until they have a certain amount to send out, and that in itself can be too long.

Put the feeds in a folder, perhaps with an @ symbol in the name to place it at the top of the list, and monitor it often. I hate getting notifications from feed readers, they’re perpetually distracting, but if your software enables you to receive notifications from only certain folders and feeds, this would be one case where they are worth the disruption.

Prepare Situation-Specific Portfolios

Most of you will be on the hunt for certain types of gigs with portfolios specific to each. For instance, I wouldn’t apply to write a column on motherhood advice; my areas are audio, productivity, and technology, for the most part. So I have specific sets of past experience and portfolios for each one of these.

However, I’ve always found piecing together a relevant set of examples for the client the most time-consuming part of putting a pitch together. It almost seems as if, by the time you’ve decided on the pieces of work you’ll pitch, found the links or attachments, briefly described each one, and gotten ready to send—oops, someone’s already got the job.

So what do you do? Define the core areas you’ll need individual portfolios for. It doesn’t matter if you want a job at Lifehack or Lifehacker, your productivity portfolio is going to be the same—so find the right balance between too targeted and too general to come up with a set that’ll be useful in any situation.

All you need in each are the titles and links and a brief description of each. Easy.

Get TextExpander, or something similar for your operating system. It really makes these things a breeze to drop into correspondence. If you don’t have that sort of software, then just save the templates in a document and pull them out as needed the old-fashioned way.

Know Thyself

Here’s another thing freelancers get stuck on: that first or second paragraph, which is almost always the “who I am” paragraph. Here comes the existential crisis. The freelancer stares at their screen for a while, thinking about who they are, life, the universe, and everything, and eventually becomes too depressed to work because they’ve realized the pointlessness of it all. Or, they just can’t think of a way to describe what they do and why they’re a great fit for the job on the spot.

So here’s what you do: you take those same areas that you created individual portfolios for, and you define yourself in relation to each, and what you bring to each of these particular areas. You do it in the mental context of preparing for a pitch, so you’re not just rambling and spouting, but creating something you can use to start with in a pinch.

Unlike your portfolio templates, these introductory paragraphs can never be used as-is. You have to extend them in light of each individual job, and always take statements you make back to a point of relevance. These are just starting points to prevent you from getting blocked up on existential issues as you scan the boards late at night!

So, define yourself, define your skills and what you bring to the particular field, and then tie those attributes as closely to the job posting as you can and make it super relevant.

How Quickly Can You Quote?

It’s not always a good idea to provide a quote off the bat. This isn’t a debate about that. Sometimes a job poster will ask you for a quote in your pitch (and as I’ve written here before, you only get a job when you give the prospective client all the information they ask for), and there are times when it is a good idea to provide a quote anyway—they may have been specific enough about the job in the ad and requested only pitchers with a certain price range apply.

These ads are great if you’re happy with the price range they’ve suggested, because the poor job poster doesn’t realize that 9 people out of 10 will be overly cryptic with their pricing and they’ll get sick of extracting teeth to find out, so give the quote and you’ve got a good chance. And if you’re going to bother at all, make sure it’s a quote within the budget they’ve provided (if they’ve provided one to start with).

Clients should only be able to choose 2 of these 3 words and you must keep this in mind when pricing your next job otherwise your work / income / career could be suffering.

Fast, Good or Cheap - Choose Two

If you allow your clients to have fast, good, cheap work done by yourself then most likely you are working your butt off for very little return which is why you must allow them to choose a combination of two only - either good & fast OR good & cheap OR fast & cheap.

Below are some explanations of why and when to use each type of pricing method along with their advantages and disadvantages.

Good + Fast = Expensive

If a client wants good, fast work then of course we can put up our prices. We must put up our prices here because we have to postpone every other job we have, cancel appointments/meetings and stay up 24+ hours to get their job done.

The advantage here is that we get quick money however the disadvantage is that we could possibly let other clients down by not delivering their work on time. We get more stressed and if it is a major project, our sleeping pattern gets disrupted.

Good + Cheap = Slow

If a client wants a good, cheap piece of work then they will have to be patient to get it as they are getting a discounted price… We have other projects to work on from higher paying clients so they get more priority.

The advantage here is that we do not have to stress about tight deadlines and we can work on the project in our own time with less stress. The disadvantage however is that we get less pay even though we worked on the project over a period of time.

Fast + Cheap = Inferior

If a client wishes to have a fast and cheap job, then they should expect the result to be quite inferior. We do not have the time to make the job as good as it could be plus on top of that, we hardly get any return on the product.

The only advantage here is that we get some quick money in a short amount of time. The disadvantage is that the end result will probably be something we will want to keep hidden away under lock and key.

In this case, clients truly get what they pay for and this is the least favourable choice of the three. Try to stay away from fast, cheap labour.

How To Explain Pricing To Your Clients

Communicating your prices to the client is another important factor you must consider when using this good, fast, cheap, pricing method. How do you explain that a good, fast job is going to be more expensive? How do you tell them that by doing a fast and cheap job that the end result is going to be less than satisfactory?

Depending on your profession and the relationship with your client, this will change however the best way to communicate your situation is in most situations, to be honest… tell them if they want a cheap and fast job, that the end product will be only satisfactory and tell them why. (ie. the disadvantages I outlined above).

How To Price Yourself

If you want some more information on how to price yourself and how to build this pricing method into your business, Freelance Switch has written some great articles on how to do so and even has a rates calculator.

• The FreelanceSwitch Rates Calculator
  Use this great tool to figure out how much you should be charging per hour.
• Nine Factors to Consider When Determining Your Price
  Learn about some other issues you must consider when determining your price.
• Hourly vs. Fixed Pricing
  Should you charge by the hour or by the job?
• The Price Is Right
  A practical guide to making both you and your client happy with your rates.
• Figuring Out How Much To Charge
  Get a short insight into how Collis quotes a web design job.

How do you determine what you charge… Do you always come back to your hourly price or do you take into consideration other things such as time, quality or price? Do you have a different hourly rate for different projects?

Jacob Cass is a 20 year old passionate graphic designer from Sydney, Australia. He runs a popular design blog by the name of Just Creative Design which provides graphic design tips, articles and resources.

1. Daily accountability. At the start of each workday, you made a list of things you absolutely had to accomplish. At the day’s end, you asked yourself what you did to make money and what you did to bring in business.
2. Weekly accountability. At the end of your work week, you wrote a review and evaluation of how things went. You also planned the following week, with special attention paid to the tasks involved in doing the work for which you are paid, getting more of it, and running your business.
3. Monthly accountability. On the daily and weekly level, you were working in the world of words. For your monthly accountability, the focus shifted to numbers, specifically, your profit and loss statement as compared to your budget and to the previous year. You also looked at your cash flow and bank balances, and you forecasted your revenues and expenses.

On the annual level, we’re looking at big things like trends and transitions in your business. What better way to record them with an annual report? Like the publicly traded companies’ annual reports, yours will offer two types of information:

1. Narrative
2. Financial

There’s no need to write a War and Peace narrative. After all, you don’t want to fall into the trap that one of my mentors pointed out. She told me, “Martha, you spend too much time writing about your business. You need to do business!”

Oh, was she right!

So, let’s follow her advice and keep our narrative to one page. And on that page, write down your Five Best and Worst Moves of the Year. Where would you find the material for these two Top Five lists? In a couple of places:

1. Your weekly review/evaluation writeups. Are you seeing any disturbing trends? Say, like projects getting tougher to land and clients being slower to pay? Or are you seeing positive transitions, like success in breaking into more lucrative markets or the development of new profit centers?
2. Your financial statements. I’d suggest pulling a couple of profit and loss statements, one that compares your actual results vs. your budget and another that compares this year with last year.

On the P&L vs. your budget, you may see things like cost overruns. There’s one that’s already bopping me over the head, and the year isn’t even over yet. That Big Bopper would be my website redesign, which blew well past its budget. Reason: When it came to choosing subcontractors, I wasn’t as careful as I should have been. So, look for that one on my Worst Moves list.

The P&L vs. the previous year is an excellent check on the progress your business is making. Now, you may be dealing in an economy where just staying even with last year is quite an accomplishment. Or maybe your business down compared to what it was last year. Don’t beat yourself up if the news isn’t good, but don’t just say, “Oh, it’s the economy,” and stop trying to find new business. That’s an easy trap to fall into, and a lot of people do. Many of them don’t get out.

Okay, so you’ve listed your Five Best and Worst Moves of the Year. Next to the Best Moves, write a sentence or two on why these were such good moves. If you’re doing things right, you want to keep up the good work. Recording the whys behind the actions gives you some history to refer back to. (“Hey, if I made that happen back in ’08, I can repeat that success now.”)

For the Worst Moves, what did you learn? And how will you fix the problem so that it won’t happen again?

After the writing’s done, don’t hide this document. Every year, I call a family meeting and share my Best and Worst Moves with them. If your family isn’t readily available, share it with key vendors (such as your accountant) and your mentors.

We’ve reached the end of this accountability series. I’d like to leave you with three books that I’ve found helpful:

1. Getting Things Done by David Allen. Many people consider this book to be the go-to reference for stress-free personal productivity.
2. Get Clients Now! by CJ Hayden. If you’ve been stumbling and fumbling with your promotional efforts, CJ will get you on the right track. But be forewarned that this isn’t one of those “client attraction” systems that allow you to sit back while the work rolls in. Sorry, but you’re going to have to go out and find those clients and (gasp!) sell your services to them. CJ’s also big on the notion of holding yourself accountable.
3. Twist the New by Greg Loumeau. Back in my weekly accountability article, I talked about the tasks involved in doing, getting, and running a business. Greg turned me on to this idea, and many others. This is one of those books that packs a lot of good stuff into just a few pages.

You’ve got to ask! Asking is, in my opinion, the world’s most powerful - and neglected - secret to success and happiness. - Percy Ross

We work. We work hard! Yet, sometimes we forget to do the simplest of things to advance our business and earning ability. Personally, I’m terrible at networking (quite possibly the single most important act!). Needless to say, I’m awful at making small talk in elevators as well. Typically, I’m that guy who acts as if he’s on the phone - all for the sake of avoiding the awkward silence while waiting to arrive at my chosen floor (Another good trick is to act as if you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to chat. Repeatedly looking at your watch helps.) However, I have learned one extremely important task for any business situation. I ASK.

Let me explain a bit further. When completing a project for a client, I typically send him or her a final thank you letter. In it, I mention that, if he happens to come by a colleague that needs a similar service, I would appreciate it if he would pass my name along. It may not sound like much, but I promise you that, over time, you will benefit tremendously. Such requests may seem trivial, but they aren’t. It could be argued that, ironically, they are more important than the job itself! The job leads to the request. The request leads to the referral. The referral leads to increased income. Then, the cycle repeats itself, exponentially.

Remember, your business is YOU. That means that, any chance you have, you should be promoting yourself and expanding your client base. The only person that is aware of your desires is you! If you don’t ask, you’ll never receive - as cliche’ as it might sound.

In addition to my own business, I also am the editor for NETTUTS the potential future editor of a site that I can’t speak about just yet, a contributing writer to FreelanceFolder, and, as of today, a staff writer for the site that you’re currently reading. I attribute each of these positions to my asking. When you speak up you accomplish three things.

• You create a small place in the person’s mind specifically for you. They’ll remember you when the time comes!
• You show eagerness. By speaking up, you present yourself as someone who is actively seeking to better himself. Such traits are desirable.
• Exponentially increase your odds. It’s a simple fact that the more times you swing, the more likely you are to hit one out of the park. A simple request never hurt anybody.

What to Ask

• Denied for a Position?Thank you for considering me. If you have anything open up in the future, please do consider me. I’ll check back with you in a few months.
• We Can Offer you a Part-Time Position.That would be great! But, if you have a bigger position with greater responsibility available in the future, I would jump at the chance to be considered.
• It Doesn’t Really Matter!The important thing to remember is that you must always send chance out into the air. Just keep asking, as long as it is appropriate. You’ll be remembered.

Real World Example

A nominee for the 1977 Oscar for best screenplay attributes his success to a single moment. After being denied yet again by a producer for a role, as he made his way to the door, he quietly mentioned, “I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I also do some writing.” Upon hearing that, the producer responded, “Oh really? Let’s schedule a meeting.” Because of that brief request, the writer went on to become hugely successful and, subsequently, made millions of dollars on future projects. Sometimes, all you need to do is ASK. They might just say, “Come on back!”.

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want. - Joseph Wood Krutch

Don’t get overwhelmed. Here are some general tips to get the most out of your freelancing efforts.

1. Get rid of dud clients. The unfortunate truth is that your ‘dud’ clients are not necessarily bad people. But you’re running a business and if you’re working and not getting paid (at all or on time), then dud clients need to go.
2. Increase your rates. The math is simple, the decision to raise rates is harder. Start by charging more for new clients and for old clients who come back to you after a time. Leave the current rates for clients alone for now unless you think they’ll accept. A strong component to making rate raises work is to have emergency funds and savings. When you have a secure feeling about your finances, this is projected in your communications, whether by e-mail, chat or voice. You’re not worrying and thinking, “if I say my rate is up and they say ‘no’… what if they all say no… how am I going to pay my bills.”
3. Increase your revenue streams. My brother, co-owner of a successful ad agency, said to me recently, “don’t think of yourself as a freelancer. Think of yourself as a business owner.” Wise advice. What do (successful) business ownwers do? They come up with other ways to earn income.
4. Become an entrepreneur. This is really an extension of the last point, but becoming an entrepreneur usually involves working with other people, even if it’s collaboration as opposed to hire. I know “synergy” is an overused word, but when you work on something with a compatible colleague, is amazing what can come of it. And having someone passing on work to you, and vice versa, is a prosperous feeling. If you’re not going after all forms of prosperity in your work and personal life, what are you doing?
5. Leverage the past. Use what you know and what you’ve done before, whether it’s a bit of research, a sketch or partial design, a snippet of code or a few lines of text. Build upon the knowledge you have, to save you time now. Reuse what you can, when you can.
6. Leverage your creative/ productive periods. You know those times when you’re on fire, getting more work done than you might have expected? Don’t waste those times just planning. Use them to get ahead of your workload, so that if you hit a creative “downtime” in a few weeks, you’ll be prepared. This isn’t always easy, depending on the kind of freelance work you do, but it does apply to writing, photography, sometimes even coding or design. You don’t need to produce finished work, if you don’t have a buyer. However, do “sketches” or samples as preparation for work that you are anticipating in the future.
7. Make the effort to plan. Planning really does make the difference between being a successful freelancer and one who is always chasing his/her own tail, trying to get work done. If you’re researching when you should be writing, or writing when you should be sourcing new clients, you’re contributing to a negative sense about your abilities. On the other hand, getting preliminary research and initial tasks for a project out of the way means you can work on remaining tasks with a peace of mind that you have enough time to finish everything.

   For example, if I have 3 articles to write for a client this week, but I start scoping/ planning on Saturday evening for 15 minutes, then do a bit of reseach for 15-30 minutes on Sunday, I now have all three articles prepped. The ideas can brew in mind’s background proceses while I work on something else. Then when I do start writing on Monday, I often have a full or partial article “written” in my head. Because this is such a magic feeling, it means do my work with confidence, and leaving enough room (time) for any edits, should they be necessary.

8. Manage your tasks. While it’s nice to track and manage your gigs and keep a total of how much you’ve earned today, don’t forget that larger gig will throw you off. A gig that pays, say, $500 will possibly be spread out over several days. If you can, put a separate dollar value on each of the subtasks you perform for this gig and track these values. It’ll give you a bigger sense of accomplishment on a daily basis. This beats looking at your task log and seeing a big zero while working on this project.
9. Enjoy life now. Don’t lose yourself in your work. While it’s good to focus and be productive on client projects, if you have to work day and night all week, you can’t possibly be getting all you need out of life. Now, not in a few weeks or a few months, but now. Otherwise, before you know it, a few years will have passed by, gone forever.
10. Give yourself less time. Set your own work hours and stick to those. Force yourself into efficiency. If you have your workstation set up in your bedroom, it’ll very hard to separate your work and personal life.
11. Use the snowflake method. This is a method that some personal finance bloggers write about as option for paying down loan and credit card debt. Instead of paying down the loan with the highest rate, you pay down the smallest loan, to gain a sense of accomplishment. This translates directly to client work: do the smallest, easiest project and get it out the way. When you’re feeling good about yourself, tackle the next smallest project. However, the difference is that you do have to concern yourself with deadlines. If not working on a project NOW means losing a client, then you’d better think twice.

Care to share? What do you do to ensure you get the most of out of your freelancing career?

I’m sure many freelancers are more than happy to be rid of the annual review, but it’s easy to get sloppy and miss opportunities when you’re not looking at your work, measuring your progress, and implementing changes.

Let’s take a look at a few metrics that are useful for spotting trends and problem areas, and how to track them.

Time worked per project

It’s a good idea to track your time, and not just how much you work, but how much you work on each project. Which ones are you getting stuck on for hours, and which are you able to complete efficiently? You can use this metric to find out which activities need optimization, and also to find out which jobs can be done quickly and thus are often good candidates to take on more of (unless they’re quick jobs because they’re small, low-paying jobs).

Money earned per project

Unless you’re working on multiple projects from one client and track your finances by client and not by project, you’ve probably got this information. If you don’t, you’re probably not doing much business bookkeeping!

Keeping a record of how much money you earn from which projects gives you an insight into which of your jobs pay best, which type of jobs pay best, and which clients pay best. This is all handy information when you need to prune the client tree or are looking to optimize your business in general.

Cross-reference: Money and time earned per project

You can take the above metrics and combine them, using a spreadsheet or better still a graph, to see where time and money are working most efficiently for you. If you’ve got work that pays poorly yet consumes large chunks of time, you might want to drop it (unless it pays for itself in marketing benefits or you just genuinely love doing it).

A graph is possibly the easiest way of visualizing where most of your money is coming from with the least demands on your time. Finding and increasing the quantity of jobs you have where the cash is good but the time is short is a great way to optimize your business.

Software for tracking time and money

I use Billable to track my time, and even better I can track money using the application as well. However, I treat the cash tally in Billable as a rough guide and use the Excel spreadsheets my wonderful bookkeeping wife maintains to do my final time-to-money comparisons.

New leads per month

New leads per month doesn’t tell you much about whether your marketing is actually succeeding at the bottom line, but it does tell you whether you’re getting bites and interested parties in the door. It simply answers the question: are my marketing campaigns getting people to notice me?

New clients per month

It’s the new clients per month that tell you how effective your marketing efforts actually were at the end of the day. If you’re getting heaps of leads and only a few new clients, it’s telling you that the marketing process is fine, but the “sales” process (for lack of a better term) is suffering. You need to find better ways to convince people that you’re the right person for the job.

Failed leads per month

The practical and useful result of this statistic tells you similar information to comparing your new leads-to-new clients ratio, but it allows you to see more clearly how much your sales efforts failed (or succeeded). Also, the new leads-to-new clients ratio doesn’t take into account the new leads who have not yet made a decision, and comparing your new leads with your failed leads lets you see that slightly clearer picture.

Lost clients per month

Did you lose any clients in the month? If you’re losing more than a normal amount, you’re either delivering a poor product, delivering it late, charging too much, or not maintaining relationships with your clients effectively. If this number is high you’ll need to do some research and figure out what exactly it was that went wrong and improve that area of your business.

Number of new jobs per month

How successful have you been in acquiring new jobs? Ideally, this number needs to be higher than your new clients figure, because that means you’re getting work from those you’ve worked with before or you’re able to sell multiple projects to new clients. Good work, if so. If this number is low, you might need to see what you can do to improve relationships with existing clients who aren’t ordering new services from you.

Number of new jobs by source

How many new jobs did you acquire this month from existing clients, and how many from new clients? If you’re consistently getting repeat jobs from existing clients, it may be time to ramp down your marketing efforts (though you shouldn’t stop them altogether) and focus more time on your top-earning clients. They may be your future, and you may be able to expand your client base from their referrals alone. On the flip side, if you’re not making enough cash to survive comfortably yet and this graph indicates most of your new jobs coming from clients you’ve already charmed, it is yet another indicator that your marketing needs to be ramped up.

Overall hourly income

Having an idea of your overall hourly income comes in handy for more reasons than I could list here. First, it’s simply good to know. You work hard, and you want to know if you’re really getting value out of all that work. It ensures your marketing and maintenance time isn’t consuming too many billable hours and reducing your cash per hour to an unacceptably low level, or even worse, incurring a loss.

You get this figure by taking all the hours you’ve worked in a period—billable and non-billable—and the cash you’ve earned in that same period, and dividing them.

Output

I like to know how much I’ve produced in a given billing cycle. I can either pat myself on the shoulder for being highly productive, or it might reveal that I need to get my productivity skills up to scratch and get my ass into gear. Output is your currency, it’s what you trade with. Being able to produce more, more quickly, means you can earn more.

By output, I mean the amount of work you’ve produced using your industry’s standard measurement. For writers like myself, this means words. For web designers, it might mean pages, or entire sites (I’m guessing here!). Every freelance industry has some sort of output component; if you’re a freelance marketer, your output may be the increase in sales for a client. That’s not output in the same sense that words written is, but it’s equally useful.

Also useful is dividing your output by time spent and by cash earned. If your output is low but you only worked for an hour and made $50, your problem isn’t creating enough!