Freelance Confidential - Amanda Hackwith [6]
Full-time freelancers only: What percent of your hours worked do you bill your clients a week?
However a significant chunk of freelancers report billing 40% or fewer of their worked hours to their clients.
One of the first things new freelancers learn upon starting their own business is just how much work and time it takes to run a business, outside of client work and responsibilities. It takes time to maintain your portfolio, invoice clients, provide complimentary estimates, promote your services, document your finances, and hundreds more business tasks. While I personally aim for about 60% billable time each week, our survey responses show just how easy it is to spend more time maintaining your business than working on a billable project.
TIP: SURVEY SAYS...
Account for the cost of "unbillable" time in your rates and business plan. Unfortunately, virtually no freelancer can bill a full 40 hour week to clients. Make sure that you can support yourself on the actual amount you are able to invoice each week — there's a big difference between living on $40/hour for a 40 hour billable week and living on $40/hour for a 15 hour billable week.
Think globally. If business is slow with your local clients, consider expanding your business to include projects for clients outside your local area. Consider jobs on reputable job boards and boards attached to industry-specific communities.
Follow up with happy clients to ensure fresh recommendations. Keep in touch with your previous clients to encourage them to recommend your services to others. Popular ways to reach out to clients can include emailed newsletters, thank you notes, mailings, social media, and more — get creative!
Answering the BIG Questions
There are a few questions that freelancers inevitably ask other freelancers. In this chapter, we'll look at the answers for:
Where do you find clients?
How much do you charge?
How do you estimate a project?
How do I grow my business?
By nature, these are questions that freelancers are reluctant to share. However, by and large, the 3,200 participants in the global freelancing survey were open about their methods and success.
Freelance Freedom appears courtesy of the artist, N.C. Winters. http://www.ncwinters.com
Where do you find clients?
As described in the Survey chapter, freelancers find most clients through personal recommendations from happy clients. Referrals are most likely to lead to new work because they carry the credibility of satisfied clients behind them. However, online efforts like social media and professional portfolios also generate leads.
For more help on improving your portfolio and social media presence, check out the Marketing chapter.
How much do you charge?
Valuing your skills and time is one of the most challenging tasks for new and experienced freelancers alike. Asking about hourly rates can be considered quite personal and taboo in freelance communities, partially because rate can be greatly influenced by location, clientele, experience, and services rendered.
With those variables in mind, the Global Freelancers Survey provided a unique opportunity for our 3,200 freelancers worldwide to share information on their hourly rates.
For profession-specific rates, please see the full chart in the Appendix.
The reported hourly rates show what could be seen as a lifecycle of many freelance businesses. When you first start, rates can vary wildly depending on your previous work experience and business plan, however after a few years, most freelancers seem to settle into an average that is supported by their client market, with steady gains over time.
There's a surprising jump in rates at the two to three year mark. Two to three years can be considered a proving period of freelancing, when a new business can either hit its stride or start to fumble as long-term issues surface. Many freelancers might consider drastic changes to their business during this time (such as raising their rates) or even quit all together. After year three, we see rates level back out and