How to Make More Money as a Freelancer
Making more money as a freelancer depends on your answers to these five questions:
Who do you work for?
What level of services do you provide?
How much can you charge for your work?
How many clients do you have?
What are your work habits?
Maximize Your Income By Working for Professional Clients
When you start freelancing, you’ll work for many types of clients. You need the money, you need the experience, and you need to build up a portfolio.
This is how 99% of freelancers start (totally fabricated stat, but close enough).
Many of these clients are amateurs. They don’t know how to be good clients. That means they don’t know what they want, don’t write complete briefs, change their minds often, and usually have small budgets for big dreams. (The money is personal, and they don’t want to spend it.)
It’s hard work dealing with these types of clients. Lots of aggravation for too little money.
As soon as you have a strong portfolio, start going after professional clients. These are clients whose job is marketing or IT, who know how to work with freelancers (written briefs and timelines that make sense), who have defined company budgets, and who have many projects that might be yours if you do a great job on your first project together.
Professional clients are likely to be medium-sized or large organizations. However, you could get lucky and find smaller businesses that know how to operate professionally.
If you’re looking for professional clients, re-focus your freelance business to attract long-term clients.
Professional Client Summary
Here’s how you know you’re working with a professional client:
Working with freelancers like you is an essential part of their job
They know how to manage their projects
They give you detailed briefs with reasonable timelines
They have appropriate budgets for their jobs
They have many jobs throughout the year, and you could become their “go-to” freelancer
Providing Expert Level Services Means You Get Paid More
Let’s say you’re a freelance copywriter. When you start, you’re learning your craft. You’re at the beginner level.
But after a couple of years, your work improves, and you realize that you’re best at specific kinds of writing—let’s say, long-form blog posts for SaaS clients (as opposed to social media ads for fashion clients).
You start getting more SaaS clients. Soon, you’ll have developed a niche, and you’re becoming an expert.
You know the business, the client’s pain points, their customers, and their competition. You are becoming a valued contributor to their marketing efforts.
When you get to that level, two things happen: you are in high demand for your expertise, and your job becomes easier.
Being in demand means you can charge more (they’ll gladly pay). Your depth of expertise means you can work faster, which multiplies your income.
In your freelancing business, you want to work your way to an expert level.
You don’t need to narrow down to just one niche, but you should aim to specialize. That’s where the money is. Here are the details on how to pick a high-paying niche.
How Much Can You Charge For Your Work?
Many freelancers start by charging by the hour or word. There’s only one good reason to charge that way—for you to figure out how long it takes you to do a specific type of project. Keep track of your time and learn from it.
Here are the problems with charging that way. First, a potential client might push back on your hourly rate. You say $75/hr, and they suggest $50. You tell them you need to allocate 10 hours to the project, and they say they worked with another freelancer who did a similar job in just six hours.
Now you’re debating dollars and hours.
Or, you don’t give the client an estimate before the job and then hand them an invoice for $750. They’re shocked! It’s way more than they expected!
So, if you start by the hour or word, be upfront about your fees. It’s best to get it out of the way before you do the job.
As for how much you can charge, just start at whatever seems right. Then, assuming you get jobs at your rates, raise them by 10% every three months until you get real pushback.
While doing this, work your way up the client hierarchy to find more professional clients where money isn’t the number one criterion.
Somewhere along the way, switch how you bill from by the hour or word to project billing. Here are the best pricing models for creative services. Read the first two sections to understand the differences between hourly and project billing.
How Many Clients Do You Have? Too Few, Too Many, or Just Right?
Freelancing can be a feast or famine business. One day, you have too many projects, and the next day, the pipeline is empty. Nothing coming! Now what?
Take the time to seriously think about the kinds of clients you want and how you’ll keep a steady flow of work.
If you’re working for smaller clients where you might be doing just a few jobs for each client, you will need a way to keep attracting new clients. Some freelancers manage this with an ongoing social media presence or an email list.
This has never been my favorite way to work. There’s no steady business, and you’re always learning the preferences of each new client.
Because I came to freelancing from big ad agencies, I was used to working with larger clients with six- and seven-figure budgets.
When I started freelancing, I purposely looked for bigger corporate clients where I could earn the right to be their “go to” copywriter. Yes, I got some smaller one-off clients along the way, but I wasn’t pursuing them.
With bigger clients, assuming I did a great job on the first project, they’d give me another one. And then another, and so on. Having just a few clients like this can keep you busy.
These were “professional clients” who knew how to manage their business. Money was rarely an issue. I had clients like this for years and spent very little time prospecting.
To get steady clients like this, you must learn how to build client relationships. It’s worth it. With ongoing work, most hours are billable rather than spent prospecting for your next client.
Your Work Habits—the Key to Maximizing Your Income
Many freelancers sabotage themselves because they have poor work habits. They don’t use their time efficiently, and the days flow by in a blur.
Here are some pointers to get the most out of each day.
Stop Distracting Yourself
For many of us, the biggest distraction is the phone. If you want to bear down and work productively, keep the phone out of your hands. Maybe even out of sight. Turn off beeping notifications. If necessary, leave your phone in another room.
If you’re looking at your phone every 10 minutes, you’re destroying your concentration and pissing away the day.
Plan Your Day Intentionally
Use a daily or weekly schedule to map out your tasks. Begin with your highest-priority tasks and most profitable projects.
Time-blocking can help you allocate hours for specific work. It helps keep you on track and reduces time spent on low-priority activities. Make sure to schedule breaks to avoid burnout.
Some freelancers work in 20- or 30-minute sprints. But if you take a little break, ensure it’s five minutes or less. Grab a coffee and bring it back to your desk.
Don’t look at your phone. Stay away from endless social media scrolling. Before you know it, an hour is gone. (Ask me how I know)
Find a System for Tracking Your Time Per Project
Knowing how long each project takes is critical to accurate estimating. After you keep track of a few projects, you’ll get a feel for how long it will take you to complete them.
You can do this in a simple notepad document or use tools like Toggl, Harvest, or Clockify.
This data helps you see which projects are profitable and which are eating up too much time. It gives you a baseline for creating future estimates.
You can also use this information to calculate the profitability of each project and each client. You might be surprised to learn that some clients are much more profitable than others.
When You Plan Your Day, Build in Buffer Time
Try not to plan your days too tightly. Leave a bit of flex so that, for example, you can deal with unexpected revisions, client feedback, or project overruns.
This ensures that a single delayed project doesn’t derail your entire schedule.
Work During Your Optimal Hours
Pay attention to your most productive times during the day and schedule your intensive tasks then.
If you’re a morning person, tackle challenging work early. If you hit your stride in the afternoon or evening, adjust your schedule accordingly.
Use your least efficient hours to do admin work such as estimating, billing, or updating your portfolio. That’s why having a schedule is so important.
For example, you might schedule the morning to work on a project, break for lunch, then do some admin work or research in the afternoon.
Automate Whatever You Can
When you’re starting out, it’s okay to do everything manually. It will probably help you learn the processes that work for you.
Then, once you’re more established, automate invoicing, scheduling, and other repetitive tasks to save time. Tools like FreshBooks or QuickBooks can handle invoicing, while platforms like Calendly can automate client meetings.
Streamline these tasks so you spend less time on admin and more on work that generates income.
To be a successful freelancer, you have to know yourself— it’s the secret to running a successful creative business.
New Book For Freelancers
I’ve just published How to Become a Successful Creative Freelancer. It’s the essential business guide for freelance writers, designers, developers, filmmakers, and photographers.
Whether you’re just starting as a freelancer or have years of experience, you’ll learn a lot from this book.
It’s broken down into easy-to-understand chapters with strategies and tips you can use today. Not just “what to do”, but also “how to do it”.
It’s now available in Kindle ebook and paperback format on Amazon.
Want to Grow An Agency? The Agency Book is For You
If you’re looking for tips on how to build and grow your agency, you’ll want to read How to Start a Successful Creative Agency.
Available at Amazon (Paper & Kindle), Kobo (ebook), Apple Books (ebook), and Gumroad (PDF).
The book is packed with useful information to help creatives start and grow their business.
Testimonial: Recommend this one!
“Andy Strote has been in the marketing world for a long time, and has a lot of helpful advice. While I do not plan on starting an agency anytime soon, the advice in this book can apply to freelancing as a business as well. And, who knows, I might start an agency someday, now that I’ve been able to benefit from all of Strote’s helpful tips. Recommend this one!”
Five stars on Amazon
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This chapter covers essential areas such as Clients vs. Projects, Corporate Clients vs. Small Business Clients, How to Create an Opportunity Document, Benefits of Finding a Niche… and much more.
Questions? On Twitter, I’m @StroteBook. D.M.s are always open. On LinkedIn, I’m Andy Strote. Ask away.