There are lots of ways to double your income as a freelancer. Charge more. Work more. Click on all the clickbait (I didn’t say they were all *good* ways to double your income). In our recent workshop with Dana Miranda, Certified Financial Educator and founder of Healthy Rich, she shared the practical strategy that she actually used to double her income centered on the way she organized her calendar.
Here are the 3 steps Dana took to organize her calendar that doubled her income without forcing her to take on more clients.
I wrote this down in bold letters:
<tweet-link>Have a to-do date instead of a due date.<tweet-link>
Dana estimated the time it would take her to complete the work she accepted and then added the time it would take her to complete the task to her calendar at a set day ahead of the due date. Not only did this give her a solid foundation to calculate her effective hourly rate (how much money you’re actually making during your working hours), it also showed her when she could take on new work and when she had to turn down new proposals.
How do you actually know where your time is going? Dana used her Google Calendar and adjusted blocks depending on how much time she spent working on a project.
Recording the actual time you worked and tracking it to a client and a project allows you to better estimate how much time something will take you AND which clients and projects are stealing most of your time.
We all know time is a thief. You start answering emails on Monday morning and suddenly it’s Thursday. Use Moxie’s time tracker, use your stop watch, or use an analog clock, but most importantly, don’t lose your time. <tweet-link>There is always more money to be made, but there is never more time.<tweet-link> (Also important for your effective hourly rate!)
Dana created time blocks with different colors for each client to create a visual representation of which clients were sucking her time away. It’s easy to hold on to a client that you’ve had forever or a contact that you really like working with, but as a business owner, it’s also vital that you take a data-driven look at which clients take the most time against what clients and projects are earning you the most money. Then make a conscious choice which one you’re going to keep.
Giving yourself the data to look at - whether that’s in a calendar or a project management tool (we know a great one) - will help you make the tough calls when it’s time to drop a client to make room for a new client or your preferred type of project.
Dana shared how she took this foundational information and then proceeded to drop time-sucking clients to make way for more of the projects she loved. This allowed her to make her working week just 3 days and double her freelance income to make room to found a new business - Healthy Rich.
If you missed Dana’s full workshop, find the replay here. Or read more of Dana’s work at healthyrich.co.
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