Nuts & Bolts
Business of Freelancing

10 Ways to Earn More Money Freelancing

By Ken Norkin, Special to WIW

1. Have more clients.
OK. This one’s obvious. But it bears repeating. There’s only so much work any one customer can give you. The fewer customers you have, the greater the impact of losing one. You can always use a new client.

2. Charge more.
Another obvious one. But easily forgotten. When your business costs increase, so should your rates. If clients rarely balk at your prices, that means you’re charging too little. Charge more. If you charge by the hour but don’t always bill for every hour you actually work, start charging for every minute or increase your hourly rate to stop shorting yourself. If you charge flat fees but don’t regularly meet or exceed your hourly rate, charge more (or work faster). When you think you’ve raised your rates all you can, add five percent.

3. Charge flat fees.
With flat fees you get paid for the value of the work you produce, not how many hours it takes. As you get better at knowing how much time it takes you to do certain jobs, you can price them at fees that compensate you better than your hourly rate. Hourly billing has its place—for poorly defined projects that can’t be estimated and for beginners who haven’t done enough jobs to know how long they take. But mostly, an hourly rate is a cap on your income because what you can earn will always be determined by how many hours you can bill. Whereas with well-quoted project fees, you can earn more money in the same amount of time. For work billed through close-of-business Nov. 15, by charging project fees, I have earned $9,000 more than I would have by billing hourly for the same work.

4. Set minimums.
When you add in negotiating with the client, overhead and administrative time, there is no such thing as a one- or two-hour job. Set a minimum project fee. Creative Business newsletter suggests a full day as the minimum job. I instituted half-day minimums for all new clients in 1996. This year, that’s $500.

5. Get paid in advance.
Getting your hands on your money quicker is almost as good as earning more of it. Require deposits of one-third to one-half of estimated fees before beginning a project. It’s a widely accepted practice. Here’s a warning sign: If a client says he can’t pay you one-third now, how do you know he can pay you three-thirds later?

6. Get paid in progress.
Don’t wait until the project is done. Bill the balance in progress at established milestones: delivery of first draft, delivery of agreed upon revisions, whatever.

7. Get paid on time.
Discuss and set your terms up front—invoices are due upon receipt or 10, 15 or 30 days from receipt—and be willing to call for your money when it’s due.

8. Get it in writing.
Here’s the first question in any dispute about payment: Do you have a contract? Your quote or estimate should always be in writing. From you. As should a description of the work you’re going to perform, how you’re going to bill and how and when the client’s going to pay. You can do this all in a letter. Follow your signature with the words “Accepted by” and provide a place for the client to sign. There you have an instant contract.

9. Earn income on the work of others.
Team with partners, subbing out work or otherwise buying and reselling—at a profit—the services of others, because two or more people can produce more work than one.

10. Resell work you have already created.
If you’ve done all the work on something that can be resold, all you need to make more money is a buyer. That’s why ownership of rights is so important to article writers and book authors. You can resell articles and collect the reprint fees. You can repackage your articles into a book. You can repackage chapters of your book as magazine articles. One friend of mine was hired to write a sales training manual. He was adamant about owning the copyright because much of the document could easily apply with little or no modification to any sales situation.

And here’s a bonus 11th way to earn more: Do the work.
If you’ve got work in hand, get it done. You’ll be able to send your bill sooner. Which means you’ll see your money sooner. And you’ll free up more time for more billable work.

Whether or not you were able to attend WIW’s 2002 Freelance Business Conference, you can still purchase tapes and CDs covering all the conference sessions on topics from how best to equip your home office to tax and contract tips (contact WIW office). Speaker Ken Norkin shared his Top 10 list with attendees. As everyone at the conference can attest, Norkin’s humorous wrap-up was the perfect way to finish the day.