If you read this blog with any regularity you'll know that I take a lot of vacations (see: How to Use Vacations to Make You a Wealthier Freelance Writer). This year my family and I have taken a vacation once every other month or so . Ah, the freelancing life.
Now, I'm not gloating. My point is if you're going to be a freelancer, make sure that you take advantage of one of the major perks: making your own hours.
I'm not able to take a vacation every other month because I don't work or because I make lots of money. I'm able to do it because I take full advantage of the days I do work. Here's how I do it:
I decide how much money I need to meet my financial goals. I divide that amount by how many days I want to work that month.The answer is how much money I need to make each day I work that month. Finally, I figure out how much client work will get me to my goal each day. This month I've decided I need to work 13 days at $100 per day. That's easy enough. Here's how I broke it down:
At Suite I make around $200/month. To make my quota I need 4 articles. 2 articles/day = $100/day for 2 days. (I know Suite is residual income, but this is how I justify it in my head. Don't be hatin'. :p ) I get $1000 per month from one client. If I break the job down into 10 bite-sized bits that's 10 days @ $100 apiece. I get over a $100/month without doing anything for eHow, so that's a $100 free day. I'm not even counting the residual income I make from my blogs. $1300 for only a couple hours of work per day for 12 days? Sounds like a plan!
