Not so long ago, I posted my earnings, marketing, and such every month. I stopped when I redesigned the site because I wanted to lump them under a new area of the blog and, hopefully, get you to participate. That was the plan.
Funny thing about plans that involve technology and yours truly. I’ve put it off — for three years, it seems. The logistics of what I want to do, which amounts to creating an interactive page for monthly assessments, stopped me at the starting point.
Anyway, you can see how I’ve put together previous monthly assessments here. I swear I posted plenty more than that, but since I was on a different platform and didn’t tag anything, it’s just happenstance if you find it. When I retire, I’ll fix that. 😉
But this month, my usual accountability partner is not available for personal reasons. What better time to reintroduce the idea?
For those of you not familiar with monthly assessments, it’s a way for you to own up to what you did or didn’t do for the previous month. Why that matters —
[bctt tweet=”Accountability keeps your eye on your #freelancewriting goals.” username=”LoriWidmer”]
Try it. For one week (or even for one day), keep track of all you do. Then report it to a friend, a family member, another writer. The power is in having to tell your spouse that you played solitaire all day versus mentioning you’ve emailed two existing clients and two prospective clients looking for work.
Yep. Owning up for your actions regularly keeps you focused on your goals.
What to include in a monthly assessment — that’s really up to you. What I do is include how I marketed and to whom (how many people mostly), if there were any results from that marketing, what work came in from regulars, any new clients picked up, and how close I came to meeting my monthly earnings goal. And yes, I set an earnings goal. I highly recommend it because it gives you something to measure your progress against. I come to that number by deciding how much I want to make each year, then divide by twelve. Trust me, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Then I tell someone about what happened all month. Like I’m about to tell you.
Here’s what I did all month:
Queries
I sent out a few follow-up queries on previous marketing emails. I got responses, but nothing concrete.
LOIs
Slow month here. I sent out seven, received no responses.
Social media
I tend to get more traction with social media these days, so I reached out on Twitter (lots of sharing and retweeting) and LinkedIn. Through LinkedIn, I signed on with a new company. No work yet, but the ink is still wet.
Job postings
I don’t seek these out at all, but I do get listings from some of the associations I belong to, and via LinkedIn. And since LI decided to be asses and make you pay for membership to respond to these Profinder job notices, I probably won’t get any more work from them (had two gigs via Profinder). A few things looked interesting, but the pay wasn’t meshing with the work needed.
New clients
I did pick up one new client, and I’m hopeful that as the contact gets his bearings at the company, the projects will come in. Another new client was a referral from a friend, and it resulted in a rather big paycheck.
Existing clients
Regular clients this month — just one, oddly. Typically, I have three or four clients who funnel work to me on a monthly or ever other month. As for work going forward, I have one project arriving on Friday, and another coming in next week. It’s been an oddly dry year, to be honest. But August and September were great for earnings.
Earnings
Thanks to just two clients, I surpassed my monthly earnings goal by 12 percent.
Bottom Line
I need to secure two more regular clients. While I do have a decent pool of seven or eight clients, I need ongoing work to help maintain the momentum that’s been happening the last two months. More marketing for new clients, more reaching out to existing clients, more social media conversations and webinar attendance.
Writers, how did you do in September?
Any surprises? Are you seeing a bounty or a dearth these days?
13 responses to “Monthly Assessment: The Return of Freelance Accountability”
September was filled with grief and worry and unexpected possibilities. The bottom line is that the next few weeks are up in the air, and will decide the course of the next few months. Every piece affects every other piece, so I’m going day-to-day, until the big piece that decides the rest is in place one way or the other. I hate it, I like long-term planning with short-term flexibility. And yes, I’m feeling as disconnected as this reply sounds! As soon as I am in position to share details, I will. Either way the big piece shakes out will be good, but either way will mean huge changes on multiple fronts.
I’ve just been trying to show up and do the work every day, and stay open to opportunities and keep at LOIs and pitches.
I feel like I need a 3-month nap.
Devon, you have had a rough September. 🙁 I hear you. It’s Uranus transit, and I can’t wait for it to disappear for a while — a long while!
If it helps, I feel just as disconnected. And naps. Yes, we need more naps. When you’re ready, we’re here.
Devon,
I understand your situation, If you feel like you need some break you can take break to reflect and recharge.
Once you are back, focus on getting thing done and do the work.
If you feel like you need help with the motivation and to keep yourself accountable to make sure you are doing what you should be doing. You can get an accountability buddy and and do consistent checkin with the person.
Review your progress, share your plans. Over time things will progress for better.
Thanks
It’s baaaack!
I’ve really missed the monthly accountability threads, Lori. I’d love to hear more about how you’re using LinkedIn. I joined ProFinder long ago but never got anything out of it.
Last year I had one with a couple of other writers – one who usually forgot to participate, and another who was serious about it but wound up taking a full-time job that was a perfect fit for her. A few months ago I asked Dava Stewart if she’d like to be accountability buddies. Boy, her determination and effort is really motivating!
I actually had to start keeping a more detailed ledger to use as “proof of income” for the Healthcare Marketplace (ACA). For that I even break it down to how much income I “generate” per week (for that I only count assignments I’ve turned in, not things I’m actively working on) along with a list of current assignments; invoices sent/received (and projections of when those payments should arrive; and then the typical income/expenses list. Viewing it on such a micro level really helps motivate me to push harder since I don’t want to submit embarrassingly low figures to the Healthcare Marketplace.
I just sent Dava my September update, so I might has well post it here, too, since I love to play along.
LOIs – sent three. No replies. Sent three follow ups to older LOIs.
Queries – sent two. One was accepted but is on hold, the other was to a longtime client, but I haven’t heard back yet. Not a big surprise considering September is a busy month for them.
Job listings – applied to one that sounded like a good fit. The editor replied apologizing for their low rates – I don’t consider 60-80¢/word “low.” Sure, a higher rate would be nice, but he would have steady work, and possibly a retainer. Waiting to hear back on next steps. It’s a bit outside my normal niche, but their post said industry experience wasn’t needed. Fingers crossed.
Completed assignments – Wrote five columns, two profiles, a big fun project for a longtime client, and one listicle. Also wrote a press release, pro bono, for a local non-profit that supplies free new books to school kids around the area. It’s a one-woman show and she needs to get her name out there to boost fundraising. In return, I get fresh examples of press releases.
Current assignments – One personality profile, ~50 executive listings (due in just a week, yikes!), a local business profile, and if the publicist complies – my first celebrity profile for a new-to-me market. I’d love to contribute to that website fairly regularly since they pay fairly well for a website.
Income – What actually came in wasn’t that bad considering work was a little sluggish over the summer (it’s usually one of my busiest times), but still a few hundred shy of my monthly goal. I currently have about $1440 invoiced (over $900 of which should arrive this week). And I’m currently working on (or just turned in and have yet to invoice) over $2,000 worth of work — not counting the profile for the new-to-me client which could be another nice chunk of change if we do it as a Q&A.
Bottom line: I love all of my current ones, but none have consistent assignments. I need to find at least one consistent client to the revenue stream flowing between lulls.
Paula, who knew the ACA would be your accountability partner? 😉
Sounds like you had a decent month, too. How have things changed having Dava as an accountability partner? Motivating, I bet!
Motivating to be sure! She’s really pushing through….almost to the point that I want to remind her to slow down. But then she says she got all of that done in under 40 hours/week and I’m like, “Go, girl!”
I sort of do this on the Goals, Dreams, and Resolutions site, where I post a to-do list at the top of the month and see what I’ve done and what had to change at the end. It’s been helpful.
I had more meetings this past month than usual. One of the things I noticed is how few actual questions the people in the meetings could answer. Basic stuff, like “How do you run the day-to-day with the project team?”
I want to do more article pitches, but I’m not feeling the drive I usually have for articles. I have to think about some new angles on topics. I’m trying to expand beyond my usual list.
Happy to be your accountability buddy, Lori, and happy to be back to work with a very steady stream of work lined up for months ahead!
I’m happy too, Joy. 🙂
September was, in a word, disastrous for me! I have not really had to look for work for the past 5+ years thanks to my regular clients, referrals, and people contacting me through LinkedIn. I have a project that’s starting in the next day or so, but other than that things are eerily quiet.
I’m marketing like mad, feeling a tad bit panicky, and thankful that I have a bit of a cushion for times like these. I’m truly baffled as to what is going on. I’m hoping it’s just a pile-up of bad luck and not indicative of a larger trend.
Krista, its’ not just you. It’s been a strange year for me, too. And it is baffling, I agree.
I guess I can suggest just what I’m doing — looking in different areas. The same group of potential clients isn’t netting much, and for me, it could be the industry I focus on. All signs point to no outwardly, but I know what external pressures aren’t being revealed in their market reports.
Maybe just switch up the type of project you seek or the audience you attract?
Hmmm…honestly I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse that it’s not just me. LOL I think you’re right about branching out a bit! It’s just so intimidating after working in a pretty narrow industry for so long. Thanks for the advice–it is appreciated.
LOL I know what you mean!