Stupid Math Tricks Freelancers Perform

Sometimes, freelance writer, it isn’t your idea that’s the problem.

Sometimes it’s not an idea at all. No seriously, that’s not an idea you have. It’s a pipe dream.

Case in point: in a forum recently, a friend of mine said she’d seen where an aspiring writer announced she’d chosen a niche. Great! Only ….

The niche was so narrow and so specific and so, well, basic that she’d never be able make a living freelance writing. Not that way.

What was her plan?

Proofreading.

I hear you now — But Lori! Proofreading is definitely a career! Plenty of people make a decent living doing that!

You’re so right. But I haven’t told you the rest.

This aspiring writer wanted to proofread websites. For a single industry.

I commend her for finding something that she’s passionate about. But I question strongly her ability to survive doing just that.

It says to me that while she may have had a good business plan and certainly a focus, she didn’t do the math.

It’s a mistake far too many freelance writers make. Hell, far too many freelancers in general make that mistake.

They don’t do the math.

Let’s assume our friend wants to make $50,000 a year.

Suppose this writer charges $50 an hour to proofread a website. Each website in that industry might take three hours to proof. Tops. But we’ll give her three hours per just for this example.

That’s $300 per website.

How many is she going to need to proofread in order to reach that $50,000?

Just shy of 167 websites. That’s 167 new clients. Each year.

How many clients do you, established freelancer, work with in a year?

I’m betting not 167.

So what does our aspiring writer do in this case? Any one of the following things needs to happen:

• She amends her annual income target
• She increases her rate (and good luck charging more than that for proofreading)
• She inserts a reality check

The last point is going to serve her best, I think. Maybe she really needs to earn $50K to survive. Maybe she’s topped out the price for the kind of proofing she wants to do. That leaves our last option: “I’d like to buy a clue for $100, Alex.”

This writer’s chosen focus — her micro-focus, let’s call it — will not work. It doesn’t add up.

Right there is one of the bigger reasons why freelancers fail. They have unrealistic expectations, and they don’t do the math.

Or in some cases, they trust the faulty math of others.

Bad Math By Proxy

Let’s look at a popular content generation site. Won’t name it, but if you figure it out, you’re not exactly Mensa. Just savvy to what’s out there.

They promote the notion that you, my freelance friend, could make $90,000 annually by working with them.

Well, you could. Will you? Unlikely. I could make a million dollars this year. Anything is possible. Not probable, and there’s the catch.

But let’s look at that more closely at this site.

Yes, they do have listings that would allow a contractor to make good money.

But not freelancers. Developers. Designers. Accountants. Oh wait, yes. They have freelance writers as a category, but no. Sorry. No way you’re making $90K working for them. Unless you don’t like sleep, anyway.

On their site, they show their top freelance writers. And just by looking at those profiles, I know they’re not making $90K annually.

One charges $35 an hour. That writer would have to work 214.5 hours per month for 12 months to earn $90,0000. Since there are roughly 730 hours in the average month, yea. That’s kind of not happening.

Someone needs to adjust expectations. Or something.

They didn’t do the math. And they trusted the site’s math far too much.

Yes, there are professionals on that site charging $150 an hour or more, but with all the freelancers charging lower rates, what are the odds they’ll be hired? Again, possible, just not probable.

Here’s a better way to decide if your niche (or your hourly rate) is suitable:

• Start with what you want to make annually.
• Divide by 12. There’s your monthly earnings goal.
• Divide that number by your hourly rate. That’s how many hours you have to put in to hit the monthly earnings goal.

Caveat time: You will not be working every one of those 40-hour workweeks. You won’t. So you have to come up with an hourly rate that can help you reach that monthly goal even when you’re not working.

Assume that 1,000 hours of your year will be spent actually earning. That’s kind of average for freelancing. That’s about 83 hours per month you’ll be working.

Plug in your hourly rate.

Are you still going to hit that annual target?

If not, adjust your hourly rate.

If it’s too low and you find that no amount of adjusting is getting you to where you need to be, rethink your specialization. Our aspiring writer friend could make her life so much easier if she made her specialization proofreading in that industry. Not just websites, but proofreading everything will get her much, much closer to her $50K goal.

An additional word on trusting the promises of others:

Don’t.

Do your own damn math. And don’t let them convince you of what you could do. Only if they guarantee without stipulation that you will do you believe them.

Writers, what wonky math have you seen recently?
How do you determine if a focus area will fit with your earnings goals?