Episode 40: How to Earn 150k/year Freelancing (Working 25 Hours per Week)
Is it possible to earn over $150k/year as a freelancer while only working 20-25 hours per week? Yes. I’m doing it, and many other freelancers are as well.
Today, I’m going to break down the key parts of the formula that makes this possible. Will this overview alone get you to that target? Absolutely not. (If only life worked like that.)
But it will unlock some key things you need to work on that will be big needle movers in this process.
If you want more training (and you will need more training,) ask me about the course I’m producing and also watch my videos on my YouTube channel Freelance Family Man
So, let’s get started. You might be asking, “Why over $100k?”
Because you really can’t support a family for anything less. My average has been $150k. With the current cost of living, that amount provides you just enough to be comfortable, have a house, put some money in savings, and own some investments, but you still don’t have a ton of excess. So if you’re raising a family on only one income, $150k/year needs to be your target.
And why shoot for under 25 hours per week? Because it takes time and effort to support your family in other ways beyond money.
If you’re a dad like me, then hear this: your wife and kids need YOU first and foremost in their daily life, not just your money.
They need your time, your wife needs your help with the kids and the house. And I get it, working is often less stressful than taking care of kids. Honestly, when I’m working in my business I feel like I’m getting a break.
Taking care of kids, especially young kids, is far more stressful than work. I have a 5 year old boy, a 2 year old boy, and a newborn girl, so they’re all at ages that require a lot from the parents. We homeschool too, so we don’t get a 6 hour break every day from our kids. But if you believe in the power a functional, loving family can have on society then you know why it’s worth it.
So I’m going to give you key things you need to know and do to earn over 6 figures, freelancing part-time, all in the context of my own life which includes having young kids who are all at home everyday. If you have kids in public school or you don’t have kids yet and you apply what I teach you, it’ll just be that much easier for you to get this goal. But if you are in a similar situation as me, I’ll show you it’s possible.
To get to $150k freelancing part-time, the first insanely important truth you must accept is that there will be more steps than you think, and then more beyond that.
You’ll think you’re only 6 steps away, and then you find that there are 20 steps between each of those steps and then 10 in between those. Welcome to freelancing and growing a business… and welcome to life.
You must be diligent and consistent, but you can be comforted in the fact that you will make gradual progress along the way. You’re not going to be earning $25k per year for 3 years and then all of a sudden you jump to $150k. You’ll get to $50k, then $75k, then $100k, and that progress will give you rewards along the way to keep you motivated.
Once you’ve accepted that, it’s time to work on some key skills that make you valuable enough to your clients to earn those higher amounts:
First, make sure you’re really really good at your craft, whatever service you’re selling.
Practice, practice, practice while you still have your normal job, until you’re fast and skilled enough to consider yourself an expert. If you’re not sure how to improve your craft, find mentors, take courses, and seek the training you need to get educated.
One video editor might only be able to earn $25/hour and another $75 an hour. The second has honed his craft to the point where clients can trust him to deliver very high quality work and in as quick as possible of time without sacrificing quality.
There are many writers, graphic designers, and consultants out there. What makes you the top 1% based on skill level?
On your journey to become the top 1% is where you are putting in more time, but not getting paid for it yet. You’re getting good enough to get paid expert rates.
How do you know if you’re good enough? Your clients will tell you. If you try to charge $100/hour and nobody wants to hire you it’s first because your portfolio doesn’t look like it’s worth $100/hour. You have to practice those skills and work to become that 1%.
The second thing you must spend ample time on is your sales and communication skills. You can be the most skilled editor but if you don’t have good sales and communication skills, clients won’t want to work with you.
You need to be able to convince them of the value you bring, especially when you’re just starting and you don’t have extensive social proof yet from testimonials of past clients.
You have to know how to sell yourself and the value you will provide.
When a potential client gets on a call with you, they need to feel as if they can talk with you in a professional manner without it being stressful for them because you have really good communication skills. So to grow this skill, you’ll need training, coaching and lots of practice.
I was a great video editor when I started my freelance business, but horrible at sales so I couldn’t find any clients. I didn’t know how to pitch myself or, most importantly, how to figure out a client’s real problem and be able to frame my services as a solution to that problem. I’ve got a course coming that will provide training on this and I have videos on pieces of this.
And to take it a level deeper with communication skills, you need to also be good at:
Never assuming
Always double checking with clients on things
Over-communicating project expectations
Asking great questions so you really understand the client’s most important goals
Humility
When you receive criticism from a client, learn from it, take it seriously and see where you can improve.
There is much more to talk about with freelancer communication skills but we’ll explore that in another video and future courses.
Once you’ve honed the craft that you’re selling, and once you’ve mastered sales skills, you need to work on stellar time management.
You may be working at home at random hours, but the more normal of a work schedule you have that aligns with most businesses, the better off you’ll be.
Most of your clients are working 9-5 Monday-Friday and don’t want to be having meetings with you on a Sunday or getting a bunch of emails Saturday night. They don’t want to try and connect with you Thursday and don’t hear back until Sunday because you work weekends.
Yes, as a freelancer you have more flexibility, but you still have to bend a bit towards how your clients work so they’ll have an easier time working with you.
Another thing you should master is getting organized. If you’re not naturally a detail oriented and organized person, then you must become one.
Find someone to teach you. You’re running a business now and you won’t stay in business if you can’t keep track of contracts, documents, client information, and staying on top of every project so you’re delivering on time.
Your reputation can get damaged pretty quickly by an angry client if you aren’t organized. If you lack that skill, you won’t be able to hide it from your clients.
I write EVERYTHING down because I’ve learned that no matter how good I think I am at keeping track of things in my head, my personal life takes up a lot of space there, so the ball will get dropped with my clients if I don’t write down and calendar every task.
I use several apps for organization: Trello for client projects and people on my team, AnyDo for my own tasks day to day, my iPhone calendar, Google docs, Dropbox, and Monday.com. All of these keep me organized and on top of things in both my business and personal life.
I also suggest that you get a CRM. The more data you keep track of on your clients like contract start date, why they signed up, why they canceled, who your leads are, active clients, paused clients, past client list, etc, the better off your business will be.
So we’ve covered working on the skills associated with the service you’re providing, your craft, we discussed sales skills and communication skills and time management and organization and we’ve got one more. A $150k freelancer that’s only working 20-25 hours per week, is a master at these 3 things, all 3 of these, not just one.
The last thing you need to work on that will help you get to $150k per year is getting your priorities straight.
Many entrepreneurs, especially dads, can get carried away with the ambition of their career and get hyper focused on their career goals like a train without brakes, at the expense of their family and personal needs.
I made many mistakes building up my freelance business, but one thing I did right because I learned it early on from my mentors, was to have your priorities in line and stick to them. Never forget what matters most.
Your family and your health and your relationships are far more important than money.
You’ll work 20 hours and think, if I just worked 20 more, I’ll start making more money quicker, and then you convince yourself that all that work will be to benefit your family. But then for the next 2 years, they keep wondering, “where did Dad go?” “He’s always working.”
And your marriage starts to experience challenges, and your parenting gets worse and your kids start having problems because they don’t have enough attention from both of their parents and the attention they get from Mom is probably more negative than positive because she’s stressed from taking on the full child-care burden.
And you’re eating crappy food and not getting enough sleep, and then eventually maybe you have a wake up call if you’re lucky. For many, this road has led to divorce, self-esteem issues for their children, and serious illness.
From the moment I decided to freelance 5 years ago, I never worked more than 30 hours per week, and eventually was able to get it down to 20-25. 25 is my max, but 20 usually is a good minimum if I want to keep growing things at a good pace.
That’s why I’m a freelance family man. My family comes first.
And I’ve had pretty good sleep most of my freelancing journey, when I haven’t had a newborn baby of course. And I’ve eaten healthy enough to not get sick. And most importantly, my wife hasn’t had to take on the full burden of childcare which has helped her have more sanity and thus be a better mom.
Do we still have a lot to figure out about parenting? Yes. Do we still have days that are super stressful? Yes, because parenting is seriously hard work, especially when you have 3 children that are incompatible with one another due to age differences.
But we’ve been able to keep our marriage strong, and our relationship with our kids is a trusting one. We screw up often but we quickly resolve the problem because we don’t like things festering and we’re not too busy to be able to address personal family issues.
So again, these are some key skills you need to work on if you want to be a $150k freelancer and a parent with great life work balance, but was this everything you needed to know? Of course not, there are many little steps between these things and that’s why I’ve created over 100 videos and will have many more to come.
You’ve got to know how to price your services, and where to look for clients etc etc…So let me know what you’re struggling with the most in your freelance business and I’ll work it into my upcoming posts!
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