4 Ways to Increase Your Income as a Freelancer

Posted by Debbie Dragon on November 3, 2008

Freelancers are one of the few professions where an individual can create their own hours, select which clients they will work for and which ones they won’t, and decide how much their time is worth. This is the same across all freelance professions, whether you are a writer, graphic designer, web designer, etc – freelancing offers extreme flexibility.

What it also offers is a limitation as to how much you can earn per month. Your income is directly tied to how much you work, and there are only so many hours you can work in a given month. You can only raise your rates so high before you lose clients who think you’re overpriced… so how can you increase your income?

1. Work Faster. It stands to reason that if you can do twice as much work in an hour as what you’re currently doing, then you will make twice as much per hour. For me, as a freelance writer, if I write 2 articles per hour at $25 each, I make $50 per hour – but if I write 4 articles in an hour I make $100 per hour. Working faster will come with experience and practice mostly, but being more efficient when you are working will increase your productivity and allow you to turn out more work in an hour than when you are trying to multitask too many projects at one time.

2. Charge More. One sure-fire way to increase your income is to charge more for the work you do. Keep in mind that there is a maximum ceiling here and if you break through it you could find you’ve priced yourself right out of the market. Know what the going rate is for the work you do, and if you decide it’s time to raise your rates try to keep it within 10-20% of what you’re currently charging.

3. Hire an Assistant. If you spend more time on the administrative tasks of running your business than you do on the actual money-making activities, you would probably benefit from having an assistant. I recommend bringing an assistant on board on a freelance/contract basis rather than as an employee. Then, when you hit slow periods, you don’t have to worry about meeting a payroll and can just assign work as needed.

4. Branch out Into other income earning activities. Increase profits by diversifying your work – try including passive income activities, expanding into offline markets if you only work online, or becoming a consultant for big businesses (with big budgets!)

Just as you have optimum flexibility as a freelancer in scheduling your time and choosing your work – you also have the advantage over other professions in that you can literally decide how much you want (need) to earn.