Sharing the real numbers behind my freelance business is one of the most popular things I do. (Here are my final revenue numbers from 2023 in case you missed them.)
Because too many freelancers have unrealistic expectations for how much money they can make. And how fast they can make it.
That’s why I’m committed to showing you the real numbers from inside my own freelance business at the end of every quarter. Since I want to be your trusted source for no-nonsense information about how to run a thriving freelance business.
So let me start by giving you the background about the goals I have set for 2024. (Based on the 3 primary numbers I use to manage my freelance business.)
My 2024 Revenue Goal
For reference, my revenue came in just short of $230,000 last year. And it was the first time I’ve failed to reach my annual income goal ever since I started sharing my numbers with you.
So because I failed to reach my goal last year, it doesn’t seem wise for me to aim for an even bigger goal this year.
After all, before I can reach a bigger goal, by definition I will have to break through $230,000 first.
So that’s why I’ve made $230,000 my revenue goal for 2024.
Now don’t get me wrong. I still hope to achieve even bigger growth this year.
But part of my strategy is to find ways to grow my income without having to work more hours or expand my bandwidth by hiring subcontractors.
That’s why I’m focusing on deals that pay royalties or performance bonuses. Since they have the potential to bring in a substantial increase in revenue — for the exact same amount of work I’m doing right now.
The only challenge is that performance-based deals are less reliable than fixed-price projects. Since you only get paid when your work performs well.
And if it doesn’t perform well…you get nothing else.
On top of that, it can also take a while for my copy to go live and start generating revenue.
Which means there can be a big delay between when I do the work and when I actually reap the rewards. And many of the projects I’ve worked on this year won’t go live until later in the year. Plus for bigger projects, it may not even be until next year.
So now that you’ve seen my revenue goal for the year, let’s look at my goal for the biggest “expense” I have to run my business…
My time.
My 2024 Hours-Worked Goal
My goal is to work 1,200 hours or less this year. That comes out to 100 hours per month — or roughly 25 hours per week. (With a few full weeks off.)
I find that 25 hours per week gives me plenty of leisure time to go to the gym … work on side-projects that excite me … spend time with my wife, friends and family … and even just sleep in if I want to. Plus it also allows me to put in enough hours to make a healthy income.
So that’s why this number has remained more-or-less the same over the past few years.
Which brings me to the final number I keep a close eye on to know how my business is doing.
My 2024 Effective Hourly Rate Goal
This number tells me how much money I make for every single hour I spend working on and in my business. From answering emails, to keeping my books, to working on client projects.
Measuring my effective hourly rate is an important way I make sure that I continue to use my time for only the most important and profitable activities. (Which aligns with my goal to “outsource everything” else this year.)
And if you do the math, $230,000 of revenue from 1,200 hours worked comes out to roughly $192 per hour.
Update After Q1 of 2024
Now that Q1 of 2024 is over, let’s look at where my numbers shake out so far this year…
Revenue Projection After Q1
Right now, I’m projecting my revenue for 2024 to be $230,040. Which is juuuuust barely above my goal of $230,000.
![](https://freelancelikeapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/1_2024-Q1-Revenue.png)
But I’m not going to panic just yet.
I’m going to stick to my long-term plan. And I’m going to continue planting as many royalty-generating seeds as I can. Even though they may not pay off for a while, like I mentioned above.
Yet at the same time, I’m also going to hope that a lot of the seeds I planted last year will start to grow soon. To the point where I see a big increase in my revenue over the rest of the year. (Without having to work longer hours or hire anyone.)
Work Hours Projection After Q1
As of now, I’m projecting to work 1,188 hours this year. And that means I’ve got about 12 extra hours “in the bank” that I can use the rest of this year as needed.
![](https://freelancelikeapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2_2024-Q1-Hours.png)
Effective Hourly Rate Projection After Q1
You’ve already seen that I’m projecting that I will meet both my revenue goal and my work-hours goal. And that means by definition I’m on track to hit my effective hourly rate goal. Which like I said is $192 per hour. Check it out…
![](https://freelancelikeapro.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/3_2024-Q1-EHR.png)
Now you may notice that my effective hourly rate was much lower than my goal during the first 3 months of the year. That’s because I was still wrapping up projects that carried over from last year.
But now that those are finished, I expect to see a solid increase in my effective hourly rate. (You can already see it’s on the rise every month so far in 2024 as I closed out more and more of those carry-over projects each month.)
So for now, I’m still confident and optimistic that I will get my effective hourly rate back to my goal by year’s end.
But will that actually happen?
We’ll just have to wait and see…
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