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A Breakdown to Setting Your Rates as a Freelancer
One of the most significant benefits of working for yourself is setting your own rates. One of the biggest drawbacks of working for yourself is also… setting your own rates. Setting freelance rates is both an advantage (hello, higher income!) and a burden (what the heck do I charge?!).
Charge too much for an hourly rate or a project, and you risk losing a client or a job. Charge too little, and you risk losing time and money on a project that doesn’t pay you what you’re worth.
We’re not going to sugarcoat it: Setting freelance rates is a challenge, and it doesn’t necessarily become easier as you advance in your career, gain experience, or increase your income. Still, there are a number of strategies and principles to keep in mind when setting your rates, so that you can strike a balance and get the most out of every client or project.
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10 Steps for Optimizing Your Time Tracking with Timing
If you’re a freelancer, you probably already know that time tracking is, well, worth your time.
On a micro-scale, time tracking gives you valuable insight into how long you spend on specific projects and activities; your most productive hours of the day; and what, if anything, may be distracting you from your priorities.
On a macro-scale, time tracking can help you develop greater time management skills, become more productive, and earn more cash (who doesn’t want that?).
That being said, there’s a right (and wrong) way to track your time. Tracking your time incorrectly, which often results from manual tracking or start-and-stop timers, can do you more harm than good by giving you an inaccurate picture of how you spend your precious minutes and hours.
But by following strategic steps in your time tracking, you can get the most out of this wise and productive habit – helping you to gain more detailed, in-depth knowledge of your own work habits, speed, and level of efficiency.
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How to Leverage Your Time-Tracking Data for More Earnings and Better Productivity
Congratulations! You’ve started to successfully track your time.
You’ve got the reporting to prove your productivity and effective time management. You know where and how you’re spending your precious minutes and hours, and at what points in the day you are most productive. You’re headed in the right direction towards effective time management.
Now what?
You’ve tracked your time. Now, you’re ready to leverage that valuable information to prove your worth as a professional resource, help you become a higher earner, and increase your productivity.
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Want to Boost Your Earning Potential? 4 Tips How
The average American earns $44,720 per year.
That doesn’t sound terrible – until you factor in the reality that younger workers (between the ages of 20–24) are making $28,000 per year on average.
No matter where you fall on the spectrum of pay in the U.S., chances are that you’d like to raise your own income up a couple of notches.
You want to boost your earning potential….but do you believe it’s really possible?
You might have a packed schedule, a limited educational background, or even work in a career field that doesn’t bring in a ton of cash.
We’re not intimidated by these barriers, and neither should you be. It is possible to boost your earning potential, regardless of the stage of life you find yourself in, your current income, or your (perceived) lack of resources.
Here are four tips on how to boost your earning potential without switching careers:
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The Surprising Ways in Which Insurance Can Help Freelancers
Ashley Baxter is building With Jack, a platform that helps keep freelancers in business. Ashley enjoys sharing her experience of bootstrapping a business as a solo founder in one of the least start-up friendly industries in the world. In this guest article, she outlines why having business insurance is crucial for many freelancers.
Insurance should be a vital part of every freelancer’s toolbox alongside invoicing and working with a contract. Despite this, I’d estimate only a quarter of freelancers are properly insured. This is because insurers do a terrible job of explaining how insurance is useful to you and the type of risks you face on a regular basis.
We’re going to cover some of the common problems freelancers face and the role insurance plays in helping you in these situations.
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Are You Prepared for the EU’s New Time Tracking Regulations?
Is your company meeting the new time tracking requirements set by the European court?
On May 14, 2019, the European Court of Justice ruled that European member states “must require employers to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured.”
The ruling comes after a lawsuit by the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), a Spanish trade union, against Deutsche Bank. CCOO requested the German bank set up a system for tracking time each day, to help ensure labor laws were being met. Deutsche Bank argued against recording time due to the fact that Spanish law didn’t require it.
Ultimately ECJ decided that, “…in the absence of a system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured, it is not possible to determine, objectively and reliably, either the number of hours worked and when that work was done, or the number of hours of overtime worked, which makes it excessively difficult, if not impossible in practice, for workers to ensure that their rights are complied with.”
This measure is essential to ensure the maximum weekly working time — including overtime and rest periods have been complied with. This protects both employers and workers by verifying whether those rights are complied with.
Now that employees are responsible for tracking their time, are you worried about how your team will comply? Timing is the ideal solution!
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Are You Setting Yourself Up for a Productive Day?
Do you ever have one of those days where you can’t seem to focus your brain?
You might find yourself trying to get started on a task, but other things keep disrupting you. Or you might just feel a little tired and foggy.
We’ve all been there, and we know how frustrating those days can be. After all, we all have a lot of things to accomplish! These tasks are often tied to work, which directly impacts our income. That’s why having a productive day isn’t just beneficial for our mental well-being, but for our quality of life as well.
Though there are some life factors that you don’t have control over, you do have a say in how you start your day every morning.
That’s why we’ve pulled together our recommendations for waking up on the right side of the bed, ready to take on the day.
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Timing 2019.1: Undo Support and Usability Improvements
We are happy to announce the release of Timing 2019.1! Read on for the update’s full release notes.
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How to Get Your Employees to Start Tracking Time
In order to make smart, informed business decisions, you have to be acutely aware of how you are spending your time.
Freelancers tend to have a more innate realization of this, since the impact of time spent versus value received is more obvious. After all, it’s imperative to a freelancer’s direct income that he or she properly bill clients for hours spent working or projects delivered.
However, this concept also applies to larger businesses—actually even more so. If being conscious of time is important for a single worker, think of that significance as you multiply the amount of people working.
Productivity and awareness are critical to a lean team, and the impacts can seem more apparent on a smaller scale. But with a bigger team, the seemingly minor effects of wasted hours can add up—creating a big hole in productivity and earning potential for a business.
That’s why being cognizant of how your employees are spending their time each day can have such a colossal impact on your bottom line.
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MacSparky Video Guide for Timing now available!
We have partnered with David Sparks (also known as MacSparky) to create a five-part video guide on Timing! The first few videos offer a great way to get started with Timing, while the later ones dive deep into Timing’s more advanced features such as rules and manual tracking.
In particular, you will learn:
- How Timing can help make your time tracking easier and more accurate.
- How you can categorize your activities in Timing, letting you see exactly what you worked on at any given time.
- How you can manually capture time entries and calendar events or meetings into Timing.
- How you can set up your projects for maximum efficiency.
- What more advanced, “power user” features Timing offers.
Read on to watch all five videos!
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