Freelancers - It's Time To Give Yourself A Raise

You may be a freelancer, or an independent contractor and have been worried about raising your rates. You're facing rising living costs, a new baby, and your furnace broke in the middle of winter. We've all been there. Sometimes, things happen beyond our control. We need to raise our standards.

Independent consultants have the advantage of writing your own checks. We all have our own struggles when it comes to raising our rates. We worry about whether or not our rates will remain competitive and if we will lose clients. Sometimes worry can get the better of us. We take on more work, pull all-nighters, or sacrifice a weekend away with our families to make it happen. While these are difficult decisions to make, there are other ways that you can increase your billable hours without spending extra time at work.

Independent consultants typically bill per hour. We can't make as much money unless our rates are raised. There are only 24 hours in a 24-hour day. Billing by the project is a great option if you are a fast worker. It's possible to include an hourly rate multiplied with the time it would take a typical consultant in your field for the work in the proposal. This is fair and reasonable to the client. You're effectively giving yourself a raise if the project is completed in less time than you estimated.

Tax Planning for freelancers Independents also struggle with the time it takes to manage their business. We don't always spend our time doing the one thing that makes me tick. You're responsible for managing your own business. There are bills to pay, clients that you need to bill, potential clients to collect from, marketing tasks to complete, contracts to prepare, taxes and other paperwork to keep track of. Freelancers are estimated to spend half their time managing administrative details, which most people hate. Unfortunately, this time is not billable.

Outsourcing back-office tasks to another company is a popular idea. This is a great idea, especially for consultants who work with other companies to outsource their tasks. Why wouldn't they also outsource the things they don't know to someone else? Independent consultants can use companies as their W-2 employers and back-office. Freelancers who take advantage of this opportunity can avoid all the headaches associated with running a business and can spend their time doing what they love, finding clients.

It is possible to have all the benefits of working for a company, but still be able to choose how you run your business. With the rising trend of outsourcing back-office operations you can get a raise and have more time to billable hours.