It’s been a busy three months. With four days of childcare, I can now say I have a pretty consistent work schedule. Even when the kids are sick, Chris has been amazing at being able to work from home or take off if I have deadlines I need to get done.
I also have a desktop monitor and keyboard I purchased at the end of last year and now almost exclusively work from the desk in my office. Being able to have two screens up has actually bumped up how fast I can work now, since I can have a document open on one side and research or interview notes on the other.
I’m still aiming to make my hourly rate of $100 an hour, but many times I can make more than that. For one retainer client I have, I average about $300 an hour, and for another one, it’s about $200 an hour.
One of the changes I wanted to make with my business this year is to go by quarterly goals versus monthly goals. For instance, January always seems to start off slow and that’s exactly what happened with me. Then, in February, everyone got a budget again and the work has been coming and hasn’t slowed down.
Noteworthy articles published
- Discover Magazine: Recurring Stomach Pain? It Could Be Abdominal Migraines
- Healthgrades: How Effective Are Flu Vaccines?
- Boston Globe’s Studio/B: How the COVID-19 pandemic response led to health care innovation
- WebMD’s Medscape: Photojournalist-Turned-Nurse Documents Realities of COVID
- Forthcoming article appearing in print in Woman’s World magazine
HERE’S WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED THIS QUARTER
- Continuing the 52-week group coaching class designed for health writers
- Was published in Discover and Boston Globe, and Medscape
- Wrote 45 articles for 12 clients
- Set up an accounting software program for invoicing and tracking
- Got a business credit card
- Set up a business phone number
- Updated and rehauled my website and LinkedIn profile
- Spent $503 in business expenses
- Participated as an awards judge for the American Society of Journalists and Authors
Q1 FREELANCE INCOME BREAKDOWN
January:
- Projects billed for: 1
- Clients billed: 1
- Income in: $250 (sad face)
February:
- Projects billed for: 12
- Clients billed: 6
- Income in: $8,150
March:
- Projects billed for: 13
- Clients billed: 5
- Income in: $8,250
Q1 income: $16,650
Total income: $16,650
Since my goal this year is to make $72,000 in income, I needed to make $6,000 a month, or $18,000 a quarter. We’ll see what next quarter brings!
