Cha-ching. I hit the magic number.

Welcome to Week 44 of my adventure of following the Start Up Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and Week 7 as a member of the Marketing Plan Group. In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a website copywriter, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and what I’m learning from my group experience.

There is nothing I love more than sending out invoices at the end of each month. (I invoice via Freshbooks which I absolutely adore!)  This month, I especially love the invoicing process – because this month, I’m billing the highest amount since I became self-employed.

Early on in my posts, I set a very lofty goal of tripling my income this year. I’ve finally attained that magic number… If I billed this number every month, my income would triple.

This achievement feels incredible. Why? Because it shows me that my once seemingly unattainable goal is completely realistic. Heck, I even took a week’s vacation this month… the very same month where I billed the most money.

Here’s why I hit the magic number this month:

• Marketing.Two of the clients I billed this month found my website online. Two came from cold-calling. That’s 4 clients (and 4 billable jobs) that happened because of marketing.
• Bigger jobs. I had two larger projects this month (both resulting from marketing efforts). These are the ideal jobs that I’m looking for. Writing larger websites… writing a series of articles, blog posts and press releases, etc...
• Charging more. I charged higher rates, closer to what I should be charging. When I did the quote for one of these jobs, it felt ridiculously high. But as I crunched the numbers, it was what it should be. It felt nuts, but I sent it anyway. I decided the worst that could happen was that the prospect would say no.  Instead, the prospect said yes.
• Offering help. There is one client I’ve been working with for a while (who I also got from cold calling). I’ve been doing some article writing for him. I was talking to him one day and he was telling me about the other things he was working on. These were things I could do for him, so I said, “I can do that for you” and he said “Okay, great, let’s do it.”
• Gigs that repeat. There is one client who I write a newsletter for every month. There is one who I edit and post articles for. There is another client who I help with blogging on a weekly basis.  Since these jobs repeat, they build a base for my income every month.
• Keeping in touch. Sometimes I call clients to say hi. This month, one of them said, “Oh, hey Deidre, I’m so glad you called… I have something you can help me with.”

I’ve spoken to a lot of people who said business has picked up since summer ended. Anyone else having good months? What do you think it’s attributed to? Any marketing tactics that have been paying off?

 

Comments

[TurtleBlueBird]

Thanks for the update, and congratulations on achieving your goals ... while even having some time for a few days off!

(And thanks for setting such a good example - you have earned these good results!)

[Colleen Wainwright]

AWESOME, Deidre! So inspiring! (Or is it "inspriational?")

Thrilled for you, and looking forward to seeing what happens next!