Are you a freelancer who has a bit of work, seems to have jobs or things to do all the time, but just isn’t making enough money? It’s quite common, and I’ve identified the two reasons it happens.

1. You don’t charge enough
2. You don’t have solid systems in place

The first reason deals with giving you more time, the second reason deals with the money issue.

Lets look at them in detail.

1. You don’t charge enough

Pretty simple really. Charge more, and fire the clients that don’t want to pay more. This frees up time to chase after newer clients. If you can’t do that, you either have poor self esteem (fix it), or you don’t have solid systems.

1. You don’t have solid systems in place

You don’t have enough time in the day to write long proposals, go to sales meetings, send out invoices and follow up payments, and all the other things you have to do to be a successful freelancer. The reason you don’t have time, especially if you bill by the hour, is that you need to spend your time doing work, and adding value for your client.

So how do you cut back on the time you spend on business tasks? The answer is to have systems that take care of things.

When a call comes in, you need to have a system for converting that lead into a sale. You need to have a basic idea of the information you need to get and what you should put in the proposal and so on.

When a project starts, you need to have a system (especially if you’re outsourcing), that makes sure that work gets done by the due date, and to a high quality.

When a project finishes, you need to have a system that sends out invoices and follows up payments.

To give you an example, one of my systems is a support policy. I used to not have a support policy – existing clients would come to me with a small amount of work, and I didn’t know how to quote for it, and sometimes I felt pressured by the client. Now I have a documented support policy. I send it to my client (it’s on my website), and the client is given an option to either purchase a block of prepaid support, or they can be billed at an hourly rate in 15 minute blocks. The support policy helps me because it means every bit of work I do is billed – it means nothing is slipping through the cracks. I’m not doing 2 minute jobs for a client for free. Secondly, it helps the client because they know where they stand, and they also get an optional discount if they want to pay up front.

If you count all the times I used to do 2 minute jobs for free, that are billed now because of having a clear system, it would add up into thousands. This one system has made me thousands.

Think of things that get through cracks in your business. Are you collecting your payments on time? Are you missing deadlines? These are symptoms of poor systems.

To create these systems, firstly, you need to think about your business, and what is the best way of doing things. Secondly, you need to document your systems – write down what they are, and make up the supporting materials for them. Thirdly, you need to enact these systems. This means, you have to make sure they are working. Without those three elements, you will be stuck under a huge pile of emails and before you know it, its 5pm and you have 3 deadlines still to meet, and you’ve billed an hour and a half for the day.

Nobody but yourself can help you with the first two. You need to dedicate time to grow your business and set some goals for yourself.

You can use software to help you implement these systems. I’m the founder of Freelance Total and I made Freelance Total for this very reason. I had created systems, they were good systems, but I couldn’t make them happen! I remember at one point I had lost track of what I had invoiced and what I hadn’t – I simply had too much stuff going on. Freelance Total helped me reign it in, and make sure I was getting paid for what I did. I recommend you check it out.

About the Author

Luke van de Paverd is the founder of “Freelance Total” – a complete business management system for Freelancers.

For a freelancer who is usually neck deep in work, it is vital for me to step back and “sharpen my saw”. Here are some self-renewal habits I have developed over the years and recommend:

Have a full breakfast. Stop laughing – your body needs the proteins, vitamins and even some fats (its okay to eat the yolk) before 9 a.m. Delay it and the hunger pangs make you reach for that sugary donut or a carb filled cookie. And its going to take a toll on your energy levels. And yeah, sit down at the table for breakfast…

Drink lots of water. Yes, yes, you read it everywhere. And I can’t emphasize it enough, not after my pal had kidney stones.

Exercise. I walk for an hour every evening. That’s when I smell the flowers and marvel at the rain washed road curving ahead of the trees. Its my time and I DO NOT check for any text messages or tweets.

Travel. With my wife and kid. It really does work wonders to see different people, experience their culture, taste their food and try to understand their perspective. Takes that “whats wrong with this world” worry off my mind.

Read. I reserve at least an hour everyday reading a book / blog / article. For the last 12 years the web has never dissapointed me even once. There IS something to learn for free.

Re-skill & Re-tool. Learn a new programming language or a foreign language, if you please or maybe photography. Get onto that first chapter on Ruby on Rails. You don’t want to get stuck with an outdated skill that nobody is hiring for anymore.

For some people, only the last two count as ’sharpening the saw’. I listed these as sharpening or renewal is a holistic exercise and is set encompassing all that sharpens the body, mind and soul which contributes to increased productivity and happiness – which is what we’re after, aren’t we?

Let me know what else works for you…