How difficult is it for you to earn money as a freelancer?

Note: this was a response I gave to a forum in Swarm by user @northwhitespecs and thought I’d share this with more people. Response has been edited but retains the essence of what I want to say,

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Is it hard to earn as much money as I like as a freelancer?

Yes.

Yes it's hard because I want to drown in a bathtub of money and everyday I don't get to sip pink Moscato in an ivory bathtub full of dollars, I get sad.

Kidding (not really) aside, it is super frustrating to not be earning as much as I want.I will be honest: I always go back and forth between contentment and frustration.

And I think that's okay.

As long as you’re working on it.

One important practice I've learned that might be helpful is actually asking yourself what is "as much money as I like"? What's the financial figure we're talking about?

I'm bringing this up because in my network, earning a 6-figure monthly income is some sort of holy grail, rite of passage thing that frankly I think is overrated.

When I ask people how much they actually need to fuel their dreams, they don't have an answer. They haven't crunched the numbers nor roughly estimated it.

And it's a problem.

If you don't know where your stop is, you won't know when to put the brakes.

I have a lot of loved ones in my life, seniors in age. All their life they’ve provided for other people and now even if they’re retired they can’t stop working because it’s everything they’ve ever known.

Of course it’s also possible that they’re doing it just for fun — but for me, being able to enjoy the fruits of my labor with the people I labored for is what I want.

What I'm saying is that it's highly probable that our dream lifestyles cost a lot less than we think. But without a clear goal and why, we might be tempted to keep working instead of spending that time on something else.

"For those that have successfully built their income streams: how did you do it?"

There are 4 stages in financial safety:

Survival

Stability

Scaling

Service

If you're in survival, you need to decide differently vs if you were in stability vs if you're scaling* etc.

I think the trick is understanding you're in a different stage than people you look up to.

• scaling for me is not necessarily getting more hired people, but increasing the per hr value of your time, whether that's delegation, productizing, etc.
• *service as in, you don't have a problem with money and you can now give back as much as you'd like without any real repercussions to your financial safety.

Building income streams looks different depending on where you're at in these 4.

I'm assuming by having a "built" income stream you might be referring to scaling with the way you posed the question?

Here's my personal experience as someone who barely crossed that mark (and I mean, my pinky toe just crossed that barrier between stability/scaling):

1. Pick a skill I have (productivity coaching/Notion consulting)
2. Look for people to help with said skill, in exchange for money
3. Do this repeatedly, a little bit for the money but mostly to prove to myself I was providing value
4. Get better at Skill, charge more
5. Hire people smarter than me to help me run the business (important)
6. Be smart with money (I use Profit First) so when I receive payment for a service, I don't get the whole thing, most of it goes back to the business.
7. Regularly track money especially in the first few stages, keep costs low and margins high
8. If I see a tool that I can use to duplicate myself, I buy it
9. Eventually you'll have enough profit to start another business (This is what I do, because apparently, making businesses is my hobby idk I'm weird)

Other tips about earning money as a freelancer:

1. Document your processes from day 1. I'm a systems/SOP person but I really am a big believer in being a documentarian. Even as a solopreneur, mapping your business process out is SO important. Thank yourself later. As a fringe benefit, it helps you think clearly about your process in a logical, sequential way.
2. If you like creating small businesses and offers like me, I'd recommend getting into something you're into. Personally, I can't get behind anything that doesn't align with my interests and values.
3. Please rest! It can be frustrating when you're in Survival and you have big dreams. It's easy to think we're falling behind, but when I look back I'm thankful that I had to wait, be patient, and persevere because I wouldn't be the same person if I got it early.

You're just in time. Rest.

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