Three requests for the podcast right now: I want to do an Ask Me Anything episode. Please email or DM via Twitter your questions about the business of freelancing and I’ll answer them on a future episode. You can share your name or be anonymous. melanie@meledits.com or DM @MelEdits on Twitter I’m considering a series interviewing freelancers who make six figures. So, if you have earned $100,000 or more as a freelance business owner, let me know. I’d love to talk with you more about how you got there so we can provide tactics and inspiration to other freelancers. melanie@meledits.com or DM @MelEdits on Twitter I am looking for diverse guests, so please reach out and pitch me your podcast episode idea or recommend guests who are from marginalized groups. I’m doing my own research and outreach, but I’m open to pitches and recommendations too. melanie@meledits.com or DM @MelEdits on Twitter In this week’s episode, let’s talk money again. First, let’s talk about setting an income goal, then about how to track it regularly. This is important for your freelance business at any time, but your plans and goals may have changed during the pandemic and you may need to update your goal. I also think it’s important that we’re transparent about money, especially to lift up other freelancers, including those from marginalized groups. I often talk about my “secret hourly rate,” which is the idea that I have a rate that I try to earn at minimum for most projects I’m working on. To determine whether you’re hitting that rate throughout your week, it could be a helpful exercise to track not only your hours for a particular project but to track your hours for all your work in a given month or a full quarter. Then, do the math to see how much you earned per hour for each project, and then figure out what that averaged out to for all projects during that month and quarter. That could give you valuable data about whether you are charging enough, taking on the right clients or you need to figure out how to work faster in some way. Do you have an annual income goal? Do you need to change it because of the pandemic? Or do you just work all the time and hope you can pay the bills? Or maybe you know how much you need each money to pay the bills and everything after that is gravy? Money isn’t everything, but it gives me the freedom to not stress about money. So, I encourage you to set an income goal that is higher than just paying your bills. You may not hit it the first year, especially if you’re relatively new to freelancing or if you were hit hard during the pandemic, but you can strive to hit it. And that will likely keep you striving to get more, better-paying clients and to continue to market yourself. In order to create this income goal, write down or create an Excel spreadsheet of all your expenses. Start with your monthly ongoing expenses—mortgage or rent, utilities, internet, cable, phone. Do you know how much you spend on groceries? What about household items, like shampoo and soap and laundry detergent? Some of you with significant others may have to do this part in tandem with your partner. If your partner is paying part of these bills, do you know how much you are contributing? Have you discussed with your partner how much the both of you think you should be contributing? Are you the breadwinner? Is it split 50/50 or do you pay certain bills and they pay certain bills? I encourage you to talk this over so you’re both on the same page. This could be particularly helpful right now during the pandemic if one or both of you had hits to your income and things have changed. Talk also about who is responsible for what bills and if that needs to change. This is also a good time to discuss ways you can cut back on various subscriptions or services you might not need right now. You can also renegotiate if you’re willing to put in the time and money. Oftentimes, when you call up companies like your cable company, internet provider, phone service, e