i’ve been dreading this...

I’ve been dreading sending you this email, {NAME}.  Because it means I have to admit that I failed. And for the first time since I started publishing my annual business goals, I fell short.  But before I show you how bad it is, let me go over the few goals that I did achieve.  Starting with how much time I spent working last year…  My goal was to work less than 25 hours per week. Which comes out to less than 1,200 hours for the year.  And as you can see below, I did that with no problem.  In fact, I was able to work almost 80 hours less than my goal. Which is like taking more than 3 extra weeks off for me.   And it’s a good thing I was able to keep my hours so low.  Otherwise, I would have fallen short of this next goal.  See, I wanted my effective hourly rate to be at least $200. Which means for every hour I spent working, I would make $200. That includes keeping my books … answering emails … filing my taxes … and everything else it takes to have a successful freelance practice.  And if I had worked even a few more hours, it would have brought my effective hourly rate down below my goal of $200.  But luckily, I was able to keep my workload streamlined. And I managed to earn about $203 for every hour I worked in 2023. Take a look…   But this is also where the good news ends.  And if you haven’t figured it out already, it means I failed to reach my income goal for 2023 — which was $240,000. Here’s what happened…  A few projects last year took longer than expected. Plus my passive royalty and performance-based income slowed down in the second half of the year. And those 2 issues combined caused me to fall $13,000 short of my goal.  But also it’s not all bad news. And after I show you my final revenue graph for 2023, I’ll explain why.  First, even though I fell short of my goal, this is still the most revenue I’ve ever earned in a year. And I beat my previous record of $211,000 by almost 10%.  Plus it gets even better.  I also have $20,000 in potential performance bonuses I can earn this year, from projects that I finished in 2023.  So if those bonuses come through…  And then you “count” them as income for 2023, since that’s when I did the work…  It would put me at $247,000 — well above my goal.  So even though I "technically" fell short of my revenue goal for 2023, I still feel good about what I accomplished last year.  How about you, {NAME}? Did last year go as well as you hoped?  Hit reply and let me know. I read every message. And I reply to as many as I can.  Until next week,  -Brian [Unsubscribe]( | [Edit your details]( Freelance Like A Pro PO Box 281 Bloomingdale New Jersey 07403 United States [Powered By Kartra] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -