You can’t get where you want to go in 2017 if you don’t know what went both right and wrong in 2016. If I don’t do this while the calendar still says 2016, then I’ll find myself diving into 2017 without fully understanding how I got where I am. With freelancing, it is really important to figure out where you are having the most success so that you can capitalize on those areas and spend less time pursuing the niches, clients or types of publications that don’t seem to be panning out.

If you are feeling especially introspective, Ed Gandia has a fantastic podcast called B2B Launcher, and his episode last week focused on the 21 questions that freelance writers should answer about 2016. I highly recommend this episode, and I absolutely LOVE his questions. In fact, I am going to use one of his questions as the base for my final blog post of 2016.

Here are four numbers that you should know about 2016:

1. Your Total Income

You most likely know how much money you earned in 2016 off the top of your head. The number is important, but so many things happen each year that affect our income – health issues, taking care of loved ones with unexpected health issues, losing an anchor client or market conditions in your niche. So make a list of the reasons why you did or did not meet your income goal.  By writing down this information, you can have a full picture of the year and also some information to move forward with. If any of these reasons will affect you in 2017, now is a good time to brainstorm ways to work around the challenges. If you exceeded your income goal, then you can look at your list to evaluate the probability of your success continuing. Let’s say you earned $100,000 because you worked 75 hours a week all year. You might want to begin working on finding higher-paying clients so that you have a better work/life balance. You can then use this number to set your income goal for 2017.

2. Your Average Hourly Rate

Look through your invoices and records to determine how much you are earning per hour, on average. The benchmark should be at least $100 per hour and higher for technical areas or specialized projects. This is not to be confused with charging an hourly rate, which I don’t recommend, and I always use a project rate if at all possible. I honestly think that paying attention to the hidden hourly rate is the key to a high income.

One of my most lucrative projects this year was a set of 500-word blog posts with a rate of $300 per post. On the surface, this is nothing to write home about. But they required no interviews and were about topics I already was very familiar with. And even better, the brand voice was my natural writing style so they were not stressful and didn’t require much brain power. I was able to write each post from start to finish in about 45 minutes, which resulted in an hourly rate of $375, which is fantastic.

If you are not at this level consistently, make a plan to increase your rate this year. One way to increase your hourly rate is to increase your writing speed. The other is to look for higher-paying clients and price by the project (number of hours it will take you multiplied by your desired hourly rate) to ensure you are making the equivalent of $100 per hour or more.

3. Amount You Earned From Each Client

Make a list of all your clients from 2016 and determine how much income you earned from each. I personally find this one of the most valuable pieces of information to know. I find one of the biggest reasons for a high-earning year is having a few anchor clients so that all my eggs are not in one basket, but on the flip side I don’t have too many clients, which usually results in earning less. It’s a tough balance. I try to make sure that I have at least a few clients where I am earning at least $20K a year, but that no one client makes up more than 30 percent (a little less is even better) of my income. You want to make sure that if you lose an anchor client you won’t find yourself with a hole that you cannot quickly fill.

Look at the list again to see if you can see any patterns among your best clients so that you can target those particular types of clients in the future. Do you seem to be getting high-paying work from agencies, or is working directly for brands more lucrative for you? Are there any other patterns that you can spot that might give you clues when finding new clients that will be long term and high paying? There is not a one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to finding great clients, since we all have different strengths and niches. However, most writers have better luck with certain clients over others, and looking at your 2016 client earnings can give you valuable information to help you find the perfect clients for you in 2017.

4. Amount You Earned From Each Niche

Make a list of all your niches and determine how much you earned in each niche. This will help you figure out which niches are most lucrative for you right now, indicating that you should focus your marketing efforts in this area. You may also realize that you are not earning very much from a niche of yours that has high earning potential, such as B2B or technology. Until last year, I had never broken out my income this way, and it was very interesting to realize that I was earning almost all my income through technology and very little through finance. If you have a broad niche, such as health or technology, you may want to break it down even further to see which sub-niches are currently working out the best for you.

What numbers do you look at each year? Did any of these numbers give you insight for next year? How do you evaluate each year?