I declare that 2022 was my most successful year as a freelance content marketing writer. I am proud to report that I broke the $200K mark, likely by just a few hundred dollars. But I hit my milestone.

The fact that I met my income goal of $200K was really only a small part of the reason that I view this year as a raging success. Actually, my income dollar amount is the least important reason that this year will go down in my personal record books. Yes, that may seem odd considering how much I talk about money, but money really isn’t my biggest motivator – it’s the freedom and flexibility that earning a high income brings.

I consider this year to be an amazing success because I was able to quickly and easily adjust the amount of time I worked and the amount of money I made based on my needs and wants throughout the year. And I was able to make these shifts throughout the year very quickly and with relatively little stress. I touched on this in my $27K month post, but I feel strongly that achieving the point in your career where you can shift quickly based on your life deserves its own post.

Time and money are limited commodities

We each only have so much time in each day – both to spend with people we love and to do the activities that bring us joy. But since I am currently the sole income earner in my family with two kids in college (and four senior dogs), I also feel the financial responsibility and pressure on a daily basis.

Almost every day, I make a conscious decision regarding time and money. Though I must pay my mortgage and the kids’ tuition, I also want to be able to take a two-hour lunch with my husband on the spur of the moment or put my work down when my college kids plop themselves in my office chair in a chatty mood during a visit home. And I love being able to shut my computer and spend the afternoon walking in the woods or paddling my kayak on a treelined lake.

Success is using your flexibility to pick more time or money

In a traditional job, your paycheck and the number of hours you work are going to be pretty much the same. Sure, you might work 50 hours one week instead of 40. Or you might get a bonus or higher commission. But it’s very unlikely that you will have one month where you earn $10K and work about 10 hours each week and then the next month you earn $27K and work 40 to 50 hours a week – all because you decided to.

However, you can absolutely do this in freelancing. But you must build your business in a way that makes this possible. And you have to actively take advantage of this flexibility, which is hard to do. It takes work and persistence to ramp up even a very established business such as mine. And it takes a lot of determination to resist the temptation to take ‘just one more’ assignment when you are trying to take time off.

I’ve had high-earning years before. And I’ve had years where I purposely earned less to spend more time with my family. But this was the first year in my 15 years of freelancing that I felt I was able to ramp up and down throughout the year very successfully on both fronts as my needs changed. And yes, that’s in large part due to the fact that my kids are at college during the school year, though we see them often – one about weekly and the other every two to three weeks.

My time and money choices in 2022

I really focused in 2022 on making conscious money and time decisions so I wouldn’t play the regret game. In January, I took two weeks off and went to Hawaii, which was amazing. I simply told my clients I wasn’t available. For me, it’s usually my slowest period of the year, so I decided to just take a vacation instead of stressing about being slow. And it worked out perfectly. I came back to plenty of work thanks to some emails I sent at the end of my vacation.

Work stayed busy through the spring, and then my kids came home from college for the summer. It’s very possibly the last time they will both live at home since they hope to get internships. I didn’t want to regret missing any time to hang out with them, so I stopped marketing and asking for work, and instead only took work that came my way. It was wonderful. I went out to lunch with them on the spur of the moment and had long family dinners each night.

Then the fall hit. With the kids back in class, I had more time. But I was slow workwise. So I focused hard on marketing so I could use that time to make more money. And I was able to ramp up very quickly from almost nothing to my biggest month ever. I was stressed, and then I was overwhelmed. But I made the conscious decision to work a lot since my kids were at school and money was now a priority.

But now, my kids are out of school on Christmas break. And I totally shut down work at one of the biggest times of the year to spend time with them. When you read this, I’ll be on a beach in Cancun with them. And when I get back from our vacation, I plan to work as little as possible for the rest of the break. But once their classes resume, my plan is to ramp back up to kick off the new year.

How to do this in your own freelance business

Let’s talk about ramping up from almost no work to $27K in a month and then finishing with a very strong December. I don’t think it was anything magic I did in those two weeks, but instead the result of 15 years of building a solid portfolio with recognizable brands and my strong network of clients and many writer friends. I likely couldn’t have done this early in my career. I think that you have to consciously work to get to the place where you can ramp up quickly and then create the boundaries to take time off.

My list below isn’t of marketing strategies; I talk about those enough. This is about creating the foundation you need so that you can quickly put those marketing strategies into action when you want to ramp up quickly. These are things you need to be doing all the time. They take time – often years – to fully pay off. But that’s why this is the ultimate measure of success for a freelancer.

Keys to being able to ramp up quickly

Ramping up quickly has much less to do with what you do when you actually decide to get more work, and much more to do with what you do months and years ahead of time. You have to create a foundation that’s there when you need it. You can’t start from scratch and pull off what I did.

1. Keep in touch with clients. This is honestly the biggest way that I’m able to ramp up quickly. I reach out to all my regular and semi-regular clients to let them know that I have availability. And then work shows up in my inbox. This was the key to going from a slow October to a crazy November. When you stay in touch with clients, you turn occasional clients into regular clients and create a foundation of clients that let you ebb and flow as needed.
2. Refer work to other freelancers. Notice I didn’t say ask for work from other freelancers. The best way to build a referral network is to give referrals to other writers. I’m going to do a full post on this in January. But the very short version is when you send referrals to writers you know, they will do the same when they see opportunities that are a fit for you. If you have a client you know looking for work that would be a fit for a writer you know, that’s of course fabulous. But you can also send a link to a LinkedIn ad for a freelancer or tag a writer in that niche in a Facebook post looking for writers. Just the act of thinking about another writer and helping them out helps you build your network.
3. Ask for referrals from clients. When a client likes your work, ask them for a referral to other work at the company. By making asking for referrals from clients a regular part of your routine, you build a network and client base to pull from when you need work. You can’t ramp back up quickly without a wide network of regular clients. If it’s a direct client, ask if there are any other departments that use freelancers. And if it’s an agency, ask if there are other projects that are a fit. This is ESPECIALLY true with agencies that often don’t automatically think of you for different projects – if you ask, they often send out an email to their colleagues. Be sure to also ask them to let you know if they know anyone at another company looking for writers – I’ve gotten numerous clients from referrals to other companies.

Keys to slowing down

I actually think this is harder than ramping up. But the more successful you are with ramping up, the easier it is to slow down. But you must make a conscious and proactive effort, or it doesn’t happen.

1. Make a concrete plan. I used to say I would take time off but didn’t define how that would look or what I would do, so it didn’t really happen. But I’ve learned that I consciously design my slower time period. Some people take a certain day off or say they are only going to work X hours a week. Or you can say your income cap is $10K a month, and then you have to slow down when you get there. I tend to take four to six weeks completely off a year, which works really well for me. I also sign up for Meetup hikes and kayaking trips, which means I get kicked out if I don’t show up, so I actually take the time off. Your plan should work for your goals, so it doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s. But you won’t take the time off if you don’t have a plan. Trust me.
2. Just say no. This is the hard part and one I’m not good at. When you get asked to take work that falls outside your plan, you have to say no. First, give an alternate suggestion for a due date that works for you, such as “I’m booked for the next two weeks, but I have availability on X date.” If that doesn’t work, then refer the gig to another writer to help build your referral network. But I’ve been surprised at how often an alternate start date is totally fine.
3. Turn off the computer. This is the hardest part. It seems easy. But it’s not. Shut down the computer. Turn off your phone. Don’t check your email. Instead take advantage of your hard work. If you don’t, then you are truly missing the biggest reason you freelance: flexibility.

What is your definition of success as a freelancer? What tips do you have for ramping up and down quickly?