While I personally think that using the flexibility between time and money of freelancing is the ultimate measure of success, freelancing first and foremost is a business. And every business regardless of its size or industry sets target goals. But freelancers often overlook this step and instead try to just earn as much as possible. I’ve learned the hard way that I earn a lot more when I have a tangible goal and a plan to earn that income.

However, you shouldn’t just pick a number out of the sky and say it’s your income goal. Because you are going to hold yourself accountable for this goal, you should take time to create a realistic and meaningful target. But setting the goal is just the first step. You then need to structure your business so that you know throughout the year where you stand compared to your income goal.

5 Questions to Help You Determine Your 2023 Income Goal

Find a quiet space and spend some time thinking through the answers to these questions.

1. How much did you earn in 2022? Determine how much you made last year and use that as a starting point. If you are not sure of your 2022 income, then your first step is to calculate your earnings and create a tracking system for the future. You can’t reach your goal if you don’t know how much you have made at any given point during the year. This is a good starting point for determining your 2023 goal.
2. How much do you need to earn to meet your financial obligations and goals in 2023? Look at your household budget and your bills. Determine how much you must make to take care of your family. Think about any upcoming expenses as well, such as your son’s orthodontist, saving for college, or your daughter’s wedding.
3. Are you new to content marketing writing? Did your earnings per month or per hour rate increase in the second part of the year? Look at your monthly income for 2022 and see if it was increasing each month. If it was, then you should feel more comfortable setting a higher goal. If you are transitioning into content marketing this year and don’t have a lot of experience or are working on defining a niche, you will definitely want to take this into account when setting your goals since earnings may be slower at first than you would like.
4. How many hours do you want to work each week? Some freelance writers don’t work a full 40 hours a week while others work much more than full-time. Write down how many hours you want to work each week (on average).
5. How much vacation time do you want to take? You can earn a high income while taking a lot of vacation time. I earned $200K with about 6 weeks off last year. But you have to build that into your weekly and monthly goals. Look at your plans for 2023 and then add in an extra two weeks for flexibility.
6. Look at your 2023 workload. Do you have retainers set up for 2023? Or clients who sent you a set amount of work that’s not retainer based? Do you have work booked for January or is it looking slow.

Setting Your 2023 Income Goal

Now that you have all the information, take a minute to decide your income goal for 2023. However, I think you should set 3 goals – a minimum goal (the absolute lowest you need to earn to meet your obligations), your target income goal (what you realistically think you can earn), and a stretch goal (an amount that feels too high to you at this moment).

A few things to keep in mind when picking your numbers:

• Your income goals should be fluid. You are in charge. And you can set the rules. If something changes next week with your health or your family, then all you do is go into your document and lower it. It’s OK. And on the same note, if work takes off and you start blowing your stretch goal out of the water, then you should change your goals as well.
• Moving up from the $60K/70K range to $100K is one of the hardest jumps in freelancing. For many writers, it takes a few years to make this move once setting the goal. For others, it happens more quickly. I’m going to write a post in a few weeks addressing this exact shift and tell you how to make the jump more quickly. But if this is your goal, know that achieving it will take a focused effort to develop the habits, clients, and niches that it takes to earn that amount. Spoiler alert: for many writers, it takes letting go of most of their current clients and finding higher paying clients, and often even adding a higher paying niche.
• Going from $100K to $200K is much easier. Yes, this seems absurd. But it’s true. I’ll talk about this more in my post. But once you’ve built your business to the $100K level then it’s pretty easy to hit $200K. If you broke $100K this year then I would probably set your goal at $140/150K this year (assuming you want to grow your income) and then your 2024 goal of $200K.
• Your goal should feel slightly uncomfortable. You only earn a high income and increase your income by stretching yourself. You should pick a number that feels a bit out of reach to you. If you set your bar low then that’s likely where you will land.

Now it’s time to actually set your income goals. I find that writing it down makes it feel more official and I feel more accountable. Once it’s in black and white, I feel like I need to achieve it, which is a good thing. For me having a Word doc that says 2023 goals on it works well. But your magic bullet might be different. I do think there is something important about committing and writing it down.

I also highly recommend telling a few key people about your goal. This makes it more official as well. I always tell my husband, mastermind group, and accountability buddy. I really think that this is the key to achieving your goal.

Using Your Income Goal to Create Milestones

Your income goal should be the cornerstone of your business. It’s not a number don’t think about again until this time next year when you realize you didn’t even come close. I’ve found for me that I earn more money if I actually use the goal to track how much I should be earning each week and month. You aren’t going to hit it every week or month but it helps you realize how much work you need to be turning in each week and month to hit your goal.

Here is how to determine your monthly and weekly goals:

1. Divide your annual income goal by 12. This is the amount you need to earn each month to meet your goal.
2. Subtract the number of weeks’ vacation you want to take from 52. This is the number of weeks that you plan to work this year.
3. Divide your income goal by the number of weeks you plan to work this year.
4. Follow steps 1 to 3 for your minimum, target, and stretch goals so you see what you need to earn each week and month.

For example, I want to earn $200K this year again. Yes, I’m keeping my goal the same, which is totally OK. For me going higher than this takes my work-life balance goals out of wack. So I’m going to stay at this level this year.

In order to achieve this goal, I need to make $16,666 each month. I want to take off 6 weeks of vacation in 2023 so that means I will work 46 weeks and turn in $4,348 of work to clients each week. At the end of each month, I add up the work that I submitted and compare it to this number. If it’s lower then I know I need to work extra hard next month to make up for it. And if I went over then I know that I can take it easier.

For months you are not working the full month due to vacation and don’t meet your goals then you will need to make sure that you are making up on other months to meet your goal.

What about invoices paid in the next month and week?

I count my income based on the work that I turn in to clients during the month, not the amount that I am paid. I calculate that separately. Each year I have two incomes – the income for all work that I completed in the year and the IRS total of the work that was paid during the year. I count the work that I turned in during the year towards my goal and use the paid amount for IRS purposes.

I can’t control when an invoice is paid or which month of the year the payment will come. But I can control how much work I complete. So that’s why I base my goals on work submitted to the client during that week or month. This may not work for everyone, but I know many freelancers who successfully use this approach.

Kicking off 2023 on the right note

You’ve taken the first step. You’ve set a goal. Now it’s time to set up your year and marketing so that you can reasonably achieve this goal while also hitting your work-life balance goals. If you feel a little nervous and aren’t sure if you can do it, then that means you’ve set the right number. If you aren’t, then go back and increase your goal.

I’ll be sharing some concrete strategies that you can use to meet your goal. No, it won’t be easy. But it’s possible. You can do this. I promise. And I’m here to help.

How do you set your income goal? Any tips you can share?