This is the second week of my Scheduled Week System. The SWS works really well. I’ve got a few tweaks I need to make to account for unexpected new projects (which seems to happen a lot lately), but otherwise it is humming right along.
With the new system in place it is opening up my schedule a ton. I’ve effectively set my business prices in such a way that I can be profitable yet have plenty of “me” time. It is a pretty simple system as illustrated below:
So the way this works is that FI is your former income per day. Multiply it by eight and divide by two. This will make sense in a minute why you don’t just multiply it by four. Next you take your FH (Former Hours) and divide that by eight. This gives you your NWH (New Weekly Hours). Multiply them together. Let’s use 100 as a starting point at 40 hours per week. 100*8/2=400 and 40/8=5. 400*5=2000. If the NHV(New Hourly Value) wasn’t divided by 2, the total would bump to 4,000. All we are trying to do here is create as large of a buffer as possible by getting beyond the former income (hourly) and yet be working less than the FH. The second part is to figure out all of your monthly expenses. Add them up and divide by 30. This gives you your daily minimum income. This is the number you need to survive and break even. I usually put $20-$40 extra here as padding. At the end of the day, we just want to get the weekly income greater than the former weekly income and work about an eighth of the time. This way, if I work 5.5 hours a week, I’ve already made what I made before So I know I’ll be fine. If I were to work a full 40 hours a week, I wind up making about 8 times what I did before!
It is absolutely awesome to have the extra time for learning and making myself more valuable to clients. I recommend, if you are in a situation that allows it, to implement this system (which, by the way, you absolutely can.) This is what I’ve been doing for the past two years and I love it.
I read a great article from a few years ago about freelancers and contractors being on the rise. Guess what? That’s still on the rise. Nomadic jobs are going to be the new normal. Why is it happening? All sorts of reasons including the economy, culture shifts, discontentment and more. If you can carve yourself out a “generalized niche”, you can make yourself more valued as an external service provider versus a component of a larger system. I think more people are seeing the value in the nimbleness of freelancers and S-Corp types. I know I do.
Wait, this was supposed to be a non-business-centric entry, I apologize. I guess because it is the only thing I’ve been steeped in these last few months, it is all I can talk about at the moment. That’s not true. I could talk to you about my time at the Buddhist Priory that I went to a few weeks ago, I could show you photos of the lights I put up in the backyard for our dinner sessions, I could talk to you about my thoughts about the weird dreams I’ve been having lately. It just seems irrelevant to me at the moment–so this is what you get. 🙂
I hosted a small backyard BBQ the other day and a few friends showed up. If you ever came over my place when I was growing up or when I was in college, you may remember I wasn’t that great as a host. Some things never seem to change. I get all shaky when it’s my turn to please others. It was fun though. Good smiles where had and the BBQ set I received for listening to a vacuum cleaner sales guy talk to me for 35 minutes in my living room was used for the first time.
I also discovered the joy of Chat Roulette about 3 years late. That site is hilarious.
Alright taters, I’ve gotta go walk around my neighborhood.
-G
You were a fine host when we were in town.
It’s extra easy when your guests are easy to please!