Time tracking feels tedious

Until it starts costing you.

Today, I’m going to tell you a story about one of my Very Best Clients.

I onboarded my Very Best Client (VBC) over four years ago. I responded to a job posting that told me the hiring institute worked with freelance writers. (I didn’t want the job, but I had — and still have! — a habit of peeping job listings to see which organizations work with freelancers.)

VBC is an institutional writing client. Usually, my editor sends me assignments with a very specific defined scope of work: Interview this person, file 1,000 words; oh, and btw, here’s the best point of contact at that place of work who can schedule your call.

I quickly figured out the formula for this type of project: outreach, prep questions, read transcript, trash draft, edit, send back to scientist, merge scientists’ comments/suggestions, send to editor, address edits. When I tracked my time for the first three or four assignments, I noticed that these at most take me 8 hours to complete. When I get paid $1750 a pop, my hourly rate is pretty sweet. I get paid on time via direct deposit. Edits are not cumbersome. There are loads of reasons to love this client.

About a month ago, my editor came to me with a new assignment. This time, the researcher we wanted to profile moved on. We vaguely decided on featuring a different department, with no clear direction on who to interview. The program manager for that research department dragged on scheduling me — but after six phone calls to that individual and some media contacts, I got a time on the books.

Before I even conducted the interview for the story, though, I started to feel resentful about my rate. Flat fees are great if you know exactly how much time you typically spend, but they can fuck you over if, for some reason, you start spending more time. The follow-up calls themselves didn’t take that much time, but I expended energy into figuring out the best order of operations to make those calls, and I had to schedule in that time to ensure I followed up.

After my interview, I asked my editor for a chat. I updated him on the scope of work for the piece so that there’d be no surprises — and then I asked: “I know this assignment is an anomaly because we didn’t know what the story would be when you first reached out, and I didn’t dig up the angle/story until my interview. Because I defined the scope and spent time doing that, would you have additional budget for this assignment?”

I’m happy to report that my editor was totally cool with it, agreeing to increase my rate such that it accounts for my additional time and effort.

If this happened a few years ago, I probably would’ve just sucked it up and taken the loss, knowing that things “would even out” with this particular client at the end. But right now, I’m being pretty judicious in my time and income tracking, and it doesn’t hurt to ask — and get more money!

But here’s the thing: I knew to ask for more because I knew how much time a project for this client typically took. And I knew that because I’ve tracked my time. If you don’t track your time, you might be selling yourself short and leaving money on the table.

Time tracking is just one of many components of pricing I’ll be digging into during TWC’s June masterclass on pricing.

I’ve worked with so many coaching clients that have never time tracked, or bemoan time tracking because it feels tedious. (There’s no reason to time track indefinitely, IMO. Rather, I see it as a useful tool when you’re starting work on a new project type or for new client)

But without knowing your time allotment, you can’t price projects accurately! You won’t know when to ask for more, and if a client asks you how much more you’d ideally charge, you won’t know because you don’t have the data to do the math. (Yes, all these things are connected.)

Habits are hard to form, and one of the great things about the class is accountability in trying new things.

Registration for the course is open until May 25 — come join us! (Discounts available to Patreon members — sign up any time at patreon.com/twcpod) And let me know if you have any questions. https://www.thewriterscooppod.com/resources/p/develop-confidence-in-your-freelance-pricing-strategy-with-the-writers-co-op

I hope to see you there,

Wudan