Recurring income is the holy grail of freelancing.
When a healthy percentage of your monthly income is recurring, you have predictability.
And when you have predictability, you have greater confidence—and a higher propensity to take smart risks that will help grow your business and make it better.
It also gives you the freedom to pursue clients, projects, business models and even a side hustle you couldn’t pursue before.
Not to mention, you also have more time and flexibility.
So, we can all agree that recurring revenue is important. But how do you make it a priority?
Recurring Revenue Is a Key Imperative
If you want to improve your recurring revenue, you need to start by taking stock of where you are now.
The simplest way to do that it is to add up your total income over the past six months and then identify the income within that period that was recurring in nature.
You can then use these two numbers to calculate the percentage of your business income that was recurring over the past six months.
To be clear, that income doesn’t have to come from retainers. Recurring income can also come from anchor clients that give you fairly predictable work. Or it can come from a monthly service you perform for clients, such as a newsletter or blog.
You get to decide what you want to classify as “recurring.” Just be consistent with your classification rules.
Now that you have a baseline (meaning you know where you stand right now), you want to start tracking this metric every quarter.
In fact, schedule an alert for 90 days from now—ideally on the first of the month of that quarter—to remind you to make the same calculation for the 90-day period that just passed.
Keep an eye on how this number trends and consider setting a quarterly target.
For example, say your current recurring income percentage is 14%. You might set a target to bring it up to 25% by this time next quarter. A roughly 10-point increase is a reasonable goal for a 90-day period.
And having that goal front-and-center will help you make better decisions over the next few months.
So take stock of where you are. Set a reasonable goal that will push you. And schedule those quarterly reminders.
This may sound simple, but it’s the kind of stuff that can transform your business.
I know it did for me.
By the way… whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your freelance business:
1. Grab a free copy of my book.
It’s called Earn More in Less Time: The Proven Mindset, Strategies and Actions to Prosper as a Freelance Writer. The title says it all. 😉 — Click Here
2. Join my implementation program and be a case study.
I’m putting together a new implementation group this month. If you’re earning $5k+/month (or the part-time equivalent) from your freelance business … and you’d like to grow your income quickly with better clients … just email me at [email protected] and put “Case Study” in the subject line.
3. Work with me privately.
If you’re a 6-figure writer who’s trying to earn more in less time, with less stress, I might be able to help you get there faster than you think. Just email me at [email protected] and put “Breakthrough” in the subject line, and I’ll get back to you with more details.
