Now that the New Year has been ushered in and the dust from the holiday frenzy has settled, it’s time to re-focus on your career and set firm goals for the upcoming year.
Instead of just eking by, scrambling to pay the bills, and accepting any and every toxic client that comes your way just to try and make ends meet, why not set your goals this year to increase your income and profits by 20%? 50%? What about actually doubling your income this year?
Sound too lofty? Well, truth be told, once you break down the apparent enormity of doubling your income into simple, recipe-like concepts, you may realize it’s much more feasible than you might have initially thought. The process involves somewhat obvious strategies (once realized), and the simplest of math equations. Believe it or not, in some cases, doubling your income may not even require additional work. This being the case, what’s holding you back? Here are three simple approaches that you can start immediately which could make 2023 your best year ever:
Option 1: Double Your Rates. This may sound obvious if not impractical, but you may be surprised how much more money quality clients are willing to pay above and beyond what you think they are willing to pay. Most independent professionals undercharge their services because they think it increases the chance of landing more projects. What this does, in actuality, is overload you with small projects and cheap clients that will try to nickel and dime you to death, thereby keeping you overwhelmed with producing work at cut-rate prices.
On the other hand, doubling your rates overnight for existing long-time clients will certainly generate some blowback, so the best approach for this option is to send advance notice to your existing clients of a future rate increase (test the waters, but I suggest keeping the increase milder, somewhere around 25%), while doubling your advertised rates for all new clients.
This may sound too easy, but simplicity is the hallmark of genius. For example, one of my clients who had been running a moderately successful business for over 10 years made absolutely no changes other than doubling his prices and he achieved record sales that very same year and more importantly — record profits. He offered the exact same product and the exact same service, doubled his prices, doubled his earnings, and ultimately even gained more new clients than he lost.
Option 2: Double Your Projects. If you produce twice the number of projects of similar scope and budget without raising your rates a penny, you will subsequently double your income. To achieve this, you can either pitch and land twice as many projects with your current client list or you can land twice as many new clients. In reality, this option will probably end up being a blend of the two: more projects with existing clients, plus acquiring new projects from new clients.
If you choose to double your projects, keep in mind that you will also need to double your labor to cover the new projects. If this is more than you can handle alone, subtract the amount of money you will need to pay independent contractors to produce the additional work and increase the target number of additional projects you will need to land to compensate for this expense.
Again, this approach may seem fairly obvious when seeing it in print, but so few people ever come to the realization that it is even possible, much less commit to achieving this particular goal. Without the awareness or commitment necessary to doubling your projects, it will never happen.
Option 3: Double Your Efficiency. The last and all-too-often overlooked way to double your earnings is to work smarter, faster, and more cost-effectively. Analyze your entire workflow from top to bottom and see what can be replaced with better performing, more cost-effective solutions.
For example, if it costs $3 to make $4 (resulting in a profit of $1 for every $4 earned), and you can find a way to reduce your costs, i.e. be more efficient by 33%, suddenly your costs to make $4 drops to $2, resulting in a profit of $2 for every $4 earned, thereby doubling your profits without raising your rates, landing more clients, or working on more projects.
If you are serious about doubling your earnings this year, choose an option listed above (or for exponential results, implement all 3), plug in your own numbers, commit to this goal and don’t look back. You may find that doubling your income is easier and more attainable than you ever imagined, and you might need to set your goals even higher in 2024.
Martin Grebing is the president of Funnybone Animation Studios. He can be reached at funnyboneanimation.com.
