Making a living as a freelancer can be tough. At first, every single penny you make is an absolute joy and you don’t really concentrate on your earnings. Sooner or later tho, you’re going to regret not planning ahead and not taking your finances seriously…

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I can call myself lucky being a freelancer for the last 3+ years and successfully pay my bills with doing what I love. During last 12 months, my income stabilised fully and continues to grow. I have to admit, I’m still learning daily to manage my finances, but I can feel like at this point I’m way better at money management than I was back when I started.

Trust me, having steady income takes so much stress off your shoulders and allows you to concentrate on making yourself better.

If you’re not making enough money to pay for necessities, you might start working out of a desperation and that’s never a good idea. Thus today, I’d love to share some tips & tricks on establishing steady income as a freelancer with you all and I hope you guys will find this post useful.

SAVINGS.

You MUST start building up your savings if you want to have established income. Now you might think it’s not related, but having a certain amount of money in your bank account can really help you feel safe and let you concentrate on your work. It can also be useful if the time comes to invest in your business. In this way, you don’t have to spend your monthly payments on a new laptop or a course that you really need!

SET A PAYDAY.

Instead of transferring every payment to my bank account straight away, I pay myself every two weeks. To be honest, I wouldn’t call this the best solution tho. I still struggle with this part, but I’m finally considering opening a separate bank account for my business. Ideally, I would send a certain amount of money to myself on the 1st day of every month. By doing this, on the months I make more I can put that extra into savings, and if I have a month where I earn less I can take the difference – this way my monthly budget would remain the same each month. And when it feels right- I can easily pay myself a bonus!

START VARIOUS INCOME STREAMS.

If you really want to feel safe and establish steady income- you should consider starting, at least, a few income streams. At the moment, I sell my designs through 4 different e-shops & also get paid for blogging. This allows me to reach different client categories & make sure I’m still needed every month. Diversity is truly a key to success.

Read more: How Exactly I Make Money From My Blog.

GET BOOKED IN ADVANCE.

Back then I started, I used to take upon every single client immediately. It came to be unfair for both parts tho. I used to struggle to complete all of the orders in one go and then next month I would be left exhausted and stressed. Now, I create a waiting list for at least 2-3 weeks. In this case, I can schedule my work and really focus on my projects in the best possible way.

SCOUTING.

My days are pretty busy. I always put my current customers first and start my day with doing edits for them and answering emails. Despite that, I dedicate time for scouting new clients as well. I go ahead and look for people interested in design work on social media, I blog, I explore my community and help people. You never know who’s your next client. Be nice to people around you!

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If you make it through your first year, it will get easier, I promise! Just make sure to always do the best you can and just go & work for it. If you honestly try- the day will come where all your hard work will pay off!