Monthly Income Update: April 2011

• Total billed: $14,772.50
• Number of clients billed:  9
• Average amount billed per client:  $1,641.39
• Average hourly rate:  $150.00/hour
• Total billed hours:  98.5

For comparison, in March 2011, my billed total was $23,080.00; that was an exceptionally good month for me, where I had lots of work, and good focus on billable hours.  In comparison, the $14,772.50 that I billed for April worked time was significantly less, but still not a bad month for me, especially given that I took about a week off to take my kids backpacking.  Although the backpacking trip was a nice break, taking time off to unplug from work has the downside of losing revenue.

Besides the total billed amount, my average hourly rate of $150 was solid (since that’s my standard rate for existing clients).  In months where I do more non-billable work for clients, the average hourly rate suffers.  My goal, of course, is to bill for all my time, but things don’t always work out that way.  However, I find that if I occasionally look at my metrics (avg. hourly rate, projected billed hours for the month, etc.), it’s a great way to keep me on track.

On a related note, I have a spreadsheet that I use for keeping track of how much I’ve billed to date in the current month, and the spreadsheet also has formulas which pro-rate the billed-to-date numbers, projecting how much I’ll bill at the end of the month.  That spreadsheet has evolved over time, but I find that it’s a great tool to keep me motivated during the month, and also to let me know how good or bad my month’s billings will be.