Calculating time efficiently – Web and graphic design

Calculating your time is a crucial step for successfully managing your freelance activities. While it seems easy to set an hourly rate, it becomes tricky when considering the actual working hours. Here, you will learn how to accurately determine the value of your time and which factors you need to consider to work profitably in the long term.

Key Insights

• You don’t have as many working hours available as you think.
• Many tasks cannot be directly invoiced.
• Time management and recognizing non-billable activities are essential for price calculation.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Calculate Your Total Costs

Before you can fully break down your time, it makes sense to first get an overview of your financial requirements. Calculate your personnel costs and operating expenses to determine an hourly rate that meets your financial needs. Write down all the costs you already have.

Step 2: Consider Non-Working Time

While the year has 365 days, you need to subtract various days when you won’t be working for different reasons. This includes weekends, vacation days, and holidays. When you account for only 206.5 working days in a year, the average number of hours you can actually work decreases.

Step 3: Analyze Effective Working Time

Now comes the real challenge: You need to further break down your time and consider how much time you actually spend on billable work. A significant portion of your time will go toward non-billable activities such as client acquisition, accounting, or creating proposals. Many freelancers report that up to 35% of their working time is spent on these tasks.

Step 4: Document Non-Billable Hours

A helpful method to keep track of non-billable hours is to use time tracking tools. When you write down the time spent on tasks that cannot be directly invoiced, you can see how much time accumulates here. Regularly analyze this data to optimize your calculations.

Step 5: Recalculate

Now that you have gathered all the necessary data, you can adjust your calculations. Consider, based on the values you’ve determined so far, how many hours you can actually bill per year. This will likely be around 1074 billable hours.

Summary – Calculating Design – Practical Guide for Freelance Web Designers and Graphic Designers – Understanding Time in Detail

Calculating your time is a complex process that involves more than just counting hours. You need to consider non-billable tasks to ultimately set realistic prices. With the right analysis and time tracking, you can optimize your hourly rate and work more efficiently.