Starting a freelance business isn’t easy. In fact, it’s one of the hardest things many of us will do during our careers. What makes it especially difficult is knowing where to begin when you don’t have any experience.

When it comes to the numbers, how do you know which areas you should be focusing on and what will actually make a difference to your business moving forwards?

Based on my experience mentoring freelancers, I’ve found that the same things tend to come up time and time again. So in this blog post, I thought I’d run through the main things that I’d recommend all service-based business owners make a habit of tracking as early on in their freelance journeys as possible.

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It’s a good idea to carry out a business review whenever you feel as though you need to take a step back and reassess your work, goals and priorities.

Perhaps your personal circumstances have changed and you want something different from your business. Or maybe you’ve started offering a new service and would like to take your business in a whole new direction. Either way, by analysing your business’s performance, you can establish exactly where you’re at and what you need to do to get to where you want to be. It’s all about developing the kind of business that aligns with your values and aspirations.

I would recommend carrying out a business review at least once a year, but many freelancers have told me it’s one of those tasks they often end up putting off, whether that’s due to a lack of time, feeling overwhelmed or simply not knowing where to start. In this post, I’ll be looking at all the reasons why you should make carrying out a yearly business review a priority.

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If you were in employment, you’d most likely be paying into a pension and your employer would be contributing on your behalf too. But what about saving for retirement as a freelancer? Planning for the future is one of those topics a lot of us shy away from, particularly in the early years. In fact, it’s something many of us don’t think about until it’s too late.

If we ever want to be able to retire, we need to have a source of income that doesn’t require us to sell our time. And the best way to go about this varies from person to person.

In this post, I’ll be looking at two options for saving for the future: contributing to a pension and investing in property.

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Whether we like the topic or not, finances are something we all need to get a handle on if we're going to run a sustainable business. If you can't earn a decent living, you won't be able to manage for long. In this post, I'm talking about some healthy financial habits to adopt to ensure your freelance business runs smoothly.

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If your client work has dried up over the last few weeks, you might be worrying how you'll pay for your upcoming business expenses. You're not alone. In this post, I'm breaking down how to work out where you can save some money in your business.

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A step-by-step process to create a freelance budget you’ll actually stick to

Many freelancers spend a lot of money on business expenses without first considering whether we can afford to. Part of the problem is not having a freelance budget in place to guide spending decisions. I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of spending without thinking at some point, especially when it comes to professional development (just one more webinar, I promise — this one looks so useful…).

Overcoming this issue of overspending is all about having a strategy for how much you can afford to spend on different types of expenses. A little planning upfront can help ensure you have enough money to cover everything you need without eating too much into your earnings.

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