2024 was a better year than 2023 in many ways – at least from a freelance perspective. I continued splitting my time between one-off projects (fewer in number but higher in value) and regular work (split more evenly between clients). My overall freelancing income was stable, and my retirement plans are on track. The October Budget also didn’t reduce the VAT registration threshold, which is something I worry about every year.
Statistics
This year I’ve tracked some statistics about how my business has performed. One thing to bear in mind is that I tend to get a lot of regular and repeat work (which is good as it suggests client are happy with what I do), so my numbers are lower than a freelancer who does lots of smaller one-off projects.
| New clients | 2 |
| One-off projects completed | 14 |
| Invoices paid in full | 100% |
| Invoices paid late (most by only a few days) | 27.7% |
| Average time for invoices to be paid | 12.7 days |
| Prospective new clients | 3 |
| Incoming referrals | 3 |
| Enquiries that did not result in work | 40 |
| Enquiries with no reply to my initial response | 21 |
| Freelance income change | +5% |
Things I did for the first time
Regular pension contributions: Until now I’d taken an ad-hoc approach to funding my pension, sweeping spare funds into it every so often. This year, I decided to get into the habit of putting a fixed percentage of each invoice into my pension (currently 20%), in the same way that I always have put money aside for tax liabilities, and in line with what would happen if I was employed. It works out as a similar amount to the ad-hoc approach, but having a system means I’m more likely to stick with it. I still make ad-hoc contributions if I have a particularly good month for income.
Launched C and Go Developer sites: As well as PHP, I’m also looking for work as a C Developer and Go Developer. I’ve been gradually adding content to these sites over the course of 2024, with a view to diversifying into new areas from 2025.
Launched PHP Developer Guides: I’ve been meaning to write up a series of guides or books on development topics from a PHP perspective, and this year I launched PHP Developer Guides. I’ll be working on these in more detail in 2025.
Things I’ve changed
Recording channel of new business enquiries: In 2022, I started recording all incoming enquiries in a spreadsheet. This year I’ve also recorded the ‘channel’ (LinkedIn, email, phone etc.) that an initial enquiry comes in from. I’ve shared the breakdown in a previous post, but roughly speaking if work comes in from an existing client or email it’s more likely to go ahead, whereas phone calls and WhatsApp messages rarely lead to paid work.
Formalised client financial exposure limits: I’ve always been wary of becoming reliant on one client or project for a large percentage of my income. This year I formalised a financial exposure limit, which is the most work I will do for a single client before invoicing. For regular work this is a cap on the amount I will do each month, and for one-off projects I break them into smaller parts so that each part remains below the limit (I don’t start the next part until the previous part has been paid for).
Taking more time off: I’ve increased the amount of time I take off each year from 4 weeks to 5-6 weeks, after realising that I preferred the time off to the extra income I could earn by working. Having less regular work also makes it easier to book time off, as I have more flexibility to move work around.
Adjusted tax liability calculation: I was putting 35% of my income aside for tax liabilities, but I realised that this was a bit too high, as it didn’t take into account the tax relief I receive on my pension contributions. I’ve reduced it to 30%, and put the difference into my pension.
Merging timesheets: I used to have separate timesheets for some clients, as I need to track time on a per-project basis. I’ve merged these into a single timesheet that can track total time and per-project for every client, as well as the time spent on improving my business. This has saved me a lot of admin time, and also allows me to monitor how much time I’m spending on each project – even for clients who don’t require this level of detail.
Things to improve for 2025
Regular blog posts: I started trying to post every other week back in 2022, but I didn’t manage to keep it going. I’ve made a concerted effort to post at least once a month this year, and I’m hoping to continue that in 2025.
Spread work amongst more clients: Now that I’ve formalised and implemented my financial exposure limits, I want to spread work amongst a wider client base.