Do you often feel like your projects are taking much longer than you anticipated? That your hourly rate is like $15 for one hour of deep work? Is your client bleeding you with endless iterations on your project? Can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel? The bad news is that it is almost certainly your fault. The good news is: I’ve been there too and I’ve done a good portion of work to escape from this trap. Through the system I’ve created, I’m able to comfortably reach my target hourly rate and I’m willing to share my way with you through this ultimate guide. Beware, I’m not offering any magic pill here, rather ideas and systems which have been proven in the freelance field.

So I’m in the freelancing and online business game for more than a decade. Same as everyone else, I started as a rookie, making the same rookie mistakes, which were then reflected in my monthly earnings (or absence of them). A typical mistake is starting the work without receiving payment from the client. I'll show you how doing this will cost you thousands of dollars in the long run. And yes, I have the exact numbers.

Personally, for projects under $1,000, I require 100% of the payment upfront. For bigger projects, I define milestones with the client and the payments arrive in chunks, but are still paid in advance. But most of the time I work through the Codeable (WordPress outsourcing platform), where you need to pre-pay the full amount into escrow.

For me, a Productive Hour means 60 minutes of uninterrupted deep work with a full focus on the given task. If I’m interrupted or just pause (answering team mate’s question, lunch, etc), then I’m stopping the timer for this task and track it as a “not-productive” time. My daily average for development is around 4.5 productive hours and I can push myself to do 8 - 9 hours when doing a less mentally demanding activity.