Hit 50 invoices last year and that number made me rethink everything

I was going through my files last weekend and saw I sent out 50 invoices in 2022. That's almost one a week. But when I added up what I actually collected from those 50 invoices, it was way lower than I thought. Turns out 12 of those were for jobs under $100, and those small ones ate up just as much time to manage as the big ones. I spent hours chasing payments on tiny gigs, writing emails, and sending reminders for stuff that barely covered my coffee runs. It clicked for me that I was trading my time for peanuts on those small jobs. Has anyone else crunched their invoice numbers and found a bunch of low paying work that wasn't worth the hassle?

3 comments

3 Comments

aliceharris14d ago

Start by looking at what those small jobs actually cost you in time and stress. In my experience, the time spent chasing $100 payments usually ends up being worth way less than the money itself. Your mileage may vary, but cutting out the tiny gigs helped me focus on work that actually paid off.

andrew_baker914d ago

Wait is that not just the worst feeling, chasing down those tiny payments? It's like the stress totally outweighs whatever you're getting back.

lilyt2313d ago

Watched my buddy waste a whole afternoon chasing someone for forty bucks.