Hit 500 clients this year and still felt like I was running on a hamster wheel

I cracked 500 jobs done for the year last Thursday and I honestly expected to feel some kind of victory dance, but instead I just stared at my invoice log and wondered if I'm even making real money after expenses. Has anyone else hit a big number and realized it didn't mean squat?

3 comments

3 Comments

sanchez.julia15d ago

You stared at your invoice log and wondered if you're even making real money after expenses" - that hits hard. So what's your profit margin looking like after you subtract everything?

the_drew14d ago

Parker's 25-30 cents sounds about right for a lot of us, but that's only if you're lucky and don't have a bad month. The trickiest part is the hidden costs that creep up... like when a client takes 90 days to pay and you're still covering your own bills on that same invoice. Then you have to factor in the time you spend chasing payments, dealing with taxes, or fixing mistakes that eat into that profit. The real number after all that headache might be closer to 15-20 cents on the dollar for a lot of people. It's enough to survive, but definitely not enough to grow or save like you'd want.

parker_webb15d ago

Yeah that's the thing that keeps me up at night. After you subtract all the overhead, taxes, and random fees, I'm probably only keeping about 25 to 30 cents on every dollar I bring in.