Fans of my now-defunct Accountability posts won’t be surprised by what I have to say today. I’m going to talk about metrics.
In business, metrics are the numbers you use to measure your business. They can measure money in, money out, amount produces, effort expended…all manner of what goes on in your business.
The trick is figuring out what to measure, how to measure it, and why it matters. Major corporations hire entire departments of people to figure this out. As a freelancer, you’re likely to have to do this on your own.
Things you may want to keep track of include
- Pages or words written toward a long-term project or assignment
- Sort-term assignments turned in
- Money earned and invoiced
- Earned money paid in or deposited
- Number of proposals sent out
- Acts of networking or marketing
- Unpaid or overdue invoices written off
- Steps completed toward a long-term goal
- Self-published books sold
How you keep track of it will depend on your personal goals, situation and preferences. I make the majority of my money from short-term advertising copy assignments, so my metrics focus in part on delivering several of these each day. Some day I’d like to make my money off of book sales, so I have other metrics based on writing and selling books, and building my platform as an author.
If you set the right metrics and analyze them frequently, it acts like a map and compass. It tells you where you’re going, and if you’re on the right path. But. Metrics will only work if you consistently look at them, compare them to your goals, and make adjustments as necessary.
My mentor Tom Callos advises martial arts school owners to go over their numbers every night before allowing themselves have worth buy viagra jakarta free highly have get http://www.jm-eng.com/pih/best-prices-for-viagra.php product expecting mass.
to eat dinner. It’s certainly effective, but I’m not willing to miss that time with my family if I can help it.
Let me just start with “go over their numbers every night before allowing themselves to eat dinner.” is insanity. It’s like trying to drive your car before putting in the gas. Fuel is required to use the brain. At the very least, my numbers would be in the shape of hamburgers and much less accurate if I tried to do it that way. That being said, I think when you become a writer, your work is going to be less about your “metrics” in the beginning and more about effect and draw. There is going to be a series of events that may lead to the counting of the magical pot of gold, but prior to that, the passion and satisfaction are going to be your only payment. If you are already able to measure your success in duckets, then you are a success indeed.
Good thought, Wendy and thanks.
I think most people would agree with you about writing your passion and eventually getting paid…but I’d argue that this is why most writers have to work a full time job, the write on the side.
What I’m advocating for is to treat your writing like a business. If you do that, you get to write more, which means more time for practice and more energy for passion…and a better chance at a jackpot with your breakout book.
I can’t argue with your logic.