My 2024 Year in Review

Insights from my sixth year of freelancing

Author

Sam Lauron
December 17, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Today I’m reflecting on the past year of freelancing.

I hope this sheds some light on what really goes into running a freelance writing business. My biggest takeaway? I wrote a lot!!! My eyes and brain need to rest for at least two weeks. 😮‍💨

Okay let’s dive in!

Freelancing by the numbers

  • Pieces written: 115+ 😧 (the exact breakdown is 77 blog posts/articles and 38 case studies with some small copywriting projects sprinkled in)

  • Invoices sent: 47

  • Total number of clients: 14

  • Number of clients lost: 2 (due to layoffs)

  • Highest-earning month: May

  • Lowest-earning month: February

  • Number of hours worked per week: ~25-30 (this is a guesstimate because I don’t track my hours anymore — but I want to start tracking again so I can see where my time is going)

  • Number of times I was ghosted by a client: Twice 👻

Favorite articles written

Work highlights

🖥️ FINALLY redesigned and relaunched my website (it had been a work in progress since 2022)
💌 Launched this newsletter!
💰 Exceeded my income goals
🎤 Moderated a panel about sustainable fashion for Slow Fashion Week here in Austin
📍 Dipped my toes back into local journalism

Personal highlights

💍 Got married!!! (hard to top that tbh)
✈️ Traveled to London, Amsterdam, and a handful of cities in Ireland for our honeymoon
📚 Read 12 books (I’m a slow reader)
👟 Maintained a consistent running routine in hopes of running my first 10K next year
🖌️ Took an art class at the beautiful Laguna Gloria (the art of paper making and collaging)

Lessons and takeaways

Overall, I would describe work this year as steady. I’m grateful to have regular clients I work with on a monthly basis. This keeps my workload and income predictable. On the flip side, I didn’t get as many leads or inquiries as I usually do. Seeing a potential client in my inbox or LinkedIn DMs gives me a thrill, so I definitely missed that feeling this year. But the tradeoff is having consistency, so who am I to complain? 🙃

Most of my days were spent writing (which sounds obvious, I know, but hear me out) and it was draining at times. Writing is deep work. It’s time-intensive and requires a lot of thinking. So when the workload gets intense, I burn out more times than I’d like to admit. I’d love to diversify my work next year so my days have some variety in them.

2024 marked my sixth year of full-time freelancing and this is the first time that I’ve felt stable and sure of myself career-wise. However, it has not been an easy journey and it took a looong time to get to this point. I say that not to be discouraging to anyone who is just getting started with freelancing, but as a reminder that it takes time. Slow and steady is the way 🤝

A few other takeaways:

  • Organization: This is a boring one, but I desperately need to set up systems and get organized. Everything I do either lives in my head, is added to my digital to-do list (I use Todoist), or is written on a sticky note (my desk is covered in them). I think it’s time I create a central workspace to keep track of everything work-related. I’m leaning towards Notion but I’m open to recommendations 👀Loneliness: I really felt the loneliness of freelancing this year. I don’t know what changed this year specifically, but the fact that I work alone in front of my laptop with very little human contact most days (besides my husband and my dog) really hit me. I’d love to connect with more freelancers online and IRL next year!

  • Impactful work: I reconnected with a former local business client (a boutique hotel!) and it was a great reminder of why I love working with small businesses. These days, I mainly work with large tech companies and the relationships can be somewhat transactional (not necessarily a bad thing! It pays the bills and allows me to work independently). But there’s something really impactful about working directly with a small business owner and seeing that work come to life. I hope to work with more small local businesses in the coming year 💛

Goals for 2025

  • Set up an LLC (I’m still a sole proprietor 😬)

  • ~Diversify~ my income (90% of my work relies heavily on writing long-form blog posts)

  • Take more time off

  • Grow this newsletter (I have some fun ideas and I’m excited to explore them in 2025!)

That’s it! Thanks for being here and reading my year in review. I love reading other people’s year in review posts, so please send them my way 🫡

Is there a freelance topic you want to hear more about? Let me know by replying to this email! I have a ton of stories from my 6+ years of freelancing, and I hope to share the ones that are most helpful to you.

Have a great rest of your week and a happy holiday season! I’ll be back in your inbox on the last day of 2024 with some new year motivation.

-Sam

Rough Draft is a bi-weekly newsletter where I share tips and musings on creating a freelance career from scratch. Subscribe here. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Threads, or my website. 👋