![]() Knowing who our most valuable clients are is essential if we’re to avoid knee-jerk reactions to rates of pay. In those cases, we’re not always in control of the price, and yet those clients can still be valuable because of the amount of repeat work they send us and the percentage of our overall income their business accounts for. Some editors work for repeat clients – an agency or publisher, for example. Plus, I can’t break the spreadsheet! TEA’s analysis cells are locked so I won’t inadvertently alter the complex formulae within. That saves me time because TEA’s doing the maths for me. All I do is input the raw data and review what TEA’s analysis cells tell me. And when Jackie comes back to me three months later with another job with the same word count, this time I can input more accurate data, meaning I’ll earn my desired rate of £20 per 1,000 words.Īt no time am I messing around with a calculator. TEA tells me I’ve actually achieved only 3,000 words per hour and that my hourly rate was £12, not £20.īut I’ve learned something.TEA tells me my rate per 1,000 words will be £4 and it’ll take 6 hours, so I bill for £120. I decide I’ll be happy earning anything over £20 per hour. I’m grateful for the opportunity because my business is new. I have no clue how long it will take so I estimate a speed of 5,000 words an hour. In April 2019, Jackie Jones asks me to proofread her 30,000-word novella. TEA helps us build that knowledge via accrued data that we can use later on. Less experienced editors might not yet have enough older data to know how long a particular type of editing will take, or whether Client A’s work tends to be speedier to complete than Client B’s. The point is, I can play with the data I’m inputting and see the impact. If I don’t, I can negotiate with the client. If I’m happy to work for £35.09 rather than £40 per hour, I’m good to go. TEA tells me my rate per hour would be £35.09.I can temporarily add this to the amount-received cell. TEA tells me I need to quote £2,285.71.įor argument’s sake, let’s say I know that my client’s budget is £2,000.TEA tells me my estimated rate per 1,000 words will be £22.86.TEA tells me I’ll need to set aside just over 57 hours for the project.I estimate I can edit at a speed of 1,750 words per hour, so I input that information along with the word count. John Smith asks me to line edit a 100K-word novel. TEA allows you to see the impact of the data you’re inputting on your business, and make informed decisions about how you should quote. I made them up because my business affairs are of no concern to anyone but me!ġ. NOTE: The numbers and client information below are for the purposes of illustration only. So why is it worth investing in TEA? I identified 5 standout features that I believe make this a must-have tool. The amount I need to quote to achieve my desired hourly rate.An estimate of how many hours I’d have to work to achieve my desired hourly rate.A status alert if the invoice is overdue.All you need to do is input the project (and expenses) data as it comes in.īelow are examples of some of the project data an editor can input, and the received data from TEA. So what is TEA? It’s a one-stop-shop Excel spreadsheet with lots of built-in jiggery-pokery that does all the tricky formula work for you. So when Maya asked me to take a look at TEA, I jumped at the chance. However, like many editors, I have neither the time nor the will. I’ve been tracking my data for years, and while I’m fairly proficient with Excel, I’ve been aware that there’s more I could do to fine-tune my process. Then, when it’s time to review my business and submit my return to the tax authorities, the numbers are ready and waiting for me. I want summaries that give me a number – automatically generated by the data I’ve inputted throughout the financial year. I don’t want to spend ages collecting and collating this data so it’s easy to access. Comparison of data with the previous year.The worth of each client as a percentage of my total income.Which clients I earn the most money from.Client name, project title, how they found me.Baselines data – word count, hours worked. ![]() Fees – quotes, paid, pending and overdue.Instead, I want to see the core data at a glance … data that will tell me the following: I’m an editor, not an accountant.Įssentially, I want as much as possible in one place:Īnd when it’s time to submit a tax return to (in my case) HMRC and evaluate how things are going, I don’t want to be faffing around with several different apps and spreadsheets. When it comes to keeping an eye on the health of my business, simple has always been my goal.
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