Keep track of your spendings and earnings

[EvilHaider]

Some helpful points. When you are starting out, you will most likely at some point want to reevaluate what you've been doing. You'll want to see how far you've come and how far you need to go. You'll need to guage if you are making enough money to keep at it, etc. It's VERY easy to lose track of this.My suggestions would be:

- Create some sort of centralized system to store all your data: Excel, Access, whatever - I myself, use Access
- Keep track of ALL your earnings and where they came from (what you did for them,etc)
- Keep track of ALL your expenditures, no matter how small

This will go a long way. It will help you grow as a businessman. You'll be able to learn from your mistakes.

Remember, a large part of running a freelance business is marketing yourself and MANAGING your business.

Hope this helps.

--Haider

[Artashes]

Haider, what a wonderful advice. I will join you by adding that correct and timely financial management of your personal and business incomes is easy when you do it right and it is an incredible tool in forecasting your spendings or actually looking where you spend most money.

I myself use Quicken software for that. Other than financial management though, I record almost everything I do: avarious stats, do balance sheets when it make sense, calculate key ratios to help myself see how I'm doing against the industry averages.

It helps you make more qualified and profitable decisions.

Best,