How to Achieve Your Income Goal - Susie Jackson

Molly is a Spanish-to-English translator and subtitler whose work can be seen on the world’s largest streaming service. She is originally from Minnesota in the US, but she lives in Spain where she’s often mistaken for a local. As well as language services, Molly provides consulting and classes for aspiring subtitlers who are looking to break into the market.

Molly signed up for Charge with Confidence in September 2020 after receiving a recommendation from a friend who had already completed the programme. At the time, she’d been running her business for approximately 9 years. With all this experience behind her, she felt she could gain something from Charge with Confidence but she wasn’t entirely clear what that was.

The challenge: helping Molly achieve the income goals she’d been setting herself for years but failing to meet

When Molly decided to take part in Charge with Confidence, she wasn’t struggling financially. Living in Spain, her personal expenses were fairly low, so she didn’t have any money worries. However, perhaps partly due to the fact that she was living comfortably, she wasn’t aware of how well she was really doing.

Molly admits that she felt as though she was shooting in the dark with her numbers. She didn’t have a clear pricing strategy or a solid foundation on which to base her rates.

Despite this, Molly had been setting herself abstract income goals for years without achieving them. She knew she wanted Charge with Confidence to finally help her reach these goals so she could develop her business and make her dreams of having a good work/life balance come true.

My aim was therefore to help Molly break down her goals so she could understand what was behind them and what it would take for her to achieve them.

The solution: showing Molly how to set her income goals in a targeted way and giving her the tools to work towards them

We started by looking at exactly what Molly needed to be taking into account when setting her rates. This included her business expenses, her personal outgoings, and the amount of time she wanted to spend on work each week. We also looked at how she would be funding her retirement in the future.

Once we’d made all these considerations, Molly was able to calculate her rates to understand the minimum she could afford to earn per hour if she wanted to cover her expenses, invest in her future, and work the number of hours she wanted to work. At the same time, we also set an aspirational rate so that Molly had a more far-reaching income goal that was based on specific criteria rather than abstract numbers.

In fact, perhaps the most important part of the programme for Molly came during the third week when we did a long-term vision exercise. Having a long-term vision can really encourage business growth because if you know what you’re working towards and why, it makes it a lot easier for you to achieve it. As Molly says, “It’s hard to meet a goal if you don’t know why it’s there.” In Molly’s case, understanding what she wanted her life to look like in the future helped her make the changes in her business to turn her vision into a reality.

“I realized that these far-off goals that seemed impossible to reach were actually just right around the corner. With a few small adjustments I could make my work/life balance dreams come true.”

As part of Charge with Confidence, I also provided Molly with my rate calculator spreadsheet, which she’s been able to use to price her projects. All she has to do is insert the number of hours she thinks it will take to complete the project, and the spreadsheet automatically calculates her minimum and aspirational rates for her. She can then decide how much she wants to charge the client based on their requirements and her long-term goals.

“The best and most impactful thing about the course was just being able to confidently set my aspirational and minimum rates. Also, the rate calculator is a lifesaver!”

The results: Molly now thinks about her business differently and has increased her income while achieving a better work/life balance

After completing Charge with Confidence, Molly immediately decided to change her working hours to reflect her ideal day. She now works from 9/10am until 3pm, when she stops for lunch. In the past, she always felt as though she was missing something if she wasn’t working and regularly worked evenings as a result. But now, she’s set boundaries and finishes at 3pm without feeling guilty about not returning to work in the evening too.

Not only has Molly established a better work/life balance for herself, she’s also earning more. She doubled her income from 2020 to 2021 and finally met her income goal for the first time in 2021. This involved her exceeding her aspirational hourly rate on average, as well as the aspirational annual income goal she’d set for herself during Charge with Confidence.

“The first fiscal year after taking Charge with Confidence, I met my financial goals (for the first time ever) with ease thanks to the skills I learned from Susie. I now have a clear idea of how many hours I need to work and what I need to charge to meet my goals, which means it’s also been easier to set boundaries and enjoy my free time with a clear conscience.”

But besides these incredible results, one of the things I’m most proud of is the way in which Molly now approaches her business. She thinks about it much more strategically and has noticed a change in how she spends her time.

Molly is now carrying out monthly reviews and breaks her income goal down into monthly and quarterly chunks, because she’s realised that “income goals are easier to meet in small increments throughout the year”. She’s found that doing things this way gives her peace of mind as well as the opportunity to check in and know she’s on track or adjust her strategy if necessary. She also uses these reviews to plan ahead for time off and make sure she’ll have work coming in at other times to make up for it.

“This course is a life changer in more than a million ways. I couldn’t recommend it more.”

I feel so happy for Molly that she’s achieved both her income goals and a better work/life balance. She’s thinking like a business owner and now has the confidence to charge what she needs to meet her lifestyle aspirations.

Molly is the perfect example of how Charge with Confidence can help more experienced freelancers. She didn’t need to take the programme and raise her prices, but she’s benefitted so much from putting what she’s learnt into practice. Understanding what goes into your rates and what you want from your business can completely change your outlook. A few small adjustments are all it takes to achieve the results you’ve always dreamt of.

If you’re like Molly and don’t need to take Charge with Confidence but think you might benefit from it, you can find out more about the programme by clicking on the button below. Putting a figure on your minimum and aspirational rates could set you on the path to achieving your business and lifestyle goals.