resource: financial planner

You can listen to the full post below here, or read on:

​Like the losers we are, we've made a financial planner for you to celebrate the New Financial Year! 🎆

It's based on the one we use to ensure that we can make enough money in a year to cover what it costs us to be in business (our overheads) and cover what it costs us to live (our "wage").

We would recommend opening it in Google Sheets then clicking File > Make a copy, in order to save it for yourselves so that you can edit it and use the full functionality. This includes percentages that will auto-calculate and figures that will auto-populate as you add things. 

download: financial planner

​HOW TO USE IT:​
There are 2 tabs at the bottom of the workbook. The first is an annotated EXAMPLE, and the second is a BLANK VERSION for you to use. 

The first thing you'll see are the Target Annual Costs. You need to make these your own, and you can add lines for each of your overheads as required. 

Then, the Income box starts with a Description line. This is for your to describe different strands of your practice broken down into projects, clients or types.

Next there is a Target Income column. This is the target you are aiming to reach for each different category of income. We work this out based on the capacity we think we have for each different type.
>>For example, you might think "I charge £300 for a consultancy session on the use of K-pop in live art, and I reckon I will do about 5 sessions of that this year" Therefore 5x£300 = £1500 target income for this line.

​But, whatever you put here, it's a goal, and will be flexible - fill it in as you need and explore it for yourself. It should be a living document that you change throughout the year as more information becomes available to you. It can also help you see what areas you need to chase for more work.

Next is a Confirmed Income column, which we fill in when a job becomes confirmed or we receive a contract. The % Complete column next to this will auto-fill cleverly to tell you how much of your target income against that line has been found. As you add to it you can see the totals adding up across the year.

At the bottom the Still to Find box shows you how far under covering all your costs you are, based on the Confirmed Income you have. While it's a minus you still have jobs and money to find and confirm. If it's a positive number, then you can add more to some of your Target Annual Costs, such as your Target wage, you lucky little sausage!

We're doing more and more advisories/consultancies on how freelancers can think more strategically to make projections for the period or year ahead so they feel some sense of control and stability. This Financial Planner can be a useful tool for plotting out what you need, where in your career it is coming from and where the shortfalls are.

Let us know if you find it helpful!