Do you know what it takes to make $100,000 per year?

I’ve created a worksheet to help you figure out:

• How much you need to earn per hour you work
• If you are charging enough per episode to earn that much money

Download the spreadsheet at the bottom of this course and follow along with the video above.

Step 1: How much do you want to make?

In Cell B3 of the Worksheet tab, enter how much you want to take home after taxes.

(Note: This number does not take into account any expenses you have like Descript subscription, plugins, a new computer, etc).

• Cell B4 will estimate how much you will pay in income taxes (example is based on 40%)
• Cell B5 accounts for payment processing fees from services like QuickBooks, Wave App, etc.

The result in Cell B6 is how much money you need to generate (charge clients) in order to bring home the amount you entered in cell B3

Step 2: How many hours do you work?

In Cell B8, enter how many hours you want to work on an average week.

(Tip: Never enter more than 40).

Cell B9 is the total number of hours you will work in a year – minus two weeks for vacation and stuff.

Cell B10 is the result of how much you need to earn per hour of work in order to bring home the income you entered in B3.

Step 3: In the “Are you charging enough” tab…

In the “Are you charging enough tab”, add the names of your clients or their shows under Column A.

Step 4: How long do you take to complete the job?

Next to each show/podcaster, for example in Cell B9, enter how many hours it takes you to complete an average episode.

Tip: Include all activities it takes to do the job – such as email communications, uploading/scheduling, etc.

Cell C9 is the average amount you should be charging for that episode in order to bring home the number you entered in cell B3 on the Worksheet tab (take home pay).

Step 5: What you charge

In Column D, enter how much you charge per episode (on average).

The result in Column E is if you charge too much or too little based on “Worksheet B3” (what you want to make).

A number in ( ) means you are charging too little. A positive number means you are charging enough or more. YAY!

Step 6: Time for a meeting

Have a conversation with clients about raising your rates.

Tip: We have a script that can help you start the conversation (click here)

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Variation 1: Flat monthly rate clients

In my video example, I charge my HMT client $800 per calendar month.

This means I have to estimate how much time I spend working on each episode and how much I charge.

In cell B10, I estimate it takes me 2.5 hours to complete each episode.

Tip: Want to track your computer time? Click here to see a post about RescueTime

Variation 2: Contracting out some/all of the work

On the “Are you charging enough” tab, enter the number of hours YOU put into the project in column B.

For column D, enter how much income you generate AFTER paying contractors.

In my video example, I charge $215 for the RT episode but pay my contractor $115 to do some of the work. The result is $100 of profit, which I entered in D11.

How to earn more!

The following is a work-in-progress list of ways you can increase your productivity and/or save time doing your work:

• Use Keyboard Shortcuts in your DAW and other programs on your computer
• Utilize automation tools on your computer – like Hazel, Keyboard Maestro, or TextExpander. We have a course on that (click here)
• Utilize project management services like Asana, ClickUp, Notion, Trello, etc
• Get a 2nd external monitor (or a 3rd!)
• Increase playback speed while editing
• Outsource mundane tasks (like bookkeeping)

What tips do you have for saving time? Put them in the forum so we can all learn! https://www.podcasteditoracademy.com/member/community/discussions/discussion/my-list-of-tips