Notes
A year of freelancing, in numbers
Twelve months, six clients, one spreadsheet I was too afraid to open until January. Here's what it actually looked like.
Author
Jeet Bania
Published
January 14, 2026
Read time
7 min read
The year
I went independent in January without a plan beyond "figure it out." A year later the honest answer is: it worked, but not for any of the reasons I expected going in.
6
Clients across the year
3
Came back for a second project
41%
Of time spent not billing
What I got wrong
I underpriced the first two projects badly enough that I was effectively subsidizing them. I also assumed good work would market itself — it doesn't; the unglamorous stuff (a clear case study, a fast reply, showing up on time) did more for the pipeline than any single project.
None of this is a warning. It's closer to a note to next-January-me, who I'm fairly sure is about to make a slightly different set of the same mistakes.
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