Billable Days Target for 2017 Jan - Dec

[NotAllThere]

147 days so far. Maybe another 10-20 by end of year. But my income target is already exceeded at 9 months into the year, by about 10% - some of those days attracted a very nice rate indeed. Next year's looking a little flaky though. It's to be expected. Past eight years have been great.

[WTFH]

147 days so far. Maybe another 10-20 by end of year. But my income target is already exceeded by about 10% - some of those days attracted a very nice rate indeed.

If you're talking about targets, I've exceeded my desired tax target by well over 10%

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

147 days so far. Maybe another 10-20 by end of year. But my income target is already exceeded at 9 months into the year, by about 10% - some of those days attracted a very nice rate indeed. Next year's looking a little flaky though. It's to be expected. Past eight years have been great.

Do you base your income target on the minimum you need to cover all salaries/dividends up to HR threshold + corporation tax + regular expenses or higher? I do the former, which is equivalent to 127 days billing approximately, but have stretch goals of 150 and 200 days billing. Which is why I'm very happy with 218 days this year!

[ladymuck]

Do you base your income target on the minimum you need to cover all salaries/dividends up to HR threshold + corporation tax + regular expenses or higher? I do the former, which is equivalent to 127 days billing approximately, but have stretch goals of 150 and 200 days billing. Which is why I'm very happy with 218 days this year!

I work out how much all my outgoings are, add an estimate for taxes, then double it for warchest. I then use the total to work out a target daily rate based on working 40 weeks a year. If my rate is higher then all is good and I keep invoicing as much as possible but am free and easy about taking time off. If my rate is lower then I know I have to work a bit more and won't take too many holidays.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

I work out how much all my outgoings are, add an estimate for taxes, then double it for warchest. I then use the total to work out a target daily rate based on working 40 weeks a year. If my rate is higher then all is good and I keep invoicing as much as possible but am free and easy about taking time off. If my rate is lower then I know I have to work a bit more and won't take too many holidays.

Interesting. So as I said, my "minimum" target is enough so that my warchest (which is pretty decent right now) won't go down, with my stretch goals both resulting in a healthy increase in the company reserves. I'm quite paranoid about maintaining a large warchest though, right now mine would last about 18 months. Having this minimum goal means I can relax a bit about getting work once I hit it.

I've never really used this to base my rate on though. I've put my rate up consistently over the last 9 years (it's now over double where I started) but I feel like I'm reaching a bit of a cutoff for regular development work. I need to start looking for other income streams.

[NotAllThere]

Do you base your income target on the minimum you need to cover all salaries/dividends up to HR threshold + corporation tax + regular expenses or higher? I do the former, which is equivalent to 127 days billing approximately, but have stretch goals of 150 and 200 days billing. Which is why I'm very happy with 218 days this year!

I base it on how much I need to live on and put aside for retirement. Anything above that is just added gravy.

[Lost It]

Going to be 338 because I have to go to a funeral... Workaholic I am.

[mudskipper]

I aim for c200. I'm a few over this year. Got a month off to for a trip down under next year, so might be a bit lower.

[Tasslehoff]

239 assuming I make it to the end of the year unscathed.

Not as bad as it sounds, couple of weekends thrown in for good measure.

[RSoles]

180 due to bad health and taking the summer (ha!) off.

edit: well up on 1016 :110, well down on previous years 230-ish
might make up some due to client last minute panic.