It’s time for independents everywhere to earn more for the value they provide.

Money and pricing has historically been an ambiguous topic in the freelancing industry. Some freelancers are barely hitting their margins, while others are struggling to maintain a consistent stream of income. The idea of making a six-figure salary feels out of reach for most.

In fact, only 5% of freelancers make over $100,000 a year.

There are several reasons why the majority of freelancers don’t make six figures, including:

• Undervaluing their offerings 

• No transparency around industry pricing 

• Lack of repeatable processes

• Significant amount of time spent on low-paying (or unpaid) work 

Our 2020 Freelance Founder Report also found that freelancers spend over 19 hours a month on financial management and staffing related tasks. 

Administrative tasks can take up too much time for freelancers in a number of ways, including: 

• Toggling between multiple tools to create proposals, contracts, and invoices 

• Lack of a system or process for prospecting or onboarding clients 

• Mental energy spent tailoring a proposal for each potential client 

When equipped with the right tools, freelancers can create a viable and lucrative career for themselves — and one that offers more freedom and flexibility than a traditional 9 to 5. 

Wethos is a free end-to-end platform for freelancers with tools for everything — from pricing projects to embedded business banking to invoicing software for getting paid faster.

35% of Wethos users are earning more than $100,000 a year.

Wethos is putting more money into independents’ pockets and helping them scale their business by providing access to: 

• A library of over 1,000 peer-submitted services and prices 

• Over 80 ready-to-use scope of work templates 

• Transparent, value-based pricing system 

• Seamless process to turn proposals into invoices

To better understand the challenges Wethos aims to address, let’s dive into the different stages freelancers navigate on their paths to earning more and scaling their businesses.

Minimizing Unpaid Time: Shana Sanford, Founder of Control S

Shana Sanford is the founder of Ctrl + S, an inclusive UX design company that she has been running for about a year, initially full-time and now as a side hustle. Sanford used Canva, Figma, Google Suite, Toggl, and OneNote to run the business.

When pitching her services to prospective clients, Sanford was spending unpaid time creating detailed invoices from scratch and sending them over as a PDF. “I was [creating] very tailored scopes for every proposal built entirely for that potential client,” says Sanford.

Once she began to secure more clients, Sanford knew she needed a better solution to manage proposals and invoices if she wanted to increase her client pipeline and take on bigger projects. That’s when she discovered Wethos. 

After using Wethos to help her stay organized and create a more streamlined process for scoping and invoicing, Sanford closed her first five-figure deal. 

“Not long after that, I was able to secure another contract and the price more than doubled,” says Sanford. 
In addition to securing higher earnings, Sanford credits Wethos for the time she got back to enjoy life outside of work. “My partner and I went on our first vacation since 2019.”

Saving Mental Energy: Jonathan Alumbaugh, Freelance Graphic Designer and Web Developer

Jonathan Alumbaugh is a freelance graphic designer and web developer who builds and designs websites part-time while working a 9-5 job. Alumbaugh primarily used InDesign to run his business.

For Alumbaugh, scoping new projects not only cost him time, but also mental energy. “Scoping has been a huge mental roadblock for me,” says Alumbaugh. “I hate doing paperwork and making documents — it's the bane of my existence.” 

As much as he dreaded the scoping step of the proposal process, Alumbaugh knew he had to get it right from the start with a tool that could streamline the process. “If you have a good scope, you have a good project,” says Alumbaugh. In search of a tool that could ease the scoping process and set his projects up for success, Alumbaugh gave Wethos a try.

By taking advantage of Wethos’ comprehensive scoping tool, Alumbaugh increased his income from $0 to $40,000.

“I doubled my income over the past seven or eight months,” says Alumbaugh. The additional income has allowed Alumbaugh to invest in his business’s growth. “I've hired a digital marketing firm to see if I can get more clients, and to see if we can get fewer projects with bigger budgets so I can do the same work for more money.”

The path to making six-figures is no longer out of reach. Wethos makes it possible for independents everywhere to earn more money, spend less time on tedious tasks, and focus on doing the work they love.