Managing work/life balance - question for busy sellers

[laurens_designs]

Hey all! Level 2 seller here. Just wondering if you guys experience a crazy amount of work regardless of upping your prices and increasing your turnaround time. I work till 5am most nights, 7 days a week. I design postcard, posters, flyers, etc.

I would love to do less orders and get the same (or similar) amount of money but I haven't found that kind of balance yet. Does anyone have tips for me? Maybe I need to increase my prices even more? I think I've raised them $25 per package for every gig and made my turnaround 5 days (instead of 3). This has been the 3rd price increase I've done over the last few months. 

Help is appreciated!

[vickieito]

Hi @laurens_designs,

I know how you feel!

Right now, I'm making the same with 15-20 orders/month as I was making with 87 orders in April. April was a nightmare and I don't ever want to experience that again. You can read about what I did here:

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/281871-i-stopped-offering-expedited-deliveries-and-doubled-my-delivery-times-and-this-is-what-happened/#comment-1812423

The good news is, since May, I've been able to consistently keep my orders at 15-20 per month depending on the type of orders that I'm getting. This is where I want to be. This allows me to homeschool, take care of errands, and still make a full-time income. I also had the Fiverr's Choice badge pretty consistently since April, so doing all of this hasn't hurt my ability to get orders.

Here's a list of what I do to control my orders:

• Restructuring packages: I modified my packages and restructured my offerings so that my basic package was much higher. Instead of offering a cover letter as the basic package, I now offer a resume (with the cover letter as a gig extra).
• Turning off expedited orders: I only do expedited orders for repeat buyers with quick and easy orders. I refuse all other expedited orders.
• Extended deliveries times: I have 10-14 days delivery times on orders that I can deliver in 1-3 days. On custom orders, I often request 3 weeks or longer. This allows me to schedule my orders around my schedule and other orders better. It also allows me to work in days off.
• Extending delivery dates: You might have to extend the delivery dates of open orders due to an unexpected influx of orders on the same day. Communicate with your buyers and change those delivery dates to stagger your work so you aren't overwhelmed.
• Price increases: My average selling price is now 10x what it was what I first started. I still increase the prices until the orders stop. If I need to, I'll lower prices temporarily to allow more orders in. However, overall, I'm steadily increasing my prices each month.
• Out-Of-Office (OOS): If I need to, I'll use the Out-Of-Office for 4 days at a time to take my gigs off the market.
• Pausing my gigs: I'll also pause my gigs for 4 days at a time if needed.
• Saying "No":  I still turn away most inquiries that come in my inbox and am very picky about the projects I choose to take on. I'd rather be picky than do a lot of cancelations. Saying "no" requires you to have a good handle on order planning and scheduling. I like to be 1-3 months out on my order planning.
• Limiting revisions: I used to offer unlimited revisions, which led to cancelations, and a lot of stress for me. I now offer 3 free revisions and charge for more. This has been working great!
• Canceling orders: I don't like to do cancelations but sometimes it's the right thing to do, especially if you get an influx of orders and it's in the buyer's best interest to cancel.
• Limiting orders in queue: I have a hard time timing this one right. I'm going to turn this to 0 right before the Christmas holidays.
• Withdrawing custom offers: If I'm swamped, I go through my inbox and withdraw all my custom offers I made that are older than a week old so that I don't have any surprise orders. I'll create offers again if the buyer ever comes back.
• Request to Order: I now use the new Request to Order feature to prevent buyers from ordering straight from my gig.

It's important to react immediately when you see your workload going in a direction that you don't want. If you are pulling all-nighters, drinking too many Monster drinks, if dust is beginning to settle around you and your computer station, you are losing weekends, and don't have time for your other responsibilities (or for self-care), you should probably take action before it gets out of hand. I have kids who are very honest, so it's easier for me to gauge how well I'm balancing my workload with the rest of my life.

Edited November 6, 2022 by vickieito

[laurens_designs]

First off, I appreciate you so much, thank you! I always give 100% on every order. None of my clients ever feel under serviced. I also don't take on every order that comes to me but I would say about 90% that message me end up ordering. I just rearrange my life to get everything done on time. Also, I'm never late on deliveries, yay (except the 5am nights haha)!

I rarely cancel, only if the buyer is difficult. I know ahead of time by their communication how it will go so I'll usually refer them elsewhere.

You pointed out SO MANY good points. Never even realized there was a "request to order" option. I'll look into that!

I also do have the badge and have promoted gigs. Maybe I should turn those off LOL!

In Aug I did 100 orders and 87 in sept. I'm telling you, it's a LOT!!

Again, I can't thank you enough for all this info. Looks like I have quite a bit of tweaking I can do. I've just been to scared but you reassured me 🙂 

[vickieito]

48 minutes ago, laurens_designs said:

promoted gigs

Lol! I forgot this one! Yes, I turn this off most of the time. If I ever turn it on, I turn it off when I'm asleep or not working. As soon as I get the promoted gig order, I turn it off.

50 minutes ago, laurens_designs said:

Never even realized there was a "request to order" option.

This is a very new feature that is only available to some Seller Plus members. Hopefully you are on Seller Plus!

51 minutes ago, laurens_designs said:

In Aug I did 100 orders and 87 in sept. I'm telling you, it's a LOT!!

I only needed to experience it once ...and then came to the forum to learn how to make it stop! I didn't like waking up in the morning to 10 new orders (and some of them were expedited)! I really prefer to have my buyers contact me ahead of time so we can discuss before an order is placed.

55 minutes ago, laurens_designs said:

I always give 100% on every order. None of my clients ever feel under serviced.

Same here!

1 hour ago, laurens_designs said:

Also, I'm never late on deliveries, yay (except the 5am nights haha)!

Good for you! I've never had a late delivery, but I have extended delivery dates on orders before. If you've never done that, kudos to you!

56 minutes ago, laurens_designs said:

I also don't take on every order that comes to me but I would say about 90% that message me end up ordering. I just rearrange my life to get everything done on time. 

This might be a little high, you might have to take on less if you have too many orders.

58 minutes ago, laurens_designs said:

Again, I can't thank you enough for all this info.

Good luck! I wish the best for you!

[kaneswriting]

Hi there! Congrats on all of your success. I think everyone's objective on Fiverr should be to work both as hard and as smart as possible. Sure, it's great to be successful, but not if it comes at the cost of your physical and mental health. I would recommend setting a limit on hours worked for yourself. I aim to "work" no more than 30 hours a week.  When I say "work" I mean anything directly involved with a sale which for me is writing scripts. Anything past 30 hours should be spent on increasing the value proposition of my services. This involves anything from working on my profile, studying courses, analysing competitors, etc. 

Sure it's great to be working 40 hours a week at $25 per package, but if you doubled your prices and lost half of your clients, you would be left with the same amount of money despite only working half the time. Now you are working hard and smart! 

TLDR: Focus on becoming faster, or increasing your value proposition so that you can increase your prices and therefore earn as much for half the time. Set a "ceiling" of hours worked for the week. If you find that for two weeks in a row you exceed that limit, then raise your prices by 20%. Remember, you can always lower your prices back to normal. I have been doing this for since the beginning of my journey months ago. I worried that I might not get orders, but now I am charging three times as much as I would have ever thought possible and I am considering raising my prices again! 

Value yourself and your time so that you can in turn provide each customer with the most value possible! All the best with your journey 🙂 

[donnovan86]

On 11/6/2022 at 1:47 AM, vickieito said:

This is a very new feature that is only available to some Seller Plus members. Hopefully you are on Seller Plus!

I am, I had that for a day and it got removed. 

[laurens_designs]

On 11/6/2022 at 2:09 PM, kaneswriting said:

If you find that for two weeks in a row you exceed that limit, then raise your prices by 20%. 

I appreciate it, thank you so very much! I can't believe I never thought of this haha. Seems too simple for me to come up with. I will do this. Again, thank you so much!

Edited November 10, 2022 by laurens_designs

[khalifacyrusuk]

If Fiverr is your only job - how do you structure your work day?

Do you work set hours, like 9-5 - or do you just complete orders as you get them?
 

I'm interested to hear!!

[breals]

1 hour ago, khalifacyrusuk said:

If Fiverr is your only job - how do you structure your work day?

Do you work set hours, like 9-5 - or do you just complete orders as you get them?
 

I'm interested to hear!!

Good topic!  

I try my best to set out the number of hours I work within a day.  With clients all over the world, on different time zones, it's almost impossible to adopt a UK 9-5, but I do try, for the sake of my sanity to limit myself to an 8 hour working day.  

Having worked 9-5 (Sorry If I have now put the Dolly Parton song in your heads for the rest of the day) in the corporate world,  I love the flexibility that freelancing gives me.  Even if it can be a pain sometimes.   

Like @khalifacyrusuk I am curious to know how everyone else plans their day out with the unpredictability that our job has! 

Edited March 5, 2023 by breals

[filipdevaere]

I have already for several months the same schedule. This will continue until my workload gets lower.

-        Wake up around 9:00 AM. Get out of bed at 9:30 AM.

-        I open my laptop and start working (during my breakfast).

-        My working day stops at 10:00 PM (sometimes later).

-        During the day, I take several 5-10 minutes breaks. Lunch takes about 45 minutes and dinner takes a maximum of 30 minutes.

-        Go to sleep at 01:00 AM

I work every day (including weekends).

[emilychrisvo]

I don't get enough work on fiverr yet to be full time. I tend to get more orders Tues-Friday.  I work for 2-3 hours in the morning and then 1-2 hours in the afternoon. 

[teamandromeda]

Hi there! Ofcourse I would love to be 24/7 available for potential buyers, since that helps them with making the decision to order. However, I often see that they already purchased with someone else or forgot about it etc. when I was for example, sleeping. Does anyone else experience this too? Any suggestions? 

[maxtpf]

It does happen, and it happens a lot. Especially with big time difference, it is what it is.

Honestly for me if a buyer can't even wait a couple of hours or maybe half a day (Since they can see our location and current time) it is not a buyer for me. Same thing goes with those buyers that expect a professional service and are not even willing to spend 30 bucks.

I had many clients messaging me during night time, and most of them don't even answer back in the morning. I actually find that most clients always have late responses to my deliveries or messages. Sometimes, if a buyer isn't really active, if you have a question you're gonna end up in delivering before them even answering that question, since you have limited time.

[melanielm]

I agree with Maxtpf. Buyers who expect you to be awake at 2AM are not ones you want to work with.

I've actually come across a few potential buyers who didn't seem to understand time zones before. They got quite confused and even irate when I explained they had messaged me in the middle of the night my time.

[ozan_erdi]

I got a 9-5 job and also do freelancing here. Its tough when its busy.

But usually;

I get around 06.15, get ready and go to work. I am back at my house at around 18.30.

I have a strict workout and diet plan these days. So first thing i prepare my dinner and the breakfast thingies for tomorrow. Eat the dinner and pack the breakfast. 

Around 19.30 im done with those and i have around 2 hours of time to do freelance work. 19.30-21.30

After that im doing my workout routine, take shower, have some lazy time which is about 1.5 hours.

Around 23 i start freelance again. Which is about 2 hours. at 01.00 im done.

I get like half hour lazy time again before bed and go to sleep at 01.30

That is 4 of my 5 business days. At wednesdays i do not do workout. So i have a little more time to do some freelancing if needed. Or do some hobbies.

Its not an easy schedule to keep up. But i got to keep my weight and fat in check. Got a very good progress at that. Soon it will be easier.

 

It usually takes 3 days for me to finish an order. First is for sketch. I do my sketch and send to the buyer, time difference and all it takes them couple hours before the answer. Next two days i finish the drawing and deliver it.

If i had a huge amount of work or something urgent, i skip the workout. But i usually try to work around it.

[melanielm]

I do not work on Fiverr full-time, although it does take up the full day sometimes... if that makes sense.

I have set business hours for managing messages (and emails, etc. for non-Fiverr work), but often work outside of those. My life requires flexibility, so other things often dictate when I'm actually fulfilling orders.

 

[michmikaia]

I Couldn't agree more with @maxtpfand @melanielm

One fact also is that, some buyers schedule a call that fits with their time. And they do not mind about your availability. 

[teamandromeda]

You´re so right, I rather not sell a service that can be done by anyone in any time. But then you have to look at what makes you unique perhaps. 

[darshanauoc]

As a Freelancer we all face for the struggle between Work - Family - Health... 

Here I need your experiences about how you do that and what techniques are you using. Is there anyone having help from psychologists?

Follow this topic and share your thoughts. I need  more answers to find a good solution. 

[proconsultn2035]

I have a team I've been working with for years now. So I technically work round the clock to get orders, plan them, work, follow up, deliver and jump on calls. When you work with a team, it's less stressful.