2025 was a mixed bag in comparison with 2024 from a freelance perspective. I had a noticeable drop off in enquiries, but my income was stable. I moved to being an employee of a sister company of one of my clients due to becoming a director which means that my self-employment income dropped but my employment income increased by the same amount. I completed more one-off projects but they were lower value than last year when I delivered two large projects for clients.
Statistics
As with last year, I’ve tracked some statistics about how my business has performed. I tend to get a lot of regular and repeat work (which is good as it suggests clients are happy with what I do), so my numbers are lower than a freelancer who does lots of smaller one-off projects.
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 |
| New clients | 3 | 2 |
| One-off projects completed | 19 | 14 |
| Invoices paid in full | 100% | 100% |
| Invoices paid late (most by only a few days) | 23.1% | 27.7% |
| Average time for invoices to be paid | 11.8 days | 12.7 days |
| Prospective new clients at year end | 0 | 3 |
| Incoming referrals | 2 | 3 |
| Enquiries that did not result in work | 22 | 40 |
| Enquiries with no reply to my initial response | 11 | 21 |
| Timewasters | 17 | 30 |
The big difference since last year is that the number of enquiries is down. I suspect – but can’t prove – that this is down to search engines quoting large sections of my blog posts in their ‘AI overview’ results, which gives people enough information to solve their problem without needing to click through and visit my site. This tallies with the similar reduction in click-throughs that I’ve seen in Google Search Console. I have also tested some of the LLMs and they regurgitate my blog posts in response to some queries, such as how to configure Exim to relay all email through Office 365. If you do use AI agents, please bear in mind that they are trained on the work of others, usually without compensation.
I also had a high percentage of timewasters again this year, which I define as anyone who doesn’t come back to me or has completely unrealistic expectations such as building a bespoke web application for under £250. I don’t count an enquiry as wasting my time if it’s an area that I can’t help with, such as wanting a Moodle or WordPress specialist.
Things I did for the first time
Directorship: One of my clients asked me to become the Director of IT and Chief Security Officer of their sister company, which was a major change. Directors also have to be paid via Pay As You Earn, instead of invoicing and filing a tax return, so my freelance income has dropped as a result. On the plus side, I get paid automatically and don’t have to worry about putting money aside for tax and national insurance.
Things I’ve changed
Accountant: I have found an accountant who can help me with ad-hoc queries. I’m capable of doing pretty much everything myself, including self-assessment, but occasionally I need expert advice on a specific topic.
Things to improve for 2025
Making Tax Digital: This is not an improvement in its own right, but as I’m being forced to use cloud accounting software to comply with MTD, it’s an opportunity to select software which can import my business bank account transactions, which should reduce the amount of administrative work (every cloud has a silver lining etc.)