What Does It Mean to Work “Full-Time” When You’re a Micro-Business Owner/Freelancer?

“Full-time” is generally framed as an approximately 40-hour workweek, doing tasks within work parameters that are at least partially—if not fully—defined by your workplace. For contractors hired on a long-term, full-time basis, it might look similar—just with an end date in sight.

But when you’re a freelancer juggling multiple short-term projects, the definition of full-time can get a bit trickier. It’s not simply about logging those specific hours of paid work each week; instead, there’s a balance between billable hours and the behind-the-scenes tasks that keep your business running.

What Does It Mean to Do Project-Based Freelancing?

Project-based freelancing is very different from working as an employee or working serially on long-term contracts. Project-based efforts might last days, weeks, or months, and these timelines often overlap. Instead of working one full-time gig, you’re piecing together multiple engagements that each have varying demands. The question isn’t just “Am I working 40 hours a week?”—it’s also about how many hours are actually billable, balanced with the non-billable but essential tasks that keep your workload as stable as possible over time.

For Me, 70% Billable Hours Is My Target

Maintaining a Realistic Workload

Getting paid for all the time you work long-term is not just ambitious, it’s often unsustainable. Doing so leaves you little room to breathe, let alone plan for future projects or manage multiple concurrent projects.

Recognizing the Importance of Non-Billable Work

When you run a freelancing business, it’s not enough to just do the billable client work. You also have to:

• Networking: Market yourself, often as a brand
• Pitch new work, sometimes formally by responding to RFPs (requests for proposals) and other times less formally by staying in touch with past or potential clients
• Handle administrative and operational tasks, including invoice management
• Manage finances, bookkeeping, accounting, and taxes
• Take care of human resources activities (such as managing your own benefits)
• Manage contractors when you need extra help
• Stay up to date on industry trends and learn new skills

It’s Never Going to Be Perfect

Although it would be ideal for a target of 70% (or whatever amount you choose) to mean that you always maintain exactly that amount of billable work, this likely isn’t realistic. Sometimes I find that I might log 50 billable hours in a week to keep my projects on track, while at other times it may only be a handful. In those high-billability times, I do my best to put off the non-billable work and save it for lighter weeks.

Embracing the Puzzle-Piece Mentality

Freelancing in short-term projects means you rarely have a single, continuous piece of work. Instead, you have multiple overlapping or back-to-back projects that you fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. That puzzle requires planning:

• Scheduling: Plan out timelines for each project so you don’t overcommit.
• Forecasting: Anticipate upcoming slack periods for marketing or skill-building, or when you can take a needed break.
• Layering Projects: Balance lighter efforts with heavier, more time-intensive engagements and trying to make all the pieces fit well so you can deliver appropriately to your clients.

Tips for Building a Sustainable Freelance Schedule

• Time Tracking: I use a spreadsheet, but you can also use a time tracking tool to track both billable and non-billable hours. This will give you insights into how your time is truly allocated.
• Set Realistic Rates: I set my rates higher than (my best guess at) the equivalent rate of an employee or even that of a full-time long-term contractor. This allows me to account for overhead time as well as me being responsible for securing my own benefits.
• Establish Boundaries: My ritual is that once I am done work for the day, I completely shut down my computer. I do still see work email on my phone in case there truly is something urgent, but it’s very rare that I return to my computer once I’ve shut it down. To whatever extent it makes sense, develop boundaries for your work hours to reduce burnout and stay mentally fresh.
• Create a Pipeline: No matter how busy things get, still do your best to stay on top of potential new opportunities so once a project ends, you have something else to put into the mix.
• Take movement breaks: To whatever extent I can, I mix in time during the workday, to exercise – including running, swimming, working out in my home gym and using my Meta Quest. I also try to take at least one meditation break per day.

Consider a Middle Ground By Adding Part-Time, Longer-Term Efforts

For many years, I’ve been able to exclusively pull together project-based work; however, I’ve also had drier periods where this has been much harder. When that’s happened, I’ve looked for a fractional or part-time project that guaranteed some level of constant work while still giving me the flexibility to take on additional short-term gigs. Although the effective pay rate of these fractional roles was typically a little lower than my project-based efforts, this approach has let me maintain consistency without turning down those smaller project-based opportunities when they arise.

You are full-time even when it may not feel that way

In the freelancing world, especially for those doing short-term project-based work—“full-time” isn’t about simply hitting 40+ hours of client labor every week. It’s about balancing core billable responsibilities with the non-billable, essential tasks that keep you moving forward. By aiming for a lower level of billable time, you create a structure that accounts for those non-billable efforts needed to sustain your career.

Embrace the puzzle-piece nature of your schedule and recognize that non-billable activities can be powerful drivers of future success. When viewed this way, no matter how billable you are at any given time, you can confidently claim your role as a full-time freelancer—building a fulfilling freelance business on your own terms.

About Cory Lebson

Cory Lebson has been a user experience researcher and consultant for 30 years.

As the Principal and Owner of Lebsontech LLC, he focuses on leading small qualitative UX research and evaluation consulting projects for a variety of clients across industries. Cory is also the author of The UX Careers Handbook Second Edition (2022)?and is a LinkedIn Learning instructor with course topics related to UX research and careers.

Cory speaks frequently on topics related to UX career development, user research, and accessibility.?He has been featured both on tv and on the radio and has also published a number of articles. Check out Cory's written and video content.

Cory has an MBA in marketing and technology management, as well as an MA in sociology and a BS in psychology. Cory is a past president of the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) International and is also a past president of the UXPA DC Chapter.

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