A new client sounds good in the call. Three months later, the month has more hours of work in it than you do.

This planner adds up the hours before you say yes. Fill in the hours you work, your weeks off, and the time that goes to everything that isn’t client work. Then list each client with its hours in a normal month and its busiest month. It shows each of the next 12 months against the hours you have, with your confirmed clients, the proposals you have out, and the client you’re thinking about shown apart.

Includes:

• Your hours for client work (worked out from your weekly hours, weeks off, and the share of time that goes to admin, sales, and your own content)
• Up to 20 clients (each one Confirmed, Maybe, or What if, with its hours in a normal and a busiest month, its first and last month, and a Check column that says what to fix)
• The next 12 months (each month’s hours against yours, the room left, and one sentence: over with confirmed clients, over if your maybes sign, over because of the what-if client, or room for more)
• A worked example (a made-up studio with four clients, one proposal out, and one client it’s thinking about, which goes away as soon as you add a client of your own)

It counts hours only. It has no rates or prices, and it doesn’t track the hours you actually work. Every month gets the same hours, so plan a lighter month, like one with a holiday, by eye. The Package and Scope Template works out each package’s normal and busiest month, which are the two numbers each client asks for.