Whiteboard Accounting

I’ve been freelancing for about 7 years now. In that time I’ve had my fair share of successes and failures, and I’ve started to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ve made a few inventions: odd ways of doing things that seem to work for me and might work for a few other people too.

I was talking to Trent Walton last week, and we started discussing how to decide which jobs to skip and which ones to accept. Sure, there’s the usual considerations that get a lot of play and frequently come up in any blog post or conversation where advice is dished: how’s the client? Is the work fun or nourishing? Is it what you want to be doing? Does this work get you closer to somewhere you want to be?

But the thing that gets the least amount of time in that conversation is the money. Truth is that in lean times, it’s usually the primary consideration as to whether to take on the work or not for most of us. I think it should be addressed, especially since we have a clear understanding of how to turn time into money, but doing the reverse is shaky alchemy. The choice to cash in your free time for money is an important decision for everyone.

So what of it? Talking to Trent, I mentioned this weird thing that I do, and he said “You should tell everyone else about that.”

It’s called Whiteboard accounting. It’s not real accounting, and it shouldn’t replace hiring a qualified CPA, but it’s a great way to get a quick glance of your financial situation to determine whether your bank account requires you to take on a job or not. I’m not an expert at this stuff, so I won’t give out specific numbers, but hopefully you already know those for yourself.

The process is simple:

  • Buy a whiteboard. Any size you want. I’d say maybe something about 11x14"
  • Split it into 12 sections. These are months.
  • Figure out how much dough you need to make each month to meet costs. Don’t forget to set aside a bit of cash for retirement, savings, an emergency fund, money for buying the occasional cup of coffee out. If you’re super lazy and don’t feel like exerting effort, take your rent and multiply it by 5.
  • Have that number for each month? OK. Let’s say it’s $1,000. (Just for the sake of example.) In the box you’ve drawn for each month, you’d write $100 ten times. (One hundred bucks multiplied by ten is a thousand bucks. Get it? We’re visualizing our income!)
  • As you land jobs and as checks come in, you erase $100s from the board. I get an illustration gig. It pays $400. I erase 4 $100 off the board. Repeat ad nauseum.

The thing is, once you erase all the $100 in the month of January, you’re done. Stupid job comes into your inbox, but January is cleared out? Say no! Land a job on January 20th that you really want to take, but you’ve already cleared out the month? Start erasing 100s in February!

The idea is this: the whiteboard acts as a quick visual dashboard to see your financial situation in regards to income. We always say freelancing is feast or famine (and it typically is), but the purpose of the whiteboard is to make you go less insane in both instances: to feel okay that things are slow if your costs are covered from the overflow of the busy months, and to give yourself permission to say no to stuff you don’t want to do (or are too busy to do) when you’re feasting.

It’s a long perspective on your income. It’s not ground-breaking, but it’s a way to make numbers a bit friendlier for visual folks like us who shriek in terror at the thought of books. And, hey, if you finish up your year in October like I did this year, take a trip and enjoy knowing you’re right where you should be.

Frank Chimero Designing & writing

Hi, I’m Frank Chimero, a designer from New York. Currently, I’m on sabbatical walking NYC, investigating new creative tooling, and researching Brian Eno’s collaborations with machines.

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Portrait of Frank Chimero

The Shape of Design A short book for new designers about the design mindset

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Writing Selected essays
and lectures

An anvil tied to a balloon
Everything Easy is Hard Again Is it twenty years of experience in tech or five years, repeated four times? 2018
A grid of wood cubes
The Web’s Grain Design by thinking inside the box model 2015
Time lapse image of a galloping horse
What Screens Want Design as choreography instead of composition 2013
A rose growing out of a pile of dirt
Only Openings Some problems must be tended instead of solved. 2014
Two torn pieces of paper matched together
Designing in the Borderlands Designer as translator, integrator, and merchant of ideas 2014

Blog 2009–?

About CV and bio

Hi, I’m Frank Chimero, a designer and writer from New York.

Previously, I was Creative Director and Head of Brand at the payments platform Modern Treasury. Before that, I co-founded and led design at Abstract, a design workflow and knowledge base startup that was later aquired by Adobe.

I also spent fifteen years running a solo design studio and consultancy, designing across product and brand for technology and media companies. Clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Nike, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and many early stage startups. I helped design a few things during that time you’ve probably used, from NPR’s online audio player to Wikipedia’s article pages.

In 2012, I wrote, designed, illustrated, and published The Shape of Design, a little book for new designers about the design mindset and making things for other people. Since the book’s launch, it has become a staple text in design education and found an enthusiastic audience beyond the design community.

I have a big love for museums, beat-up pocket-edition paperbacks, ambient music, antique JRPGs, and Phil Collins. (Nobody’s perfect.)

Experience

  • Sabbatical
  • Creative Director and Head of Brand Modern Treasury
  • Creative Director Fictive Kin
  • Self-employed Studio Frank
  • Co-Founder and Head of Design Abstract (acq. Adobe)
  • Self-employed Studio Frank

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Awards

  • ADC Young Guns 8 Art Directors Club
  • New Visual Artist Print Magazine

Speaking

  • AIGA National Conference
    US
  • AIGA Regional Events
    US
  • An Interesting Day
    NO
  • Awwwards Conference
    DE
  • Build Conference
    UK
  • Creative Works
    US
  • Cusp Conference
    US
  • dConstruct
    UK
  • Design Speaks
    US
  • Design Thinkers
    CA
  • Do Lectures
    UK
  • Etsy
    US
  • Harvard University
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  • How Design Live
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  • Interlink Conference
    CA
  • Kerning Conference
    IT
  • Mailchimp
    US
  • Mirror Conference
    PT
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    UK
  • Portable Series
    AU
  • School of Visual Arts
    US
  • Shopify
    CA
  • South by Southwest
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  • Substans
    NO
  • Webstock
    NZ
  • XOXO Festival
    US