So, tell me, have you ever heard of Ramen Profitability?
If your first guess is a diet that university students live off, you’re actually not that far off…

When we talk about Ramen Profitable Business, we are looking at the baseline, lowest amount we need to make ends meet. And you haven’t worked this out, now is your chance!

So the concept is this:

Add up how much your living expenses are per week and that is how much you have to make per week to break even.

The idea is if you had to live on Ramen or 2-minute noodles, this number is just enough to allow you to live on the cheapest diet. It’s not a new concept. In fact it’s common in the startup space.

“But Jaz, what does that have to do with me? I’m not a start up and I don’t really want to live on 2-minute noodles.”

As the late Helen Hayes once said,

“Every expert was once a beginner.”

Working out your Ramen Profitability is just one way to work out your absolute baseline of what you need to live.

When we are starting out as a freelancer, we can sometimes think:

• I need to make as much as I made when I was working in my full-time job, otherwise going freelance was a waste of time.
• Everyone else is making more than me, I’m wasting my time.
• I’ll never make enough money to make freelance worth it.

It’s a process and you have to start somewhere, and ramen profitability sets you up for just that, so you don’t feel overwhelmed, you know your base and can build from there.

It’s an interesting concept right? Here’s how I used it when I went freelance full time…

When I first launched into full time freelance, I ran these numbers for myself and my own business.

I had just come out of a short contract working for Rolex and we were renting a little apartment in Kensington. I also had a small studio space and a few clients I had gained along the way. At that point, I felt scared that I would never make enough to make going freelance worth it.

So I took my expenses, my rent, my studio costs, the bills that come in, and I think it was around $600 a week.

So that gave me my Ramen Profitability Number and peace of mind.

I just needed to make $600 a week to live.

This is the sentence I kept repeating to myself day in day out to calm my mind and help me reframe and kill overwhelm. From there, I was able to work out how many hours or how many projects I needed to fill with billable client work. My hourly rate at that point was I think $75/hr…

To cover expenses, I needed to either:

1. Bill 8 hours worth of design work to clients
2. Book 2x $300 jobs per week.
3. Book one big, delicious $600 job.

Totally doable when you break it down, and there are so many ways you can slice the numbers.

This mentality of “I only need to do this and the rest is gravy” really helped handle the pressure I put on myself.

A pressure that I guarantee you’re so damn good at putting on yourself like I am.

For most businesses, it takes 2-3 years to get profitable.

That’s because they have high overheads, set up costs and production. As a freelancer, you have the potential for lower costs and you can work with just a laptop.

So give yourself time, set up your structure, and remember, you DON’T have to be the best, most profitable designer in 2 minutes.

There are no microwaveable results in building a profitable creative business. But, using Ramen Profitability is a great way to get started!