Blog Archives

Jan 13 2015

Increase your likelihood of winning the gig by decreasing your pool of clients

How many competitors do you really have?  According to Google 492,000 people also consider themselves a “freelance web designer”.  Or if you’re a “freelance copywriter” you’re just one of a sea of 492,000 others.

It turns out freelancer anonymity is fairly easy to maintain. So how do you change the small fish : big pond outlook?

It’s a common truism that the smaller your potential pool of customers the higher your likelihood of making the sale.  Admittedly this feels somewhat counter-intuitive and it took me a while to figure it out.  Bigger pool of clients = more chance of winning a customer, it’s just a numbers game, right?  Wrong.

“I find that it’s too daunting to go after everyone, so I focus it down into specific audiences.  If your audience is ‘the Internet’ its more difficult, so if you can be the go-to-guy for a specialist audience it becomes a little easier to be seen”

Paul Jarvis on Freelancelift Q&A

A lot of marketing and customer acquisition centers on perception.   Is your prospective client more likely to go for the freelancer that has demonstrable experience and a roster of successes with businesses like theirs?  Or with the freelancer who has experience across all sectors, often with work in completely different markets?

In big business these are known as ‘verticals’.   Specific market sectors in which a supplier can be a specialist, for a more bespoke overall service.   As a specialist in a particular field, you can command a much higher project fee for your service, as well as giving yourself a much easier ride when it comes to getting the client in the first place.

Be the specialist, improve your likelihood of making the sale

When it comes to generating leads and winning great freelance work, there are three factors at play.  Having a specialist dream client is a catalyst you might not be taking advantage of and it’s hurting your chances in all of these areas.

1. Attention

If you’ve been able to prise yourself away from freelancer exchanges (why top bracket freelancers aren’t on Elance) then your first hurdle is going to be building attention.

Locating your dream client in their natural habitat and becoming ‘the blip’, sparking at least the beginnings of a potential relationship.  With a generic, ill-thought-out picture of your prospective client you’ll struggle to get enough exposure to drive any meaningful attention back to you and your brand.  The market is too vast and your time is severely limited.

What if rather than targeting ‘businesses’ you targeted ‘two person businesses in the musical instrument repair space*’?  Do you think it’d be easier to locate, target and be visible to the businesses in this sector?

With a narrower potential audience, your job to be visible is made exponentially easier.

* Completely made up – this may or may not be a viable audience

2. Desire

You’ve probably heard phrases like ‘get inside their head’ and ‘understand what they really want’ more times than you can count; if you’ve ever struggled to really act on that advice though, you probably have a problem with specificity.

With a smaller sub-set of a market all facing similar business problems, your job is made a little easier when it comes to building a sense of desire in your service.  If the picture of your dream client is too generic you’ll find yourself hedging your bets when it comes to creating site content and sales copy, all resulting in serving no one customer fully.

Being around a narrower audience however, you’ll quickly understand key issues all of these businesses are facing, ensuring you’re best placed to explain how your service is the missing piece of their particular jigsaw.

3. Justification

Your job when it comes to the final stage of winning the gig is to justify value.  Do a good job of justifying value and you’ll make the sale, do a bad job and you may not.

So doesn’t it pay to be really clear on the business model of a prospective client?  When you have a range of clients in all shapes and sizes this becomes a game of guesswork.

By channeling the worldview of a more specific client sector though, you can speak with authority when relating your price to the client’s business model, ensuring value is justified and – in the client’s mind – you’re the right person for the job.

Finding, qualifying and implementing a specialist audience

The theme for this month in Freelancelift Pro is just that, finding a specialist audience.   I believe this is a crucial step on your journey to making this a better year for you as a freelancer.  Hence you can now get access to:

Workbook ‘Define Your Dream Client’ which explains clearly the process of

  • Developing audience ideas
  • Qualifying and filtering potential markets
  • Making the decision

Exclusive video course to provide direction, along with me carrying out these exercises live.

  • How to use free web tools to build your bulk of ideas
  • Which audience I’d choose if I had to start again
  • How to determine whether a market is worthy of your service

You can get all courses for less than $20 per month.   This was our theme for January – in May there will be a new goal, and you’ll get the same each and every month. Click here to join, and get straight into the course and workbook with your pro account

Working for scraps of a living either as a sub-contractor or from freelancer exchanges.  This isn’t the life I want for you and that’s the reason this short book, course and workshop is so focused on helping you achieving this goal, and a new goal every single month.

You can start now, and get busy with the short book and video course immediately.

Read more
Dec 12 2014

Who are you accountable to as a freelancer and what should you focus on in 2015?

As freelancers and solopreneurs very few things are certain; we work in an agile environment and can never be 100% sure what’s around the corner.  But I do have one certainty to put to you.  That you can point to at least three or four things right now that’d make some impact in the momentum you have in your business.   You’ve picked up notes, ideas and insights from all angles yet, you haven’t implemented.

Then let me pose this:  Would you be surprised if this list was unfinished, unchanged or un-started in three months time?   Probably not.  This is a problem.  Just because we work solo day-to-day I firmly believe we all still need a little accountability.   This post will convince you why, how momentum is created and what you should be focusing on in 2015.

Accountability, direction & tunnel vision

I have long held the belief that there is a sweet spot for building the momentum required to make real change in your business.  I’ve seen it in play more times than I can count and it’s the same reason you’ll hear about ‘the overnight success that was a lifetime in the making’.

We meander through for extended periods, sometimes momentum occurs quickly when the circles align organically to provide this ‘overnight success’ which ignores a huge plateau period before it.  Organic momentum like this is quite rare and for the most part we trudge along, accepting the plateau as the norm. The good news is that this momentum can be engineered.

There is a profound difference between wanting and doing when comes to building momentum and moving beyond your current situation.   You might want to put in the work that’ll make the difference, you probably know all there is to know about doing it.

But what you don’t have is accountability, direction and the tunnel vision required to take the steps that matter, to earn more next month than you did this month, to find better clients, to feel a sense of pride in your work or whatever your unique goals are.  This is at the heart of everything I’m doing at Freelancelift and in particular my work within Freelancelift Pro, which I’d love to see you benefit from.

But first, let’s talk about how I specifically engineered this for myself in the run-up to the release of ‘Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer’.

Even pros need accountability support

In October 2014, friend of Freelancelift Dan Norris released his epic book ‘7 Day Startup’.  The thing went nuts, and in the months that have followed it has continued to sell 50-100 copies per day.  I was inspired by this performance and reached out to Dan to understand how it all came together with such momentum and purpose.

I had been planning ‘Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer’ for about a year (although it had many other guises as time went on).  This was one of these ‘to dos’ that kept moving further and further away from being complete the longer a procrastinated.  I had about half the book written, various pieces of the jigsaw scattered all over the floor without the focus required to take a seat and stitch them all together.

During this email exchange, Dan recommended Tom Morkes – publishing consultant among other ventures – who had helped him pull the book together so quickly.   I reached out to Tom and we hit it off, I knew I could leverage Tom’s insight and direction in an area I was unfamiliar with (publishing) and he could help me fill in my gaps in the circles laid out above.

You can see on the chart below the impact that this mix of accountability, direction & tunnel vision had on the momentum of the book.   I did 60% of the work in 10% of the time, thanks to this commitment to getting it done. (X marks the spot where I had committed to accountability and direction).

Where your focus should be in 2015
Whether you choose to join Freelancelift Pro (and work with me and a group of your peers to achieve these goals, together) or not, here are the three areas you should be paying attention going in to 2015.

1. Pinning down who you will specialize on, and working that into a better performing website

This is just one of those areas that never gets done.  So in my opinion, you should put the focus in this area first as it’ll underpin everything you do going forward.  With a more accurate view of your dream client:

  • Putting together website copy and design becomes easier
  • You can build attention in the right places rather than trying to be ‘known’ everywhere
  • You’ll win more of the leads you do get as you have a clear idea as to their pains, desires and fears and can work that into your pre-sales discussions

2. Driving attention to you and your work

There are millions of freelancers out there, all shouting louder than you are now.  When attention brings you credibility, credibility brings you better clients and better clients deliver you more money in the bank on a monthly basis, attention matters.

What we’re really talking about it is building a reputation, interest in what you’re doing and traffic to your website.   This is an area you should take seriously and one that a-l-w-a-y-s ends up at the bottom of your to do list.  So make 2015 the year you change that.

More specifically it’s about understanding:

  • You’re not exempt from marketing
  • How clients go out to market and how you can intercept
  • Why credibility and a reputation can be so powerful when finding clients
  • What your options are for getting more traffic

3. Understanding pricing, reworking your proposal process

There is way too much conflicting advice and confusion in the area of pricing.  You might understand ‘value pricing’ but when it comes to the crunch you delete the additional zero you just added to the bottom line of your proposal and send it anyway.

You have a great opportunity to overcome your pricing unease and confidently quote a rate which is beyond what you’d otherwise have been comfortable with. When you understand pricing and leverage it for your own benefit you can:

  • Understand how to justify your higher rate
  • Ensure you’re the only freelancer for the job
  • Offer options and recurring services to boost total cost

 

Getting it done

So to wrap this up, my job here is to at least help you raise the question to yourself, who are you accountable to?  

If it’s to yourself then guess what, you have the biggest pushover for a boss.  Over the next few months I will be continuing to publish free content on Freelancelift with videos, podcasts, short books, webinars and posts but I can only go so deep with free content.  Freelancelift Pro exists to provide you with that ‘kick’ when you most need it. The accountability, direction and tunnel vision to make it happen and I wholeheartedly believe it can be the real changing point for you.

It will require you to have some skin in the game financially but consider this, I hired Tom to help me for 3-4 weeks and I believed in it enough to invest over $2,000 in his support.

The book to date has generated $3,742 in revenue. (Edit: Now over $7,000 so my small investment in support and accountability is becoming almost insignificant now. This is why I would love for you to join Freelancelift Pro as I think you can achieve a significant return on your $1 intial investment)

I am willing to place a large wager that had I not enlisted Tom’s help I would still be ‘thinking of releasing a book some time’ investing zero for zero return, with zero momentum.

Here’s what Freelancelift Pro can do for you

> Accountability
From someone who has experienced the highs, lows and everywhere in between (yup, that’s me) backed by accountability from your peers, who will be working on the same big goal, at the same time and who are committed to giving you the tough love that I believe is so desperately needed when you work alone.

> Direction
With video lessons clearly laying out, in a language you can understand and implement how to achieve this big goal, every month. This is backed by a short workbook for every goal, each month and interviews with other top bracket freelancers you can learn from.

> Tunnel vision
By blocking out a short period of time to attend an online workshop once a month you have the support and focus that’ll be needed to make these goals a reality.

Each month there will be one big goal we will all be working towards.  

Here’s some stand-out content to catch up on once you’re a Pro member:

How to narrow your potential pool of customers, and define your dream client [Course]

Getting more leads from your freelancer website, making it support your business [Book]

Marketing for freelancers – Demanding attention for you and your message

This is a project I’m really excited about. Like the book it just ‘feels right’, is something I am truly proud of and represents a real step forward in the amount of attention and focus I can plough into Freelancelift so hopefully it’ll be a great fit for you. If not, you can still find value by registering for a free account

If you haven’t checked it out already, you can find more information about Freelancelift Pro (as well as the free account) by heading to the ‘Join’ page. It takes about 30 seconds to join, and you can start for free.

Read more

Dec 08 2014

Freelancers need to understand copywriting too – With D Bnonn Tennant [Q&A]

I have a hunch, which is slowly being confirmed. That as freelancers we do what we can to build a website for our services which looks pretty and which we think might deliver us leads for our service, without changing anything when it doesn’t.

That is to say, aesthetics come first, livelihood comes second. When you frame it like that it seems a little upside down, no? My theory is that big business understands copywriting (more accurately, they understand the direct link between clearly explaining their product or service and the leads or ‘conversions’ this achieves) and so should you.

So I wanted to get someone more qualified than I to put forward an argument for taking copywriting seriously. Even if you do not consider writing a strength it’s imperative that the words you use on your site work with you rather than against you when it comes to generating leads from your website. In doing so you’ll become less reliant on freelancer exchanges and other ‘outbound’ channels for work.

D Bnonn Tennant is a master copywriter and founder at Information Highwayman. If you know anything about him you’ll be familiar with his ‘pull no punches’ style. Here is a distilled takeaway version of this conversation.

> Find out more about D Bnonn at informationhighwayman.com

Writing doesn’t have to be hard, just talk to ‘Sam’

This was a key point in the book ‘Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer’; the notion that words are incredibly important, yet dramatically under-utilized.

We talked at length about shaking off all the vague demographics of your ideal client and instead looking to humanize them and their worldview.

Bnonn sums this up as:

“What are you going to say verbally to Sam, given what he’s currently thinking? Then what are you going to follow that up with to get him to stick around?”

He even advocates explaining your service verbally, recording with a microphone to listen back and pull out the most impactful elements in order that you can create a more conversational message that fills in the three key areas each page:

Headline
An implied promise, of around 10 words in a language that your own version of ‘Sam’ understands and resonates with.

Body
A walkthrough of the main elements of your message, how might life be different? How have you done this for others?

Call to action
If you absolutely have to, this could be an invitation to get in touch but ideally it would be a no brainer opportunity to start a relationship with as little friction as possible.

For example there is almost always some nugget of information your dream client is looking for, the missing piece of the puzzle which is holding them back from making a buying decision. Could you fill in the blanks for them in a short PDF ebook? That way you can request their email address in exchange and continue this ‘arms length’ dialogue, gradually warming them up to you as a potential partner.

Good copy is not necessarily long copy

One of the reasons most designers avoid long form “sales letter” style is the cumbersome nature of its length. So it’s easy to dismiss this style as unsuitable for modern design (and for the most part, I agree).

I counteract this by imagining the same message, chopped into smaller, more manageable chunks.

A homepage opening out your story or message could link through to a ‘How I make an impact’ page, which in turn could segue way into the topic for an ebook opt-in. Your PDF ebook could then be sent along with a series of emails, all of which combine to tell your story in such a way to inspire the ‘aha moment’ that’ll be required for your prospect to take action.

After perfecting your copy, how will you get more eyeballs?

D Bnonn speaks my language when it comes to improving that all import metric, attention. Indeed, you can find Bnonn’s work on Smashing Magazine, Unbounce.com, KissMetrics and more.

Guess who hangs out on these channels? That’s right, his own embodiment of ‘Sam’. Tennant is targeting entrepreneurs in the marketing / technology space and in these appearances he becomes a blip on their radar. I’ve put together a quick roundup of the things you should be doing to amplify your online voice, but to summarize, your job as a freelancer is to leave key elements

Your job as a freelancer is to scatter what I refer to as ‘breadcrumbs’ around the corners of the web your dream client hangs out for ‘Sam’ to pick up and follow back to you and your web presence.

In closing

This was a highlights post for the Q&A call which I recommend you listen to in full, but to summarize you should get deliberate about the way you describe your services, remembering that you are not being hired because you can write, design or code. You’re being hired because your client has a pain in their business life, which they believe your service can remedy.

If you can lay out a vivid understanding of your client’s pain and convince them that you have remedied this before and can do the same for them you’re on the right track to making something really beneficial from your website. Something that contributes to lead generation rather than working against it.

> Special thanks to my guest on the Q&A D Bnonn Tennant, whom you can learn more about at informationhighwayman.com

Read more
Nov 10 2014

How to find time for a commitment to be ‘doing better’ – with Justin Jackson [Q&A]

We all have a pretty clear idea of what it might take to earn more or ‘do better’. Growing lists of ideas borrowed from blog posts lay atop sprawling Evernote folders and pages of iPhone notes we tapped out while shopping; all languish unresolved or simply not started.

This is especially true as freelancers and solopreneurs. We get so wrapped up absorbing ideas for pricing, proposals, pitch processes, marketing, productivity we miss out the important bit, getting them done.

This is a fundamental issue which can be avoided and it’s something I go to great lengths to cover off in the book – ‘Stop thinking like a freelancer’.

So I was really happy when Justin Jackson (justinjackson.ca) agreed to come on and chat this through. If you know anything about Justin you’ll know all about the spirit of hustle he instills in others on his site and, his podcast Product People and via his ‘JFDI’ mantra (if you can’t guess the acronym, the audio explains!). It was a pleasure to have him on, we covered some great ground and I’ve wrapped this up into a guide below.

Start small, really small

Easier said than done, right? I think we all have a tendency to allow ideas to run away with us, what was once a mere whiff of an idea on the way home from a client meeting or midway through breakfast, becomes a time-devouring megalithic relaunch plan.

It doesn’t have to be this way, Justin advocates starting small. To “cut it in half, then cut it in half again” and this is a great takeaway as applies to any goal in any industry. Each time you ‘ship it’, you’ll feel a sense of forward progress.

Every one of these ‘mini fist pumps’ builds motivation as each is directly related to achievement. We’re programmed to take hope and happiness from every achievement almost equally, regardless of the size. So doesn’t it make sense therefore to make sure the wins come regularly?

If you are setting yourself huge, unwieldy goals that stretch months and years into the future you’re constantly pulling yourself wearily towards something, rather than bouncing away from a previous win.

Don’t just do anything, do ‘it’

When putting aside time to work on ‘doing better’ (and there are some practical ideas for doing that below) we’re not just looking to do ‘anything’ we’re looking to do ‘it’, the one thing, the 20% that’ll provide 80% of the impact. Try to implement the highest leverage item that’ll give you the best chance of pushing forward and focus on that.

“Do that one thing that you know you should be doing that’s going to substantially move you forward, that’s not hanging out on Twitter for hours or browsing Reddit all day. JFDI is to say ‘I’m going to quit procrastinating and just f’ing do it'”

Isolate out a ‘week of hustle’

When it comes to being away from our business, at conferences, on vacation or otherwise we find it fairly easy to add an ‘out of office’ and disconnect from day-to-day communication. Clients and collaborators are really clear that you will be unavailable and leave you alone. So Justin recommends spoofing this effect, to all intents and purposes you are uncontactable yet rather than spend this time taking in talks at a conference you spend it on your own business.

It doesn’t have to be a week either, it’s even easier to justify being out of office for a day or two at a time, yet you can make significant changes in your business this short period of time.

Choose your audience wisely

We switched gears in the call, to actually using this time for building an audience, an online voice. When it comes to building a platform (the same goes for fine tuning who specifically you’re going to aim your freelance service at too) it’s crucial to choose wisely. Pick an audience you’re already part of or choose an area you’re already delivering work in and start to build up trust.

Justin recommends building content of interest to this specific audience, hosting a webinar, writing a short ebook just generally providing a little more depth to your web presence.

> Further reading – ‘Why nobody knows your name’ short book

Break outside of the confines of your own website

In line with the above, to build a reputation that transcends your own web presence or social profiles it’s vital for you to provide value outside of the tiny echo chamber of your own footprint. Comment on the blog posts of others, contribute to conversations in communities, advertise on social platforms generally be active.

In my book ‘Stop thinking like a freelancer’ this is the third phase of freelancer evolution. The book is free for 5 days on Amazon, reserve your copy here

Join a purposeful community

Justin recommends investing time in joining a community, the benefits are numerous but essentially a mastermind group or community of likeminded individuals will help you be more accountable to the goals you set yourself as well as giving you a sounding board for new ideas. We’re throwing open the doors for the Freelancelift community soon, focused groups like this as well as Justin’s Product People club will help you push forward with the support of others in your position.

“We need way more help than we often think we do. Joining communities can really help with our motivation; it’s great having people who care about what you’re trying to achieve”

You can find more about Justin at justinjackson.ca and definitely subscribe to the Product People podcast for a weekly dose of ideas and a mantra of hustle to help you ship them.

Read more
Nov 07 2014

10 things I learned failing spectacularly as a freelancer and how I overcame them

I’ve failed plenty of times. Indeed, I thought I’d never make it back to freelancing after almost losing the shirt on my back about five years ago. As we all do, I tried to ‘stem’ the losses and offset freelance earnings by jumping on bandwagon after bandwagon, dreaming up fanciful ways to supplement my income from online channels. All this gave me though was a cover for procrastination. This ‘opportunity seeking’ took me away from committing to the work which really mattered and which would potentially have turned my fortunes around.

Some say treat failure as a friend which is easy for lofty billionaires, techy folk spending venture capital and ultra-successful types to say but when you’re staring down the barrel of a gun (cleverly disguised as a red letter, peering out of an envelope marked ‘payment overdue’) such statements are empty and meaningless.

Failure is no friend of mine

These days I get into the habit of mentally logging every failure (regardless how minor) for future reference, to serve as a red flag or sign-post and help guide future business (and dare I say it, life) decisions.

Even as a freelancer, you’re not exempt from that word, “business” so regardless of whether times are good or bad right now this post is for you. You should care about continually correcting your course, cataloguing prior micro mistakes, rolling up your sleeves and ultimately minimising failure potential. I’ve used these red flags to turn things around and I hope this 3,000 word (sorry) post helps you do the same.

By seeing this post through to the end you’ll get a handle on where I went wrong, how I fixed it and how you can fix any red flags you can see in the 10 controllable failpoints below. I’m 100% sure I’ll have lots more over the next 5-10 years but here’s where I’m at so far, so here we go.

1. Too much faith in the magic bullet

This is a biggie, something I encounter a lot when I speak to Freelancelift members. There was a time when I was on 27 mailing lists, probably 5 or 6 direct mailers and I’d enrol on some online wonder-programme or other almost on a monthly basis.

What I quickly realised was that even though each probably had some merit it would be physically impossible to action everything. I was chasing the magic bullet, the quick win, the 1%, the ‘never never’… resulting in getting quickly ‘nowhere nowhere‘.

How I beat it

I unsubscribed from all lists, installed a kick-ass anti spam and began my list amnesty. Anything I felt lost without, I resubscribed to and I put more emphasis on actually finding my own information, only following content creators who spoke my language.

I succeeded at only seeking expertise when I needed it rather than being force-fed generic information which only distracted me from achieving my unique vision. This enabled me to work out my own solutions with good old trial and error backed with only credible guidance.

Your own beaten path is much more reliable than an off the shelf “insert-superlative-here” whizz-bang system

How you can beat it

Commit to getting better, not consuming every hot new idea which requires a rework of the way you do things. Take yourself off the drip feed of mindless email lists, use your intuition and follow credible voices who won’t try and ram a programme down your throat at every opportunity. Then you’ll finally be able to save yourself from drowning in content you’ll never be able to action.

Some picks to rebuild after ‘list-amnesty’ – Corbett Barr & Chase Reeves at Fizzle, Justin Jackson, Bidsketch, Tom Ewer

2. Lack of self control

So this one probably applies to Liam v1.0 (incidentally I’m at around Liam v2.8 right now). Aged around 18-21 I took the “lifestyle business” to the extreme.

I woke in a daze one Tuesday morning at 11am to the conclusion that what I’d built was all lifestyle no business, I mean who wants to think accounts and forecasting after a 5 day weekend?

But I was young at that point (9-10 years ago), finding myself and some of that stuff did help the creative juices flow which took me down the perennial path I’m still meandering today.

If you’re aiming for a business which supports your lifestyle you should double down on strategy & efficiency to ensure you are able to physically “cap” your working week. When you add in a dash of self control you won’t squander the working time you’ve set forth, preventing that sinking feeling you get from not putting in the work.

How I beat it

Oddly enough things started to change for me when I actually “went to work”. Previously I always had a home office.

I hired a desk in a shared co-working environment which enabled me to divide my business/personal life in a more physical way.  The nice sidenote is that in the 3 years that have followed the floorspace I now occupy (with my awesome team at Tone) in the same building has increased by a factor of 20 with 16 desks at last count.

How you can beat it

Try to channel friends with high self control & will power. We all know the guy who refuses midweek drinks, who always considers how decisions affect tomorrow and the next day or the gal who hits the gym 4 days a week no matter what. Study what makes them tick and see if you can mould it to your own personality. Then try to look beyond the ‘home-working’ thing, even as a freelancer. Co-working spaces are really cheap and they offer secondary benefits such as referral opportunities as you build up a network in the space.

3. Ambiguous goals

This is something I pound the drum about a lot. The fact of the matter is some would-be entrepreneurs go into freelance business just to make money, without clearly understanding and defining what makes for success.

“if you don’t have a map, compass or destination how do you intend to get from A to B?”

When I started out alone aged 19 I knew I needed to make enough to pay the bills. In the end I did, but as I didn’t have a clear vision for success and I stuttered into a plateau which, combined with failpoint 1 commenced a downward spiral in my fortunes.

Had I been able to track performance against realistic goals, consider my business journey evolution rather than growth I could have taken more decisive action to stop the rot.

How I beat it

For every new project or venture I undertake I’m doubly clear on what I want to get out of it. These goals are time sensitive and very specific. This helps me to be objective about progress and allows me to pat myself on the back every now and again!

How you can beat it

Your journey as a freelancer doesn’t need to be such a mammoth project, you just need to work backwards from your monetary goal and understand what that looks like in terms of customers, order value,  prospects, visits, online visibility.

You also then need to be specific about what your lifestyle looks like so you can continually be auditing yourself, ensuring you’re not sacrificing living the life you want by chasing it.

4. Overcomplication, start small

One of the best moves I made when freelancing second time around was doing it part-time until I could justify enough earnings to go full-time. With an embryonic vision in hand, I set about putting together a new part-time design business. I was motivated by one vow: to try again, and do it properly this time.

Despite the still-fresh trauma of previous failure, I set about to build a venture that offered much less risk but which still had a considerable upside.

Month 1 – I earned enough to cover my time to set up the business at a reasonable hourly rate.

Month 3 – I surpassed my monthly salaried income for the first time.

Month 5 – I closed a deal that earned me three times my monthly salaried earnings. In that month I earned $9,548.

On Freelancelift I put lots of ideas out there, the key takeaway from this to start implementing these ideas in small, manageable chunks. You don’t have enough hours in the day to put everything into play immediately, so start small, test new ideas and continually evolve.

In the early days I tried everything, each time going “all in” putting my neck on the block daily. I over complicated ideas and gave up on most as a result. This is a waste of time in the long-run so I’m here to tell you to scale down the complication, start small and test it.

How I beat it

I made myself known in the freelancer marketplace, part-time at that, which enabled me to work with pretty much bare bones until I proved the concept and found my particular space.

Once the concept is proved jump in with both feet, until then don’t over invest in it.

How you can beat it

Definitely think set aside only a small amount of time for business development alongside your current activity, definitely try leveraging a remote team, definitely start small and really pin down your vision before fully committing and you’ll beat overcomplication.

5. Poor grasp of time value / leverage

This was one of the major catalysts in my recent years’ business growth. I won’t go too much into it here as I’ve got tons of extra resources on the topic of leveraging ‘Big Business Stuff’ and processes but essentially you need to understand this:

As a business owner you wear lots of hats. Doing everything yourself for ‘free’ is false economy; damaging to the well being of you and your business.

Understand that everything in your business can be mapped out into a process and you can leverage a remote team to get things done to deliver on that process.   Check out the free short book Taking Back Control of your Time

How you can beat it

The penny dropped when I devised a yes/no flow (which you can follow yourself here) building a business flow to help me deliver items which didn’t immediately require my attention, but in summary you need Stop thinking like a freelancer, start thinking like a business.

Further reading: Take back control of your time

6. Sacrificing vision in face of difficulty

So here’s the thing. I’m a sucker for great branding, purposeful self-promotion and really clear, unbridled vision.   But what happens when times get tough? What about when you need to cut costs, do things faster?

I found myself pawning out my brand and quality of delivery in return for quicker revenue or lower costs, running your business like this is the quickest way to end up with ‘bad apples’. Poor quality clients you don’t enjoy working with.

How I beat it

It’s a real tough one and I’m not sure I fully have but at least I’m aware of it when it rears its head. The one benefit I have though is ability in every area of my business interests. That is to say if everybody who worked at the businesses disappeared I could probably manage, even stripping it right back to me and my laptop.

I’m very aware this flies in the face of the distributed workforce and lifestyle business but I guess the learning point for me on this one was to always have a plan B and to know enough about what you’re doing to be able to survive.

How you could beat it

In some of my content I talk about “devise the what, outsource the how” that is to say you make the big calls, devise the processes and have an arms length understanding of every point of your business but your team deliver on that vision.

If you make your team members accountable for documenting their work too you’ll be in a much better place to safeguard against disasters.

7. Lack of software availability

I used to spend 15+ hours per week on activities such as:

  • managing accounts
  • calculating payroll
  • emailing “nearly clients”
  • sharing files by snail mailing CDs / USB (yes, really)

This is something that couldn’t really have been avoided at the time as most didn’t exist beyond the realms of $10k / month enterprise software but current technology allows huge timesavings by really getting good at software.

How I beat it:

Almost all of the above is automated and second nature now, last year I was invited to share our software stack on Under30CEO – what’s interesting is that this software is almost all free.

You should leverage as much as you can to ensure you can take advantage of the closing gap between Enterprise level software and ‘off the shelf’ cloud platforms.

8. All optimism no realism

Part of the entrepreneur’s makeup is ambition and optimism. On the surface the two are the same but in the past I’ve been guilty of allowing my ambitious streak to out-run realism, when it comes to decision-making.

That is to say I’m using my ultimate goals, my vision and ambition as a guide instead of cross-referencing with straight-up objective realism, potentially quite dangerous.

How I beat it

I now put together a ‘what if’ analysis for each major decision. For minor (mainly financial ones) I do a quick cashflow forecast to find out worst case scenarios. These aren’t huge exercises, I’ve just developed a few simple questions to get to the core worst case scenario but the point here is to understand the wide spectrum of consequences for every major decision to protect you from any potential failure.

How you can beat it

You’re probably doing this already but at the least, take no decision lightly – you should be able to make each decision with a couple of questions:

  1. Is this purchase/hire/contract/etc a contribution to my roadmap or a distraction?
  2. What is the worst case scenario of making that choice

By using the steps above you’ll be much more informed and be less reliant on your ambition or instinct.

Further reading: Building a vision for your freelance business

9.  Not being proud of it

As I’ve said above I’ve tried lots of business models. Some okay, some really spammy I’m not proud to say. From flipping domains to electronics dropshipping, from running affiliate sites to margin stock trading.  You name an Internet lifestyle ‘trend’ I’ve probably tried it.

The traits the above have in common is that they were each:

  • pretty darn ugly
  • a failure ultimately

They all existed as a plot to make quick money, nothing more. I wasn’t proud of them. I soon realised that the key to making business work is to be proud of everything you put your name to, and to use value as your shining beacon. This was one of the reasons I advocate ditching freelancer exchanges like Elance as quickly as possible, you’ll not make work you’re proud of with clients from those platforms.

Yes its longer term but if you’re proud of what you have achieved and can be sure you’re providing value to a specific sector as a freelancer you’re on the right track.

How I beat it

Well, I was a creative at heart and knew what looked good so I pretty much self-taught Photoshop and started to take control of the branding of any new business ventures.

I also found that sharing what I was working on via my own immediate social circle (think close friends & family) forced me to check and double check what I was putting my name to.

How you can beat it

If you aren’t a creative, find a good creative minded partner or freelancer to team up with. If you can provide the detailed vision, direction and product/service you can work together to package that up into something you can be proud of.

10. Not finding my own voice

This is a pretty recent one and in some way goes back to the point on chasing the magic bullet as it relates to being ‘known in your space’. I wrote a short book “Why nobody knows your name” to outline how to grow your online reputation, in it I recall that in the early days I was mimicking other bloggers and web entrepreneurs rather than finding my own voice and personality.

I pretty much hid all reference to my age, my background, my face and everything that would allow the visitor on the other side of the screen to connect.  The result was lots of copycatting, no fixed idea of my market, no engagement and pretty much no impact.

Your personality should come through in everything you put your name to and you should be able to provide strong points of view that reflect your own personal experience and outlook. Combine that voice with great content in a specialist area and you’re on to a winner.

Further reading: How to amplify your online voice

How I beat it

I guess this came with time and experience. As I was able to (over time) develop my own experiences rather than channeling someone else’s I became more confident in what I was saying and a little more relaxed in my approach.

How you can beat it

You can begin to look at which styles of content / presenting feel natural to you. Is it long, deep, data-filled posts? Is it short opinion pieces? Are you more curator and do you provide more value that way?  Are you better talking via a screencast? Or on video in front of a whiteboard?

Try stuff, see which firstly feels right, then once you’re in a comfortable place see what resonates best with your audience.

At that intersection you’ll find your voice.

Summary

So by following the steps above you’ll be able to counter-punch any hint of failure, allowing you to carve your own path and learn from my steps to catalogue your own micro mistakes enabling you to be more productive, earn more and ultimately succeed as a freelancer (or as any online business really).

There are a ton more of course, experience which just comes from ‘time in the game’ and general experience which are more difficult to put down in black and white, but as I am in the final stages of my book charting the growth of my tiny freelance business to $1m (out November 17th) I wanted to reflect a little. Check out what’s inside and get your name down for a free copy.

I am not perfect and I have a lot more failures to endure on this path I’m sure, I’ve just mustered the endeavour and commitment to keep going, learning as I overcome each obstacle. I’ve not yet reached the end and as the old Churchill quote goes:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Winston Churchill

Read more
Jan 19 2015

50 Books to inspire you on your entrepreneur & business growth journey

Fortunately you’re not the first to make the journey, so by combining the experience of several ‘been-there-done-that’ books you can find something that fits for you. Learning from the experience of others and understanding which path you are likely to take – along with defining your vision, your strengths, your capacity to be able to do this and of course your vehicle for providing value you’ll be able to put in place a blueprint for your eventual success.

So I’ve compiled a list of the books that have helped me with productivity, starting in business, the psychology of business, the philosophy of business, how to best understand the journey that you would like to take, and many more areas beside. These are all good reads and with the advent of Kindle and the like, you needn’t invest in a new bookshelf to accommodate them.

Note, these are in no particular order and appear as I found them from my collection. Please add any books that have inspired you, that I’ve missed in the comments!

Honorary mention

It would be remiss of me to not mention my own book Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer first, but since I wrote it I’ve opted not have it within the top 50. Click the panel opposite to get your copy.

50 books (in no particular order)

1. “Like a Virgin:  Secrets they won’t teach you at Business School”
By Richard Branson
I like this one as it’s pretty much shaped entirely from anecdotes.  Sometimes that can feel a little exhausting to read as it’s constantly hopping from point to point but this works!

2. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”
By Stephen R. Covey
Stephen Covey’s work exemplifies integrated and holistic approaches in how to provide principle-centred solutions to business problems. Being adaptable to change is the key to being effective here.

3. “The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything”
By Guy Kawasaki
Consider this your best friend if you’re in the “should-be entrepreneur bracket”.  It provides some very inspirational, soul-shaping ideologies and techniques to jumpstart a business competitively.

4. “The Practice of Management”
By Peter F. Drucker
This 1954-published book was remodelled and takes pride of place as a business bible of most business leaders nowadays. It documents frameworks to effectively handle business challenges and interestingly most of the challenges are relevant even in the present day.

5. “The Entrepreneurial Spirit Lives: 25 Tales to Help Entrepreneurs Start, Grow, and Succeed in Small Business”
By Cavanaugh L. Gray
Cavanaugh Gray shares his diverse business experiences through the decades as the founder of The Entrepreneur Cafe LLC. This book focuses on small and medium enterprises home-based businesses and the stories are quite inspiring.

6. “The Magic of Thinking Big”
By David J. Schwartz
I’m not a big fan of Donald Trump but one of his quotes as stuck with me “if you’re going to think anything you may as well think big” and in this one is on a similar tip. Millions of copies were sold and is still counting. This book goes deep on some of the ideas that help people see the bigger picture, ensuring big things are absolutely achievable.

7. “The 4-Hour Work Week”
By Timothy Ferris
I’ve said before (and still maintain) that a 4-hour workweek per se is a bit of a utopian misnomer (indeed, Tim Ferriss himself is quoted as working 60+ hours per week) but certainly to give you some perspective on what really is possible with systems, remote teams and processes this one is great.

8. “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”
By David Allen
If you get chance, watch David Allen’s TEDx talk from last year.This was his breakthrough book – and lead to variants of this same principle, generally to ‘get shit done’!

9. “The Blue Ocean Strategy”
By W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
Business challenges are interminable unless you know how to ride the waves of change. Blue Ocean Strategy was an interesting take on this – how to continuously lead or compete in competitive markets

10. “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t”
By Jim Collins
One of the most inspiring to me is this, I just love the concept Jim Collins brings to the table – analysing what has made good businesses great.

11. “Awaken the Giant Within”
By Anthony Robbins
One of Tony Robbins’ more noted productions.  Sometimes Tony Robbins material goes a bit too spiritual for me but this one really worked and gave me a new spin on taking control of mental, physical, and emotional factors of decision-making and business goal creation.

12. “No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs”
By Dan Kennedy
I’ve been a long time follower of Dan Kennedy and for good reason.  Yes his stuff is often periously close to dated informercial but this one really hit the nail on the head and I still receive Glazer-Kennedy emails to this day.

13. “Think and Grow Rich”
By Napoleon Hill
If you only read one book from this list, please make it this one.  It’s a little awkward to read in places as English has evolved slightly since it’s production in 1937 but just mind-blowing content. Just be prepared to read it through 2 or 3 times and you’ll be massively inspired to fulfil your vision and life goals.

14. “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”
By Malcolm Gladwell
One of the best-selling business books that illuminates tipping point events or magic moments of creativity. It teaches us how a small idea could become a wildfire leading to an outstanding achievement.

15. “Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy”
By Isadore Sharp
A story of the world renowned hotel chain and a philosophy that nurtured its growth.  Great read for all business aspirants even if you’re not in the hospitality business as it gives great concepts on business design and a superior service culture.

16. “The Art of Closing the Sale: The Key to Making More Money Faster in the World of Professional Selling”
By Brian Tracy
Brian Tracy is hands down one of the best speakers I’ve seen, really captivating and his books are no different.   He is a luminary in time management, sales and marketing and this one shares some great ideals for closing a sale.

17. “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business”
By Charles Duhigg
Gotta say I’m a sucker for psychology and philosophy when applied to business issues – this one gives a nice spin on the behavioural origins of habit and how you can use them to your advantage.

18. “The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back: Overcoming the Behavior Patterns That Keep You From Getting Ahead”
By James Waldroop, Ph.D., Timothy Butler, Ph.D
The aim of this book is to kill the bad habits that keep you from achieving your dreams and goals quicker.   Some of the techniques are difficult to implement but overall a top bracket book.

19. “Business Psychology and Organizational Behavior”
By Eugene McKenna
At this time I was devouring any book of this ilk and this one presents helpful theories, psychological analyses and situational examples to help build a better business attitude.

20. “The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses”
By Eric Ries
I actually went through this one as an audiobook and it really helped develop (what is now standard practice) an innovative outlook on product development and continual improvements. There are issues in here that can be translated to non-tech environments also in and around attitude to failure, or more importantly allowing a business to quickly “pivot” to something they can do better and more profitably.

21. “It’s Not All About Me: The Top Ten Techniques for Building Quick Rapport with Anyone”
By Robin Dreeke
Rapport is an awesome topic for a book, you’ve probably been sold to by someone who has used rapport and influence to make the sale and provided everyone has a good deal it’s a pleasant experience for all concerned. The aim of this book is to “bottle” that ability.

22. “EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches”
By Dave Ramsey
Nice book around the concept of the Entrepreneur:Leader intersection; some unique thoughts in here for being a better leader and growing yourself and your business.

23. “Start Your Own Business, Fifth Edition: The Only Start-Up Book You’ll Ever Need”
By The Staff of Entrepreneur Media Inc.
Starting up a new business is indeed a hard challenge for anyone and everyone has their own best practice.  They coin this book ‘the only startup book you’ll ever need’ and I’m not sure that’s quite true but the assertion isn’t so far fetched!  I particularly enjoyed the streamlining and strategy elements in this one.

24. “Growing a Business”
By Paul Hawken
Hawken theorises that we can reach anything through our imagination. But, action brings them to reality. In this book, he explores the ideologies, probable risks and business benefits.

25. “Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload”
By Mark Hurst
It is important to jive in with the modern face of industrial innovations. In this digital age, “Bit Literacy” is one of the best reads to run along the fast pace of technology where essential guides towards the use of devices for a more productive work and lesser stress are included.

26. “Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours”
By Robert C. Pozen
As one of the most successful executives in the world of business, Pozen created this book to distribute his knowledge and skills towards maximizing work hours and increasing output volumes while not missing the most important aspect of all – personal life.

27. “Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better”
By Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway, Katie Yezzi, and Dan Heath
It is all about practice with discipline, intelligence, and determination. Know the rules on how you could keep climbing up the ladder of success. You will get better and better. Lemov’s promising book is your guide along the way. There’s no other way, but UP!

28. “Eliminate Chaos at Work: 25 Techniques to Increase Productivity”
By Laura Leist
Take control of everything that might waste your time and derail you from driving towards your business goals. This book epitomizes the value of increasing productivity through applying trouble-free techniques.

29. “The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance”
By Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton
As part of Elton and Gostick’s groundbreaking efforts to strengthen managerial skills amongst business leaders, the carrot principle was created. It emphasizes the weight of recognizing and energizing workers that could best lead to greater business results.

30. “Top Business Psychology Models: 50 Transforming Ideas for Leaders, Consultants, and Coaches”
By Stefan Cantore, Jonathan Passmore
This book analyses several valuable business psychology models, theories, and other fundamental frameworks that would best determine cognitive approaches and human behaviors toward work.

31. “The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work”
By Shawn Achor
Positive psychology recently discovered that success is not the key motivator of happiness, but rather, happiness drives success. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy every little thing in this world? This is truly a life-changing read for everyone in all walks of life.

32. “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”
By Carol Dweck
The way we think leads us to where we are supposed to be. Carol Dweck, psychologist of the famous Stanford University, discovered that our mindsets matter a lot in our thrive towards business, relationship, school, and even parenting successes.

33. “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind”
By Al Ries, Jack Trout
Anything can be put in the right place with appropriate positioning methods. In this book, positioning refers to branding, marketing, and management. Thus, it also provides excellent and in-depth understanding of varying consumer behaviors. Be seen and be heard in the big marketplace!

34. “The Management Myth: Debunking Modern Business Philosophy”
By Matthew Stewart
Gain knowledge from Stewart’s ability to penetrate into the deepest grounds of industry management as this book correlates and discusses pseudoscience with modern business philosophies.

35. “Thick Face, Black Heart: The Warrior Philosophy for Conquering the Challenges of Business and Life”
By Chin-Ning Chu
This is an Asian business psychology book which unveils the efficiency of entrepreneurship along with applied ancient Chinese military wisdom. According to Success magazine, this material might be the next “Think and Grow Rich” best-seller.

36. “Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A”
By Ken Blanchard, Garry Ridge
A satisfied worker accomplishes more. An employer with such a business philosophy to help his people will surely witness success within the organisation. Help your people win first and you will also win. That’s the game plan.

37. “20 Things I’ve Learned As An Entrepreneur”
By Alicia Morga
Learn from Morga’s summary of inspiring success stories in the field of entrepreneurship. She is now the leading female technology entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley.

38. “The Business Model Innovation Factory: How to Stay Relevant When the World is Changing”
By Saul Kaplan
It is never too late to try and test the newest business models in line with our fast-changing technology. In the global arena, innovators last longer in the pipeline.

39. “Rework”
By Jason Fried
Another great speaker, and the co-founder of 37 signals Jason Fried delivers this shoot from the hip book around business ventures. Fried asserts that drafting a plan can be extremely harmful and it’s counter-intuitive messaging like this which saw it on the New York Times bestseller list.

40. “Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies”
By Jim Stengel

41. “Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You”
By John Warrilow , Bo Burlingham
This investigates the idea of working ON your business instead of IN it – and gives a great framework for gradually phasing yourself out of the front-line of your business, enabling it to be in a position to sell, for you to exit and for the business to thrive without you.

42. “Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid: New Approaches for Building Mutual Value”
By Ted London, Stuart L. Hart
This book contains all the necessary information on how to develop a more sustainable business plan as opposed to the first-generation BoP ventures. Innovations, sets of techniques, and paradigms are well-presented and discussed in this material. Get ahead with the newest approach for a more collaborative entrepreneurship.

43. “Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable”
By Seth Godin
Make your business remarkable by using a different kind of branding scheme. Godin’s work highlights brand differentiation as the key method to create a bigger demand for your business.

44. “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur”
By Mike Michalowicz
This book is great for all startup owners struggling over a no-cash budget, no clear path and business plans, and for those who failed to grow their previous businesses. This is the real deal and you will discover things and reality checks that you’ll never think of while focusing on your ventures.

45. “The New Business Road Test: What entrepreneurs and executives should do before writing a business plan”
By John Mullins
Avoid the future mistakes that could be the culprit of your start-up business by conducting a business road test before drafting any plans. Mullins takes on advanced procedures for effective risk management and prevention.

46. “How to Get Ideas”
By Jack Foster
How do you develop new ideas? Are you still getting the same answer with your latest innovations? Well, time to fuss no more as Jack Foster share his ways on how to make ideas an amazing and viable pact for your business endeavours.

47. “Creativity Workout: 62 Exercises to Unlock Your Most Creative Ideas”
By Edward de Bono
Most of us consider creativity as a talent that only a few people luckily possess. But, did you know that there are several ways to bring out creative juices within you? This book is your gym and your mind and hands are your muscles. Work on it and succeed beyond your limits!

48. “The Business Planning Guide”
By David H. Bangs
It has no senseless approaches. Each detail in this guide will surely lead to a winning business plan! Bangs has the ability to deal out intimidation in this crucial arrangement method.

49. “Organizational Culture and Leadership”
By Edgar H. Stein
Most of the time, culture creates gaps for an organisational structure to deal with varying changes. In this material from Schein, leadership is the core topic. In-depth understanding of various socio-cultural frameworks and organisational dynamics can be of great help in dealing with changes.

50. “The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization”
By Peter M. Senge
They’ve actually just revised this one and I haven’t gotten hold of the 100 new pages but I’m guessing the same quality stands firm, Senge argues that learning patterns within a business affects the competency level of workers and pits Traditional versus modern approaches.

Read more
Nov 06 2014

How do you describe your service? Words matter – with Robert Williams [Q&A]

One of the key points I underscore in the book is the importance of words for freelancers. The way you describe your service to prospective clients on your site, proposals and emails is an often overlooked catalyst for winning more clients.

So I wanted to bring in another chieftain on the topic, to help me hammer the point home. Robert Williams is a designer by trade who now focuses his time on the bloomin’ excellent freelancer platform, Workshop. Rob and his team deliver 10 web design & development leads daily to members.

> You can find out more about Rob and the service at letsworkshop.com.

What are you saying in person, that you don’t say online?

We often find it easy in-person to explain the value of what we’re offering without wandering into the realm of buzzwords, meaningless headline statements and overly technical jargon. We speak to the skill level and worldview of our client, tone down our language so that it can be easily understood and ensure that a prospect is clear on the next stage. Rob sums it up well:

“A common thread I hear from freelancers is that once they get a prospect on a Skype call or face to face, it becomes easy to get them to be a client. But they find it really difficult to get them from their website or email, to talking in person. To which I say, ‘so what are you not saying in your copy, that you’re saying in person?”

Rob likens this to building in-person relationships and having a crush, would you go straight in with (and I quote) a “dick pic” or would you put in the time to understand them, build the relationship, level up trust and provide value before reaching that end point?

Think about what you’re saying in person that makes it so easy, and try to apply that to your website copy and email dialogue.

What are the ‘jobs to be done’?

Continuing with optimizing client touchpoints, Rob underscores importance of understanding the ‘jobs to be done’. After all, most action is motivated by pain, so which pains are your prospective clients experiencing and what how else are they trying to solve it?

When landing at your door for help, what are they trying to achieve?

Understanding that, and framing a message which speaks to this pain and worldview will make it infinitely easier to engage visitors to your web presence and ultimately convert them into something of value to your business.

In my book ‘Stop thinking like a freelancer’ this is the second phase of freelancer evolution. The book is free for 5 days on Amazon, reserve your copy here

Words matter, choose them carefully

Really, the only way to explain your freelance service to a prospective customer is with words. As browsing habits have evolved your dream client has developed fairly strident defences against spam, BS and snake oil salesmen.

This makes it more important than ever to humanise your prospective client, to make a connection and show that you understand their problem. Maybe you tell stories of how you’ve experienced it yourself (as Robert suggests) and how you’ve solved it for others.

“Just talk to me like a human being, show me how you’re the best, don’t just tell me”

You’ve seen it a million times before online, it’s the difference between big, bold, yet vague headlines such as “We have the best project management app” vs “I built this app because most project management systems are unwieldy, this one isn’t and helps you deliver projects quicker”

Which one inspires more trust, empathy and action? The same applies to you as a freelancer, map out which pains are driving that dream client to your door and shape a message that speaks to those pains.

Art school is good, business school is better, on-the-ground experience is best

As freelancers we build up our business worldview the wrong way round. Whether you’re self-taught, hustling your way to competency on Photoshop or you have a more traditional training via education you learned how to apply your craft first, with business nouse coming later.

For me, this is at the heart of most freelancer struggles. We’re pretty good designers, writers or marketers but we find it difficult to get enough customers on a monthly basis to make it pay.

Robert cited this pain as a driver for building Workshop – a lead delivery service for designers & coders. It’s definitely a mantra I put forward on Freelancelift, that you’re not exempt from that word ‘business’ just because you’re a freelancer.

Leverage cold email, but don’t make these 3 mistakes

We often feel limited in our marketing options as freelancers, we’re not quite right for traditional advertising (so we think) and we struggle with time to develop other ‘softer’ channels which will bring a dream client to your message.

So a more aggressive, potentially more efficient option is to take your message to your dream client. In my book – out November 17th it’s a topic I dive deep into as it’s a channel that really helped me get to that $1m cumulative revenue point but here are three great takeaways straight from Rob (paraphrased!).

Mistake 1 – Leaving a thread open-ended
Using words like “let me know if” leaves the client with some work to do, which often inspires a lack of action. Try to spell out the next step, make a clear leap and frame it as a simple action “if that works for you then [insert request]”

Mistake 2 – Sending a user to a portfolio site
This is a great tip, why would you send someone to a portfolio or community channel (Dribbble in this example) which has an abundance of other potential options? There will always be someone better than you, so don’t give a client the opportunity to find that other option.

Mistake 3 – Expecting portfolio to sell itself
This is as true for writers as it is for designers, if you’re expecting your client to make the leap between your work and their problem you’re making this mistake. Going back to the point on solving pains, you need to spell out why – in a language they can understand – this portfolio is what they are looking for.

You can find more about Rob at letsworkshop.com and you can use the link letsworkshop.com/freelancelift/ for a few bucks off this awesome service, 10 handpicked web design & development leads every. single. day.

Read more
Oct 30 2014

Surviving 26 years as a freelancer with sanity intact – with Shawn Hesketh [Q&A]

It’s sometimes difficult to consider how we’ll still be around in 26 hours as a freelancer, let alone 26 years.  So it was a pleasure to host my latest guest on the Freelancelift Q&A call, Shawn Hesketh.

A freelancer of considerable experience who has grown beyond day-to-day project work to establish WP101.com, a 22,000+ user strong WordPress training community.  From maximizing customer lifetime value, to productizing your freelance service and running projects more efficiently Shawn had some great insights to unveil.

Learn how NOT to do things, and never stop learning

Shawn advocates the approach of constantly embracing new technology but doing so in a way that doesn’t just implement new for the sake of new.

Indeed trial and error, learning how not to do things will be your guiding light long term, so work with new platforms, keep learning but just ensure this within the frame of constantly getting better, or evolution as I like to call it.

Move away from the ‘project mindset’

In my book ‘Stop thinking like a freelancer’ I talk about the difference between the partner and the labourer.  The labourer takes instruction from a client while the partner becomes an asset to the client’s business.

Shawn recommends investing in time deeply understanding a client’s business.  Their market, their competition, their problems.  In doing so you’ll put yourself in a position to be able to offer suggestions for how to improve their situation for the long term.  Ultimately, this is directly linked to the longevity of your relationship with that client and when longevity = ongoing income it pays to get this right.

Provide concise, clear communication at every step

I have no issue with project management systems, however when administration of communication comes at the expense of client clarity they can be more of a distraction than a supporting mechanism.

Shawn discussed a simple roadmap feature he developed. Maybe if I twist his arm once this is live we can update the post with a link to an example!  Give us a shout in the comments if you’d like to see that.

“Ensuring everyone is on the same page is critical to a successful partnership. Effective communication begins with careful listening with intent. How well are you communicating with your clients?”

Avoid disruptions

I enjoyed what Shawn had to say in and around minimizing disruptions.  Its your responsibility to ensure you are connecting with clients in the most efficient way, if client phone calls are disrupting your flow put boundaries in place for handling such communication.

If you’re pulling time out of the project to handle calls and the alternative is email (which doesn’t attract any subtraction of time) your client will almost always choose email.

Exceed expectations

You can maximise the lifetime value of a client by building over-delivery into your projects.  At Tone we’ve achieved a 60% repeat customer rate, with each one of these spending an average 115% on top of their initial order over an 18 month period.

That’s huge for the predictability of my business.   This only happens as we’re consistently delivering far more than what the client expected.  Moreover, they see us as an asset and partner rather than a supplier.

Shawn highlights this is as one of his defining ‘mindset shift moments’.

Side note:  If you’re a designer or developer, Shawn offers a white labeled version of WP101 (a plugin) which you can just add into client sites to overcome the email to-and-fro that comes with teaching your clients WordPress basics.

Head to wp101plugin.com/freelancelift for a 25% discount. I’m not affiliated with the product, just a good old fashioned friendly gesture!

Leverage productized services

Shawn has built a six-figure business around a minor element of his job (as a designer) which he productized.  Once you launch a site as a designer, there is the ‘client bedding in’ period once you hand over the keys to the admin panel.

The ‘pain’ at this point for Shawn’s client was a complete lack of understanding as to what WordPress could do.  This ended up in pain for Shawn too, as clients were calling and emailing to ask simple questions.   So he built out a series of video training screencasts which developed into WP101 as it is, in its current state.

To investigate whether you can productize any element of what you do, take a look through your inbox, which questions keep popping up and how could you answer them with a book, video, guide or PDF.

Could you sell that?   This is the mental track you need to start down.  I built a full course for freelancers looking to productize their skills over at Handiwork.io be sure to check that out.

If you want me to dig deeper into any of the topics above in future episodes be sure to let me know in the comments.   You can find more about Shawn at shawnhesketh.com or wp101.com.

Read more
Oct 27 2014

Is it really possible to build a $1m freelance design business?

I’m a sucker for numbers. Big, complicated, ugly-ass numbers. It defines the way I do business; strategic, process-driven, pragmatic and above all, ambitious. Digging back through my historical business data and making it work for future business strategy is something that gets me out of bed every day.

Today I stumbled across a pretty significant number.

But first, some context.

Three years ago (almost to the day) I left my “yeah, I guess it’s okay” job as a designer/marketer at a larger business with a vision; to do freelancing right this time.

I’ve documented my past failures so we won’t go over old ground here but suffice it to say I had all the same feelings you’re probably having now:

  • I struggled to get a steady flow of leads
  • My income was just too unstable to rely on
  • I wasn’t really sure how to capitalize on the good months
  • Nobody really knew who I was, so was stuck with low-end clients

So back to today, I stumbled across a pretty significant number.

“Holy shit, I just hit $1m in lifetime revenue.”

To be exact, I had just hit $1,003,784.99. Gulp.

Three years ago I founded my “something”; packing nothing more than a laptop, one rented desk in a shared workspace, ten digits at the end of two arms, and one vision. Today I have a self-sufficient, multi-faceted web agency (Tone), along with other offshoots, capable of operating – and growing – without my day-to-day presence.

I must stress this is a cumulative figure, over that period and we do of course now have operating costs beyond my own salary but what I wanted to share in this post was just a sprinkling of the fundamental insights that took my tiny freelance business to this significant milestone.

I’m no millionaire yet. I haven’t made it yet. What I do have now is choice, a touch of freedom to tell my story on Freelancelift and hopefully give anyone who cares to listen a leg-up with their own freelance endeavour.

You may not want to build an agency, and this isn’t the point here. You may not want a team, you may not want more than one client at a time. That’s all okay and I fully accept that.

Truth be told, it wasn’t a track I purposely followed either I was just fortunate to put into play some crucial strategy elements which ensured I had no option but to scale up to manage demand.

I’m sure you’d rather have that “nice problem” of having too many clients than not enough, right?

I needed to write this book.

It is possible to build a business which (over time at least) will turn into a $1m entity, and no, you don’t need to ‘scale up’ to do it. You can find out more about the book ‘Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer’ which has a video walkthrough for you to take a look through.

The book has become a top seller on Amazon in the “freelancer book” category.

So here goes, a breakdown of the seven key areas you need to have cemented in place before even looking toward that seven figure goal.

1. Stop thinking like a freelancer

As a single-person business its easy to think that you’re somehow exempt from that word… ‘business’.

This is what keeps most freelancers thinking like, well, freelancers. Screw that. You have a product (service), you have customers, you need to deliver your product efficiently, you need to find new clients and you need to turn a profit to survive.

Sound familiar? That’s right, you’re a business. It’s the same for you as it is for Google, Facebook and MegaCorp Inc so why do most freelancers limit themselves to run-of-the-mill freelancer blogs, same-same books and so-so advice that perpetuate the same message continually.

You need to think bigger, to stop thinking like a freelancer.

2. Be the specialist, even when you’re not

A lot of marketing is about perception. Is your prospective client more likely to go for the person that has demonstrable experience and a raft of successes with businesses like theirs? Or with the freelancer who has experience across all sectors?

In big business these are known as ‘verticals’. Specific market sectors in which a supplier can be a specialist, for a more bespoke overall service. But there’s a hack.

If you have clients in different sectors that you can loosely group together why not create landing pages or sub sections of your site which address the concerns, needs and fears this specific vertical has?

Grouping your past experience in this way ensures you can still be the specialist, even when you’re not. If you really are the specialist then you need to build a brand around that, don’t just be ‘John Smith, freelancer’ be the brand that really makes a difference to businesses in your space.

“Just solve the problem. the more you can align the positioning of your product / service to the outcome the client wants the better chance you have of making the sale. The risk factor is much lower for the client taking on the investment.”

Brennan Dunn on Freelancelift Q&A

3. Understand your core purpose

Big business has understood for some time that marketing, when broken down equates to positioning and succinct messaging which makes the likelihood of the sale greater.

If you can build a meaningful core message that positions you in a circle outside of “the herd” you have something incredibly powerful.

What is your reason for being?

Does that push the buttons of your audience? (tip: it should).

How is life different for your prospects with your service? Do you do it faster, cheaper, smarter? Does your client roster speak for itself? What results have you achieved for others? How does that relate to the sensitivities of your ideal client persona?

Is this consistent throughout your site, social media and wherever you or your brand is mentioned? (tip: it should be)

If you can put together a big idea, a unique picture of your business it anchors your whole outlook and reverberates through every touchpoint a prospect or client will experience from you.

4. Know you’re not exempt from ‘marketing’

Sure, you’re a one-person business and yes, you only need a handful of clients on a monthly basis to make it pay but this does not exempt you from pushing your message.

Like a business of any size you have operating costs, you have a requirement to make profit to survive and you have a service to help you do that. But first, your would-be client needs to know your name.

Do marketing like a business, not a freelancer.

It starts with considering yourself a brand, even as a freelancer sat behind a laptop in the coffee shop down the street. If you think of the stand-out freelancers who are making big moves (think Orman Clark, Elliot Jay Stocks, Sacha Grief) you’ll find that they have built brands at the earliest opportunity and almost considered themselves an employee of that brand.

This mindset has seen their businesses grow exponentially and although now they have probably grown beyond ‘freelance’ work I’d hazard a guess that the reputation they have built up could allow them to command any pricepoint for their work, should they wish to go back out to market.

5. Ditch freelancer exchanges as quickly as you can

Freelancer exchanges are double-edged sword. On the one hand they provide you with the opportunity to grow your reach via a captive audience of ready-made buyers, on the other hand you’re expending vital energy in an online cattle market.

Your would-be client looks on while your online persona is dragged, paraded through the mud amongst a crowd of other beleaguered cattle in the herd all hoping for the farmer with the greenest pastures.

We all know how the story ends for the cattle at the market and unfortunately the same can be said for freelancers who get clients from freelancer exchanges. There is a reason top bracket freelancers aren’t on Elance.

Its very much a lottery who you’re going to end up with, and while death isn’t necessarily on the cards you can certainly end up in a lot of pain with a poor quality client.

It’s a much better idea to set yourself away from the herd, ensure you build an online reputation which enables you to generate leads, interest and clients without needing to bid for work on freelancer exchanges.

6. Develop your “Me Project”

The most difficult part of re-imagining your freelance world is actually separating out the time it takes to make it happen. You may have some ideas based on the points above but finding time to action them is another matter.

In a recent Q&A session with Corbett Barr, we talked about developing a ‘Me Project’ – investing time in your own self-improvement. This philosophy of ‘taking yourself on as a client’ is something I advocate throughout Freelancelift.

“As a freelancer, you should be able to say: For X hours per week I’m going to be working on my ‘Me Project’, creating content and building things that are going to be better for my business in the long term.”

Corbett Barr on Freelancelift Q&A

The process of developing content, whilst initially pays very few dividends is a long-term investment in your business growth. Corbett advocates developing a “Me Project”, where you are in effect one of your more demanding clients.

By working this way you can allow, then justify time spent on developing content and building the most important brand you’ll ever work for… yourself. Try setting aside 4 or 5 hours per week to work on content, build products or side projects which will elevate your online voice in the long term as well as provide a secondary income for the short term peaks & troughs.

7. Bill on value provided, not time spent (hourly rates don’t matter)

Whether you know it or not, pricing is almost always value-led. The price you are comfortable paying for something is directly related to the value you feel you’re going to get from it. If everyone bought on price alone without appreciation of value we’d all drive a Datsun.

Put simply you should bill based on the value you provide, not the time you spend.

Therefore if your price is deemed too high, in your clients’ eyes your value is deemed too low for your pricepoint. The amazing paradox here is that you control the value your client perceives; hence it is you who dictates whether a price is too high.

You should look to drop hourly billing as quickly as possible, instead switching to a value-based ‘project price’.

You can check out my free book ‘Hourly Rates Don’t Matter’ for some practical tips on making that work for you.

In summary

As covered above, this is a significant personal milestone for me hence I’m considering this a mini-celebration. I’ve been able to leverage the support of a small team to achieve this milestone and I’ve done so by harnessing some business principles I now consider the “norm”.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be breaking down some of the ideas above, adding more videos, a series of new posts and talking with more freelancers-done-good in my Freelancelift Q&A sessions. If that sounds like something you’d like to keep tabs on, I’d love for you to create a Freelancelift account (it’s free) and I’ll put you on a two week course which breaks down exactly where to start.

So I ask again, do you really think its possible to build a $1m freelance business?

Click here to check out the modules and join for free

Read more
Oct 06 2014

5 reasons you’re not converting website visits into client enquiries

The chances are you’re doing a pretty good job at getting visitors to your site but if you can’t push them over the edge (to give you their brief), or they won’t stick around then this post is for you. I want to show you that when you’re pitching a prospective client (even if they’re just browsing your site, you should still be pitching) your messaging is everything. This post was prompted by a question from a Freelancelift member:

I’m having a tough time getting steady work. I get compliments on my site and work all the time but I am not getting job offers. What could I do to change this?

Ramon M, New York

In this piece I’m going to cover the 5 quick tweaks you can make right now to get yourself in the frame of mind to use your site as a tool for generating more clients and ultimately, more revenue.

Stacking these tweaks will give you the compound changes required to make your freelance clients value, and then WANT what you’re offering.

But first, there’s something you need to know…

Not every visitor/prospect is ready right now

We live in an information age which for small online businesses has its pros and cons.  The con is that you’re probably not the first freelance designer/writer/coder/marketer your prospect has found, nor will you be the last.   That is to say your prospects have options and will go on a journey of information gathering and validation before even looking to make a decision.

This is where the smart win out

If you’re getting visitors to your site(s) already (as this also applies to portfolio & social channels too) you’re in a great position to be able to at least convert them into something meaningful for you.   You’ll see just by reading between the lines of Ramon’s question here that compliments don’t pay the bills.

So are you asking to start the relationship?

I mentioned the information age has its pros and cons, well the pro is that its commonplace now for prospects to trade an email address for something useful to them. That means even when a prospect isn’t ready yet, they are ready for some ‘arms length’ dialogue at least.

Normally taking the shape of ebooks, videos, guides, tools which aid a client’s end goal. If you’re a designer, would it be fair to assume that the visitor has an issue with their website they’ll want to fix in the short-term future? Could you put together a short 2-3 page PDF with a checklist of “things you absolutely must include in your next website build”?

You can use that information to hook visitors into an autoresponder process and deliver great information intermittently (automatically). The point of this is to educate and transform the prospect into someone who trusts you and is much more likely to turn to you when the time comes to hire that freelancer.

Action point

Do you have at least one call to action which challenges your site visitors to give you their email?

Have you registered with an email follow-up system (such as Drip or Campaign Monitor) and loaded it with at least 2 follow-up messages which help to make an eventual sale more likely?

So here we go, let’s look at the 5 reasons your prospective clients don’t buy.

1. You’re not addressing their specific concerns in your content

Yes, this is marketing 101 but it’s such a crucial step it needs to be covered here.  There is a sweet spot between where your prospect is now (current situation) and where they want to be (ideal situation) that, if addressed multiplies the chances of them getting the outcome they’re looking for.

The objective of your service is to take your customers from their current situation to their ideal situation but it’s amazing how many freelancers don’t actually point that out.

Action point

Take a look through your own site content, there are some minor changes you can make to ensure that your content addresses at least a few of the feelings your prospective client is going through:

Desires

> What outcome do they desire and are you covering how your service will solve that?
> What would they want out of your product/service and how do you deliver?

Beliefs

> Does your content address the challenges the prospect believes they have?
> Does your content address the benefits they believe you can provide?

Fears

> Which fears have brought them to your door and how might they overcome them?

Your messaging should be unique, it should stand out from the other options your prospect has.

2. They don’t clearly understand what it is you’re providing

The next factor which will limit conversions and sales is that of a lack of clarity on what your product/service actually is. 

Again, this should be something you should have done right out of the gate but sometimes clients don’t know the difference between a front-end developer and a UX designer – so spell it out. What do you provide (in their language) vs the other options they’ve seen?

You’ll notice there may be lengthy superlatives around the features of your service (I write really well, I design really well)… who cares? You should address it in the context of your client, address the benefits to them.

It’s the difference between (real-life example):

“We make websites”

to

“We boost your revenue by designing websites that convert”

Your homepage should serve to tick the box “Yup, I understand that and I like it” then display a solid call to action to move to the next section.

Action point

Figure out what the primary purpose and primary benefit of your service is, in the client’s eyes. In doing so you’ll have a message which provides a more customer-centric explanation of how you make a difference.

3. They don’t value what you’ll bring to the table

I’m always surprised how few businesses actually push the emotional buttons that make for buying decisions.  If in doubt, go find some classic infomercials on Youtube for a masterclass on triggering an emotional “I need this” response, you’ll probably find it in the first 10 seconds of each one.

I’m not suggesting you ham it up as much as this but you should be able to identify with real issues your target audience is encountering.

As you’ve been able to define exactly what problems your product/service solves and you’re speaking in such a way that relates to your ideal customer you should now introduce your autoresponder opt-in.

You should produce top-of-the-funnel content which addresses these specific pain-points (as covered in the preamble above) which prospects can download in return for email & content information.

If you get the lead at this point great, you only needed three improvements but let’s move on to the more passive visitors!

Action point

Ensure your site journey addresses the value working with you provides and begin to close in for an opt-in

4. They don’t believe you

This applies whether you do business online or in person, regardless of your industry.  You should introduce some trust indicators within your site flow, taking the form of:

Video testimonials
If you can, use video it’s much easier for your prospect to identify with the human emotion within the testimonial.  This is a killer technique.

Written testimonial with headshot
This is the next best thing, but for extra cayenne pepper include a link with the option to “don’t take our word for it, contact this person yourself” for a verified response.   You’ll be surprised how few people will take this up, but the mere offer of a direct email to one of your customers is so powerful.

Social proof
If your sector allows for it, Facebook comments on a particular point really underlines a following but for more B2B elements you need to have an active suite of social profiles and you can “favourite” particularly positive responses and feed those into that area of the funnel.

As featured in…
Sometimes it’s difficult to see the wood for the trees as this technique is used so frequently but in certain situations it does carry some clout!

Again, your opt-in should remain present at this point and I do recommend A/B testing everything here but as I say the big gains have been from re-positioning content.

Action point

Are you validating your claims with easily verified trust factors and introduce these into your conversion path?

5. You’re not giving them a no brainer opportunity to kickstart a relationship

We’ve been able slicken the flow so there is less opportunity for DreamClient to go passive.  Now it’s about hitting them with the big sell (or opt-in if your goal is to generate a lead).

You have put together lots of value already if you’re addressing some of the steps above so you are now in a position to ask the question. At this point you can put together a no brainer offer, a chunky bundle of free content or free consultation.

Doing so in such a way that it really makes it simple is key here. Elicia at Writing Business Well does this perfectly with her ‘free copy review’ service. If a prospective client is potentially going to enlist their help, why not take a no-obligation taster of the service first?

You’ll know exactly what pushes your the buttons of an ideal customer so you can package your ‘no brainer offer’ accordingly.

Action point

Are you making it really easy for a prospect to convert?  Consider repackaging blog posts and videos into a hard-to-refuse bundle of content which you can give away in return for data. You could give a free consult, free trial of your service or similar.

Bonus.  Get clever, chase them (Pro tip)

So this is a bonus tip and fairly advanced, but its killer so it bears mentioning. If you’ve ever been shopping for clothes or travel, you’ll notice (if you didn’t buy) that you are now followed around the web by ads from that store. This is known as remarketing and its crazy-powerful.

With barriers to entry all-but removed (pretty much no lower limit on remarketing audience size) and with costs and complexity within reach of even the smallest business, remarketing via Google Adwords should be pretty much a no brainer.

For example, if you find someone exits at your contact page you might show them a small ad which gives short, insightful explainers about what your product actually does.  On click you can then take them back to a page within your site with an encouragement to make that final step and connect.

Action point

Get really really good at remarketing.  Google Adwords is a good place to start, but services such as AdRoll and Struq can help those with bigger budget appetites.

Its where you go from here that counts

The improvement points I’ve laid out in this post have been a catalyst for double-digit conversion rates in studies we’ve carried out with clients at Tone (the agency I founded from a “just-me” freelance business).

It starts by understanding that when it comes to getting value from your web presence, there should be no assumptions.  You need to take advantage of more effective messaging to ensure your site tells your story perfectly, in a language your client will understand (they really only care about their desires, beliefs and fears).

You should see an instant improvement by looking at this list of action points then its time to test, refine and improve every link in the chain until your website is a waterfall of new client prospects.

So I’m interested to know, are there any techniques you currently use to generate leads from your site which we haven’t already mentioned? Get involved in the comments below.

Read more