The Freelancing Program

Preface (book)

Building a Toolbox

Portfolio If you don't have any clients, make up a brand, and create examples The portfolio exists to help the client imagine what's possible
Allies Colleagues, friends, family, anyone from the coffee shop, ...
Process
Pre Production
discovery, assets approvals, rough outline
Production
creation, revision
Post Production
finalization, deployment, maintenance

Closing the Sale

Sounds about right: “Great! In that case I will build out a production schedule and hone in on a quote in that range for your approval. Does that sound like a plan?”
“I thought it was going to be more!”: Well that’s just the average we’ve seen, but there have certainly been outliers! If you have more to deploy on this there are a couple ways we can use that spend to build this out to an even more effective outcome: (list the ways).
That’s too expensive: Ok, that’s helpful, what was the budget you had set aside for this? We can try and back into a deliverable that’s still top-tier, but makes more sense for that spend.
Negotiating: Negotiate your deliverable, not your rate. Make it less complex, reduce the revisions, lessen the preproduction,...

Working With Clients

Scope of Work Document: exact details of the agreement, outline the deliverables, assets provided by client, anything that's discussed.
Production Schedule: Include the days where client feedback is expected, before there may be schedule or budget implications.

High Value Clients

Past Client Outreach ATTACH

Craft an individual email to each of your past clients.

Reach out to them on a schedule (research), new solution (partnership), impressive work for another client (inspiration)

Become a Strategic Partner ATTACH

Don't check-in to see if they have work for you. Provide intel, provide a network, providing context. Even with cold outreach try to provide intel, not just the outreach. Reach out to partners with the same core values, because privately texting them is a good benchmark for reaching "partnership status".

Building Services ATTACH

Strategic: What other contractors does the client hire before you? For example, a web designer, then a content editor or SEO specialist.
Surgical: What's a problem a client faces, that you can provide a solution for multiple clients for?

Retainers

good steady income
you can become freelancer in name only

If the clients get a retainer, then you can charge them 10% less for the usual price model. You make more money outside retainers.

Economies of Scale

Some services require a lot of upfront work, that makes future projects cheaper, since you don't have to do the upfront work anymore.

Find clients with clients, and try becoming a strategic partner with them. Find them on Upwork, LinkedIn, conferences, ... It's not uncommon to have a weekly call with them for ways to make more money together.

High Ticket Clients

They are more concerned with quality, scope and reputation. Highly disorganized, so budget in a rush fee in the initial quote.

Need More Clients

Niche Industry

Find a niche that hasn't received love yet, with a person with your skillset.

Diverse Lead Generation

Make sure to a/b test what works and what doesn't. Spend at least half a day, preferably, half the week.

cold: find out where your clients hangout, and go hangout there, even suggest to work for free if you have no industry experience
warm: requires social proof, a profile and a solid pitch
hot: via farming (social media, nurturing existing clients), via networking (by giving value), via referrals (look for other freelancers building a business tangential to yours)

Pricing for Sales

How do we measure success for the project? => Value for the client Don't say anything about money, before you know how they measure success
What are the goal posts?
What outcomes can you control, which you can't?
(Overhead + Value) * Expertise = The rate (should be your floor, not ceiling) The value for a simple hairdresser, might not be as much as a blockbuster movie. The expertise is efficiency, foresight, easy process, instinct, ...
Be the most expensive, or be the least expensive, not in between If everyone charges 50, and you charge 150, is there a version of the solution that's worth 150? Let me check with this person what it would entail! Think about RoI (either in money, time, peace of mind, ...)
Discuss money strategically. If I stay within budget, I can do XY, but with a more budget we can also do Z which might set you apart from the rest. And even if you decide to go with someone else, I suggest also spending that extra money there.

Sales Call Landing Manual ATTACH

You are not selling, you are not pitching the service, you are match making. You've already convinced them of your capabilities. "I want this project, you worry least about", "I want our partnership to be about convenience and efficiency".

Don't just go, ask how they measure success on a project? How do I know I've done a good job?
Don't pitch, make it more about a couple folks having a discussion in a living room
Listen, continually ask questions to understand the problem, make thoughtful suggestions as a strategic partner. Act like they already hired you! Get obstacles out in the open! What prevents them from hiring you?

Communicate before the call, telling them what's it going to be like. After the call, thank them and list some bullet points of what you've discussed.

Farming Seeds

Social media, thought leadership, SEO, email, newsletters, ... Building a blog is a 2y thing, social media following can be a bit faster

Metadata

Creator(s): Jamie Brindle
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Reason: I'm reaching a plateau monetary wise, that I can't seem to breach