Over the last few years, I’ve been on a lot of podcasts (for a complete list, see here). When I’m interviewed about freelancing and consulting, I inevitably get asked the following question: If you could start over… with no network, no “name”, nothing. Just a laptop, and maybe $1,000 in seed money… what would you do? Usually this…
Cole tweeted a great followup question to Episode 23 of the podcast: https://twitter.com/colehooey/status/590999273048670208 Whenever any discussion around niching or breaking free of general purpose commodity work comes up around here, I almost inevitably get questions like Cole’s. So rather than trying to answer the question in bursts of 140 characters, I told Cole I’d think through my…
In this article, I’m going to open up the kimono and give you an inside look at a conversation I had last week with someone in one of my Mastermind groups. These conversations are typically private, but I asked Jordan if he’d be open to me sharing the discussion we had with all of you,…
There are plenty of ways for freelancers to get project leads: job marketplaces like oDesk or Elance, referrals from past clients, people finding your website through a Google search, and so on. But we all know these acquisition channels vary in quality. Given the choice, I think we’d all prefer a strong referral from a…
Back when I was jumpstarting my fledging agency, I used to attend a lot of events. Between what I could find on Meetup.com and the events hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and our local technology council, I spent at least a night a week chatting (and usually drinking) with local business owners. Most nights…
“This will be huge for your portfolio.” “If this works out, it’ll lead to a lot of paid work from us.” We’ve all been approached by people who want free work. Sometimes it’s your mom (which means you should probably do some pro bono work for her — she’s done substantially more for you!), but…
You’ve probably heard that you should always be selling. It doesn’t matter if you’re sporting a suit and tie at a conference pre-party or chatting business with a fellow parent at a kid’s birthday party: if the person you’re talking with could end up either hiring you or referring you to others, you better sell…
Earlier this week, I dug up the first real proposal I’d ever written for a client. It was from mid-2006, and the project was a marketplace for doctors to virtually consult with their patients (back then, this client and I were apparently blissfully unaware of the many legalities around doing this). So as an eager…
The iPhone 6 came out, and today millions of Apple aficionados will be swapping out the last best-phone-ever with the newest best-phone-ever. For many, this is the most exciting day they’ll ever have with the iPhone 6, shadowed only by “Keynote day”, when Tim Cook announced the phone and it’s features. Likewise, your clients have…
We all know how important communication is during the sales process, but for a lot of freelancers knowing how and when to followup is often a mystery. After you first meet someone, when should you first contact them? How long should you wait before you followup with someone you’ve sent an invoice to? When and how should you pester…