Ben writes in from the Philippines, “My biggest problem in freelancing (mine is web development) is not having enough ”good“ portfolio to show prospective clients. Do I really need to have one? I want to start all over again as a freelancer. Do I need to have portfolio pieces before I can start making my…
One of the most frustrating gigs I ever bid on was a project for a local university. My consultancy got most of our clients through direct inquiries or referrals; for the most part, we completely avoided the RFP game. In my mind, it was on the same level as spec work. An employee of mine…
A friend of mine posted on Facebook that he had listed himself on Fiverr, which is a marketplace of people willing to do all sorts of things for $5. Well, I know Kevin, and I know that he’s a high value .NET freelancer. So admittedly, I was a little confused at first… why would a…
Last week, I described how a basic 5 day email course fueled by a Facebook ad campaign is my total marketing effort for selling my latest product, WordPress Conversion Funnel. However, I realized I didn’t go too in-depth into how I’m actually structuring and writing email courses, or about the role they play in my…
When I attended my first Chamber of Commerce meeting, I really felt like I was a fish out of water. I came in shorts… and a t-shirt. I didn’t have any business cards, nor did I have any idea what I was doing. And everyone was in suits. Talk about embarassing! But I eventually figured…
I was browsing through Hacker News and saw that Patrick McKenzie had mentioned me in a thread where “adyus” asked: “However, one thing that I still haven’t figured out is this: how would I find say, that small insurance company in Kansas who has $100k to spend on a solution I could offer to their…
This is a guest post by Josiah Choy from KickoffLabs. KickoffLabs provides landing page and email marketing solutions. The hardest part for many freelancers and consultants is generating new business. Most freelancers would rather focus on perfecting their craft than go out and get new leads. Unfortunately, how good you are doesn’t matter if no…
OK, so let’s talk about cold contacting! So over the last two posts, we’ve established a framework for getting ideal prospects and went over exactly how you’ll break the ice with new contacts. Today, I want to focus on logistically how you’ll make the first contact. In a perfect world, you’d have referrals. Someone you trust (and who trusts you)…
Previously, we covered how you could pre-qualify 10 ideal clients that you’d like to work with (missed that post? Read this first.) Now, I’m going to introduce a strategy that will help you get in front of the people on your list, and maybe even walk away with a client or two. The biggest single…
We all have ideal clients. They might be companies we admire, companies that have projects that are completely different than anything we’ve ever done before, companies that can be stepping stones to getting bigger fish, and so on. Back when I ran my consulting company, I took on a job (that even then, and especially…