Articles And Guides On Freelancing

Marketplaces seem like they’re giving you a great deal.  They promise to take the uncertainty out of running a freelance business.  Where there once was nobody to pitch to, sites like Upwork make potential clients easy to find. Better still, these clients are actively looking for freelancers like you. Their wallets are practically out!

Their websites and systems have a nice familiarity about them too.  They play to the logical side of our brains that tells us, “If people are looking to hire someone, they’ll post about it here,” in the same way a company would post about a new sales assistant role on Monster.

There are no barriers to entry and you can begin pitching for new work right away. The chances of landing new work are high, and as Brennan points out here, you can quickly start to make money from them.

But do these marketplaces really live up to the hype, and are they a good foundation to build your business upon?

Breaking up with a client is like breaking up a romance.

It needs to be handled gently with the least amount of damage done to the person receiving the bad news.

If you’ve reached the point where you feel the relationship isn’t going anywhere, and your goals aren’t aligned, that means it’s time to move on. But there’s a tugging feeling of obligation that can make you feel trapped.

How do you end it without burning bridges or closing yourself off to future opportunities?

Well, there is a way.

There was a point when I needed to step away from a lot of my freelance writing clients.

90% of my income came from a niche I hated. I had anxiety about going to work. I couldn’t sleep. And I put on 15 pounds through comfort eating.

Something needed to change. I became a freelance writer to escape doing work that I hated. But now my business was as bad as my dead-end job.

In order to grow my income through work I enjoy (and improve my overall health) I needed to find a way to let go of my existing clients without hurting my business.  I had to maintain my income, my reputation, and their results.

I spent the next weeks listening to podcasts, reading articles, and consulting mentors to learn how to delicately handle these crucial conversations. This helped me put together a simple formula for effectively breaking the bad news with minimal repercussions.

Using the six steps I’m about to show you, I was able to step away from these clients, maintain a good relationship with them, and prevent any negative outcomes for their business or my reputation.

“Hey Laura, Thanks for the proposal, it all looks great! Let’s go with Option 2. When can we get started?”

There’s nothing like getting a project accepted.

No matter how many times it happens and no matter how confident I am that the client is going to say yes, I always get a jolt of excitement (and do a little dance) when it becomes official.

It can be tempting to relax a little after the tedious back and forth of selling (cough, try Roadmapping).

But how you start the project is going to set the tone for how the rest goes. 

If you start by coming across as organised and professional (even if you don’t feel it), that’s how your client will see you throughout the whole project.

That’s why I’ve put a lot of effort into refining an onboarding process that:

• Makes me look good
• Makes the project more efficient
• Makes my clients happy that they’re working with a professional who knows what she’s doing.

In this article, I’m going to show you a repeatable process you can use to onboard every new client.

Whether you take my process in its entirety, or simply use it as inspiration to make your own, you’ll have everything you need to start each project on the right foot.