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There’s no doubt about it. Losers are your best prospects.
Obviously, I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek here. I don’t mean the-letter-L-on-the-forehead variety. (I got shown one of those when I attempted a flip trick at a skateboard park yesterday.) No, I’m referring to those prospects who came close, who almost hired you for a project but, for some reason, didn’t.
You’ve had that happen many times before, haven’t you? We all have.
You discuss a project with a potential new client. She seems genuinely impressed with your credentials and ability to do the job right. Even the ballpark price you provided is okay with her. And yet, a few days after you send in your project quotation, you receive an email from her politely saying, “Sorry, but we’ve made other arrangements.”
Ouch!
What happened? Well, it really doesn’t matter what happened. What is important is your reaction to what happened and what you decide to do next. Click to continue reading »
Seems like every group under the sun has a “day” of their own.
Teachers, administrative assistants, nurses, meatpackers, weathermen…
Even waffles have “National Waffle Day.” So do donuts. And chipotles. And margaritas and watermelons. (I’m not kidding!)
But freelancers, who now comprise a third of the workforce in the U.S. (and even a greater percentage in other countries), don’t have a day of their own to celebrate.
Well…no longer.
We’re thrilled to announce that September 24 is now International Freelancers Day!
International Freelancers Day is a global initiative to celebrate independent workers everywhere and the tremendous impact they have on the economy. The celebration will connect freelancers, consultants, solopreneurs, independent bloggers and all other types of solo professionals through a FREE, two-day online video conference.
This virtual event, to be held live on Sept. 24 and 25, is projected to be the biggest-ever free online conference exclusively for solo professionals. An all-star cast of 25 high-profile speakers will be presenting 12 hours of content-rich material.
You’ll hear from bestselling authors and industry thought leaders such as David Meerman Scott, Brian Clark, Anne Handley, Mari Smith, Liz Strauss, Scott Stratten, Jonathan Fields, Dan Schawbel and many others!
Best part? It’s completely FREE. No catch. No hidden fees. No “OK-now-you-have-to-pay-to-watch-the-rest” gimmicks. You simply have to register, which takes all of 4 seconds. To register, or to learn more, visit http://www.InternationalFreelancersDay.com
And while you’re there, check out the cool 1-minute video trailer on that page!
There’s no doubt about it, folks. We’re now in a freelance economy. So let’s join together and celebrate solo professionals the world over. And improve your business in the process.
Hope to “see” you there!
I had the pleasure recently of interviewing Mac Bull, an American freelance copywriter, consultant, and translator working in Japan. Mac is a great example of someone who’s been able to launch, run, and grow a successful freelance business on his own terms—despite the fact that he lives in a foreign country and works with clients with who are very different culturally.
What follows is an excerpt of our discussion about the joys and challenges of freelancing overseas…and how he’s making it work.
First, tell me a little bit about yourself—how long have you been freelancing, what type of work do you and what types of clients do you work for?
I am a freelance copywriter, consultant, and translator based in Japan. I first started out writing for entrepreneurs, internet marketers, and some small businesses — both in the USA and here in Japan. I then started doing some consulting jobs and began to evolve from being a generalist to being more focused on the B2B arena. Before the copywriting and consulting I was simply a freelance translator: English to Japanese and Japanese to English.
Are all of your clients in Japan, or do you have clients in the U.S. and elsewhere?
In the beginning my clients were strictly from Japan, the U.S., and England. More recently, I have had some inquiries coming from Australia and Germany that I am looking to turn into clients. Also one of my clients has moved from Japan to the Philippines. So I guess I can add the Philippines to that list as well!
How long have you lived in Japan, and how did you end up moving there?
I was always interested in Asia. It started when I was 7 years old and my Mom started me on Karate classes. I learned some basic Japanese phrases and counting related to the art. In high school I did a lot of reading on Japan and China. Following this, in college I had the chance to do a year abroad of study at a sister Japanese University. I applied to the program and got in. I landed a job in Japan upon graduation from college, and I have lived here ever since, a total of 12 years.
How do you find clients? Are there some methods that work better than others when you work overseas?
I have always been aggressive in finding clients. So far my methodology has been: E-mail, Facebook, forums, LinkedIn, the rare overseas phone call, referrals (I want more of those), Skype, and handing out business cards. Business cards are still a very effective tool here in Japan. So much so, that in an actual business meeting there is etiquette to follow: Click to continue reading »
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When it comes to promoting your solo business, you’ve heard us talk about a number of mainstream strategies. These are strategies that are proven and time-tested.
But what about “offbeat” marketing strategies? Is it worth experimenting with a few creative prospecting approaches?
The answer is yes. And no.
Offbeat marketing strategies can sometimes be very effective. They can also make promoting your business a bit more fun. And that can be a good thing if you’re not fond of marketing.
But too often, freelancers who employ such strategies do so at the expense of more proven approaches. As a result, their prospecting suffers.
So here’s what I would do: First, spend time implementing marketing activities that are proven to yield results. Especially those that tend to generate great results without a huge investment of either time or money. Click to continue reading »
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One of the most powerful strategies you can implement as a freelancer or solo professional is to let your marketing efforts and communications do more of the “selling” for you.
In other words, do a better job in the way you position yourself and your services. Especially when it comes to describing why you’re different — and why that matters to your prospects.
That way, when you DO engage with a prospect, they’re closer to hiring you than they would otherwise. Which means you can spend less time trying to win the deal and more time on billable work and other activities.
I’ve used this proven approach to build a very lucrative freelance business. But where it gets tricky is when you have to market your services to prospects that:
a) don’t recognize they have a problem in your area of expertise, or
b) recognize there’s a problem but don’t realize that viable solutions to the problem exist. Click to continue reading »
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Want to boost your project income?
Take a look at those little — and sometimes not so little — extras you do for clients for no charge. One or more of those freebies could potentially be converted into a service that clients would be happy to pay you for.
I call this the “Free To Shining Fee” strategy, and I discovered it almost by accident just a few years ago.
At the time, I was doing a booming business writing case studies (aka product success stories); a type of project which, as you may know, requires someone to interview a client’s customer to flesh out the story and testimonials. Sometimes the client would handle this in-house and just send me the recording or transcript. Other times, however, I would be required do the interview myself. Regardless, I always charged the same fee for the project.
Then, one day, I realized that doing that customer interview was additional work that I was essentially doing for free. So I decided to package that activity as a separate consulting service. My plan was this: My fee to write a case study would still be $1,250. But if the client wanted me to handle the customer interview as well, that would cost an additional $500.
Frankly, I was a little nervous about introducing this separate consulting service, based on something most freelance writers still did for no charge. But to my pleasant surprise, clients were fine with it. In fact, many appreciated and valued my “Success Story & Testimonial Development” service — as I now called it — simply because I made it distinct, gave it a name, clearly communicated its value to clients, and charged accordingly. Click to continue reading »
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This post, part three of a series of articles (see part 1 and part 2) about Web marketing, was supposed to be about developing a content-rich site that showcases your expertise.
Before sitting down to write, however, I read through the posts here on the Wealthy Freelancer blog and noticed that many of them have veered off of the “how to” road to success and on to the more mystical path of fighting your demons.
Our biggest demon is that voice in our heads. The one that tells us we’re not any good. That we’re worthless and don’t have any value. My friend says that if a real person talked to her the way she talks to herself, she would have ditched the friend years ago.
So, while I could write a “how-to” article about developing a content-rich site, the information won’t really help you until you deal with underlying symptom of why your site lacks compelling content in the first place. Click to continue reading »
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Here’s a question nobody’s talking about… does social media work?
I’m kidding, of course, because it seems you can’t go a day without seeing an article or blog post about this issue, but I want to know, is it working for you? i.e.
Are you finding a way to connect with your audience… people who can give you business or introduce you to others who can?
Right now people love to debate the effectiveness of social media on a macro level. I weighed in on the debate myself recently with a comment on our friend Bob Bly’s blog article on the subject:
If YOUR audience is gathering together in a certain place, be it at a trade show, an online forum, or a social media site like Twitter… then, well… there they are.
Once you know where they’re hanging out, it’s up to you what you do with that information, but know this… whether or not you personally LIKE the places where your audiences are gathered (and your personal opinion on the norms, behaviours and social graces that take place there) actually doesn’t matter in the least to those gathered.
The fact remains that they’ll still be there, doing their thing, whether or not you decide to show up. Whether it’s at a trade show or on Twitter… some people will just hang out, others will grow their network, others will make sales…. and all of this will go on with or without you present.
What’s your take on that? Click to continue reading »
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A few years ago, my sister’s house had a big problem with its foundation. A crack was forming right down the middle of their living room, which caused their tile floor to crack with it.
At first, their insurance company offered to replace their tile floor. But my sister insisted that the problem was more severe than it appeared. So she hired a specialist who confirmed that if the foundation wasn’t addressed, the problem would continue.
The specialist was right. They fixed the foundation and the problem was solved.
If you’re a freelancer or solo professional and your business has taken a beating in the last year or two, you may be in a similar situation. You certainly can work harder to make improvements in key areas of your business — things such as your marketing, work habits, pricing, and so forth.
But the impact of these changes will be short-lived if there’s a deeper problem you’re not addressing.
Intrigued by this idea, I recently set out to interview dozens of freelancers who had faced such a conundrum in the last few years. Their businesses had dried up. They could no longer command respectable fees for their work. And the marketing efforts that had once worked were no longer effective.
Yet they were still able to turn their businesses around.
When I studied what they did to get out of a bad situation, I realized that they creatively employed one of more of these 11 strategies: Click to continue reading »
If you’re a freelancer working online (and I hope you ARE leveraging the web to grow your business), it’s almost too easy to slap up a new offer without thoroughly considering how it brings value to the vendor-client relationship. If you’re in marketing or copywriting, you might even face situations where the client wants your help promoting an offer that feels a bit … thin.
Yet there’s a fine line between being thorough with new offerings and finding excuses reasons to keep sitting on a great idea. So I’ve created an easy-to-remember acronym that will help you decide whether or not your next offer is ready for the limelight. Click to continue reading »
