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Deliberate Freelancer

Deliberate Freelancer

Melanie Padgett Powers

The show for those who want to build a successful freelance business. We are NOT about the hustle. We are NOT about the feast-or-famine cycle. We are about building a business. Deliberately.
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Top 10 Deliberate Freelancer Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Deliberate Freelancer episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Deliberate Freelancer for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Deliberate Freelancer episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Deliberate Freelancer - #156: The Risks and Opportunities of ChatGPT
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03/16/23 • 54 min

Today’s episode features several guests who all have an interest in ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence (AI). Their varying backgrounds and experiences in tech, writing and editing provide unique insights into the potential and risks of generative AI such as ChatGPT.

ChatGPT has risks and opportunities. Most of us are hearing how ChatGPT plagiarizes, how we can’t fact-check what the sources are, and how formulaic and repetitive the writing is. But we also have to remember this is the first iteration of this program, and it—or others like it—will continue to improve. I don’t think it’s going away.

We have to use ChatGPT with a lot of caution, but it does have benefits for freelancers right now, including helping you brainstorm and generate article and project ideas, do some research (as long as you fact-check it), and even write headlines.

In today’s episode, my guests provide their unique insight into what all this means for freelancers. My guests are:

  1. Tori Liu, president and CEO of the Association for Intelligent Information Management
  2. Ernie Smith, a writer for Manifest content marketing agency and a technology nerd
  3. Michelle Rafter, a longtime freelance writer and former business reporter
  4. Adrienne Montgomerie, a longtime freelance editor who teaches editing at Canadian universities
  5. Ben Pines, director of content for AI21 Labs, which has developed its own generative AI tool called WordTune.

Resources:

Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.

Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.

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Today’s guest is Brionna Ned, a former big-law lawyer and in-house counsel for tech companies. She is now a legal educator and a writer. Her company, The Everyday Lawyer, is a legal education and consulting service for small business owners that provides you with the legal knowledge you need to create solid foundations in your business. She also has a course: Contract Foundations for Freelancers.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • How Brionna went from lawyer to owning a legal education business.
  • What she loves about her business.
  • The basics of contracts.
  • Why all service providers need a contract — and the reason is probably not what you think.
  • How to put boundaries in your contract.
  • Why it’s important to customize your contract and be sure you understand what it says.
  • What to do if you — or your client — doesn’t want to use a contract.
  • What to look for in a contract that a client sends you.
  • How to explain to a client (and really, their lawyer) why certain contract provisions don’t apply to you and should be deleted.
  • Why indemnification clauses are harmful and how to try to get them removed from a contract.
  • If you can’t get indemnification clauses removed, know how to suggest changes to limit them in a scope.
  • Don’t sign a non-compete clause.
  • The difference between a non-disclosure agreement and a confidentiality agreement.
  • How to be proactive in ensuring you will be paid and paid on time.
  • What to do when you are not getting paid on time.

Biz Bite: Not all money is good money. (Trust your instincts!)

Resources:

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Atlas Katari is the owner of Katari Creative, a B2B organic content marketing agency focused primarily on LinkedIn marketing with some SEO and content creation.

Atlas is a self-described “LinkedIn nerd” and walks us through the latest LinkedIn offerings and how to best use LinkedIn for our businesses. They say that LinkedIn has an incredible organic reach you can use to promote your content.

So many people have only posted their profile on LinkedIn (ages ago) and haven’t looked at it much since. LinkedIn has changed a lot in recent years and offers a lot of new services.

LinkedIn is focusing heavily on creators these days so it’s a great way to show and practice your writing chops, talking about what you know and what you love.

In 2021, LinkedIn rolled out several new services that are a part of its free tier. LinkedIn introduced newsletters for users to create and now has “creator mode,” which allows you to highlight on your profile that you are a creator, choose topics to display in your profile as hashtags, and highlight your original content.

Last year, LinkedIn also fully launched Service Marketplace, which allows people to advertise for short-term projects geared toward freelancers.

If the thought of being more active on another social media platform feels overwhelming, Atlas recommends at least updating your profile — before you comment or create content. Look at fellow freelancers in your industry to get inspiration for your profile style and format.

In your profile, update your headline. Focus on your title; don’t use phrases like “I help this person do this.” LinkedIn is a search engine, so think about keywords. And think about what keywords potential clients are looking for, such as “freelance tech writer.”

Add a strong profile photo (consider a brightly colored, solid background) and focus on your banner image. The banner image should have a purpose and not just be a plain stock image. You can brand it with your photo, business name, a short URL (not clickable) and a call to action.

The About section (previously called the Summary) is also prime space to tell your clients what your services are. And leave a call to action, even if it’s just “email me at XXX.”

Beyond your profile, if you plan to be active on LinkedIn, it’s important to be consistent, rather than perfect. Atlas recommends reviewing your LinkedIn profile quarterly, maybe making small tweaks in your headline or switching to a new URL you want to promote. This could be a good time to add pieces to your portfolio or update your call to action.

Atlas puts their Calendly call scheduling link in their “Featured” section, providing another way people can easily contact them.

Asking for a LinkedIn recommendation can be part of your client offboarding process.

Atlas uses LinkedIn only through the free tier, but they walked us through the paid premium tiers and what each one offers (tiers: Career, Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter).

Atlas believes LinkedIn Groups will improve and become more popular. Right now, group posts don’t show up in your feed and you don’t get notifications.

LinkedIn Live is a live video option, but you have to apply to be able to use it. Atlas says the criteria are fairly easy though.

Melanie shared how she culled her LinkedIn a few months ago from about 900 connections to 400. Atlas supports these type of “purges” (at least every year) to keep your feed relevant and you focused on your goals.

To also keep your feed relevant, you can follow hashtags and influencers in an industry you want to connect more with. Comment strategically—and provide value through your comment—on popular posts.

Biz Bite: Create a strict boundary for daily time spent on each social media platform.

Resources:

Katari Creative

Linked Into Freelancing course and Substack newsletter subscription

Atlas Katari on LinkedIn

Join the Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group.

Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee.

Subscribe to the Deliberate Freelancer newsletter.

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Today’s guest, Megy Karydes, lives in Chicago and has owned her communications and marketing consultant practice for the past 12 years. Megy is all about systems and structure. She is very disciplined about sticking to a set schedule throughout her work day. Megy uses systems like time tracking and knowing her peak productivity time to create this discipline—and it’s a system to be admired. Hear how she does it and what tips you can pick up to try to build more structure into your routine.

DELIBERATE FREELANCER SHOW NOTES

Learn the system Megy uses to schedule her day. She is regimented about sticking to her schedule and minimizing distractions.

Time tracking every 15 minutes showed Megy how to find more time in her day and how much time it took her to do certain types of projects.

Megy’s a fan of Cal Newport’s book, “Deep Work,” which showed her the importance of setting aside uninterrupted two-hour blocks of time to do work that required concentration and deep thinking.

Megy uses exercise as a good afternoon break and an energy refresher.

Megy and Melanie talk about why knowing their peak productivity times is critical to their work.

Biz Bites from Megy:

  1. Ask clients for testimonials.
  2. Send clients handwritten thank-you cards.

Resources:

Read Megy’s latest blog post, which contains a link to the Excel spreadsheet she uses to schedule her day. Try the spreadsheet out for a while to see if it works for you.

The Freelance Content Marketing Writer” by Jennifer Goforth Gregory

Six-Figure Freelancing: The Writer’s Guide to Making More Money” by Kelly James-Enger

Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done” by Laura Vanderkam

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport

Episode #5 of Deliberate Freelancer: Track Your Time for Better Efficiency

Episode #4 of Deliberate Freelancer: Work Only with Nice Clients, with Jennifer Goforth Gregory

American Society of Journalists and Authors (an association for freelance writers)

American Society of Journalists and Authors Annual Writers Conference

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Deliberate Freelancer - #124: How to Create Better Habits (and my Word of the Year)
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01/13/22 • 39 min

On today’s show, I talk about my word (phrase) of the year and what I’m hoping to do in 2022. Then, I talk about the importance of habit formation and give several strategies to build better habits.

As I begin to work on developing better habits this year, I want to point out that if you try to introduce too much change into your daily life, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Humans are not great at reorganizing their entire day all at once. We have to start small (so don’t make 10 New Year’s resolutions and expect success).

You know those people who talk about willpower? Well, willpower is a crock. Willpower does not often get you to where you want to go. It’s habit formation that gets you to your goals, and willpower only causes most of us to feel like failures.

Gretchen Rubin, author of “The Happiness Project” and co-host of the Happier podcast, developed a concept and wrote a book about it a few years ago called “The Four Tendencies.” This framework is based on how a person meets inner and outer expectations. The four types are Upholders, Questioners, Obligers and Rebels. (Take the free quiz to learn what type you are.)

I’m a questioner, which means I have questions and need justifications before I’ll commit to doing something. It also means outer accountability doesn’t matter to me. It’s why I don’t care about joining a mastermind group or having an accountability partner. And I won’t stick with a class just because I paid for.

But that type of accountability works well for obligers, who need accountability to meet inner and outer expectations. These are the people who, when they pay for that yoga class or tell a friend they’ll exercise with them, it works. They do not want to let anyone down so they will show up. You can see how knowing your tendency will help figure out what you need as you start to create habits and try to commit to better habits or new goals.

In his book “Atomic Habits,” James Clear talks about making tiny, tiny habits, just a 1% change each day. So, want to start running? On that first day, just run around the block and come home. Don’t push yourself. Don’t go farther. It’ll take 2 minutes.

That may sound ridiculous, but you need to focus on the process, routine and the change in your routine. Don’t focus on the running; focus on the habit creation.

Starting is the hardest part. Katy Milkman is an economist who studies change behavior at the Wharton School. She was on Dan Harris’ podcast Ten Percent Happier about how to change your habits. Katy talks about this problem of getting started. It’s not about willpower. It’s about the struggle to get started. And that requires habit formation.

Katy also talks about something called the “fresh start” effect—that time when we start a new job, or move to a new city, or when the school year starts in September when it feels like a fresh start. That’s the perfect time to implement new habits.

January and the new year also feels like a “fresh start” to people and can be a perfect time to start new habits. We just have to be careful not to try to start too many at one time.

Gretchen Rubin would say before you start thinking about techniques to use to develop new habits you need to know yourself. That’s why I recommend taking her Four Tendencies quiz. But, in addition, think about the kind of person you are. Are you a night owl? Then, you’re never going to get up at 5 a.m. to exercise! Accept it and aim for a better habit that works for you.

A few habit formation strategies to try:

Pairing

Pair the new habit with something you’re already doing, preferably something you like. For me, that is walking while listening to podcasts—what I like to call Bod and Pod.

Accountability

As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t work for everyone, but if works for you, try to build more accountability into your daily life. Maybe find an accountability partner who is also a freelance business owner.

Scheduling it

Sounds obvious, but sometimes we just forget to work on our new habits, so put it on your calendar and to-do list and set timers.

Commit to a streak

Start a 30-day challenge where you’re going to do the new habit every day for 30 days.

Make it difficult or inconvenient

Delete apps. Use the Freedom app to block social media websites.

Hide bad cues and display good cues.

Put your phone in another room. Hide junk food. Keep your vitamin bottle visible. Put your water bottle near the front door.

Think about your future self.

Future Melanie will be happy this summer if I already have a regular exercise routine established.

Biz Bite: Embrace hygge

The Bookshelf: “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America” by Clint S...

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Deliberate Freelancer - #87: My Most Anticipated 2021 Books (and Fave 2020 Books)
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01/28/21 • 35 min

On today’s show, I quickly go over my top 10 favorite books of 2020—and the one I absolutely hated—before listing out my most anticipated books of 2021. The 2021 list will include several nonfiction books that could help you as you think about your freelance business.

For more in-depth descriptions and information on my top 10 list for 2020, read my blog post “The Best—and Worst—Books I Read in 2020.”

My Top 10 Books (listed in the order I read them) of 2020:

  1. “Daisy Jones and The Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  2. “Long Bright River” by Liz Moore
  3. “Evvie Drake Starts Over” by Linda Holmes 4. “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett
  4. “The Family Upstairs” by Lisa Jewell 6. “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson 7. “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart 8. “Eight Perfect Murders” by Peter Swanson 9. “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  5. “Know My Name” by Chanel Miller

Honorable mention: “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix

My most hated book in 2020:

“Leave the World Behind” by Rumaan Alam

My Most Anticipated Books of 2021

12 Fiction:

“Hour of the Witch” by Chris Bohjalian — available April 20 in the U.S.

“The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah — available February 2

“The Survivors” by Jane Harper — available February 2

“Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid — available June 1

“The Whispering House” by Elizabeth Brooks — available March 16

“The House on Vesper Sands” by Paraic O’Donnell — published January 12

“Before She Disappeared” by Lisa Gardner — published January 19

“What Comes After” by JoAnne Tompkins — available April 13

“My Year Abroad” by Chang-rae Lee — available February 2

“The Wife Upstairs” by Rachel Hawkins — published January 5

“Ring Shout” by P. Djèlí Clark — published October 13, 2020

“The Women in Black” by Madeleine St. John — paperback published February 11, 2020

9 Nonfiction:

“A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload” by Cal Newport — available March 2

“Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Dr. Judson Brewer — available March 9

“Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It” by Ethan Kross — published January 26

“Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting” by Lisa Genova — available March 23

“Unbound: A Woman's Guide to Power” by Kasia Urbaniak — available March 9

“Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019” edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain — available February 2

“The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power” by Deirdre Mask — paperback published January 26, 2021

“The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart” by Alicia Garza — published October 20, 2020

“Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America” by Maria Hinojosa — hardback published September 15, 2020; paperback available August 31, 2021

Biz Bite: No Talk Mondays

Resources:

MelEdits blog post “The Best—and Worst—Books I Read in 2020.”

Episode #51 of Deliberate Freelancer: Reading and Book Recommendations during Coronavirus

Episode #69 of Deliberate Freelancer: 9 Nonfiction Books that Improved My Freelance Business

Read in January 2021: “The Promised Land” by Barack Obama

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Today’s guest is Satta Sarmah Hightower. Satta is a journalist-turned-content marketer who lives in Boston. She produces content for agencies and brands in the industries of technology, health care IT and financial services. She previously worked for AOL and the Tribune Company and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School.

Satta became a full-time freelancer in August 2014 after her second layoff in five years. She realized early on that she could make more money writing B2B content than doing only journalism. Then, she realized she was good at, and enjoyed, writing about B2B technology.

In 2016, Satta hit her goal to make six figures, during her second full year of freelancing. It had been a goal after she came close to that mark in 2015.

Satta believes it’s important to balance higher-earning client projects with your own passion projects, such as coaching, essay writing or podcasting. For Satta, that means developing her fiction writing by taking online fiction writing classes through GrubStreet in Boston.

Satta won’t work for free or do unpaid tests. In fact, she doesn’t like to do any test projects because her resume, clips and experience should be enough for a client to assess whether they want to work with her.

It’s difficult to earn six figures if you’re focused on lifestyle journalism and content (parenting, fashion, health and wellness). The niche is saturated with writers, which brings down the rates. You can still write on these topics, but Satta suggests mixing them in with other, higher-paying niches, such as technology, health care or financial services.

Be easy to work with. As someone who also assigns articles for her clients, Satta has come across too many freelancers who miss deadlines, are hard to reach and/or difficult to work with. Be collaborative with clients and communicate in advance if you run into challenges.

Satta struggles with turning off work at the end of the day. To be present with her young son, it helps her to physically separate herself from her workspace and her work tools. This means sometimes leaving her cellphone in a different room.

Satta is a very early morning person. She often starts her workday at 4:30 a.m. She does this partly to get her work done early so her husband can watch their son in the morning before she takes over in the afternoon. She also knows that she can write easily very early in the morning but struggles to write late at night.

She works about 5–6 hours a day and reserves Fridays for administrative work, recognizing that her brain is tired from writing by the end of the week. She also tries to reserve personal errands and chores for the start or end of the work day, not the middle of the day.

Satta doesn’t work for hourly rates because they penalize her for being efficient. She works for flat fees or retainer agreements. But she does have an “internal hourly rate” that she aims to earn. Tracking her hours and having an internal hourly rate helps her know how to price projects and know whether a proposed fee is fair for her.

Ongoing marketing is crucial to keep the work coming in. You can’t start marketing only when work dries up. Satta gets a lot of work through referrals, including from other freelancers. Working with agencies is helpful because one editor can refer you to other editors at the same company.

LinkedIn is also a good way to get clients. Keep your profile up to date with relevant keywords, and post your work on LinkedIn so potential clients can see that you know certain topics or have worked with certain clients.

Satta tried having a virtual assistant, but it took time to train the person, plus she realized she didn’t want to be anyone’s boss. She prefers the “consultant model,” in which she outsources tasks to third-party services like a transcription service or payroll provider.

Biz Bite: Use an email scheduling tool.

Resources:

Satta on LinkedIn

Satta on Twitter

SattaSarmah.com

GrubStreet in Boston

Book: “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng

ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors)

Quinn popcorn

Temi transcription service

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Deliberate Freelancer - #86: What I Wish for Your Freelance Business in 2021
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01/21/21 • 38 min

Today, I want to hopefully motivate you, inspire you and encourage you to consider the aspects of your business that need improvement or to make a plan to work on things that you personally struggle with. This episode goes through seven areas that I would love for you to improve upon, if you haven’t already. They are:

  1. Embrace a business owner mindset

This idea is what this podcast is based on. Think of yourself as a freelance business owner and all that that entails. Words matter, and the words you tell yourself and others can help to change your mindset.

  1. Raise your rates

The pandemic has been a hard year economically too, so raising rates for all clients might not be doable. But there are some clients who fared well, and it may be time to raise your rates. It’s certainly time to raise your rates for potential clients — they don’t know what your past rates were!

Also, if you have a secret hourly rate — which helps you determine project rates and/or is the amount you aim to earn every hour you are working for clients — I encourage you to raise it by at least $25 an hour.

And don't ask your client about raising your rates. Remember, you are a business owner and costs go up. So, you can send an email and say “I wanted to let you know that my rates are going up as of such and such a date. My new rate will be this.”

  1. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

It’s important to have anchor clients, but when you commit too much time to an anchor client or become too comfortable with that gig and that income, it can hurt you if you lose that client. Ideally, I would consider not having one client that is more than 35% of your income.

When I talk about don’t put all your eggs in one basket, I also mean your services. This can mean your services and/or your industry. Do you need to expand your niche to have niches that are similar? Can you use your skills to add more services for clients?

  1. Don’t compare yourself to others

Sometimes you do this without even thinking about it. You look at others in your field, even friends of yours who are freelancers, and see their amazing careers or their clients or the big achievements they’ve reached. I can fall prey to this just like anyone else.

We have to stop comparing ourselves to others. You are a unique individual, and your business is unique. You have different strengths and weaknesses and values and responsibilities and desires.

First, social media. What social media platforms are you on often and how do they make you feel? Are you happy when you scroll through Instagram and see what people are doing and read motivational quotes? Or does it make you feel lazy or like a failure or that you need to do more? Maybe it is time to get off Instagram! This goes for all social media platforms. Take a critical look at how your viewing and interaction with these platforms make you feel.

Another suggestion: Start a gratitude practice. Perhaps you want to start a gratitude journal to write down one to three simple things that you are thankful for that day. I embrace the word “savor” and try to remember to savor all the little things throughout the day.

Another way to express gratitude in your life is to acknowledge and thank other people. You can still do that as a freelancer. You can let your direct client know if a staff member is really helpful on something. Complimenting and acknowledging people is like volunteering; it makes you feel good to make other people feel good.

One more way to stop comparing yourself to others is to be alert for the word “should.” Anytime you say you “should” be doing something, catch yourself or have your partner or a friend call you out on it.

“Should” often comes with shame and guilt. It makes you feel bad and does little to improve any situation. So stop shoulding yourself.

  1. Set boundaries

Boundaries tell you and those around you what is acceptable, appropriate human behavior. They vary from person to person. Knowing what your boundaries are and setting them is critical to building healthy, respectful relationships in your life. So, please check out episode #45 of Deliberate Freelancer for tips on setting boundaries.

  1. Get ahold of your finances

For many of us, 2020 blew up our financial goals and plans. Now that the dust has settled a bit, if you haven’t already, I highly encourage you in this first quarter of 2021 to get ahold of your finances. This could be a variety of things — it will be different for everyone,

If you need help with your finances, I highly recommend episode #28 of Deliberate Freelancer, with my guest Pam Capalad. Pam is a certified financial planner and a whiz when it comes to this stuff.

  1. Take a vacation or staycation

Plan time off now! Some freelancers tend to be bad in genera...

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Today’s guest is Laura Pennington Briggs. Laura is a teacher turned entrepreneur, two-time TEDx speaker and freelance writer. She’s the author of the award-winning “How to Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business” and the Amazon bestseller “Six-Figure Freelancer” and the founder of Operation Freelance.

Laura started as a freelance writer and virtual assistant in 2012. Now, she continues to write but also does book marketing and book launch strategy for authors. She started out as a part-time freelancer. But after 18 months of freelancing—only six months of that as a full-time freelancer—she hit the six-figure mark.

To get to that financial goal, Laura tracked her income and financial projections on a legal pad.

Freelancers are often told not to go on Upwork, but Laura used Upwork to build and scale her business. In fact, she earned over $450,000 through the site over the years. But she points out that it’s important to have a strategy when you are using Upwork.

When she was a new freelancer, she aimed to get Upwork jobs primarily for the feedback, not necessarily the fee, so that she could build good ratings on the site, opening the door to better and more work. She called these her “fast, cheap and simple” jobs to deliver the service easily and quickly to get a fast five-star review. She now has more than 200 positive ratings on Upwork, which lands her good work.

You also have to know what the red flags are, such as clients with ridiculous expectations and a very long description for a simple, short project. Also, when clients tell you they’ve worked with lots of other freelancers before and it’s never worked out, that’s a red flag! You can also read other freelancers’ reviews of clients. Trust those reviews.

The two ways that have worked best for Laura to find new clients have been Upwork and emailing cold letters of introduction (LOIs). Laura says if you send 50 LOIs and only one person responds, there’s something wrong with your LOI or your strategy. It’s important to take the time to research the client and explain why you like that company. Make the beginning of an LOI personal and hook the person. Don’t use a standard template for the entire LOI, which is a common mistake.

Great tip: Laura emails an LOI, and then about 30 minutes later she connects with that person on LinkedIn saying, “Spoiler alert: I just pitched you via email.”

Remember: Your perspective clients don’t really care about you, only that you’re qualified. So keep that part of your LOI to about two sentences and focus instead on how you can help them.

Sending LOIs is also a numbers game—you need to send a lot to get responses. You cannot just send a 1–2 LOIs a week and expect to get a bunch of new clients. Laura recommends sending five pitches a week for three months, tracking them and seeing how people respond. Make it a weekly habit.

Laura is a morning person. She works in batches based on the type of work, not the client. For example, she spends time on pitches for different clients during the same time slot, not focusing on all tasks for one client before moving on to another clients’ tasks.

When it comes to pricing, Laura recommends newer freelancers take on smaller projects and try out their rate, rather than committing to a rate and a long-term contract. You should try out your pricing and make sure you feel comfortable with it. Experienced freelancers should examine their pricing every six months. Clients are paying not for your time, but your years of experience and expertise.

Laura does not commit to pricing over the initial phone call. She tells potential clients she will get back to them by email. She may be nervous to quote over the phone, but she may also actually need the time to consider all aspects of the project and what it may truly cost and entail.

Remember that you can negotiate everything, not just price. You can negotiate length, deadline, scope of work and the amount of communication (no phone calls, no strategy sessions unless they pay more). You can also give a discount if they sign a long-term contract.

Laura advises that you have to get comfortable with calling the shots. You might feel like you’re pitching yourself as a freelancer to a client, but you have to believe that you’re a CEO too and you get to decide what your company policies and deal breakers are.

Laura tried to be an agency owner for a year, outsourcing her writing to subcontractors. And she hated it. You do not have to outsource your client work if you don’t want to. Instead, if you want to scale, you can outsource certain pieces of the process, like marketing, administrative work, invoicing or LinkedIn outreach.

Biz Bite: Hire a virtual assistant

Resources:

Laura’s website: Better Biz Academy

Laura’s book “

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Deliberate Freelancer - #60: Set a New Income Goal & Diligently Track Your Finances
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06/18/20 • 34 min

Three requests for the podcast right now:

  1. I want to do an Ask Me Anything episode. Please email or DM via Twitter your questions about the business of freelancing and I’ll answer them on a future episode. You can share your name or be anonymous.

[email protected] or DM @MelEdits on Twitter

  1. I’m considering a series interviewing freelancers who make six figures. So, if you have earned $100,000 or more as a freelance business owner, let me know. I’d love to talk with you more about how you got there so we can provide tactics and inspiration to other freelancers.

[email protected] or DM @MelEdits on Twitter

  1. I am looking for diverse guests, so please reach out and pitch me your podcast episode idea or recommend guests who are from marginalized groups. I’m doing my own research and outreach, but I’m open to pitches and recommendations too.

[email protected] or DM @MelEdits on Twitter

In this week’s episode, let’s talk money again. First, let’s talk about setting an income goal, then about how to track it regularly. This is important for your freelance business at any time, but your plans and goals may have changed during the pandemic and you may need to update your goal.

I also think it’s important that we’re transparent about money, especially to lift up other freelancers, including those from marginalized groups. I often talk about my “secret hourly rate,” which is the idea that I have a rate that I try to earn at minimum for most projects I’m working on.

To determine whether you’re hitting that rate throughout your week, it could be a helpful exercise to track not only your hours for a particular project but to track your hours for all your work in a given month or a full quarter. Then, do the math to see how much you earned per hour for each project, and then figure out what that averaged out to for all projects during that month and quarter. That could give you valuable data about whether you are charging enough, taking on the right clients or you need to figure out how to work faster in some way.

Do you have an annual income goal? Do you need to change it because of the pandemic? Or do you just work all the time and hope you can pay the bills? Or maybe you know how much you need each money to pay the bills and everything after that is gravy?

Money isn’t everything, but it gives me the freedom to not stress about money. So, I encourage you to set an income goal that is higher than just paying your bills. You may not hit it the first year, especially if you’re relatively new to freelancing or if you were hit hard during the pandemic, but you can strive to hit it. And that will likely keep you striving to get more, better-paying clients and to continue to market yourself.

In order to create this income goal, write down or create an Excel spreadsheet of all your expenses. Start with your monthly ongoing expenses—mortgage or rent, utilities, internet, cable, phone. Do you know how much you spend on groceries? What about household items, like shampoo and soap and laundry detergent?

Some of you with significant others may have to do this part in tandem with your partner. If your partner is paying part of these bills, do you know how much you are contributing? Have you discussed with your partner how much the both of you think you should be contributing? Are you the breadwinner? Is it split 50/50 or do you pay certain bills and they pay certain bills?

I encourage you to talk this over so you’re both on the same page. This could be particularly helpful right now during the pandemic if one or both of you had hits to your income and things have changed.

Talk also about who is responsible for what bills and if that needs to change. This is also a good time to discuss ways you can cut back on various subscriptions or services you might not need right now. You can also renegotiate if you’re willing to put in the time and money. Oftentimes, when you call up companies like your cable company, internet provider, phone service, etc. and tell them you want to cancel, they will cut your monthly payments or offer you a “one-time deal.”

Once you have figured out your monthly costs and made a list of subscriptions to cancel or renegotiate, look at yearly costs. For example, car insurance premiums, holiday presents.

Next, add in the extras. If you could earn plenty of money, what would you spend it on? What would you like to have? Think of things that could make your life easier but also things you love to do and buy for yourself. Do the math and estimate how much those things would cost each month or over the course of the year.

Now, you have two numbers: the bare minimum you need to earn each month and the ideal goal you’d lik...

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FAQ

How many episodes does Deliberate Freelancer have?

Deliberate Freelancer currently has 223 episodes available.

What topics does Deliberate Freelancer cover?

The podcast is about Entrepreneurship, Podcasts, Business and Careers.

What is the most popular episode on Deliberate Freelancer?

The episode title '#156: The Risks and Opportunities of ChatGPT' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Deliberate Freelancer?

The average episode length on Deliberate Freelancer is 34 minutes.

How often are episodes of Deliberate Freelancer released?

Episodes of Deliberate Freelancer are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Deliberate Freelancer?

The first episode of Deliberate Freelancer was released on Mar 25, 2019.

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