6 super profitable freelance habits…that I stole from my friends

 

You don’t have to look far to find good business advice. Our wonderful freelance community is overflowing with it! Although I read countless newsletters and blog posts written by my peers, I’m shite at actually taking the advice itself.

Now, don’t get me wrong — these guys are putting out solid gold. I just can’t seem to buck up my ideas and implement anything new.

Call it fear, call it laziness, call it what you will!

This year, I decided to actually start using the clever advice so many of my peers were offering. Here are some of the highlights from the year, tried and tested by yours truly.

1) Streamlined processes

As a freelancer, you know full well that time is money. The more time spent faffing, the more money you lose. Makes sense to implement streamlined processes to help you get the fiddly shit done quickly, eh?

That’s why I was first in line to buy Felicity Wild’s Freelance Copywriter Starter Kit when it launched in August. I was lucky enough to be a tester for the proposal template and by golly did this shit save me time.

I find it hard to press send on anything without feeling paranoid. These templates saved me literally hours of faff. The peace of mind alone is worth the fee!

 

2) Email templates

From one type of template to another! This suggestion came courtesy of Louise Shanahan and her podcast 15 Minute Freelancer. In her episode Anatomy of a (cringe-free) sales call, she recommends templating the three standard responses to prospective clients.

  1. Yes - this sounds great, let’s set up a call

  2. No thanks - this shit ain’t my bag but here’s someone else who might be a better fit

  3. Maybe - I have a few more questions I’d like to ask first

After this, I started templating a few other things I usually send out, like my invoice emails and such.

Game. Changer.

 
 
 

3) Charge for all the extras

I picked up this habit from Cash Money Freelancing by Tom Albrighton. I wouldn’t have earned half as much this year if it weren’t for Tom.

I definitely owe him a beer (or five).

Tom points out that when you charge by the day or by the hour, you’ve capped how much you can earn. Sure, you can put your prices up, but there’s only so far you can go before you start to look like Cyril Sneer (my words, not Tom’s).

 
 

By charging for your work as projects or tasks, you can build admin, meetings, site meetings, and research into your quotes. You’re rewarded for your value and your skill, while covering off all the extras that slip through the cracks, uncharged.

Nice one, Tom. 🤘⚡️

 

4) Add business development to your routine

I suck at business development but I’m amazing at routines. So, when I sat down with Joanne Parker at Pushbike B2B and she advised making a potential client pipeline that I could chip away at each day, I seized the idea.

She told me to go after the clients (rather than agencies and job boards) and to chart my progress, so I could see how each lead was developing.

When I combined that with Sophie Cross’ amazing LinkedIn for Humans, I had a very fun method for raking in new leads via inbound marketing.

By adding dream clients to LinkedIn and carving out pockets of time to socialise with them each day, I’ve scored some pretty lucrative contracts. 😎

 

5) Be fluid with your goal planning

This is a lesson literally everyone in the freelance community taught me…because I asked it when I hosted #ContentClubUK in November.

You fine folk came out in droves to share your goals and action plans for 2022. Many of you said you simply wanted to focus on being happy in your work and to let the chips fall where they may.

By allowing yourself to be more flexible and open with targets and goals, you open yourself up to the potential of ‘what if’ while avoiding too much self-inflicted pressure.

That’s pretty bloody cool, if you ask me.

 

6) Swap to your phone

I got this nugget of advice from Tyler Koenig at this year’s Copywriting Conference and it’s had a huge impact on how quickly I turn out copy.

Tyler laid out an entire plan for faster working, but I won’t share all his secrets here. The main point that blew my mind was changing the format.

The basic premise is this: sit at your computer and work until you hit your natural lull (in Pomodoro terms, that’ll probably be a 25 minute chunk of time). Once you’ve hit it, get up, move to a new space, and use Google Docs to keep writing on your phone. When you hit your next lull, come back to your computer and start the process over again.

Simply changing the format and the environment has helped me stay focused and get jobs done so much faster than before. I’m sure there’s a clever science behind it, but all I know is — that shit works like a charm.

 

Do you have any profitable freelance advice to share? Want to chat about the nuggets I shared here? Come and find me on Twitter!

 
Emma Cownley