Jack DonaldAhhh, making the big bucks. Who wouldn’t want to be associated with the freelancers who run fabulously successful and profitable businesses.
A recent study featured on Contently found that only about 5% of freelancers earn more than $100K per year. The funny thing is, there’s nothing stopping you from doing it yourself. But, there are certain things that can certainly make the process easier.
Let’s explore 5 of them.
1. Specialize
It’s no secret, to become a booked solid freelancer, charging top dollar, you first need to find your niche.
This way you’ll work with focused clients who understand the value of the services you provide, bill higher rates (just check our Laura Belgray’s day rate) and become a go to resource for anyone looking for services in that niche.
I used to offer a variety of services, website design, development and digital marketing. It made sense to me at the time. I thought that by doing so I could take on a larger variety of projects, and ultimately earn a higher income.
Although I found some financial success, it was a struggle to manage the wide variety of services I was providing.
Many prospects didn’t know how to classify me. Was I a designer? A marketer? A developer? What projects should they call me with?
I hadn’t developed a brand, or a set of unified services of which I was truly known for. I was just another freelancer.
However, once I focused my offering on just one service, search marketing, my revenue shot through the roof.
2. Productize Your Services
I bet you know this already, but a freelance business isn’t predictable.
It’s common to go through feast and famine cycles, making financial planning extremely difficult.
As freelancers, we can go from being flat out busy with projects, so busy in fact that we no time to even market our businesses, then in the next moment be hit by stretches of downtime where we need to work our asses off to get new clients through the door.
One way I’ve found to overcome this is by developing productized, recurring revenue services.
I call this method “Stacking Pancakes”. Here’s how it works:
Just imagine that you won a highly lucrative project. It guarantees two months’ work and pays a hefty fee for each. But it also keeps you so busy that you may have trouble lining up any work after that.
Bummer, right?
Now look at a different scenario:
Let’s say you’re a marketer like me and you offer a marketing package for $1k a month. By adding a client a month and assuming that your churn rate is low, you could end up with a $12,000 a month business at the end of the year.
And which option sounds better – a juicy, one-off project or steady, $12,000 a month income?
That’s the power of stacking pancakes in action.
By offering a productized service you can stabilize your income and eliminate unpredictability from the business. And if you delegate some tasks, you might quickly be on your way to grow and expand your business.
To find out more about the method, check out my in-depth guide to Stacking Pancakes.
3. Hustle
The word “hustle” has a negative connotation. A connotation I don’t agree with.
It often conjures images of a pool hall shark, preying on unsuspecting victims.
However, I can’t think of a single successful freelancer in my network who has earned a six-figure income without hustling.
To succeed in business, we have to focus, knock down barriers, cold call, visit potential clients with portfolio in hand and be laser focused with our efforts. All until we finally come out on the other side.
Don’t get me wrong, hustling is not just about doing the hard work. It’s about doing what we’re most uncomfortable with, too.
It’s speaking in public until someone notices you, publishing and promoting great content and managing the fear of rejection. Then, waking up the next day, and doing it all over again.
4. Have a Network of Referral Sources
Referrals don’t just happen. But they can be a your single most powerful marketing channel.
Referrals are unlike other forms of leads. Usually, the prospect has been prequalified by the referrer. Your referral sources won’t recommend you unless they’re certain you’re right for the job.
The prospect likely has an idea of your prices, the quality of your work, and what makes you unique. More importantly, if they’ve contacted you, they’ve likely made the decision to hire you already.
If you want to get to $100k a year level, you need to develop a strategic network of people willing to refer business to you: companies, agencies and other freelancers.
5. Learn to Negotiate
In life, everything is a negotiation.
We typically start negotiating early, convincing our way onto our folks’ arms as toddlers. Talking our way out of a bad grade at school.
You’d be surprised how valuable negotiation skills can be in the business world.
But for some reason, the skill often times disappears as we get older and more established in our careers. We lean on our credentials, and experience rather than basic negation skills.
Suddenly getting your way becomes pretty damn hard.
Here’s the thing, to earn a six-figure income, you have to learn to negotiate.
Knowing how to negotiate will get you out of a sticky situation with a client when you mess up. Or help agree to a fair price for your work. Renew the deal when client changes the projects direction (and you have other work already lined up) and overcome many other challenges.
But here’s the catch: don’t confuse negotiation with haggling. Haggling is getting a bargain.
Negotiation is finding a solution both you and the client can feel good about. This leads to even stronger business relationships.
In summary
Nothing stops you from getting to the top. But productizing, finding a niche, hustling and learning to negotiate certainly make the process easier.
