The Contract Mint Blog

Three Smart Ways Freelancers Can Boost Their Profits

Freelancers today are starting to wise up to the realization that making big bucks isn’t exactly as simple or as straightforward as firing up their laptop and falling out of bed.

No, with a freelancer marketplace as competitive as it is today (and only getting more competitive as time goes on) you’re going to need to be very smart, very savvy, and very strategic about how you maximize your earning potential.

There are an almost endless amount of ways that you can boost your profits across the board, but we are going to outline three of the most intelligent (and honestly, some of the most effortless) ways below.

This is how a freelancer just struggling to get by can double or even triple their income in no time at all.

Shall we dive in?

Great!

Let’s get to it.

Build more proof into your pitch

One of the smartest things you can do to dramatically boost the amount of money that you make as a freelancer is to increase your conversion rate on pages that you’re making to prospects.

It follows that if you are prospecting to say 100 potential clients a month and 10 of them decide to become a client, if you could get 15 of them – or even better, 20 of them – to become a client in the same amount of time you’d be able to start cashing some pretty big checks.

A lot of us freelancers make major mistakes when we pitch which is why we have such low conversion rates in the first place, but the biggest mistake we make is not including as much proof to back up our promises as humanly possible.

Pull out all stops to create as much proof as you need to really hammer them over the head with the fact that you know what you’re doing – and that you’ve done it before. People aren’t buying anything other than confidence in you when they said yes to your pitch.

Don’t give them a way to say no.

ALWAYS work on a retainer plus performance style sales agreement

Another great little approach you can take to dramatically change your income is to stop working on “one shot fee” style projects and instead start to ask for smaller retainers up front – maybe half of your regular “ask” but with performance style bonuses on the backend.

There is a world of difference between making $5000 one time to write an advertisement and making $2500 one time but $500 every time you hit certain conversion numbers on that later FOREVER.

Retainer plus performance style sales agreements are how people skyrocket their income past six figures in a hurry. This should be your default sales agreement template going forward.

Create “do it once, paid forever” kind of work

Lastly, it makes picture perfect sense to stop doing work that you stop getting paid for when you no longer put in the hours.

You’ll want to try and convert your expertise and experience into something that you can do once and then sell over and over again (create info products, write books or courses, teach, consult, etc.) to leverage your effort and make money without having to link it to time.

All of us only have 24 hours in a day. You need to make the very most of your time by leveraging your resources as best as possible. By breaking away from the “dollars for hours” paradigm, you’ll be on the fast track to real wealth.

Even better than that, you’ll finally be creating real assets that you can sell or license to create windfall income potential almost out of thin air.

What Should Be In An Independent Contractor Agreement

The moment that a client hires you to do a project for them, before you execute even one task, you have to take appropriate precautions to protect yourself for the duration of your business relationship and beyond. Entering any sort of verbal agreement with a client is very risky. To prevent any legal issues later, it’s vital that you have them sign an independent contractor agreement.

An independent contractor agreement can be as basic as a document that covers the outline of the project and the dates that you will be providing them. Since there are literally millions of potential jobs and roles you might fulfill as an independent contractor, the exact content of the document can vary. Here are some of the things that you should always include in your agreements:

The scope of the project – A summary of what you’ll be doing and the final result. Basically, you’re just defining the service that you are providing the client with.
A project timeline – It doesn’t have to be intricate, but the more precise, the better. Always leave yourself a bit of wiggle room to modify the timeline if need be. Anything can happen, delays can occur, so don’t bind yourself to a completely inflexible timeline.
Agreed Compensation – If nothing else, always have what the client is agreeing to pay you. The terms that you negotiate are completely up to you, but be very clear on how much is due to you and when. Some freelancers ask for a percentage up front. Others agree to be paid at the end of the project. Whatever it is, have it documented.
Revision Allowances – If you’re a writer or graphic designer, you know firsthand how long it can take to come up with a draft. Typically, you’ll send a few drafts over to the client to get a feel for what they like. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting through an entire job, deliver the final product and have the client ask for a number of revisions. Yes, there are going to be cases where they need small changes. Be clear on how many revisions you will offer them before you begin to charge. Not only does this prevent you from having to do outrageous work without being compensated, but it helps the client from getting too far off course with their vision, and almost forces them to be wise with their revision requests.
Delivery Date – This will also appear in the timeline, but you should also ensure that you give an approximate delivery date of the final project. This is important for both you and the client to know when the project is expected to be completed. Just like with the project timeline, give yourself a bit of wiggle room to account for delays.

There’s a very good chance that the client may ask you to sign a contractor agreement as well. This protects their business from any liability. Before you sign anything, always read over the entire document. If you have any questions, ask the client or a neutral third party to explain. Here are some of the things that you may see in a contractor agreement from your client.

Non Disclosure Agreement – During the course of a project, you may learn things about a business that are considered “trade secrets”. The client has ownership of them, and you are not allowed to share them with competitors.
Ownership of Works Provided – If you create a graphic for one client, they usually will ask that you sign the rights of it over to them. This prevents you from selling that graphic to anyone else. The same goes for website content, website design, etc.
1099 Employee Agreement – If you do work for a client in the United States, they will likely have you sign an agreement that they are not liable to pay any sort of taxes for you. You are responsible for filing your own taxes with the state and government. In addition, they don’t have to provide you with medical benefits or any other kind of employee benefits during the duration of your contract.

It’s worth mentioning again that if you have any questions about the document that you’re going to sign, don’t sign it until you completely understand. Most contractor agreements are pretty run of the mill and simple, but unfortunately there are people out there that take advantage of unknowing people.

The Successful Freelancer Knows When To Outsource

There are a bunch of things that really successful freelancers know about that “every day freelancers” never even consider – and that’s why some are making a lot more than six figures and others are struggling to pay rent and eat in the same month.

If you are serious about making the most of your freelancing career, and really want to transform your income (almost overnight), you are going to want to pay close attention to the secret below.

You see, of all the things that tremendously successful freelancers know and do that regular freelancers do not, outsourcing is the number one differentiator. Successful freelancers take advantage of every bit of leverage they can, knowing that it’s going to help them make even more money than it costs while regular freelancers fight over pennies that would have made them stacks and stacks of cash.

Here are just a couple of things to think about when it’s time to outsource.

Outline your core competencies and then stick to them like glue

Truly successful freelancers not only understand exactly what they are fantastic at, where their skills come into play, and what their expert knowledge involves – but they also know what they aren’t very good at, what they don’t know about, and what they have little to no experience in.

Core competencies are going to make or break your freelancing business as much as your marketing and advertising, which is why you are going to want to develop them to the finest possible degree. This involves abandoning everything else though.

So rather than throw up a terribly designed website, ignore marketing and advertising altogether, or abandoned any real hope of a systemized customer service platform, hire these things out to experts that specialize in those areas.

You’ll see a significant return on investment almost immediately.

ALWAYS pay for professional advice in the legal and financial arenas

When it comes to figuring out how to write a contract that can’t stand up in court, how to find tax loopholes and deductions to allow you to keep as much of your money as possible, and whether or not you can make specific claims in your marketing and advertising, you cannot settle on “well maybe this will be okay”.

Moving forward with that kind of mentality will get you crushed faster than you ever thought possible.

If there are two areas to outsource all the time – and we mean all the time – it’s these two. Legal advice and financial advice can make or break a business, and they are also the two areas that have the most potential to involve the government.

Going toe to toe with the government unprepared isn’t the kind of sticky situation that you ever want to find yourself in.

Leverage outsourcers to make your work product or deliverables even better

Successful freelancers know that the secret to creating happy and long-lasting relationships with clients is to overdeliver as much as possible.

But successful freelancers also know that they can only put in a specific amount of time and do a specific amount of work to make a project profitable.

That’s where outsourcers come into play.

By outsourcing certain components of the projects that you take on (a lot like Tom Sawyer and that picket fence) you’ll be multiplying your effort while at the same time boosting the results across the board. This allows you to deliver higher quality work faster than you would have been able to on your own – and that’s only going to be good (really, really good) for business going forward!

How To Dramatically Boost Your Freelancing With Systems

There is one major differentiator between freelancers that make $10 of projects and those that make $1000 (or more) for the exact same kind of deliverable – and it has almost NOTHING to do with your skills, your knowledge, or your ability.

It all has to do with whether or not you take advantage of systems that can really help you out.

You see, your average freelancer flails around wildly, trying this and then that hoping to “strike it rich” or “get lucky” – but there’s no real plan, no real strategy, and no real system to work off of. Without this system in place, they never really know whether or not what they’re doing is good, bad, or irrelevant.

They are flying blind.

Because of that, they aren’t able to command the high fees that “top pros” command every single day of the week – even if they are technically better freelancers with higher skill levels, more experience, and all the knowledge in the world.

They won’t make as much money because they do not have intelligent systems to do a lot of the “heavy lifting” for them.

Here are a couple of systems that you’re going to want to put into place.

Create a “new client generation” system

One of the most (if not THE most) of all the systems that you could put into action for your freelancing business is a system that generates new clients almost on autopilot.

Trying to jump from one freelancer client to the next, without ever really knowing where your next paycheck is coming from, is the greatest fear that every single freelancer has to live with when they do not have a trusted system that produces new clients almost on demand.

This is something that you’re going to need to get fixed.

Think of your marketing efforts as a major component to your freelancing career, build real value and distribute it freely to your target market, and continue to fish for new clients even when you’re up to your eyeballs in work.

Build templates for all of your important documents

Secondly, you need to make sure that you have templates in place for all of your important documents.

You don’t want to be wasting a mountain of time trying to come up with all kinds of documents that you use hundreds of times (or more) each year every time the demand for one comes up.

Systemize your important documentation process by creating templates that allow you to fire off customized solutions in a fraction of the time. Build out employee contract template options, payment schedule templates, proposal templates, and anything else that you find yourself sending out to clients on a regular basis.

It’ll take a little bit of time to do up front, but it will save you a ridiculous amount of time in the long haul.

Have a referral and recommendation system in place

Finally, you need to understand that your current or past freelancer clients are your very best source for new clients.

There are too many freelancers out there that bail on their clients completely after they fire off the deliverables for a particular project, but that’s a mistake that you simply cannot afford to make. Instead, you should be doing absolutely everything in your power to make sure that you become a trusted advisor to those clients – and that you are the first name they think of whenever someone in their circle of influence needs that kind of work done.

Not only that, you need to be proactive in asking for referrals, asking for recommendations, and asking for testimonials or case studies that you can use in your marketing. This is the only way to climb to the top.

How To Make Six Figures As A Freelancer With Only A Handful Of Clients

There are a lot of freelancers out there that easily make more than low to mid six figures every single year – but a lot of them have to work themselves to the bone and burn out to pull it off.

There are only a handful of freelancers out there that know the secrets to making six figures (and more) with only a handful of clients. They are the ones that end up buying a beach house somewhere or traveling the world while living the real “four hour work week” lifestyle.

If you’d like a little peek into that kind of universe (as well as learn how they become so successful without having to crush themselves under a mountain of work in the process), keep reading.

Marketing and advertising might be the most important part of your freelance career

All successful freelancers (and even most of the unsuccessful ones) understand the importance of marketing and advertising for their business, at least on a surface level.

But few of them understand that it just might be the MOST important part of a freelancing career, even far more important than their technical skill, experience, or work product that they deliver.

You see, you cannot afford to blindly market or advertise your services to anyone and everyone – not if you hope to make a six-figure salary, and especially not if you want to make six figures while only working 15 to 20 hours a week from anywhere on the planet.

No, what you’re going to need to do is identify a very select niche of potential clients that have the commonalities, the personalities, and the bankroll behind them for you to lead this kind of lifestyle while they happily – almost excitedly – pay you whatever you ask for the results that you are able to produce.

The WHO in your marketing is a lot more important than the WHAT you’re trying to get across. Never forget that.

You have to work with people that you like, that you respect, and that you trust

Another component to making six figures with only a handful of clients is that you have to actually work with people that you like, that you respect, and that you trust.

Now, obviously, those criteria are ideal for any client that you decide to take – but I’m pretty sure all of us freelancers have worked with as close to the devil as it probably gets when we were running low on funds and were nervous about paying rent or eating.

You’ll never make any serious amount of money (and you’ll never have any fun or free time) if you continue to go down that road.

Really trying to figure out the type of client that you’d love to have – what they like, what they don’t like, what they do, what their personality is, etc. – and then go out hunting for “white whales”.

Yes, when you find them (and convince them that you’re bright for the job) you’re still going to want to have contracts of employment in place and a healthy dose of skepticism before you establish a relationship, but you’re also going to be much more at ease and happier because you’re working with people that you don’t despise.

These clients usually turn into lifelong business partners, trusted advisors, and friends, and even if they stop cutting you have the checks they’ll be able to recommend you to others with the full weight of a glowing endorsement – and you won’t have to worry about bending over backwards for pennies any longer!