There are a lot of different things that hold freelancers back from making the kind of money that they’ve always wanted to.
But it’s not the kinds of things that most people (most freelancers) think are weighing them down.
Most freelancers out there have the skills they need, the expertise they need, and even the experience that they need to command a six-figure salary right out of the gate – even if they’ve only been working in a particular niche or industry for six months (or less).
The reason that they aren’t making a full-time freelance income has nothing to do with the fact that they aren’t putting in 40 hours (or more) every single week – it’s that they think that’s what they have to do.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Armed with the inside information below, you are going to be able to make a full-time freelance income working part-time hours.
Here’s how!
Streamline your operation
You are going to need to cut out as much fat and waste from your freelance operation as you possibly can, really streamlining things more than you thought possible.
You are going to have to figure out EXACTLY what you want to offer, and then you need to stick to that and ONLY that. Don’t add a bunch of stuff to the menu just because you think you’ll be able to pull in a bunch of different customers.
Speaking of customers, you really need to get crystal-clear about WHO your ideal customer is – and then only accept them as your customers from here on out. There’s a world of difference between working for people that you cannot stand for pennies on the dollar and working with people that you enjoy for a boatload of money.
Which side of the fence do you want to end up on?
Fall in love with “fill in the blank” resources
Secondly, you need to fall in love with “fill in the blank” resources so that you can cut down on the amount of paper pushing that you have to do just to keep your operation running.
There is no reason whatsoever to have to create contracts, proposals, marketing or advertising pieces, or even pieces of work product that you produce for all clients from scratch over and over and over again.
This is busy work at its worst, and will tack on hundreds of hours each year – hundreds of hours that you could have spent doing absolutely anything else (golfing, the beach, spending time with friends and family, etc.) if you had fill in the blank resources on hand.
Crank out a quick proposal template, a business contract template, a marketing and advertising template, and any other template you can think of right now to get the ball rolling and then add to your collection as you move forward.
In a month or two you’ll have all the resources you need and hours and hours of free time.
Delegate absolutely EVERYTHING outside of your core competency
Finally, you’ll be able to do a lot better work (and be happier at the same time) if you make a serious effort to delegate absolutely everything that is outside of your core competency.
If you are a marketing freelancer that writes advertisements, that’s exactly what you should spend the overwhelming majority of your time doing – writing advertisements. You shouldn’t be fooling around with web design, you shouldn’t be answering customer service emails, and you shouldn’t be trying to come up with a new logo or troubleshooting your web issues.
Hire other people to do that kind of stuff for you and you’ll find you have more free time AND more money – and of course, you’ll enjoy it a lot more!
