Ask Rezzz

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For full show notes, a customized Ask Rezzz playlist, and bonus material, head on over here for it all. 
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When you put prices on your website, I encourage you to think why? When I did it, it was to filter out tire kickers. I found that I was getting more shoppers than buyers. I was ok with the drop in leads to the business if it meant that more qualified leads were getting through and becoming clients.

Pricing on my website sets the conversation around the lead’s potential budget and if they don’t match, then there’s no point in moving forward.

I am fully aware that you may be skeptical about putting pricing on your website because you don’t want to pigeon hole yourself into that price alone if a larger project comes along. I get that!

But what you don’t realize is that putting prices on your website isn’t the ceiling, it’s the floor of what you will do work for.

To circle back to the question, packages are fine if you are delivering on items that you know your leads understand to a “T”. Because most of the time, those packages are laid out on those pricing grids that list the features and the lead will select which one they want to go with.

However if the messaging isn’t right or your leads don’t understand the value in the features, you may turn them away even if they are ideal clients for you.

If you put one price on your website, then you’ll want to say on there exactly what they are getting for that price, but then if you want to do add-ons, make sure that you mention those as well.

Otherwise if you say you are doing website design for $1000 and then get into the sales conversation and you then say web development on top of the design is another $3000. You’ll immediately seem like you are a bait and switch artist and turn your lead away.

Pricing is fun to play around with and see what works. Play with it and see - give it 6 months one way and then 6 months another way. See the responses you get (or don’t get) and then that will tell you which way to go with your pricing on your website.

Bottom line though, how you present it is truly a matter of understanding your leads and clients.

You should give them options, but too many options and that causes confusions.

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For full show notes, a customized Ask Rezzz playlist, and bonus material, head on over here for it all.
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In episode 91, you heard me talk about finding a quality prospect and how I use a Project Brief in the qualification part of my sales process.

I look at sales this way. There are way more people and projects in this world that I’m not a good fit for. If I can have them figure that out as early on in the process as possible without wasting too much of their time, the better.

It’s all about time for me and those that I talk with. I don’t want to waste time on things that aren’t valuable and so I feel that most other business owners don’t want to either.

And that’s who I talk with, the decision makers. 95 times out of a 100 it’s the business owner.

The first step is…
I put out a ton of content and most of the leads I get to the business came by way of some level of education on what it is that I do.

That’s from a previous client or a vendor or some other place like a podcast. So most likely, they don’t come to me completely blind as to what I can do for them.

My purpose for a call is to get them a proposal that is a formality of closing the deal.

The second step…
After the content, the next step is that project brief. Which I dive real deep into in episode 91 on, so I won’t belabor that here.

But the gist of the project brief here is to have the lead essentially voice in their own words what their project is, the goals, and in a matter of few key questions, show to me how important the project is.

This helps in filtering out tire kickers and leads that haven’t thought through the project.

One of the responsibilities as a business owner is to protect the time and profitability of the business. If I’m taking anybody’s call and sitting on the phone with them to unpack their project for them, that’s eating away at profits.

I only want to talk with those that have already done this.

The final step is…
The sales call. If a lead has submitted a project brief and I can help them with their project, the next step is the call.

The reason I don’t have a specific script is because this 30-minute call is an extension from the Project Brief.

I ask very specific questions about their business and about the project that isn’t the same for everyone.

But it’s all the information that I need to properly provide them with a solution. I know what I need in my business from clients in order for a project to be successful and so if I haven’t yet heard those things, or seen the metrics, I ask them.

I don’t hold back anything. I don’t want the lead to hold back either. We are on the same page when working together.

I tell them this if need be. I give them a brief insight into how it will be working together. What I do different than what they may know about or have experienced in the past.

And most importantly, I try and overcome any objections that they may have.

I look at the sales call as if it were a mini-consultation. This way if someone decides not to sign on with me, which often does not happen when they follow through the process, at least they walk away with something for their project.

I schedule the sales call as a video call. This way I can see who the lead is, share a laugh or two and make sure that at the most basic of levels we can get along and our personalities don’t conflict with each other.

At the end of the call, I share with the lead the next steps in the process. Tell them what they should expect and when to expect it and we go on from there.

It’s that simple. The sales process can be scary but when you make it your own, it becomes second nature. Folks often feel icky or awkward about sales and that’s because they are trying to do something that saw someone else have success with.

Learn from other strategies, but apply your personality to it and the things you need for the business and project to be successful and you won’t need anyone else’s sales script. 

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For full show notes, a Choose Your Own Ask Rezzz playlist, and bonus material, head on over here for it all.
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My back story is that in early 2000s I struck out on my own doing freelance full-time. Due to getting laid-off from the consultant firm I was working at.

At that time, I thought my path was pretty clear. I had a skill that was very much in demand, at least from what I could see, and instead of getting a job, I would just ramp up my side hustle and become freelance full-time.

Just shy of 2 years after that, I found myself sitting back in a cube at someone else’s desk.

It wasn’t my technical skills that was at fault here, in fact, even though the startup bubble had popped, there were plenty of jobs out.

What I hadn’t taken into account was all the other things I needed to run a business.

• I lacked sales and marketing skills
• I lacked knowledge around contracts
• I lacked processes and systems to help run a business
• I lacked the knowledge to even know what those should be

I was a developer without a platform to develop on. That being clients.

Sure it was a tough pill to swallow that I failed.

Yes it was a punch to the gut that I had to go find a full-time position.

But it taught me a valuable lesson in taking something that most would see as a failure and learn from it.

I went back to the cube and said, I’m going to let me development skills stay the course but I’m going to ramp up and learn all I can about marketing, sales process, and learn all that I can about the stuff I don’t know about.

And so I did! 4 years later I quit and I’ve been my own boss since.

If you’ve been on this journey you understand the ego bruising. But it’s not a journey that you have to be alone on.

It’s why I’m so passionate about helping other freelancers, developers, designers, marketers through my coaching and Feast.

Your skills are honed, it’s the other things around your awesome skills that need work.

I’ve built a coaching program and built Feast with the pieces of the puzzle that I had to put together. I’ve been lucky enough to have some of the most inspirational and talented folks go through my coaching program and Feast.

Just last week, only after one-month of working together, I had a client (a husband and wife team) land their first client on their monthly services. They had a monthly service, but it was much like all the other maintenance packages you’ll see on the web.

We worked on figuring out how to market to their ideal client, how to present the service offering, and what the backend of the sales process should be.

They had the game plan and executed it perfectly to land a client that before we started, they would’ve needed 10 clients to bring in the revenue per month this one client was.

My passion is really to help folks reach the goals they want to by way of their freelance business.

This client wants to be able to spend time with their kids and build a business that will allow the husband to leave his full-time job and work solely on this business.

That’s my fire, my aim, my goal in life, to help you avoid the struggles and bumps in the road that I went through. To avoid the biggest challenge I had in my business.

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For full show notes, a customized Ask Rezzz playlist, and bonus material, head on over here for it all.
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I put it out there on the interwebs this milestone episode. And thank you to every one who responded and I will answer them all, as you know. But today’s question comes from Cameron in the Sustainable Freelancer Facebook Group.

The simple reason I picked it was because it’s a good window into who I am and maybe you have similar values and realistic ideas of freelancing like myself.

Before I jump into the answer, I just want to say thank you 🙏. #humbled #grateful #gratitude

When I started this show, it was a bit of an experiment, and I only gave it 30 days to see if it had any legs.

Because of you I’ve seen this podcast grow and grow over the past 100 shows and that’s why I’m still here today. So thank you very much for your time each day and support in sharing as well.

With that being said, are you ready to hear my answer?

I had to think about this one for a few days because I could’ve said the standard cheesy responses like:
- I get to be my own boss
- I get to work from home
- I get to work in my pajamas
- I don’t have to sit in traffic for hours on end
- I can goto the beach every day

And while all those things are true, I want to share with you my Top 3 things.

Let’s make this a true countdown and start with number 3.

3. It allows me the freedom and flexibility to explore and learn.

When sitting in a cube, I was essentially forced into doing whatever my boss would tell me to do. I couldn’t explore other creative outlets, try new strategies or technology, or even be myself at times.

Being a freelancer affords me the opportunity to do things like this podcast. To interact with other folks through social media,  go hang out at conferences, and even work with and learn from great people outside of my geographical area.

2. Work when my energy to tackle the task is optimal.

I’m a big fan of working when it’s best for you. There are mundane tasks that you are essentially clicking around a screen that can be done when your energy levels are low, say at the end of the day or week. But there are tasks that require deep work and concentration and require a ton of mental energy.

This is how I structure my day, around my energy levels.

I’m not a morning person, but I know my focus and brain power is at it’s best when I wake up. Makes sense right? So I do all my deep work in the morning. Do the administrative and lower energy tasks at the end of the day.

I apply this to my week as well. Mondays I don’t even take any calls just so I know that I can start the week off getting a ton of work done. Fridays is often my day of calls. I always schedule out my calls and make myself available to clients, but the scheduling allows me to set the window of times when I know that I’m not in the middle of deep work.

1. I’m in business to be with my family.

This really is the best thing about being a freelancer for me and hasn’t been more evident than in the past week.

We signed TJ up for a music class and a gym class. I saw 2 Dads at the gym class and none at the music class and thought that I’m sure they want to be here, but maybe they can’t due to their jobs.

I actually felt a bit sorry for them in that because seeing TJ interact with other people and other kids, seeing him learn and explore things for the very first time, especially those things that as adults we just take for granted, is honestly the best feeling I think I’ve ever had as a human being.

If you are a parent you may know that feeling I’m talking about, it’s something hard for me to put into words. But what I can say is that along with the feelings I have for my wife, it’s what makes my world go ‘round.

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For full show notes, a customized Ask Rezzz playlist, and bonus material, head on over here for it all.
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Setting boundaries around the type of work you do is at the core of what niching down is.

It very much is a mindset that you need to get yourself into.

The best way to force yourself into the mindset is tracking your time with everything.

Even when you think you are just doing that “one-thing” for a client that takes 10 mins, I’d be willing to bet that task took 15 or 20. Which directly eats into the overall profits of the business because that’s not what the client hired you to do.

Specializing your business means to not just focusing on a particular client, but it also means to focus on the type of work you do.

I ran a Twitter poll a few months ago and asked “Who would you rather be? Larry Bird or Danny Ainge?”

It was a landslide victory for Larry Bird at 92%.

I ran this on Instagram as well and Larry won with 100%.

Respect to Danny Ainge, who honed his craft in 2 sports and reach both the NBA and MLB. He played pretty well in both places, but was never the best.

But Larry Bird on the other hand, concentrated all his effort on basketball and became the Hall of Fame legend.

It’s hard for most to set these boundaries. To be profitable and be able to optimize the business processes and be better at pricing, you have to reduce the number of variables in the work.

You do that by setting these boundaries, which really is reducing the scope of work that you do.

Here’s a hint, anytime I heard that a client wants me to go off and use a different technology that they went ahead and signed up for or that they want me to do design or social media work, I picture in my head a stack of money on fire.

As a business owner, I’m sure that you’ve heard the expression “Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean that you should.”

Owners hear especially when they start delegating tasks to other folks.

But it applies very much to this as well.

Sure I can develop in Rails, Java, and work in Infusionsoft and MailChimp. I have in the past, but I decided to stop taking on those projects.

Why?

I’ve found that for the clients I serve, and the solutions they need, WordPress, Drip and ConvertKit has worked better.

Overtime I’ve learned the ins and outs of these platforms and been able to solve problems for clients in ways that even the companies didn’t even know could be done.

Had I not focused on these platforms, chances are good that I wouldn’t have gotten this deep with them.

Let me give you an example, when I was a generalist developer I would spend 3-6 months working on Rails projects, then bounce from those to a custom PHP project for the next 6 months. Then back to a Rails project.

By the time the PHP project was done, often there were new versions of Rails, so I’d have to learn those. Rails was a fast pace technology so there were tons of new gems and bits of software and tools to catch up on.

I would constantly be chasing my tail in this cat and mouse technology race just to keep up. I wouldn’t give myself a chance to dive deep into the inner workings of the technology.

But most importantly to the business, I wasn’t becoming an expert and learning ways of how best to optimize the project builds, the deployments, the project support, and most of all the business itself.

With the constant re-learning of new things, rarely ever did 2 projects go the same way.

Project estimates were not as confident and I was almost forced to charge hourly rates.

Value based pricing always seemed like a far fetched pipe dream that I’d never reach.

Setting the boundaries is easy, but keeping them and not falling back into old habits is hard. 

If you keep falling back, the business won’t move forward, you won’t move forward and your profits will just go up in flames.

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For full show notes, downloads, and bonus material, head on over here for it all.
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If you are looking to grow your freelancing into building an agency, then you want to take steps that put you on the path to that.

If you are looking to grow your freelancing so that you can spend more time at home with family, then you want to take steps to do that.

If you are looking to grow your freelancing in a way that puts you in a position to get bought out, then you want to take steps to do that.

These are just 3 goals business owners have, but the question about scaling your freelance business in each case is very different.

There’s a keyword to the definition of “scale” that is often over looked. “Profitable”

I can’t speak to building an agency or looking to get bought out, but I can speak to wanting to spend more time with my family.

Profitability is the key to the success of any business, not just a point scaling your business.

But when it does come to scaling, there will be an initial investment and cost analysis that has to take place in order grow.

Let me explain what I mean by this.

For me when I look to scale a part of my business, I tend to turn to automation first.

Why?

Because rather than hiring a human that I need to manage, land more projects to support that salary, and essentially put more time into the business.

I can leverage my skills as a developer or leverage tools that exist in the market today to help me automate. This is usually a low-cost or no-cost long-term investment with all the time being spent upfront.

Which on the back-end frees up the time I want to spend with my family.

So initially I’ll have to put some time into:
- documenting the processes
- finding a tool or coding up a solution
- then integrating the automation into the business
- testing
- and finally iterating on that automation as needed

But once that automation is in place, it hums along and frees up time for me to do other things.

Putting that initial time may cost me a bit of profits at first, but after it’s in place for some time and I can see and know it’s working and accomplishing what I need it to accomplish, that’s when the initial investment turns around into more profits.

This is where the danger lies in the word “scale”.

People want to scale first and fast before really knowing if the business can scale.

People hire too fast and then find the business crippled by having to pay salaries. Two examples of this is Brennan Dunn’s and Matt Inglot’s stories.

When thinking about scaling your freelance business, remember why you are doing freelance in the first place. Having that focus in front of you and making sure that profits are taken into account, will help you in deciding how to scale your business.

As someone who has always said that I’d rather be the guy in the coffin than the person saying the eulogy, improving my communication and confidence in public has been a journey and still very much is to this day.

But if I can get up there in front of a room of 70+ people in NYC and talk, I know you can too.

1. Find a mentor

This may sound a bit out of left field, but find someone who’s a little bit further down the career path than you are right now.

Having a mentor that knows exactly the path your are will help you with confidence and being able to relay the proper message to your audience.

They can share their experiences with you, the pitfalls they fell into so you can avoid them as well as things that they’ve done that have worked well.

Since they are knowledgable in your field too, a mentor can also give you mock scenarios for you to practice and get more comfortable with the types of conversations and speaking that you’ll have to do in public.

2. Talk to 5 people

During any given day, when you see someone, anyone, passing by, smile and just talk with them by asking a question.

Simple question like “I really like your shoes, where’d you get them?” Or “Love the hat, where’d you get it?”

Simple, quick, and then move on.

3. Genuinely want to help and be curious

Confidence comes from knowing the subject matter. As a human, it’s our natural tendency for being curious and wanting to help others.

Communication is a 2-way street, so instead of thinking what you are going to say next when the other person is talking, listen to them.

Ask them “how did you feel about that?”

Ask them “why do you think that is?”

Be curious.

Being helpful is easy especially since you are the expert in the thing you know most about in the room.

A trick I learned early on is pretend I’m speaking about my topic to my Grandma. How could I make it such that she would understand the topic.

I don’t dumb it down, but I start with the basics and assume nothing.

4. Get out from behind the desk

This goes without saying, you have to interact human-to-human. Get out, grab lunch with people. Go to a meet up and interact with some folks.

Remember those 5 people you have to ask them about their hat, in order to see 5 people you need to leave your desk behind.

5. Speak at meet ups first

Communication and confidence in public come by way of practice. First head out to meet ups that are relevant to you. Then after attending a few of them, if they have speakers, ask the organizer if you can speak about your topic.

Meetups range in sizes obviously, but speaking to a small audience would allow you to gain confidence quickly.

It will cause you anxiety, I know, but once you are in your groove up there talking to 15, 25, maybe 50 people, you’ll start to feel as though you are talking to one.

I know this because I’ve been there, done that.

The confidence comes after you are done. When people come up to you and talk and interact once your talk is over. Some will just say “thanks” and that’ll build confidence for you.

For full show notes, downloads, and bonus material, head on over here for it all. 

When thinking about this question, every time I’ve gone through the process of niching down my business or thinking about adding a new service to my business or exploring a new opportunity, I tend to do the same thing each and every time that I know will help.

And so because I want to share with you only stuff that’s of value, I did a bit of searching around first.

I’m still shocked by the amount of bad advice that’s floating around on the internet. 

When I put this question in Google, articles that come up were still spouting the terrible advice about

• Doing free work just to build up your portfolio
• Learn a new skill to “diversify your skill-base and make you more valuable”
• Attend local business networking events

The reason this is terrible advice is because this is old school thinking. This is the stuff that I did because I read it was the way!

Know where that landed me? Back sitting at a desk in a cube once and then almost again for a second time.

Remember it’s your first steps into freelancing so you have to keep it simple to start.

Stick to the stuff you know because there are many things that you don’t know at this very early stage of your career.

This is your job now!

It’s a job that you want to grow.

It’s a job that you want to be able to live life the way you want.

It’s a job that you need to take serious and make money from.

With that in mind, I’ve found that there are 3 things you should do when starting out freelancing or adding new services to your existing freelance business.

1. Make money
2. Leverage skills you have
3. Figure out your worth

Just like a baby taking their first steps, clear the path of any and all obstacles.

Keep it simple!

In this episode I give you permission to suck, we all suck when we start something new. But with these things in mind, you'll know quickly if your new thing is viable and something you can be good at.

For full show notes, downloads, and bonus material, head on over here for it all. 

The real short answer here is that it’s extremely viable!

The first question to ask is what is a front-end web developer and the skills needed for one.

Without getting into the weeds too much here, the main role of a front-end web developer is to get the visual elements to actually work on the website. Essentially to turn the design into functional elements.

You’ll need a skillset of HTML, CSS, Javascript, some design skills, knowledge around the browsers, and other frameworks to just start out.

I’m not going to say it’s going to be an easy road because there are plenty of front-end developers out there, but there are plenty of jobs to be done as well.

Sure you can go onto job boards like Upwork and such, but I have never had to do that in my career.

Plus I don’t know about you, but I’m not to fond of someone taking a big bite from my bottom line just because they made a connection for me.

Don’t get me wrong, finder’s fees are warranted. I’m just not comfortable in having someone else control the flow of money into my business and handling all the communication I have with clients.

Before going directly to job boards, I would look around at a few different communities first.

1. Hacker News

Every single month they have a thread there that has businesses looking for freelancers to do projects and you can post that you are available for projects.

Hacker News is a community that’s full of folks building businesses and what do businesses need? Websites, folks to handle parts of building those websites.

2. Look in communities where you can find startups

There’s a plethora of business communities out there that have founders looking to launch their next thing. Making some connections in and around those communities is a way to land a few projects.

With all the various Javascript frameworks like React, Angular, jQuery, Node, etc if you have one or more of those skills, it should be easy to find a community, if you aren’t in one already based on that where other people may be looking to partner up on projects.

3. Goto a local meet up

Meetup.com is an awesome place to find local business owners who meet with other likeminded people. Making some local connections in those events can be a gold mine.

Especially if you live in a large city, you can easily attend a meetup that has 35-70 people and find someone or 3 who’s looking for help on a project.

Yes, there’s a lot of competition out there in the space, but with a tiny bit of hustle and being a little creative in where you can find work, you’ll soon realize that being a front-end web developer is definitely viable.

For full show notes, downloads, and bonus material, head on over here for it all. 

I talk a lot about finding your niche.

I help freelancers personally through Feast and Coaching on finding their niche.

But the other day, I had a cup-of-coffee call with a person off my email list. If you haven’t heard about those before, I randomly pick 4 people every month off my email list and send out a link to schedule a 15-minute chat.

This person asked me how I went about niching down.

And I’m not sure I actually ever spoke about my feelings leading up to it in depth before publicly, so here ya go.
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For full show notes, downloads, and bonus material, head on over here for it all.