Im currently working hard to get readership as well as build certain models up on my site to a certain level.

I think if you can prepare yourself before you go full swing into it, you will achieve greater success.

Thanks for all the kind comments too everyone!

I admit that I’m one of those freelancers with the “Do it all myself” mentality (lol). However I’m quickly getting over this as it is taking me away from those things I really want to do which is write and design. Thanks for the wonderful information you provide in this blog, Yaro.

I am a graphic design and applied arts student trying to figure out how to make a living when I leave school in 18 months. I have applied just a few of your techniques to my blog and although I’ve only had it a few weeks, and it is in an obscure super-niche I have seen steady traffic growth. I appreciate the gift of information you have provided and can’t wait till you release Blog Mastermind subscriptions.cheers Gregg

I’ve never been a freelancer myself and i completely agree with the comment you made saying “hiring experts”… that is a universal truth but a lot of people with the “freelance mentality” usually think that they can “Do it all themselves.” There is no harm in asking for help i’ve found. Besides you can only be great at so many things so why suffer with the majority of things you really cannot do well enough?

Great Posting as usual Yaro!

Luc

Most experts are not in it just for the money, they actually enjoy working with people and helping others.

The thing to realize is that at some point you will no longer want to take on any personal work and focus on pure passive income.

With that in mind a freelancer needs to either create products instead of sell services or hire other freelancers/businesses to provide the services.

The problem with hiring is you then move away from doing the work to project managing the work, which is something else you could outsource, but we are talking about an ever increasing need for more people and HR costs and you may not have the margins to cover this extra expense.

I prefer the products path myself, but for the time being I’m very keen to consult too so I can gather more market intelligence and learn what the specific problems of my clients are.

Also, it’s important to consider asset value when going through this process. Creating products in a sales funnel that runs without you personally providing any expertise (a sales funnel still requires people for customer service, technology etc, but these roles are easier to outsource than an expertise based skill like consulting) means you create a sellable asset.

What you want ideally is a system that is not dependent on your personal input to create profits. Once you have that you can keep consulting personally if you want to, but you also have an exit strategy.

The less systems you have in place the less valuable your business is and this is a lesson that applies equally to freelancers.

I think Yaro’s sales funnel is great for info products, but it’s actually a little bit different for service based items (ie: freelancing).

We use the sales funnel to track how close the prospects are to making a purchase. For example, they might go from “Qualification” to “Needs Analysis” to “Proposal” to “Negotiation” to “Informal Respose” to “Closed”.

It’s not about upselling but it’s making sure that the prospect is 1) either moving through the sales funnel or 2) taken out of the sales funnel. We found it to be one of the best ways to minimize our time on prospects who aren’t going to become clients – sort of adhering to the 80/20 rule.

Now, once we sell the client and deliver the service, we often create a campaign to offer other services. For example, if you do site designs, you might then offer to create a newsletter, a shopping cart, SEO, PPC, etc.

So once you sell the client and deliver the service, you move them out of your sales funnel into an “upsell” funnel. And in that case, you can start offerring the services you have. It’s just a little different from info products because different clients have different needs. It’s much harder to automate like info products are.

Thanks,
Jim

As my health prevents me to go back to work (like godhn) and my intentions was *not* to go back to ‘freelance writing’ full-time, I came back online with a new time management system that I keep too verbatim. I try to freelance only 20% of my time, as I work on my online biz.

Here is my system.

I think what Yaro does is a system I try hard to emulate, Jason. As my goal is to ultimately unveil a membership mentoring program, and infoproducts (audios, ebooks, video-clips) can be packaged and resold to share “how-to” do things within your freelance work, rather than doing the freelance work. You also get more serious clientele, willing to pay for your services at premium rates, etc.

I’m always eager to read/hear what Yaro has to add…

Here’s a question I have been thinking a lot about lately…

How do internet entrepreneurs effectively incorporate “freelance-type” activities into their sales funnels?

Consulting is a common example. If a person runs a website about fitness and then sells information products at a variety of price points, wouldn’t the top backend product be personal consulting and/or coaching?

Although that backend product requires direct time, the entrepreneur can charge unbelievably high rates to attract the best clientele and automatically turn anyone else back to the lower-end products.

What do you think?

-Jason

I had an offline conversation with Yaro about freelancing, which inspired a recent post that I had on the subject as well.

I think we’re on the same page when it comes to freelancing and whether it’s really the same as running a business.

http://www.lazyowner.com/why-the-lazy-business-owner-should-avoid-freelancing/

Again, another great post – I think you’ve just summed up EXACTLY why I feel angry and constrained. I’m “self employed” rather than a business owner, and it’s hard work.

My health situation prevents me from “giving up” and getting a proper job, so the time has come for action!

I shall follow your ideas, and hopefully things will improve!

Thanks,

godhn

Remember much of confidence is just a mindset!

What a timely post! I’ve been trying to make my freelancing become a real business by working on those impeding activities via outsourcing and all. Although I haven’t reached that level of getting confident enough with the current status of my freelancing/business, I’m struggling to get there.

Thanks for this motivating post.