By Gareth Butler
In December 2004 I got made redundant and made the decision to become self employed. I started with no industry contacts (had been too busy being pulled in all directions in my full time job to meet anyone else in the industry!). I only had enough cash in the bank to last me a couple of weeks. I didn\'t know anyone else who was doing what I wanted to do.
Today, just 18 months later, I have around 20 clients, a fully booked schedule for the next five months, I work all over the world from London, to Chicago, Europe and Hong Kong. I have over six months months worth of cash stashed in the bank, all the money for my next tax bill accruing interest in another bank account, and no debt. I\'m invoicing around $10,000 each month -- over 2.5 times what I used to earn full time.
And I have to say -- going from full time to freelance was one of the easiest things I\'ve done in my life. I\'m kicking myself for not doing it sooner. My life has improved immeasurably in so many ways.
Here are my four key rules of freelancing that have worked so well for me.
GO OUT AND FIND CONTACTS
No one will offer you work if they don\'t know you exist! Marketing yourself is probably the most important part of my success. Remember, when I started I had no contacts in the industry at all. I had to make them all from scratch -- and fast, before I ran out of money.
I started by going to my local reference library and finding a directory of companies in the industry I\'m in. This didn\'t cost me a penny. I made a note of all the company names and websites I could find. There was about 400 in total. I checked out the website of each company to check they did the work I wanted to do, and whether they would need the services I was selling.
The next step was the hard bit. I phoned every company on my list to make contact with decision makers.
This strategy came from an excellent book called The Well Fed Writer at www.wellfedwriter.com. I thoroughly recommend you visit this website and buy the book, even if you don\'t plan on becoming a writer (which I\'m not). The author, Pete Bowerman, has some excellent advice for striking out on your own. My marketing plan was based on the advice he gives in his book.
It was hard at first. I felt really nervous picking up the phone, speaking to strangers and begging for work! On the very first call I made, the person shouted rudely down the phone at me! A great start! But he was the only unpleasant person I spoke too. Without exception, the other 399 companies were interested to hear from me, even the handful whose business was slightly different that I thought and had no real need for my service.
When I phoned, I had a pre-written script that I read out. It introduced me as a freelancer, gave a bit of detail about my past experience (which was very, very little), and asked if they were interested in the service I was offering. Normally the person would ask a bit more, such as details of who else I\'d worked for, how much I charged per day, and so on. Nothing tricky. And by the end of the 400 calls, I knew all my answers off by heart.
At the end of the call I\'d get my contact\'s name and e-mail address, then send them an e-mail straight away with my own contact details, then go straight on to the next call.
I made about 30 calls per day, which took between one and two hours. Thinking back, I know I could have done a lot more each day. But the important thing is that I did it. And the phone calls I made have laid the foundation for my successful freelance career. I still get calls today from that original round of 400 calls.
MARKET YOURSELF CONTINUOUSLY
People\'s memory is very fickle. If you don\'t remind them you exist, you\'ll slip out of their mind! That\'s why the marketing is an on-going process, not just a one-off week or so of calling.
I send out a short, monthly e-mail listing my availability to clients I\'ve worked for in the past 18 months. Normally, right after sending the e-mail, I\'ll get calls asking me to go and work. It\'s that easy.
Every three or four months I send another e-mail out to the people I haven\'t worked for but made contact with on the phone. I remind them of what I do again, and give them all my contact details. I normally pick up a new client or two every time I send this e-mail out.
I haven\'t made any calls in about six months. My diary is pretty much full for the next few months. But if I knew I had a quiet day coming up, I\'d prepare a new list of contacts in advance to call and start the process over again. I now know that this method of marketing works amazingly well and wouldn\'t hesitate to repeat it.
The mistake many people make is to stop marketing themselves, especially when they\'re busy. But that\'s exactly the time you should be doing it. You need to continuously remind people you exist -- then one day you\'ll be in the right time, at the right place and they\'ll pick up the phone and book you.
MANAGE YOUR MONEY CAREFULLY
One of the best parts about freelancing, for me, is the way it forces you to manage your money more carefully. Pretty soon, you\'re going to have to pay that big tax bill, or your income one month will vary massively from the other month. You must manage your money with care.
A great idea that\'s worked for me is to have different bank accounts for different expenses. I have five. One for my business income, one for my personal expenses (mortgage, electric, water, and general groceries), a savings account for tax money, another savings account to act as a living expenses \"buffer\", and a third savings account I use for a rainy day.
I also have a credit card to pay for all my business-related expenses. It helps with my cash flow -- I buy items on the card, then pay it off when the invoice comes in.
The key is to make the system automatic.
When a client pays an invoice, I split the money out five different ways. First, I pay off the expenses for that job to my credit card. That leaves me with my profit for the job. I put 30% of my profit straight into my tax account which just sits there, gaining interest, until my tax bill is due at the end of the year. 55% of my profits goes into my living expenses \"buffer\". More about that in a second. The final 15% profits goes into my rainy day savings account -- money which will just sit there until I need it in an emergency, or maybe for a holiday, or to treat myself to a new MacBook Pro!
At the end of each month, it\'s my pay day. I transfer the money I need for the month from my \"buffer\" savings account to my current account. That way, I only have easy access to a set amount of money for the month, the money in my current account -- I can\'t spend all the money I\'ve been paid. There\'s six months living expenses in the buffer -- more than enough to account for the varied ebb and flow of work you experience as a freelancer.
By the way, when I started I only had a few weeks worth of cash in hand, which I knew wasn\'t enough. So I applied to my bank for a small loan which would last me for four months, enough, I figured, to get started. I\'ve since paid that start-up loan off and have saved up enough cash using this technique that I have no money worries. I could live my standard of living for six months before I ran out of money. Something would have to be seriously wrong for that to happen. And, if it did, six months is more than enough time to sort something else out. Being a freelancer is a far more secure position than full-time employment.
MAKE PEOPLE\'S LIVES EASIER
Remember why people give you work. Because you\'re there to make their lives easier.
If you start making excuses for not doing work, such as not having the right computer, the right software, not being in the right frame of mind, not having enough time, then clients won\'t ask you back.
Don\'t complain if their brief sucks -- ask the right questions to get the answers you need. Don\'t complain if your time span is too short -- find a way to make it happen. Don\'t complain if you\'ve got 101 things to do that day -- get done what\'s important for your client. Stop complaining, just solve your client\'s problem.
A successful freelancer keeps makes client\'s lives easier. That is they key to getting repeat work. If you do that, you\'ll have a queue of people lining up to hire you.
18 MONTHS ON
I started marketing myself in January 2005. In March that year, I invoiced 150% what I would have made if I\'d still be full time. Now I\'m invoicing 250% regularly. This year I\'ll make over $100k I have a long list of clients who have begged me to go and work for them. I have had the pleasure of turning down maybe 10 full time job offers since being freelance. I travel the world, and get paid handsomely for it. Freelancing has changed my life for the better. I can\'t believe I didn\'t do it sooner! I wish you all the best with your freelance adventure and hope this article will prove useful.
In December 2004 I got made redundant and made the decision to become self employed. I started with no industry contacts (had been too busy being pulled in all directions in my full time job to meet anyone else in the industry!). I only had enough cash in the bank to last me a couple of weeks. I didn\'t know anyone else who was doing what I wanted to do.
Today, just 18 months later, I have around 20 clients, a fully booked schedule for the next five months, I work all over the world from London, to Chicago, Europe and Hong Kong. I have over six months months worth of cash stashed in the bank, all the money for my next tax bill accruing interest in another bank account, and no debt. I\'m invoicing around $10,000 each month -- over 2.5 times what I used to earn full time.
And I have to say -- going from full time to freelance was one of the easiest things I\'ve done in my life. I\'m kicking myself for not doing it sooner. My life has improved immeasurably in so many ways.
Here are my four key rules of freelancing that have worked so well for me.
GO OUT AND FIND CONTACTS
No one will offer you work if they don\'t know you exist! Marketing yourself is probably the most important part of my success. Remember, when I started I had no contacts in the industry at all. I had to make them all from scratch -- and fast, before I ran out of money.
I started by going to my local reference library and finding a directory of companies in the industry I\'m in. This didn\'t cost me a penny. I made a note of all the company names and websites I could find. There was about 400 in total. I checked out the website of each company to check they did the work I wanted to do, and whether they would need the services I was selling.
The next step was the hard bit. I phoned every company on my list to make contact with decision makers.
This strategy came from an excellent book called The Well Fed Writer at www.wellfedwriter.com. I thoroughly recommend you visit this website and buy the book, even if you don\'t plan on becoming a writer (which I\'m not). The author, Pete Bowerman, has some excellent advice for striking out on your own. My marketing plan was based on the advice he gives in his book.
It was hard at first. I felt really nervous picking up the phone, speaking to strangers and begging for work! On the very first call I made, the person shouted rudely down the phone at me! A great start! But he was the only unpleasant person I spoke too. Without exception, the other 399 companies were interested to hear from me, even the handful whose business was slightly different that I thought and had no real need for my service.
When I phoned, I had a pre-written script that I read out. It introduced me as a freelancer, gave a bit of detail about my past experience (which was very, very little), and asked if they were interested in the service I was offering. Normally the person would ask a bit more, such as details of who else I\'d worked for, how much I charged per day, and so on. Nothing tricky. And by the end of the 400 calls, I knew all my answers off by heart.
At the end of the call I\'d get my contact\'s name and e-mail address, then send them an e-mail straight away with my own contact details, then go straight on to the next call.
I made about 30 calls per day, which took between one and two hours. Thinking back, I know I could have done a lot more each day. But the important thing is that I did it. And the phone calls I made have laid the foundation for my successful freelance career. I still get calls today from that original round of 400 calls.
MARKET YOURSELF CONTINUOUSLY
People\'s memory is very fickle. If you don\'t remind them you exist, you\'ll slip out of their mind! That\'s why the marketing is an on-going process, not just a one-off week or so of calling.
I send out a short, monthly e-mail listing my availability to clients I\'ve worked for in the past 18 months. Normally, right after sending the e-mail, I\'ll get calls asking me to go and work. It\'s that easy.
Every three or four months I send another e-mail out to the people I haven\'t worked for but made contact with on the phone. I remind them of what I do again, and give them all my contact details. I normally pick up a new client or two every time I send this e-mail out.
I haven\'t made any calls in about six months. My diary is pretty much full for the next few months. But if I knew I had a quiet day coming up, I\'d prepare a new list of contacts in advance to call and start the process over again. I now know that this method of marketing works amazingly well and wouldn\'t hesitate to repeat it.
The mistake many people make is to stop marketing themselves, especially when they\'re busy. But that\'s exactly the time you should be doing it. You need to continuously remind people you exist -- then one day you\'ll be in the right time, at the right place and they\'ll pick up the phone and book you.
MANAGE YOUR MONEY CAREFULLY
One of the best parts about freelancing, for me, is the way it forces you to manage your money more carefully. Pretty soon, you\'re going to have to pay that big tax bill, or your income one month will vary massively from the other month. You must manage your money with care.
A great idea that\'s worked for me is to have different bank accounts for different expenses. I have five. One for my business income, one for my personal expenses (mortgage, electric, water, and general groceries), a savings account for tax money, another savings account to act as a living expenses \"buffer\", and a third savings account I use for a rainy day.
I also have a credit card to pay for all my business-related expenses. It helps with my cash flow -- I buy items on the card, then pay it off when the invoice comes in.
The key is to make the system automatic.
When a client pays an invoice, I split the money out five different ways. First, I pay off the expenses for that job to my credit card. That leaves me with my profit for the job. I put 30% of my profit straight into my tax account which just sits there, gaining interest, until my tax bill is due at the end of the year. 55% of my profits goes into my living expenses \"buffer\". More about that in a second. The final 15% profits goes into my rainy day savings account -- money which will just sit there until I need it in an emergency, or maybe for a holiday, or to treat myself to a new MacBook Pro!
At the end of each month, it\'s my pay day. I transfer the money I need for the month from my \"buffer\" savings account to my current account. That way, I only have easy access to a set amount of money for the month, the money in my current account -- I can\'t spend all the money I\'ve been paid. There\'s six months living expenses in the buffer -- more than enough to account for the varied ebb and flow of work you experience as a freelancer.
By the way, when I started I only had a few weeks worth of cash in hand, which I knew wasn\'t enough. So I applied to my bank for a small loan which would last me for four months, enough, I figured, to get started. I\'ve since paid that start-up loan off and have saved up enough cash using this technique that I have no money worries. I could live my standard of living for six months before I ran out of money. Something would have to be seriously wrong for that to happen. And, if it did, six months is more than enough time to sort something else out. Being a freelancer is a far more secure position than full-time employment.
MAKE PEOPLE\'S LIVES EASIER
Remember why people give you work. Because you\'re there to make their lives easier.
If you start making excuses for not doing work, such as not having the right computer, the right software, not being in the right frame of mind, not having enough time, then clients won\'t ask you back.
Don\'t complain if their brief sucks -- ask the right questions to get the answers you need. Don\'t complain if your time span is too short -- find a way to make it happen. Don\'t complain if you\'ve got 101 things to do that day -- get done what\'s important for your client. Stop complaining, just solve your client\'s problem.
A successful freelancer keeps makes client\'s lives easier. That is they key to getting repeat work. If you do that, you\'ll have a queue of people lining up to hire you.
18 MONTHS ON
I started marketing myself in January 2005. In March that year, I invoiced 150% what I would have made if I\'d still be full time. Now I\'m invoicing 250% regularly. This year I\'ll make over $100k I have a long list of clients who have begged me to go and work for them. I have had the pleasure of turning down maybe 10 full time job offers since being freelance. I travel the world, and get paid handsomely for it. Freelancing has changed my life for the better. I can\'t believe I didn\'t do it sooner! I wish you all the best with your freelance adventure and hope this article will prove useful.
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