Double Your Freelancing Podcast

Today’s guest on the Business of Freelancing Podcast is Trajan King. I wanted to talk with Trajan because he has a consulting business built with a focus on having processes and procedures in place. As Trajan tells us, think about processes and standard operating procedures only if you want to be efficient and make money, if that’s not important to you, then don’t worry about having processes. Trajan starts by recommending two books to a new entrepreneur, E-Myth Revisited and The Goal. We talk about the importance of understanding all aspects of your business, even the parts you don’t really like. Understanding all aspects gives you credibility to your clients as well as any employees you may be hiring. When you are thinking about the processes of your business, Trajan says the lifeblood is the financial aspect. We discuss the financial details you should be looking at to to keep your business healthy. Trajan also takes us through the importance of a sales funnel as it goes from leads through the entire sales process. We also have some tips on how to train new employees that will give you credibility without making the task cumbersome. You can reach out to Trajan on his website invinciblestartup.com. He offers a variety of resources for education and mentorship and it’s a full community of entrepreneurs. You can also hit him up on Twitter @trajanking. A reminder that I will soon begin producing a daily question and answer podcast, called Freelance Answers. I’ll answer your questions and talk about a variety of topics that come up in my discussions with readers of the blog. You can find out more about the new show at doubleyourfreelancing.com/answers. If you have any guest suggestions for the podcast, please let me know at doubleyourfreelancing.com If you liked today’s podcast, please leave a review for the show in iTunes. I’m trying to get listed in new and noteworthy on iTunes and would appreciate your help!

This is the Business of Freelancing Podcast, Episode 29. Today we’ll discuss a number of thoughts related to hiring subcontractors. My guest is coach, advisor, project manager and author Marcus Blankenship. If you’ve ever found yourself in the position of needing to hire and manage others, then this podcast will definitely resonate. I’m very close to launching my new daily question and answer podcast/YouTube show, called Freelance Answers. This will be a great way to share the questions that a lot of you have asked and delve into a variety of topics that come up in my discussions with readers of the blog. You can find out more about the new show and submit your questions at doubleyourfreelancing.com/answers. Stay tuned to my newsletter to find out when the new show will be released. At one time I thought that when it came to hiring subcontractors all you really needed to do was hire smart people. It’s actually not that easy. The idea of a self-managing employee is a fallacy and puts very unrealistic expectations on the person you hire. There are some ways to set up yourself and your subcontractor to succeed: Be realistic about communication. When hiring you will need to explain in great detail what you need. It is impossible to over-communicate. We outline some ways that you and your subcontractors can communicate on a very frequent basis. Answer your subcontractor’s questions quickly. Know that you might have to face a client who questions having a subcontractor do their work instead of you. We discuss some ways to handle those situations. You are the person who assumes all risk and you are responsible for reviewing the work before it gets to the client. Give feedback. This is an important subject and we discuss how that feedback needs to be delivered. Marcus has outstanding coaching experience and tons of great ideas. You can connect with him on his website at marcusblankenship.com. If you liked today’s podcast, could I please nudge you into a review leave a review for the show in iTunes? If you have any suggestions or thoughts about the show, please contact me on my website at doubleyourfreelancing.com/contact.

Welcome to the Business of Freelancing Podcast. My guest today is Double Your Freelancing student Matt Olpinski. I’m very excited to announce that in addition to this show I’m going to soon begin producing a daily question and answer podcast, called Freelance Answers. This will be a great way to share the questions that a lot of you have and show the variety of topics that come up in my discussions with readers of the blog. Stay tuned to the podcast and my newsletter to find out more about the show as it prepares to go live. When we spoke, Matt was preparing for his last day of work at his job and his first day of full time freelancing. Matt designs custom web and mobile solutions that grow startups and small businesses. While he worked as a freelancer through college and beyond, Matt now finds himself in the position of a full time freelancer. Aside from his regular job, Matt has done a number of freelance projects through the years. He said he hit an eventual plateau with outside jobs. He then checked out my website, and read over some of my material that helped him realize that he could be doing a whole lot better by changing his positioning a little. That led to a redesign of his website, which then led to a huge influx of new work. Matt said it became a matter of how he presented his information and letting the client know what he could do for their business. We talked about the importance of having a foundation for your business and how that helped Matt set up the pipeline for additional work. Also, blog posts and other information you put on your website can lead to getting clients. If they’ve read what you posted and look at you as the expert in the field, they’ll be more likely to consider hiring you when they need your services. In addition to his freelance work, Matt has plans for the future which include e-books for people who are looking to hire freelancers, growing his current newsletter and continuing his blog posts. When I asked Matt what he was the most afraid of and most excited for as he takes the full-time freelance plunge, his answer was the same for both and he explains why. To stay in touch with Matt head over to mattolpinski.com and sign up for his monthly newsletter, or hit him up on Twitter @MattOlpinski. If you liked today’s podcast, I would appreciate if you could please leave a review for the show in iTunes.

Welcome to the latest episode of the Business of Freelancing Podcast. My guest is Jeff Steinmann, author of the book How to Quit Working which can be found, along with other services he offers, on his website howtoquitworking.com . First, a reminder to sign up for ticket information for my event, The Business of Freelancing Conference . The show will be September 16-18 in Norfolk, VA. Sign up now to be notified when tickets go on sale. I’m very excited about the speakers that are lined up for this event! Jeff Steinmann planned to quit his banking job in 2001, but rather than walk away, he went back to his desk. The idea of working for himself resurfaced and in 2012, he began working on his own as a marketing consultant. In two years, he turned his book and podcast into a 6-figure coaching business. In our interview Jeff talks about the mental steps he took to enable him to start his own business. He believes the key skill you need to go into a freelance opportunity is to be able to take what you do and translate that into something that is meaningful to a client. Jeff says small business owners value somebody who can talk in terms they understand and can ask the right questions to understand the details of what they need. We discuss the best path for going forward into full time freelance work. Jeff believes it’s important to decide where you will specialize and set yourself apart. Determine what attribute makes you unique to your potential client. It can be difficult to get clients when you are first starting. I believe that a potential client can be your former boss because not only do you know the business but your boss may be looking at easing transition costs. Jeff thinks it’s a good idea to start conversations with people in your personal network and then move toward networking events in your neighborhood. Jeff’s final tip deals with understanding how to close the gap between how little your potential employer cares about what you do and how much they care about getting their problem solved. You can reach out to Jeff on howtoquitworking.com or on Twitter @JeffSteinmann. If you like today’s podcast, I would really appreciate you taking just a minute to leave a review for the show in iTunes.

Welcome to another episode of the Business of Freelancing Podcast. First I'd like to recognize a few recent 5-star reviews for the show. Much thanks goes to: sporkitover, rickwolf, justin_mw, jeff at ecoommercewarriors, ourumov7, kellyIriye for their reviews in iTunes. Keep those reviews coming. It's a great way for me to know that the show is resonating with you and bringing you the resources that you're looking for. The Business of Freelancing Conference tickets will be on sale soon. The show will be September 16-18 in Norfolk, VA. Sign up to get notified when tickets go on sale. I am really excited and honored when I look at the speaker lineup. We have the best from several industries to come share their knowledge with you at the conference. Today I have John Sonmez on the show with me. John describes himself as a "Life coach for software developers". Starting a few years ago he built more than 7 days of course work on Pluralsight, which allowed him to quit his day job and ramp up his educational portfolio. John also quickly realized there was nobody focusing specifically on lifestyle coaching for software developers, and decided to focus his efforts entirely on that. John and I talk about the power of creating content that comes directly from the questions that customers ask of you. Talking to a broader audience is so much more powerful than directly speaking to an individual. Marketing is the conversion of those conversations into an evergreen piece that "build the bricks" in your content machine. To brige the gap between creating content and converting those fans into customers or referrals to other customers John says his go to is his email list. And the best way to build a high quality email list is through email courses. John says that his most valuable business asset is his email list, because of how often you can have a conversation with those members of your audience. Lastly, to leave you with actionable takeaways from the show John has a challenge. In the comments below for this episode, let us know what action you took to create and update your blog. John will be monitoring the comments here and will pick one of the comments and send you a signed copy of Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual. Also, go to DevCareerBoost.com and use coupon code "DYF" to get $100 off our course on how to market yourself as a developer and move your career to a whole new level. You can find out more about John over on his blog at SimpleProgrammer.com, or on Twitter @jsonmez. John also runs two podcasts: Entreprogrammers which is a recording of his weekly mastermind group. And Get Up and Code talks more to the personal side of being a programmer and entrepreneur.

Welcome to another episode of the Business of Freelancing Podcast. This week I am joined by my good friend Jonathan Stark. Jonathan is a mobile strategy consultant, having worked with flagship brands such as CVS, Staples, Time, and Nokia. Today Jonathan also focuses on helping other freelancers get the most out of their businesses by promoting the same value based approach to their agencies that I support. Today Jonathan and I get a chance to dig in to some of the details around how to approach problems of creating a culture of value based pricing within your agency and how to win with a fixed price model versus your competitors who will often be delivering lower priced bids than you. This is achieved through the risk mitigation of your proposal in the client's eyes. Finally, Jonathan and I talk through how to manage scope creep, change orders by customers, and seemingly micromanagement of customers in the details of your work. Jonathan was kind enough to offer an exclusive discount on his coaching services, just for DYF listeners. To get over $500 off his one-on-one coaching programs go to expensiveproblem.com/dyf You can learn more about Jonathan on his agency site at JonathanStark.com, check out his podcast with co-host Kelli Shaver, or contact him directly on Twitter @JonathanStark. Also, I am very excited to announce that the Double Your Freelancing Conference has been formally announced. Subscribers of my newsletter got first word of it in this week's edition. We are tentatively scheduled for the event to be in my home town of Norfolk, VA on September 17-18. Guest speakers will include Kai Davis, Brian Casel, Allan Branch, Ed Gandia, Jonathan Stark, Kurt Elster, Mojca Mars, Nathan Barry, Philip Morgan, Sarah Bray, and Steli Efti. To find out more about the conference head over to doubleyourfreelancing.com/conf/ If you enjoyed the show today, and these types of interviews, please head over to iTunes and leave a review for the show. It helps the show get more visibility in the Freelancing space and allows me to bring great guests on the show to help build up your freelancing business.

This week on the Business of Freelancing Podcast I am very pleased to welcome Ed Gandia to the show. Ed is the “go-to” guy when it comes to high end freelance writing. In a time where commoditized writing is far too frequent, Ed has mastered finding a niche for yourself and selecting only those clients who will receive immense value from your services. International Freelancers Academy is a podcast that Ed has created to help freelancers increase their value to the market and find higher paying clients. Ed also writes on how to specialize in High Income Business Writing at B2blauncher.com. You can reach out to Ed directly on Twitter @EdGandia or on his website at B2BLauncher.com. As a side note, I am putting together a conference for this fall that will be exclusively on freelancers. It will be a small, very focused conference. Details for the conference will be coming soon. To stay up to date with it make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter. If you enjoyed the show today, I would really appreciate you taking just a minute to leave a review for the show in iTunes. It would really mean a lot.

Today I talk with my good friend Kurt Elster on how he has 8x his Revenue by Niching Down into a specialized market. Kurt has turned from a generalized web developer into a Shopify specialist, and in the process he has catapulted his business to a whole new level. To begin with, Kurt lays out a framework he follows that is necessary to specialize. He believes you need 3 things to specialize in a market: Audience Benefit Technology To cater to a range of audience needs Kurt has created both a productized services business around Shopify optimization called Website Rescue, and a consulting business to help customers get the most out of their e-commerce stores named EtherCycle. Kurt has used this approach to be featured on the Shopify website as one of their official experts, and is currently writing a book that helps take people past their initial crowdfunding experience and into the world of e-commerce. You can find out more about Kurt and his services over at Website Rescues and EtherCycle. You can reach out to Kurt on Twitter @kurtinc.

Today I sit down for a chat with Philip Morgan of Philip Morgan Consulting and My Content Sherpa to talk about positioning yourself appropriately as a freelancer in a market, and his new book, "The Positioning Manual for Technical Firms". Philip is an expert on helping freelancers position themselves in a niche that is a good fit for their skills, goals, and ambitions. In this show we talk all about what Positioning is, how to identify a good niche to Position yourself in, and how effective Positioning will allow you to charge higher rates, say NO to customers easier, and reach new levels in your freelancing business. A Few Memorable Quotes From This Episode: "You need to pick expensive problems if you want to pick a profitable niche" ~ Philip "No one else but you determines the price of your services" ~ Brennan To get more resources on Positioning and enter to win a Free copy of Philip's new book, "The Positioning Manual for Technical Firms", head over to bitly.com/pmcbof. You can learn more about Philip's new book at PhilipMorganConsulting.com or connect with him on Twitter @Philip_Morgan If you enjoyed the show today, I would really appreciate you taking just a minute to leave a review for the show in iTunes. It would really mean a lot.

TRANSCRIPT AND NOTES AVAILABLE HERE: http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/productizedservices/ Have you ever wanted to get away from strictly selling your time for money? Is your long term plan to either escape consulting altogether (through something like bootstrapping your own products) or to remove yourself as a part of your "product"? Sooner or later, almost all of us get to this point. We want more control and creative input into the work we provide our clients. Productizing yourself is one of the best ways to do that. It allows you to dictate what you're selling, what your customers get, and what it costs in a way that traditional services companies aren't able to do. In this episode, I sat down with Brian Casel of Restaurant Engine and Productize.