Double Your Freelancing Podcast

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.

TRANSCRIPT AND NOTES AVAILABLE HERE: http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/100kprojects/ This week I sat down with Scott Yewell to talk about how he recently closed his first six-figure project. Scott’s a partner at Blackfin Media, who for the last 14 years has been building small ($1-10k) website projects. A few months ago, Scott joined my Consultancy Masterclass and made a lot of changes. He walked away with the class with a few pages of notes and a directive: change how and what you’re selling. Well, it worked. He just closed a 6-8 month project at $7,500 a week ($180-$240k) — which is a significantly more than the < $10k projects they used to field. In this interview, Scott lays out everything he did differently to make this change.

http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/followup/ We all know how important communication is during the sales process, but for a lot of freelancers knowing how and when to followup is often a mystery. After you first meet someone, when should you first contact them? How long should you wait before you followup with someone you've sent an invoice to? When and how should you pester clients over past-due invoices? In this episode, I talked with Kurt Elster, an ecommerce consultant from Chicago, and we chatted about some of the communication systems he uses when working with prospects, leads, and clients. (We have a sponsor! LessAccounting can help you offload a lot of tedious tasks and give you insights into the financial health of your business. Check them out and use the coupon "BrennansBeard" to grab 80% off for 3 months.) Things we mentioned: Kurt and his newsletter Follow Kurt on Twitter Boomerang for GMail Assistant.to for meeting scheduling ScheduleOnce (what Brennan uses to schedule stuff)

http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/funding/ A lot of freelancers — hell, just about every freelancer I've talked to — want to eventually create and sell their own products. But this is easier said than done. Usually something stands in the way: the immediacy of consulting revenue, lack of an idea, or the fear that they'll build something and it'll never sell. In this episode, I chatted with Mike Taber, the co-host of Startups For The Rest Of Us and the founder of AuditShark. Mike is a high-value consultant; he bills himself out a premium rate. Because of this, he's able to fund his lifestyle and the development of his software company through the money he makes consulting. (We have a sponsor! LessAccounting can help you offload a lot of tedious tasks and give you insights into the financial health of your business. Check them out and use the coupon "BrennansBeard" to grab 80% off for 3 months.) Things we mentioned: AuditShark Startups For The Rest Of Us The Single Founder blog

http://doubleyourfreelancing.com/referrals/ I recently sat down (literally!) with my friend Steli Efti, the founder of Close.io. For about an hour we talked about how freelancers and consultants can create more referrals for their business. Steli is a master of sales — you won’t want to miss this episode! Mentioned this episode: Steli on Twitter Close.io The B2B Referral Sales System DoubleYourFreelancing.com

In this episode, I sat down with Matt Inglot of Tilted Pixel. He started the company over 8 years ago, and went from being a solo freelancer to opening up a brick & mortar office in Toronto. After building up a successful team and building out an office, he decided to go 100% remote. We discussed the pros and cons of having an office, along with why he ultimately decided to shutter his location.

This week I’m joined by Dennis Field, who — like me — has struggled with burnout. Who am I kidding though? This affects ALL of us. Late nights, weekends, and being “on call” for your clients can cause you to regret ever starting your own freelancing business. Dennis’ website How to Fight Burnout as a Designer

This week I sat down with Jan Jones of Oozou, an agency based out of Bangkok, Thailand, and Jonathan Tarud of Koombea, another agency, this one in Colombia. We discussed what it’s like to run an agency when your clients are half a world away from you. Whether you’re in San Francisco, Topeka, or Saigon, you’re going to love this episode. Double Your Freelancing Rate Oozou Koombea

This is the Freelancing Minute for Friday, February 14th (Valentine’s day!) 2014. When you’re creating a proposal, it’s important to contextualize our offer (what we’re building or doing) with the problem and the solution. In this short clip, I seek to define the differences between the problem, the offer, and the solution. Subscribe to the Business of Freelancing Podcast with Brennan Dunn