Assess your talents and skills

Before you get too deep into planning your business, evaluate your talents and skills. Talents refer to things you are naturally good at, while skills are learned over time. It’s not enough to enjoy doing something; talents and skills are essential for running a successful business.

Explore financing options

You will probably need funding in the early stages of your business. Obtaining financial assistance for your business can reduce stress and provide you with the means to put a good team together, expand your product and service offerings, and reach other goals within a shorter span of time. Do your research and stay open-minded to both government and private options.

Study your market

Another critical part of preparing your new business is to conduct market research. Study both local and global markets for the industry you are considering entering. This will give you an idea of how you can meet the needs of your potential customers/clients and whether the business can be profitable. It will also provide an opportunity to strategize competitively.

Think through the space you will need

Whether it’s a lot or a little, you will need space for your home-based business. If you will be fulfilling all of your duties with minimal equipment, such as a computer and printer, then you will need less space than if you will be manufacturing, storing, and/or shipping products. Consider your needs, and make sure your current home provides adequate space.

Draft a business plan

One of the most vital aspects of starting a business is drafting a business plan. A good business plan will serve as a blueprint for how you will structure, operate, and grow your business. It will describe your company‘s mission and values, include a market analysis, present how you will organize operations and who will manage things, and provide details of products or services offered. It will also include a marketing and sales strategy and funding requirements.

Become a legal entity

In the early stages of planning your new business, you will need to determine what kind of business structure will work best for your short-term and long-term needs. A sole proprietorship is the simplest entity to set up and manage. Although more is involved in the process, forming an LLC can benefit you by limiting your liability to the amount of your investment. So, unlike with a sole proprietorship, you’re not personally liable for debts associated with your LLC. Plus, an LLC comes with tax advantages and many other benefits.

Set up a home office

As previously mentioned, you will need the right space if you want your business to succeed. But it comes down to more than just the space itself; you need a home office or work area that is outfitted to facilitate your daily business operations. Among other things, this means choosing a location that allows you to stay focused, getting inspiring decor, and investing in all the equipment, furniture, and tools you need. And it’s important to have a phone line and Internet connection that’s used only for your business.

Get to marketing

Few things are more important for a home-based business than marketing, especially considering that you don’t have the exposure to walk-in customers and clients that many brick-and-mortar establishments do. And it’s never really too early to start. As soon as you create a stellar website, have your products or services lined up, and have an idea about your target market, you can begin promoting your brand through social media and other channels.

Remain open to adjustments

While it’s essential to come up with a solid, detailed plan of how you will launch and run your business, it’s equally as important to remain flexible and open-minded to other ways of thinking. That is, always be prepared to adapt and make adjustments to your products, services, and strategies that can move your business forward. On the other hand, your faith, values, and morals should always remain as your cornerstone.

As long as you come at it with the right approach and use an effective strategy, you can start a successful home-based business doing almost anything. Remember to consider the tips and information provided here, and keep researching to grow your business and leadership knowledge. Most importantly, always prioritize using your talents and operating with integrity!

Be sure to tune in to The Freelancer Head Start podcast for more information on “getting a head start with the right technology, advice, and tools for the freelancer or entrepreneur!”

Image via Pexels

The post 9 Key Steps to Building a Flourishing Home-Based Business appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Adjust Where Necessary

Every company will have to make some changes right now.

• Start by looking through this article from Work-from Home Depot about ways to adapt your business during the pandemic.
• If you weren’t remote to start with, provide resources to encourage success at home.
• Take the opportunity to remodel your office with improved furniture or new carpeting.
• The Freelancer Head Start podcast offers entrepreneurs tips on technology and tools needed for success.

Lean on Your Digital Presence

Make the most of your website and social media.

• Take some time to evaluate your website to ensure it’s doing all it can for your company.
• Consider hiring a copywriter to edit and refresh your landing page copy.
• Come up with a regular social media schedule to stay on your audience’s minds.

Connect with Clients

Interpersonal connection is more important now than ever.

• Create a survey to get a sense of your clients’ needs in the midst of the pandemic.
• Use your mailing list to keep customers aware of your businesses’ offerings and how you’re adapting.
• Schedule phone calls and video chats with clients wherever possible – voice and video will always be more personal than text.

Digital businesses are well equipped to get through this pandemic successfully. However, you have to make the right moves to keep your company running at its best. Bookmark this list and use it as a reference when trying to figure out your business’s next steps.

Photo Credit: Unsplash

The post Solid Moves for Digital Businesses During COVID-19 appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Marie is a DIY enthusiast and a self-taught woodworker. Well actually, she’s more of a DIY addict and an amateur woodworker if we’re being honest. For as long as she can remember she’s had a deep curiosity for understanding how stuff is made and figuring out how she can make it myself.

The funny thing is that I remember my brother buying me a giant toolbox one Christmas, and I wondered to myself What on earth was he thinking? But I guess he knew even before I did that one day I would have a shop full of tools.

While she wishes writing about DIY projects and making how-to YouTube videos was her full-time job, she also has a full-time career as a market researcher in the pharmaceutical industry. Marie is also passionate about cycling and hockey, but these days woodworking takes up most of her time.

Marie lives in Montreal, Canada, where she works on projects out of her small garage shop. While she’s been DIYing for a long time, Marie decided to launch diymontreal.com in August 2016 in order to share projects with other DIY enthusiasts like herself. Then, just recently in 2017, Marie started a YouTube channel.

Website: https://www.diymontreal.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/diymontreal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diymontreal/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/diymontreal/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DIYMTL/

We’ll be talking about your story about how you started woodworking and the journey you’re taking with your YouTube channel. I always find myself relaxing at the end of the day watching DIY channels and getting inspiration from the projects that are created. I also feel that it would an interesting story to hear about how people manage and create content for YouTube as an entrepreneur.

Here are a few points that we talked about:

• Marie started her journey by starting a blog to showcase and talk about her DIY journey
• She’s been blogging for about 2 years before jumping into YouTube
• That honey-do list is a perfect opportunity to get started in DIY
• Planning, research, and figuring out “how to do this…” is a long process. Don’t rush the process!
• The beginning is the hard part – little to no traction can deter
• Instagram and sharing on social media was a turning point for Marie
• The more you share, the more you’ll position yourself as the expert in that field
• The truth is, not every project makes the cut
• Have a bank of projects that you can pull from when needed
• Start with projects that you need to be done around the house
• Monetization is different depending on the category, views, and size of your audience
  • Build your audience and you’ll find success. This can take time
• Mix up your revenue stream so you’re not relying on a single point
• Don’t do this to make money from the start
• Make this your passion and the quality will show!
• Build a process – Create a check-list of things you need to do for your projects, channel, marketing, etc. After a while, it will be second nature
• Interact with your audience on your social media platforms. Work on growing your community.
• Build that mailing list!
• Challenges are real when running a YouTube channel
  • Time is the major challenge
  • Think of the composition of the piece
  • Work on the “Beauty Shot” of the item. This will get better with more practice
• Starting off, you need…
  • to not focus on fancy camera equipment – Use your phone
  • pay attention to lighting – Use lamps, flashlights, or other sources to light up your subject
  • to use the basic video editing software until you find what you need or can upgrade
• Marie would love to eventually collaborate with other makers in the DIY space
• Marie would also like to push out more frequent projects on her channel and blog

Quick Picks

Marie

• Pixel 3 – This phone was ALMOST the upgrade phone, but have heard enough bad stories that she held off. Don’t upgrade.
• Udamey courses – Great way to learn things that you may not be aware of.

Marion

• City of Savannah, GA – Possible family trip that may be a tradition
• Spending time with family – <3

The post FHS 42 DIY YouTube Channel ft Marie of DIY Montreal appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

School Days

During my early years, I would frequently take things apart. As a curious child, you can find me behind the TV taking the phone apart because I wanted to know how it worked. I feel that at was the turning point in becoming an entrepreneur; I wanted to know how the world works! One thing at a time.

Getting candies, toys, and small trinkets is every child’s dream, and it certainly didn’t pass me by either. I started to paying attention to how much things might cost and how to then get that amount to buy my own candy and toys. I didn’t want to wait for mom or dad to reluctantly buy me something.

I raided my parent pockets for coins! I raided the seat cushions, the dresser, the cup holders in the car. I was relentless.

I saw an opportunity to help my parents just give me their spare change. To them, it was low value, but to me, it was very high value. Creating a system where they could just put their spare change in allowed me to efficiently collect them. Collecting that spare change was my goal, and I made it easy for my parents to fork it over.

High School

By my high school years, I expanded my efforts to get actual dollar bills. I started to look around the neighborhood to see what we could do as kids. Raking leave, mowing the grass, taking out trash, or whatever menial job that kids could do. I wanted to start doing that for pay because I was already doing that for my parents.

So I started going door-to-door and offering lawn service to people in the neighborhood and signing up work. From there, I would recruit my friends to work with me and split some of that profit. I would keep 60% of the payment and they would be paid out 40%. It worked well that way because I was the one finding the work, locking in the agreement, and paying out my friends.

I learned from that experience that partnering up with people and taking a smaller cut can still make you money. You don’t have to take it all on yourself and think you need to take on the world solo.

Time @ INPO

INPO stands for Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. We helped regulate the nuclear power industry here in North America. Similar to how the NRC inspects and verifies the operations of power plants, INPO does that but kicks it up a notch.

INPO was during my college internship days and I worked on the help desk. I was the first level support and picked up the phones or answered the phone calls for any problem. We were the first line of defense. Then I started to notice patterns that we were having.

From there, I trained myself to become the subject matter expert for that specific problem. With time, I became the ‘SharePoint’ guy for our 400 people strong company. I became more senior and was able to sit with Project Managers and other experts to learn how to manage projects, have conversations about the budget, and direct technology in a way to meet the goals of the project.

The employees at INPO had specific roles that they performed when they went out to inspect these power plants. You had the woman looking at the chemistry of the plant because she was the “Chemistry Woman”. The gentleman focusing on the auxiliary pumps because he was the “Pump Man”. They were very specialized…..and VERY well paid..

I learned that specializing in a specific field can help you become the expert in the room a lot quicker and command higher compensation. From observation, I realized it the power of specialization.

My First Company

When I was getting more senior at INPO, I would be approached to work on personal computers and devices. This lead me to start offering that as a service on the side to work on peoples machines.

A friend of mine at INPO was in the same boat as me. We would both be approached, but we would often share customers if we could not work on them ourselves. We also both had that entrepreneur spirit with finding and acting on opportunities if we found any. His family ran and operated a public gymnastics gym in North Georgia.

We started a company installing public access points in public locations. The first (and only) location that we were able to start with was his family gym. We had an inside track with the operating team, and installed the internet, access point, and configured everything. We then started shopping this idea around to other gyms, locations, and other public locations.

In the end, we folded the company because we realized we wanted to focus on graduating more than driving around everywhere fixing issues. This was also in the time before smart phones were super popular, so WiFi was slow and unreliable. Which was a huge headache when trying to get dozens of people on a single access point.

We both learned how to create an MVP, shop it around, and what to do WHEN things go wrong. It took a lot of patience, determination, and elbow grease to just get things started. We grew a lot while we operated that company!

Setting Out on My Own

During my time an INPO, I also started to expand my Rolodex and circle of influence. I wanted to keep people around me that I felt that I could help and grow with. I knew that I wanted to eventually work for myself and felt that keeping up with potential clients and past clients would work out in the long run.

I started moonlighting on the side and slowly built up my experience and confidence in working with strangers. I used these opportunities to start saving in my warchest for emergencies and backup income for when I DO step out on my own.

That war chest enabled me to take on more risk, be patient and picky about the clients I wanted to take on and find quality work. As I grew into freelancing, I increased my rates and kept evolving. Word of mouth and Referrals started to work for me and allowed me to step further and further into working for myself.

I fell upon a W-2 job that luckily allows me to currently work both Freelance and have clients. The catch is that that single W-2 job is good bulk of my income at the moment and that makes me worry. That is a single point of failure if I am let go.

Whats Next?

These coming years, I want to focus on diversifying my income even more. I want to make sure that I don’t have a single point that is getting me the largest ‘operational’ income. I want to ensure that the load is spread out as much as possible.

In the mean time, I am enjoying my W-2 work and I am able to balance this with my clients. I want to work on a few passive income projects, course work, products that you can purchase, and maybe additional client engagements.

We shall see what 2019 and 2020 brings!

The post FHS 41 How I Started appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Create a Newsletter

A newsletter is a powerful tool. It is a direct link to your audience. Its an invite from them to start talking to them and providing valuable content. If you are a business owner, freelancer, consultant, or anything else, having a newsletter should be in your wheelhouse.

Create a newsletter by first planning what type of audience you are planning to have with your newsletter. The easiest start is to look at your industry and become someone who keeps that audience up to date with news, events, or information. You are the expert here even if you don’t feel like you are. Get rid of that impostor syndrome because you’re already kicking butt and taking names!

Take it one step at a time and you’ll be able to grow your audience to impressive numbers.

Opt-In

Worry about the platform and tool that you’re going to use to manage the newsletter later. Plan on what you’re going to be giving away in exchange for that potential customer/clients email address. You’re building a small community around your idea or product, so give something away that is related.

The Opt-In item is something that the client may already be looking for and is little to no cost for you. A brochure, booklet, how-to guide, checklist; these are all great opt-in items that you can give away in exchange for that email address. You just need to make sure that the item is related to the newsletter.

Frequency

Try for once a month for your release dates. That’s only 12 emails that you’re sending out to your audience. Slowly build your frequency to hit about once a week. That’s only 52 emails a year that is going out to your audience. Once a month is great, but if you can do once a week, you’re doing better.

Quality vs Quantity

Quality is what is going to compel the audience member to stay with you and consume your content. Don’t just churn out content just because you need to hit those numbers. Strategically plan and think of the reasons you’re sending out these emails.

Over time, your audience is going to help guide you into what type of content you’re going to be sending out.

Part of sending out quality is that you’re going to retain those quality clients/customers. You are striving for people who interact with you and your content, repeat readers, and potential customers.

It’s better to have 5 people on your list that interact with you versus 100 people that don’t even open your newsletter.

Content

Content can come from anywhere and anything. You are already the expert in your field and industry enough that you can talk about it. If you’re still stuck on where to find content, check out these two suggested places:

• Feedly.com – A multi-website scrapper that brings content to you into a single dashboard. You’re able to group and organize multiple website feeds into different “buckets”. From there, you can create numerous newsletter content sources or research. The best part is that the free version lets you add a metric ton of sites before you need to upgrade.

• Reddit.com – Reddit is a very popular website that consolidates a lot of content into a single site. You can easily get lost within the different sub-reddits and discussions happening every day. In a nutshell, Reddit is a forum where you can participate or read discussions based on a wide range of topics. Perfect for inspiration or content for your newsletter.

Tools to Use

Mailchimp [affiliate link] – Mailchimp is a free newsletter platform that lets you simply and easily send out your content. Mailchimp manages your contact list, your content, your scheduling, and a lot of the automated processes behind the scenes as well.

The delivery system allows me to queue up a few newsletters to go out in the future. I can also create rules around the newsletters that just went out, such as “if noone opens this, send a reminder”. The automation is very impressive and perfect for what most people need. It helps keeps clients and customers engaged in you and your content.

With Mailchimp, you can also create templates for each newsletter that you’re about to send out, so you’re not rebuilding each newsletter from scratch. A template is going to save you a lot of time and helps make your messages consistent.

Drip – Drip is the next level when it comes to newsletters. When you need something that allows you to take control over every aspect of your contact list, newsletter, and content, this is where Drip works best.

Drip works best for ecommerce and situations where you want to keep clients/customers coming back to your site and shop. Mailchimp does this as well, but in my opinion, Drip does that a lot better.

Prices for Drip start at $50/month, but their feature list well makes up for that price. The performance for what you’re getting, Drip is an impressive tool that lets you take minute control over your communication to your audience.

Conclusion

Create a newsletter to have a direct connection with your clients and customers. Starting one begins with planning what type of audience you are speaking to. Work on that Opt-In piece to trade for an email address. Work on the frequency of how often you will send out an email, but shoot for at least 12 to begin with. Then look at what platform you are going to be using to send those newsletters out with.

Once you get going with a newsletter, you’ll find your rhythm and voice and you’ll notice the signups going up.

The post FHS 39 Newsletter appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Malika Bowling is a digital marketer and the Editor of Roamilicious. She’s the author of Culinary Atlanta: Guide to the Best Restaurants, Markets, Breweries and More! and Food Blogging 101. She has been featured on HGTV, Chowhound, Playboy, TravelGirl and has been a contributing writer to USA Today. Malika has also served as a judge at various culinary competitions and food festivals, including Taste of Atlanta. She is also co-founder of the Association of  Bloggers.

Follow them @Roamilicious on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for behind the scenes content. And don’t forget to subscribe to their newsletter and never miss a contest, giveaway or the latest must visit restaurant!

Website: https://roamilicious.com/
Association of Bloggers: https://associationofbloggers.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Roamilicious/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Roamilicious
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MalikaBowling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Roamilicious

Malika is a published author, runs a lifestyle blog, and the co-founder for the Association of Bloggers. We talked about what it takes to create and run a food, travel, and lifestyle blog. Her insight into the world of media management, blogging, and PR is very impressive and it shows in how she manages her blogs.

When you’re starting your blog, focus on the “WHAT” rather than the “HOW”. Shut down that ‘analysis paralysis’ …

Here are a few points of what we talked about:

• Malika started about 10 years ago after being laid off from her job in marketing. From there, she started writing a blog.
• She started out as “date nights” and slowly morphed into reviews and photos and a lifestyle blog
• She wanted to help manage others social media and newsletters and evolved into blogging as a business
• Social media is primarily used to drive traffic to her blogs. From there, she get clients, companies, brands, etc to partner with her
• Recently changed to include travel about a year ago. Immediate feedback from locations who wanted to partner with her
• Her books!
• You grow your equipment with your business, flowers, etc
• Include multiple multi-media content into your blog
• Analytics to test and respond
• Instagram TV (IG TV) strategy for your brand. Vertical for IG TV and landscape for YouTube
• Business vs Hobby
  • Market yourself. You have to put in that effort
  • If people are included in post, use back-links, mention in post, and send a request to
  • Media kit (canva.com for inspiration or resources)
  • Consistency
• Advertisements, Affiliates, and Traffic help you build your revenues
• Influence Network helps bring traffic to you and partner with brands (https://associationofbloggers.com/)
  • PERFECT turnkey solution to match influencers with brands
• ‘Exposure Bucks’
• Association of Bloggers
  • Any level of bloggers can join the association
  • You are now part of a network that will partner you with brands
  • Exclusive resources for bloggers include help building a profile, private support group, and coaching sessions
• Is this a business or a hobby? If you want a business, treat it like a business!!
  • If you’re looking to make money, you need to invest time, energy, and money into your blog
  • You will grow there where you need to start spending money in investing in yourself
• Planning and scheduling is important!
• Be consistent with your lifestyle blog content and release!
• There is a lot of work when it comes to growing and building a blog. Partner up with other blogs and people to get help.
• Work on documenting your processes. You will grow and having things written down will be your blueprint on how to run your business
  • Helps you focus on your lifestyle blog rather than getting down in the weeds
• Tools Malika uses
  • SEM Rush – Used for Keyword advanced research and related keywords ($100/month)
  • Keywords Everywhere – Basic keyword research (Chrome extension)
  • Google Trends – Helps you find trends with relational keywords
  • Yoast SEO – WordPress blog audit for SEO (Free)
• Content with Accessibility – 2 birds with one stone that can help with SEO tactics
• Use analytics to help guide you
• Social Media Tools:
  • Hootsuite – Schedule you social media posts
  • Missing Lettrs – Pulls in content, images, and information from your existing post and creates a drip campaign on social media
  • Post Planner – Used for topic research and find content
  • IfThisThenThat – Automate your life!
• Schedules on posting content should be consistent, but you don’t have to always hit exact dates
• Be mindful of the content that you create and use. You’re content is a reflection of you and your work
• Work on your craft and don’t be afraid to approach brands you want to work with
• Weave the product into a story revolving around you
• Grow and build your network by interacting and being involved
• Focus on the social media accounts that you are more comfortable with
• People want to know what is behind the blog – People want buy from a person and not a company
• Start a newsletter and use free giveaways to entice signups – Direct funnel to your audience
• Go to events and build connections
  • Meetup.com to find like-minded people and groups
• Common mistakes when blogging 
• Crafting your message 
• Favorite places to visit (so far) 
• Income from blogging? 
• Any other topic you’d like to talk about

Quick Picks

Malika

• SnapSeed.com app lets you edit images on your phone to give your images a polished look
• Perspective change options, update color scale, make colors pop!

Marion

• Goodreads.com Book Challenge
• Goodreads is a digital library of what you’ve read or want to read. Get recommendations from other people and can connect to your Amazon.com and Audible.com accounts

The post FHS 38 Lifestyle Blogs ft Malika Bowling appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Make sure you CAN

When you work for an employer, you usually sign agreements stating that you’ll do X, Y, and Z for that company. One of those agreements may be to
take on side work or projects outside of the scope of your existing day job. Make sure you CAN work on side projects and moonlight by going over your agreements that you signed.

You don’t to put yourself in a position where all your hard work could get you in trouble with your current employer. MOST companies wouldn’t care what you’re doing in your off time. As long as you don’t compete with them.

Do Not Compete

The biggest no-no that you can do when starting to Moonlight is to start competing with your employer. This can land you in a WORLD of trouble.

When you are finding clients, make sure they are not clients you are taking away from your existing employers. You are being paid to be your employer’s resource and they’re not going to be too keen on you taking their clients. Do not work on the clock when you are supposed to be working with your employer. This is basic wage theft and can face jail time…

If you offer the same services that your employer does, then you’re just asking for trouble. Don’t poach or skim work from your main job and take it for yourself. You more than likely signed a non-compete or something stating that you won’t take work from your employer. Your services should compliment or gap-fill what your employer cant do.

Make a Deal with your Employer

If you feel comfortable approaching your employer to work on the side, by all means do it. Pay attention to the workload that your employer is having and offer to offset some of the tasks that are normally going to contractors, consultants, or outside help. You may be able to work after hours as a contractor yourself for the same company.

There is nothing wrong with approaching your employer with a proposal for alterations to your time or your total compensation.

Time – You can ask for more time for yourself to work on your moonlighting jobs. Make a deal with your employer about the number of hours you are working on your main job. Be upfront with them and ask for a few hours a week to work on your own stuff. It doesn’t hurt to request this as part of your compensation package.

Ask to have a few hours to yourself on a Friday in exchange for additional hours during the other days of the week. Ask to have every 3rd Monday off to attend community events. Ask to leave work early on Tuesdays if you can come in earlier on Wednesday because you’ve got a product to deliver. You have the ability to present options to your employer that benefits both parties.

Total Compensation – Your total compensation could be lowered if you negotiate for increase time to work on your own business in exchange. You have the power to ask for the rights to work on client work outside of your regular job if your job doesn’t normally allow it. Propose a lowered compensation package if they waive that limitation.

Work under a Brand vs your Name

If you are feeling iffy about stepping out while you’re also working for someone else, consider working under a brand instead of your real name. Your employer may have a stronger indication that you’re stepping out if you promote under your own name versus a company name.

You will get to a level where you’re needing to promote yourself as the expert in your field and using your company as a front-man/woman may not cut it anymore. Your clients are going to see you as another employee or help instead of the expert who can give them a return on their investment.

Start with working under a company name, then look into promoting work and being seen as the actual expert.

Finding Work

In Episode 2, we chatted about finding and researching potential clients.

http://www.Reddit.com

Reddit is a forum style website that has millions of users and thousands of communities. One of these communities are going to be exactly your client base. On Reddit’s homepage in the upper right corner, you can search for what’s called subreddits. These are the specific communities where your clients and customers live. For example, if you were a web developer who works with non-profit animal shelters, you would want to more than likely search for the ‘animal shelter’ subreddit. Within a few days or hours of using Reddit, you’re be able to identify at least 3-5 subreddits that focus on your niche. This may be one of the easiest places you’ll use when finding and researching your customers.

http://www.meetup.com

Meetup.com is a site that lists communities that line up with who your customers are. You can even find people who have similar tastes, ideas, or industries. Let’s say you’re that web developer that wants to find non-profit animal shelters. You could search “animal adoption drives” or “animal lovers of Atlanta” to find people who have similar interests. Then you can hone in on where and when they congregate. There are dozens of topics or groups or industries that meet all over the world and the States.

http://www.LinkedIn.com

You can think of LinkedIn as a social network for professionals. You can join specific communities within LinkedIn, connect with similar professionals, or target specific people in specific companies. LinkedIn has a very extensive search option that lets you find almost exactly who you’re looking for. You can pay for their premium level account and open up even more options for finding that specific client or audience. 

Other locations where you’re going to find customers include…

• http://www.hunter.io Hunter.io is a researching site that lets you know emails of companies. If you already have a name of someone in a company, you can grab their email address.
• http://www.slack.com – You can join a Slack channel specific to your targeted industry and jump in on the conversation
• https://angel.co/job-collections/remote – A job listing of startup companies looking for help
• Referrals – If you’ve already worked for/with (including professors) someone TELL them that you’d love for them to refer you in the future. Be specific about what type of client you’d like to be referred to.
• Networking Face-to-Face – Go to free trade shows or join an organization that has your target clients. It’s gonna take some practice doing face-to-face conversations, so don’t feel like you’ve failed your first time out.
• Guest Posts – Contact blogs that you follow and offer to guest post. It’s a win-win for both as you get to show what you can do and they get additional content. Finding and researching your customers may become easier after guest posting because they will start coming to you.
• Contact people/organizations/business direct – Use LinkedIn to search for people in a particular field or matches your criteria. Use your local Chamber of Commerce to find companies in your area or demographics. Heck, even looking at Google search results for contact information may work.

When to Make the Switch

Only you can really decide when to make that switch over. A good rule of thumb would be to wait until you have about 3-6 months of your income in a war chest before you step out. Having that safety net can sometimes make a difference in how you pursue and take on work.

Stepping out on your own is a big step and moonlighting is that slow and steady pace that can get you going to 100% self employed. Build up your Rolodex of customers/clients while you’re working for someone. Start small and you’ll grow big!

The post FHS 37 How to Moonlight appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Know When to Cut the Cord

Its hard to know when to let a client go, but its easier to make that decision when red flags start to pop up. Those red flags can sneak up on you or be super obvious.

A few examples of Red Flags that pop up could be:

• Red–Flag 1: “I don’t know what i want, but i’ll know it when i see it”
• Red–Flag 2: Money is stressed more than the outcome
• Red–Flag 3: Why deposits are important
• Red–Flag 4: “I don’t really have a budget right now”
• Red–Flag 5: Low to no communication
• Red–Flag 6: Sporadic Payments

In FHS 17 (Click here to listen), we chat about the red flags that we come across every once in a while.

Sometimes you come to a point where you can’t provide the services that your clients hired your for. Your skills may not be up to par or your availability changed dramatically.

Sometimes you may need to go in a separate direction. Did you decide to stop providing that service? Are you evolving your business to keep with the times? Your growth is more important than holding back and pleasing your client.

Sometimes you have to raise your rates which will then price your clients out. Don’t limit your income by keeping clients that wont move with you. The goal of every engagement is to help your clients gain a positive return in your services. There will be a few clients that you’ll hold on to at your old rate, but you should slowly plan on moving them up to your new rates.

But if you’re reached a point where you need to let them go, be specific about it. Don’t beat around the bush. Don’t lie about it. Be the professional in the relationship and let that client go!

Be SPECIFIC

Don’t be timid or vague about why you’re letting them go. At this point, you should have already had communication about changes you’ve needed to implement.

Maybe the client is unaware of able to resolve the issue. You can never really know what is going on with the client and having that open communication can move things along. A lot of times in your favor. You should have had open communication with your client when problems popped up. From there you may have been able to resolve the issues.

Let the client know specifically why you have to go in a different direction. Don’t be rude or curt, but be professional and firm with the reasons.

Leave on Good Terms (If Possible)

You never know when or if you will circle back to the client. You may have a reason to leave the client because your services outgrew their budget. Or you’re taking on different types of work.

Leave with a good taste in their mouth and help them transition (as much as possible) to an alternative. You never know how they may referrer you to other work.

If you DO want to burn your bridges, make sure this is a bridge worth burning. Don’t let your emotions take over and do a “scorched earth” type of scenario.

Stop Working on Work

Regardless of how you are letting the client go, you still need to stop all work for that client. Do not drag on additional tasks as “favors” or “to help them out”. It is not fair to you or the client if you keep sticking around and working on their tasks.

If you let the client go, that also means you let the work go. There is no obligation to keep working for free….and you should not be working for free!

Don’t Be Shy About It

Being firm and assertive when letting the client go is similar to ripping off the bandage. Its gonna hurt…but only for a little bit.

The post FHS 36 Firing Clients appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Chef Jack – Digital Marketing Consultant

Chef Jack wants to provide you with the best choices in food.  Whether you are seeking personal chef services, cooking classes, full-service catering of events, or connecting with masterminds over an amazing dinner, Chef Jack ATL is ready to meet all your food and catering needs. You can follow his delicious posts on Instagram.

Website: http://chefjackatl.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mastermind_dinners_atlanta (@Mastermind_Dinnners_Atlanta)

As a guest at the table you will be sharing and exchanging with other pros about what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve your business.  While working towards the next level of your business, you will be dining on a custom-made, gourmet dinner prepared on-site by the award-winning Chef Jack.​

Prepare to be inspired, motivated and encouraged on your entrepreneurial voyage with the support and advice of people who are in the same lane as you.

Mastermind Dinners Atlanta are invitation only events.  The best way to be offered an invitation is to register with the Guest List and learn when and where dinners are being conducted, and who the host/moderator is.  Some dinners have themes to be of the most benefit to certain business niches.  By filling out the short Guest questionnaire on ChefJack.com you can receive a special invitation to a themed dinner matching your profile.

Check out more about the Mastermind Dinners here: https://www.chefjackatl.com/mastermind-dinners

Here are a few points that we talked about:

• Unique foods served by Chef Jack
• What is a Mastermind Group (Also what is a Mastermind Dinner)
• Social lubricant
• Involvement increases at Mastermind Dinners helps make your groups more related
• Elements of the foods spur different conversations
• History of the Mastermind Groups
  • Junto Group with Benjamin Franklin in Philly
  • Napoleon Hill of the 1920’s
• Where to meet people
• Partnerships formed with 2 people who had parts-of-skills
• Strategies and importance of networking
• Group is more intimate and encourages discussion
  • ex. A woman spoke up about a great ideas, but execution needed help. Group stepped up and guided her idea to get started.
• Diverse groups bring diverse ideas
• Every problem that you’ve got, more than likely someone has already solved it
• 12 People maximum helps get the conversation flowing and a good pace
  • Effective sizes is about 8-10 people
• Tries to match groups together if possible
• Its OK to share, there are millions of people and ideas out there already

Quick Picks

Chef Jack

• Jason Gaignard – ‘Mastermind Dinners’

Check it out on Amazon. Click Here!

Marion

• Chick-Fil-A Sandwich recipe
• Diary Queen ice cream
• Wendy’s Chocolate Ice Cream

The post FHS 35 The Power of Mastermind Dinners ft Chef Jack appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Click to Listen!

Get Clients Now – by C.J. Hayden

Purchase on Amazon today – Click Here!

Get Clients Now is one of my consistent go-back-and-read-this-again books. This

I recently read an amazing book that helped me reach a 40% increase in my revenue. Get Clients Now (by C.J. Hayden) has helped me identify a rhythm of marketing and promoting my services. This basic guided outline takes you through the different types of effective marketing strategies.

In episode 7, I break down the different strategies that I’ve used. You can listen to that episode by clicking this link here:

From MOST Effective to LEAST Effective Marketing Strategies:

1. Direct Contact & Follow Up
   1. This involves making a person-to-person connection with a prospective client through email, phone call, in person, fax, text message, etc. This tactic can include cold calling, warm calling, and lunch/coffee with potential clients. I touch on a few steps that I’ve done personally to land some of my first clients as well as some of my most lucrative clients.
2. Networking & Referral Building
   1. Meeting people face to face at networking events is just a drop in the bucket for this strategy. Building a list of contacts that you can tap into for referrals, clients, resources, ideas, or information should be the goal of networking.
3. Public Speaking
   1. Positioning yourself as a expert to your potential clients can start from public speaking. Public speaking will help you become more memorable and noticeable than if you were in the crowd.
4. Writing & Publicity
   1. Writing about your expertise can also be a powerful marketing strategy by gaining visibility and credibility among your peers and potential clients. Start small through social media, blogs, or your own website. Reach out to other blogs as guest writers can quickly lead you to more and more opportunities to show that you’re an expert.
5. Promotional Events
   1. Creating an event such as a trade show, fundraiser, or a conference can put you in direct contact with potential clients and bring the audience to YOU. This also holds true with participating in an existing event by owning/renting a booth. Cost is very real on both end at with this strategy: participating in an event or creating an event can be a very expensive cost per head experience.
6. Advertising
   1. There are generally two different types of advertising: organic and paid.Organic advertising is essentially word of mouth and low/no-cost advertising. Advertising by talking about and promoting your goods and products on social media or withing your mailing list is an example of organic advertising. This is the lowest cost engagement and can have some of the highest returns. Referrals are very powerful and builds trust.Paid advertising can help fill your pipeline with paying customers, but they don’t necessarily build trust in your product. Treat advertising as a way to increase your visibility and awareness to potential customers. The trust and eventual sale will come with them interacting with you directly.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business – by Charles Duhigg

Purchase on Amazon today – Click Here!

The Power of Habit is an interesting book that helps you understand why people do certain habits. Good and bad and how to help break or change that habit. This book looks at huge corporations and individuals and breaks down how habits are everywhere. From Starbucks to Target to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, habits are everywhere and can move mountains.

The Cue, Routine, Reward cycle is the basic concept behind the ‘Habit Loop’. Its what can be measured behind a habit. This can be in business or in life and we may not even be paying attention to it. By breaking down our habits, we can take control over our good or bad habits.

The Habit Loop have measurable stages in our habits. There is the Cue: the trigger for our habit. The Routine: what do we do during our habit. And the Reward: Why do we do our habit. This then restarts the Habit Loop and we’re back to it again.

Bringing this concept into our freelancing operation, we can create a Habit Loop to find and win customers and contracts.

Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Products – by Nir Eyal

Purchase on Amazon today – Click Here!

Excerpt from the book: 

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?

Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.

Customers and clients have a trigger that we can tap into that rely on existing habits that they have. We go on autopilot when we take action on behaviors that we are accustomed to. Building upon the habits that we may already have in our day-to-day, we can understand and alter them to our benifits. The same goes to when dealing with customers spending and purchasing habits.

Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.

Book Yourself Solid – by Micheal Port

Purchase on Amazon today – Click Here!

Booked Yourself Solid has a basic premise: promote yourself. This book highlights strategic ways to get customers to notice you and your services. A lot of times, we are focusing on promoting our clients work and ignoring our own business. 

Book Yourself Solid is a handbook for self-promotion that translates into results.

• Build a solid foundation for a stellar public image
• Enhance your reputation for trust and credibility
• Perfect your pitch and pricing to attract higher-caliber clients
• Adopt the six core strategies that will keep you booked solid

The strategies in this book helps us focus on building the foundation of our reputation, how our clients view us, and the type of work we’ll attract. Starting small and eventually building a promotion can help you effectively land the types of jobs you’re looking for in a consistent way.

Whats Next?

I’m finding more and more that I’m moving towards using Audible for books. I tend to also stock up on other podcasts and listen on the go. Here are a few books that are in my queue, but haven’t listened or read yet.

• The Millionaire Next Door – Thomas J. Stanley
  • This book identifies common traits that a lot of successful and wealthy that keep showing up again and again. Its on my to-read list for sure.
• The Total Money Makeover – Dave Ramsey
  • One of the classic books that MOST people have heard about. Its a powerful guide and program to help get you out of debt. The ‘snowball effect’ has helped me, as well as tons of others out there, reduce debt and build a financial platform.

The post FHS 34 What Am I Reading appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.