This may be a surprising episode title for you considering everything you hear me talk about in regards to hourly billing, sucks! Yet there are times when hourly billing is good and I wanted to share the other side of the coin from yesterdayās show titled, Why hourly billing is bad? with you today. Quick / One-off task If you are a designer or developer and have bandwidth or time in your schedule where someone presents you with an opportunity to do some quick task. Something you know you can ban...
Oct 24, 2018ā¢5 minā¢Ep. 173
I want to start off by stating, if you having yet read Hourly Billing is Nuts by Jonathan Stark go ahead and get it and read it! Hourly billing puts the 2 parties in the service agreement at odds. The financial incentives are misaligned from the start. From your perspective you want to take as long as possible so you get paid as much as you can and your client wants you to finish as quickly as possible to keep the costs down. This puts the goal, the motivation of the project, regardless of what ...
Oct 23, 2018ā¢8 minā¢Ep. 172
The short answer to this question is that I donāt, their business does. A mantra that Iāve always lived by for my business is āLet the business drive the technology, not the other way around.ā The simple truth is that technology changes much faster than a business can. So if the technology were to go away tomorrow, would the business still be viable and run or would it be out of business? Last week YouTube went down and the internet lost itās mind! There are a great deal of people who build thei...
Oct 22, 2018ā¢6 minā¢Ep. 171
First, I want to thank Justin Jackson for the mention on Build Your SaaS podcast. Second, an episode of Build Your SaaS is part inspiration for this episode in fact. Couple that with a couple of conversations I had in a forum last week is where this question comes from. Since they are two sides of the same coin, I thought that Iād share some thoughts around it. How long does it take to become successful So inside the forum thread was a person who was curious how long it takes to become successfu...
Oct 19, 2018ā¢10 minā¢Ep. 170
How do I know David Shriner-Cahn? David Shriner-Cahn is the founder of Tend Strategic Partners and co-founder of the BestNetwork, which guides expertise-driven business owners to build recurring revenue. David and I know each other from the NY entrepreneurial space. We met a few years ago in an online community called Youpreneur. Then we continued to keep in touch, meet up and continue spreading the word for building sustainable businesses. David invited me on his podcast since we are both NYers...
Oct 18, 2018ā¢4 minā¢Ep. 169
What is a CRM? A customer relationship management tool keeps all your contacts and the relationships with that contact in place. This is used for managing customers, leads, colleagues, network contacts and so forth. For a long time I didnāt use one, because I basically used my email inbox to manage my contacts. But that quickly became cumbersome and not ideal especially the more mature my business became. I then shifted from my inbox to my email marketing provider, Drip , to manage my contacts t...
Oct 17, 2018ā¢7 minā¢Ep. 168
In A152 - How do you do a review of your week? I talk about how important my weekly reviews are. Itās actually quite scary how my wife can tell Sunday afternoons how distracted or off my game I am if I havenāt done my review that morning. Can I be completely candid with you right now? This is a funny question to me because about 2 weeks agoā¦talking with a friendā¦when I start lookingā¦Iām just distracting myself. Iām going to share with you X strategies to have a productive week, without question,...
Oct 16, 2018ā¢8 minā¢Ep. 167
The funny thing about marketing is that when something works for your business, you want to know whatās the next thing you should try. In the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares, which is a book written for startups who want to grow and build a customer base. It dives into 19 or so different channels to do this. At the heart of the book though is traction. Itās not a book that tells you to try all the 19 different marketing channels. Itās a book that tells you to completely exhaus...
Oct 15, 2018ā¢6 minā¢Ep. 166
This is something that Iām sure youāve asked before, right? Iām going to share with you 4 strategies and biggest tip on this but I want to ask you to be open to hearing me out for the next few minutes here It all starts with your mindset. The reason you ask this is because you are stuck in hamster wheel that is the feast or famine cycle. Clients are the blood of your business, yes, but you are the brain of the business and need to control it so that the success of it is driven by the actions you...
Oct 12, 2018ā¢7 minā¢Ep. 165
Lee Jackson is the founder of Agency Trailblazer. He helps agency owners fall back in love with their agency with his amazing community, workshops, and masterminds. Lee and I are 2 sides of the same coin. Lee works with agency owners where I work mostly with solo business owners. Lee and I had been bumping into each other around the web in various different groups and thought that weād come together and dive into a few rabbit holes on a podcast together. See we both seem to have this uncanny abi...
Oct 11, 2018ā¢5 minā¢Ep. 164
Documentation! Itās not sexy. Itās not fun, but if you are looking to transition your services into a productized service, you need to document everything you do. Productizing your service is all about profits and processes. How you trim your processes over time and become more efficient at delivering your service to your clients, you increase your profits. The only way to understand your processes to optimize them is through documentation. Youāll need to document everything from your sales proc...
Oct 10, 2018ā¢7 minā¢Ep. 163
You donāt need to spend a ton of money on Facebook or Google Ads to generate awareness and grow your business. Look at Dropbox as a simple example. What they did was create a free tool that made it easy for people to download, put on their computer, and share files with others. Simple, effective, and most of all useful. How can you do this with your services? Easy, create something useful for your target client that you can give away for free. Letās say you are an ecommerce developer? Create a c...
Oct 09, 2018ā¢6 minā¢Ep. 162
In business, there is this scenario that gets created during sales that put 2 parties on opposite sides of the table. But the reality of it is that both parties want the same thing. They both want to be successful with the project. When the objections start popping up, I like to bring this up to them. I simply share something that Iāve said for years and itās this. āI want to get you where you want to be as efficient as we can together. We are both working towards that same goal and both are suc...
Oct 08, 2018ā¢8 minā¢Ep. 161
Iāve talked a ton on this podcast about outreach strategies because whether you like sales or not, if you are building a business, youāll need to do some form of sales outreach. Hate to break the news to you. A lot of people I talk with, and maybe you have this same question too, ask what is the difference between warm and cold outreach. Simply put the difference is how aware is the person you are reaching out to about you and the solution that you provide. Start with warm outreach If you are st...
Oct 05, 2018ā¢6 minā¢Ep. 160
In A158 How much money do I need to make? , you learned what to take into account when trying to figure out how much money you need to make. What youāll learn today is activity based selling. Which boils down to looking at what you can do today, not what happened yesterday, to reach your goals. What it really comes down to is breaking it into chunks. You started off knowing what things you enjoy and totaled all them up into a yearly number. You figured out what your total revenue number is too b...
Oct 04, 2018ā¢7 minā¢Ep. 159
The mistake most freelancers make after having worked full-time is taking their annual salary and breaking that out into an hourly rate. This is a mistake for so many reasons, one of which is that what you pay in taxes here in the U.S. as a W2 employed person is very different than that of a 1099 self-employed person. You will need to cover things like healthcare, social security, and a whole plethora of other things that often times your full-time employer have covered for you. So before you ma...
Oct 03, 2018ā¢8 minā¢Ep. 158
As a creative entrepreneur, you decided to start your own business because of certain reasons. Whether thatās time freedom to spend time with your family or travel or no limit on your income potential, that goal is your own. With all the social media and ācelebrityā out there itās easy to become distracted and get off track. What their goals is not what yours are. Plain and simple. Even if that personās goal is similar to yours, you arenāt the same person. You may not even have the same type of ...
Oct 02, 2018ā¢7 minā¢Ep. 157
Sticker shock is real sometimes, but other times this is a negotiation tactic. Itās up to you to figure out. Explain why you are different than others and provide proof This is where you should be explaining and re-framing the context of your service in comparison with what theyāve experienced in the past and/or your unique advantage. You want to be empathic to their budget restrictions obviously. Simply re-iterate the results youāve had with past clients and keeping it succinct and to the point...
Oct 01, 2018ā¢6 minā¢Ep. 156
Taking payment is complex, but should be the easiest, most frictionless experience for your clients. If you get nothing else from this episode, please take that with you. Outside the U.S. There are all sorts of laws and regulations that complicate all sorts of payments. What Iām sharing applies to the U.S. If you are not in the U.S. these companies and services that I talk about may still apply, but I canāt guarantee it. Please do your due diligence to make sure that this works best for you and ...
Sep 28, 2018ā¢11 minā¢Ep. 155
Itās hard to come up with just one favorite quote, because for me quotes are inspirational when thereās a reference or context to them. Iām going to share with you my 6 favorite quotes and put some context around them. Everyday Life āTwo things that you have control over every single day: attitude and effort.ā -Andrew McCutchen This is something that I heard him say in an interview once. Smart man and absolutely right. Itās important to remember that you can only control yourself, what you do an...
Sep 27, 2018ā¢6 minā¢Ep. 154
I was speaking at an online conference called Weaverās Space Online Conference and asked this question during the Q & A portion of my talk. I love Q & A more than any scripted presentation for a number of reasons, but the biggest reason is because I know that someone walked in with something specific they wanted from the talk and walked away with an answer. Iāve had my share of big brands and corporations in my career and itās definitely a different beast to tackle. Itās hard to break in...
Sep 26, 2018ā¢7 minā¢Ep. 153
Iām a huge fan of weekly reviews and they are a pivotal part of my business each and every single week. I was having a conversation with a Feast community member and this person had a bad week where things unexpectedly happened and through some plans off track. They said āthat they see the value in a weekly review but in practice they would see that plans got thrown off track and would then just work through the weekend to put things back on track.ā This is something Iāve done in the past myself...
Sep 25, 2018ā¢5 minā¢Ep. 152
Iāve spoken about cold outreach emails in in episode 127 āHow would you write a outreach emailā but prior to that, you need a strategy to get to that email right? You canāt convince anyone of everything First thing to remember is cold outreach is a numbers game. If you cast a wide net with no bait, the more likely itāll be that you need to throw away most of the fish. What I mean by that is, if you have a large list of emails or contacts of a particular industry, most of that list isnāt the righ...
Sep 24, 2018ā¢8 minā¢Ep. 151
Before jumping into today's show, I want to thank you specifically for allowing me into your earbuds every day for the last 150 days. I donāt take it for granted at all! š I want to share with you an important story and lesson that will illustrate the best lead generation strategy. I had an eye-opening, reality check of sorts recently. See as you know I do client service work, but also help folks like you through coaching and other products such as Feast to help specialize their business and bu...
Sep 21, 2018ā¢9 minā¢Ep. 150
Todayās going to be very different because itās my birthday today. And if you arenāt listening to this on Sept 20, thatās ok too. Itās going to be a quick one for you and I hope that itās going to be helpful for you as well. When it gets close to your birthday, donāt you get asked this question? Especially from family members or close friends, right? I always find this a little awkward because I donāt ask for things. Yes, Iām a gadget geek, love the Mets, and all types of toys from the 80s that ...
Sep 20, 2018ā¢4 minā¢Ep. 149
Not everyone is meant to be a freelancer. Itās not easy. There was a time in my career that I questioned if it was something I was meant to do. Multiple times in fact. Itās something that many wrestle with especially in the bad times, myself included. Thereās absolutely nothing wrong with that either. People with a full-time job and a classic 9-to-5 wrestle with what they are doing every day as well. Itās a natural feeling people have. Being a creative person and going against the grain is somet...
Sep 19, 2018ā¢7 minā¢Ep. 148
Creating goals can be overwhelming for some. But it doesn't have to be if you make it fun, exciting and don't forget that it's all about growth. Today Iām going to share with you the structure of creating a goal that will put you ahead of the game of most people. If you havenāt yet listened to A142 How do I set a goal? go do so. Itās a quick 6 minutes where you will learn what a SMART goal is and the important 3 pieces about SMART goals to pay close attention to. This structure can certainly be ...
Sep 18, 2018ā¢7 minā¢Ep. 147
Today Iām going to put an end to this conversation once and for all. Iāll be the first to admit I spent to much time on this question myself, and so I donāt want you to. For a very long time, Iāve wrestled with the idea of what should I call myself. Should I ever use the term āfreelancer.ā Should I call myself a āconsultantā or āweb developer.ā In Episode 61 What is freelance? , I dove into the negative perception of the word what you can do to change that perception. A lot of my friends online ...
Sep 17, 2018ā¢8 minā¢Ep. 146
I posted a question in our FB Group, Sustainable Freelancer . Which is free by the way, get in there if you havenāt done so already. The question was "What do you see as your biggest hurdle in growing your business?" and someone PMād me instead of replying to the post itself saying āMy biggest hurdle is me, Iām an introvert and I always seem to have a problem with my confidence. Self-doubt always creeps in and Iām not sure how to get away from that.ā Out of respect, Iāll just refer to this perso...
Sep 14, 2018ā¢9 minā¢Ep. 145
If you donāt work take your business as serious as your clientsā well you wonāt be in business for long. Have to be disciplined on protecting that time. As I mentioned in yesterdayās episode, when you are freelancing or consulting, you have to be extremely mindful of your time. It can quickly get out of hand where you spend a tremendous amount of time on things that you shouldnāt be. Now working āONā your business really isnāt something that is a choice if you are running a business. But I get t...
Sep 13, 2018ā¢6 minā¢Ep. 144
