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 ...
Jul 06, 2015•48 min•Ep. 31
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 l...
Jun 29, 2015•52 min•Ep. 30
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 ...
Jun 22, 2015•28 min•Ep. 29
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 th...
Jun 15, 2015•41 min•Ep. 28
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 ...
May 19, 2015•50 min•Ep. 27
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 ...
May 04, 2015•49 min•Ep. 26
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 ...
Apr 27, 2015•28 min•Ep. 25
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 pro...
Mar 30, 2015•34 min•Ep. 24
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 Posi...
Mar 19, 2015•59 min•Ep. 23
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 ...
Dec 01, 2014•52 min•Ep. 22
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. We...
Nov 18, 2014•52 min•Ep. 21
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 cha...
Sep 08, 2014•45 min•Ep. 20
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 c...
Aug 30, 2014•40 min•Ep. 19
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...
Aug 20, 2014•55 min•Ep. 18
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.
Jun 11, 2014•41 min•Ep. 17
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
Jun 11, 2014•31 min•Ep. 16
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...
May 10, 2014•38 min•Ep. 15
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...
Feb 14, 2014•6 min•Ep. 14
This week I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Sherry Walling, a clinical psychologist and counselor and the wife of Rob Walling, who we talked with in Episode 12 . Sherry gave a fantastic talk at MicroConf last year on ways that entrepreneurs can manage their own anxiety, and I wanted to bring her on to discuss how you can make sure that your life as a freelance consultants doesn’t end up hurting your health, your relationships, and your family. You can follow Sherry on Twitter at @z...
Feb 13, 2014•41 min•Ep. 13
This week my special guest was Rob Walling . He’s known for the following… Drip HitTail Startups for the Rest of Us Start Small, Stay Small Software by Rob MicroConf Micropreneur Academy DotNetInvoice Apprentice Lineman Jobs And I thought I did a lot! We chatted about how you can move — either partially or fully — from freelancing to making money from products....
Dec 12, 2013•41 min•Ep. 12
In this episode, I talked with Marcus Blankenship of CREO Agency . If you don’t live in a tech hotbed like SF or NYC and you worry that your location will hinder your ability to recruit clients, you won’t want to miss this episode. I also mentioned my upcoming Skillshare course on value pricing proposals. Here’s the link.
Jul 19, 2013•33 min•Ep. 11
Today I talked with Nick Hance of Reenhanced about ways of setting yourself apart from your competition. If you’ve ever wondered how you, as say a Ruby developer, are any different than me (a Ruby developer) or thousands of other Ruby developers, you’ll want to listen to this discussion. I also opened the show by talking about my upcoming bootcamp with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) on how to create recurring revenue for your consulting business. Here’s the link to the bootcamp....
Jul 14, 2013•33 min•Ep. 10
I’ve recently been to quite a few “product” conferences ( LessConf , MicroConf and soon BaconBizConf ), and what I keep finding is that a LOT of freelancers are in attendance. It’s no secret that most freelancers want to one day build and sell a product or two of their own, but how? How do you figure out what to build and ultimately sell it to the right people? In this episode, I cover four ways that you can quickly start productizing your consulting business and escaping selling your time for m...
May 27, 2013•27 min•Ep. 9
This is the first episode of 2013 for The Business of Freelancing Podcast, and inside I cover everything you need to know about dealing with those pesky clients who want to know “How much is it gonna cost me?” We explore how to qualify new leads, offer an initial consult, and how to make it known that we’re consultants — not just guns for hire. Here’s the letter that John wrote me that prompted this episode: Biggest fear with new client? Pricing, definitely. What’s their budget, when it’s near i...
Apr 08, 2013•37 min•Ep. 8
Hosted by Brennan Dunn , Eric Davis , and special guest Obie Fernandez Show Notes 00:23 - Obie Fernandez Introduction Author of The Rails Way and The Rails 3 Way Hashrocket Prominent figure in the Ruby/Agile communities Professional software developer since 1995 Started a user group in Atlanta for Extreme Programming ThoughtWorks 04:11 - Importance of building a reputation and personal brand Controversial blogging Resistance against Java and then Rails 07:03 - Building a brand Client demand for ...
Nov 12, 2012•40 min•Ep. 7
Hosted by Brennan Dunn and Eric Davis . Show Notes 00:50 - Sales Pipeline Moving people through a series of steps to get them to be a paying customer Acquisition to qualification to scoping to clients 04:11 - Content marketing to project delivery 08:02 - Tracking leads Highrise Fat Free CRM PipelineDeals Pipedrive Whiteboard Spreadsheet 12:29 - Networking Referrals Are they a good fit? Do timelines overlap? 14:36 - Qualification Why should this project exist? Do you have budget? When do you want...
Nov 08, 2012•41 min•Ep. 6
Hosted by Brennan Dunn and Eric Davis . Show Notes 00:10 - Content Marketing Making information available for personal gain/recognition Duct Tape Marketing: John Jantsch Getting to know you 03:51 - Getting content in front of people Blogging Screencasting Publishing eBooks/PDFs Podcasting 05:24 - Promoting and building an audience Write with the intention of appealing to a specific audience Collect email addresses Infographics 07:38 - Appealing to potential clients and peer developers Be busines...
Oct 29, 2012•30 min•Ep. 5
Hosted by Brennan Dunn and Eric Davis with guest Nathan Barry . Show Notes 00:19 – Nathan Barry ( twitter blog ) Freelance Designer OneVoice App Commit App The App Design Handbook 01:14 – Show topic goals Building a passive income stream outside a freelancing business Balancing client work while developing products How product offerings affected his freelancing business Building products while freelancing 01:53 – Nathan’s professional career background 03:35 – Products to supplement a freelancin...
Oct 18, 2012•34 min•Ep. 4
Hosted by Brennan Dunn and Eric Davis Show Notes Fall in Virginia Writing fiction Pricing freelancing services Double your freelancing rate Reverse engineering your former salary Value based pricing, value delivered to clients Origins of your price How to decide on a price Cost plus – Cost of materials, cost of equipment, labor cost, and profit. Commodity pricing Lack of major expenses for freelancers when using a cost plus model Cost of living Market rate Battle between supply and demand High d...
Oct 10, 2012•38 min•Ep. 3
Hosted by Brennan Dunn and Eric Davis Show Notes Ways we have marketed our consulting services in our past. Blogging, forum posting, content marketing, and social networks. Technical blogging, business blogging, random thoughts blogging. Investing into marketing activities Products can drive consulting sales Marketing sales funnel Ask “how did you hear about me?” Difficult to track every single person from marketing source to sale Easier to track in teh aggerate based on source (e.g. Hacker News...
Oct 03, 2012•43 min•Ep. 2
