Until you stop and actually think about it.

Because once you do, it completely falls apart.

Charging by the hour isn’t neutral. It isn’t fair. And it definitely isn’t aligned with the value most senior marketers, consultants, or strategists actually deliver.

Here’s why hourly billing sucks, and why it quietly holds back both you and your clients 👇

Hourly billing prices labour, not value ⏱️

When you charge hourly, you’re selling time.

Not outcomes.
Not insight.
Not judgement.

Just hours.

That immediately frames your work as execution rather than expertise. It tells the client the most valuable thing about you is how long you sit at your desk, not what’s happening inside your head.

That’s a terrible signal to send if your real value comes from knowing what to do, when to do it, and just as importantly, what not to touch at all.

You don’t get paid for the years it took to get good 🎓

Clients don’t hire you because of the next six hours you’re going to work.

They hire you because of the last five, ten, or fifteen years.

The mistakes you’ve already made.
The patterns you recognise instantly.
The instincts you trust because they’ve been stress-tested in the real world.

Hourly billing ignores all of that.

It prices you the same whether it took you a decade to learn something or five minutes to Google it. That’s absurd, especially in strategy-led work where speed is often a by-product of experience.

Thinking time is invisible, but it’s where the value lives 🧠

Some of the most valuable work I do doesn’t happen at my laptop.

It happens on walks.
In the shower.
While staring at a Notion doc and doing absolutely nothing.

Hourly billing struggles with this because thinking doesn’t look like work. There’s no keyboard noise, no Slack messages, no neat paper trail.

But good marketing decisions are rarely made in a flurry of activity. They come from space, synthesis, and restraint.

Try itemising that on an invoice.

Efficiency is punished, not rewarded ⚡

Here’s the real kicker.

The better you get, the worse hourly billing becomes for you.

As your experience compounds, you work faster. You spot problems earlier. You avoid dead ends that juniors fall straight into.

And what happens?

You earn less.

Hourly billing actively disincentivises improvement. It rewards slowness, over-analysis, and unnecessary complexity. It encourages people to drag work out instead of landing the plane.

That’s bad for clients and it’s bad for the industry.

Your network has value, but it’s never billed 🤝

Marketing doesn’t happen in isolation.

Sometimes the most valuable thing you bring to a project is an introduction, a recommendation, or a quiet DM to the right person at the right time.

Hourly billing can’t capture that.

There’s no line item for “saved you three weeks by knowing who to ask” or “amplified your work because I have an audience that trusts me”.

And yet, those moments often have more impact than hours of execution.

Clients don’t want time. They want confidence 🎯

Here’s the part that often gets missed.

Clients aren’t buying hours. They’re buying certainty.

They want to feel confident that:

Hourly billing doesn’t align with that desire. It turns the relationship into a transactional exchange rather than a partnership.

The conversation becomes about utilisation instead of outcomes.

So what’s the alternative?

Value-based pricing isn’t about “charging more”.

It’s about charging correctly.

It means pricing based on:

It forces better scoping. Better conversations. Better alignment on what success actually looks like.

And yes, it requires confidence. But if you don’t believe your expertise has value beyond hours, why should anyone else?

Final thought 💡

Hourly billing turns experts into commodities.

If your pricing model only values time, don’t be surprised when your work is treated as interchangeable.

Charge for judgement.
Charge for experience.
Charge for impact.

Your clients aren’t paying for the clock.
They’re paying because you know what you’re doing.

And that’s worth a lot more than an hour.

Embracing the Freelance Mindset

Freelancing isn’t simply a job choice; it’s a mindset shift. Before pulling the trigger, ask yourself:

Financial Milestones to Hit First

Money worries are the foremost blocker for aspiring freelancers. Aim to achieve these milestones before making the leap:

Professional Readiness Checklist

Beyond finances, ensure your business foundation is rock solid:

Lifestyle and Mindful Considerations

Freelancing merges personal and professional spheres. Reflect on:

The “Go” Signal: Combining Data and Intuition

All the planning in the world won’t replace gut instinct. When you:

…that’s your green light.

Trust your research, trust your skillset, and trust that once you commit, every challenge will teach you how to adapt and thrive.

The beauty of full-time freelancing is that you’re in the driver’s seat. When the time feels right—when your metrics, mindset, and market all align—shift into gear and accelerate toward autonomy.

Welcome to the ride.

On the fence about going full-time freelance?

Book your Freelance AMA with me here.

While I hadn’t, at any point, felt like I was overworked or actively trying to earn a specific target, I’d billed £262,205 ($360,726.67).

Note: You’ll now look at the outgoings underneath the incoming amount and wonder if I use subcontractors, etc. I don’t. 

All my outgoings are money spent on me: 

Yes, this year was an exceptional amount. I treated myself. Oh, and tax. I paid more tax than ever.

My point here is not to brag—though I am incredibly proud to have 1) earned this amount and 2) have the free time to write this post about how I achieved it.

My point is, instead, to share that the dream of earning genuinely great money as a freelancer is real.

What’s more, it’s not about working more hours or chasing every opportunity. I’ve said many times that I would not be a freelancer if I was forever sending cold pitches and applying for gigs that 400 other people were interested in.

Instead, I’ve built a system around three pillars: 

This isn’t about quick wins or overnight success. It’s about building a freelance business that earns you good money and provides you with the lifestyle you desire.

I’ve earned well over $1 million in freelance profit, never working more than four days a week. The secret isn’t grinding harder—it’s working smarter.

Note: I thoroughly appreciate that being a freelancer isn’t about the money for some people. It can be the lifestyle that’s most attractive or a necessity for a number of reasons. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t earn good money along the way. Likewise, $300,000 was never a goal of mine and doesn’t have to be a goal of yours. But it means I can buy nice things and go to nice places. Which is…nice.

First, you need to own your niche.

What does that mean?

In my book, I define being niche to mean you:

Then, Jason Patterson, a freelance content marketer, made it simpler and defined it as “niche means all the clients in your industry know your name.”

I love that.

Don’t just “specialize.” Become the person everyone in your industry knows and trusts.

When clients think of your niche, your name should be the first one that comes up. That’s niche dominance.

Specialists win on value. Generalists compete on price and get lost in the noise.

If you’re the expert in your field, clients come to you for your expertise—not to haggle on price.

How to Find Your Niche

Look for the intersection of your strengths, your interests, and what the market actually needs.

If you’re trying to narrow your niche and earn more money, don’t chase trends. Choose a niche that feels like a natural fit for you.

Ask yourself: 

My own niche is digital collaboration tools. It didn’t happen by accident. It was a mix of my background, my interests, and what companies needed.

Be specific. If you’re too broad, you’ll blend in with everyone else. That’s often referred to as being a “generalist”.

The Trap of Being a Generalist

Generalists think they’re playing it safe by taking any project.

But it’s a trap.

You never build a reputation because your work is scattered. If you want to earn big, you need to specialize.

The next pillar is building a system where clients seek you out.

This is how you create a never-ending pipeline of inbound leads.

Authority in Three Steps

Clients need to know three things about you:

Content That Proves Your Value

Share your work. Share your wins. Share what you learn.

Don’t just talk about theory. Show real results from real projects.

When you finish a project, talk about it. When you get a great result, share it.

Teach what you learn. This builds your reputation and proves your expertise. This means sharing on LinkedIn and any other place where your niche folks hang out.

Become the Go-To

When you’re known for something and you’re great at it, clients come to you.

You stop cold pitching and start getting inbound leads.

You get to pick your projects. You work with better clients. You make more money.

This is only possible, however, if your reputation is that you deliver high quality work every single time.

The third pillar is quality. Without it, nothing else matters.

Consistent, high-quality work is what turns your reputation and inbound leads into real, sustainable income.

So much so, that 24% of my income in the past few years has come from word of mouth introductions. People talk.

What Quality Really Means

Quality isn’t just about meeting the brief. It’s about exceeding expectations and making your client’s life easier. That’s why they hire you, after all. You can do that one thing they find hard or don’t have the time to do.

Great deliverables solve problems and show your value. In turn, they make you hireable and referrable.

Systemize Your Quality

Don’t leave quality to chance. Build systems.

Now, this doesn’t mean a technical system. It more means having a method to everything you do. For example, I know that every long-form blog post someone buys from me will take the same shape as the one before.

Why?

Because of the system I have in place.

Just because I follow the same process per blog post doesn’t mean you have to.

But do the following as a minimum:

What will you deliver, how many edits, all expectations in one place.

This keeps you focused and makes sure you and your client are on the same page.

Be Responsive

Reply to emails quickly. Communicate clearly.

One of my pet hates with ~anybody~ is choosing inaction over action. This applies to both my professional life and my personal life. Only yesterday, an industry colleague told me he had saved my video to watch back at the weekend.

He will never watch that video.

If you have a problem, an email, a -something you can do right now- just do it. Action drives action. Delays drive delays.

This builds trust and makes clients want to work with you again and again.

Excellence Compounds

Delivering quality work leads to repeat business and referrals.

Your reputation grows. You can charge more.

You spend less time on revisions or chasing payments. You get more done and make more money.

The Money Side: How $300,000+ Happens

To hit $300,000+, you need to understand the business side. My cheat code was being a full-time business consultant before I went freelance.

Here I learned about the value of a project/deliverable versus the time it takes to complete that deliverable.

It’s not about working more hours. It’s about charging what your output is worth.

Price for Value

Stop billing by the hour. Price for the value you deliver.

Ask yourself: 

When you know your value, you can charge what you’re worth. A blog post, for example, might generate tens of thousands for that client (if you execute it well). Any business case will show that you’re worth spending money on—if you come with the reputation of consistently delivering high value results.

Work with the Right Clients

Focus on fewer, higher-value clients.

Don’t take every small job.

This is the Upwork way. The only way 99% of freelancers make “good” money is by volume.

Instead, build relationships with clients who value your expertise and can pay for it.

Start with one project, then look for ways to add more value. Expand your work with each client.

If you’re consistently delivering, are becoming known in your niche, and understand budgets and business, this becomes a lot easier.

Multiple Revenue Streams

I’ve always been wary of including this—especially when giving advice to freelancers early in their journey.

While it pays (literally) to have multiple strings to your bow, focus should always be on improving that one thing you’re better than everyone else at. In my case, it’s writing marketing content for telecom companies.

However, when you get to the stage where you feel you genuinely do own your niche, look for ways to diversify.

Maybe you do consulting, training, or create digital products. Maybe you become an affiliate for products you recommend.

Every new stream should reinforce your reputation—not distract from it.

Your Action Plan

Here’s how to put it all together.

1. Define Your Niche

2. Build Authority

3. Systemize Quality

4. Optimize Your Business Model

The Autonomous Freelancer Advantage

Earning $300,000+ as a freelancer isn’t about hustling harder. The word hustle, quite frankly, makes me sick.

It’s about building a business that runs on your expertise, authority, and quality.

When you get it right, you’ll spend less time pitching and more time earning. You’ll work with clients who value you and pay what you’re worth.

The only question: are you ready to put them into action?

A lot of freelancers nod along to my content like this. They understand that they’re doing it wrong. Then, and this breaks my heart, they resort back to their old ways because it’s easier.

Sure. It is easier.

But that’s why you’re not earning to your full potential.

It’s hard to change. Humans are naturally resistant to change.

One small step at a time is what it takes.

To take your first step, please consider buying my book. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I’m certain it will help you.

👉 Buy the paperback on Amazon

👉 Get the ebook on Gumroad (with pay parity for location-based pricing)

While I hadn’t, at any point, felt like I was overworked or actively trying to earn a specific target, I’d billed £262,205 ($360,726.67).

Note: You’ll now look at the outgoings underneath the incoming amount and wonder if I use subcontractors, etc. I don’t. 

All my outgoings are money spent on me: 

Yes, this year was an exceptional amount. I treated myself. Oh, and tax. I paid more tax than ever.

My point here is not to brag—though I am incredibly proud to have 1) earned this amount and 2) have the free time to write this post about how I achieved it.

My point is, instead, to share that the dream of earning genuinely great money as a freelancer is real.

What’s more, it’s not about working more hours or chasing every opportunity. I’ve said many times that I would not be a freelancer if I was forever sending cold pitches and applying for gigs that 400 other people were interested in.

Instead, I’ve built a system around three pillars: 

This isn’t about quick wins or overnight success. It’s about building a freelance business that earns you good money and provides you with the lifestyle you desire.

I’ve earned well over $1 million in freelance profit, never working more than four days a week. The secret isn’t grinding harder—it’s working smarter.

Note: I thoroughly appreciate that being a freelancer isn’t about the money for some people. It can be the lifestyle that’s most attractive or a necessity for a number of reasons. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t earn good money along the way. Likewise, $300,000 was never a goal of mine and doesn’t have to be a goal of yours. But it means I can buy nice things and go to nice places. Which is…nice.

First, you need to own your niche.

What does that mean?

In my book, I define being niche to mean you:

Then, Jason Patterson, a freelance content marketer, made it simpler and defined it as “niche means all the clients in your industry know your name.”

I love that.

Don’t just “specialize.” Become the person everyone in your industry knows and trusts.

When clients think of your niche, your name should be the first one that comes up. That’s niche dominance.

Specialists win on value. Generalists compete on price and get lost in the noise.

If you’re the expert in your field, clients come to you for your expertise—not to haggle on price.

How to Find Your Niche

Look for the intersection of your strengths, your interests, and what the market actually needs.

If you’re trying to narrow your niche and earn more money, don’t chase trends. Choose a niche that feels like a natural fit for you.

Ask yourself: 

My own niche is digital collaboration tools. It didn’t happen by accident. It was a mix of my background, my interests, and what companies needed.

Be specific. If you’re too broad, you’ll blend in with everyone else. That’s often referred to as being a “generalist”.

The Trap of Being a Generalist

Generalists think they’re playing it safe by taking any project.

But it’s a trap.

You never build a reputation because your work is scattered. If you want to earn big, you need to specialize.

The next pillar is building a system where clients seek you out.

This is how you create a never-ending pipeline of inbound leads.

Authority in Three Steps

Clients need to know three things about you:

Content That Proves Your Value

Share your work. Share your wins. Share what you learn.

Don’t just talk about theory. Show real results from real projects.

When you finish a project, talk about it. When you get a great result, share it.

Teach what you learn. This builds your reputation and proves your expertise. This means sharing on LinkedIn and any other place where your niche folks hang out.

Become the Go-To

When you’re known for something and you’re great at it, clients come to you.

You stop cold pitching and start getting inbound leads.

You get to pick your projects. You work with better clients. You make more money.

This is only possible, however, if your reputation is that you deliver high quality work every single time.

The third pillar is quality. Without it, nothing else matters.

Consistent, high-quality work is what turns your reputation and inbound leads into real, sustainable income.

So much so, that 24% of my income in the past few years has come from word of mouth introductions. People talk.

What Quality Really Means

Quality isn’t just about meeting the brief. It’s about exceeding expectations and making your client’s life easier. That’s why they hire you, after all. You can do that one thing they find hard or don’t have the time to do.

Great deliverables solve problems and show your value. In turn, they make you hireable and referrable.

Systemize Your Quality

Don’t leave quality to chance. Build systems.

Now, this doesn’t mean a technical system. It more means having a method to everything you do. For example, I know that every long-form blog post someone buys from me will take the same shape as the one before.

Why?

Because of the system I have in place.

Just because I follow the same process per blog post doesn’t mean you have to.

But do the following as a minimum:

What will you deliver, how many edits, all expectations in one place.

This keeps you focused and makes sure you and your client are on the same page.

Be Responsive

Reply to emails quickly. Communicate clearly.

One of my pet hates with ~anybody~ is choosing inaction over action. This applies to both my professional life and my personal life. Only yesterday, an industry colleague told me he had saved my video to watch back at the weekend.

He will never watch that video.

If you have a problem, an email, a -something you can do right now- just do it. Action drives action. Delays drive delays.

This builds trust and makes clients want to work with you again and again.

Excellence Compounds

Delivering quality work leads to repeat business and referrals.

Your reputation grows. You can charge more.

You spend less time on revisions or chasing payments. You get more done and make more money.

The Money Side: How $300,000+ Happens

To hit $300,000+, you need to understand the business side. My cheat code was being a full-time business consultant before I went freelance.

Here I learned about the value of a project/deliverable versus the time it takes to complete that deliverable.

It’s not about working more hours. It’s about charging what your output is worth.

Price for Value

Stop billing by the hour. Price for the value you deliver.

Ask yourself: 

When you know your value, you can charge what you’re worth. A blog post, for example, might generate tens of thousands for that client (if you execute it well). Any business case will show that you’re worth spending money on—if you come with the reputation of consistently delivering high value results.

Pricing freelancing projects.

Look for ways to grow each client relationship.

Everything I've learned.

A thread.

— Tom Hirst (@tom_hirst) June 30, 2020

Work with the Right Clients

Focus on fewer, higher-value clients.

Don’t take every small job.

This is the Upwork way. The only way 99% of freelancers make “good” money is by volume.

Instead, build relationships with clients who value your expertise and can pay for it.

Start with one project, then look for ways to add more value. Expand your work with each client.

If you’re consistently delivering, are becoming known in your niche, and understand budgets and business, this becomes a lot easier.

Multiple Revenue Streams

I’ve always been wary of including this—especially when giving advice to freelancers early in their journey.

While it pays (literally) to have multiple strings to your bow, focus should always be on improving that one thing you’re better than everyone else at. In my case, it’s writing marketing content for telecom companies.

However, when you get to the stage where you feel you genuinely do own your niche, look for ways to diversify.

Maybe you do consulting, training, or create digital products. Maybe you become an affiliate for products you recommend.

Every new stream should reinforce your reputation—not distract from it.

Your Action Plan

Here’s how to put it all together.

1. Define Your Niche

2. Build Authority

3. Systemize Quality

4. Optimize Your Business Model

The Autonomous Freelancer Advantage

Earning $300,000+ as a freelancer isn’t about hustling harder. The word hustle, quite frankly, makes me sick.

It’s about building a business that runs on your expertise, authority, and quality.

When you get it right, you’ll spend less time pitching and more time earning. You’ll work with clients who value you and pay what you’re worth.

The only question: are you ready to put them into action?

A lot of freelancers nod along to my content like this. They understand that they’re doing it wrong. Then, and this breaks my heart, they resort back to their old ways because it’s easier.

Sure. It is easier.

But that’s why you’re not earning to your full potential.

It’s hard to change. Humans are naturally resistant to change.

One small step at a time is what it takes.

If what you read here feels like the missing piece in your freelance revenue, my book expands every strategy into actionable, step-by-step playbooks you can implement this week.

"If you want to take your freelance career to the next level, do yourself a favor and read this book." - Amna Aslam, Freelance Writer.

👉 Buy the paperback on Amazon

👉 Get the ebook on Gumroad (with pay parity for location-based pricing)

Does that mean I had an unfair advantage on my journey to earning $300,000 a year as a freelancer ?

I say no.

It means I was ready to become a freelancer because people knew about my work, my subject matter expertise, and my reputation.

I had written a little bit, but I was no means a writer. I did, however, have a solid network thanks to my online presence and attendance at industry events. It’s this that set me up for my decision, in October 2018, to turn my back on my £75,000-per-year job 9-5 job.

I was niche. I was somewhat known. I was ready.

Now, you might not be ready. And I plan to cover this in this blog post, too. However, you must always have in the back of your mind that the best way to achieve freelance success is to create a never-ending pipeline of clients thanks to being known for your consistent quality in your niche.

Once you’ve carved out a specialised niche and delivered outstanding work, clients stop being a chase and start coming straight to you.

Yet every freelancer faces the catch-22 of needing proof of expertise before those inbound leads materialize.

Before I preach inbound marketing and word of mouth referrals, let’s tap into these proven strategies to land your first clients and then turn your reputation into a self-sustaining pipeline.

Landing Your First Clients

Until your inbound engine roars to life, deploy these tactics inspired by top UK and US freelancers:

Tell Everyone You Know

Your personal and professional network is your first goldmine.

Moonlight for Your Employer

If you’re still on payroll, gauge whether your current company needs freelance support. Part-time projects for a known client let you:

If you work in pre-sales but can write blog posts, your marketing team might be looking for that exact combo of subject matter experience and desire to write.

Leverage LinkedIn for B2B Tech

LinkedIn remains the premier platform for B2B lead generation in tech niches:

Deliver Exceptional Early Work

Your first few projects set the tone for referrals. Over deliver on quality, communication, and deadlines.

Happy clients become champions—sometimes referring multiple colleagues in a single ask. Track referral rates and ask for introductions when wrapping up each project.

Note: While not all customers will give you a case study, collect logos and nice things they say so you can bring them up in conversations. (Obviously not if you have an NDA in place.)

Promote Every Deliverable

When you start getting freelance clients and producing outputs, the number one thing that brings me clients is sharing my work online.

Whatever you create—blog posts, whitepapers, slide decks, code samples—push it out to the world.

Proactive content promotion consistently outperforms cold outreach. If strict NDAs apply, negotiate an anonymised case study or at least a summary you can share.

Transition to an Inbound Pipeline

Once those first clients are under your belt, systemise your growth:

Make Work Come to You

This section is taken directly from my book, The Autonomous Freelancer .

Chapter 4 - How to make work come to you

I ask my Twitter audience questions like: “What’s your least favorite part about writing?” and I get answers like “Finding clients”. This makes me sad.

My query was to find out what people don’t like about writing. The automatic association for some freelance writers is that writing is business.

When I ask questions like “What’s your favorite part about writing?” I get answers like expression and freedom and other wonderful words that I also love about writing.

Likewise, when I join Twitter Chats about freelancing, the same topics come up time and again:

Finding clients is hard.

And, honestly, I don’t get it.

Now, that might sound callous or arrogant. And maybe it is. Because, while I appreciate how hard it is to get new clients when you cold pitch and submit CVs, I can’t get my head around why people don’t deviate from this horrible process.

Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” 

So why do people persist in the process that’s “hard, tiresome, boring, painful, arduous, mind-numbing, and demoralizing”?

The answer is: because it’s habit. Remember that small word that causes so much pain or gain?

Let’s do something about that habit.

I have secured customers from two avenues during my career as a freelance marketer. Note, I use the term “avenues” rather than channels or platforms. I’m not about to tell you to go all in on Twitter or start writing life-coaching posts on LinkedIn. Neither am I about to tell you to start writing long-form blog posts to try and rank on Google.

The two avenues that have bought me all my customers are:

1 - Word of mouth referral

Word of mouth referrals are when someone literally recommends you to their colleagues, peers, friends, bosses, competitors, anyone.

I’ve had 25 customers in the last 5 years. To validate that word of mouth referrals not only exist but work, I’ve counted back which of those 25 have been word of mouth referrals.

Care to hazard a guess?

6** of those (24%) have come from word of mouth referrals. Actually, 3 of them were from the same person.

And that’s only the referrals that became paying customers. Sometimes they weren’t a good fit. And we’ve already touched on when it’s okay to say no to new business.

**Editing note: I got 3 word of mouth referrals today. Two within my niche and one under the blanket of digital marketing. These came from two former customers and one person I network with online. Word of mouth is real, folks.

So, how do you get a word of mouth referral?

Other than having nice customers who do this naturally, it’s a two-pronged approach to obtaining referrals:

Delivering great work speaks for itself. If you provide late or below-par work, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to get a referral.

Not only does the work you deliver have to be great, but it must also be a good working experience for your client. If they have to chase you after delivery dates or you ignore feedback, you’re no longer making your client’s life easier. And, after all, that’s why they hire you: you have a specialist skill they can’t complete (or complete as well) in-house.

But there is still no harm in asking for a referral if you’ve delivered great work. For example, when growing one client’s blog, we’d reached levels we could never have imagined. The impact on the business was so great that more than 90% of the pipeline could be attributed to work I’d completed. When the time came to reduce work with that particular client, I asked them if they knew anybody else who’d benefit from the work we’d done.

The result?

17 referrals. 

And, no, that’s not a typo.

My client was so thrilled with my work that they wanted to spread the work with peers, former colleagues, and investors.

Sure, not all 17 turned out to be anything. But they all have quality recommendations for when they do.

That said, it’s hard to gain word of mouth referrals from existing customers only. And, what if you don’t have many customers yet?

That’s where my second avenue comes in. Let’s talk about content promotion.

2 - Content promotion

What’s the first thing you do after you complete your work for a client? 

Okay, after you breathe a sigh of relief, what should you do?

Why?

Content promotion makes up the rest of the 76% of customers that have come to me and asked if I can do work for them.

By “content”, let’s assume I’m referring to whatever the output or deliverable is for your client. It may not be content in the traditional sense of consumable content marketing (videos, blogs, graphics, etc.) but you have provided someone with something. If you have no output to share, simply sharing that you’ve done something is great too. If you have a graph, chart, table, code snippet, behind-the-scenes photo, anything, it unlocks a passageway to being found online.

As well as the objection of having nothing to share (from freelancers who aren’t writers or designers mostly), obtaining permission and dealing with NDAs are the next most common. I’ll come to those shortly.

I’m forever surprised when I ask freelancers about their processes and they don’t include promotion outside of sharing on their favorite social media.

Don’t get me wrong. Social media is great. As I was writing this book, I shared an ebook that I worked on 9 months ago on LinkedIn. Within an hour, I had a message in my DMs asking me to create the same for a new client. Since completing this book, I’ve completed that ebook. It netted me £7,500 ($9,000).

It doesn’t always work that way. That’s why you need to consistently be distributing your content.

A thorough content promotion process, which only needs to be bullets of where to share, can take eyeballs on your content and outputs from zero to hero. But eyeballs don’t pay the bills. However, when the right people read your content, you stand a higher chance of getting business to come to you.

That’s why content distribution is so hard. And why so many marketing teams deprioritize it. Finding the right places takes effort, time, and research. Writing a new blog post feels like you’re contributing more. Creating a new infographic seems like everybody is busy. Creating new code when you haven’t tested your previous shows your client you’re efficient. But only on the front end. And, as any business-savvy person will tell you, it’s what happens behind the scenes (or after publication or handover in the case of a freelancer) that makes businesses money. We’re talking about optimization for search and promoting content in the right place.

To put that into context, I can attribute over $170,000 worth of work in the last 18 months to content promotion.

Over the last 5 years, I’ve collated where works, doesn’t work, and only works for certain content, so I have a plan of where to share my content when it’s ready to be released into the wild. Sure, I rely a lot on traffic from Google. But, in the example of one post in particular, I gained an extra 67% worth of views compared to just hitting publish and letting people find it on Google.

“Leaving dollars on the table” is an overused phrase in the marketing world. But, in the case of content distribution versus relying solely on SEO and a bit of luck, you’re not only leaving dollars on the table (i.e. missing customers who’d find your work and approach you) but you’re creating more work for yourself in terms of cold pitching and looking for gigs.

I promise you that promoting your content is a whole lot more validating too. Sharing something you made and getting feedback is invaluable. And don’t get me started on the dopamine hit when you get a bunch of likes or someone shares something you created.

Obtaining permission

The number one objection to promoting content that you’ve created is the fear that your customer won’t let you.

Let me be straight with you here.

They wouldn’t pay you if they didn’t want people to see it.

As a business owner myself, when I commission someone to write a blog post or create a graphic for me, I want them to share it.

Why?

Because more people will see it!

If you can’t get over this imaginary hurdle, there are some things you can do to:

When you ask your client what their content promotion process is, you might even get some extra work too. If content distribution is a weakness of theirs, you might get a gig writing social media copy or tacking on some outreach time as a deliverable in your retainer.

If it’s all taken care of in-house, a simple “I assume you’ll want me to share it too?” puts you on the front foot. Why would they say no? You just offered to amplify the asset they’re paying you to create.

Even in the case of ghostwriting, the act of sharing the post without publicly calling out you wrote it goes a long way. When someone reads it and thinks it’s great, they’ll ask you if you know the author. And that’s you!

When you do it anyway, there are two outcomes:

Use scenario judgment to gauge whether this is going to lose you a customer or gain you a fan.

In most cases, however, if your name’s on it, not promoting it is counterproductive to your freelance business.

Oh, but then there’s the dreaded NDA…

Dealing with NDAs

NDA stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement. This means your client doesn’t want you to disclose that you’re working with them, a certain product, or part of their business. In the case of security or sensitive topics, this is fairly commonplace.

If “the brand” is the author of blog posts, you might see this too. But it’s not the end of the world for promoting your content.

You have two options when a client proposes an NDA:

If you challenge the NDA, there are two scenarios:

The worst case scenario is they say no. So there really is no harm in asking.

When you promote enough content, success, or metrics, you draw people toward you. Customers come to me because they want me to replicate the success I’ve had with previous customers.

One major thing that helps with drawing people towards you is being known for a specific niche. This could be industry-specific, asset-specific, or skill-specific.

Are You Ready to be a Freelancer in the First Place?

If any of this has sounded overwhelming or you think you don’t have enough connections to start marketing yourself, it might simply be that you’re not ready to become a freelancer.

Listen. I get it. You see people (like me) posting about how great their freelance life is and how much money they earn.

Honestly, it’s amazing. I love my work and the life it enables me.

But I worked full-time for 10 years before I went freelance full-time. For the best part of that final year, I worked freelance for nearly as many hours as my full-time role.

It was this secondary income, combined with customers approaching me as I posted my content online, that made me realise I could do this type of work for myself.

Becoming freelance hadn’t been on my radar. But it made total sense at that time in my life.

Main Takeaway

Establish authority in a narrowly defined niche and build a rhythm of creating and promoting valuable content.

Inbound leads will become your primary growth engine. But to kick start that engine, combine network outreach, strategic moonlighting, laser-focused LinkedIn activity, high-impact early deliveries, and relentless content promotion.

Execute this playbook, and you’ll soon be fielding enquiries instead of hunting for work.

Need help with finding freelance clients?

Book a 30-mins freelance coaching call with me .

This is where Steven Bartlett’s concept of “the intentional duality of your rich life” becomes your secret weapon.

During his Diary of a CEO episode with Jaackmaate, Bartlett dropped this bombshell: “A rich life isn’t about choosing between wealth and fulfillment—it’s about designing both, intentionally.”

For freelancers, this isn’t just philosophy—it’s survival.

What Exactly Is This “Duality”?

Bartlett describes it as the daily practice of aligning two parallel tracks:

Most freelancers fail because they treat these as opposing forces. They either:

The magic happens when you stop seeing these as trade-offs and start treating them as interconnected gears in your personal success machine.

The Freelancer’s Time Chips (And How to Bet Them)

Bartlett uses a brutal but brilliant analogy: Every morning, you wake up with 16 “time chips” (assuming 8 hours of sleep).

How you allocate these chips determines your reality.

As a freelancer, your chips might look like this:

Ah, there’s the rub. Most of us hemorrhage those remaining 5 chips on:

The duality mindset forces you to invest those chips deliberately:

Why Your “Why” Needs Two Engines

During the podcast, Jaackmaate admitted his early YouTube success felt hollow.

Sound familiar? You land a dream client, crush the project, then… “Is this all there is?”

Bartlett’s solution: Fuel your career with twin engines:

A client recently told me: “I’ll pay £5k for that whitepaper—nobody knows this niche like you.” Five years ago, I’d have spent a week over-delivering. Now?

That’s duality in action—getting paid premium rates for your expertise while buying back time to deepen that expertise further.

The Plumber Paradox (And What It Teaches Us)

Bartlett often compares freelancers to tradespeople. When a plumber charges £250 to fix a leak in 30 minutes, you don’t say: “But it only took you half an hour!” You pay for:

Yet when a freelancer charges £1k for a project that “only took a day,” we agonize over invoices. The duality mindset flips this:

Your day rate isn’t paying for a day—it’s paying for:

The Ghost of Freelance Future

Imagine two versions of yourself in five years:

Version A (No Duality):

Version B (Intentional Duality):

The bridge between these versions? Small daily allocations of those “time chips” toward both engines.

So…Imposter Syndrome or Market Dilution?

Earlier this year, a client admitted: “We’re paying you 3x our last freelancer because you don’t make us nervous.”

That’s the duality dividend—when your internal confidence (skills, boundaries, self-worth) directly fuels external success.

The next time you hesitate to hit “send” on an invoice, ask:
“Am I undercharging because I’m not good enough…or because I haven’t embraced that I’m the plumber with the £250 wrench?”

Bartlett’s right: A rich life isn’t about balance. It’s about intentional imbalance—knowing exactly which chips to push across the table today for the tomorrow you want.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a dog to walk. Those chips aren’t going to bet themselves.

Want more?

Here’s how I built a freelance business that doesn’t own me.

And if you’re still reading this at 8pm instead of living your rich life?

Book your freelancing coaching session with me here.

You're Not Selling Time, You're Selling Expertise

Here's the thing that took me far too long to understand: clients don't hire you because you have eight hours to spare. They hire you because you can solve their problem faster, better, or with less hassle than anyone else they know.

When I write a whitepaper for a unified communications company, I'm not just selling them the time it takes me to write 3,000 words. I'm selling them 17 years of industry knowledge, the ability to translate technical jargon into compelling narratives, and the network of contacts that helped me understand what their audience actually cares about.

That's not time—that's talent and experience. And talent and experience are worth significantly more than time.

The Guilt Is Real (And It's Holding You Back)

Every freelancer I know has felt it. That uncomfortable feeling when you quote a rate that feels "too high". The imposter syndrome creeping in, whispering that you don't deserve to charge premium rates.

Here's what I've learned: if clients accept your rates without any pushback, you're probably undercharging. When someone books you immediately at your quoted rate and asks for more work, that's not luck—that's validation that your pricing reflects your value.

A Day's Work Doesn't Always Take a Day

This is where it gets interesting. Last month, I completed a competitor analysis for a client that took me three hours. Five years ago, the same project would have taken me two full days. Should I charge less because I've become more efficient?

Absolutely not.

The client received the same quality output—actually, better quality because of my increased experience. They got their deliverable faster, which meant they could move forward with their strategy sooner. My efficiency became their advantage.

This is exactly why project-based pricing makes so much more sense than hourly rates. When you charge per project or deliverable—whether that's a blog post, a graphic design, or a strategy document—you're pricing based on value, not time.

Think about it this way: if a whitepaper takes you one day to complete and your client is willing to pay the equivalent of what you used to bill for five days' work, congratulations. You've just proven that your expertise is worth exactly what they're paying. They recognize you as the specialist, which is precisely why they came to you instead of their intern or a content mill.

Everyone Else Does It (And You Should Too)

Let's look at how other professionals price their services, because this isn't unique to freelancing.

Plumbers charge between £20-£95 per hour, with an average of £45 per hour. But here's the key: they don't just charge for the time they spend under your sink. They charge for their expertise in diagnosing the problem, their knowledge of which parts to use, and their ability to fix it properly the first time. A complex repair might cost £250 regardless of whether it takes two hours or four.

Lawyers operate similarly. They charge £200+ per hour, but many legal services are moving toward fixed-fee structures based on the complexity and value of the case. A solicitor doesn't charge less for a contract review just because they can spot issues faster than a junior colleague.

Management consultants command daily rates ranging from £500 to £2,000+ depending on their specialization and experience. They're not selling time—they're selling strategic insights, industry knowledge, and the ability to solve complex business problems.

All of these professionals use value-based pricing because they understand a fundamental truth: clients pay for outcomes, not inputs.

The Efficiency Paradox

Here's something that will probably resonate: the better you get at your job, the less time it takes you to complete projects. This creates what I call the "efficiency paradox"—traditional hourly billing actually punishes you for becoming more skilled.

When I started freelancing, a 2,000-word blog post took me a full day. Sometimes more. Now, I can write the same post in three hours (not always but let's use this as a common example). If I charged hourly, I'd be earning less money for providing better work. That's backwards.

This is why I moved to project-based pricing early in my freelance career. It allows me to capture the value of my expertise and efficiency. When a client needs a blog post, they're not buying my time—they're buying a piece of content that will drive traffic, generate leads, or establish thought leadership.

Is It Imposter Syndrome or Market Dilution?

So here's the question that keeps me up at night: when we hesitate to charge what we're worth, is it because of imposter syndrome, or is it because others in our field are diluting the perceived value of quality work?

I think it's both.

Imposter syndrome is real and pervasive among freelancers. We question whether we deserve premium rates, especially when we're surrounded by platforms advertising "$5 logos" and "blog posts from $10".

But here's the thing: those aren't your competitors.

The client who values strategic thinking, quality deliverables, and professional communication isn't shopping on price alone. They understand that expertise costs more than amateur work.

Your job isn't to compete with the bottom of the market—it's to demonstrate why you're worth the premium.

At the same time, there's truth to the market dilution argument. When freelancers consistently undercharge, it creates an expectation that quality work should be cheap. But that's not a reason to join the race to the bottom—it's a reason to differentiate yourself even more clearly.

The Path Forward

Every time you undercharge, you're not just hurting yourself—you're contributing to the devaluation of professional services across your industry. Every time you charge what you're worth, you're setting a standard for quality work.

Remember: you're not just selling a service. You're selling years of experience, specialized knowledge, and the ability to deliver results that matter to your clients. That's worth paying for, and more importantly, it's worth charging for.

The next time you feel guilty about your rates, ask yourself this:

Would you rather do one project for £1,000 or ten projects for £100?

The math is the same, but your stress levels, quality of work, and long-term sustainability certainly aren't.

You deserve what you charge because you've earned the right to charge it. The client agrees, or they wouldn't have hired you. Trust in that value, price accordingly, and watch how it transforms not just your income, but your entire relationship with your work.

If this resonates with you, you might enjoy The Autonomous Freelancer book. And if you're struggling with pricing conversations, remember: the right clients will pay for quality. The wrong clients will always haggle, regardless of how low your rates are.

Don't forget: if you're struggling with pricing or acknowledging your worth as a freelancer, I run freelance coaching sessions where you can ask me absolutely anything.

Book your freelance coaching session here.

But what if focusing too much on goals is hurting us? Sometimes, we get so obsessed with the end result that we forget to enjoy the journey.

I've experienced it firsthand.

10 years ago, I had a clear goal: to become an engineer and climb the corporate ladder.

I worked hard, and got my degree, but never landed the "dream job." It felt like a failure.

Later, I switched to freelance writing on Fiverr and set new goals—reaching Level 1 and Level 2 status. I was almost there when my account was suddenly banned.

Two goals, two setbacks.

These experiences made me rethink the way I approach goals. As Farrah Garcia ’s post reminds us, careers don’t always follow a straight path.

This article looks at the downsides of being too focused on goals and suggests a better way: focusing on purpose rather than just the result.

How having a goal relates to purposefulness

Purposefulness is the quality of knowing what you intend to do.

Goals, when aligned with this purpose, are powerful tools. However, the wrong goals, or a disconnect between goals and purpose, can have a detrimental impact on your morale, health, and even growth as a freelancer.

A freelancer might set a financial goal, like earning $10,000 monthly.

But what if achieving it doesn't bring fulfillment? 

What if it comes at the cost of burnout, due to overwork or toxic client relationships?

Well-crafted goals should express your purpose.

Instead of just "$10,000 a month," a purpose-driven goal might be: Earn $10,000 a month so that I can work fewer hours and spend more time with family.

This connects financial success to a deeper value.

A freelancer focused solely on revenue might neglect other important aspects of their business, like work-life balance or client relationships. They might earn the money but sacrifice their well-being in the process, leading to burnout or dissatisfaction.

The concept of arrival fallacy

Fast forward to when I set up my freelance writing business. I wanted to grow but felt burned out as a generalist writer, so I decided to explore data analysis.

I planned to leave freelance writing entirely and spent a year earning my data analysis certificate. When I passed, I was on cloud nine.

But what happened when I finally reached my goal?

As defined by Calm, “arrival fallacy describes the belief that true happiness will come from accomplishing the next big thing”. Yet, more often than not, when the goal is finally reached, the expected joy is either short-lived or absent entirely.

Finding a job as a junior data analyst turned out to be much harder than I expected. The industry favors niche specialists, not generalists.

Meanwhile, I had barely posted about content marketing on LinkedIn for a year. My impressions dropped, no new leads came in, and I worked with only a few new clients in 2024.

That’s when I remembered Dom Kent’s advice: “Be a niche specialist.”

I asked myself—wasn’t I leaving writing because being a generalist burned me out? I was working more but earning less. So why not combine both skills and become a data analysis writer or a research report writer?

That decision changed everything. I wrote data analysis articles and earned my highest pay yet.

Thriving in the moment

On the Diary of a CEO podcast, Jaackmaate decided not to answer the question of “Where do you want to be in five years time”.

Instead of focusing on five years down the line, he said, “ I’m really fucking happy mate ”.

Working towards a goal —especially one as far out as five years—isn’t conducive to growth and actively moves towards arrival fallacy.

A few years ago, I set long-term goals that spanned decades. Instead of motivating me, they only brought frustration and anxiety. They made me cling to a rigid plan and took away the joy of living in the present.

The world is constantly changing—new technologies emerge every day, and AI is reshaping industries. What seems like the perfect plan today might be irrelevant tomorrow.

Now, I focus on quarterly and daily goals as a freelancer. And I’ve never been happier.

Instead of stressing over a five-year plan, I set clear short-term targets, like how many reports I want to complete in a quarter.

This mindset shift is important for freelancers. Instead of obsessing over where you want to be in five years, focus on enjoying the work you're doing today.

The freedom to choose projects, the ability to work on your own terms, and the satisfaction of delivering great work. These are wins that often get overlooked in the race for bigger goals.

Working towards long-term milestones is important, but not at the cost of your present happiness.

Freelancing is about flexibility, creativity, and fulfillment. If you're always chasing the next big thing, you might miss out on the rewards of the journey itself.

What goals should you set as a freelancer?

Not all goals are bad. The key is to set the right kinds of goals. As freelancers, we should focus on:

1. Commit to continuous learning

Staying updated and expanding is crucial when building a successful freelance business. This may sometimes mean forfeiting billable days for learning.

Think about attending industry conferences, taking relevant courses, and spending time following and networking with experts in your field.

For example, I took the course How to Write Blog Posts That Get 500,000 Views, which helped me improve my outlining and editing skills.

I also attended Tommy Walker’s Content Theory monthly webinars to deepen my knowledge of content marketing.

These resources have 100% improved my writing and content marketing skills so I now get minimal edits when submitting work.

2. Build genuine professional relationships

Networking isn’t just about getting clients—it’s about building long-term relationships. Be active on social media, have casual coffee chats, and support peers by sharing their work.

Dom Kent, for example, recommended Gaetano Nino DiNardi’s SEO course in his email, showing how small gestures can strengthen connections.

3. Align goals with personal values

Define what's truly important to you in your freelance career.

Is it creative freedom? Work-life balance? Making a positive impact? Align your actions with these values.

Nick Lafferty explained it well in his LinkedIn post. Success isn’t just about earning more; it’s about building a business that actually makes you happy.

4. Maintain past client relationships

Freelancing isn’t just about landing new clients —it’s also about nurturing past connections. Like Tyler Hakes, who prioritized reconnecting with former clients and team members. You can make it a goal to reach out to people you've lost touch with.

Send occasional check-ins, holiday messages, or simple catch-ups to keep relationships strong. Even if it doesn’t lead to immediate business opportunities, maintaining these connections can bring long-term growth, referrals, and a supportive network

5. Market your services with a data-driven approach

Freelancing success comes from steady marketing, not just great work. As Liam Carnahan emphasized, tracking how marketing efforts impact income is key. 

Set a goal to build a marketing strategy that aligns time spent on content promotion with financial goals. By analyzing patterns, freelancers can adjust efforts for better results.

6. Set up a clear financial system

Separate personal and business finances to maintain stability. Have a dedicated business account, set aside money for taxes, and keep a savings buffer for slow months.

As shared by Anna Burgess Yang, structured financial management, like transferring fixed payments to yourself, using a business credit card for expenses, and keeping surplus funds for growth or education are all must dos when looking after your finances as a freelancer.

What goals should you avoid as a freelancer?

While some goals can drive success, others can create unnecessary pressure or lead to disappointment. Here are a few goals freelancers should avoid:

1. Forcing yourself into a productivity model that doesn't suit you 

Freelancers often try to follow a 9-5 work structure, but that doesn’t suit everyone. Dom Kent shared how he broke free from rigid corporate habits and found his ideal workflow.

Instead of forcing a fixed schedule, focus on when and how you work best to maximize efficiency without burnout.

2. Rushing into projects without clear agreements

Jumping into work without contracts can lead to payment issues, scope creep, or even getting ghosted by clients. Avoid making “getting started quickly” a goal if it comes at the cost of clear contractual terms.

Liz Clinen shared how even verbally agreed terms can lead to disputes. Always sign a contract before starting a project. The Autonomous Freelancer includes a useful contract template that I  use for signing contracts.

3. Relying solely on client work for income

Don’t rely solely on client work. Many freelancers depend entirely on projects for income, which can be risky.

Once you've built a name in your industry, explore additional income sources like coaching, courses, books, or checklists. The Autonomous Freelancer has a dedicated chapter on this.

4. Prioritizing income over mental health

High-paying clients aren’t always worth it if they cause stress. In a conversation between Estelle and Jai Shree, they discussed how toxic clients drain energy and harm long-term success.

Freelancers should focus on sustainable work relationships rather than just high revenue.

5. Falling into the feast or famine cycle

Many freelancers experience inconsistent income—one month they’re overwhelmed, and the next they’re struggling. This happens when marketing stops during busy periods.

In Chapter two of The Autonomous Freelancer, Dispelling Freelance Myths, Dom Kent explains in detail how to avoid feast and famine.

He shared his slides on how to generate a never-ending freelance pipeline too.

6. Setting unrealistic income goals

One of the biggest pitfalls for freelancers is setting income goals that are either too vague or overly ambitious. Don't just pick random income numbers as goals. Instead, calculate two key figures:

For example, if you usually earn $3,000 a month, don't suddenly aim for $10,000. Try for $4,000 or $5,000 first. It's better to grow slowly and steadily than to try too much too fast and get discouraged.

Keep track of your earnings, see what's working, and change your goals as needed. Don't just hope for the best; use your income data to make smart decisions. This way, you'll avoid getting stressed and burnt out from trying to reach impossible goals.

Struggling to align your freelance goals and aspirations?

Struggling to balance goals and purpose in freelancing? Consider working with a freelance coach.

A freelance coach can help you clarify your purpose, identify your strengths, and develop a sustainable strategy for long-term success.

.

And I don’t care who knows it.

I want to do what I’m paid for extremely well and extremely efficiently.

If doing that creates an easy life for me, who’s to tell me I can’t have one?

We’re going to let off steam in this blog post.

Autonomous freelancers have easy lives

When you become a freelancer, it’s for a variety of reasons. You might crave independence, you may thrive working with multiple clients, or you may even like the process of attracting new business.

You get to be a business owner, a craftsperson, and a marketer all in one. It’s not easy becoming an autonomous freelancer (a freelancer who has things on autopilot and does what they like).

But it is the ultimate goal.

While very few freelancers —and heck, very few people in business— will admit it, we all want an easy life. It’s taboo. It’s frowned upon. It’s even thought of as a sign of weakness, laziness, and any other negative connotation that we would never associate with in other aspects of life.

Note: There are definitely people who enjoy, and even need, a challenge. But there’s a difference between solving problems and making them harder for no reason.

“ In the past, the man has been first; in the future, the system must be first."

Is it even possible for a freelancer to have an easy life?

I’ve been full-time freelance for six and a half years, and, for the most part, I’d argue I have an easy life.

I qualify this with a few criteria, as documented in my post, What Is The Secret To Being A Highly Successful Freelancer? : 

These all must work in conjunction for an easy life. Let me give you an example.

Because I have a thorough process for building a freelance pipeline, I don’t spend time on tasks I don’t enjoy or find unproductive. E.g. There’s no cold pitching or outbound sales in my process.

Because I market myself well, I spend the majority of my time delivering work. This is what makes me happier than anything when it comes to my job. And it happens to be the element that earns me all the money.

What’s more, because I have a regimented process, I am productive and spend a considerable amount of my “work day” doing non-work related things. It’s not unheard of for me to finish before lunch and spend the afternoon playing golf.

"The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."

• Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching).

Why is wanting an easy life frowned upon?

Society tells us that wanting an easy life is bad. This is mainly due to the confusion between lack of ambition and process optimization.

For a long time, the association with efficiency has come with negative connotations like:

But let me ask you this: 

No.

So why wouldn’t I do everything in my power to become more efficient (and spend the rest of the day on personal projects, with friends, with family, etc.)?

Leadership of yesterday has constantly rewarded “hard work” over smart work. Plenty of people have written articles about necessary changes of approach to flexible working and deliverable-based rewards, but it’s so god-damn ingrained in business culture.

"Work smarter, not harder."

Today, businesses spend billions of dollars a year on consultants and tools to help “optimize processes”. Isn’t the goal here to create time and resources to do other things?

Ring any bells?

These types of freelancers who “want easy lives” are, in fact, putting in the work upfront to ensure everything that follows is best optimized. It’s not lazy at all. It’s not contrary to personal development and self growth; it’s for personal development and self growth.

There is no reason whatsoever to not invest a little time in optimizing your processes and learning habits to create freelance autonomy.

My first process optimization to gain an easy life

Walking to school as a teenager. I was motivated to get to school in the fastest possible time so I could play football (soccer) with my friends before lessons started.

The faster we got to school, the more time we had to play football. It made for a positive start to the day. So, why wouldn’t I choose the (literal) path of least resistance?

I tested all five possible routes, with differing alleyways, cut-throughs, and crossings. I then chose the fastest one to gain an extra five minutes of football time every day.

If you add up the number of school days I did this, I gained back 900 days worth of five minutes. That’s 79 hours worth of football I added to my school life. A whole three and a half days!

How does this relate to freelancing?

As a freelancer, you might be billing per hour, per word, per article, day, project, whatever.

This is your time. It’s not company time. Some freelancers who come from full-time backgrounds struggle to adapt to this mentality. No longer can they spend hours per week chatting to colleagues, fetching coffees, or taking smoke breaks—and expect to be paid for it.

But you can’t expect a freelancer to work eight hours straight without breaks, talking to people, or getting on with the rest of their life. If you want to put the free into freelancing, you must think about refining your processes, communications, and delivery of work.

It’s all about making your life easier, at the end of the day.

It certainly doesn’t have to be your case.

You can make writing and freelancing enjoyable again by building a writing and submission process that works for you, not against you.

Learn why decreasing feedback makes a difference to your bottom line and the tactics and tools you can use to take back your time.

Why is it taboo to want an easy life?

Society often pressures you to work so hard that you almost burn out to prove your self-worth. But that belief can kill you.

According to a WHO study conducted over two decades, it found that overwork increased stroke risk by 35%, and death from heart disease increased by 17% for participants working 55 or more hours a week.

Overwork is a stressful and anxious lifestyle that isn’t worth your life. It’s not strange or taboo to want a more manageable work environment. It’s healthy. Balance is essential for diet, exercise, and relationships, so why isn’t it the norm for how you work?

By optimizing your process, like any good businessperson, you can live a professional and personal life that you enjoy. Often, choosing a freelance life that fits for you starts by ignoring what others think you should do and knowing what you want.

I think of the folktale of the fisherman:

A wealthy businessman sees a fisherman relaxing on the shore.

He suggests the fisherman expand his business, buy more boats, and grow his operation until he can retire and enjoy fishing.

The fisherman replies, 'What do you think I’m doing now?'

The fisherman didn’t have to work harder or spend years to enjoy what he loved most. He had the wisdom and foresight to understand that he already had the life he wanted.

That’s why the more you work on the life you want now, the closer you get to living an easier, less stressful work experience. This kind of life can only happen when you control the reins for your time, starting with edit requests.

Why does minimal feedback matter?

Too much feedback can drain your income, waste your time, and sap your energy as a writer.

Your time should be spent researching, writing fantastic work, and editing your content before submission. You shouldn’t spend the same amount of time fulfilling edits post-submission.

Excessive feedback is a sign that something’s gone wrong. It produces the following issues:

Considering these challenges, the minute you can improve your feedback process, the more money you can make, and the more time you can spend on what matters most.

6 Best writing practices for minimal edit requests

Below are action steps that you can take for fewer editor suggestions and improved deliveries:

1. Understand that you are an editor

You are the primary editor—the first line of defense.

Everything you miss will be another minute you must spend addressing feedback after submission. That’s why having the highest standards is essential—aim higher than the brands you’re writing for.

In my writing process, I work hard to see myself as a craftsperson.

A true craftsperson has pride in what they do, from every corner they work on–even the things most people won’t notice.

When you work on a higher level (with humility enough to listen to feedback), you’re on a different playing field than most freelancers. You’re meeting the style guide, expectations and evolving client feedback. But you’re also going the second, third, and fourth miles and exceeding expectations.

Going beyond expectations means constantly learning and applying the latest editorial standards and improving how you edit your work. Hence, it’s publishable at submission, creating quality work that represents the brand in the best possible way.

One way to become a great editor is by imagining your client’s thoughts. Ask questions like:

Even if you perfect the tone, format, and style, each editor has preferences. Find out what they like and what makes them click, and learn to meet those expectations. Editing is about relationships as much as it is about editing.

Related Course: How To Write Blog Posts That Get 500,000 Views

2. Shape the environment for feedback

Context can influence your feedback. If you just send an article on its own without supporting comments and information, then it can quickly turn into the Wild West. You have different expectations and context in mind, and the client or editor does too.

Instead, you can set the tone, share your vision on the piece, and add informative comments that minimize the need for feedback.

For example, you can add an introductory comment or send a Loom video. Through async (not live) communication, you can share your approach to the piece, possible challenges you faced, and your thought process as to why you created what you did.

I’ve worked with many great clients and editors who have provided top feedback throughout my career. One of the editors I’ve enjoyed working with through various projects is Becky Helzer, an editor at Insurify. She says:

“When I'm working with a writer, I find a couple of things make the editing process go much more smoothly and efficiently. First of all, I really appreciate when writers link directly to sources I can easily click on if I need to fact-check. Bonus points if a writer includes a note on exactly where I can find the info I’m looking for, especially if it’s been paraphrased or can’t be found with a Ctrl F search.”

By thinking like the editor, you make the feedback process easier for everyone involved.

If you want to truly minimize edits after submission, it starts by seeing the writer-editor relationship as a partnership.

Everyone focuses on the same goal: connecting with readers. Helzer concludes, “I also love it when writers are quick to respond to feedback and don’t take offense if I ask for clarification or additional information; it’s never personal.”

Related Blog Post: How Should Freelancers Communicate With Clients?

3. Back up your content

Your online writing should always have specificity. For example, if you say an app helps improve profit margins, don’t end the statement there. Say how.

Anytime you make a claim or bold statement, back it up with data, a quote, or a source that supports it.

Not only are these good editorial practices, but they also add credibility and support for your work when a client reviews it.

For example, you can say, “Users love it when they get a survey relevant to their needs.” A client or reader can easily object to that based on their preferences. But if you support it with an article from a relevant magazine or with data, the editor has information supporting you and doesn’t need to add that feedback.

This preemptive approach and editorial practice minimizes feedback but also wins trust from all parties, proving you know what you’re talking about, not inserting assumptions or questionable conclusions.

4. Verify your angle

Every piece you write should have one big idea. What’s the main takeaway from this piece? In academia, you might know it as the thesis—one sentence describing what you want to prove or disprove.

A specific angle helps focus your article. Everything you write, every paragraph, should move you forward to the ultimate conclusion. Each paragraph should be like hitting a nail with a hammer. Each action leads to the final blow. If your argument feels disjointed and all over the place, it’s like hitting your thumb instead of the nail.

Because of digital writing, we’ve become too dependent on headers. We can easily add a section with an H2 or H3. Often, we use these headings as a crutch, and our sections have no real transition. Sometimes, they don’t even connect to the one big idea; there’s no progression.

You can study classic essays if you want to improve at writing with a clear thesis in mind and paragraphs that progress toward the conclusion.

Thomas Paine planted the philosophical seeds for the American Revolution in Common Sense. If you read his essay, you see a clear argument building up:

His clear and chronological argument works even if you’re reading blocks of text because each sentence builds and transitions to the ultimate point.

5. Maintain an internal doc for feedback

If you receive feedback, especially if it seems like a lot in the first submission, write it down. Keep a doc and maintain it. You can add notes, for instance, if a client doesn’t want a phrase or term used next to their brand (like wanting to use “platform” instead of “tool” for their product).

The document is also helpful in tracking different editors. If more than one person reviews your work, they may have different preferences, even within the style guide. You can log those differences to create a piece that pleases everyone.

Internal feedback docs can also help you work out remarks that don’t make sense yet. Maybe the feedback seems complex, and you haven’t decided what the brand wants yet. Tracking your thoughts, experiments, and notes helps you expedite solutions to improve your work.

6. Leverage tools as your second editor

Odds are, you’ve been using editing tools for years. Spell check in Google Docs or Microsoft Word were precursors to today’s more user-friendly tools. Now, we can use modern content tools and language models that leverage AI power.

Tools for your stack:

Remember, you are your best editor and reader. Don’t take every suggestion literally. Many suggestions sound awkward and unhuman and can even become a distraction. Find what works for your piece.

You’re making wine: Feedback should be expected

Great writers understand that a written draft is like wine. Everyone starts in different stages of quality, and you’re constantly refining your work and future iterations. With the help of a client and editor’s feedback, you can make slight adjustments to improve the final result.

Ultimately, an editor or client point-person, like a quality-control wine taster, is always incentivized to give feedback. That’s a good thing because you can improve the piece.

Still, you can change how much feedback you get by improving your piece through three feedback lenses.

Feedback revolves around three areas:

As you improve in these areas, you’ll notice your feedback improves, too, based on levels of quality:

The goal is to upgrade your writing process so that you submit work that reaches level three every single time. And, on occasion, level four.

Once you transition from “rewriting” and “reworking” to tweaking, you pave the way for a freelance workflow that fits your lifestyle.

Example: My editing process before submitting work

Here’s how I usually edit my work:

The idea is to experiment with and adopt new tactics and technologies to find what works for you. Ultimately, you want to provide a polished piece of work, so you receive minimal feedback in return.

Keep your eyes on the one thing: The autonomous freelancer

When you optimize your process, improve your content, and build positive client relationships, you can save time on post-submission edits.

Reducing edit requests at first can be challenging, especially with clients and editors you already work with.

But when you keep your eyes on one thing: enjoying what you do on your terms, you’ll have more endurance and confidence to overcome those challenges and get to your dream freelance career.

Use these action steps to minimize edits after submission so you can enjoy your freelance business and grow.

What’s next?

Start working on your own terms, in your own time, and at your own rate.

Grab your copy of The Autonomous Freelancer.

TLDR: The time you invest improving your subject matter knowledge and your craft increases your worth and sets you apart from other freelancers.

I get asked by fellow freelancers how I can afford to go to conferences all the time.

There are two major things to unpack here:

A few years ago, I wrote a LinkedIn post titled, I Spent $5,000 To Go To A Conference – Here’s Why.

Highlights included:

Some other less-business-related benefits for this specific trip included:

But some people still don’t get it.

By forfeiting my billable time (writing blog posts, creating whitepapers, running content strategy - you know, my day job), I was able to get myself to this conference and spend undistracted time there.

That week, I did no “work”.

But I didn’t feel even slightly guilty.

And I wasn’t worried about not earning money, either.

What follows in this post are the reasons why every freelancer should adopt this mentality, the benefits of doing so, and how you can set yourself up for freelance autonomy.

Information intake

This is the biggest one for me. My ultimate goal for these conferences is to come back more knowledgeable about the topics and technology I write about. The same applies to webinars online or taking courses to improve my writing, editing, whatever.

The benefit of being such a niche freelancer is that having this domain expertise (some call this subject matter expertise) sets me aside from generalist freelancers.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a generalist. But there is a ceiling on what you can achieve and earn. While you technically have the entire world as your potential client base, that’s not always a good thing.

At these conferences, I make sure to plan my time around the agenda. If I’m not attending talks from analysts, customers, or vendors, something has gone very wrong.

I want to learn about the latest features on the Microsoft Teams roadmap. I want to have seen the latest Webex board in action. I need to be aware that Zoom now does contact center as well as video conferencing.

When I market myself later on, and when clients engage me to write about “new” things, being able to say “Yes, I had a demo of that at Enterprise Connect” sets me aside from every generalist writer who will need to Google it, get second-hand information, and do half as good a job.

In the long term, all this accumulated knowledge means I’m not just a clued up writer, but I’m the go-to resource for marketing work in this niche.

You can only grow as a freelancer if you offer more than your core skill. If you’re a writer, you offer more value and stand out from the crowd by being a subject matter expert.

Want to move from generalist to specialist?

Get My Free Playbook: Create A Never-Ending Pipeline

Networking

Going to an event for networking purposes is bad advice.

In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s pointless to arrive and expect to meet people who are potential customers.

In my personal experience, this has happened once. And, again, only in my personal experience, that customer turned out to be a nightmare and I pulled the plug on the project after one blog post.

However, if you can schedule time with prospects you know are attending this conference (and you know this or can at least make an educated guess because you’re so niche and your entire LinkedIn is talking about it), then it’s worth attending.

Now, there’s something to be said about customers who you can only talk to in person. That might be a red flag for how you operate. Personally, I prefer asynchronous communication at all times. However, I also recognize that sometimes my target customer is a busy CMO who has zero time and many distractions when in their office.

The likelihood of them scheduling a call or responding to an email is much lower than giving me 30 minutes at a conference.

Visibility

To get more freelance clients, you must be on your potential clients’ radar. This means showing up on their LinkedIn feeds, being present where they are (in-person, in forums, on webinars), and generally being an active presence in your industry.

I’m not wrong in saying that I’m “known” in my industry. My goal as a business is to be “the content marketing guy for unified comms vendors”. I can’t be that if I don’t market myself.

This means writing case studies, sharing success stories, and promoting the content I produce for clients.

As I wrote in my book, The Autonomous Freelancer, I can attribute over $170,000 worth of work in the last 18 months to content promotion.

And, honestly, it’s not hard work. You produced the content so you know what it’s all about. You know the kind of conversations you can offer help to and you understand the audience who would be receptive to this content.

The problem most freelancers fall foul of is stopping after one element of promoting. Simply sharing it on LinkedIn isn’t always enough. There are multiple ways to repurpose and reshare your content that turns into new eyeballs who are ready to invest in your services.

Other common pushback is the dread NDA. Here’s a snippet from my book about dealing with the NDA that says you can’t share your work. Also: It probably doesn’t actually say that.

The number one objection to promoting content that you’ve created is the fear that your customer won’t let you.

Let me be straight with you here.

They wouldn’t pay you if they didn’t want people to see it.

As a business owner myself, when I commission someone to write a blog post or create a graphic for me, I want them to share it.

Why?

Because more people will see it!

If you can’t get over this imaginary hurdle, there are some things you can do to:

When you ask your client what their content promotion process is, you might even get some extra work too. If content distribution is a weakness of theirs, you might get a gig writing social media copy or tacking on some outreach time as a deliverable in your retainer.

If it’s all taken care of in-house, a simple “I assume you’ll want me to share it too?” puts you on the front foot. Why would they say no? You just offered to amplify the asset they’re paying you to create.

Even in the case of ghostwriting, the act of sharing the post without publicly calling out you wrote it goes a long way. When someone reads it and thinks it’s great, they’ll ask you if you know the author. And that’s you!

When you do it anyway, there are two outcomes:

Use scenario judgment to gauge whether this is going to lose you a customer or gain you a fan.

In most cases, however, if your name’s on it, not promoting it is counterproductive to your freelance business.

Oh, but then there’s the dreaded NDA…

NDA stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement. This means your client doesn’t want you to disclose that you’re working with them, a certain product, or part of their business. In the case of security or sensitive topics, this is fairly commonplace.

If “the brand” is the author of blog posts, you might see this too. But it’s not the end of the world for promoting your content.

You have two options when a client proposes an NDA:

If you challenge the NDA, there are two scenarios:

The worst case scenario is they say no. So there really is no harm in asking.

When you promote enough content, success, or metrics, you draw people toward you. Customers come to me because they want me to replicate the success I’ve had with previous customers.

Expand your content promotion process: 50 Places To Distribute Content

How to create the time so unbillable doesn’t mean non-profitable

Being comfortable with unbillable time boils down to two things:

You must do the first. The second is totally optional, but a nice income boost even if you don’t take any non-billable time off.

Price accordingly

The biggest problem with freelancers in 2025 is they still don’t know how to price their projects.

Instead of pricing per word, per hour, or even per day, moving to per project or per deliverable (e.g. blog post, whitepaper, website, graphic, etc.) is a significantly more profitable option.

You could just start asking for more money. That’s what Olly Meakings used as his strategy to earn more work.

“Well, I just kept asking for more. Like the famous Oliver, I suppose.”

Brooklin Nash agrees, stating his best advice to charging more is to just charge more.

“Honestly. Simple as that. It sounds simple, but any freelancer who has increased their rates can tell you it’s scary. What if they say no? What if I never get work again? It’s a difficult mental hurdle to get over. But remember: it’s just mental. It’s all in your head. Over the course of two years, I raised my rates with existing clients twice and increased my rates for new clients every time I signed a new contract. If you’re doing great work and you’ve been consistent for your clients, let me tell you: you’re worth it.”

In the long term, you need to learn how to price freelance projects. Check out Tom Hirst’s viral Twitter thread, which is a must-read for all freelancers.

Diversify with other products

Having created a blogging course, written a book, and assembled a content distribution checklist, I’ve started to diversify my income streams.

This isn’t vital to cover off your non billable days if your pricing is looked after. But two weapons are more powerful than one in any fight.

I’m by no means an expert in affiliate marketing or product creation. But my three independent products have netted me almost $10,000 extra income in the last year.

Sure, I spent time writing a book, producing a blogging course, and creating a promotion checklist. But these were one-off jobs.

I can market and sell these forever.

A bunch of sales for these cover my travel expenses, no problem.

What conferences should you attend?

I’ve browsed Twitter chats and LinkedIn conversations where fellow freelancers have wasted their time attending “Business Expos”.

I’ve spoken to many freelancers who felt so bad after sacrificing a billable day for “nothing” because the conference yielded zero results in terms of both networking opportunities and information absorption.

The root cause of both these issues is poor conference selection.

When I was a full-time employee, and this can be said for a lot of sales and marketing execs, I was able to choose what I went to and how long I spent there. It was company time so it didn’t matter as much to me if the conference was a dud.

However, when it’s your time and your non-billable time, you must be selective.

Attend a conference when it checks off the following criteria:

It’s the business value that you must prove to yourself. Create a business case for taking the time off and not doing any work that day/week.

If the net return is positive (i.e. you will become a more informed freelancer in your domain), it’s a solid return on investment.

This year, I’m attending:

These are all industry conferences. They’re about Microsoft, Zoom, and Webex. These are the technologies I must be clued up about to consider myself better than my prospect hiring a generalist.

I will also attend:

This is a marketing-specific conference, where I expect to enhance my marketing prowess. I will be learning processes, tools, and skills to improve myself as a marketer. I’ve been extremely selective about this as I’ve done nearly all my marketing learning online.

I’ve had this conference earmarked for years because it’s hosted by my content marketing mentor. There is no other marketing conference I’ve come across yet where I can confidently make the business case for taking the time off and not billing any work.

Be selective when considering attending conferences or taking in online learning materials. But do make time in your schedule for some non-billable days that will prove their return on investment in years to come.

Sure, I'd been a consultant working with large companies like Financial Times but I had never started a business, which is essentially what becoming a freelancer is.

Over time, I've refined my processes, learned to look after my money, and become an expert in running a freelance business.

But, not once have I made a formal business plan. Therefore, I don't think I'm qualified to make a template - as I haven't stuck to one. Instead, I've used a set of principles to grow my freelance business from a glimmer of hope to a $250,000+ per year business.

Taking the principles from my book, The Autonomous Freelancer, I asked AI to create me a freelance business plan to share with other freelancers.

The result was not what I was expecting, but 100% worth sharing.

Note: I did then ask AI to turn this into an actual plan. I've included that at the end.

The autonomous freelancer business plan

1. Define your niche

Specializing in a specific area helps distinguish you in a crowded market. Identify industries or topics you're passionate about and have expertise in. This focus allows you to become a go-to expert, making it easier for clients to find and trust you.

2. Set up for autonomy

Establish systems that enable you to work efficiently and independently:

3. Attract clients organically

Instead of constant cold outreach, position yourself so clients come to you:

4. Pricing strategy

Adopt a pricing model that reflects your value and supports autonomy:

5. Ensure prompt payments

Implement measures to get paid on time:

6. Diversify income streams

Expand your services to create multiple revenue sources:

7. Continuous learning and adaptation

Stay updated with industry trends and continuously refine your skills. This commitment positions you as a valuable asset to clients and helps maintain a competitive edge.

By following this plan, you can build a freelance business that offers flexibility, financial stability, and personal fulfilment.

Here's the link to start creating your own freelance business plan following the steps outlined in this post.

I’ve tried to create a one-liner response but it’s far more detailed than that. And while I appreciate every freelancer is different, it boils down to five main criteria for me:

While writing this blog post, I’ve made several attempts at turning this into a one-liner but it’s proving impossible. I might come back to it at the end. So stick around for that.

What qualifies as highly successful?

Before we can uncover the secret to successful freelancing, we must first define success.

In no particular order, here are the five criteria I use to gauge whether I am, in fact, a successful freelancer.

Earnings

If you’re not earning enough money to satisfy your lifestyle, you shouldn’t consider yourself a success.

Disclaimer: You might be on your way to becoming a success — and that’s just fine.

I must also point out that earning enough to satisfy your current lifestyle is great too. When I first went freelance, I decided my day rate would be exactly what I was earning as a full-time employee.

I took my salary and divided it by the number of days I thought I’d work a year.

After not long at all, I realized this was the wrong way to go about pricing my services. My earnings dramatically increased when I learned about pricing freelance projects.

In summary, when you earn enough money to cover off your needs, you’re a successful freelancer. But why stop there? I’ve upped my rates with new and existing customers on a regular basis. This isn’t just to account for inflation, but to reflect my experience and skill set.

Every time someone pays for your service — at the price you ask — it’s confirmation that you’re worth the fee you’re valuing yourself at. So why not ask for more?

What you do with your money

An extension of earnings must be the actual take-home amount. Here, we’re comparing the amount of money in the door from clients or sales and removing any expenses.

These might be subcontractors, tools, or anything else you spend money on.

When calculating this, I wouldn’t worry about subtracting things like pension contributions or salary. These are investments and payments to yourself. It’s your money; just in a different pot.

To evolve from a successful freelancer to a successful business/individual when it comes to money, we dive into the world of banking, tax, and investments.

This is where learning about what you can claim as a business expense comes up trumps. I highly recommend reading this guide to self-employed expenses by Xero.

While I’m not qualified to give financial advice, I feel appropriately experienced to provide freelance advice.

I have two resources on just that here:

Happiness

I quit my 9 to 5 not because I didn’t like my job. I quit my 9 to 5 because I had a tremendous feeling that choosing my own job would be even better.

While doing some freelance work on a very part-time basis, I had the epiphany that if I could do this (writing blog posts) all day every day for the rest of my life, my happiness would skyrocket.

Imagine being able to say that about work!

I’d been somewhat conditioned into “loving” my industry. After 10 years of not knowing anything else. But even six and a half years on, I still hold that same mindset.

I love the technology I write about and the way it changes businesses. I love how it improves my day to day life and I love being able to articulate it to other people. I love being a subject matter expert and talking with confidence.

My industry makes me happy.

The second part of my happiness stems from the way I work. Achieving freelance autonomy wasn’t something I set out to achieve. I didn’t really know it was a thing until I invented it.

But I always knew I would work better somewhere other than an office surrounded by people with different views on what their workday would look like.

So, as I wrote in my book, I just went home. I decided to try working from home and it worked. I was more productive than I’d ever been.

Since being freelance, I've played around with what works best for me. That’s one of the biggest benefits of being a freelancer. You set the rules. You are in charge of your happiness.

Productivity

If someone asked me to work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday again, I'd say no. Even if they offered triple my date rate, I wouldn’t trade my happiness.

Neither would I trade my productivity.

Through working out how I work most efficiently (not quickly - efficiently is different), I satisfy both my first two success criteria — earnings and happiness.

These lend themselves to each other:

I know, for a fact, I will earn more money and make my customer’s business more money if I work my flexible schedule.

Most of the time, that looks like 7 til 2 Monday to Thursday. Some of the time, I work an hour or two a day. One week, I worked a total of five hours over four days and earned over £10,000. The assets I created in that time subsequently made my customers hundreds of thousands.

Time does not equal value. The value you provide equals value. A micro-lesson in pricing right there. If you’re being productive to the point where you can complete your work in the timeframe you desire, you’re a highly successful freelancer.

For example, sometimes blog posts take me three days. That’s why I charge a premium for long-form content.

But, sometimes, a blog post might take me three hours. I still want to earn that premium and the asset is still worth that amount to my customer. So, why would I change it?

Pipeline

I lose my temper when freelancers say their least favorite thing about being a freelancer is finding customers.

These are the freelancers who haven’t found a niche, haven’t promoted their work, and haven’t changed their strategy despite their protestations.

You won’t grow as a freelancer until you become known for something.

As referenced in my book, Jason Patterson, a freelance content marketer, defines being niche as “means all the clients in your industry know your name.”

So, when your target client needs the craft you excel in providing, you’re top of mind. They come to you.

I’ve been freelance for six and a half years now and I’ve never done any cold prospecting. I’ve also never had a day without work.

All my customers come to me.

I attribute my inbound customers to two sources:

That’s quite literally all I do.

Sometimes, people protest that they can’t share the work they produce. That’s fine.

Share how you made it, what you learned, the impact it had. You get the point. Show something about the last project/article/website you worked on and tell people how great you are.

Get my free playbook: Create a never-ending pipeline

Work-life balance

When you earn enough money, are happy with your job, do it in a productive manner, and don’t have to worry about constant outreach or fear of not having work, you create an ideal work-life balance.

As already mentioned in this post, and many times in my book, I work four days a week. Often not for many hours at all. Certainly never 9 to 5.

*Note: If you find that working 9 to 5 as a freelancer works for you, go for it. I’m not here telling you when to work. I am here telling you to find out what makes you profitable, happy, and productive.

What is the secret to being a highly successful freelancer?

Here’s the aforementioned one-liner I’ve been working on for the duration of this blog post (and the last six and a half years if truth be told).

The secret to being a highly successful freelancer is knowing how to attract the right customers for you.

It’s amazing how that just flowed. It only took me 1,568 words to get there.

There’s a caveat, however:

You must also have the drive and discipline to get to this stage.

Some hard truths about freelancing:

Want to chat more about improving your freelance career? Reach out to me on Twitter. I talk almost exclusively about freelancing there.

Serious about becoming a highly successful freelancer?

.

Surprisingly, I was impressed at how similar some of our ideas were. Talking about finding your niche and diversifying your income streams are my jam, after all.

So I’ve decided to let this post be authored by ChatGPT—bar anything I really disagreed with.

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Freelancing has become one of the most desirable career paths for those seeking flexibility, autonomy, and the opportunity to work on diverse projects.

However, while the lifestyle might seem ideal, growing as a freelancer is not as straightforward as it may appear. It requires a combination of practical skills, strategic planning, and persistence to thrive in this competitive and ever-changing market.

If you're asking yourself, "How do I build my career as a freelancer?" —you’re in the right place! In this post, we’ll explore actionable steps that can help you build a sustainable, profitable freelance career.

1. Identify your niche and expertise

One of the first steps to growing as a freelancer is identifying your niche. The freelance market is vast, so narrowing down your expertise allows you to stand out. Whether you're a writer, graphic designer, web developer, or marketer, having a clear focus will make it easier for clients to find you and for you to position yourself effectively.

Take time to assess what you're truly passionate about and what skills set you apart from others. While it’s tempting to accept any job that comes your way, specializing in a specific niche can help you command higher rates, build a more consistent clientele, and establish yourself as an expert in that area.

Read More: How To Narrow Your Niche And Earn More Money

2. Build an impressive portfolio

In the freelance world, your portfolio is your resume. Clients want to see the quality of your work before committing to hiring you. Your portfolio should showcase your best projects and highlight the skills and services you offer.

If you're just starting, don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of paid projects yet. You can build a portfolio by doing pro-bono work for non-profits, offering services to friends and family, or working on personal projects. As you gain more experience, continuously update your portfolio to reflect your best and most recent work.

Suggested Resource: 50 Places To Distribute Your Content

3. Create a strong online presence

Your online presence plays a significant role in attracting clients. A professional website or online portfolio is crucial in showcasing your work and providing potential clients with an easy way to contact you. In addition, social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter can be powerful tools to promote your services, engage with potential clients, and network with other freelancers in your field.

Make sure your social media profiles reflect your professional persona and expertise. Share content that showcases your knowledge, skills, and success stories, which can further build your reputation.

Read More: What Is The Key To Success In Freelancing?

4. Networking and building relationships

Freelancers often hear the phrase “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”—and it holds a lot of truth. Networking plays an essential role in building a successful freelance career. Whether it's attending industry events, engaging in online forums, or collaborating with other freelancers, these relationships can lead to new job opportunities and partnerships.

The relationships you build with clients are equally important. Excellent communication and going above and beyond to deliver quality work can lead to repeat business, referrals, and long-term clients. Building a reputation for being reliable and easy to work with will set you apart from other freelancers.

Read More: I Spent $5,000 To Go To A Conference – Here’s Why

5. Set realistic rates and manage your finances

As you build your freelance career, you’ll need to determine your rates. It’s crucial to set rates that reflect your expertise and experience while staying competitive within the market. Research the average rates for your niche and adjust according to your skill level and the complexity of the projects you take on.

Managing finances can be tricky, especially when income fluctuates. Create a system to track income, expenses, and taxes. It might be a good idea to set aside a percentage of each project’s payment for taxes or savings. Consider working with an accountant or using bookkeeping software to help you stay organized.

Read More: How To Ask For More Money As A Freelancer

6. Develop a strong work routine

While freelancing offers flexibility, it can also be easy to get sidetracked without a set routine. Having a consistent work schedule helps you stay on track and maintain productivity. Establish daily goals and prioritize tasks, so you can complete projects efficiently.

Work-life balance is also vital. As a freelancer, you might find yourself working odd hours or taking on too many projects. It’s essential to avoid burnout by setting boundaries, knowing when to say no, and making time for self-care.

Read More: Learn These Habits If You're Serious About Freelance Autonomy

7. Continuously learn and improve your skills

To stand out in the competitive freelance world, you need to continually improve your skills. Freelancing is about providing value, and keeping your skills sharp ensures you're delivering high-quality work that clients are willing to pay for.

Take courses, attend workshops, and keep up with trends in your field. Many freelancers also join online communities where they can exchange tips and resources with others in the same industry. The more you invest in your skills, the more valuable you’ll become to your clients.

Suggested Course: How To Write Blog Posts That Get 500,000 Views

8. Client retention and feedback

Once you’ve started working with clients, it’s essential to maintain those relationships. Happy clients are more likely to return and recommend you to others. Always communicate effectively, meet deadlines, and provide top-notch work. You can also follow up with clients after a project to ensure satisfaction and request feedback.

Good reviews and testimonials are invaluable for your reputation. Don’t hesitate to ask clients for recommendations or permission to showcase their positive feedback on your website and social media.

Free Playbook: Create A Never-ending Pipeline

9. Diversify your income streams

To grow as a freelancer, consider diversifying your income. In addition to one-off projects, think about passive income streams such as creating digital products (like eBooks, templates, or online courses), offering subscriptions, or monetizing your blog or YouTube channel. Diversifying allows you to reduce financial uncertainty and create more stability in your freelance career.

Read More: How Freelancers Can Diversify Their Income

10. Stay persistent and adaptable

Freelancing is a journey with ups and downs. Some months might be slower than others, and you might face challenges with clients or competition. The key to growing as a freelancer is persistence. Continue learning, keep improving your skills, and adapt to changing market demands.

One of the best qualities you can have as a freelancer is adaptability. Industries and technologies are always evolving, and your ability to shift and evolve with them will be essential for long-term success.

Read More: The State Of Freelance Marketing

Final thoughts: building your freelance career

Growing as a freelancer takes time, effort, and dedication. By defining your niche, improving your skills, networking, and building lasting client relationships, you can build a successful and sustainable freelance career.

Remember, the freelance journey is unique for each person—don’t be discouraged by setbacks or slow starts. Stay committed, keep learning, and embrace the freedom that freelancing offers!

Want to learn more about being a freelancer?

Get a copy of my book: The Autonomous Freelancer

To be specific, you can get 3.55% AER (variable) by moving your money into a Tide Instant Saver. You can get access any time you like if you need the funds. You keep all interest you’ve earned (it gets paid monthly).

Don’t have a big chunk of savings? You still get the 3.55% AER on any money you move over and Tide and add to your savings account. I just used my example as it felt like a nice title.

What’s more, you even get £50 when you use my link to open an account.

(That’s where the £1,640 figure comes from.)

What about tax?

You pay tax on interest received. This means that if you add £45,000, you’ll get taxed on the £1,500 you make. The same as your normal earnings.

If you’re unsure or skeptical, consult your accountant first.

Is the Tide app any good?

It’s fine. I only use the app for storing my savings. I haven’t activated my card as I plan to keep my Starling Bank account for all my business dealings.

So I can sit and stare at my savings on my phone not utilising this nice interface they designed.

It is nice when your interest gets paid to get a notification on your phone, though.

There really isn’t much more to it.

It feels a bit weird rounding up here as I always write long form blog posts. But there’s nothing else to add because it’s that simple.

You’re welcome! ✌️

Before you ask for more money as a freelancer, let me ask you a question…

Are you worth more than you previously were?

If not, don’t worry. There still might be some rationale behind asking for more money:

That’s about it, as far as I’m concerned.

So, you better have a good reason for asking for more money as a freelancer.

But that’s the whole point, right?

We raise our rates when we know we’re worth more.

This might be for one of (or more than one of) a number of reasons:

Note: time-based rate increase requests are only effective when combined with one of the other three.

Time doesn’t always equal rationale for an increase. Though, in a lot of cases it can.

Plenty of freelancers raise their rates on an annual basis. You can use this as a reason for customers to extend a retainer or pay upfront for a new project ahead of the deadline.

“My rates are due to increase by 10% in March 2024. To lock in the 2023 rate, shall we sign a new contract this week?”

Tracy Rawlinson, a freelance writer, uses this template to inform her clients about her price increases:

Hey xxx,

I've loved working with you over the past XXX. It’s awesome we’ve achieved XXXX together.

I’m just popping across an email to let you know that I'm raising my rates from £XXX to £XXX from XXX

Reason is? [Well. This is the first rate increase I’ve made since we started working together back in XXX. Plus, I'm limiting the number of clients I take on to invest more time with my family or XXX]

So to confirm, my new rate will be £XXXGBP for XXX from XXX

Is this still within your budget? If so, I have space to create XXX from XXX

Let me know by XXX if you want to secure this slot.

If you have any questions, just give me a shout.

Thanks

Tracy

Amna Aslam, another freelance writer, uses this shorter template:

"I’m revisiting my business goals and will adjust rates beginning at X time. This is a courtesy email to let you know. Your current rate will remain for the next X months, after which the new rate will be reflected on your invoice."

You might even build it into your initial contract.

“Following the initial 6-month period, an increase of 10% will apply to my day rate.”

If you’re not using a regular template like this, how do you ask for money?

First up, it’s daunting. Just like asking for a raise at a 9-5 job, the person on the other end of this conversation hasn’t initiated it so you’re doing a sales job.

You’re selling why you’re worth more than you previously were.

The remainder of this blog post works through four key elements to include when you’re asking for more money as a freelancer.

Want to earn more without raising your rates?

💡 Learn how to diversify your income 💡

1 - Create a “Why I’m great” statement

Even when you’ve been working with a client for a number of years, it pays (literally) to remind them why they hired you in the first place.

In this part of the template, write a few lines explaining why you’re great.

If you’re a content writer who writes blog evergreen blog posts, remind them of that.

Here’s a template:

I will optimize every blog post (new or existing) as evergreen content — meaning there is no expiry date on the content so it will continue to add revenue and intangible value to your business for years to come.

I will design every form of content for both inbound traffic and converting the customer.

But you must also include why they should continue to hire you at a higher rate.

Include achievements since you started working with your client or since your last price increase.

If you’re now certified in a certain CRM, that adds value to the service you’re providing.

If you’ve completed a degree or a specialist course, you’re a different person to the one they hired in the first instance.

You don’t have to write war and peace here. In fact, bullets of how you’re different are more effective.

Here’s a template:

Since we started working together, I’ve completed the following:

At this point, you’ve reminded them why you’re great, now remind them what they’re getting from you.

Clients not paying on time?

🔍 Use this process and make sure that never happens 🔍

2 - Package your freelance service

In some cases, clients are just going through the motions. They get your work submitted at regular intervals and don’t see the bigger picture.

That’s why it’s important to include what they’re getting as part of your service.

Blog posts are a great example here. Clients might see a final draft. But what goes into that is a whole lot of research, knowledge, and process.

Here’s a template:

Price above includes the following:

This is the caliber of new blog post you can expect when you hire me

Next, remind them what they’re not doing when they hire you too:

Here’s a template:

Since I’m not an employee of yours, my rates also include the added benefits of:

Need more freelance clients?

🔥 Discover the inbound strategy to build a continuous pipeline 🔥

3 - Put yourself in your client’s shoes

Now you’ve created “why I’m great” and “what I do” segments, take a step back.

If you’re asking for 10% more, have you convinced the person on the other end of this email that they’re getting 10 more in return? 

As someone who’s hired freelance writers and been a freelance writer getting hired, it’s a completely different point of view.

My example: I was the content marketing director with a budget of $300 per post for our “run rate” articles. One of my writers messaged me to say they’re upping their rate to $400 per post.

The result? We never worked together again.

The fact of the matter was that I had a pool of other writers willing to write for $300 and they were just as good.

Not only this, that particular freelancer didn't provide me with a reason to think about. The message was matter of fact and without evidence.

I hope, for their sake, they went on to secure higher-paying clients. In some cases, it’s right to walk away from customers, especially if they don’t have the budget to meet your desired rate.

If, however, they’d demonstrated their prowess in our niche and suggested what I was getting for my extra $100 per article, they may not have lost out.

Losing out to other freelancers?

💰 Narrow your niche and start earning more 💰

4 - Draft your email

So you’ve reached the point where you’ve done the following:

Before you hit send on your request for more money, get a friend to review your email.

Test the water with trusted friends, with another freelancer, and/or with someone who hires freelancers.

Heck, if you want to, send me your email.

Find me on Twitter or LinkedIn and say you came from this blog post.

The point, much like viewing your request from the eyes of your client, is to remove your personal bias from the scenario.

You know you’re great. But can you convey that to the person paying for your services?

Want to earn more money as a freelancer?

🤑🤑 Check out these 5 things you can change to earn more 🤑🤑

Conclusion

While asking for more money as a freelancer is a daunting task, it happens all the time.

As you’re reading this, a freelancer is sending an email suggesting their rates are going up.

That can be a double-edged sword.

Yes, it happens all the time. It’s common practice.

But it also means hirers must thoroughly review whether they agree to your proposal.

Create a template using the examples in this post and test what works.

I wish you the best of luck.

Need help with your freelance career?

👉 I documented my freelance life’s work 👈

The result? A comprehensive and actionable guide to becoming a freelancer who works on your own terms, in your own time, and at your own rate. Get my book here.

Main takeaways

As you work through the state of freelance marketing, you’ll find that freelancer marketers think they have more job satisfaction and higher productivity than office-based, full-time employees.

But does this come at a cost? 

The alarmingly high number of freelance marketers earning in the lowest bracket is a reflection on both the diversity of respondents and the lack of awareness of things like pricing theory, per project billing, and charging what you’re worth.

It could also be down to freelancers working less.

With the average freelance marketer working 5-6 hours a day and 5 days per week, this is less than the traditional full-time employee.

Freelancers charging by the hour may be taking an unnecessary hit.

That said, does a freelance marketer need to work more to earn more?

 ⛔ Absolutely not.

However, within the freelance marketers earning $150,000+ per year, the average number of hours worked per day is 7-8. So, while they may not need to in theory, there is certainly a correlation.

Methodology

310 freelance marketers completed a survey answering multiple choice questions.

Respondents include job titles like:

Respondents vary in terms of experience, ranging from freshly freelance to 20+ years plus.

Respondents vary in terms of location, including Nigeria, India, Pakistan, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Romania, and Philippines to name but a few.

These questions surrounded four major criteria:

In some commentary, rounding has been applied for readability.

The state of freelance marketing 2024

Here are the results of each question, one by one. In the section that follows this, we draw some conclusions based on cross-referencing the data.

52% of freelancer marketers work 5 days a week

Freelance marketers haven’t quite adopted the 4-day working week just yet.

In fact, the second most popular answer is 6 days per week.

When asked what’s stopping her moving from 5 to 4 working days, Holly Stanley, a freelance B2B writer, said it was the schedule she has crafted for herself.

“I do deep writing work in the AM then take a long break every afternoon after lunch to go outside and do sport. I then do edits or lighter work in the evening if I need to. If I cut down to 4 days I would probably find I don’t have enough time to get everything done since I don’t use the afternoons much.”

41% of freelance marketers work 5-6 hours a day

Perhaps down to being subject to fewer office politics and the admin that comes with working in larger teams, freelance marketers work less than the average 9-5 employee.

Whatever the reason, working slightly less may be a contributing factor to the high rate of job satisfaction reported.

One respondent said they work 1-2 hours a day, 4 days per week, and love their job.

Who wouldn’t?!

Lily Snyder, a Freelance Writer, raises a point that must be taken into consideration.

“I'm not the main breadwinner in the family. I'm a mom first and a freelancer in my spare time.”

59% of freelance marketers feel they work less than others

While there is something to celebrate about freelance marketers working fewer hours than their full-time counterparts, they’re also aware they have the privilege of working shorter days compared to others.

Of the freelancers working fewer than the average 5-6 hours a day, 89% recognized that they work fewer hours.

That doesn’t mean there’s any guilt, though. And there doesn't need to be.

As we become accustomed to deliverable-based work, taking regular breaks, and working when we’re productive, it’s refreshing to see some freelancers recognizing this.

Megan Hettwer, a Freelance Content Writer and Strategist, says she feels no guilt whatsoever.

“Some weeks, I barely work. My lifestyle is a bit unconventional and I've purposefully designed it to prioritize flexibility, experiences, and the occasional work sabbatical. I wouldn't turn down the right 9-5 job in the future but I don't need to work 9-5 to meet my current and future financial goals.”

Freelancers aren’t always on holiday

Contrary to some freelance myths, freelance marketers take around the same amount of time off as full-time employees.

38.7% of respondents said they take 3-4 weeks off. 35.5% said they only take 1-2 weeks off.

Shout out to the 8.4% taking 7+ weeks per year off.

One such person, Maria-Cristina Muntean, a Freelance Content Strategist, laid out how she achieves this.

“I take on a few clients at a time. Generally, a maximum of five and charge enough to take the time off guilt-free. I don't charge per deliverable, but rather per result. I do have a set of deliverables monthly (3 pieces of content, links, etc.), but most of my clients don't care what I do behind the scenes as long as I bring them results.”

18% of freelance marketers never take their laptop on holiday

There’s always the temptation if it’s with you, sure.

But that means there’s always the possibility to get some work done if you have some downtime.

There’s only so much time you can spend on a sun lounger!

Out of the respondents in the highest income bracket, only 33% said they take their laptop on holiday all the time, proving there’s no correlation between being always-on and high earnings.

Anna Sonnenberg, a Freelance B2B Content Writer, says she takes her laptop on holiday but without the intention of working all the time.

“I typically work during transit. On the plane or train or while waiting. Having my laptop is also handy during flight delays.”

Only 7% of freelance marketers earn $150,000+

In fact, the majority (65%) are at the other end of the earnings scale.

So, count yourself lucky if you fall into the top bracket.

Of course, some exceptions must be made for pay parity and freelance marketers who choose to work fewer hours in favor of parenting or caring for family members.

Money is only one part of why people choose a freelance career path.

Of the 86% of freelancers earning less than $50,000, 83% said they feel they have more job satisfaction than a full-time employee.

This, again, reinforces that there’s more to freelancing than money.

Andie Coupland, a Freelance Marketing Consultant, says she didn’t go freelance because of the money.

Instead, she puts (mental) health over wealth and prefers the ability to work on things that deliver greater value.

“Working in-house, I got fed up with having to deal with random acts of marketing and unrealistic expectations. No amount of money was worth what it was doing to my general sense of wellbeing. Since going freelance, I make enough of a living, doing things I enjoy, on my own terms.”

Freelance marketers are optimistic about their future income

58% of freelance marketers say they think they’ll earn more money next year.

In fact, only 13% said that they think they’ll earn less.

With the spate of marketing layoffs experienced in 2022 and 2023, 2024 appears to be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Another factor when considering freelance income is the gaps people take for all sorts of reasons. While freelancers are on career breaks, there is nothing coming in (except for those who’ve diversified their income through other means).

Sarah Gates, a Freelance Content Strategist, for example, expects to earn more next year.

“I had a baby in 2022 so took some time to get ramped back up after maternity leave. I expect I’ll simply have more hours and bandwidth to work next year, so I will earn more.”

No freelance marketers hate their job!

Actually, the complete opposite is true.

While 8% of freelance marketers are struggling at the moment, nobody checked the I hate my job box.

39% of freelance marketers love their job. Another 39% say they aren’t where they want to be but are optimistic.

Of the 39% of freelance marketers who are optimistic, only 6.5% said they think they will earn less next year.

Allam, a Freelance Brand Designer, says his strategy for next year centers on improving positioning.

"A few tactics I have in mind are: keep a small roster of clients, raise margins for each new project, and use my positioning statement as a vetting tool."

82% of freelance marketers think they have more job satisfaction than full-time employees

It’s such a big part of being a freelancer that the results had to show this, right?

Yet, 18% of freelance marketers don’t feel this way.

Of the respondents who don’t feel they have more job satisfaction, 64% did at least say they think they’ll earn more next year.

Of the 82% who think they have more job satisfaction, 89% selected home as their primary work location.

The correlation between working from home and job satisfaction is clear.

That’s the feeling for Nicola Scoon, a Freelance Content Writer:

"It plays a huge role! I've considered working from other places and tried coworking spaces but it's so hard for me to find that initial focus that it's much more effective for me to just stay home, put my headphones in, and write. I also like being able to pick up other tasks when I need to refocus. I like being able to make (and eat) lunch in peace, and I enjoy the space and quiet that working from home gives me.”

88% of freelance marketers work from home

Very few people are spending money on external premises as their primary location for work.

In fact, only 1% of freelance marketers rent office space.

Of the home workers, 68% have a dedicated space for working.

Of those freelance marketers who have a dedicated home office space, 78% also said they find this their most productive working environment.

Some freelance marketers even suggest that not working from home would have an adverse impact. Take Douglas Paton, a Freelance Content Writer, who was actually “hiding out in the mountains” when he said how critical working from home was.

“I'd very likely be miserable if I wasn't at home, even if I was doing the exact same thing. I could probably make a coworking space work, but not long term.”

What conclusions can we draw?

1 - Freelance marketers are happy! 

With 82% citing they think they have more job satisfaction than full-time employees and not even one freelance marketer hating their job, this is a safe conclusion.

Conclusion certainty: ✅✅✅✅✅

2 - Freelance marketers could be earning more

While the sentiment is that money isn’t everything, there’s a gaping chasm between the lowest and highest earning brackets. Some freelancers choose not to earn as much as they can due to other commitments, but the exception doesn’t outweigh the rule.

Conclusion certainty: ✅✅✅

3 - Freelance marketers are optimistic about 2024

It would be fair to say that 2022 and 2023 haven’t been easy on anyone—freelancers and full-time employees alike. But with 58% of freelance marketers thinking they’ll earn more in 2024, and 52% of freelance marketers who are predicting similar years already earning more than $50,000 per year, the future is bright.

Conclusion certainty: ✅✅✅✅

4 - Freelance marketers work less than full-time employees

But only by a little. That said, how much time do full-time employees spend working versus pottering around the office? With countless interruptions from co-workers (online and in-person), the output versus presenteeism debate rages on.

Conclusion certainty: ✅✅✅

5 - Freelance marketers love working from home

Not quite a unanimous decision but 78% do. And there are some considerations to unpack here. If you don’t have a dedicated workspace at home, productivity suffers. Other common blockers to getting work done include childcare and isolation. Both of which are also seen as positives by other freelancers.

Conclusion certainty: ✅✅✅✅

Thanks for reading The State Of Freelance Marketing 2024. It was fun and enlightening to compose the data, discuss opinions, and discover how other freelancers work.

Small plug from me: So many freelancers asked me about doing some mentoring/coaching last year that I’ve opened my calendar up for freelance AMAs.

When writing The Autonomous Freelancer, I dug deep into common freelancer questions and learned a ton myself. In some cases, I was too skilled to enter the freelance market as a novice. In other cases, I was still unaware of many complexities and tribulations freelancers come across.

Today, I am in a position where I can help fellow freelance marketers and writers take their careers to the next level.

If you think a mentor is the right approach for you and you’re looking for an online freelance coach, book a Freelance AMA with me.

It’s either:

If you don’t know which niche to move into but you’ve bought into niching down as you know it’ll open doors to more clients and more money, have a read of How To Narrow Your Niche And Earn More Money.

If you’re stuck between two niches, keep reading. Because, at the time of writing, I’m not sure how this article is going to go!

Update: since finishing this article, the answer is a resounding no! Let’s dig into why…

Is it okay to have two niches?

It depends on what your goals and circumstances are.

When we talk about being niche, it’s most commonly in one of these two scenarios:

Being niche as a freelancer

Okay, here’s what happens when you’re niche:

Oh no, the number of potential clients shrinks!

It shrinks from everybody ever to people who work in the same field as you and recognize your skillset, experience, and knowledge as superior to those applicants or potential hires without that niche element.

This is only a plus.

Look at the logos on my website. They’re all in the same industry as my future clients. Knowing I’ve done work for them reassures future clients they’ve come to the right person.

Here’s a  small extract from my book on why niching down to one specialism is the right thing to do…

Niche freelancers have a smaller client pool

A smaller client pool than the rest of the world, sure.

It might seem scary at first. But narrowing down your client pool is a good thing.

Here’s why…

When you focus on one industry, type of work, or subset of that work, you become an expert in this particular area.

For example, I write about unified comms and contact centers. Almost exclusively.

My customers are unified comms providers like Cisco and contact center providers like Nextiva.

With 15 years experience working with and writing for these vendors, do you think they prefer hiring generalist writers who don’t know about their tech, audience, or brand?

Absolutely not.

They want to find and hire someone who’s been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt.

And they’ll pay more for it.

That’s the best way I can wrap up the positives about being niche.

But the second you stop focusing on that niche and start going after different industries, you start undoing all the hard work you’ve invested into your niche.

Sure, when you’re starting out, building a portfolio and honing your craft is probably the best advice out there.

But, the sooner you find your niche, the better.

Planning for two long-term niches, as a freelancer, is a restriction you don’t need to place on yourself.

A word on creating niche sites

When creating “niche” sites, what you’re doing is building a library of online resources that you want Google to know you’re the authority on.

First up, this is going to be a long-term project. You need to create high-quality content that satisfies search intent over a period of time.

Even if you write 100 blog posts in 25 days, Google isn’t going to rank your site above competing sites that have been around for decades.

So, not only must you be knowledgeable about this topic, but you must also be passionate enough to continue with your new site for the long haul.

My real-life example: I started a site based on work from home furniture. It was loosely related to what I write about for my clients and I considered myself an expert. After six blog posts, I gave up. Writing about furniture is boring. I was not committed. It was the wrong niche to try and start an affiliate site for. In fact, the only fun part was modeling for images. Here I am advertising the anti-glare screen protector I didn’t enjoy writing about.

TLDR: You’ve got to convince Google you’re a credible source and have the interest to see it through long term.

If this is your thing though (creating sites), there’s no harm in having multiple niches. If each site is a long-term project, and you have the resources or expertise in enough topic areas, they’re standalone websites and Google doesn’t care who runs them.

That said, imagine what you could do if you doubled down on that one high-earning niche that you really enjoy.

Just saying.

What if I have more than one niche?

Having more than one niche means you’re stealing attention from the other.

How can you justify you’re the best person for the job in one specific niche when you’re spending half your time elsewhere.

It’s like getting married and starting a family with two spouses.

If you have more than one niche, seriously consider opting for one over the other.

It boils down to three main things…

1 - You are marketing to two different audiences

It’s hard enough for me marketing my freelance book and freelance coaching services to freelancers, while at the same time trying to drum up business for my actual job.

I quickly realized that the audience that hires me for the bulk of my work (writing, strategy, etc.) isn’t the same audience that will buy my freelance resources.

So, am I a hypocrite?

There is a distinction about what I’m doing here. I am a freelancer so it feels natural to write about my freelancing experiences.

My target audience for billable work remains the same: unified comms businesses who need help with their content marketing.

My freelance work is a hobby and a side income. But I’m well aware that mixing the two types of content on LinkedIn is slightly against the advice I’m giving.

That said, when you’re at the crunch point of deciding which niche to go after, you probably don’t have the experience to delve into stories about how you’ve done XYZ. It’s a different point in your career where you start branching outside of your core working area.

Freelancing isn’t a niche. It’s who I am.

If I was to describe my work self in one sentence, it would be:

A freelance content marketer who specializes in unified comms and contact center.

Being yourself and being good at it isn’t a niche. It’s who you are.

That’s an important distinction to make.

Writing about your marketing experience if you’re a marketer isn’t crossing niches. It’s writing about your experience.

Clients love that.

But, if you’re preaching how great you are at marketing HR software and marketing soda, you’ve got two very different audiences you’re building.

Often in the same place.

Take LinkedIn, for example. A source of over $300,000+ worth of my freelance income.

The majority of my followers and connections are inside my industry.

That’s by design.

I don’t want 200,000 followers. I want 2,000 potential customers.

And, sure, if you have two niches, using my logic, you might argue you could have 4,000 potential customers.

But, in reality, you’d be pushing out your soda marketing message to your HR audience and they’ll soon unfollow you.

Why is this bad? 

Marketing to two audiences means you’re cross-polluting.

You’re telling HR folks you’re good at soda and soda folks you’re good at HR.

The chance of the two overlapping is minimal.

Your time and effort is effectively being shipped at 50% each time.

Could it be good? 

Marketing the wrong thing to the wrong audience never works.

In fact, that’s where most advertising goes wrong.

Just because you’ve got a good advert, it doesn’t mean everyone wants to buy what you’re selling.

You need to get in front of the right people and tell them why you’re the right choice for what they need.

2 - Your personal brand is all over the place

If Jane is the WordPress girl, she needs to be the WordPress girl.

If Tom is the DevOps guy, he needs to be the DevOps guy.

To become known for what you do is every freelancer’s dream.

Juggling two niches is counterintuitive to that goal.

When someone Google’s unified comms writers , I want them to find me.

When someone searches LinkedIn for unified comms marketing, I want them to find me.

That’s my personal brand. I’m the unified comms marketer/writer.

When you try to be two things, you can’t put 100% into that one thing that makes you stand out.

If you’re not the person, you’re just one of many.

Why is this bad? 

Branding and identity for any business is crucial.

We know Nike for sports apparel. We know Bose for high-end sound tech. We know Apple for beautiful, easy-to-use devices.

If potential customers don’t know what you’re known for, it’s easy for them to pass on working with you.

On the other side of the coin, you’re the person. Often the best person. And, sometimes, the only person we want for the job.

Could it be good? 

No. Having an unstructured personal brand is like having no personal brand at all.

Your audience doesn’t understand what you do and you make it hard for them to approach you for work.

3 - You’re never going to become a subject matter expert

I spend around 10 days per year on non-billable work. These are dedicated to information intake.

I’m either at industry conferences, watching webinars, or on vendor briefings.

Those 10 days are me investing in myself to become the person to go-to for content marketing in my niche.

Becoming a subject matter expert makes me stand out among hundreds of other people fighting for the same gig.

Or, in most cases, there is no fight. Customers come to me before advertising they need help.

Sure, you can be knowledgeable about lots of things.

I can tell you tons about football, cricket, and motor racing. But I am a subject matter expert when it comes to unified comms.

If I pursued a second niche, there is no feasible way to claim I could be a subject matter expert without losing the reputation, knowledge, and experience in my existing niche.

To be a genuine expert, you need to live and breathe it.

Why is this bad? 

To be a genuine expert, you need to live and breathe it.

Yes, I repeated that line. You understand why.

Could it be good? 

Not if you want to be viewed as a subject matter expert, get more clients, and earn more money.

What about niche-adjacent?

There is such a thing as an adjacent niche or a sub niche.

We’re getting into trivial technicalities but it’s important to bring up.

I do a lot of work in the remote work and asynchronous work sphere. You could argue these are their own niches.

Because of what I do all day (writing about software like Zoom and Slack), I naturally know a lot about remote work and asynchronous work.

I would go as far as to say I’m a subject matter expert.

That’s because these are adjacent to my core niche.

I have worked remotely for 10 years, mostly asynchronously. And I’ve written about the technology, processes, and strategy needed to implement both.

It might be an accidental niche or just part of what I do already.

Their similarities ensure I’m not straying too far away from my personal brand and my target audience.

Deciding between your two niches

First up, are they different?

Sure, if you’re writing about Call of Duty one day and SharePoint the next, they’re totally different.

But, in some cases, people get hung up over nothing.

I’ve known freelancers who write about Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics and worry about having two niches.

While it’s super impressive they can write about one or the other for a living, they are both CRMs.

What’s more, they’re competitors. Having insider knowledge of the market your customers operate in is what being niche is all about.

If your two niches are totally different, run through this exercise to choose which niche is right for you.

Here’s the kicker:

You have to pick one or the other for each question.

All these are key factors into deciding which niche is right for you.

It’s going to be a tough decision.

As long as you make the right choice, it will pay off 100x over the course of your career.

I often answer, “It’s because I know my niche” to questions like:

If I wasn’t a subject matter expert in my niche, I wouldn’t be able to do any of these things.

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I had no interest in doing this because I loved writing. I didn’t want to “make a course”.

But today I have three products that supplement my writing and strategy income:

If I sell one of each per week, that’s an extra $8,000 in my bank account every year.

And getting to this stage was fairly easy. Because I was creating products based on my expertise. My blogging course is literally me recording a typical day-in-the-life, my content promotion checklist is a product I use myself every day, and my book is recounting things I’ve learned first-hand. These were all fairly low effort compared to coming up with a brand new idea. And they’re all things people need or want. There is both demand and the ability to execute. So I quickly realized it made sense to diversify my income without taking too much of a leap away from my areas of expertise.

I can talk about creating these three things, and I will expand on the how in a few sentences. Outside of courses, checklists, and books, also consider creating:

When I asked my Twitter audience for other ways freelancers can diversify their income, one of the best answers I got (and was hoping for) was this from Sebastian Tigerschiöld, a freelance web developer:

“Add a proximity service. For web dev, add hosting, SEO, marketing, email setup, etc.”

If you recall what Brooklin Nash said in the blog post I shared earlier in the book, “The biggest jump in my income came when I started helping clients with earlier stages of content strategy and planning.”

For me, it was the other way around this year. Here’s a breakdown of my income for January to November 2022:

Content marketing retainers: $78,500

Blog posts/eBooks: $100,000

Affiliate sales: $800

Products: $2,500

SEO: $2,500

If I’d never taken the step out of content creation (executing someone else’s strategy), I’d be missing the skills to charge for additional retainers like content strategy and SEO consultancy.

On the face of it, it probably means I’d be writing more blog posts. Which, as you can see, pays the bills. But consistently doing the same thing (typing) can wear you out—and that’s coming from someone who writes for fun outside of work too.

So let’s put this into action. It’s one thing saying you should expand your skill set. But how do you get started?

How to create an online course

I’ve written a blog post covering how I created my online course. I’ve included that in this section.

How To Record Online Course Videos

Recording your first online course video can be a daunting task.

If you’ve never used video or never created educational materials before, starting from scratch can feel like getting dressed in the dark.

How do I know this?

Because I was in the same position about 18 months ago.

Fast forward those 18 months and I’ve made thousands in online course sales, have many videos on YouTube, and use videos with almost all my customers.

In this post, I’m going to share how I recorded my first online course video and throw in some bonus tips for creation and promotion.

1 - Prepping your online course

There are three key areas to consider when preparing your online course:

What are you going to record?

For the “what”, think about your core online course content.

You might be creating an online course video to help other copywriters conquer writer’s block.

It might be a video course on how to gain more social media followers.

Or it could be something super-specific to your set of niche skills, like knitting or football analysis.

When you know your topic, it’s time to think about the format.

Formats include:

Judging what your audience wants rather than what you’d like to do is key here. If you don’t think about your audience, they will lose focus and you stand less of a chance of them referring to their peers.

So now you know what your course is going to be about and how you’re going to structure it.

Before you dive in and start recording, what is your goal for this course?

If it’s to grow your personal brand or grow a community, it needs to be high-quality.

But if people are parting with their money at any point, it also needs to be high-quality.

If you don’t want to charge for your online course video, there are still other ways to make money.

How do you monetize a video course?

In the preparation phase, think about whether and how you’re going to make money from your video course.

Even if you don’t plan to charge a fee, stick around in this section as you could be leaving money on the table.

Here are 10 ways to monetise a video course:

If you intend on charging for your course, platforms like Gumroad and Udemy offer easy upload processes.

Spend some time getting to know each platform. They have different payout methods and different in-platform sharing options.

How are you going to record your online course video?

For the “how”, the first thing to need to assess is your equipment setup.

The basics you’ll need include: a webcam or DSLR camera, a microphone, and lighting. Let’s assume you’ve already got a laptop or PC at this point.

You could spend ages researching which webcams YouTubers use or you could opt for something that will get the job done.

Unless you’re aiming for seriously high production, the Logitech Brio paired with an Elgato Key Light Air is a solid combination for recording online course videos.

The most important element when creating an online course video is your audio.

Viewers are forgiving of less-than-perfect camera quality and lighting if they can hear you.

Having been through many microphones, I’ve landed on the Shure MV7. It’s far superior to anything else in its price bracket.

The final piece of equipment you may need is a laptop stand. When recording your online course videos, think about the camera position and what you want the viewer to see.

In the image below, you can see I recycled my unused jewelry box instead. I pop my laptop on top when I need to record.

While this setup doesn’t look particularly Hollywood, it falls within budget and ticks all the boxes for great quality online course videos.

2 - Recording your online course videos

Now it’s time to get recording.

The missing piece of the puzzle is your video recorder.

Head to tella.tv and start recording videos straight from your browser.

With Tella, you can record your screen and webcam simultaneously so you don’t need to stitch elements together after recording.

It’s also free for your first 10 videos and there’s no limit on screen recording time.

When you sign up to Tella (in just four clicks), you can start recording straight away. There’s nothing to install and nothing to configure.

At this point, the blog goes into detail about Tella. I didn’t want to include that in this blog post but I do think it’s the best choice for recording videos for online courses.

When you’re happy with your final product, you might think that it’s the end of the process.

It’s only the end if you don’t want anybody to watch it.

Next, let’s dig into 10 platforms to share your online course and learn how to hyper-utilize them.

4 - How to sell video courses online

What we’re not going to do here is simply share your course on social media.

Sure, social media plays a big part in video distribution. But we’re going to focus on finding the right places to promote your online course. And once we’ve found them, we’re going the extra mile to use all the free functionality available.

How do I sell a course on the internet?

Selling online products means you need to get in front of the right people online.

Let’s walk through which platforms to use and how best to use them.

1 - Twitter

We all know how to send a tweet. But few people spend enough time planning their tweets.

Things to consider when promoting your online course on Twitter include:

Outside of the promotional tweets, consider the build-up to launching your course.

If you talk about a product and get people’s opinions while you’re making it, you stand a better chance of turning those people into buyers.

In contrast, a tweet out of the blue asking for payment rarely works.

On Twitter, you’re not limited to single tweets either.

You can craft viral Twitter threads and include a link to your online course. Of course, these take time to get right. But, like most things with marketing, the time you put in is often retrieved in your sales figures.

Don’t limit yourself to your own tweets, either. When other people tweet about the topic you’ve created your online course video on, engage with them.

Not every reply needs to be “Hey, buy my course!” but making people aware you’re a subject matter expert means they might follow you then see you have a course later on.

2 - LinkedIn

A lot of the same tactics you use on Twitter apply on LinkedIn too.

Understanding when your audience is online and what they respond to are musts.

Also like Twitter, there are other ways to gain more eyeballs on your online course.

Finding LinkedIn Groups associated with your course content opens the door to an engaged pool of LinkedIn users looking for content and help on your topic of expertise.

Again, a blatant sales post may not gain many sales. Engaging and demonstrating your authority will.

To find LinkedIn Groups relevant to your course content, search your topic and filter to “Groups”.

3 - Facebook

On Facebook, you’ve likely got connections who know you. They might be old school friends, family members, or people you’ve met online.

The simple act of knowing you means they might like to support you if they are also interested in your video course content.

Rather than just gambling on people being nice, Facebook is another open door to groups with engaged users.

Like LinkedIn Groups, Facebook has functionality where like-minded people can hang out and discuss niche topics.

To infiltrate these communities, you must gain trust rather than arrive and start spamming everyone.

4 - Blogs

When you write high-quality blogs that rank high on Google, you stand a great chance of being found by people with specific search intent.

This means when people search for something and you answer their questions, they are likely to invest in your product to become an expert too.

This is the tactic employed by content marketing teams in both B2B and B2C. By giving away something for free (your blog content), you are more likely to receive an exchange for a paid product.

But only if your content is high-quality.

When you’ve built trust in your blog post, find the right time to add a call to action.

It might be right at the end of your post. But it might also be more relevant at certain action points.

5 - Gumroad Discover

When people have started to download your online products, the platform you host them on could recognize it’s selling well.

In this case, platforms (like Gumroad) want to showcase their best creators so both parties make money.

There’s no shortcut to being featured by these platforms. But you can optimize your online course using tags, categories, and displaying ratings from existing customers.

6 - Affiliates

On most online course platforms, you can create affiliate links for bloggers, influencers, and happy customers to use.

Here, they get a % (that you choose) when they refer someone with their unique link.

Pro tip: offer a higher % commission on the first five sales to encourage new affiliates to push your online course.

7 - Community

In Slack communities or any online area with an engaged audience, you’ve got an audience with a common interest.

You can penetrate these communities by becoming a regular contributor or a sponsor.

Regular helpful contributions build trust and open the door to letting someone know you have a course on that exact topic.

Becoming a sponsor shortcuts that but has the negatives of 1) costing money and 2) being a cold introduction without building trust.

8 - Podcasts

In the same way, you can sponsor a community, you can also sponsor a podcast.

The key here is finding the right podcast. Advertising on any old podcast might get tons of listeners but the chance of them needing your online course doesn’t correlate.

Identify podcasts with similar interests to your course and create customized promo codes so the podcast gets something out of it too.

Some may charge a fee or some prefer an affiliate relationship.

9 - Influencers

Like communities and podcasts, using “influencers” is tapping into existing audiences.

People with a large number of followers or highly-engaged niche viewers take a small cut of the money you make (affiliate) or may ask for a fee in exchange for promoting.

To find the right influencers to collaborate with, check engagement stats like likes, comments, and shares as well as the number of followers.

Thousands of followers are worthless if none are engaged.

Send a DM or email to influencers you identify explaining why you think your online course is relevant to their audience. Don’t forget to include what’s in it for them.

10 - Email

Rather than trying to creep into other people’s audiences, why not use your own audience?

If you run an email newsletter or have email addresses from selling other products, send a one-time, time-based email offering a small discount for early buyers of your online course video.

When launching my second independent product, the majority of people who bought my first online course video made another purchase.

Offering a loyalty discount is a surefire way to lure people in if they enjoyed your first product.

So there we have it! You’ve successfully learned how to plan, record, monetise, and promote your online course.

How to create checklists and templates

Creating checklists and templates is easy. I literally started with a Google Sheet, added some lines with things to work through, then added the how, the suggested tool to use, and an example in the wild. I then repurposed this to an Excel version and a Notion version. My checklist has 50 places you can promote your content and costs $35. That’s tremendous value if you don’t already have a process for content distribution.

The challenge around creating checklists and templates like this is finding a market. There’s little point investing time into a product if there’s no demand.

In my case, I saw everyone on Twitter, in LinkedIn groups, and on webinars complaining they didn’t know how to find new places to promote their content. So I fixed that problem for them. I’ve sold 121 this year and it took me less than a day to create.

How to write a book

This section isn’t going to be a book publishing process. But I’d like to point (and reinforce something covered in the finding a niche section) how you can start writing a book without creating a monumental (and not very autonomous) pile of work for yourself.

In this blog post, I’ve done three things:

By relying on my personal experience, I’ve almost eradicated the research process that is so time-consuming when starting to write a book or a blog post about a technical topic.

By having already built a social network (see chapter on sharing content and networking), I can post a tweet or LinkedIn message and get responses within hours. These all help me add different perspectives so it’s not all me me me.

By repurposing existing content, I make the job shorter by a number of days. I tend to write in batches of 1,500 words. I’ve included several blog posts and Twitter threads in this blog post which make the overall time to execute much shorter. And this comes with the benefit of already being strength-tested. People paid me to write this content or it got a great reaction.

With any product you create to diversify your income, the most important thing to remember is the same thing you should remember when trying to dominate a niche as a freelancer. I’ll repeat it word for word so it one day becomes ingrained in your brain.

My biggest advice to freelancers looking to find their niche is:

Write about what you know.

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I had identified a gap where my skills and experience could open doors for a successful future. But what I didn’t have any awareness of was actually running a business.

Over the past five years, and mostly thanks to the help of Gold Stag Accounts, I’ve become rather clued up on what to spend, when to spend it, and how to run my freelance business in the max tax-friendly manner.

What I wish I knew before I went freelance was exactly how much it costs to set up a freelance business.

Spoiler alert: it’s not a lot.

Double spoiler alert: everyone gets it wrong.

In this blog post, I’m going to run through the five major things you’ll spend money on when setting up your freelance business for the first time. We’ll keep a running total as we go.

It would be an easy way out to say that there could be zero costs to set up a freelance business. There’s nothing stopping you from just writing a blog article and sending an invoice you made on Excel.

But when you hit a threshold of earnings, when you get an unmanageable number of clients, or when you run out of customers and need to find new ones, it’s time to spend a little money.

1 - Register as a Limited Company

Becoming a Limited Company provides two main benefits:

“For tax saving reasons, it usually makes sense to go Ltd once your profits exceed £30,000 and other than the tax savings that can be made, you can also increase your cash flow as you don't have to make the large payments on account you would as operating as a sole trader.”

According to gov.uk, it costs £12 to register as a Limited Company and you can pay by debit or credit card. Your company is usually registered within 24 hours. If you do not want to use 'limited' in your company name you must register by post.

Total cost to set up as a freelance business: £12

2 - Build a website

Let me start by saying you don’t have to build a website. I went through the first few years of my freelance life without one. I was able to rely on LinkedIn and client referrals for the bulk of my business.

However, over time, it made sense to have more ways to generate leads, somewhere to showcase my portfolio, and most importantly, show my pricing in public.

Why would I do such a thing?

To filter out the time wasters.

💭 If people know how much your services cost, only the people willing to spend the money will book a call or start an email exchange with you.

My website cost the equivalent of £5,000. That’s because I lack the skills to design a good website. It’s also because I went to someone proven and with a remarkable reputation.

After all, I wanted to showcase that I create high-quality content. So it makes no sense to have a terrible website that suggests the opposite.

You don’t need to spend that much money. I’ve since hired someone for less and even swapped my content writing services with those of a web designer. I wrote three blog posts in exchange for a new site.

If you have the skills yourself, you’re laughing. As a reference point, I’ll add an average of £1,000 to get set up.

Total cost to set up as a freelance business: £1,012.

3 - Marketing and advertising

In my first year as a full-time freelancer, I didn’t spend anything on marketing or advertising.

I then saw myself potentially running out of customers so invested in it. This is a decision that paid off magnificently.

The majority of my work still enters my inbox through word of mouth referrals and LinkedIn, but every now and again I run some Google Ads for my book or sponsor a golf day for telecoms partners.

You might also consider paying another freelancer for web marketing services or joining communities where you might find work.

Any marketing activity you do is tax-deductible, so think of this as an investment rather than an expense.

Total cost to set up as a freelance business: £1,300.

4 - Invoicing and accounting

I’m very good at maths but balancing accounting and creating content is not something I excel at.

Hiring an accountant was a no-brainer for me. Especially when I realised that for one flat fee, I would get all my accounting software, my self-assessment, my end of year accounts, and my payroll all included.

I also get a snapshot view to make sure everything is as it should be. As a result, I’ve become more aware of the money I’m spending (or not spending) and making small changes.

For about the price of about one blog post, I get everything sorted for me. All I do is send the invoices when I get work and make sure I don’t let my approvals spiral out of control.

Total cost to set up as a freelance business: £2,500

5 - All the things

In my book, The Autonomous Freelancer, I include a section called What happens when you get paid?

I’ve included the entire section here as it’s important to understand what you can claim as a business expense—there’s more than you realise. But it’s also important to be aware of all the things you could potentially spend money on when you set up a freelance business.

When you’re a freelancer, you’re not just responsible for your deliverables and sales, you’re also responsible for your payroll.

People usually react to these things in two ways.

They either think this is great because they get all the money and spend little on outgoings. Or they fear messing up because numbers are alien to them. I also hear horror stories (to me at least) about people spending entire days working on payroll and accounts.

The notion that someone is doing this fries my mind. I estimate I spend ten minutes per week on my finances.

I split my finance tasks into two segments: when I get paid and when I spend money.

Here’s my exact process when I receive payment from a client:

This way, I know that my balance is my genuine spendable business income. The tax pot is exactly that.

In reality, I don’t pay 43%. That is, however, the amount I was paying when I was employed. So, as a backstop and a nice bonus, I move 43% to the tax pot so I’m covered for all eventualities.

When tax-paying season comes around, I make a single payment safe in the knowledge that it’s all available. Whatever’s left in the tax pot after I’ve paid tax can either stay there as a buffer or be moved to the main balance.

That’s it. I’ll match up money with relevant invoices by clicking “approve” when I log into my accounting software every few weeks or so. That keeps my accountant happy.

There are some circumstances when I move money back from the tax pot:

Each month, pay your own salary. Make it the bare minimum for tax efficiency. In the UK, this is £758.33 (as of August 2023).

By doing this, your company is paying you a salary small enough not to be taxed in your personal self-assessment. On paper, this doesn’t sound liveable. And it’s not. So let’s become tax-efficient…

Being savvy with your expenses and knowing what you can claim as a legitimate business expense pays for itself here.

These include:

These are all pretty standard guidelines. But, until you learn exactly what you can spend (and claim as a tax-deductible expense), it’s just words on a page.

Here’s what you can (and should) claim as a business expense. Note, these are applicable in the UK for limited companies. Always check with your/an accountant first.

I suggest you take a photo of the section above and stick it to your cork board above your workstation ready for when you do your accounts. Every element here contributes to a much nicer tax bill at the end of the year and helps reduce the burden on your personal salary.

In the likely event that you are still lacking funds in your personal bank account, there are scenarios where you can make tax-free transfers from your business account to your personal account.

These include things like taking dividends from your company. Here, check with local rules. In the UK in 2023, this is capped at £1,000. In 2024, it is being reduced to £500.

If you’re desperate for cash from your business account, consider taking a director’s loan. Here, you can take a tax-free loan from your business on the basis that you must pay it back.

Outside of these tax efficiencies, it’s time to start paying tax. However, running a company means you pay tax for the company and on your reduced “earnings” you withdraw from it. This is a far more efficient way to be a freelancer than working as a sole trader.

There is a small caveat that this is only effective at a certain threshold. No accountant or financial advisor wants to commit to confirming what that threshold is. My personal experience says that it’s 100% before you start earning £100,000 per year. I paid a lot of tax in my first full year as a freelancer and learned the hard way.

Total cost to set up as a freelance business: £3,000

How much does it cost to set up a freelance business?

In a conservative model, you’re looking at £3,000 to set up a freelance business.

If you don’t have clients, you’ll need to spend more on marketing and advertising. If you are conservative or have the skills to do things like web design and accounting yourself, this can reduce dramatically.

But, more than likely, you want to get on with your craft. That’s the appeal of going freelance, right?

The good news?

I went a full year without an accountant. After my first year with an accountant, I felt like a total idiot.

I’d spend money on my business without realising what I could claim as tax-deductible. Sure, I could fill out a self-assessment form with ease, but it wasn’t benefitting me.

So, when I hired an accountant for the first time and paid 33% less tax despite earning 75% more, I was both happy (with my accountant) and furious (at myself).

I’d spent all the money setting up my freelance business in year one, but only started treating it like a business in year two.

The good news is that if you’re setting up a freelance business, pretty much all the costs are tax-deductible.

Think of these costs less like money lost and more like money invested.

The tax man sees it that way, so why shouldn’t you?

I split my finance tasks into two segments: when I get paid and when I spend money.

Here’s my exact process when I receive payment from a client:

This way, I know that my balance is my genuine spendable business income. The tax pot is exactly that. In reality, I don’t pay 43%. That is, however, the amount I was paying when I was employed. So, as a backstop and a nice bonus, I move 43% to the tax pot so I’m covered for all eventualities. When tax-paying season comes around, I make a single payment safe in the knowledge that it’s all available. Whatever’s left in the tax pot after I’ve paid tax can either stay there as a buffer or be moved to the main balance.

That’s it. I’ll match up money with relevant invoices by clicking “approve” when I log into my accounting software every few weeks or so. That keeps my accountant happy.

There are some circumstances when I move money back from the tax pot:

Each month, pay your own salary. Make it the bare minimum for tax efficiency. In the UK, this is £758.33 (as of January 2023). By doing this, your company is paying you a salary small enough not to be taxed in your personal self-assessment. On paper, this doesn’t sound liveable. And it’s not. So let’s become tax-efficient…

Being savvy with your expenses and knowing what you can claim as a legitimate business expense pays for itself here.

These include:

These are all pretty standard guidelines. But, until you learn exactly what you can spend (and claim as a tax-deductible expense), it’s just words on a page.

Here’s what you can (and should) claim as a business expense. Note, these are applicable in the UK for limited companies. Always check with your/an accountant first.

Accounting : you can claim for your own time spent on accounting if you don’t have an accountant. If you do have an accountant, you can claim for their fee.

Advertising & marketing : if you run a campaign to generate new leads, you can claim for the cost of the platform and resources you use.

Business account payments: if you have to pay a fee for your business bank account, or need to pay interest, you can claim for this.

Broadband/internet : claim back the percentage of your home broadband bill you use for business. E.g. if you work 8 hours a day, claim for 33% of your broadband bills.

Business use of home: as above, claim the 33% of your heating, electricity, gas, logs if you work 8 hours per day.

Charity donations: any donation using Gift Aid is applicable for tax relief.

Computer equipment : this covers a wide variety of things you will likely use in your business and personal life. Laptops, printers, cables, chargers, etc. are all covered in this category. The same applies to software and subscriptions used for business.

Equipment your company buys from you as a person: (taken from Freeagent’s “Business Costs Expenses for Limited Companies Guide”): If you already own a computer, office chair etc and want to bring it into your business, you can claim tax relief for its market value at the point you brought it into the business. Check eBay for similar items and then include that cost in the company’s accounts. Don’t forget that if you are going to carry on using the equipment privately too, HMRC would consider this to be a taxable benefit.

Travel: if you need to fly, drive, cab, train, or something more inventive to see a client or attend a business function, you can claim the full amount of this. The same applies to where you are staying. Check your local rules on claiming fuel for mileage if you drive. If you have a company car, even as the sole employee, all mileage is included as the vehicle is a company asset.

Company car: if you have a company car, everything associated with this vehicle is a business expense, with the exception of parking and speeding fines.

Food while traveling: in the above situations when you’re traveling, you can claim for food away from your office. These will match up with your dates for other travel expenses.

Swag: if you create merchandise with your name on it to send to prospects and customers, you can claim for this.

Mobile phone: switch your mobile phone contract to a business account in your business name and you can claim the full amount as a business expense.

Pension contributions: you can claim the full amount of every pension contribution. More on pensions in the next section.

Stationery: any pens, notepads, etc. can be claimed as a business expense.

Training: if you sign up for courses or resources to be used exclusively for business purposes, you can claim the full amount of these.

I suggest you take a photo of the section above and stick it to your corkboard above your workstation ready for when you do your accounts. Every element here contributes to a much nicer tax bill at the end of the year and helps reduce the burden on your personal salary.

In the likely event that you are still lacking funds in your personal bank account, there are scenarios where you can make tax-free transfers from your business account to your personal account. These include things like taking dividends from your company. Here, check with local rules. In the UK in 2023, this is capped at £1,000. In 2024, it is being reduced to £500.

If you’re desperate for cash from your business account, consider taking a director’s loan. Here, you can take a tax-free loan from your business on the basis that you must pay it back.

Outside of these tax efficiencies, it’s time to start paying tax. However, running a company means you pay tax for the company and on your reduced “earnings” you withdraw from it. This is a far more efficient way to be a freelancer than working as a sole trader. There is a small caveat that this is only effective at a certain threshold. No accountant or financial advisor wants to commit to confirming what that threshold is. My personal experience says that it’s 100% before you start earning £100,000 per year. I paid a lot of tax in my first full year as a freelancer and learned the hard way.

In reality, the threshold is based on your profit and loss. I’ve searched far and wide for the magic number but the best guidance is this…

Okay, it’s not easy. I started writing this section out but ended up making it more complicated.

Here’s the guidance taken directly from Tuchbands article, How to become a limited company:

“Why a low income businesses should become a limited company

A sole trader with a profit below the personal allowance and the Class 4 National Insurance lower limit will not be liable to pay any tax, but if they earn above the small earnings exception (£6,025 for 2017/18 and £5,065 for 2016-17), then they will be liable to pay Class 2 NI contributions.

If that same person had operated through a limited company and withdrawn the same profit solely through a salary – and not via a dividend – they would not have to pay tax or NI contributions. At a salary level above the lower earnings limit, they would also retain any contribution record for state pension and benefit purposes.

Why a high income businesses should become a limited company

A sole trader who makes a profit of £50,000 would benefit from part of the profit being non-taxable, due to the specifications of their personal allowance. The remainder of the profit would be taxable at the basic rate of income tax and part at the higher rate of income tax. Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance Contributions would also apply.

If an incorporated business made the same profit of £50,000, the business owner would receive a small salary of less than the current personal allowance and would still receive the remainder of the profit as dividends.

For the 2017/2018 tax year, corporation tax, income tax and employee NICs would amount to £10,076 on profits of £50,000, leaving the owner of the limited company £2,187 better off than a sole trader with the same level of profits.

If the same owner had taken a lower dividend below the basic rate limit and left some profit in the company then they could have paid less tax.”

If, at this point, you’re still stuck, I strongly advise seeking the advice of an accountant or financial advisor.

It’s through my financial advisor that I have, without any real financial knowledge, accrued a pension pot of £70,000 and an accessible ISA of £30,000 on top of my regular income by the time I am 30. And all without feeling like I’m missing out on disposable personal income. I live a very good life balanced somewhere between saving up for the long term and “I’m here for a good time not a long time”.

Some freelancers report they miss the employer benefits like pensions.

“As a freelancer for over 15 years, I certainly feel that freedom was oversold though. It has probably also cost me about “250k in employee benefits, especially pension controls too.”

These are the thoughts of a disgruntled freelancer who didn’t take any steps to protect or invest in their future finances. And I can only blame the individual.

When you become a freelancer, you are responsible for all aspects of your business. And that includes pensions and benefits.

I do, however, understand the hesitation to lose these things. What if I suddenly need access to something my employer did provide? I’d feel like an idiot. But that’s the bullet you bite. And after your likely rise in rate, you won’t even notice it anyway.

I haven’t ever come across anything I’ve ever needed or missed in the traditional benefits package. My pension works harder in an investment portfolio, I have my own life insurance, I should get around to making a will***, and I recently paid for my dental treatment upfront.

***I made one after writing this section. It took less than 30 minutes on farewill.com 

Sure, I could have got some of these if I stayed with a company long enough. But, when weighed up against my potential earnings and freedom as a freelancer, there is no doubt in my mind I am better off both financially and mentally.

Want to become an autonomous freelancer?
🔥 Get a copy of my book here 🔥

That’s only the case if you made it very easy to get paid.

How do you do this?

I’ve hired (or tried to hire) freelancers who are damn near impossible to pay. I’ve also been the freelancer trying his hardest to get paid by a giant conglomerate that took over 100 days to pay me.

I’ve also been slap bang in the middle when I’ve sent an invoice and it’s been paid in the suggested time.

First of all, make it easy to get paid. This means you have a bank account that anyone can pay. And accept any currency. If you’re refusing to be paid in $$$ because you’re in the UK, you’re making life harder for yourself.

Recent history shows that you’d have actually been better off (financially) if you accepted dollars in the UK. Overall history shows that things level themselves out over time. Wherever you are in the world, make sure you accept the currency of your clients. The second you add complexity to your client’s life, you become a pain to pay.

So you’ve got a bank account and accept the currency of your client. Job done? Not quite.

Next, give them the option they want to pay you. With large clients, this will be obvious. They pay you via bank transfer so all you need to do is provide your bank details. Unless, of course, you’re in a different country. Make it templated on your invoices that you have all your bank account information, including country transfer codes. Sure, not all your customers will need this but a belt and braces approach removes any element of risk.

Is everyone going to pay you via bank transfer? No.

Typically, the larger the organization the longer it is to get on their supplier list. This may take some time in itself. Expect forms and purchase orders. In some cases, maybe even security assessments. When this is the case, think about your fees before you start jumping through hoops. I once lost an entire day getting on a supplier’s list. But it didn’t matter as I’d factored that time into the project.

When you make it to the supplier list, bank transfers are the norm. But there’s also going to be the time when someone needs something fast. Certain contacts will have access to a company credit card so they can bypass the supplier list and sign up and execute projects quickly. In these cases, you have two options:

I know, I know. That means you’ll lose about 3% on all your invoices.

Well, only if you don’t add that transaction fee to your invoice. It really is as simple as that. In most cases, you can literally add this on and nobody will mention it.

The alternative, and the one I go with, is to say “Sure, you can pay by credit card. There’ll be a small charge on the invoice that reflects that.” I have a 100% payment rate when including this.

And how about small businesses or startups? No long supplier list sign-up here but also the chance that the money is coming out of an individual's account or a custom fund set aside for marketing.

Payment options like PayPal and cryptocurrency are useful here. You don’t need to be a crypto bro to accept cryptocurrency payments, either. If you have a Coinbase (or whatever) account, you can receive payments then transfer them straight to your bank account in your preferred currency.

Being flexible and having different options to receive payment makes you extremely payable. The invoice goes out, the payment arrives. Autonomous.

What should you not do?

Demand payment in a specific currency or format. That’s about it.

Your inflexibility will cost you in the long run.

In niche cases, your hands may be tied. And I sympathize with you immensely. I know freelancers in Ecuador and Nigeria who find it hard to get paid. PayPal and Coinbase are lifesavers here.

When I send a customer an invoice, they all follow the same template. I literally just select the customer and add the products and services.

Each invoice includes:

Thanks to the inclusion of these elements, I’m incredibly easy to pay.

What to do when you don’t get paid

In the spirit of autonomy, automate this process. With invoicing software, like FreeAgent, you can set up auto-reminders when an invoice becomes overdue.

This simple one-time setting, coupled with a watertight contract (see previous chapter), means you forget about chasing up late customers and focus on your craft.

I see zero arguments against using this.

I know a ton of freelancers who spend far too much time asking for their overdue invoices to eventually be paid. I’ve had literal fights on Twitter with freelancers who complain they don’t have time but refuse to be anything but moneylenders to their clients.

Newsflash: you don’t have to be nice here. You’re a business.

What if they still don’t pay?

I really hope you’re never in this situation. I haven’t been myself. But I wanted to include an example of someone who did, and how they remedied their problem. So I reached out on Twitter for examples and it turns out every example was the situation where they didn’t have a contract in place.

If you take the scenario of working with a contract versus without a contract, the narrative writes itself.

If you do somehow find yourself not getting paid even when you have a contract in place , Sian Lenegan, a Business Consultant, shared her alligator email with me. Apparently, it worked like a charm!

Hi {Name}, 

I've been trying to reach you for {x weeks} -  wondering if you've been eaten by alligators or you're just plain swamped? 

We did a lot of {work/deliverables} for {company/project} and we've provided all the {deliverables}, we were promised payment in return for that output but the money hasn't materialized. Please pick one of the responses and let me know which it is.    

a) You have been eaten by alligators 

b) You haven't been eaten by alligators but you're ignoring my emails and texts because you owe me money 

c) It's something else and you've been meaning to catch up with me but you've been busy fighting alligators, I will let you know by next week what the situation is and make a payment plan so we can sort this out  

d) I'm so sorry, complete oversight and I'm sending you {$0000} right now 

Please let me know if it's a, b, c or d so that we can both just crack on with our businesses and I don't need to make up any more crazy emails about alligators.

Thanks, 

{Your name} 

PS Sian says, “For added effect use the alligator emoji as the subject line, always gets an open.”

This is an extract from my book, The Autonomous Freelancer.

My query was to find out what people don’t like about writing. The automatic association for some freelance writers is that writing is business.

When I ask questions like “What’s your favorite part about writing?” I get answers like expression and freedom and other wonderful words that I also love about writing.

Likewise, when I join Twitter Chats about freelancing, the same topics come up time and again:

Finding clients is hard.

And, honestly, I don’t get it.

Now, that might sound callous or arrogant. And maybe it is. Because, while I appreciate how hard it is to get new clients when you cold pitch and submit CVs, I can’t get my head around why people don’t deviate from this horrible process.

Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” 

So why do people persist in the process that’s “hard, tiresome, boring, painful, arduous, mind-numbing, and demoralizing”?

The answer is: because it’s habit. Remember that small word that causes so much pain or gain?

Let’s do something about that habit.

I have secured customers from two avenues during my career as a freelance marketer. Note, I use the term “avenues” rather than channels or platforms. I’m not about to tell you to go all in on Twitter or start writing life-coaching posts on LinkedIn. Neither am I about to tell you to start writing long-form blog posts to try and rank on Google.

The two avenues that have bought me all my customers are:

1 - Finding freelance client via word of mouth referrals

Word of mouth referrals are when someone literally recommends you to their colleagues, peers, friends, bosses, competitors, anyone.

I’ve had 25 customers in the last 5 years. To validate that word of mouth referrals not only exist but work, I’ve counted back which of those 25 have been word of mouth referrals.

Care to hazard a guess?

6** of those (24%) have come from word of mouth referrals. Actually, 3 of them were from the same person.

And that’s only the referrals that became paying customers. Sometimes they weren’t a good fit. And we’ve already touched on when it’s okay to say no to new business.

**Editing note: I got 3 word of mouth referrals today. Two within my niche and one under the blanket of digital marketing. These came from two former customers and one person I network with online. Word of mouth is real, folks.

So, how do you get a word of mouth referral?

Other than having nice customers who do this naturally, it’s a two-pronged approach to obtaining referrals:

Delivering great work speaks for itself. If you provide late or below-par work, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to get a referral.

Not only does the work you deliver have to be great, but it must also be a good working experience for your client. If they have to chase you after delivery dates or you ignore feedback, you’re no longer making your client’s life easier. And, after all, that’s why they hire you: you have a specialist skill they can’t complete (or complete as well) in-house.

But there is still no harm in asking for a referral if you’ve delivered great work. For example, when growing one client’s blog, we’d reached levels we could never have imagined. The impact on the business was so great that more than 90% of the pipeline could be attributed to work I’d completed. When the time came to reduce work with that particular client, I asked them if they knew anybody else who’d benefit from the work we’d done.

The result?

17 referrals.

And, no, that’s not a typo.

My client was so thrilled with my work that they wanted to spread the work with peers, former colleagues, and investors.

Sure, not all 17 turned out to be anything. But they all have quality recommendations for when they do.

That said, it’s hard to gain word of mouth referrals from existing customers only. And, what if you don’t have many customers yet?

That’s where my second avenue comes in. Let’s talk about content promotion.

2 - Finding freelance clients via content promotion

What’s the first thing you do after you complete your work for a client? 

Okay, after you breathe a sigh of relief, what should you do?

Promote your content.

Why?

Content promotion makes up the rest of the 76% of customers that have come to me and asked if I can do work for them.

By “content”, let’s assume I’m referring to whatever the output or deliverable is for your client. It may not be content in the traditional sense of consumable content marketing (videos, blogs, graphics, etc.) but you have provided someone with something. If you have no output to share, simply sharing that you’ve done something is great too. If you have a graph, chart, table, code snippet, behind-the-scenes photo, anything, it unlocks a passageway to being found online.

As well as the objection of having nothing to share (from freelancers who aren’t writers or designers mostly), obtaining permission and dealing with NDAs are the next most common. I’ll come to those shortly.

I’m forever surprised when I ask freelancers about their processes and they don’t include promotion outside of sharing on their favorite social media.

Don’t get me wrong. Social media is great. As I was writing this book, I shared an ebook that I worked on 9 months ago on LinkedIn. Within an hour, I had a message in my DMs asking me to create the same for a new client. Since completing this book, I’ve completed that ebook. It netted me £7,500 ($9,000).

It doesn’t always work that way. That’s why you need to consistently be distributing your content.

A thorough content promotion process, which only needs to be bullets of where to share, can take eyeballs on your content and outputs from zero to hero. But eyeballs don’t pay the bills. However, when the right people read your content, you stand a higher chance of getting business to come to you.

That’s why content distribution is so hard. And why so many marketing teams deprioritize it. Finding the right places takes effort, time, and research. Writing a new blog post feels like you’re contributing more. Creating a new infographic seems like everybody is busy. Creating new code when you haven’t tested your previous shows your client you’re efficient. But only on the front end. And, as any business-savvy person will tell you, it’s what happens behind the scenes (or after publication or handover in the case of a freelancer) that makes businesses money. We’re talking about optimization for search and promoting content in the right place.

To put that into context, I can attribute over $170,000 worth of work in the last 18 months to content promotion.

Over the last 5 years, I’ve collated where works, doesn’t work, and only works for certain content, so I have a plan of where to share my content when it’s ready to be released into the wild. Sure, I rely a lot on traffic from Google. But, in the example of one post in particular, I gained an extra 67% worth of views compared to just hitting publish and letting people find it on Google.

“Leaving dollars on the table” is an overused phrase in the marketing world. But, in the case of content distribution versus relying solely on SEO and a bit of luck, you’re not only leaving dollars on the table (i.e. missing customers who’d find your work and approach you) but you’re creating more work for yourself in terms of cold pitching and looking for gigs.

I promise you that promoting your content is a whole lot more validating too. Sharing something you made and getting feedback is invaluable. And don’t get me started on the dopamine hit when you get a bunch of likes or someone shares something you created.

Yes, finding where and how to promote your content is hard. That’s why I created my own checklist for others to use. Sure, you might not use all of them. But for less than $1 per tactic, I’d wager you spend a lot more unbilled time tiring yourself out applying for gigs.

You can download my content promotion checklist here: bit.ly/freelancepromochecklist

And, if you do, you unlock a code for 33% off my blogging course too.

See what I did there? I just promoted my checklist and my course in my book!

Obtaining permission

The number one objection to promoting content that you’ve created is the fear that your customer won’t let you.

Let me be straight with you here.

They wouldn’t pay you if they didn’t want people to see it.

As a business owner myself, when I commission someone to write a blog post or create a graphic for me, I want them to share it.

Why?

Because more people will see it!

If you can’t get over this imaginary hurdle, there are some things you can do to:

When you ask your client what their content promotion process is, you might even get some extra work too. If content distribution is a weakness of theirs, you might get a gig writing social media copy or tacking on some outreach time as a deliverable in your retainer.

If it’s all taken care of in-house, a simple “I assume you’ll want me to share it too?” puts you on the front foot. Why would they say no? You just offered to amplify the asset they’re paying you to create.

Even in the case of ghostwriting, the act of sharing the post without publicly calling out you wrote it goes a long way. When someone reads it and thinks it’s great, they’ll ask you if you know the author. And that’s you!

When you do it anyway, there are two outcomes:

Use scenario judgment to gauge whether this is going to lose you a customer or gain you a fan.

In most cases, however, if your name’s on it, not promoting it is counterproductive to your freelance business.

Oh, but then there’s the dreaded NDA…

Dealing with NDAs

NDA stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement. This means your client doesn’t want you to disclose that you’re working with them, a certain product, or part of their business. In the case of security or sensitive topics, this is fairly commonplace.

If “the brand” is the author of blog posts, you might see this too. But it’s not the end of the world for promoting your content.

You have two options when a client proposes an NDA:

If you challenge the NDA, there are two scenarios:

The worst case scenario is they say no. So there really is no harm in asking.

When you promote enough content, success, or metrics, you draw people toward you. Customers come to me because they want me to replicate the success I’ve had with previous customers.

One major thing that helps with drawing people towards you is being known for a specific niche. This could be industry-specific, asset-specific, or skill-specific.

In chapter five of The Autonomous Freelancer, we take a deep dive into what being niche actually means.

These are the words of Carlos Santana, thought of as one of the best guitarists in history.

Breaking bad habits and forming new habits takes work. And if you don’t buy into this now, you should put this book down and think about whether you want to achieve freelance autonomy or are happy with your current setup.

Unless you’re a friend who bought this book to support me, I’d wager you do already realize you can be more productive and change your work-life balance. So, for those sticking with it, here’s what you must do to empower yourself.

Turning a new thing into a habit apparently takes 66 days. So there really is no time like the present.

While writing this book, I started learning Portuguese. By day 12, I could recall common phrases, name loads of food, and tell you that an armadillo reads the newspaper (seriously).

However, to learn a full language using Duolingo, Brianne Huntsman—a freelance blogger— found you will need to spend a minimum of 130 minutes per day for a full 180 days. That’s commitment. Commitment to forming a new habit.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of habits, it’s not just cracking your knuckles (guilty) or picking your nose. Habits are “small decisions you make and actions you perform every day.”

That’s the definition from James Clear, who authors Atomic Habits, which has sold over 3 million copies.

I read this in 2019 and it did not change my life.

What it did do was reinforce all the good habits I’d picked up in my full-time employed career and confirmed I was ready to go it alone as a freelancer.

How to use habits to empower autonomy

Habits are the things you do without thinking. When something becomes a habit, it is literally your body working autonomously. You do it without realizing and it becomes a natural part of your day.

There are both good and bad habits freelancers develop.

The bad ones restrict autonomy and become a drain on productivity. These are things like saying yes to meetings without knowing what you’re walking into, overworking to meet imaginary deadlines, and taking on work with little value (monetary or otherwise).

The good ones empower autonomy. They change how you go about your working day. They happen on autopilot without you taking time out of your day to decide whether you do them.

Examples of these range from tiny things like turning on your laptop to power up every morning as you get into the shower (separate tasks!) to understanding when you’ve hit a stale patch during deep work and being comfortable to go do something else.

If your office space is en route to the bathroom, why not turn your laptop on? You might only save a minute as you no longer have to wait for everything to boot up, but if you work 260 days per year, that’s over 4 hours saved. That’s a half day off.

In the middle of the scale, I’m going to reference the 5S methodology introduced in the Lean Six Sigma principles. In short, this means keeping a tidy workplace to declutter your mind. Your workplace reflects your work.

Lucy Rose wrote in a guest blog for Carl Pullein, “A Princeton University study found clutter makes it harder for people to focus on particular tasks. Specifically, the researchers discovered that the visual cortex is easily overwhelmed by task-irrelevant objects, making it difficult to allocate attention and complete set tasks efficiently. A clean and clear workspace eliminates distractions and can therefore help employees better concentrate on the task at hand.”

The 5S’ are:

By sorting your workspace into an environment without clutter, you minimize the chance of distraction. This doesn’t mean you have to remove everything. Personal touches are associated with comfort rather than productivity; however, nobody is productive in an uncomfortable environment. But it does mean removing unnecessary paperwork, unused devices, and general clutter. My regular workstation includes a stand-up desk, laptop, podcast mic, lamp for video recording, and a corkboard on my wall. That’s it.

When you’ve sorted what you do and don’t need, setting them in order means making them accessible when you need them. In a traditional office setting, this means moving the printer to the department that uses it the most and displaying sales stats in the sales office rather than the team having to get up to check the figures. In your workspace, use this to store your most-used devices nearby, keep the books you reference most at the top of the pile, and hide anything you use less than once a week. Make putting everything back in the right place a habit and cheat your way to optimizing your workspace.

Shine includes the act of keeping everything clean. For obvious reasons like bacteria and dust, yes. But it also includes the psychology behind working in a clean environment. Tidy desk; tidy mind.

Standardize is most appropriate in large organizations but you can apply it in the freelancer or remote worker role too. By creating standard processes (with regards to your workplace), you stand more of a chance of making what you’ve worked on a habit. If your standard process is to return your reference book to your shelf when you’re done with it (as opposed to leaving it on your desk for the rest of the day), then you will stick to it. If your standard process is to leave it on the desk, you will fall into the trap of thinking it’s okay. Untidy desk; untidy mind.

Sustain is the hardest of the 5S’ to achieve. But, by Standardizing, you help yourself form good habits that make sustaining your new working environment all that easier. Unless your workspace is really, really bad, this is a lot less effort than it sounds. Just remember that it’s another cog you’re turning that helps you in the long run.

At the more extreme end of the scale, we see things like understanding our minds and bodies. For example, I know when I have hit the lower half of how productive I can be so I do something about it. For a while, I thought this meant starting another task. But context switching and trying to cram everything in during “working hours” often meant I just performed that task less well than when I was fully focused.

Instead, I now acknowledge that I’m not performing as well as I can and go for a dog walk. Or I drive to the coffee shop in town. Or I read a book. Or I might even turn on the PlayStation for an hour.

Cynics will say that’s time wasted.

But taking however long feels right to recharge quite literally recharges you. I can normally work for a burst of 3 hours in the morning. Then I walk my dogs for about an hour, check my social media, emails, Slack, then have lunch. My next burst of uninterrupted work is usually shorter but I achieve more and at a higher quality because I am energized.

The alternative is staring at a screen with writer’s block or creating dispassionate content. If I persisted with either of these, I’d likely have to do them again anyway.

There are so many small habits you can change that allow you to work when and how you want.

Habits worth changing if you’re serious about freelance autonomy

Here are some more habits I crowdsourced from Twitter:

“Use comfy spaces to read so my brain feels dopamine and retains information better.”

“Knowing when to mix it up if things aren't working. Pause and do something else or get out for a change of scene.”

“As soon as a problem comes up with a client, I immediately add language about it into my contract (for future projects). Over time, this results in a contract that does a really good job of protecting me.”

“Knowing your niche and who your ideal client/project is and being very clear and up-front about it.”

Sounds like hard work? It’s not really. You do most of these once and you’ve saved yourself from ever doing them again.

Take templates or canned responses. The next time you find yourself writing a response to an objection from a client, save it. The next time you need to create a PowerPoint deck with a content marketing strategy, save it.

Older generations (generalizing much) take pride in taking forever to put together work that could be completed quicker. And do I dare mention the word, shortcut?

“Short cuts make long delays.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Tolkien had a point. And he made it very well by creating rather long journeys in rather long books. Every time they tried a shortcut, several chapters appeared. But, with some context and preparation, you can create “shortcuts” that help put some of your work on autopilot.

When I worked as a business consultant, templates were the name of the game. Not only did everything look on-brand but it saved so much time. Why opt to create a new version of the same thing every time when you can save the first one as a template and reuse it each time?

Note: do actually save a template copy. Then save a new copy every time you use the template. Otherwise, yes, Tolkien has absolutely got you there.

You can apply this to almost anything you create a deck for, any sales materials like proposals and contracts, and documents you add your logo or contact details on. If you make more than one of something in your early days as a freelancer, your future self will thank you a dozen times.

All is well and good talking about habits. Forming them and forgetting them. But without the right inspiration and the right people backing you, it’s hard to execute on your proposals.

The biggest habit you can change or double down on—if you’re serious about autonomy—is to surround yourself with positive influences.

Surround yourself with positive influences

Positive influences are those who make your day better. They inspire you to be like them, they push you to be better, they help you become the best version of you. They share real stories and aren’t afraid to fail. They succeed and share their learnings along the way. They build communities rather than followers. And they have their community’s best interests at heart.

Positive influences aren’t those who have loads of followers, constantly promote their products, or push that their way is the only way. They aren’t those with the high-value products and the high-sign-up online courses. They aren’t those who shout the loudest or have the biggest budgets.

“Surrounding yourself” means in-person, online, in your working environment, and even in your mailbox.

If you work at a customer’s site, there may be toxic personalities or clashes in work styles. Online, you may feel pressured to follow certain influencers because everyone else is. In your working environment, that could be your partner who doesn’t appreciate how you work. And your mailbox is often the worst place to find negative influences. Everyone wants your attention and you feel a sense of dread if you don’t read each one.

Here’s how to turn these negative influences into positive ones.

If your negative influences are literally surrounding you, remove yourself from the environment. I did this when I was working full-time for a company full of loud and unproductive people. The most important part of their day was making sure the lunch order was right, then popping out for another cigarette and announcing it was time for the coffee run. When they were actually working, it mostly involved some form of shouting. So I left. The office, that is.

One day, I just stopped coming into the office. This wasn’t quite as drastic as it sounds because I sometimes worked from home or went to visit customers. But I thought everybody would appreciate my output if it was more efficient and of better quality. So I did something about it.

As freelancers, we mostly operate solo and in our own homes. But, if you don’t, you can still empower yourself to be productive. My advice of “just leave” might be caveated by chatting with your client about this first. If your work relies on working with them physically then there is an obvious red flag here too. However, I know a lot of contractors in large organizations that have done this and nobody has batted an eyelid. It’s about judging the situation and making an executive decision after weighing up the pros and cons.

Will anybody mind? If yes, explain the benefits. If no, it’s probably all in your head anyway.

Since the coronavirus pandemic, businesses have been facing a tough time trying to get staff (permanent and freelance) “back to the office”. If ever there was an eye-opener to office unproductivity and giving people a choice of working environment, it was the big unplanned and unmeasured experiment of 2020-2021.

In an article for Slate, Alison Green collected snippets of why people aren’t going back to the office—even when some companies made it mandatory. I share the best responses here:

“I have to go in one day a week but I don’t want to do more than that. It is a really nice building, with plenty of meeting space, cafeteria with good food, coffee shop, gym, etc. As nice as that is, I still prefer yoga pants and my cat as my only co-worker. I get my own bathroom, full kitchen, and no commute. They really can’t beat that.”

That’s comfort.

“I feel like single offices (we have an open plan), child/pet/elder care stipends, or honestly a factual, mathematical explanation of why on-site work is beneficial would go further toward getting people in.”

That’s accessibility.

“The C-suite at my company has been trying to bring everyone back to the office three days a week for about a year now, and my department (IT) has just collectively gone, ‘Nah.’ … Literally we just didn’t do it. Some people did at first, but when they saw no one else was showing up, they mostly stopped too.”

That’s empowered autonomy.

“My office is bringing everyone back for no reason and it is not working. We are ‘required’ to be in the office three days a week but no one is doing it except for a handful of people who like working in the office.”

That’s personal preference.

“My company actually did try pushing the issue, but honestly it just backfired. HR sent out angry emails about how we needed to be in the office, a few people went in, those people saw that the office was still empty so they stopped coming in, repeat a few times, and now we all know that blatantly ignoring the higher-ups won’t necessarily get us fired lol. They would’ve been better off just letting it go sooner.”

That’s just a bad HR team.

“My company had mandated three days a week back in the office but I moved an eight-hour drive away, so I just said I couldn’t. This is a combination of me being at a point in my career where I have the confidence and capital to say no and knowing that there is other work out there for someone with my experience level. I could easily find a job, even if the job market was slow. The pandemic has just made it so most of the jobs I see posted in my field are remote, which gives me even more confidence.”

That’s autonomy.

“What would get me back is real flexibility. I’m happy to work a hybrid schedule, but I have no interest in working a job where the number of days I come to the office per week or per month are kept track of. If I have a month where it makes sense for me to spend most of my time in the office, that’s fine. If I have a month where it’s just not necessary and I don’t feel like putting on real pants, I would hope that my employer could be as flexible with me as I’m willing to be with them. If I am doing my job to the expected standard, I hope that my employer can work with me in truly being flexible and not just worry about Butts in Seats.”

That’s flexibility.

“To me, the biggest thing is being able to clearly explain why it’s necessary. Don’t give some vague explanation like ‘it’s time’ or ‘we think it’s better’ but have a specific reason why you think it’s better to convince your employees that it’s beneficial. And that reason needs to be one that will hold up once people get there. Nothing is going to kill people’s enthusiasm about returning to the office quicker than showing up and realizing that it’s exactly the same as working from home—also known as ‘you made me commute 45 minutes for this? Why??’ “

That’s sensibility.

Overall, there’s an overwhelming consensus that the in-person, in-office, impossible-to-work environment is not favorable.

That’s why I just left (the office).

Of course, if your in-person trips are productive, enjoyable, and surrounded by positive influences, keep it up. But don’t mandate set days and times. Discuss on an ad-hoc basis when it’s beneficial for you or anyone to attend. That might be every day. It might be once a year.

If you work at home , you might be sharing a workspace with your partner or housemate. Even if you get on great with them outside of work, they may not share the same beliefs about what you do or how you do it.

My girlfriend works 8-5 Monday to Thursday and barely steps away from her desk. If I had to do that, I’d have quit a long time ago. I’m genuinely flabbergasted at how in tune with her laptop she is for the entire day. Sometimes I start a conversation and she doesn’t hear it because she’s so engrossed with her work. That might work for her (though she’s never tried anything else) but it sounds like hell to me.

If that does genuinely work for you, I say crack on. But be honest with yourself when evaluating. I’d argue you’re not reading this book if you love being governed by the clock.

I mention this because when I finish by 9am and rush off to walk the dogs, work on a personal project, or just have the rest of the day off, I appreciate how she must feel. I earn more than her and, most of the time, work less. This is manageable by the right personality; and we are both blessed with similar mindsets on income and ways of working. As long as we’re happy, healthy, and earning enough money to remain happy and healthy, who are we to question how we work?

But I have heard horror stories, which increased during the coronavirus pandemic, about couples splitting up, housemates moving out, and even neighbors falling out. Remember the section on the 5S’? If you need a clean working environment and your housemate is a slob, there’s going to be a problem Sustaining that.

This might seem trivial if you don’t have this problem. But setting boundaries and expectations goes a long way when you’re operating your own freelance business in a shared workspace with someone who doesn’t appreciate how you work. I’m not suggesting moving out (though it could be the best course of action in extreme circumstances) but a frank conversation is a must.

On Twitter, don’t follow people that make you feel less important, small, or like you’re failing. Even if they have 100,000 followers and all your friends and peers follow them, you are in control of your feed.

Instead, follow people that share relevant topics, provide helpful insights, and care about their followers.

The same applies to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or anywhere you hang out online.

And it definitely applies in your mailbox.

It’s 2023 (it was when I was writing this anyway) and a huge amount of people and businesses still rely on, and are reluctant to move away from, email.

Some have good reasons. Most don’t. But, because of this, your mailbox is likely a dumping ground for unwanted messages, task procrastination, and unbilled time. On top of that, people are trying to sell you things, con you into FOMO, and steal all your money if you click the wrong link.

To combat these negative influences, apply these three habits (remember those?):

Unsubscribing is obvious. When you’re on a list, remove yourself from it. While your current habit might be to just delete the email, all you’re doing is a temporary fix. Instead, move your cursor a little more and hit unsubscribe. At first, this takes some time to cleanse your inbox. But, I get about 10 emails a week. One I subscribe to. Then a handful from customers and some order confirmations.

This is achieved by unsubscribing but also by turning off notifications by email. If you use apps like Microsoft Teams, you get notifications in-app. The same for Trello and Slack and pretty much every app that sends you a notification. Simply turning off the email notifications will, however, lend itself to missing notifications. You must change your habit.

I wrote a post about “notification fatigue” and, while I was assembling it, realized that it’s completely our fault. Yes, technology provides the things that drain productivity. But we say yes to them by default. Change your reliance on notifications to trigger an action to checking apps when you need to. That’s asynchronous work. You stop being responsive to, and governed by, time-based beeps and notifications that don’t represent time at all—purely that someone else has completed their task.

The final habit is to do something about those emails that slip through the cracks. And, newsflash, there will be some. Only during the process of writing this book did I find out about Gated. But it’s a must-have if you get flooded by spam emails.

When you sign up to Gated, you allow the email domains you want to get through and “gate” everyone else. Gating them responds to their emails saying you don’t recognize their email addresses and, in an attempt to avoid spam, you’d like them to make a donation to a charity in order for their email to make it into your inbox.

Hiba Amin is a content marketer who was suffering from mailbox monotony. She brought Gated to my attention in her tweet:

“$12 raised passively towards Planned Parenthood so far because of Gated.”

I was sold.

So far, I've only raised $12. But I haven’t had any unwanted emails either.

I've locked strangers out of my main inbox unless they donate to charity and it's such a sweet concept.

Understanding that you don’t have to be governed by technology goes a long way to gaining control of your day.

Up to this point, I’ve introduced some small habits to form and some large changes you can make to take steps to making your freelance business autonomous.

When you set yourself up to become an autonomous freelancer, you still come across the same issues as an ordinary freelancer.

Things like pricing, getting paid, and finding work don’t disappear. But preparing yourself in such a way that they become much much easier is a great first step.

Would you believe me if I told you that I’ve never once pitched a client for work? They’ve all come to me.

Sounds pretty sweet, right? 

Trust me. It really is.

I hate sales. Even selling my own services. It’s awkward, feels pushy, and isn’t over quickly enough.

I realized this would be the case early on in my freelance career. I also made the correct assumption that it would take up considerable unbillable time if I got it wrong.

So I got it right.

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Each of these may need different forms of communication. Within those forms of communication, there will likely be nuances as every person is different regardless of their job title.

Types of communication include:

Frequency of communication includes:

Now, let’s match our stakeholders to the types and frequencies of communication. In the old-fashioned business world, where people have meetings for the sake of it, this would lean towards overcommunicating, keeping everyone in the loop all the time, and being “always available”.

This matrix might look a little scary at first. You might wonder how on Earth some of the nevers can be possible and if they are healthy for a working relationship. Believe me, I’ve seen every objection under the sun. If you want to achieve genuine autonomy as a freelancer, increasing the effectiveness of your asynchronous communications and decreasing your dependency on synchronous communications are huge steps in the right direction.

Note : this matrix is a guide and you don’t need to treat it as gospel. Some projects do need real-time collaboration and that’s fine. Also, the key theme of autonomy is working on your own terms. So if your craft and productivity are genuinely improved by real-time calls, go for it.

But don’t make them default by habit. Of course, if you’re working in an office space with your clients, face-to-face is likely easier. But in very few freelance vocations are face-to-face meetings needed for communications. Even if you paint film sets, the work you do on set is different from the communications that get you there.

If you’re still reluctant to give up on meeting for meeting’s sake, here’s one last effort from me:

Of 182 people surveyed by the University of North Carolina: 65% said meetings keep them from completing their work, 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient, and 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.

Some of the “ad-hocs” in this table might be all day every day. But they could also be once a week or once a month. Use whatever works best in that situation to provide the most effective outcome.

In the rows for the client's boss and directors, this may also be different if your work is for that level. In this case, the matrix is not applicable. But, for the vast majority of freelance craft, “client” is sufficient for establishing when and how to communicate with your clients.

Notice the “IM” section is “Never” across the board. Replacing instant messaging with asynchronous messaging removes the always-on mentality that more often than not leads to burnout. Sure, you might reply instantly. But set the expectations that your messenger app is asynchronous.

In reality, the only people who need to be “always-available” are emergency responders and security personnel. And even they take it in shifts.

This is why email need not be used except for formal documents that need a paper trail. The asynchronous element is covered by a tool like Slack or Microsoft Teams. There may be exceptions when you or your client doesn’t pay for Slack. As of January 2023, the free plan only saves the last 10,000 messages on your workspace. Think about that when you share information and need to save documents, ideas, or conversations.

“Email” includes online apps like DocuSign so there’s less faff uploading and signing documents. By reducing the number of tools, number of clicks, and dependency on real-time and legacy tools, we move a step closer to autonomy.

Again, just to stress, if your most productive method is different to this, stick with it. But don’t do so because you’re scared of not speaking to your customer on a daily basis.

It’s likely this matrix is nothing like how you currently work. And that’s okay (for now).

Later in this section, we’ll cover how to introduce asynchronous communications with new customers. Forcing or requesting habits with current customers is an entirely different challenge. And it may take considerable time.

Think about the aspects of your templated response for new clients (that we’ll make in a few paragraphs time) that are most important and drip feed them to customers who you think take up too much time without providing value in return. A suggestion for improved productivity or faster ROI will go down better than a note saying you’re never going to phone or email them again.

Before you start to communicate with each type of stakeholder in a set way, it’s important to set expectations and parameters.

For example, you may liaise with your client on a one-to-one level via Slack or email every day. And that’s okay until you sign another customer and can’t dedicate time to fielding queries when you should be writing code or designing a graphic for someone else. Likewise, it pays to be prepared for the rare scenario when the owner of the business drops you a meeting request out of the blue.

In your contract, make sure you protect yourself from undercommunication and make it clear how it is both acceptable and productive to communicate. Again, explain to your customers why you work this way and the benefits for them.

Doing this before you sign a contract and start working with them is crucial. Otherwise, you end up in territory no freelancer wants to find themselves in: unbillable work.

I once thought I had a slam dunk and skipped the key process of defining how we’d communicate.

What I should have done was:

Because I skipped this step, we had numerous calls where I had to teach them how to use Google Docs, I had to recreate my Google Sheet tracker as a SharePoint site, and I had to present the free admin I’d done to make sure we were finally aligned.

You might think this is part and parcel of dealing with customers. But it doesn’t need to be unbilled. Either plan time for this or be clear with your communication plan (including written and documents) from day one.

If you’ve included your processes, how you work, and what makes you productive in your personal branding, none of this will be a surprise to your new client. They sign the contract and you start a prosperous relationship.

What if there’s pushback?

You have three options here. It’s a bit like poker.

Seriously, write a template for this.

Even better—let’s write one together now.

Thanks for your email. - always thank the sender.

I understand your concern about working asynchronously. - show empathy with the reason they countered your proposal.

Some of my previous clients expressed the same feelings when we first started working together. - make them feel they’re not alone and being awkward.

Here, we’ve been friendly and reassured our client that we understand their ask. But what we must now do is prove your way works. If you have other clients who let you work in your preferred (autonomous) way, drop them here. We’re taking the same approach as we would create a landing page.

Unbounce, the landing page builder tool, has an excellent “anatomy of a landing page” infographic that shares all the crucial parts that turn landing pages into money magnets. Here are the ones we’re borrowing:

If you don’t have customers you’re able to name-drop here, that’s okay too. You can use your own business as an example. Explain the before and after of working in your most productive state. If you can, include figures to reinforce your opinion. If you can say you’ve taken your blog writing process from 8 hours to 6 hours, that’s a 25% increase in productivity. If you show your graphic designs have visually improved since changing your work style, there’s no stronger case. If you can show how you’ve made more money since you made the change, your prospect just became your client. After all, they’re hiring you to make them money.

After our social proof (case study/namedrop/testimonial), we must reinforce the point we’re making.

It’s down to my work style that XYZ is able to continuously achieve these staggering results.

After this reminder, remind your customer of the benefits (that you should have already in your email thread).

Since revising my process, customers have seen faster turnaround times, fewer revisions on their part, and a higher ROI on services we’ve contracted.

These are example benefits you can tailor. What’s important here is that the benefits translate to making your client’s life easier. That’s why people hire freelancers. You have a skill they need and can’t complete in-house.

Here’s a reminder of the contact [link] for you to sign.

The most important part of this email is the end (contrary to what email marketers say about the subject heading). You’re already engaged to the point where you’ve sent a contract. Your client is reading your email in the hope that you say yes to whatever they’ve requested (which you have changed their mind on). The final point of the email is where they were originally expecting a “yes”. But you’ve done such a good job of selling the way you work that the next step is for them to say yes.

Remember, for new clients, drip feed these details to suggest positive changes that will make your client’s life easier (and yours more productive).

You’ve just taken a huge step towards autonomy.

Here’s the response for you to copy and paste/ type up yourself:

Thanks for your email.

I understand your concern about working asynchronously.

Some of my previous clients expressed the same feelings when we first started working together.

It’s down to my work style that XYZ is able to continuously achieve these staggering results.

Since revising my process, customers have seen faster turnaround times, fewer revisions on their part, and a higher ROI on services we’ve contracted.

Here’s a reminder of the contact [link] for you to sign.

Don’t forget to mention the actual staggering results, testimonials, and links. Simply copying this text won’t nab you a client who wants to work asynchronously.

What to do when your contact leaves the company

A huge part of making your communications with clients autonomous is forming an understanding with your main point of contact. You should, after time, bounce off each other because you work so well together. After all, every freelance relationship is two-way.

But what do you do when that contact, who you know so well and know they will fight your corner, leaves the business?

There are two scenarios you could find yourself in:

In the former, work with your contact to meet their replacement and help plan your next batch of work. If you have a purchase order or contract in place, it’s simply a new contact. If you don’t, or your retainer is up for renewal, you may have to sell your services again. Achieve this by compiling all the work you’ve completed and planned with your previous contact. Showcasing how important you are to the company goes a long way. And in most cases, your new contact will want to hit the ground running so carrying on as normal is beneficial to them.

In the second case, like if a company announces sudden layoffs, you may not have the opportunity to meet a new contact or help compile a handover. In extreme cases, you may not even get a new contact as everyone you know disappears overnight.

Sounds extreme? It is. But, trust me. It happened and I had no idea what was going to happen to my future work with this client.

Here’s what I did to ensure I kept the work I had penciled in for the next six months. For reference, the client had signed a purchase order for 17 blog posts over the course of the year and I’d only delivered 3 at this point. This enterprise client pays on delivery at the end of every month.

After announcing they’d been laid off on LinkedIn (this is still the only communication I’ve had to date), I first messaged my contact to say how sorry I was to hear this. I did this because 1) I was sad they’d lost their job and 2) I had a good working relationship with them and would like to work with them wherever they end up next.

I didn’t expect them to want to help me. They now have a new job to look for. More so, they no longer work for the company so have no access to help me out. At this stage, I realized how important it was to move quickly.

My next port of call was to go up the chain. I happened to know who my contact’s direct manager was so I emailed them. But I got no response over the next two days. Guess what? They’d been laid off too. I only discovered this formally after looking back through an old blog post draft we’d worked on together. Their Google account has been deleted so their old comments read “Deleted user commented: XYZ”.

Not knowing who was next up the chain in terms of seniority, I emailed my billing contact to see if they could push me in the right direction. Allowing them a night to respond, I was sent to someone in a similar role who eventually pushed me in the direction of my soon-to-be contact.

When I finally made it to who is my new contact for submitting blog posts, I took my time to explain what I’d already done in terms of deliverables, what I had planned, and the agreement between me and the company.

By taking the initiative and laying out what I had to deliver, I held the advantage. I was in control. Very quickly, my outstanding posts were published and we agreed on my next set of deliverables. Over the course of a week, I’d gone from worrying about losing $33,000 worth of work to business as usual.

Of course, in some cases, this may not happen. Layoffs internally could mean winding down external contractors too. But the sooner you act, the sooner you’ll know where you stand.

This is a section from my book, The Autonomous Freelancer.

With guest posts, some freelance marketers might think this is something you only write for clients to help improve their SEO. But there are tons of benefits for guest posting when you’re building an audience or raising your own profile.

I’ve included a guest post later in this book that I wrote for Superpath, a community for content marketers. I did this for free for several reasons:

When you think of free work as genuine marketing, the “free” element becomes okay. As long as it’s relevant to the niche, community, or industry you’re in. This does mean, however, that you should be selective with free or guest posts. For example, writing a post to get a backlink to your site from an unknown site is almost worthless. But posting in a community that regularly looks for help with sourcing freelancers puts your name front and center.

I feel that “doing friends favors” needs some clarity. I don’t endorse mates rates or free work just because someone is a friend. (Exception for small favors; but we’re going to discuss mid to long-term projects.) At the end of the day, you are a business. And if you’re doing work for free, you could be missing out on income or the opportunity to find income.

Doing friends favors does pay dividends when you stand a chance of receiving something back one day. That might be a referral, some business with them, or a case study.

One example I have is conducting an SEO audit for my friend Tom. We’d been online friends for a while after hanging around in the same industry. I did this for free when he asked for help for three reasons:

All of these are true. Tom is really nice. We still help each other out almost every day. He did refer me to the company he was working for (resulting in over $80,000 worth of business). He did hire me when he went independent. He did refer me to another business in the same industry (resulting in $10,000 worth of work). I’d say that’s making good of doing Tom a favor.

Oh, and he bought me a case of cider too. Told you he was nice!

Side note: you need to deliver here too. Just because you’re doing a friend a favor doesn’t mean you can drop your standards. Otherwise, it becomes a favor and nothing more.

I approach any work I do with that mindset. Be it a new customer, existing customer, customer who’s given notice, a guest post on a publication that doesn’t know me, or my personal site, recognizing that everything you post online (or offline if that’s your line of work) is a potential business opportunity. How you present yourself and your work is part of what gets you hired.

This, really, is a story about the success of community. Without embedding myself into the industry I work in, I would only know Tom from afar. But our constant interactions, showing up in the same places, and having common interests made us obvious friends.

When you give to a community, you’re one step closer to receiving something back.

And that doesn’t have to be the niche you’re in or the community you hang out in. It might be something close to your heart. For example, Maheen Kanwal, a freelance writer, says it’s okay to work for free when “you’re volunteering or for writing for an organization supporting a good cause. Be their voice. Give to the community.”

Cici Asanga, another freelance writer, provided me with this nice list of when it’s okay to work for free as a freelancer. I think #6 overrides them all.

1. When you are starting out

2. When you are taking a calculated risk

3. When you want a portfolio item 

4. When you are struggling to get work and that might open doors 

5. When you care about the cause e.g. charities

6. When you want to 

7. To build goodwill

I replied to her comment with “I think #6 overrides them all! Only do free work when you want to!

I'm a big advocate of not working for free but there are circumstances where I do—and really quite a lot of them. But only because I WANT to.”

“Working” also doesn’t have to be exactly the services you offer either. This year, I went volunteering at a game reserve in Africa because I wanted to. Endangered animals can’t protect themselves from at-distance poachers and their natural habitats are being destroyed. Me writing a blog about this would have very little impact given my audience. But volunteering in the game reserve might.

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I first heard this phrase when I was working as an editor for my longest-serving client. The writer I was chatting with asked if I had any more work for them.

Side note: there is no shame in this. If you have time free, telling people is the best way to fill that time. There’s this horrible stigma about looking weak because you might not have enough work to fill your week/month. My only advice in this situation is: ignore it.

I asked the writer what they had on and who they were working with. The previous month they’d had more work than ever. This month they only had half their normal workload. While I did provide them with some more articles to write, I also thought about how they got there in the first place.

The feast or famine scenario is one I’ve never wanted to end up in. Feast, sure. I often take on more work than I can complete (on paper).

This may seem alien to you. Lots of people think it’s unethical. Some people think it leads to burnout. But there are several tactics to apply here.

It’s part of this feast process that helps dispel the feast or famine myth.

In the simplest form, saying yes to more work makes up for potential work you don’t get later on. It also gives you the opportunity to impress and secure more work from existing clients. That doesn’t mean you have to work 15 hours a day to get it done, either. You can say yes now and set your delivery time. And we’ll build on saving up more time for delivery instead of admin later in the book.

To dispel the feast or famine myth, we must dig into preparation, self-marketing, and setting ourselves up for autonomy. If you’re forever waiting for clients to sign and creating proposals, you reduce your time for executing your skills and deliverables.

This is where personal branding, sharing your work, and sharing your success comes into play.

For context, I’ve never cold-pitched a client. I’ve never sent a proposal more than five slides long and that took more than 30 minutes to create.

How?

By literally sharing my work and sharing my success. There is very little to unpack here.

People hire me because of the quality of my work and the success it brings people that pay for it. And they know about this because I share it.

Here are some examples of what I share (on social media, in proposals, on my website, quite literally anywhere): 

Some of these need input from clients. Not every freelancer has access to analytics and sales figures.

Unless they ask.

Imposter syndrome or not, there’s no excuse not to ask and no disbenefit from asking to see how your content is performing.

Now, I understand imposter syndrome. And sympathize immensely. In fact, until I went freelance and represented myself, I greatly suffered from imposter syndrome.

I was a twenty-something (looking more like 17) person in a suit tagging along to meetings with CEOs, technical experts, and extroverted “salespeople” who would quite literally fight over meeting room tables.

It’s not that I didn’t want to interject. It’s more that I didn’t have anything to add. I’d do my demo or present what I came to do; then carnage would ensue. So it was best to stay out of the way.

People preach “don't say anything if you don't have anything nice to say” and that “it’s okay to be quiet in meetings”. But in a corporate setting, try telling that to the dinosaurs who’ve always done it their way. You must dominate the room and make sure your customer speaks first.

You know, all those sales tactics that don’t actually work. “Selling” my own services since becoming a freelancer has been much softer.

It’s three quarters sharing what I do and one quarter making sure I want to work with a new client.

The latter part (making sure I want to work with them) is something I get asked a lot.

“How do you qualify your customers?”

I have three parts to my answer:

I normally start with the end of this process by sending my services page over before we chat further. That’s right… I show them my pricing before wasting half an hour on a discovery call.

You wouldn’t believe (or maybe you would) how many people I’ve seen moan about time wasted either on pointless calls or waiting for prospects to not show up.

The remedy? Don’t have them until your customer is committed. With over half my customers, I’ve never had a real-time call with them. With some, I’ve quite literally never spoken to them. There’s a lot to be said for asynchronous work. The sooner you get comfortable with being genuinely independent and providing updates and proposals without explaining your work in a real-time call, the sooner you move towards autonomy.

And this plays a huge part in qualifications 1 and 2. If the customer isn’t invested in working asynchronously, I’m not going to enjoy myself and I’m not going to grow as a freelancer.

Of course, the topics, audience, scope of work, and potential upside all play their part here too.

If you aren’t interested in the topic, it’s not the right niche for you.

Freelance myth 2 - freelancing gives you all the time in the world

When I asked my Twitter followers for examples of freelance myths, Nikki Pilkington, a freelance writer, provided the following:

“Freelancers that work from home are available for lifts, phone calls, coffee, etc. at the drop of a hat.”

Potentially due to films and books about freelance artists and photographers who swan all over the world, there’s a huge assumption that freelancers don’t actually spend any time working.

And some of us, me included, enjoy the free time we manufacture so much that we share it on social media.

I like to balance this with tweets covering how blimen busy I am and when some projects take up much more time than anticipated. I’ve also spent a lot of time streamlining my processes.

From writing a blog post to chasing up invoices, I’ve made every step of my working week as efficient as it can be. The only variable is me.

Sure, if you charge a huge amount for your deliverables, you may not need to work as much as others. And to that, if the fee is justified, I say well done. But for others who’re busy being busy, there are some simple tweaks you can make to your process that help you become more efficient and get you a step closer to autonomy.

Automate tasks that don’t need human intervention

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here and there’s no need to spend any money to achieve this either.

If an invoice is overdue, I’ve heard of freelancers sending lengthy chaser emails that offer alternatives to payment, proposing new timelines, and all sorts. Even a call to check in on how your client’s business is doing and see if there is a problem.

Now, this might seem friendly and ticks the boxes for relationship-building (sort of) but you need to get paid within the parameters you set (more on setting up contracts later).

If an invoice is overdue, make sure your invoicing software allows you to click “Send Reminder” with the click of a button.

I don’t have many clients who don’t pay me on time. But one regular client has a lot of long-winded processes to protect itself due to the number of invoices it pays. I don’t mind getting paid a few days late as long as I do get paid. And I make sure of that by clicking the “Send Reminder” button on FreeAgent, my accounting software. In fact, I’ve now automated it so I don’t even need to click it.

Nobody likes receiving reminders so it gets paid within hours. No detailed email. No call. No offer to defer payment.

And, sure, this might not work for every client. But these are the clients you need to think twice about if your goal is reaching autonomy. If you spend time on tasks that don’t pay the bills, remove as many of those tasks as you can.

And, yes, that might mean being a bit ruthless at times. But you’re not a charity. This is your livelihood, your career, and how you keep food on the table.

Outside of invoicing, you can schedule or automate social media posts. Free tools like Buffer, Typefully, Hypefury, and even Twitter’s native scheduler help me always have tweets and LinkedIn posts ready to go. In general, I have one post per platform queued up at least two weeks before.

I don’t go overboard here. This ensures I appear active on social media without me needing to be “always-on”. But it also means my feeds aren’t so full that I can post something spontaneous.

If you opt for Hypefury, you don’t even need to think up a new tweet. The tool mines your best-performing tweets and suggests a time to post them.

Scheduling meetings is another big time suck. How many minutes do you think you lose per year due to meeting scheduling?

According to research by Charles Kergaravat, an experienced collaboration technology marketing leader, and Propeller Insight, over 31% of workers spend 30 minutes or more preparing for each meeting. On top of this, 36% spend over 15 minutes doing the “coordinating calendars dance” to schedule a time that works for everyone.

An easy way to reduce this insane amount of unbillable time is to automate meeting scheduling. You can use tools like Calendly for free to either send your calendar to potential meeting guest or let people book meetings directly from your website or content.

If you’ve optimized your site to drive organic traffic and convert it to a meeting, the ability for your potential customer to book a meeting removes several steps of email intros and finding a time slot.

With all this said, automation of tasks like these isn’t a must. If you’re effective in these areas already, bucking to peer pressure of “productivity” is often counterproductive. Andrew Brethauer, a B2B SaaS Content Marketer, asks “Is it odd to say... nothing? I've started using Asana to keep track of four clients, but I've mostly just done everything in my head because the more programs and software you add, the more time you have to spend using it. I just keep things as simple as possible.”

If the task or automation adds no value, ask yourself: what’s the benefit?

Cut tasks that add no value

Here’s everyone’s favorite and least favorite topic: actually having meetings. We preach the few meetings mentality and work style but how many of us end up still having countless intro calls and catch-up meetings that don’t result in new business or acceptance of a deliverable?

These, by the way, are the only genuine needs for meetings (in both my literal and figurative books).

Other than meetings, tasks like weekly updates don’t need to exist when you’re delivering short-term deliverables. For example, if you submit a blog post every week, there’s no need to provide an update on the work you’ve done for that client. They can literally see the output.

If you’re unsure of which tasks you can remove from your process, document your entire week next week.

On paper (or a weekly planner), note down every task you do in one column. Then, in the next column, write down the time you spent on this. In the final column, add a monetary amount to denote how much money that task and time earned you.

Halfway through your week, you’ll discover there’s a lot of zero-revenue work in your week. What comes next is a natural defense of your own actions. You started doing them through a conscious choice so your brain will defend itself.

Be ruthless with yourself. Commit to change. If these tasks don’t offer any monetary value, they better have a bloody good reason for existence. Otherwise, remove them from your routine.

Find a routine that works for you

Lots of people ask me how I work so fast. The key isn’t working fast. The key is working efficiently. And I do this by finding what works best for me at the time.

Sometimes, I finish working by 9am and feel no guilt whatsoever. Sometimes, I work until nearer midnight because I’m in the zone and/or I have committed to a ridiculous deadline (charge more for these!).

For the most part, the combination of enjoyable work that will help me grow as a freelancer, in my niche where I am a subject matter expert, and that is well-paid, is all I need to be efficient.

The work put in ahead of time (in the sales process) pays dividends when it comes to delivery.

I start every day at 7.30am. That’s because I know that’s when I’m most productive. If any customer asked me to work from 9-5, it would remove the most productive hour and a half of my day. When communicating this, it’s always been enough to convince a customer to let me work in my own time.

(For the most part, customers don’t care when you work.)

On the occasions where I’m working collaboratively with other team members, I factor in time for this, obviously. But I would never compromise my own productivity for the sake of “the norm”.

And you shouldn’t either. Find your routine, your motivation, or whatever makes you most productive.

You probably won’t end up like those freelance artists in the films. But, hey, it’s Tuesday and I’m sitting in the woods writing my book because I’ve finished all my deliverables for the month.

Trust the process.

Freelance myth 3 - freelancers will work for free

I’m really not sure where this one came from. Maybe it’s the “free” in freelancer. But I prefer to label that as free for freedom.

Sure, some freelancers do work for free at times. There’s a blurry line around when you should and shouldn’t work for free.

The high-earning freelancer in me, who abides by growth principles of turning away low-paying clients and raising my prices regularly, wants to say you should never work for free.

But my personal growth and freelance success have been contrary to this. In fact, in some cases, my best work has been work I’ve completed without a paying client.

Let’s walk through when it’s okay to work for free. Actually, let’s start by making it clear when it’s not okay to work for free.

When is it not okay to work for free?

The most common request for free work is “the test” or “the sample”. There are differences between the two so it’s important to establish these first.

A test is an assignment to prove your skills are what you sell them to be. This is a gamble on the employer/client’s side just like making a new hire. You wouldn’t hire a new barista without checking they could make coffee. So you likely won’t hire a writer unless they can write.

Yes, there are circumstances where you hire trainees. And that’s great. But, for this example, let’s assume you’re pitching yourself as a skilled freelancer.

When a prospective client proposes you complete a free test, they are de-risking themselves entirely. You could create a 2,500-word blog post that takes 5 days of your time, a ton of effort, exhausting resources, and stressing you out. And your end result? They go with someone else who submits a test blog post earlier.

My best advice for dealing with clients who ask for test assignments is to suggest they pay for your time.

Seriously.

Better clients will offer to pay for your time/service anyway. These are good clients. The ones who respect your time. The ones you want to win.

They’re the opposite of the free test merchants, whose mantra will flow into your ongoing work with them. Clients who ask for free tests end up being those who are more than happy with scope creep, ask for edits of their own edits, then throw the whole project out, and expect your fee to cover their own confusion. More on scope creep when you’ve signed a customer later.

What you can say in these situations is: “I’d love to complete the test assignment and can complete it by XYZ. However, I would need compensating for my time at a rate of $$XYZ. This reflects my standard rate and will guarantee the work submitted will be of that caliber. I look forward to working on the project.”

If they argue this further or get upset or offended, run away. These clients are rarely worth the effort. You could be spending this time winning real clients that make you happy.

It’s hard to say no, at first. But when you redirect your energy into clients and work that makes you productive, makes you good money, and makes you happy, you’re on the path to freelance autonomy.

A good example of a hiring test process is that of Kyle Byers, Director of Organic Search at Semrush. He shared his process of paid tests on his LinkedIn:

“My favorite way to evaluate and hire content writers, whether full-time or freelance:

(Two major steps, with two twists.)

First, always start with a paid trial assignment.

You can use content samples to filter out bad-fit candidates. But to choose who to hire in the end, you need paid trial assignments.

Why?

A writer's past work samples may have been:

- Heavily edited by someone else

- Turned in 3 months late

- Written based on an incredibly detailed outline/content brief

For the trial assignment, give the candidate clear expectations about what you want.

- Style

- Content goals and target audience/keyword

- Examples of what you're looking for

Best if you can provide a full content brief at this point, too.

Then, ask them to quote you their fee for the assignment.

Their quote will give you insight into how they think about their work and how much you can expect from them.

So you shouldn't be looking for the cheapest quotes you can find here. In fact, it's a good idea to remind them before their quote that you're looking for quality--not quantity.

Twist number 1:

If their quote is too low, tell them why and let them revise it! (Assuming you're looking for a long-term partner who you can rely on for great work.)

Twist number 2:

After approving their quote, ask them to write only the first ~400-600 words of the article to start. Along with a basic outline of the remaining sections.

This way, you can give them feedback on their writing style and where the article is heading before they write the whole article.

If you have high standards, you'll find that 99% of writers can't nail it on the first try. And that's okay, as long as they're roughly in the right ballpark.

The more important thing is:

Can they take your feedback and quickly improve?

So give them early feedback on their work, and watch how they apply your thinking to the rest of the article.

If it goes well, give them more feedback and a second paid trial assignment. By the end of the second assignment, you'll have a clear sense of how close they are to your standards and whether they're improving fast enough to work with.

Final tip:

In the long run, a "pretty good" writer who *wants* feedback (and is good at implementing it) is always better than a "really good" writer who gets offended or doesn't want to improve.

The process above is specifically designed to find folks who are already good AND care enough to get a lot better over time.”

A sample, on the other hand, is a simpler matter. When a prospective client asks for a sample, you should already have one prepared.

If you’re an experienced freelancer with relevant examples to the client you’re pitching, you’ve already got samples.

I keep mine on my Medium site ready to cherry-pick or send the entire batch. See www.bit.ly/exampleportfoliodk

Pretty basic, right? That’s for effort’s sake. Your clients want to see samples of the work you’re proposing to do for them. If you’re a designer, they aren’t judging you on your back-end SEO coding. If you’re a writer, they want the quickest route to reading something you’ve written.

Links are just fine.

You can use any type of free site for this. There are portfolio-sharing sites designed specifically for this.

Here are a few to consider:

You might want to include a portfolio on your own site if you have one. Web visitors who find you but don’t know you can then see how great you are without needing to arrange a call or ask for a test assignment.

Do you see a common theme here? Every small change we make impacts the overall freelance experience. By simply collating your portfolio in one place, you don’t need to go hunting for samples every time a client asks for one. By adding them to your website, you show potential clients that you’re the real deal. The sales process becomes slicker. Trust is built immediately.

Keep your samples safe and public. You’ll thank yourself in the future.

When is it okay to work for free?

I’ve completed free work in three scenarios (that I can recall):

With guest posts, some freelance marketers might think this is something you only write for clients to help improve their SEO. But there are tons of benefits for guest posting when you’re building an audience or raising your own profile.

I’ve included a guest post later in this book that I wrote for Superpath, a community for content marketers. I did this for free for several reasons:

When you think of free work as genuine marketing, the “free” element becomes okay. As long as it’s relevant to the niche, community, or industry you’re in. This does mean, however, that you should be selective with free or guest posts. For example, writing a post to get a backlink to your site from an unknown site is almost worthless. But posting in a community that regularly looks for help with sourcing freelancers puts your name front and center.

I feel that “doing friends favors” needs some clarity. I don’t endorse mates rates or free work just because someone is a friend. (Exception for small favors; but we’re going to discuss mid to long-term projects.) At the end of the day, you are a business. And if you’re doing work for free, you could be missing out on income or the opportunity to find income.

Doing friends favors does pay dividends when you stand a chance of receiving something back one day. That might be a referral, some business with them, or a case study.

One example I have is conducting an SEO audit for my friend Tom. We’d been online friends for a while after hanging around in the same industry. I did this for free when he asked for help for three reasons:

All of these are true. Tom is really nice. We still help each other out almost every day. He did refer me to the company he was working for (resulting in over $80,000 worth of business). He did hire me when he went independent. He did refer me to another business in the same industry (resulting in $10,000 worth of work). I’d say that’s making good of doing Tom a favor.

Oh, and he bought me a case of cider too. Told you he was nice!

Side note: you need to deliver here too. Just because you’re doing a friend a favor doesn’t mean you can drop your standards. Otherwise, it becomes a favor and nothing more.

I approach any work I do with that mindset. Be it a new customer, existing customer, customer who’s given notice, a guest post on a publication that doesn’t know me, or my personal site, recognizing that everything you post online (or offline if that’s your line of work) is a potential business opportunity. How you present yourself and your work is part of what gets you hired.

This, really, is a story about the success of community. Without embedding myself into the industry I work in, I would only know Tom from afar. But our constant interactions, showing up in the same places, and having common interests made us obvious friends.

When you give to a community, you’re one step closer to receiving something back.

And that doesn’t have to be the niche you’re in or the community you hang out in. It might be something close to your heart. For example, Maheen Kanwal, a freelance writer, says it’s okay to work for free when “you’re volunteering or for writing for an organization supporting a good cause. Be their voice. Give to the community.”

Cici Asanga, another freelance writer, provided me with this nice list of when it’s okay to work for free as a freelancer. I think #6 overrides them all.

1. When you are starting out

2. When you are taking a calculated risk

3. When you want a portfolio item 

4. When you are struggling to get work and that might open doors 

5. When you care about the cause e.g. charities

6. When you want to 

7. To build goodwill

I replied to her comment with “I think #6 overrides them all! Only do free work when you want to!

I'm a big advocate of not working for free but there are circumstances where I do—and really quite a lot of them. But only because I WANT to.”

“Working” also doesn’t have to be exactly the services you offer either. Next year, I’m volunteering at a game reserve in Africa because I want to. Endangered animals can’t protect themselves from at-distance poachers and their natural habitats are being destroyed. Me writing a blog about this would have very little impact given my audience. But volunteering in the game reserve might.

Freelance myth 4 - freelancers don’t pay tax

While it would be nice, freelancers do pay tax. However, becoming a “limited company” in the UK means you operate like a real business. It’s not dodging tax or doing anything shady. You genuinely are a business. So you must act like one.

If you hire an accountant, they look after all this for you. And I’m quite tempted to leave this section at that.

But for the sake of being helpful, I’ve drafted in my own accountant, Martin Brooks of Gold Stag Accounts, to author the next section…

It can be more tax efficient to become a Limited (Ltd) company in the UK, but you should always discuss the best setup with an accountant to see if it’s the best route for you.

For tax saving reasons, it usually makes sense to go Ltd once your profits exceed £30,000 and other than the tax savings that can be made, you can also increase your cash flow as you don't have to make the large payments on account you would as operating as a sole trader.

Operating as a sole trader is still a great option for people looking to keep things simple and generally earning £30,000 or below, as there is only one tax return due each year.  

Some freelancers feel they are too small or can’t afford to hire an accountant and do their own taxes. In reality, self-assessment tax returns usually cost under £200, and accountants can often save hundreds or sometimes thousands with tax savings and planning, which pays for itself.

It’s also worth noting that the timing is important if you’re looking to mortgage or remortgage as most lenders will want to see two years' books in either sole trader or Ltd company format, and more and more lenders are requesting accountant verification of earnings these days.

My top three tips for any freelancer operating as a sole trader or Ltd company are: 

Being organized is key to staying on top of your own finances, and following the steps above will put you in good stead.

Tax saving tips for Ltd companies:

Use of home allowance (claim actual percentages of your household costs rather than a simple flat rate)  

Sole traders can also claim a decent amount of working-from-home expenses, so it’s definitely worth taking the time to calculate this and include it in your accounts.

Since using Martin as my accountant, he’s opened my eyes to the things I can legitimately claim expenses on. And by simply having a business bank account and cloud accounting software, I’m more aware of claiming for everything I’m entitled to; which in the long term saves me thousands per year.

When you start to earn good money and have “spare” money, this is crucial to building a buffer for the times when you might not have any work. We’ll introduce how and when to set money aside later in the book.

This is an extract from my book, The Autonomous Freelancer.

All my career, I’d been very good at my job. Until one day I was doing something that I didn’t really enjoy. And at a company where I didn’t agree with its approach to working.

This made me less of an achiever and more of a tagger along. I felt uncomfortable. I felt like I was failing. I didn’t feel like I was contributing much.

Then one day, my position didn’t need to exist anymore. And it was probably the right call.

It’s not all doom and gloom. I got another job with the same pay and a better chance at commission. I enjoyed my work immensely and loved the people I worked with.

So, why did I pack this all in and go full-time freelance? Because I saw the long-term benefits staring me in the face.

While working full-time at this point in my career, I’d started (by accident) writing for an industry newspaper. There was an advert calling for contributors to a guest blog competition. I entered and I like to say I came fourth. (Only the top three were announced.)

After enquiring if I could write some more, I had my first taste of working for someone outside of my full-time employer. Every other Saturday, I’d write an opinion-based 1,000-word article in my outdoor office for £100. It was all rather pleasant. An extra £200 would sit nicely in my house fund. There really was no downside.

Back in the old days (2017) when people relied on email and phone for communication, very few people were writing about the likes of Slack and Microsoft Teams. Luckily (and I use this term through gritted teeth), I happened to be one of them. This is what kickstarted my genuine freelancing career.

I still have the message that Meredith Schulz , then VP of Marketing at Mio, sent me in June 2018:

I saw that you're available for contracting, and after previously reading several of your articles in UC Today, I thought you might be interested in helping write and/or edit & lead a content publication that our startup, https://m.io is launching. If you are the least bit interested I’d love to set up a time to speak further.”

It was this message that was to change my life.

I know that sounds dramatic. But it really was.

Some people become freelancers and don’t change anything at all. And that’s fine.

But the appeal of not working 9-5, not visiting customers and staying overnight, not reporting to a boss, not completing endless paperwork because it’s the process, and not sitting at my desk (or any desk), lit up my eyes like nothing before.

An average day in my life, today, is based on a process I call micro-rewarding. It’s dead simple and it’s displayed on the BuzzSumo Wellbeing Wall:

“Over time, I realized that I was most motivated (therefore most productive) when there was something to look forward to. I call it micro-rewarding. I’ve scaled this down to an hourly basis. At the end of each hour, as long as I’ve hit my goals, I reward myself by upping the stake as the day goes on.”

Louise Linehan, Senior Content Manager at BuzzSumo, asked me to write this after I told her how I work when I met her at brightonSEO, Europe’s biggest SEO conference.

As we were chatting, I recalled a tweet where I tracked everything I did in the day and ranked my work-life balance.

Here’s the thread:

Today I’m trialling working in 1 hour sprints with a reward at the end of each hour.

Follow this thread 🧵 if you’re interested in my progress.#Productivity #WorkLifeBalance

— Dominic Kent (@DomKent) July 1, 2021

On this particular day, I worked five hours.

I made £2,750 ($3,350) that day. I also went to the beach and played golf and finished before 4pm.

In fact, sometimes I work on the beach. Sounds impractical but there are plenty of beach cafes with sufficient Wi-Fi to look after what you need.

Oh, but I have to pay for something? Two lattes is a small price to work somewhere that makes me smile and be productive. After all, it used to cost me £400 per month just to get to my office in London. I’d rather pay a local business.

To emphasize this point, I’ve written this book exclusively in cafes, pubs, and breweries. I figured removing myself from my usual setting would be a productivity trigger. Sure, it came with an expense—but I got value in the added inspiration and productivity.

I can count on one hand the number of bad days I’ve had since going full-time freelance…

*Since writing this section, all three gigs came in.

To summarize the benefits of becoming an autonomous freelancer, I can work on whatever I want, at the price I set, in whatever way I want.

Sure, I do work in my home office sometimes. I’m not a digital nomad—though freelancing opens that door—and I’m not rich enough to retire. But I absolutely love what I do because of the way I get to do it.

Sometimes it is the simple things. If I’m writing a whitepaper for an enterprise client, they’re paying good money. But does that mean I adopt a corporate approach and rent office space for a few days?

Hell no.

I turn up my music and get my head down. Office life might be for you. And that’s okay. The moral of the autonomous freelancer story is:

On your own terms. In your own time. At your own rate.

But enough about me…

What other autonomous freelancers are saying

Simon Hayhust, Hayhurst Consultancy:

“I used to work for a B2B market research agency until January 2021 when I went independent and have never looked back. I love the life I lead these days, and though at times I work much longer hours, the benefits of going solo easily outweigh those of working for someone else.”

I countered Simon on this because I thought it sounded negative. The whole point is to work better, not longer, right? I literally said:

“I think the element of working much longer hours sometimes goes against the theme of what I’m working on.”

I wasn’t going to include this response until he set my mind at ease.

“Ha! I think, in fairness, my point is that sometimes working longer hours is now *my* choice. And if I do have to work over a weekend, I know that when I send the invoice out, I get to keep all the income. My working hours these days are much lumpier than they were when I worked full-time in business. Sometimes that works in my favor. Yesterday, for example, I was able to watch a fair chunk of the India vs England cricket on TV without a smidgeon of guilt. Even though I sometimes work over a weekend or while we are away on holiday, I would say overall I am probably working 20% fewer hours. I definitely wouldn't want to return to working for anyone else.”

Maya Middlemiss, Freelance Commercial Writer and Host of the Future is Freelance podcast: 

“One upside people don't always appreciate is the antifragility of freelancing, at a time of global uncertainty. Freelancers are used to change (and to seeing it coming), to managing their own careers and professional development, and are continually hustling*. Losing a key client may be a big blow but it rarely represents 100% of your income, unlike a layoff from an employed position, and you're probably streets ahead on personal branding/business development in many cases.”

*Hustling is a term that gets confused often. I don’t think Maya meant (and nor do I endorse) hustle culture that triggers burnout and means you’re working 7 days a week from 7 til 7. But hustling to ensure you have a steady set of clients, a personal brand, and a rock-solid portfolio are excellent freelance traits to have.

I hadn’t thought about this until Maya mentioned it. It sure is easy to get comfortable when working full-time. And again, that’s okay. I have no issue with people who choose not to freelance.

But the recent news (mid-2022) of startup layoffs and enterprise hiring freezes shows that even the greatest full-time talent isn’t safe forever.

Freelancers do have the edge when it comes to reacting to and preparing for such circumstances.

Amna Aslam, Freelance Content Writer:

“I belong to a small city in an underdeveloped country. I used to curse my city that I cannot make a career in this city. But freelancing and remote work has changed my perspective. It was once my belief that I can only work with international companies if I moved out of my country. Now I am doing work on an international scale from my city. My career would have ended if there was no freelancing.”

This resonates with me so much. And it’s something I’d forgotten easily. I don’t live in an underdeveloped area but freelancing and remote work empowered me to work from anywhere.

So I moved to the beach!

My story is completely different from Amna’s so I thank her for opening my eyes to this.

Anna Burgess Yang, Full-Time Account Manager and Part-Time Freelance Writer:

“Full disclosure: I'm not a full-time freelancer. But I like to maintain around 2-3 regular freelance clients at any given time. I have a pretty unique experience: I was in Fintech for 15 years before I pivoted into content marketing and journalism. What I bring to the table as a freelancer is that I am my own subject-matter expert. I have in-depth experience in both banking and technology.

I tried to take on freelance clients that weren't in my wheelhouse and it was a struggle - I didn't enjoy the work. To really make freelancing worthwhile (alongside working full-time and having 3 kids), I needed as much control as possible over what I was producing. And I found this by only taking on clients where I could be my own SME - mostly FinTech or banking-adjacent.

Clients can give me a broad topic or theme and I can just write without a ton of research (other than sometimes including stats). It makes the work easy/enjoyable to write what I know well because I'm confident in the quality of the article. And the more I do, the easier it becomes to find new clients because I have a portfolio of very industry-specific work.”

I love that Anna got in touch when I was looking for other people’s personal benefits of freelance autonomy. One, because it reflects my career. I was the product guy at service providers for 10 years before going freelance. I also spent a lot of time juggling full-time work with freelance commitments. Two, all my clients are within my niche (more on that later) so I am not just a marketer for hire but someone with tons of experience in the domain.

While the reliance on a full-time job reduces the autonomous element somewhat, it’s a great way to showcase the choice element.

Linsey Knerl, Freelance Writer:

“I've been an autonomous freelancer for over 13 years and it has been the only way to engineer the lifestyle I want. Homeschooling 6 happy, healthy kids, writing horror fiction on the side, homesteading, and only doing it because I can set my schedule, work on the road, and pick the clients that support my lifestyle values.”

Now this is what I’m talking about. Engineer the lifestyle I want are the words I’ve been looking for to describe freelance autonomy.

I don’t know Linsey personally but I know that she does things her own way. Could you imagine how different Linsey’s lifestyle would be if she was living paycheck to paycheck replicating a 9-5?

Sanketee Kher, Freelance Content Writer:

“I’d stashed away 6 months' worth of salary in 2 months and was ready to take the plunge. I concentrated on creating a portfolio I could share with potential clients. I created a website with blogs to showcase my work, and wrote and designed an ebook to show people I can do serious work.

I barely sent 10-15 emails and DMs as my focus was my portfolio. I got a great response from almost every platform I signed up on. But, here’s where the problem starts:

I was so focused on my fear of having dry spells, that I became more active with my applications, knowing that failure could be a few months away.

It was easier to fixate on not making it as a freelancer that I forgot to take into account that this is something that could work out! So, I started to weed out poorly paying or difficult clients and replaced them with clients who worked in B2B SaaS. This meant I was doing work I genuinely enjoyed and it helped me manage my workload while I kept my focus on scaling up.

It hasn’t been the smoothest journey managing my tasks and dealing with clients, but it definitely helped me learn way more than a traditional job could. And it also allows me to work at the pace I set, not the one that is forced on me.

While it’s imperative to find your feet in this new journey, it’s equally important to prepare for success because it might happen before you’ve even had the time to register it.

My recipe for happiness and freelance job satisfaction? Always, always, always stick to deadlines, plan out your month, and don’t work for a price that doesn’t make you happy because it’s not worth it.”

Sanketee’s story touches on many points that resonate with a lot of freelancers. The saving money upfront aspect allows you to focus on attracting the right clients, saying no to poor clients, and genuinely scaling your business. If you can do this, you are one step on the way to autonomy, rather than relying on lots of little clients that sap your time and energy.

Preparing for success rather than failure is a tough mindset to crack but one I try to employ every day. The best example I can use is July 2022 when I had completed all my July and August tasks before the middle of July. This allowed me to do any of several things:

This is an extract from my book, The Autonomous Freelancer. 

If you’re hoping for shortcuts and secret sauce, this isn’t going to be the post for you.

If you’re committed to carving a successful freelance career for years to come, you’re in the right place.

Sounds like a lot of work, but I’ve not worked more than four days a week either.

To my personal definition of what being a successful freelancer means, I’m extremely happy with my current position.

Defining what success meant to me is a crucial part of my business strategy.

That’s why we’re starting there in this list of 10 steps to becoming a successful freelancer….

1 - Define what success means to you

Freelance success means different things to different people.

To some, it means earning loads of money and going on flash holidays.

To others, it means the flexibility to spend time with their children.

For me personally, it’s a mixture of earning great money at the same time as maintaining a work-life balance that’s heavily weighted in favor of life.

So, how do you define success?

Try this exercise out for size. I do this at least once a year to make sure I’m focused on growing my freelance business the right way.

• Write down your ideal workday
• Include the time of day you’d like to work
• Include the number of days you’d like to work
• Include the number of days a week/month/year you’d like to work
• Include the amount of money you’d like to earn each year
• Include what you’d like to be doing

This is what being a successful freelancer is all about.

Once you’ve defined your success criteria, the next nine steps in this blog post are going to help you out tenfold (or ninefold!).

2 - Choose a niche

Honestly, I wouldn’t have gone freelance if I didn’t have a wealth of experience in my niche.

I work exclusively in the telecoms sector.

Why?

Because I have a particular set of skills (no, I’m not Liam Neeson) that are in high demand in that industry.

When people need a content marketer, who has been there and done that, I’m significantly more qualified than a generalist writer.

Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring party (your client):

If you appreciate what a client wants from their next freelance writer, it’s easy to see why being a specialist in a particular niche will make you stand out as a better applicant than any old freelance writer.

There’s also the massive benefit of not having to spend hours researching new industries every time you get a new client. My time-to-completion is significantly lower than a generalist writer. Remember when I said about work-life balance?

I am embedded in the telecoms industry. I know where all the resources I need are. I have influencers and analysts on speed dial (well, in Zoom and Teams but you get it).

I’ve literally worn the t-shirt.

What’s better than knowing a lot about a topic? Becoming a subject matter expert.

3 - Become a subject matter expert

The next step in choosing a niche is becoming extremely competent in that industry.

A subject matter expert (SME) is someone who knows a lot about a particular topic.

Common SME job types include:

These are all examples of people with high knowledge and experience in their subject.

But they might not necessarily be good at your skill. It might be freelance writing, other types of marketing, or something entirely unrelated.

Whatever your skill is, there’s an industry that needs it. Being an expert in that subject puts you at the top of a highly-desirable list.

That said, you also need to match your expertise with being good at your freelance craft.

4 - Get good at your freelance craft

This goes without saying but is often the biggest stumbling block for freelancers to be truly successful.

It’s one thing to complete writing assignments on Upwork for little money, but there’s no correlation between doing average work and freelance growth.

Likewise, some clients will happily pay for content that is worthy of a first draft. If they have the in-house resources to take your version and turn it into something high-quality, it makes sense for them to buy your service if what they need the most help with is moving the needle from blank canvas to workable draft.

Furthering your career from this stage to becoming a successful freelancer, however, takes time and effort.

To get better at your freelance craft, try the following:

When you surround yourself with positive influences and resources that will better your career, you create a bubble of self-improvement.

In time, if you choose to, you can become the best at your craft in your niche.

If you're a freelance blogger/content writer, check out my blogging course: How To Write Blog Posts That Get 500,000 Views

5 - Become the best at your craft in your niche

If you match being a subject matter expert and being the best at your specific skill, you create demand.

You become the benchmark for how much to charge for the highest-quality deliverables.

You become the go-to person for the particular thing that you do for that industry.

People (in my industry) know what I do, how well I do it, and they approach me for that exact reason.

Becoming the best (or one of the best) at your freelance skill, in your niche, is a surefire way to generate an ephemeral pipeline of customers.

6 - Generate an evergreen pipeline of customers

When you deliver consistently great work, customers will come back time and again.

Even better, customers will tell other people how great you are.

In my book, The Autonomous Freelancer, I mention how 24% of my income in 2022 was through customer referrals.

During the process of writing the book, I got three referrals. Here’s a snippet I included:

“Editing note: I got 3 word of mouth referrals today. Two within my niche and one under the blanket of digital marketing. These came from two former customers and one person I network with online. Word of mouth is real, folks.”

Most freelancers tell me they suffer from imposter syndrome when it comes to asking for referrals.

To that, I say, when you meet or exceed expectations, referrals happen organically.

So, if 24% of my income was through referrals, what made up the remaining 76%?

Let me tell you a little story about promoting your work…

7 - Promote your work

When I got my first inbound lead as a freelance writer, can you guess how the client found me?

Through an article I had written.

They saw the article, liked it so much, and asked me to do something similar for them.

Here’s the message I got:

“Hi Dominic,

I saw that you're available for contracting, and after previously reading several of your articles in UC Today, I thought you might be interested in helping write and/or edit & lead a content publication that our startup, https://m.io is launching. If you are the least bit interested I’d love to set up a time to speak further.”

When momentum builded and I started writing for a few more customers, I naturally shared the articles. I was proud of them, so why wouldn’t I?

What I didn’t realize was that what I was also doing was a solid job of content distribution.

Effectively, the more people who saw my content, the results of my content, or even the behind-the-scenes work that went into it, the more chance I had of one of these people approaching me for work.

This has been the entire basis of my freelance career.

In my five years of being a full-time freelancer, I’ve not once sent a cold email or DM pitching for work. And I’ve not once had a day where I didn’t have any billable work.

It’s through this 76% of my clients (promoting my work) and the 24% of clients (referrals) that lead me to continuously work on high-value assets.

8 - Work on high-value assets

The higher the value for the customer, the more you can charge for it.

It’s a simple rule of thumb that most freelancers don’t understand.

When you’re writing blog posts that **anyone** can write, there’s a race to the bottom on price.

If Jules, who is a generalist writer, is as good as you, but $50 cheaper, it makes sense for your potential client to choose Jules instead.

However, if you’re writing technical blog posts about SAP integrations, and you happen to have a wealth of SAP knowledge and are a great writer, you have taken ticket number one in the queue.

The more niche you get, the higher the chance of finding a high-value asset to work on. As this chance increases, so does your chance of being hired to deliver it.

Over time, you can develop this wonderful cycle that looks like this:

This cycle can be continuous. But, over time, both your skills and your niche require adjusting and learning.

Staying still is often the cause for many freelancers to get left behind.

One day, you’re writing $5,000 whitepapers. The next, you’re wondering why you haven’t had any work for a month.

Instead of standing still, start embracing continuous learning.

9  - Embrace continuous learning

When I wrote my first $10,000 whitepaper, I invested some of that money into resources that I knew would make me better at my job.

In fact, I can tell you what I bought:

Each of these played a small but effective part on the rest of my career. I learned something. I got better at something.

It’s this mindset that there is always something to learn that keeps me at the top of my freelance game.

If anyone says, “Have you seen that new feature?”, I can say yes. If someone asks me to write something outside of my wheelhouse as part of a project, I don’t lose the project because I have to say no.

All the skills you learn and develop over time add significant value to your price tag. These skills, what you know, plus an understanding of pricing theory, can lead to you becoming a very successful freelancer indeed.

10 - Understand pricing theory

With a lot of my clients, I charge way more than the people competing with me. I can do this because I understand the value of the assets I’m creating. I understand pricing theory.

In general, there are five pricing methods for freelancers:

- Hourly
- Day rate
- Retainers
- Fixed (productized)
- Value-based

The latter is thinking like a consultancy. And is how the highest-paid freelancers make money.

— Dominic Kent (@DomKent) June 14, 2022

With a combination of my subject matter expertise and my great craft, I know that I’m the best-positioned person to deliver that asset.

So what is pricing theory?

“The price of a particular good or service is determined by the relationship between producer supply and consumer demand at any given point.”

• Caroline Banton, What Is Theory of Price?

For example, I create whitepapers for enterprise technology companies. If that asset converts just one customer, it is worth $100,000 per year.

If I know this, my customer knows this. So they are willing to pay for the best version, created by a specialist.

They are willing to pay $10,000 for this. They might even be willing to pay more.

If you treat every project or asset as an investment, or understand that’s what your customer is doing, you can stop charging per hour, per word, or per day.

Instead, charge the value of the asset.

Note : not all customers work like this. Finding a customer who understands the value of your craft is key here. This is where identifying niches and getting really good at your craft come into play. When you become in-demand, you set the playing field.

Where to start?

Phew! Sounds like a lot of work.

I’m not going to lie. It is.

To get to the point where I deemed myself a successful freelancer, it took years of experience-gaining, years of refining my craft, and years of working out how much I could charge.

Start with #1 in this blog post: define what success means to you.

Without this element, everything else in your freelance business plan is flawed.

When you know what success means, you can take steps towards achieving it.

From there, everything else is upward trajectory 🚀

Ready to take the next step in your freelance career?

🔥 Get your copy of The Autonomous Freelancer now 🔥

"This book is so valuable. I call it my freelance bible." - Sandra Tabansi, Freelance Content Writer & Strategist.

Whether you're a seasoned freelancer or just starting, gaining insights from experienced professionals can significantly impact your freelance success.

In this blog post, we'll explore a Twitter thread where veteran freelancers share the one thing they wished they knew on their first day.

These valuable tips will help you navigate the freelancing world, boost your visibility, and attract more clients.

1. Building Your Personal Brand - A Key to Freelancing Success

Discover the power of personal branding in freelancing.

@DomKent kick-started the conversation by asking freelancers to reveal their key learning. 

Emphasize the importance of building your personal brand, as it enhances credibility and attracts potential clients.

Learn how daily contributions can elevate your visibility and set you apart in a competitive market.

2. Demonstrating Your Worth - The Art of Communicating Value

@BeaufordMoshe shares the challenge of demonstrating worth as a freelancer, especially with low-paying opportunities. 

Gain insights into effectively communicating your value to clients.

Understand how showcasing your expertise and unique offerings can prevent undervaluation and lead to more rewarding projects.

3. Niche vs. Diversification - A Balancing Act

Explore the debate on focusing on a specific niche or diversifying your freelance services. @DomKent and @jmillspatrick present different perspectives.

Highlight the benefits of niche specialization for targeted marketing and becoming a go-to expert.

Simultaneously, uncover how diversified offerings can lead to success across various niches.

4. Pricing Strategies for Freelancers - Knowing Your Worth

@LaurenceSarno shares invaluable advice on pricing your services. 

Start with reasonable rates to build your portfolio and gain testimonials.

Discover the significance of sticking to your worth once recognized in the market.

Learn to identify bad clients and focus on your preferred clientele as your freelance business grows.

5. Systemizing and Automating Your Freelance Business

@cold_n_curious stresses the backbone of a successful freelance business - effective systems and automation. 

Learn to streamline work processes, handle more projects efficiently, and save valuable time.

Discover the tools and methods that top freelancers use to optimize their operations

6. Upselling and Renegotiation - Maximizing Your Earnings

@mjsolender introduces the power of upselling by doubling fees for "rush" turnarounds. 

Uncover the secret to getting clients to accept higher fees for urgent projects.

Additionally, @adammarx13 advises on renegotiating pricing when project scope changes.

Embrace these strategies to boost your income and maintain fair client relationships.

Conclusion

This Chat-GPT-generated blog post compiles wisdom shared by experienced freelancers on Twitter. By applying these seven essential lessons, you can propel your freelancing career to new heights.

Learn how to build a powerful personal brand, communicate your value, and specialize in niches or diversify your offerings. Discover effective pricing strategies, systemize your business, and master the art of upselling and renegotiation.

Keep in mind that learning is an ongoing journey in freelancing.

Stay open to new experiences, adapt to market trends, and continue seeking advice from industry experts.

Armed with determination and the insights from seasoned freelancers, you can thrive in the dynamic and rewarding world of freelancing.

Note: This blog post is a comprehensive guide based on insights shared by Twitter users mentioned above. Proper attribution has been given to all Twitter handles and content. A special thanks to @DomKent for initiating the discussion.

Some people see this as a bad thing. They think it narrows your potential client base and reduces income opportunities.

While the former is true, the latter couldn’t be further from the truth.

I find that a lot of people don't understand what niche actually means. Maybe that’s where the problem lies.

I only work with unified communications and contact center vendors because I have 10 years of experience on the product side. That means I have an advantage over 10,000s of marketers when it comes to knowing the products, audience, pain points, and inner workings.

That’s niche.

In this article, I share five tips that I shared in the Superpath Slack group when asked for my best advice when it comes to choosing a niche.

Before that, let’s spend a little time dispelling some myths about freelancing.

Do niche freelancers have a smaller client pool?

A smaller client pool than the rest of the world, sure.

It might seem scary at first. But narrowing down your client pool is a good thing.

Here’s why…

When you focus on one industry, type of work, or subset of that work, you become an expert in this particular area.

For example, I write about unified comms and contact centers. Almost exclusively.

My customers are unified comms providers like Cisco and contact center providers like Nextiva.

With 13 years of experience working with and writing for these vendors, do you think they prefer hiring generalist writers who don’t know about their tech, audience, or brand?

Absolutely not.

They want to find and hire someone who’s been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt.

And they’ll pay more for it.

Assuming you don’t choose something super niche that has two potential customers fighting against each other (I can’t think of any of these and I’ve spent a long time doing so), there’s no such thing as too niche. And you don’t need to worry about having a client pool too small.

Also, just because I operate in the unified comms and contact center space, it doesn’t mean I can’t write for anyone else.

This year (2022) alone, I’ve written for Semrush, Logo.com, and Better Proposals.

And, hey, here I am writing for Superpath!

Do niche freelancers reduce their income opportunities?

Smaller pool = less chance of income?

Incorrect.

Smaller pool = higher chance of being hired in that pool.

Add to that the tailored portfolio you have built or are building.

You have a custom batch of work ready to showcase to your potential customers.

Here’s a scenario I find myself in all the time. Sometimes I’m the hirer and sometimes I’m the hiree.

When I’m the hiree

“Please can you send a sample of your work for me to review?”

“Sure, here’s something I wrote that ranks #1 on Google for your top competitor. How about we do the same for you?”

It doesn’t have to be that forward but you get the point.

And it’s sure better than this…

When I’m the hirer

“Please can you send a sample of your work for me to review? Ideally, it’s relevant to our audience and showcases you know the tech we work with.”

“Sorry, all I have is this generic post about blah blah blah.”

The first example gets me hired every single time.

The second example is from my real life where I get pitched by 100s of writers a year who know nothing about the topics, tech, industry, problems, audience, or pretty much anything I write about.

Yes, everybody has to start somewhere. And if this is the start of your niche process, make sure your answer reflects that.

If you’re going through the process of narrowing your niche here are five tips to nail it.

5 tips to successfully narrow down your niche

When Jimmy Daly calls you out to answer a question, you bet I’m going to town.

Disclaimer: My process was ready-made for me. I have 10 years of experience in the product side of things so maybe I'm not the best person to comment on choosing from the beginning. If I was to start again, these would be my tips.

1. Choose a high-value industry with an increasing market over time

You gotta get paid, right?

If you’re at the point in your career where you’re choosing your niche, you might as well make it a well-paid one.

If products or solutions are high-ticket, the marketing efforts behind them must be high-ticket too.

Some of my clients sell packages to enterprises worth millions per year.

They know a $100 copywriter likely won’t produce the same results as a $1,000 copywriter with years of experience in their niche.

Finding an industry where the marketing efforts reflect what’s being sold is key if you want to earn great money as a freelancer.

And not just great money today.

Think about whether the products and service will:

If you don’t consider this, you might get a big paycheck for two years then have to start all over again.

You only have to look as far as the crypto marketers who were making lots of money in Ethereum and Bitcoin, only for the market to crash and work to dry up.

Sure, it might come back, but what are they doing right now?

Reading this post? 🤔

2. Pick something that excites you to go to work

There are only so many ways to write how great a client's email automation software is, for example.

You’re still just sending emails.

If this is your thing, though, you could branch out into other types of automation software. Becoming an automation specialist opens the door to tons of opportunities.

The same is true for almost any industry.

Start by writing a list of what you get excited to write about.

Remove the bias of what you actually write about and note down what you’d like to write about.

This might be a type of work rather than an industry too. Joel Klettke, for example, excels in (and I assume enjoys) writing B2B case studies. So that’s the niche Joel has chosen.

When you’ve got a list of five things, note down five potential customers.

You’ve started narrowing your niche already.

3. Find a rewarding environment to be in

Are industry analysts, commentators, or readers going to share my work or collaborate with me (or is it a closed-off and stuffy industry)?

Maybe this one is just an ego boost. But it also helps build your personal brand.

If other industry folk enjoy your content, they might one day hire you.

Since becoming a marketer for unified comms companies, I’ve started my business, UC Marketing. I was known as “the UC marketer” in the industry so it made sense to name my business this.

It also embeds me firmly within my niche. And I do so because it’s rewarding.

When people enjoy my content, they share it. They reach out to say well done. They recommend me when others need help with marketing.

Choose a niche that triggers a positive emotion when you deliver your output.

It could be a blog post, an infographic, or custom code. Just make sure it’s rewarding.

4. Know enough about the niche to hit the ground running

Saheed Hassan, a fellow freelance writer, posed me this question the day before I started writing this post.

“Forget your current clients—let’s assume you’re just starting. Of course, you’ve got some samples in your portfolio—how will you raise $3k before month end?”

My answer here is to choose a niche you’re proficient in.

That doesn’t mean you know how to use a laptop so you become a laptop reviewer. But it might mean you have an engineering degree so you choose manufacturing and welding as your bespoke topic set.

My biggest advice to freelancers looking to find their niche is:

Write about what you know.

If you’re not a writer, adjust that phrase slightly.

That’s not just how I became a high-paid freelance marketer , it’s why I became a high-paid freelance marketer.

I have 10 years of experience working with the products and customers that I now provide marketing services for.

This means I don’t have to learn something new every time I pitch or land a client. And it means I lean on my first-hand experience and knowledge to produce high-quality content in a quicker turnaround time.

The benefit of that?

I can slot in more work (or have time off)! And I can charge a higher rate because I know the value I offer my clients.

When choosing your niche, write about what you know, folks.

5. Choose industry you can continue learning about as it evolves

While I advocate choosing a niche where you’re a subject matter expert (or at least a subject matter intermediate), I’m a forever learner.

What does that mean, then?

A forever learner is someone who values continuous learning.

Learning didn’t end at college for me.

In my career, I’ve picked up the following formal and informal qualifications:

I’ve read 100+ books on business, writing, and marketing.

I’ve also learned about 100+ products with 1,000+ features in my industry. And I’ve met new audiences that include small businesses, mid-size businesses, enterprises, frontline workforces, desk-based workers, IT admins, CEOs, CTOs, C-everything-Os, mobile workers, consultants, and plenty more.

The combination of these, driven by my desire to be the best in my niche, means I make sure I’m always learning something because my niche is always evolving.

If my chosen niche was stagnant, I would be too.

Your first step to finding your niche as a freelancer

My parting advice is the very first thing you should do…

Start by writing a list of what you get excited to write about.

(Or code, design, strategize, etc.)

And do it by hand.

Switch off from the online world and spend some time working out where you fit.

You can trust me; I’m a freelance content marketer and I am extremely niche.

Yep, we thought so too.

You hear stories about freelance writers earning six and even seven figures per year. So, how do you join this elite group?

There is no get rich quick scheme but there are some things you can change to see almost immediate gains.

In this post, we address how freelancers can make more money without working more hours.

The answer lies within five small changes you can make to the way you operate your freelance business.

1. Pricing freelance projects

The most common freelance pricing model is billing for your time in your business proposals . Your day rate or your hourly rate.

Now, there is nothing wrong with billing your time if your clients are paying you a lot of money. For example, Erin Balsa, a B2B SaaS content marketer, bills $1,000 per day.

But if you’re not making that kind of money, changing your pricing model might be an easy win.

Olly Meakings is a freelance full-stack marketer who started freelancing on £20 per hour. Today, he’s more than 10x-ed his hourly rate for freelance work. When asked how he achieved this, he says:

“Well, I just kept asking for more. Like the famous Oliver, I suppose.”

This is sound advice in itself. If a client says yes to your rates, that’s a qualification that your rate is okay. And it gives you the permission and incentive to ask for more with your next client.

Bullish freelancers will say to keep upping your rates until a client says no. In fact, Brooklin Nash, a freelance content marketer, built up his income to over $300k/year between 2019 and 2021 with this mantra.

Here’s how he did it:

– Just charge more.

“Honestly. Simple as that. It sounds simple, but any freelancer who has increased their rates can tell you it’s scary. What if they say no? What if I never get work again? It’s a difficult mental hurdle to get over. But remember: it’s just mental. It’s all in your head. Over the course of two years, I raised my rates with existing clients twice and increased my rates for new clients every time I signed a new contract. If you’re doing great work and you’ve been consistent for your clients, let me tell you: you’re worth it.”

Productising your work

But it’s not this mentality that earns Olly the most money. It’s changing his pricing model.

Rather than spending all his time on hourly work, he’s packaged what he does best into a product.  On RoastMyLandingPage, Olly provides informed feedback on how businesses can improve their landing pages to earn more conversions.

Olly is not charging for time here. He is charging for the value of the product he creates. While it may take him less than an hour to roast some landing pages, his customers earn tens of thousands of pounds more by implementing his changes.

Changing your pricing strategy

Tom Hirst is a web developer turned freelance educator who changed his business model based on the pricing of his freelance projects and industries he saw a gap to thrive in. He now has the flexibility he desires to dedicate to personal projects, family, and client work.

Check out his viral thread below.

Pricing freelancing projects.

Everything I've learned.

A thread.

— Tom Hirst (@tom_hirst) June 30, 2020

2. Finding a routine that works for you

The first half of the word “freelance” is free. So, routine isn’t something you have to nail down immediately (or ever). But finding your optimum way of working unlocks the door to productivity levels you didn’t know you could reach.

The goal here is to find autonomy in your work.

For example, a day interrupted by dropping the kids off at school could be avoided by not starting your focus time until that task is complete. One focussed hour is often better than three hours with several interruptions. Thus online assistant jobs are super helpful for small businesses to cover the logistic parts by saving time and money.

A better example is removing temptations. More specifically, changing the temptations to rewards. Try out this gamification process and tailor it to something manageable for you.

You don’t have to use this process, of course. It’s just one example of a routine powered by reward. Play around with your routine and track what makes you most productive.

When you complete more in a day, you can bill more clients (without working more hours).

3. Reducing admin time

Lots of freelancers cite admin time as a blocker for taking on more clients. This could be self-marketing, accounting, or any other business task.

These are important. After all, you are a business as well as an employee.

As a result of changing your pricing model and your routine, you may find you have spare time to dedicate to admin. But that doesn’t mean you have to.

There two approaches you can take to reduce admin time as a freelancer:

Option 1 is obvious. You could make Friday your admin day. Update your website, send your invoices, reach out for case studies.

Option 2 means completing those tasks as and when they crop up.

For example, when you complete a project with a client, write a testimonial for them to approve instead of just saying thanks. When you get that approval, add it to your site there and then. Don’t put it on your to-do list with your other non-billable items. Get. It. Done.

Another easy win is sending your invoice as soon as work is complete. This might mean reviewing your contract templates to say so. Most customers will be okay with this. In enterprises with lots of other businesses, it’s not so easy – but you won’t know unless you ask.

If your client doesn’t pay? Don’t spend time on time-consuming emails. Set your invoicing software to send automatic chasers when the payment date passes.

Small changes add up throughout the year. You could save weeks of admin time and turn them into billable work.

If it is your accounting that’s eating up your time, hire an accountant .

Use the formula of:

For example, if you spend 20 hours per year on accounting tasks and your hourly rate is $50 then your cost of accounting is $1,000 per year.

If the cost of hiring an accountant to do these tasks is less than $1,000 then it’s worth hiring an accountant. You get your 20 hours back and can fill this time with billable work.

4. Increasing billable work

When you’ve saved all that time on internal admin, what will you do with all your spare time?

There’s no right or wrong answer here.

You could opt to take every Friday off or finish at 2 PM each day. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But if you’ve saved time and your goal is to increase your earnings , use it wisely.

You could:

5. Expanding your product set

In The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, you learn how selling a product means you can work less by selling things. What the book doesn’t cover is what things to sell and how to find or create them.

Often, you can expand the services you offer and package them as a product. If you have the skills, why not market them?

Brooklin Nash (the freelancer earning $300k a year above), says you need to bring more to the table.

“The biggest jump in my income came when I started helping clients with earlier stages of content strategy and planning.

Instead of writing SEO articles based on an extensive brief, I ran the organic research, planned out the editorial calendar, and then executed it. Moreover, instead of turning pages of interview notes into a case study, I started running the interviews—or at least made it clear that I could run with a customer transcript and nothing else.

Last but not least, instead of writing thought leadership articles based on existing topics, I started interviewing leadership and then turned that into a laundry list of topics that could work for category education.

Clients usually outsource work to you for one of two reasons: they don’t have time for something or they don’t have the expertise for something. The first is a good place to start; the second is a great place to grow.”

If you don’t have these skills today, invest in yourself. Take the course. Read the book. Ask a peer.

£100 invested in yourself today could mean £10,000 earned a year.

How freelancers can command better rates

In summary, the changes freelancers can make to command better rates are:

You don’t need to make all these changes at once. In fact, it is strongly recommended you pick the one that appeals most. If you’re motivated by one more than the other, start here.

Changing how you work is hard work. Humans are the most resistant animals to change on the planet.

But when you gain momentum, there’s no stopping you.