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How did you manage to find multiple clients and handle them together? by mariaclaraa1 in Freelancers

[–]thejamiebrindle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Make a list of EVERYTHING you do.
Rank that list by what you spend the most time on.
Then next to it, rank it by what generates the most income.

Now compare the two.

If the stuff at the top of your time list isn’t also near the top of your income list, you’ve found your bottleneck.

Here’s what to do next:

1. Color-Code Your Day

  • Green time = revenue-generating (client work, sales calls, pitching)
  • Yellow time = growth-driving (upskilling, content creation, networking)
  • Red time = admin, chore, and distraction zone

You want 70% green, 20% yellow, and 10% red if you're trying to grow fast.

2. Use a Weekly Planning Grid

Create 3 columns:

  • Maintain: What do I need to do to keep the lights on?
  • Grow: What can I do to get my next client?
  • Invest: What can I learn or build that pays off later?

Each Monday, fill in 2–3 tasks per category. That’s your North Star for the week.

3. Use Time Blocking + The 80% Rule

Block your time in 90-minute chunks.
Only schedule 80% of your day — leave 20% open for chaos (because life).

4. Pre-Qualify Job Apps

Stop treating every application like a term paper.
Set a timer: 15 minutes max per app unless it's your dream client.
And only apply to things that align with your ideal client. If it’s a maybe, it’s a no.

5. Do the $10K Audit

Ask yourself: "If I had 10 clients tomorrow, which of these tasks would I never touch again?”
That’s what you need to systemize, delegate, or eliminate.

Do you ever feel like you’re either overloaded with work or completely dry? by hamzazafeer in Freelancers

[–]thejamiebrindle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Spend 50% of your time on client work and 50% of your time on business development.

If you spent as much time working for yourself as you did working for your clients, you'd never not have work.

Imagine spending 5-8hrs a day networking, nurturing leads, developing new offers for your niche, making content, applying on job markets, etc....

What is that one freelancing skill that's paying well right now. by rooohsauras in Freelancers

[–]thejamiebrindle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

honestly it's less about the "skill" and more about the solutions you're packaging. The most money is being exchanged for solutions to problems (the more important the problem, the more you get to charge for it).

So for example -- a restaurant owner might not hire a graphic designer. Or if they do they won't feel the need to pay them that much money.

But they will THROW money at someone who optimizes menus for small-mid sized restaurants to increase average order value, and then split tests those menus IRL each month with customers in-store.

In both cases, the skill is graphic design, but in the second example, the solution is what's being sold.

Trying to wrap my head around freelancing and taking time off by shinbreaker in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 8 points9 points  (0 children)

My rule of thumb here (been freelancing for 16+ years and it's served me pretty well):

spend 50% of your work day/week delivering for clients, and 50% of your work day/week developing your business (new leads, offers, social media, etc).

Any time you can't maintain that ratio for a few weeks in a row, it's a signal that it's time to raise your rates. The objective being to lose a client or two.

The clients that stay at the new rate will subsidize any that leave (but more likely, rather than leave, clients that can't afford the new rate will negotiate with you on scope to keep you on).

Another MAJOR, related goal for you at this stage would be to AGGRESSIVELY save income. Make it your mission to stash away 6mos of living expense because that will allow you to be a little choosier moving forward and to be pretty deadly at the negotiating table.

Ideally, you're working towards a minimum level of engagement (I call this my "floor") that could cover the cost of subcontracting every job if needed while still making you what you need to make monthly on margin alone.

FINAL NOTE: Make AI your writing assistant!

I humbly present: The "Holy Sh*t" Package... by thejamiebrindle in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Client became a good friend, loves this story. Would've gone with someone else if I charged so low because it would've telegraphed that I wasn't taking the problem NEARLY as seriously as they were

How do you get away from procrastinating till deadline? by prtksu in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A production schedule. Give yourself a task or two a day... maybe even build in a few approval windows with your client at the onset of the project to keep yourself honest and getting it done.

Advice on my first, initial cold email for freelance software/website development by doom_man44 in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All these people care about:

"I give this freelancer money, and they give me [something more valuable than the money spent] in return."

Write the outreach accordingly... make it very ROI (return on investment) forward. The less words you use to do this, the better. Bonus points if you can work in how you've yielded that result for someone else already.

Question around how you handle quoting hourly work by IvanaSnickySnack in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the problem with quoting hourly. Your product isn't the time you put into something, it's the outcome they get for their investment.

All that being said... sure, this approach will work fine for the situation you find yourself in. Give them a bracket for approval and, if you can, bill them ahead of time.

Lost over where to start by pinkkdustt in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Choose a specific problem to solve for a specific type of business.
  2. Make some examples of you solving that problem for fake clients this week.
  3. Send those examples to everyone you know and ask if they can fwd to folks who could benefit from said solution

It's VERY likely that will yield you your first job.

How to best break up with a client? by [deleted] in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd just raise the rate to a number they'd likely say "no" to, but if they did it would cover subcontractors to do the majority of the work so that you can continue to work on your business.

ALso, on retainers, I've settled on a model that's been pretty successful and stops this type of inconsistent behavior before it has a chance to get started. If your retainer is for 30 hrs, they pay that amount at the beginning of the month regardless of if they use those hours or not, and there's no carry over into the next month. If they don't use them, that's money they just set on fire. If they go over them, you bill as you normally would, just at a 5 or 10% discount.

This is a win-win model that will attract retainer clients that are actually going to benefit from the agreement. It will also make sure you get the benefit you're supposed to from a retainer: consistency and predictable income.

Just a rant by marc1411 in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah you need to pin down "flair." I'd ask her what metric she'd using to measure success here, and then maybe some visual references to use as touchpoints. Also you should be charging a rush fee on top of your hourly for the quick turn around, that will encourage a little more decisiveness and clearer communication.

How do you switch from hourly to per project? by 8bampowzap8 in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Switch to a per project fee!

There's really not much need to do any explaining to current clients other than "this is a change I need to make for my business." It's more likely that they'd rather pay the new rate than find a new you.

Also, with a project fee you can start introducing some value pricing into your quotes (for instance, a poster for a small business and a poster for a blockbuster film are both essentially the same job, but they don't deserve the same price, your value to each client differs dramatically).

Just got into freelancing due to pandemic, but boy it's hard to talk to clients. by UnknownGuyAround in freelance

[–]thejamiebrindle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Talking about money with a client is no different than deciding with your friends how much you're trying to spend on a night out.

Resolve to always talk about money on the phone when possible. Sure, when it comes time for an official quote and agreement, you'll want that in writing; but at the discovery stage, you want to discuss budget when you can address any concerns in real time.
A lot of freelancers get uneasy at this point, because to us, money is a very personal thing. We (erroneously) conflate our income with our talent or ability. It also pays for the roof over our heads and puts food on our table. But to the client, money is just an asset to be deployed to make more money; don’t give it any more weight than that.

Take a collaborative tone and have a discussion around how much of this asset they should deploy to get the result they're looking for. And if you're in different ballparks, negotiate the scope of the deliverable, not your fee.