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My Beginning as a Freelancer

I started freelancing nearly 30 years ago when I was A high school student. It was part-time, and at the time I really didn't even think it was called freelancing. I was just helping clients who had a need using the gifts and talents and skills that I had. And today, I've been a freelancer now full-time for 15 years.

What has changed in that 30 year period is that I have had to learn a lot of hard lessons about business ownership. And today I'm going to share with you a free resource that I've put together that is a culmination of 30 years of Freelance experience and a document that I want to give away to you called the 6-Figure Design Business Blueprint.

So, guys, listen, being a freelancer is not easy, but my desire to be a freelancer came out of a desire to be my best self, to help the clients that I really wanted to work with, and to be able to take control of my financial future. Now, trading that came some, you know, some trade offs, security, financial, you know, stability and things that I literally had to work through as a young freelancer.

I Had to Learn All the Business Lessons The Hard Way

Now, I don't have a business degree. I'm not a marketing major. I'm a designer. I create things. I help my clients by doing things that are creative for them—to help them in their business. I had to learn all the business stuff the hard way.

And if you're a freelancer trying to figure it out, let me tell you, I understand what it's like. It's tough.

I remember as a young freelancer trying to figure out how to set my pricing in a way that I didn't scare away clients and how to book enough clients so that I could pay my bills every week and how to avoid the the feast or famine cycle. And then there's things like insurance and all kinds of other little things that you never really think about when you jump into freelancing... but they're there. And what I wanna show you today is this resource that I've put together called the 6-Figure Design Business Blueprint, and it for me breaks down everything that you need to know to be a successful freelancer.

Today, I Teach What I've Learned to Other Freelancers

Okay? This is the content that I use when I teach in my Ignite Academy and Accelerator Coaching membership. Other freelancers who come to me and every month I share and help guide them, encourage them, hold them accountable so that they can be successful in their freelance business goals.

Here's the thing, I want you to know that you can go out there and you can learn all this stuff on your own, but I want to save you some time, save you some frustration, and in the end, I'm gonna save you a lot of money.

I want you to think about your business and what you already know about your business. For me, the struggles were not with what I knew. It's what I didn't know. It's the things that I was doing the hard way. The times where I could have been saving myself some time and effort and money, but instead, I was figuring things out and doing things a lot harder than I should have.

Inside the 6-Figure Design Business Blueprint

And inside the blueprint, I cover six main areas.

Foundation Strategy

Number one, I talk about your Foundation Strategy. I talk about what you need to have to set up your business so that you're prepared for long-term growth. Okay? I've been doing this full-time for 15 years, and I can say that my business has grown year over year over year. I've not had a down year yet.

In fact, last year was my best year ever, and I hit a threshold, okay? One of my oldest recurring clients pass the $1 million dollar revenue mark. That's a freelance client that I've had that has paid me now over a million dollars in invoices over the lifetime of this client's relationship with me. Okay? That's not from a prior employment. That's one client who I've been able to to work with for a very long time.

That's the type of business strategy. I want to help you create. I want to help you create a strategy where you have consistent clients paying you month after month so that you're not worrying about the feaster fam, you're not worried about where the next gig is coming from. You have a reliable source of income that will bring you some peace of mind. That's in the foundation strategy.

Client Strategy

Then there's the client strategy. Then there's a strategy of finding clients that are great for you. There's the, the, the client that works for you is gonna be the client that's going to, to to fit the skills and passions, experiences and talents that you have. They're out there and you don't need as many of them as you think. I have built a Freelance business built on clients that come to me again and again and allow me to serve them and serve them well, and they pay me well. I, I have a saying, a perfect client for me is someone that pays me really well to do work that I would do for free if time and money were no object. I use that, I use that phrase a lot when I describe the perfect client, and I have several of them in my business, and I'm always on the lookout to find that perfect client.

Those are the clients that I mesh with so well, that I'm able, able to use my skills, talents, and experience and combine the passion that I have for what their business or their organization represents. That for me is a win-win relationship. Finding that client, working with that client and getting that client to trust you for the long-term. That's part of the client strategy that's in the blueprint.

Marketing Strategy

Then there's the marketing strategy. Then there's how do you let people know who you are and what you do? You are an expert. You have some unique skills, talents, and abilities that your client needs to use, but they can't hire you if they don't know who you are. So there's a marketing strategy, and as a young freelancer, marketing was very f very scary to me.

I was, I was very scared about putting myself out there because I would be afraid of judgment. I'd be afraid of feeling like an imposter. And, but there is something about overcoming that and, and becoming a marketer to promote your business. Okay? You're a freelancer. No one is going to promote your business if you don't. So that's covered in the marketing strategy inside the blueprint.

I teach this in my IGNITE Business Academy and Accelerator Business Coaching Membership.

Growth Strategy

The last big section that I cover in the blueprint is the growth strategy. How do you set up your Freelance business to grow year over year, 2020 in the year of the pandemic? Because I had a solid business foundation, because I had a solid, solid client strategy, because I had a solid marketing strategy,

I was able to have my best year freelancing ever from a revenue standpoint. I don't say that to brag. All I'm saying is hard work and preparation and setting up your foundation for success will pay off, guaranteed. It doesn't happen by accident.

Common Obstacles

Couple of the things that I have inside the blueprint that I think will be very helpful, I have a list of common obstacles, things that I've encountered as a freelancer that you are quite likely going to be encountering too.

There are a lot of things that we encounter as freelancers that are common among us. Fear, there's fear of being able to set your price at a point where you are not selling yourself short and not scaring away the client. There is fear of the imposter syndrome that I really don't have what it takes to serve my client well.

There are a lot of mindset things that, that we tell ourselves that are just not true, and we need to get through those. And so I identify some of those common obstacles inside the blueprint. And finally, I have a list of resources that I use in my own business. These are tools that I use in my own business that help me achieve all my other goals.

So I want to encourage you to stop by and pick up the, the 6-Figure Design Business Blueprint. If you go to FreelanceBizBlueprint.com, you can sign up. I've got a PDF, I'm waiting to send it to you. Just go there and jump on it. I hope you take this and and consider it, because this is information that I have put together after 30 years of being a freelancer and all the hard lessons that I have learned.

I want to make them a blessing for you guys. I hope you have a fantastic day, and I hope that you will be all that you were created to be.