How To Build A Six-Figure Freelance Career

I’ll admit, it took me a while to figure out how to become a freelance writer.

Before I started freelancing for a living, I had no writing background whatsoever. But now, I get to work from home and I make six figures doing it! And I’m not the only one.

Freelancers earn more than $1 trillion every year in the United States alone, and that number is growing. Want to join them? Here are the hacks you need to build a six-figure career as a freelance writer:

Start a 6 figure freelance business in 4 simple steps – YouTube

Takeaways from “How to Build a Six-Figure Freelance Career”
1. Set Clear Financial Goals
2. Diversify Your Freelance Services
3. Market Yourself Effectively
4. Cultivate a Professional Online Presence
5. Network Within Your Industry
6. Deliver High-Quality Work to Clients
7. Increase Your Rates as You Gain Experience
8. Attract High-Paying Clients to Boost Income
9. Manage Finances Wisely for Steady Financial Progress
10. Achieving Six Figures in the First Year Is Possible

Focus On Your Client’s Goals

If you want to build a sustainable freelance career, you must focus on your client’s goals and not yours.

When working with a new client, start by understanding the problems they are trying to solve. Then ask questions, listen and ask more questions. Use what you learn from your conversations with them to understand how your skills can help them achieve their goals.

The most successful freelancers do this every single time they meet with a potential customer or referral partner. They listen carefully to what is said – and also watch body language for clues about what isn’t being said. This allows them to understand the true nature of their clients’ problems (even if those problems aren’t articulated).

As a freelancer, you might wonder if it’s possible to succeed without meeting clients face-to-face. Discover the answer in our article on being a successful freelancer without ever meeting anyone and explore the power of virtual connections.

Learn To Say NO

In the beginning, you may feel like saying yes to every project that comes your way. You need to make money, right? And it’s great that people are willing to pay you!

When I started freelancing in 2006, I did this for a while. Then I realized that some clients were just bad fits and didn’t want me as their freelance designer. So I learned how to say no gracefully and also when it was OK for them to come back later when they were ready for me again.

But sometimes saying no is a good thing if you’re working with clients who don’t really value your time or expertise (and thus aren’t likely to pay your rate). If you want more on this subject, read this post about how much work per week is too much work per week

Use Your Expertise To Attract More Clients

You can attract more clients by being a specialist. This means you’re an expert in your field, and you’re willing to help others with your expertise. It’s better than being a generalist because it allows you to focus on what you do best, which is easier for clients and leads them directly to the services they need.

Be a subject matter expert; Being an SME means that people come looking for answers from you every day and when they do, they’ll likely be willing to pay for those answers. It doesn’t have to be all about answering questions either; maybe there’s another way that experts can make money from their knowledge?

For example, Tim Ferriss is not only known as an author but also runs his podcast (The Tim Ferriss Show) where he interviews other successful entrepreneurs about how they made their businesses successful. Then he sells advertisements on his show using this information as leverage with potential advertisers who want exposure on his show!

Health insurance is crucial for freelance writers and bloggers, and understanding its intricacies is vital. Learn what you need to know about health insurance for freelance writers and bloggers to safeguard your well-being while pursuing your writing career.

Make Smarter Offers

There are four reasons why you should make smarter offers:

Because it’s the right thing to do. The client is asking for a lot of work, but if you can do it at a lower price, not only will you be helping the client, but you’ll also be making more money.

Because it will make your clients happy. If they know that they are getting a good deal from you, your reputation will spread and people will flock to hire your services because they know they won’t have to pay through their noses for them.

Because it helps sell more packages in future. When clients see what a bargain they got with their first project with you as well as how happy they were working with someone so reasonable (and how much time/money was saved).

Then this builds trust between both parties and encourages them to hire again when another project comes along that requires a similar skill set or expertise from both sides of the table.

This is especially true if any bugs occurred during production since these issues could easily be fixed before launch instead of after launch which would cost more time

Create More Valuable Offers Using The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule is a well-known concept in business: 20% of your offers generate 80% of your revenue.

So, if you have 10 clients and an average monthly retainer rate of $1,000 per client, then that’s $10,000 per month in revenue.

But if you focus on just one or two clients and offer them additional services with an upsell price point much higher than what they’re already paying you like high-end products or premium content you could see a significant increase in the amount you make from each client.

You’ll also be able to charge more for other offerings like consulting or white papers because they are now considered premium services as well!

Put Solutions Before Features

It’s important to know the difference between features and solutions. Features are things that you can list on your website, in a brochure, or in an email to potential clients. Solutions are the ways that you solve problems for clients.

They’re not always obvious; solutions might be something like “I’ll create a website for you” but it could also be something like “I’ll help you find investors.” Solutions won’t always be exactly what a client wants but they will often be better than the alternatives because they offer better results.

A good way to start thinking about solutions is by asking yourself:

How can I solve this problem?
How can I make my client happier?
What would make my client’s life easier? or harder?.

Once you’ve identified some ways that could potentially improve a situation for someone else that’s where it gets tricky (but also really fun). The goal is not just to identify solutions but also to communicate them clearly so that other people understand why they should care about them too!

Creating an impressive portfolio on Upwork is essential for freelance success. Our guide on crafting an Upwork portfolio that lands you the job you want provides valuable tips and insights to showcase your skills and attract potential clients.

Create Packages, Not Quotes

As you may have learned from the previous section, quotes are a one-time deal, not recurring. This means that once the client buys your quote, you don’t get paid anymore until they buy another one or someone else buys it from you.

Packages are different: they can be recurring, meaning that once you sell one of your packages to a customer, they will continue to pay for it every month until they cancel their subscription. This makes packages more valuable than quotes because there’s no limit to how much money you can make each month if all goes well.

Quotes also tend to confuse clients and make them think they’re getting a better deal than what’s being offered (which is rarely the case).

Packages usually offer more value per dollar spent than quotes do (especially if there are multiple services included), so when people see a price tag on top of an itemized list of services provided by the freelancer that’s when things start looking up!

Create Evergreen Offers That Can Be Sold Over And Over Again (And Make Them Recurring Revenue)

You need to create products that are scalable and sustainable. That means you need to have a way to deliver the product or service, and a way for people who buy your product or service can use it over and over again.

You should also make sure that you have a way for people who purchase your offer, to be able to get their money back if they aren’t satisfied with what you delivered.

For example: if someone buys your course on how to build an e-commerce store using Shopify, but they don’t like what they got at the end of it (and decide not to run their store), then they should be able to get their money back without any hesitation from you!

I recommend having two different types of offers: one recurring + one non-recurring offer (also known as front-end sales).

Sell By The Project, Not By The Hour

It’s more likely that a client will buy your services by the project than they would if you sold them hourly. Let’s look at the reasons why:

Clients want to know what they are getting and how much it will cost them upfront before they hire you. You can easily set out the deliverables from each phase of your project in great detail so there is no confusion later on when it comes time for payment.
Your payment terms are clearer and easier for clients to understand when selling by the project rather than by the hour (which can be very confusing for them).

They also don’t have to go through any extra steps or calculations when paying you just total up all hours worked on a given project and pay that amount!

Focus On Systemization And Automation (And Remove Bottlenecks)

If you’re already successfully freelancing, or if you’re planning to start freelancing soon, this is the section for you. You’ll learn how to focus on systemization and automation (and remove bottlenecks) to increase your productivity and get more done.

Systemization means creating systems where there used to be none. Instead of having a bunch of fragmented tasks that need doing by different people at different times, create processes that are repeatable and automatable so they can be easily replicated each time they need to be done again in the future.

This way there won’t be any bottlenecks caused by busy schedules or missing information – everything just flows smoothly through the system like clockwork.

In addition to making your business run more efficiently overall which is nice. This also gives customers an easy way out if something goes wrong: “I’m sorry that didn’t work out as planned.

Here’s what went wrong.” If someone tells me something went wrong but I don’t know why, then how am I supposed to know how much effort should go into fixing it? It may seem obvious now that we’ve all been using computers since we were kids but some people still don’t understand this concept…

Apply Lean Principles To Your Freelancing Business

Lean is a philosophy, or way of thinking, that has been around since the 1950s. It was created by Toyota Motor Corporation and was intended to improve its manufacturing process. It’s now used in a wide range of industries, from manufacturing to healthcare to IT services like web development.

Lean focuses on removing waste (things that don’t contribute directly to value) to improve productivity and competitiveness. In other words, lean principles help you focus on what matters so you’re able to make better decisions about how you do things while also saving time and money along the way!

The first step toward applying lean principles is understanding them fully and luckily for us freelancers there are plenty of great resources available online if we want them:

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Start A Mastermind Group With Other Freelancers

A mastermind group is a group of freelancers who meet regularly to exchange ideas, help each other out, and keep each other accountable.

This is one of the best ways to get more clients because it provides a sense of accountability and motivation for your business. You’re not alone! When you have someone else to talk to about your struggles and successes, it feels easier to stay on track with your goals and progress towards them.

Build A Brand For Yourself (And Position Yourself As An Expert)

What is a brand?

A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. It’s the perception your clients have of you and your services. It’s what they think about when they see your name or logo, even if they don’t know who you are.

A great example of this is Apple people think of them as being innovative, cutting-edge, stylish, and high-quality products. These are all perceptions that have been built through their branding efforts over the years and now people associate those characteristics with Apple products before even seeing one.

How do I build a brand?

Building a strong brand for yourself takes time but it can be done by following these three steps:

Develop Your Brand Promise (what does my service promise to deliver?)
Position Yourself As An Expert In Your Industry
Create Content That Addresses The Needs Of Your Target Audience

Start A Podcast For Your Freelancing Business (Or Apply It To Another Medium Like Youtube Or Instagram)

Podcasting is a great way to build your brand and generate leads (especially if you’re in an industry that people love to talk about, like marketing or design). But it can be challenging to get started. Here are some quick tips:

Make sure you have a good microphone that records well. You don’t need anything fancy, but a pop filter will help reduce plosives and keep your voice sounding clear.

Use Audacity (free) or Garageband (Mac only) to record your podcast interviews with guests or yourself. Both programs are easy-to-use and simple enough for beginners, even though they lack the bells and whistles of more expensive software such as Adobe Premiere Pro CC or Final Cut Pro X.

Just make sure you save each episode as one track. Otherwise, when you upload them onto iTunes later on, they will get split into separate tracks with no way of reversing this action without re-editing everything manually in Audacity/Garageband first before exporting back out again into an MP3 format file format used by most mp3 players including smartphones etcetera…

Use Client Testimonials In Your Sales Process And On Your Website

Clients love to give testimonials, and they’re a great way to sell your services. But how do you get them?

First off, don’t ask for testimonials. Instead, ask if they’d be willing to share their experience with other potential clients.

To make it easy on them, create a landing page or email template that sends out the testimonial request and offers help in writing the copy around it (and any other materials you may want).

If someone’s already had positive interactions with you in the past say, when paying invoices or scheduling meetings they’ll be more likely to agree to this type of request than if it came from an unknown source like another freelancer who was trying out cold calling tactics for the first time!

Use Software Like Proposify And Project Management Tools Like Asana Or Trello To Run Your Agency Faster

The best way to sell a client on the idea of working with you is by providing them with a proposal that’s automated and customized. You can use software like Proposify or Salesmate to create proposals, contracts, and invoices that look professional and are easy for clients to understand.

Use project management tools like Asana or Trello to run your agency faster. Project management tools like Slack are great for staying in touch with the rest of your team but if everyone has their inboxes it can be hard for them to keep track of what everybody else is doing at any given moment.

Project management tools are designed specifically for this purpose giving everyone on the team visibility into every project they have going so they know exactly what needs doing when something comes up (or when someone asks them).

Keep track of all your clients in one place with CRM software such as Zoho CRM, Hubspot CRM, Salesforce (or even Microsoft Excel), instead of using separate email accounts which makes it harder for you as an agency owner since then you would have no idea who’s been talking about which piece of content lately…

Managing an Upwork freelance job requires skill and finesse. In our article on lessons learned from managing an Upwork freelance job, you’ll discover valuable insights to streamline your workflow and deliver exceptional results to your clients.

Always Be Closing

If you are anything like me, then you will know that follow-ups can be a chore. To make sure I am always following up with potential clients, I have automated this process using Follow Up Bot.

This is an extension for Google Chrome that allows me to schedule emails for later and forget about them until it is time for them to send out their reminder emails.

As well as making sure that you create good relationships with your leads, it is also important that these relationships remain strong throughout the business.

Final Thoughts

You’ve reached the end of our list of tricks for building a six-figure freelance career! We hope that in reading through these points you’ve learned something valuable, and we wish you all the best as you start or continue your journey to freelancing success.

Remember, it takes hard work and dedication to master every one of these skills but it also takes a little bit of luck along with persistence. So many people have done what seems impossible: building up their successful freelance careers over time. You can do it too! Good luck and let us know if there are any other tips we missed on our list.