Before you get your first client...

First off, welcome to Free at Lance! I truly appreciate the support. I love talking about self-employment and I hope that comes through in each newsletter I end up writing.

Let’s get into it!

Before Reaching Out to Prospects, Do the Boring Stuff.

The motivation behind freelancing is simple—you get to work for yourself selling a skill you either really enjoy or that you are really good at (hopefully both).

Unfortunately, in order to be successful, that means you’ve also signed yourself up for all the “boring” parts of business. Areas you might not have been exposed to at your regular 9-5.

• Account & Project Management

• Accounting & Finance

• Sales

• Operations

The list goes on…

So before you sign up 10 new clients to design logos for, take a weekend to get your ducks in a row, so that once momentum picks up, you already have processes in place to keep your operation sustainable.

Here’s where I would start:

Basic List of Offerings with Descriptions

Create a spreadsheet that includes project names, categories, delivery methods, general pricing, and descriptions of each deliverable. When you put together proposals and contracts, it will save you a ton of time. This is also a very helpful exercise in thinking about “productizing” your services.

Internal Pricing Calculator

In a separate tab, I would set up formulas so you can add deliverables, select their frequency or amount, and spit out a scope total.

Prospects will inevitably ask, “how much will it cost?” or “what will we get for this amount?” This spreadsheet will produce those answers quickly.

I recommend building a calculator even if you do hours-based pricing. You’ll still want a starting point for how long your services take.

Note: I always use my pricing calculator as a starting point and adjust based on estimated time, complexity, market value, etc.

Proposal / Sales Deck Template

Sales cycles typically start off with a discovery call. Then once you learn more about their background and needs, you should be ready to put together a proposal. I recommend creating a template with placeholders for any custom information you might need to add based on the client.

I’ll address what I typically put in sales decks in another newsletter, but it should directly address how you plan on achieving the client’s goal and the required investment.

Statement of Work (SOW) / Master Service Agreement (MSA) Template aka Contracts

Here’s where you can flash some professionalism. Do not work on verbal agreements and handshakes. I like keeping my service personable, but my deals robotic.

Outline every detail. Set expectations. Include protections.

It takes one client stiffing you for $5,000 before you turn ice cold in this department (yes, from experience). Sadly, I’ve heard way worse stories from people in my network.

There are contract templates online that will give you a good start, but having a second set of legal eyes can’t hurt.

File Storage (preferably cloud-based)

The most boring activity in business—document storage. I personally use Google Drive in case anything ever happened to my laptop. Anything cloud-based will do the trick.

Here is the highest level of my folder structure:

• Internal

• Prospects

• Active Clients

• Archived

Project Management Tool or System

The more clients and projects you have, the more important this becomes. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy, you just need a system in place to help you organize your day. I use a simple Kanban board using Notion’s free plan.

• High priority - what needs to be done today?

• Medium priority - what needs to be done this week?

• Low priority - what needs to be done this month?

• Parking lot - I’ll get to it when I get to it

If you start involving contractors and other team members, then it could be worth looking into Asana, Monday, etc. For starters, I don’t think robust paid platforms are necessary.

Professional Email Address

Nothing says legit consultant quite like [email protected].

Invoicing Process

I don’t believe the client is responsible for figuring out how to pay you. Make it easy on them so you can collect your money.

Make sure you have an invoice template and a way to accept payments before you get your first deal. Your contract should also clearly outline the acceptable methods of payment (credit card, ACH, etc.) so there is agreement before any work is delivered.

Plan for Bookkeeping

You might not need software right away, but you definitely need to be ready to keep track of income and expenses for when tax time comes.

Make sure to keep your personal and business transactions separate! For me, I started outsourcing this function as soon as I had enough clients to warrant the cost.

I recommend my friend Casey Moss Tax & Accounting for this (very biased)!

Audit Template or Samples

Early on, you might not have the luxury of social proof like case studies and testimonials. You will still need to show prospects you aren’t all talk.

For SEO, I usually produce a free mini-audit that identifies current website issues and areas of opportunity. It gives prospects a sneak peek into my strategy.

Designers and writers often have personal portfolio sites.

Just make sure you’re somehow able to demonstrate your expertise to ensure the prospect you’ll be able to deliver.

Keep Your Priorities in Check

The first business I started was in 2017. It was an online personal training company.

Before I even had clients, I was convinced I needed merch. Everyone knows tri-blend shirts are the catalyst of every successful brand.

I got a loan from a friend so I could buy 200 t-shirts. I didn’t even take pre-orders! Just felt like I needed them and pulled the trigger.

Those shirts sat in storage for three years until I finally donated them.

Spending too much time in unnecessary areas is a small business killer.

It’s not that merch is a terrible idea for a fitness business… it’s the order of operations that I messed up. I should have focused on my service and sales systems first, and then moved into activities that could have helped me scale.

I didn’t build Oddo Digital a website for about 1.5 years and I still limit my time spent working on it. Right now, I’ve been able to live off of word of mouth. Once I need to grow, I’ll pour my time into my website and overall digital presence. For now, it’s not necessary.

See you next time!

This was a long one! I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you in the next week or two.

Brian