Ask Rezzz

Congrats on landing the gig — I’m assuming that you don’t have a signed contract in place yet though. Because the terms of payment should definitely be included in your contract.If you haven’t set the expectations during the sales process of how you are to be paid, then you could potentially be on a bumpy road. Not saying that they aren’t expecting to pay you, but they may have different expectations than you do.There’s different structures that businesses have in their minds, 50/50, 100% at the end, 30/30/30, NET 30-90, and so on.So I would encourage you on your next sales call, to iron out those details so that when it does come time to pay, the terms are set in your contract, and that everyone is on the same page.For this particular instance though, you’ll want to definitely get half up front. The reason being is that you want your client to be engaged and invested in the project as much as you are.If they haven’t paid you, then there’s no skin in the game from their end.If you are paid 100% up front, then

If you aren't uncomfortable while learning a new skill or pushing the envelope of your business, then are you really moving forward?Are you going to reach your goals?Public speaking is something that I am mortified of doing. "But you've got 2 podcasts and have spoken at conferences and meetups?"Yup, but it still terrifies me. But I know that by putting myself in that position, I will grow.With the amazing feedback, I get from folks like yourself, what I talk about helps them and so why not do it. Hearing how others are reaching their goals in building their businesses in the way they want fuels my fire. If I can play a tiny part in helping them overcome some question, hurdle, struggle that's just a bonus.Anytime I've ever put myself in an uncomfortable position like that, I've come out on the other end in a much better place.I would encourage you to think about when the last time you felt a bit uncomfortable.

Being a freelancer for 15 years, I've learned a few tricks. Knowing how to start the week off on the right foot, starts with planning Monday morning before Monday! This is critical for me since I feel like if I don’t do my weekly review on Sundays, I’m lost. I feel behind on the week because my review is usually about an hour of time. In this episode I walk you through my 10 steps to performing a weekly review so that you know your week starts off on the right foot.

Firstly, there’s no moving forward with a proposal if you can’t nail down a scope of work right? Often times if you are in one of these conversations, you can tell within 10-15 mins of it that you are in one. It’s usually filled with meandering paths to loosely based goals. The best thing about these conversations is that they do lead to paid discoveries. These are lower risk, high reward engagements for you and your lead. How you ask and present this is the best way to get these types of freelance engagements.

When you are freelancing you want to get out there on podcasts, guest blog, and anything else that puts you in front of potential clients and people who will buy from you. getonpodcasts.com - Kai’s lessons help quite a bit and landed me on a few. For soliciting, the key is first finding podcasts where you can add value to that audience and then pitch that host with that value add, first and foremost.
 I dive into 5 tips in this episode to keep you on track so that you can get yourself the most out of you podcast tour.

I’m going to start by saying that this question seems to have a sense of urgency and a result of lack of planning. That’s not a knock by any means, I’ve been there :). So I definitely am qualified to answer this question. You may be surprised at some of what I say in this episode, but as a freelancer, there are times when a reality check needs to happen and brutal honesty is needed. I outline 3 things you can do so that you can get income fast.

In the service based industry, if you delight and make an impression on your leads, clients, and past clients, that will continue to ripple through them and the people they know. Look, as a freelancer you have the best opportunity to make an impact on someone else, whether that’s them personally or professionally. Why not do it? That is the stuff that doesn’t scale.

As a freelancer, it's such a luxury to be working from home. However it is so easy to be distracted when you work from home. As a was having a conversation with another father at my nephew's little league game over the weekend, we traded our best 4 tips to work from home effectively. The 4 tips are: 1. Discipline 2. Making sure family respects the work place 3. Get out 4. Support Regardless if you are a developer, designer, marketer, writer, in sales, etc, these 4 tips will help you work from home more effectively.

There’s no easy and quick answer to getting the messaging right. You need to learn what it is and apply that learning over time to really get it right. The best things that have worked for me are: 1. Conversations 2. Testimonials
 3. Support Get yourself away from the generic headers and think about what your clients are saying and use them. That’s where you’ll find the right messaging to attract the best kinds of clients.

This is a great question, because as a freelancer, you should be mindful of where your time goes. I don’t schedule the time in specifically, however I do read a ton. I tend to read articles more at night or early morning after waking up. This often times is the best time for me because it’s quiet, I don’t have to think about anything else and it allows me to wind down or up, depending on the day. I do read tons of articles, and I do have a process around them, I just don’t schedule the reading time in. I just do it when I feel like it and pick off the articles from the list. In this episode you'll hear how I process an article to read so that I don't go fumbling around down rabbit holes and more importantly take action on the article.

There are many certifications out there in the market that a freelancer can grab. It can help your business grow, both as social proof, but also in your lead generation and sales. If you are specializing your business, sometimes you focus in on a particular piece of software that helps your clients’ business. Sometimes you focus on a specific coding language. Sometimes you focus on a platform. If you are focusing on these things and know them in and out, having a certification in them gives you that badge of honor. It says that the company recognizes you as someone who can work in all the nooks and crannies of that thing. If it’s something you can justify and get that return go for it. If it’s something that is more of an ego thing, then maybe check yourself on it.

Scope creep worries even the most experienced freelancer. After a heard lesson early on in my career, I don’t look at scope creep as being something that’s a bad thing anymore. It’s more of an opportunity to be honest. Now don’t get me wrong, scope creep when handled wrong can kill everything about a project. The deadline, profitability, the trust. So it’s so very important that scope creep is handled in the best way possible. Remember scope creep starts with a simple ask. Usually, it’s the client asking if something can be done. Don’t immediately jump on it to get it done, but don’t immediately dismiss it either. Take note of it. Write it down some place even. Time to keep track of it. You will learn the easy 3 step process on how to handle scope creep the best way possible so that you can maintain client trust and successfully complete the project.

It is natural as a freelancer to want to look down the road of another path. Catering to 2 target markets is not easy, especially if they are vastly different. If you are building a product, course, writing a book, whatever that thing is alongside your services, it's not uncommon to feel overwhelmed. It’s definitely hard and something that I do struggle with. The biggest thing to do is remained focus on the tasks at hand. It’s too easy to get overwhelmed or get off the rails with the shiny objects. Setting goals and knowing what those incremental steps to achieve those goals help greatly. A lot of it is planning and being effective in that planning. Implement quickly, fail fast, learn and improve, seems to be the recipe for me.

As a freelancer, there needs to be a balance between your business moving forward and your clients’ businesses. As a freelancer you should think like a business owner, not an employee. If your business is not moving forward, your clients will ultimately suffer too. It’s a scary thing because you have all your eggs in one basket so to speak. If that client doesn’t need you anymore, then what? I think this is a question that most freelancers ask themselves but are hesitant to act on it. I get it, if it’s the bulk of your income, what can you do right? You don’t want to rock the boat. In this episode you will learn what the very first step is to get out from that one client being more of your income.

Instead of thinking about automation as this big complex behemoth, think of it as something that connects 2 actions together that makes your life easier. So when I started freelancing, I would meet people for sales meetings at their office, at a coffee shop, or restaurants. I wanted to save a few minutes so that I could grab a cup of coffee for everyone at the meeting, so I used automation to connect my Google Calendar to Evernote.

As a freelancer, you are always looking to optimize your tools and work with the best out there. But “What is the best” is such a subjective term. When looking for tools, it’s easy to get into the features and all the shiny objects thinking that you need it. Often times you get so into the tools that you don’t actually get work done. I suggest you work backwards. What I mean by that is start where you get money. This episode covers the things to think about from working backwards in your business. I also share the tools I use in my own business, and why.

If you are involved in a project or client but at a point where you are starting to figure out your niche. Or maybe you are starting to specialize your freelance business even more to refine your services. It’s always tough to try and figure out how to handle the current clients. There are several things you can do though and one thing that you have to do. You have to finish the job. Plain and simple. Whatever you said you would do, you have to deliver on that. Then based on if they fall into your new specialty, how can you serve them best. Present them a no-brainer offer and have them as your very first client under you new business services.

“Freelancing” itself is a business and reliability of income for any business depends on the health of that business and the processes of getting the income. If you build a business of your own, which freelancing is, you need to understand all the aspects of the business, at least at a basic level. You should always be learning, marketing, and growing. Evolving your business processes as you grow. You make your income reliable, by doing all these things in your business. There are no guarantees of course, but if you’d like to have your income reliable and build yourself a future-proof business where you are the brand, freelancing is the way to go, and it can lead to reliable income.

Want to specialize your freelance business? This is the 5th episode in the series to niche down and I'll walk you through how to find and land that first client. There are 6 steps that you need to do in order to find and land that client. Can you land 1, 2, maybe 5 new clients in this first test of your market? Obviously, it depends on your availability and service. But if you can land one or 2 then you’ve moved in that direction towards your specialty. It may not seem like a lot, but you need that first step into it. As you learn from these interactions, talks, and projects, you’ll position yourself better for the next round. You’ll start to build a library of case studies related to the specialty. And more importantly remain on track because you have focused your organic sales around a specific market and away from being that generalist.

In freelancing, the best way to research is to talk with people. You want to jump into some quick and easy questions. 1. How is everything going? 2. What made the decision for you to choose me over someone else? 3. Is there anything that I can be doing better? As you wrap up the conversation ask them if they know of anyone like themselves that has a similar project and that you would appreciate a quick introduction. Now if you don’t have any past clients in that quadrant you built out in "How do I choose the niche?" because you are just starting out or you haven’t worked with anyone that you really enjoyed yet, you can still do this. Take the 3 questions above with you and start up some conversations. To make it less overwhelming, go to the event and have 3 conversations at a minimum where you get these answers. These conversations will also lead in to you getting work overtime because you are talking about that “one thing” and starting to lay the groundwork for being the expert.