Ask Rezzz

I was speaking at a conference of developers and freelancers and presented with this question of meeting face-to-face or everything is virtual.Being in New York, obviously there are many opportunities to be able to meet people, leads, and potential partners.When starting out, I did meet lots of leads at coffee shops, their offices, and other places. I’d either get in my car, or hop the train and head on to the location early for the meeting.NY has traffic and lots of it and the subways have been known to be late from time to time as well, so I always went extra early because I’d rather show up early than be late.Once there, I’d grab a cup of coffee or drink or whatever for myself and my guest. I especially did this with leads at the first meeting, but would carry that through when they became clients as well.They would arrive, we’d talk and get to know each other and I would then go ahead and ask whatever questions I needed. Or we would talk about the project tasks and statuses of things. Whatever the purpose

Today we are going to set some goals the right way. It’s not December (most likely) and that’s ok, setting goals shouldn’t be just an annual thing.As a freelancer, you are in control of your day, year, life even. This can be daunting and overwhelming at times. This time of year for me is always when I start thinking about my goals. It’s easy to remember because my birthday is this month.For the vast majority though, goal setting doesn’t happen until end of November or in December. I would encourage you to start thinking about your goals a bit earlier than that though. Goals need to be SMART.What is a SMART goalThat’s Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-based.Most times I don’t remember all 5 because for me what I find helpful is that it needs to be specific, measurable, and time-based.So saying that you want to “increase revenue” is not a SMART goal.It’s not bound by time.Something important here is that the clearer something is in your head, the easier it is to break down into smaller chunks

I get asked this question a lot and to be frank and to the point, I’m going to say to use your name.Now if you want the case on why I’m going to outline 3 reasons as to why I have this response.There are obviously cases for both sides, but I want to share with you some thoughts as to why you should think about using your name.1. People do business with peopleThis is especially true in the freelance or consulting space.When you are starting out, there are a ton of distractions that force decisions on you that to be honest, don’t matter.What matters is getting out there and getting those first few clients. How you get them is by making conversations and talking about problems that you can solve.Chris Ducker, the founder of Youpreneur, always says that people do business with other people. Forming that P-2-P relationship is the foundation of business.I couldn’t agree more. Here’s the thing, if you continue the discussion with a random business name rather than your name, you start to dilute the impact your name

Today's episode are the 3 steps you need to do immediately, to start freelancing as a web developer and get your first client today.How to start anything is to commit to it. So let’s just get that out of the way now and assume you’ve committed to this.I don’t think it’s a surprise to you if you’ve heard more than a couple of episodes that finding your niche would be the number one thing to start freelancing as a developer.1. Find your nicheThere’s a very tactful reason for this and that is because the sooner you can focus your efforts on solving a particular problem, the easier it will be to find your ideal client, industry, location, technology, to market yourself to.This will differentiate you from all the commoditized web development services out there in the market today.You will start to become a trusted advisor because you understand the business, not just the lines of code.2. Show upThe second step is to just do the work. Let’s assume you already have done some development whether it’s in school, at a

We’ve all got them right? Even when we are working on client stuff, there are things that we are passionate about, mess around with, even do as a hobby with no real upside to them other than it just makes us happy.And so I was I was chatting with a friend of mine who has a full-time job and loves it. He asked me, “how do you make time for your side projects?”I simply replied, “By doing exactly what you said, make time.”Now we can’t make time and I want to tip my cap to my friend [Curtis](https://curtismchale.ca) for always hitting me on my head with that notion. But he’s right.How to prioritize your timeWhat we do though is prioritize time and make room in our every day for the important things.Time is the only thing we never get back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. What you do with your time is what you are saying is important to you.Sure there are times where there are sacrifices to be made and that’s obviously just a way of life. But you can adjust and still cover what you want and need.Case in point, yesterda

I get asked a lot of questions about what my sales script looks like and how I handle objections during the conversation. As you learned in Episode 102 - What do you use for your sales script?, I don’t have a sales script.Since I dive deep into my sales process in that episode, I won’t bore you with all the details here. I mention that episode though because my process preps the prospect of having a productive sales conversation that speaks directly about their project. So much of the sales script is custom.For me, I’m more comfortable talking with a prospect about the specifics of the project rather than following a specific script. My sales script is given out as an application prior to the call.That’s not to say that I don’t come to the conversation without any prep. Which is what the answer for today is.Let’s be honest, it’s hard to answer this question specifically since I didn’t receive any specific objection, but what I’m going to share with you are the 3 objections that are most common in any sales co

I talk a lot about what a niche is and I think that there is a lot of misunderstanding around that as well that I would like to help clear up here.There are a lot of folks who think that a niche has to be an industry.So for example, as a web designer he only works with lawyers. Or as a web developer, she only works with doctors.And because you don’t want to work within those niches that you can not have a niche.Which is simply not the case.So let’s define it. What is a niche?I define a niche as a targeted audience that you can clearly define who it is that immediately the person reading your site or hearing you talk will immediately say whether that’s them or not.Of course, if you talking about a specific industry or location or technology, it makes your job easier. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a niche in professional female business owners who are based just located outside the Boston metropolitan area. (and yes, that’s a niche someone has defined for their business).The key is to define it so c

Do you drop that freelance client? It sucks for everyone, but maybe the relationship can be saved and even flourish. This is always a tough question, because it’s sensitive, there’s a big reputation factor on the line with both yourself and client, and it should be something that’s a last resort.You and your clients are running businesses, you are adults, having difficult conversations such as this will happen.First and foremost, you have to deliver what you say you would, as best you could.I think that goes without saying.But we’ve all faced situations in our service business where this question can pop into our heads:Where a client doesn’t pay on timeThe client is non-responsiveThe client didn’t communicate fullyThere were unrealistic expectationsScope continues to changeYou want to move away from that type of serviceToo many bumps in the road and the trust on both sides has eroded awayAreas of responsibilityWhen this question pops into your head, it’s important to really take a look at the road to this poi

The freelance space is getting more and more crowded by the day.It used to be that all you needed to do was to show up, deliver, and then support to stand out. But nowadays it’s a bit different.I wrote a blog post titled How to Stand Out As a Freelancer in a Saturated Market a little over a year and a half ago with 10 tips.I want to share with you something that I’ve found that can make you stand out that isn’t in that article.But before I do, I want to highlight those tips and if you want to get more in-depth with them, have a look at that article.Setup a regularly scheduled time to email or talk with a clientBe selective about your clientsFocus on Customer Service as much as one getting a customerBe positiveRemember why you started your businessLook at other freelancers and agencies and see what they aren’t doingBe organizedInvest vs ExpenseShare your expertise & experiencesBe the “Go-To” personAll those still apply, don’t get me wrong, but since writing that article, I’ve found a few more things that c

This question came from Mario inside of Feast. And he is starting his career as a freelancer.In building a website, a landing page to send leads and prospects to, or during a sales conversation, testimonials and social proof are great tools to use.But when starting out you haven’t built those up yet. So what can you do?Since you haven’t built up a track record of successful projects with actual results, you can play to the human side of  business.People to peoplePeople want to work with people they trust, people that are reliable, and people that are likable.No one wants to have a bad experience. Experience is heavily based on the human element more than anything else.What is your “superpower”?The first tactic to do is send an email to your colleagues, friends, and family asking a simple question.“What do you believe to be my ‘superpowers’ or traits and characteristics that you believe to be unique to me?”This may seem a bit weird to them to get out of the blue, so frame it in a way that explains why you are

The product I use for my business that I cannot live without is the one that manages the only thing that I regret not managing from the start.That is my email list.There’s a love-hate relationship with this type of question.Simply because tools or products come and go over time. Either they become obsolete, or other ones come out that is better, whatever the case may be, tools will evolve.With that out of the way, I will say this. Understanding “why” you are in business and finding a product that supports that will result in you finding a product you cannot live without.I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. My email list is the one regret I have in growing my business that I didn’t pay attention to from the start.And to be quite honest, it probably has cost me a ton of revenue in the long term.The reason it’s so important is that I am in business to help other businesses grow. In order to do that, communication is key.If that business is for the services side of my business, I need to stay in touch with

“To bundle or not to bundle, that is the question.” You are going to learn 3 things today to think about when deciding to bundle your services for a freelance client.This question came from someone in Feast, but I do hear this question and ask myself this quite often.There isn’t a firm right answer one way or another.I just think that there are too many factors that can go into this, but I thought that I would share my thoughts around this question and help you decide what’s best for you and your clients.1. What is your relationship like?Is this a first time client or someone who’s been with you for 5 years?Above all, I think this is important when even thinking about discounting your services. Now I’m not a fan of discounts, but when you bundle, that’s what you are doing.So if this is someone you have had a long-term relationship with and feel that you understand them to stay within the walls of your working relationship well enough, it’s understandable.I mean we are people right, and we want to help others.

Are you a freelancer and struggled with putting prices on your website? In this episode, you are going to learn why it's important to address pricing and ways to do it without putting your actual prices up there.Case for putting pricing on your websiteThe thought with putting pricing on your website is so that you start to weed out the tire kickers.This is simply to protect your time and profits. See you have a minimum per project and the last thing you want to happen is for you to go through the entire sales conversation to get to the point of discussing budget and come to the conclusion that you are miles apart.By putting your pricing up on your website, you eliminate that wasted time spent.Case for not putting pricing on your websiteThe case for not putting a price on your website is often that you don’t want to pigeon hole yourself. It’s really this fear of missing out that happens here where you think that if you put prices up there and a project comes along that is right for you and they see your prices

This was such an awesome question that someone inside of the Feast community asked during our monthly round up call this month, I had to share it.I’ve been asked this many times before. In fact, I’ve wrestled with it myself over the years.Let me quickly paint a picture for you.The Scarlet Letter of Services or Service StigmaYou offer 2 different types of services to 2 different types of clients. One of those types of clients essentially looks down at the other service for some reason. Whether they believe that the skillset isn’t advance enough, or that those working in that field must not be great at providing other services. Basically attaching a stigma to it.It’s like “the other side of the tracks” metaphor, if you will.On the call, it was suggested to create different landing pages for both and hope that the one client you are trying to keep away from the one service doesn’t find it.This is one option, but I wouldn’t count on them not finding out what all your services are in the end anyway. Thus requiring

This is actually an easy question to answer and I hope that by answering it, you may understand a bit why I talk about the things I do with respect to testing the market, talking to customers, etc.My biggest failure as a freelance came when I released a product into the wild called WP Field Guides.My idea was what I builtIt was to educate people on the best practices of WordPress and targeted to businesses wanting to manage and grow their website.I got the idea from the leads that would come into my business, but then either because of budget or timing, they didn’t become clients.I took those reasons of budget and timing as a reason to build this product that I could offer as a sort of down-sell to leads that didn’t sign up with me.I went off writing up these guides, posts, created a website, social media profiles, linked up the e-commerce store and laid out all the pieces to fulfill the orders.Why it failedWell guess what? I sold 4.What happened you ask? Well here’s what happened. I took the WP Field Guides

Let me provide some context to this question as I think it’s important for my answer here.This particular question comes from someone who is a web developer just starting out looking to get the attention of other companies looking to hire him.This person has no experience outside of school and pet projects. They don’t yet have a website either to speak of.The quick answer to this question is build a site.Yes it’ll take longer, but you need to keep in mind who you want to attract and where they are.Let me explain a little bit more of what I mean.Are you where your potential clients are?When you put something on Github, the other folks on Github are most likely to be developers.If your clients are developers, then by all means this is your best bet to help showcase your work effectively.However in this case, the likelihood that a decision maker or business owner is browsing around Github for well written code in order to go out a hire that developer is very slim at best.Having a website where you can link up yo

Do you ever wake up in the morning and say “I can’t wait get today rolling so that I can have people completely ignore me?”No, of course not. But that’s what’s going to happen when you do cold outreach.In general, a good cold outreach campaign yields a 1% response rate.That doesn’t even mean that 1% are “yeses” either, just means that you’ll get a response.It’s heart wrenching, it’s soul crushing. It’s the same emotional nightmare of your teenage years during prom season again as an adult.Set your expectations low The first step in this process, before any emails go out is to put your thick skin on, recognize that you may not get one single response, and set your expectations extremely low.By doing this first, you’ll set yourself up for not feeling defeated or invisible.It sucks to get no responses, I’m not going to lie, but unfortunately when you have zero relationship with the person receiving your email, the chances are very slim that you’ll be important enough to them to get a response.How would you feel

Do you have a mantra, a manifesto? Is it something we need? I don’t know, but I’m going to share with you mine.As a business owner or freelancer we hear that people have these personal manifestos and mantras that they live by. I never though of these 2 "words of wisdom" that I live by as such, but maybe they are. You be the judge.I had the pleasure of being on Philip VanDusen’s Brand Muse interview series over on his YouTube channel and he asks all his guests this question.And while I don’t have a set in stone manifesto, there are mantras that do guide me and help keep me on track when things get rough, get too big, etc.One of which I shared on the show…that’s “Be Consistent”Be ConsistentIt’s something that I’ve heard from many folks that I’ve respected growing up and in my professional career as well.This is one of the few things that I’ve said to my 1 and a half year old son too since the day he was born. The reason this is a personal mantra of mine is because I’m a planner and I don’t like to let folks dow

This is the natural follow up to the last episode.Now that you know what to write, how often should you.Once you get the juices flowing it’s often easy to then say, I’m going to put out a daily blog post, or a weekly post.More often than not though, you’ll die out. Believe me, I’ve been there, done that.I’ll tell you what I tell my coaching clients as well as my service clients, write as often as you can be consistent with it.You don’t have to write daily or weekly even. If you write once a month to start out, decide on a day of the month, and publish then.Writing isn’t an easy process, it takes time, research, thought, editing, and even some pretty-ing up. You want to make sure that you have the dedicated time and resources to do this among all the other things that you do.Here’s why being consistent above all else is important.PeopleYou write above all else for your readers. If you push publish on a particular day of the week, day of the month, your readers learn to expect it.It’s why TV shows have time slo

With video, social media, and other platforms popping up daily, it’s inevitable that you’ll be enticed to follow and jump all in  on the new platform.It’s important to remember that putting your content on rented land means that you need to play by their rules and those rules can change in an instant.Case in point, I started this podcast on Anchor. Then around episode 30 or 35, I noticed that Anchor was injecting ads into the broadcast. Which I fully understand why, but it just didn’t feel right for the show from my perspective. And so I pulled the podcast onto my own website.You’ll want to produce content elsewhere to get those eyeballs, but you’ll always want to produce content on your own site, in your own blog.This can be overwhelming, but to give you a bit of a starting point, I want to share with you 5 types of articles to start with.All these types of articles are tailored specifically to what someone is searching for.All of these types of articles can work for any industry, business, or niche.They are