“How do I gracefully tell a client I am increasing my rates? I’m upping my hourly rate by about 35%, which is approximately a $12 increase. This client is bigger than any of my other clients, and takes up more […]
I remember receiving some bad news earlier in my career from a client that I was doing some identity work for. We’d finished the logo, moved on to the stationery, and were just about to wrap things up when my […]
There are only three main ways to earn more revenue in your freelance business: 1. Get more clients 2. Get clients to buy from you more frequently 3. Get paid more per project Of the three, getting paid more per […]
Tired of writing proposals that don’t get accepted or go unanswered? A common problem I hear is designers who spend a bunch of time and energy on a proposal, only for their prospect to reject it. Or, the prospect disappears […]
Local clients. If you are a big fish in a small pond and are making it work, good for you. But I see comments like these below from freelancers all the time: “People won’t pay top dollar where I live […]
I want to share a few of the common money and pricing mistakes freelancers do that can sabotage their earning potential. These were things I was doing in my design business and didn’t even realize it. I’m going to show […]
The way you present your work can be the difference between getting your client’s approval and going back to the drawing board over and over again during the project, while both you and your client get frustrated. Below are a […]
Ever notice how Amazon packages routinely come earlier than expected? They’ll tell you the package will arrive on or by the 27th, and when the package shows up on the 23rd, you are pleasantly surprised. Amazon sets themselves up to […]
Have you ever tried to change someone’s perception of you after you’ve known or worked with them for a while? If you’ve tried, you’ll know it is incredibly difficult to do it—especially with siblings or family for example. Maybe you’ve […]
As a freelancer, your goal should be to offer something so good that your prospect can’t get it anywhere else. Or, at the very least, make your offer harder to compare to others. One way to do that is to […]
The luxury of owning a home comes with some downsides. One of them is maintenance. I recently had to have the trees near my house trimmed. Not having any idea how much this would cost, I contacted a few professionals […]
Impostor syndrome. It can be crippling for any creative professional. What’s impostor syndrome? Impostor syndrome is the persistent feeling of being exposed as a “fraud.” Where you think you’ll be found out at any moment. You think they’ll find out […]
Getting big things done is a constant battle. When it comes to big projects, especially personal projects, you just never seem to find the time to get it done. Here are three hacks to help you avoid the guilt that […]
In 2005 David Choe painted a mural in Facebook’s Palo Alto offices. He was offered $60,000 for the work, or stock in the company. He choose the Facebook stock. Fast forward to 2012 when Facebook went public and the stock […]
When I met my wife 9 years ago, the car she drove kept breaking down. It wasn’t a cheap car either, it was an early 2000’s Audi A4 but since her car wasn’t new it wasn’t under warranty. We would […]
Pricing a logo design and other design services can be tricky. The first thing most freelancers do when tasked with getting a price to their prospect is they ask their freelancer friends what they charge. Or, they Google other freelancers […]
A rock hit my car and left a crack a bit smaller than a dime in my windshield. A few weeks later I went to a carwash down the street—the one where they wash, vacuum and wax your car by […]
You get to choose who you work with. It’s true. One of the awesome things about freelancing is that you get to choose who you work with. You don’t have to and shouldn’t work with whoever walks in your virtual […]
I worked in a small sushi restaurant for years before I started freelancing full-time. It was a tiny little place, the kind that only seats about 20 people and most of them at the bar. Working in such a small […]
You are not right for most people. As I say in my book Work With Clients You Love, working with better paying clients starts with being selective and saying no to the ones who are a bad fit for working […]
“I’m always thinking about the client’s finances as though they were mine.” I got this message the other day and hear this all the time from other freelancers. The basic message here is freelancers telling themselves, “I wouldn’t buy the […]
A key difference between freelancers charging low rates and freelancers charging premium rates for their services is how they portray themselves to potential clients. Freelancers charging higher rates see themselves as experts in their field and act more like consultants […]
“How do I handle a client who repeatedly pays late?” I get this question from a lot of the freelancers I work with. Chasing after payment is a huge time and energy suck that almost all freelancers experience at one […]
Selling your work as an introvert can be a tough task. Everything to do with pricing tends to bring up fear: Fear the client will walk away if you price too high, fear of being seen as a fraud, etc. […]
My son, August, is just under two and is showing all the normal signs of two-year-old behavior: throwing hard objects at my head, refusing to put his diaper on, and protesting even when I give him exactly what he wants. […]
It’s counter-intuitive to grow by taking on fewer clients, but it’s necessary. The thing about client services you find out is that there is an allotment of energy you expend servicing each client you have. You email back and forth, […]
Unresponsive clients can be a real headache…so what should you do when you don’t hear back from a client? This post shares my own experiences and best practices for following up with clients that just won’t get back to you. […]
Have you ever thought about what it’s like to work with you? Did you know you can influence and design the steps you take with your client? Designing a process with fewer gaps and bottlenecks can give a smoother client […]
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