In the previous lesson, we discussed that creating a B2C product, such as an online course, can be an effective launch pad product to kick-start your career as a solopreneur and establish yourself as an industry expert.

An alternative route to solopreneurship worth considering is to set yourself up as a freelancer.

People are drawn to freelancing due to the reason that you can do the work you love, and build your life around it. 

It's not easy being a freelancer, but it's not as risky as you might think too. 

You’ll have to learn how to find clients, communicate effectively, and run a business. 

But, it's never been easier to get started. And, if you've established a specific skill that you’re already quite experienced in and passionate about, then we’d certainly recommend giving it a go.

Being a freelancer means you'll be in charge of marketing, accounting, project management, and legal matters. Typically, everything that a business owner would be expected to be in charge of.  

Freelancers are generally considered sole traders (as they're known here in the UK), a group of over three million people. 

The fact that there are so many people operating as sole traders are good news for you, as it means that the market is now already accustomed to hiring and working in this way.

There will be plenty of clients out there who’ll need the service you offer, and will gladly pay the price you ask. You just need to find the right clients at the right time and show them that you can provide the service they're looking for.

So how do you get started?

The first step to making the transition into the world of freelancing is to make sure you’ve got the right mindset for it.

It’s important to have a disciplined personal growth plan in place (as discussed already in level two) in which you should be comfortable with setting yourself goals, and have a system in place to help you manage your focus, time, and attention. 

This means you’ll always know what you should be focusing on every day, which is the first and most important step to being productive.

Another important part of setting yourself with a strong foundation is estimating costs and budgeting. Again, you can use Exercise 28 to help you with this.

Every freelancer should have at least a simple but detailed budget in place. 

With a budget in hand, you know exactly what you need to earn to meet all of your financial obligations while also planning for the future.

For example, let's say you need £700 to cover your expenses each month, while you also aim to save £600 each month too. 

That means you'll need to earn a minimum of £1,300 each month after tax to meet your financial goals.

It's good practice at the beginning, before you go into business, to ensure you have six months of expenses in reserve (although more is always better). So in this example, you should ideally have around £8,000 already saved in your bank account before you get started.

On top of this, you should also already have a reliable computer, relevant software and subscriptions, a home office space, and any necessary certifications.

When you’re first starting out in freelancing we’d suggest that you do your best to cut down on unnecessary expenses.

For example, when it comes to saving money, one of the best things you can do is go back home and live with your parents for a year or two. This will mean you can significantly save on rent and bills. 

You may also very likely feel more comfortable starting your freelancing business as a side hustle alongside a part-time job as discussed in a previous lesson.

Once you get your mindset and budget in order, you’re now ready to get started. 

Being a successful freelancer boils down to three things: 

• Firstly there's attracting clients. This involves understanding the type of client that you’re targeting.
• Secondly, there’s admin. This involves managing things like proposals, contracts, payments, and taxes.
• And finally, there’s project management. This is about being confident that you can actually consistently deliver solid work.

We’re going to go into each of these in a bit more detail in this lesson.

To really succeed in selling your services, you need to first understand three things: targeting, messaging, and marketing.

The first thing you need to figure out is who your target market is. 

This is what is referred to as finding your niche. 

Your target market can be found within a space from these two axes:

Firstly your service. So, first and foremost you need to get good at a specific service. And you should be aiming to become an expert in delivering that service. This is discussed in greater detail in Lesson 6. But essentially your service could be a skill, such as graphic design for example. Or it could be your knowledge, in which you’re able to consult people on specific areas of their business.

Secondly, there’s understanding your target customer: Some freelancers sell directly to the end consumer, this is known and B2C marketing. But typically most freelance businesses sell to companies, which is known as B2B marketing.

It’s an easy mistake to want to target everyone and anyone. When it comes to freelancing, and selling via the B2B route, you’re far more likely to have success when you have a specific niche.

What industry do you know a lot about? Is there an industry you're already reasonably well established in? It’s beneficial to focus on a specific industry as this helps you market yourself as an expert.

This may reduce the size of your target market, but you’re likely to get far more engagement this way.

A good way of framing your niche is to say to yourself, I want to help x achieve y.

For example here at Rocket, we want to help young people and ambitious professionals think more clearly about their careers.

Here are some other examples of establishing a niche:

• “I help managers become leaders”
• “I help companies market complex products using video and animation”
• “I help introverts improve communicate more effectively at work”.
• “I help SaaS companies attract their ideal buyer”.
• “I help ecommerce companies with Facebook Ads”
• “I help CEOs grow through personal branding and strategic storytelling”.
• “I help new investors understand the stock market”.

Once you’ve established your niche, you then need to define your personal brand and messaging. 

Your personal brand is important when you’re a freelancer, as essentially this is the product that your clients are buying into.

So firstly, you want to build an online profile that clearly communicates your services. 

What is it that you do exactly? What can you do to help your client make or save money? And what’s special or unique about you? 

Put this at the front of your online profile.

Secondly, you’ll need a portfolio showing examples of work you’ve done in the past.

Thirdly, you’ll also ideally want a series of testimonials and case studies. What's more powerful? A proposal that says you deliver great work on-time, or a quote from a former client saying you deliver great work on-time? Obviously, the latter is better.

Testimonials can either be written or done on video, but video is more powerful in building trust with a prospect. 

Don't be afraid to ask for testimonials. Satisfied clients are usually happy to provide them, and if a client says something really positive about you or your work throughout the process, just ask them if you can then use that statement as a testimonial. 

To go a step further, we recommend also creating case studies around your most successful clients. A case study tells the story of a client project. It shows what you can do, how you do it, and the positive impact you can have. So future clients will be able to get a crystal clear idea of how you work. 

Fourthly, you’ll want to have a brief text that summarises what you do in a hundred words or so. Keep it simple, and bear in mind the framework “I help x achieve y”. Think of this as your elevator pitch. You'll probably use this quite frequently in emails, investment pitches, and marketing materials. 

Finally, you'll also want to have a really good CV and LinkedIn profile.

Marketing is all about how often you get your message in front of your target customer. 

Data from Salesforce, says it takes six to eight interactions for someone to decide to hire you. 

So increasing your frequency can help you stay top-of-mind to potential clients.

You want to be sending out a high volume of messages. This can be via email, phone calls, or social media. The medium doesn't really matter as long as you're actively starting conversations. 

You can look at your sales funnel in three steps: 

First, at the top of your funnel, you have what is called “the awareness level”. This is when people become aware that you offer a service. If they aren't aware that you exist, they can't possibly buy from you. Their awareness may start from seeing your website, online profile on People Per Hour, social media activity, Facebook ad, or an email introduction.

Secondly, there is the interest level: People probably won't whip out their checkbooks as soon as they find out you exist. They need to be interested in you and your work. This may come from them like the look of your brand, your content marketing, your lead magnet, your social media activity, your referrals from past clients, your testimonials, or they might simply have been impressed when talking to you if you met them in person.

Finally, there is the action level. You want to make it easy for potential clients to make the decision to work with you. A prospect can be interested in working with you, but until they make a decision that they want to move forward with you, they won't become a client. As we’ll discuss in more detail later, this will involve a number of things including how you present yourself in your initial meeting, creating a strong proposal, a clear contract, and a straightforward payment process.

Let's now turn our attention to your social media activity.

Probably the most important phase within your sales funnel is the ‘interest’ phase.

And your social media activity will play a big part in that.

We’ve already discussed the key principles to bear in mind regarding your social media activity in Lesson 20, however, there are some extra things worth mentioning here now we have our freelancing hat on.

For the sake of simplicity, when it comes to freelancing we’re going to break down the four most common social media options: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Facebook and Instagram are great for visual creators. Both platforms have a strong focus on photo and video. So if you're a photographer, videographer, graphic designer, or any other type of visual creator these platforms are great for you. 

The problem with Facebook is that it limits you to 5,000 friends if you're using a profile. If you're using a Facebook page instead, it's tough to break into the news feed because your page is flagged as a business instead of a person. However tools such as Facebook Groups and Facebook Ads can also be a powerful way of getting in front of your target audience, so for those reasons a Facebook page can be worth it.

Instagram has no limit on the number of followers in your audience and using hashtags can help you quickly reach special interest groups. Plus you can reach out to influencers using direct messaging so no need to hunt for contact info. There are strong creative communities on Instagram and it can even serve as a secondary portfolio for your work. 

Twitter is best for freelancers who want to promote themselves as thought leaders in their industry. It's great for writers or anyone who wants to stand out for their ideas. Twitter allows you to build a large audience and be discovered via hashtags. It also offers a space to communicate directly with industry influencers and potential customers.

LinkedIn is a fantastic place for freelancers because it's built for business relationships and most of your clients will be professionals or business owners. The great thing about LinkedIn is that it’s easy to search and private message your clients using the built-in functionality.

When it comes to building your network the first step is to set-up a CRM.

During your networking, you'll have a lot of conversations where someone indicates that they're interested in working with you or they know someone who would be. One of the worst things you can do is forget about those opportunities, but it's easy to do, and if you don't follow up on a warm lead they may choose to go with someone else. 

To help you with this you can use a customer relationship management tool or CRM. 

HubSpot has a great free CRM that is worth checking out.

Having a process in place for taking notes and keeping track of your opportunities will help take the burden off of your memory.

Always keep track of who you talk to, when, and why, as you go.

This is how you’ll build your professional network over time.

Secondly, you’ll want to focus on building relationships with your inner circle.

Once you have a CRM in place, and you know who your target audience is, and you have a lot of your marketing foundations in place, the next step to growing your network is to write personal emails to those within your inner circle. 

These are people you already know and who you think will be most relevant to your freelancing business, they could be old colleagues, existing colleagues, old school friends, family members, etc.

Don't be pushy. If it's been a while since you've talked to them, ask them how they're doing. Then be sure to let them know that you're freelancing. Ask them if they have any advice or if they know anyone you should contact. 

Finally, you’ll then want to focus on building relationships with your outer circle.

In terms of online networking, we’ve largely already covered this in lesson 20, and a lot of the same principles will apply here. However, it’s likely LinkedIn will be a better site for you to focus on, and of course, remember to update your CRM as you go on.

In terms of networking offline, you should try and figure out where your target clients tend to hang out in the real world and go there. Let's say you do graphic design for startup companies. Then maybe you should stop by a meetup for entrepreneurs. 

Meet people, be interested in who they are and what they do, and introduce yourself when they ask.

Be a good listener, aim to connect, not to sell. 

Be a problem solver with no thought of reward, arm yourself with questions, be aware of the dress code, bring business cards, take the initiative, act professionally, and always follow up afterward.

At this stage, you’ll also want to set-up a profile on some of the most popular freelancing sites to help raise awareness of your freelancing services, for example using People per Hour, and Fiver.

This won’t be the main focus of your marketing activities, but it can certainly be useful to have a presence on some of these.

Typically, different sites are better for different services and industries so it’s worth double-checking if a particular site is suitable for you before signing up and setting up an account.

Hopefully, after a lot of time spent on the marketing and networking side of the business, you’ll finally meet a client who would be interested in working with you. 

It’s likely you’ll firstly arrange an initial meeting to discuss the upcoming project, so here are a few tips to help with this.

Firstly, prepare. Know your client's business before your first meeting. You'll probably get a lot of information just from their website. Spending half an hour studying it ahead of time will put you ahead of most other service providers.

Secondly, listen more than you talk: As the saying goes, that's why you have two ears but only one mouth. Talking too much is a common flaw of insecure freelancers and job seekers, and it's understandable. You want to show how much you know. But essentially it’s important that you are a natural fit for the project, and you'll only find this out by hearing and understanding what the project is all about.

Finally, demonstrate that you understood your client's needs: This shows them you're listening, and it gives them a chance to correct any misunderstandings. Additionally to this, act appropriately to the client's culture at all times.

Once you’ve landed an interested client, a well-written proposal is the first step to sealing the deal to making your first paycheck, here’s how to write one:

First, start with the project summary. This section is almost like a cover letter to the prospect that recaps that you understand their needs, i.e. you understand their specific goals for the project, and you have outlined how you can help them.

Next, you'll want to go into the details of your process and timeline. This shows the client what it would look like to work with you, both how you work and how long the process will take.

Finally, you'll want to share a quote for how much the project will cost.

We’ve included a ready-made proposal template you can use in Exercise File 35.

After you've got a client interested you should then get a signed contract.

Contracts are a great place to make sure you and your client have the same expectations for working together. 

Very few small companies are that prepared, and when starting out as a freelancer a lot of your clients will probably be small companies. So it's wise to have a generic contract ready that you can edit to suit individual clients as needed.

Essentially contracts are made up of two elements: an Agreement and a Consideration:

• The agreement part is where you spell out what you're going to do.
• The consideration part is where it says, what you're going to get in return. 

Another important component of your contract should be the scope of work, often called an SOW. 

The SOW keeps you both focused by outlining exactly what you'll deliver to the client, when you'll deliver it, and how much they'll pay you for it.

A really good contract will even provide an outline for how to add to the scope of work. This protects you from doing additional work for free or from the client trying to ask for additional work for free. 

This is known as scope creep and it's a common issue for freelance projects. With a good SOW, if questions come up or the client tries to go outside of your original agreement, you can always remind them of what they agreed to.

If you just go along with the change in scope, you may end up spending more time on a project without being compensated for that work. And it's not just the money, that's time you can't dedicate to another project or spend finding another paying client. This is one of the biggest reasons why having a contract is so important.

Finally, there are also clauses that deal with legalities. Some of them are: 

• Who owns the finished work? 
• What can each party do with it? 
• What's the legal relationship between the parties? 
• Who pays for expenses? 

A contract is also your best method for getting paid. 

Don't worry. In most cases, a client will not break a contract. But if they do, you have the tools to take legal action. 

We’ve included a ready-made contract template you can use in Exercise File 36.

When it comes to setting your price, the problem with charging too little isn't just financial. If you undercharge, prospective clients will see the low figure and suspect that you're just not very good. 

Higher rates make them value your time more leading to better work relationships and more fulfilling work.

Generally, your market competitors will dictate the price you set. It’s worth trying to undercut your competition in terms of price at the beginning, but then eventually finding a niche and establishing yourself as an expert and then overcharging.

We recommend value-based pricing rather than charging hourly. This means pricing your service based on the value it offers the client. 

Value-based pricing gets easier over time as you start to build a name for yourself. 

As more and more of your clients get greater returns from using your services, it will become easier to justify setting a higher price.

Another type of pricing system to be aware of is what is known as royalties. This is when you agree to earn a percentage of all future sales rather than a set payment, and acts as a passive source of income.

Once you’ve finished the work it's now time to collect. As a reminder, you should present your client with an invoice. 

You may also want to use PayPal as an alternative payment option.

You'll need a bank account for your business. We recommend you get one that's separate from your personal account. That makes bookkeeping easier and keeps you from having to give personal banking information to clients.

As already mentioned, your first line of defense to getting paid is your contract. You should have already included clauses that specify not only the amount the client will pay you but also how and when. This lays out your argument before it ever happens.

We’ve provided you with an invoice template you can use in Exercise File 37.

Freelancers are generally considered sole traders (as they're called here in the UK anyway).

Sole traders are expected to keep HMRC up to date with their self-employed activities by submitting a self-assessment tax return each year.

You'll have to continue to file personal taxes just like you did as an employee. However, you'll probably also have to file business taxes based on the company's receipts. 

The basic procedure is simple. You record income as it comes in, and expenses as they go out.

We’ve outlined the step-by-step process on how to set yourself up as a sole trader and manage your taxes in Exercise 29.

The final piece in the puzzle is now actually doing the work!

To begin with, get a thorough understanding of what the client wants the finished product to be. The bigger the job, the more advanced your planning will need to be. 

Second, deconstruct the job into its component parts and make a to do list. You can use Google Keep to help you with this, as discussed in Lesson 12.

Planning a project typically requires some experience of doing such work, which you should at this stage already have.

We recommend that you do a large part of the project planning before you even write the agreement. 

When you present your proposal, you'll need to know roughly how many hours the whole project will take, so you'll know how much to charge. This is all part and parcel of the sales process as already discussed. 

In order to do this, you'll need knowledge of your own work habits, of how much you can do in a day, and when you like to take a break. Arranging work so it fits within your schedule will help keep you motivated. 

Once you've got a list of all the specific tasks that need doing, you then want to begin scheduling it.

Start with the deadline, and then reverse engineer back to today’s date.

For example, if you know something is due on April 5th, and today is February 1st, then you know you have exactly eight weeks to finish it. 

Next, divide that time by the tasks that need to be done. 

Finally, write specific tasks into each workday in your calendar, and be sure to add in some buffer time in case anything goes wrong. 

Now you know exactly what you need to do every day in order to complete the project.

Each day, you'll simply perform the tasks you've set out for yourself. 

Knowing what you'll do, and how it will all add up into the finished project is an enormous comfort. 

You are in essence going back and forth between being your own boss and being the boss worker. 

There are two things you need to do at the end of every day. First, check and adjust the schedule. If you've got more done than expected, decide whether to move everything up or take that time off. If you're falling behind, you'll have similar choices. 

A final tip is to scope out the next couple of days' work to prepare yourself mentally and make sure you have everything you need. 

It's also a good idea to check in with the client once in a while to give them a progress report and help them relax in the knowledge that the job is being done. 

Freelancing requires patience. Don't expect your big break to happen immediately.

Hence the reason why you may need to build up some savings in advance, and perhaps even begin on a part-time basis alongside a part-time job.

You’ll probably need to think small during the first couple of years and simply focus on getting to grips with the overall process of marketing yourself, growing your network, interacting with clients, doing the job, and receiving the money. 

A lot of people go into freelancing thinking they’re going to be the biggest thing in town. Well, that may eventually happen, but you’re going to have to prepare yourself to do it slowly and surely and focus on learning to master the overall process step by step.