To Make More Money Freelancing, Avoid These Mistakes

It’s not all about done-for-you client work.

Freelancing has amazing perks. You can work from anywhere in the world, provided there’s an internet connection. You set your hours, make your schedule, and don’t have to play corporate politics. Let’s face it; we became freelancers in the first place because we wanted the freedom to work from the beach, travel to the Maldives at a moment’s notice, or be home with our families more often. The keyword there is freedom.

But there’s a dark side to freelancing that we don’t like to talk about, and it’s eating away at the freedom we so badly crave. Here it is — When you don’t set your freelancing business up correctly, you work yourself into a J.O.B. instead of creating a business.

That means you’re still working 40+ hour weeks, you can’t take time off without everything crumbling around you, and you’re more stressed now than before you became a freelancer.

That’s what happened to me when I started freelancing. I want to share the four mistakes I made as a freelancer that led to stress and burnout, with little to show for it. Once you correct them, you may find yourself happier, healthier, and wealthier to boot.

Mistake #1: Thinking about niche the wrong way

When I first started freelance writing, I would take any client under the sun. I could be writing website copy for a tech company, blog posts for a vacation rental company, and Facebook content for a holistic health service provider all in the same day.

There was no order to the chaos. My brain had to be jumping from one topic to the other and back again repeatedly. That’s why “niche down” is standard advice. Picking one type of client to serve allows you to become an expert in that area, but it also keeps you sane.

While I advise you to pick a niche as a freelancer, I look at the niche concept a little differently than most. (I didn’t come up with this myself; I got the idea from a more experienced copywriter, Mike Shreeve.)

Most people think of a niche as a specific demographic. Their niche may be 40-year-old dentists who are starting to think about succession planning or new barbershop owners wondering how to grow their business.

Picking your niche like this narrows down your market, which is excellent, but your target audience still has a wide variety of problems. For example, one new barbershop owner could be more concerned about growing their client list. Another could have come with a full roster of clients from their old job, so their main focus is on growing the business and hiring other barbers. Another could be wondering how to develop a social media following and establish an online presence. You get the idea.

While all of these people fall under the niche of “new barbershop owners,” their problems are unique and require you to serve them in different ways. The solution? Reframe niche away from demographic and towards one big problem. That way, your niche becomes the problem you are helping to solve.

For example, you can still serve new barbershop owners, but maybe you specifically help them get more business from their existing clients by implementing your signature follow-up email campaign. See how that’s WAY more specific than “I help new barbershop owners?” When you’re helping people solve a particular problem over and over again, you can quickly become an expert on that topic and charge premium prices for your valuable knowledge.

When you have your niche narrowed down to a specific problem, it’s easier to avoid the second mistake holding you back from making significant money as a freelancer: Selling a service instead of a product.

Mistake #2: Selling a service instead of a product

I can hear your objections already. “But Carly, how can I sell a product if I’m a service provider? How can copywriting, graphic design, social media management, etc. be a product?”

Hear me out. I’m not telling you to stop doing done-for-you work and turn all of your services into online courses, like some of the gurus out there. (There’s a time and place for that, of course, but it’s not the point I’m trying to make here.)

I am suggesting that you productize your service. The idea behind this is to create a standard process for delivering a single service. I was first introduced to this concept when I read Build to Sell by John Warrillow. (← That’s an affiliate link, by the way.)

In Built to Sell, the main character, Alex, owns an advertising agency. When we’re introduced to Alex, he’s overworked, stretched thin among many client projects, yet still short on cash. His mentor, Ted, helps him pivot his business, so he’s solely creating logos using his exclusive “Five-Step Logo Design Process.” After he’s implemented these changes, not only has he created a profitable, sellable business, he’s also incredibly more relaxed and happy.

Think about your own freelancing business. What sort of systems could you create for the services you provide? Is there something you’re especially skilled in and do well for clients? If so, start there.

When you productize your service, a few things happen:

• Clients pay you for it upfront instead of upon completion (If you’re currently having cash flow problems in your business, this alone should go a long way towards solving them.)
• You stop wasting time creating custom proposals for every single prospective client.
• You stop stretching yourself thin by taking on any and every client that comes your way.
• You become an expert in one thing and can charge premium prices for your expertise.

Mistake #3: Believing you have to do everything yourself

Does this sound familiar?

“I have to do this work for the client because I don’t trust anyone else to do it as well as I can.”

I’m going to give it to you straight; thinking no one else can deliver work as well as you is your ego talking. This way of thinking is holding you back from working with other contractors. Will it take time to find someone you want to work with? Probably. Will it take time for them to learn and deliver work on par with your standard of quality? Definitely.

I challenge you to consider how you can outsource some services you provide so you aren’t stuck doing all the work yourself. Other people are capable of doing just as good a job as you, or potentially even better. Give people time to prove themselves. If they aren’t improving with training, consider how you could make the training even better. If there’s still no improvement, maybe it’s time to think about finding a new person.

The big benefit of outsourcing delivery is that you free up time to continue growing the business. That means you can focus on marketing, sales, administration, or one of the many other hats you wear as a business owner.

A Big Hint: Outsourcing your service delivery is WAY easier once you’ve corrected mistake #2 and productized your service. When you’re focused on one product that solves one problem, you can quickly become an expert in that area and easily create standard operating procedures for new hires or contractors to follow.

Mistake #4: Getting stuck in the DFY model of service

There’s a common misconception among freelancers that the absolute best way to serve your clients is by doing the work for them. Some clients indeed want this, so it’s great to have that option available. But done-for-you (DFY) work is not the only way to help your clients. Consider this:

Scenario 1: Sally wants to launch a new product to her email list. She’s not sure the best way to do this, so she wants some help. Her budget is $5,000. She stumbles upon you and sees that you offer a complete DFY Launch Package, priced at $20,000. That’s way outside her budget, so she moves on and looks for someone else.

Scenario 2: Sally’s needs and budget are still the same, but when she stumbles upon you, she sees that not only do you offer a complete DFY launch package, you also provide a done-with-you program that teaches people how to launch a product to their existing email list. The 12-week program includes pre-recorded online lessons and weekly live Q&A group coaching calls. It’s $5,000. Sally is excited because this program meets her needs exactly; she decides to buy it.

Do you see how a done-with-you service served Sally’s needs better than you doing the work for her? It fit her budget and solved her problem.

Providing people with different ways of working with you allows you to meet them where they are. When you lower your barrier to entry — Sally only has to spend $5,000 to work with you instead of $20,000 — you can both serve more people AND free up your own time by reducing your reliance on DFY work.

Having more than one income stream in your business is also a smart decision since it provides you with way more security and freedom. (Imagine what would happen to a business solely reliant on DFY services if you got sick and couldn’t work for a few months. That’s a scary thought.)

Takeaways

• You got into freelancing because of the lifestyle and financial freedom it supposedly offered — but an improperly structured freelance business robs you of that freedom.
• You can get that freedom back and avoid burnout by correcting four common mistakes: Thinking about niche the wrong way, selling a service instead of a product, believing you have to do everything yourself, and getting stuck in the DFY model of service.