AnywhereMan

Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed as a freelance web developer in the sense that I am the commodity, manager, CEO, bookkeeper, salesperson, and customer support representative all rolled into one person. This is nothing new and I can guarantee most freelancers have moments where they feel stretched (to say the least).

However, from a sales perspective this is something that offers us a huge advantage.

Who better to sell the services that you offer than YOU? YOU are the expert. YOU can give people the most accurate information related to the service that YOU are offering to them. YOU can make promises that YOU know YOU can keep.

When I am working with a potential web client, I am able to give them a first-hand demonstration of what I can bring to the table in terms of knowledge of my craft and assurances of the success I’ve had with past clients. They can ask as many questions as they want, as specific as they want, and I can answer them. I don’t need to make a call to the experts or make something up. I do what I am selling, and that’s worth a lot.

In fact, that’s probably why I’ve never really felt like I’ve had to sell: People inquire about what I do and I tell them about it. I even give away a lot of my so-called secrets for free. I don’t really need push any harder than that, and I don’t.

Accurate knowledge and first-hand experience build trust, and people either make the decision to do business with me or they don’t. Likewise, I can choose to take on their project or I can refuse it if I feel we’re not a good fit. I am, after all, the person who will be doing the work.

This post was inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk‘s new book The Thank You Economy which I just started reading this week. At the beginning of the book he talks about how he built up WineLibrary. He spent a lot of time just being helpful, and success followed.

So get out there, do what you do (and do it well), share what you know, and let the business come to you. Sometimes being the person that has to do everything in the company can be a chore, but it can also be an advantage.

After last week’s discussion on Freelance Jam – specifically the portion about billing based on hours versus a flat fee – I’ve been analyzing my entire billing system. For the past three years I’ve billed based on hours and it’s worked fine.

However, in the past few months I’ve been taking on bigger projects. I also feel like I’ve dramatically improved my design and development process. And I’m also realizing that the better I define the project scope and strategy up front, the better the project turns out. I’d love to invest more time into that but I’ve always done things somewhat “open-ended”  (read charged by the hour) to allow clients to change their minds along the way. But that seems to be incredibly in-efficient, especially when working on larger projects.

I still don’t have a complete plan for making the switch to flat fees, but it’s looking like that’s the direction I will go. Herre are a few of the articles I’ve been reading that are making me re-think the whole billing thing:

• Why I Believe in Pricing Work Based on Value (by my Freelance Jam co-host Brian Casel)
• 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Charge By The Hour (some very good points I hadn’t considered)
• Why You Should Never Charge Hourly (great idea to charge even more if it seems like a high-maintenance client)

So if anything, in Freelance Jam’s short existence so far, it’s helping me evaluate my very own freelance business. Hopefully it’s doing the same to some extent for our viewers.

I’ve established a LinkedIn page for my business, but I haven’t yet completed everything in this article which offers some great tips. I’ve really been impressed at how much value LinkedIn is starting to bring to businesses, specifically small ones, with features like these.

I sell time.

Yes, people pay me to build WordPress websites, but what they’re really paying me for is the time it takes to complete their projects. It’s something I love to do, but lately I’m seeing some limitations.

I’m a “sky is the limit” kind of guy. While I’m staying rather busy these days, I’m realizing that the commodity I am selling is my own time…and a finite amount of it. There are only so many billable hours available in a day, month, year. My development schedule is absolutely full and I’m finding that it’s forcing me to turn off my phone, keep conversations shorter, and focus on the work to be done.

That should be a good thing.

But I like talking to people. I like the conversations with current and potential clients. In fact, I think I enjoy those connections more than the actual projects and development.

I’m looking for ways to “productize” some aspects of my business so that I can free up some time for the connection aspects like conversations, meetups, and even blogging.

I’m re-thinking my approach with my TweakMyTheme sub-service. Are there ways I can productize that? I think there are.

Are there new products I can launch to create a passive income stream? I’m exploring the idea of selling premium WordPress themes. I’m looking at some affiliate income-generating options. Maybe I can sell custom tutorial materials. I don’t think it hurts to diversify a little bit.

The beauty of being my own boss is that I can always be refining and re-defining what I do and what I offer. Maybe that’s foolish to some incredibly-focused folks, but I don’t think it is in my case. I think it’s a part of staying relevant.

What have you done to expand the limits of your business? What are you selling?

X – X – Y – Y – X – X – Y … What comes next? A “Y”, right?

I stopped home for lunch earlier this week and my wife was working with our five year-old daughter on some homeschool stuff. They happened to be working on patterns similar to the one in the first sentence. As I watched her analyze each pattern and anticipate the next character, I realized how vital the skill of recognizing patterns can be.

When I spend less time checking emails each day I get more done. When I get more done I have more money and more time.

My high-paying clients are usually more trusting of my opinions than most low-paying, DIY clients.

Any opening tag in HTML requires a closing tag.

Earlier this year, I recognized a trend where some potential clients needed a simple website but couldn’t afford my base site development price. I tapped into this trend by launching TweakMyTheme.com specifically for them.

Lately, I’ve noticed how inefficient my sales pipeline process is. By detecting patterns in the questions potential clients ask, knowing which potential projects are high-priority, and developing a standard follow-up process, I’ve developed a new, improved system for my business.  I’ve started using Capsule CRM to manage my entire prospecting and sales process, and I continue to use Freshbooks for my invoicing and time-tracking.

If you can recognize patterns in your career, you’re going to succeed. Learning, business, investing, education, relationships…so much of what we do is dependent on finding patterns.

I have officially been sending clients invoices using FreshBooks since January 1, 2008. Awesome app…awesome company…amazing support.

One of the features that I absolutely love is the “Recent Activity” section on the front page of its interface (see above graphic). It shows you when you sent a specific invoice, and when the client actually got around to opening it.  This is useful because sometimes clients will say they never received an invoice, and in some cases they might be right (because you’d see it in FreshBooks). Sometimes it’s worthwhile to check with them to verify that they’ve received it if you notice it hasn’t been opened after a week or so.

Oh yeah, and I love the auto-reminders it sends to clients after 30, 60, 90 days or whatever intervals you decide upon.

In the time that I’ve been running my own business, it’s been nice to know that my time-tracking and invoicing is in good hands with FreshBooks. Seriously – I’ve never even had to think about it.  And PayPal integration has made it simple for my clients to pay quickly.

If you’re looking for a good…no, the BEST…billing solution, try FreshBooks for FREE for up to 3 clients. If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them for you.

Disclosure: Nothing prompted me to write this post other than the fact that tonight I was reminded of how many great features FreshBooks has and how useful it’s been to my business. If you are somehow able to make a specific aspect of my life as worry-free as FreshBooks does, I’ll rant and rave about you too!

My wife Sarah has been doing some part-time photography for the past few years. She does it more as a hobby just because she really loves taking pictures, but it’s nice that she can actually generate some income for her time as well.

We had a conversation this past weekend about how she feels like more and more folks in our area are getting into photography and offering their services for hire as well. With so many options, why would anyone hire her for a session?

I thought about that a little bit and even compared it to my freelance web business. Why would someone enlist my services when there are so many other folks doing what I do?

I think it comes down to differentiation. There are little things about working with me, or having my wife take your pictures, that are unique. We all do things in our own way and the method to our madness is what sets us apart in a couple of ways.

Differentiation From The Amateurs

We’ve all probably run into this one, and I think Sarah sees it too when people find out what her rates are and convince themselves that they can do just as good of a job on their own, for free. This attitude used to drive me nuts but honestly if you are dealing with potential clients that have the cheap DIY attitude, you’re best to let them do their thing without you. Chances are if you did work with them you’d regret it.

Here’s the thing: It’s true that technology is amazing. Anyone has the potential to create amazing websites, photos, articles, or apps. But there’s still a learning curve. The last time I checked, our camera didn’t tell me what direction to face, the angle to hold the camera, how to position the subject, and how to get everyone to smile at the same time.

It still takes practice. And because you practice your craft on a regular basis, you have differentiated yourself from the amateurs.

Differentiation From Your Peers

Notice I didn’t use the word “competitors.”  We’re all freelancers, and we’re in this boat together. And this isn’t a little tiny life raft; It’s a cruise ship. And it’s a cruise ship that is headed out to sea to rescue survivors from the Titanic of corporate America.

I think people love working with the little guy and are fed up with the bureaucracy of large firms. That’s the advantage that we have. I really do think there’s enough business for most of us. A lot of times we can even collaborate. I emphasized this to Sarah as we were talking about her photography.

However, you still need to define the specific reason someone might choose you over one of your peers. The more and more we do what we do, little things start showing up that define the way we approach our craft.

As an example, Sarah is phenomenal at photographing kids. She captures moments in a photojournalistic, real-life manner that a big studio probably wouldn’t be able to easily do. She also has a specific style and user-experience unique to her approach. And I think that’s why people hire her.

Practice Makes Art

Knowing and developing your style is what’s going to differentiate you. Not only that, but it’s going to help you identify the type of client that fits your style, thus helping you market yourself more accurately as well. The more you are out there practicing your craft, the more you’ll be able to build an experience and product that has your fingerprints all over it.

Once people know what makes your brand unique and expect it, you won’t have to worry about amateurs or peers.

As a freelancer, you are the boss, laborer, marketing department, bill collector, bill payer, and more. When things are slow, you go into marketing mode. When things are busy, you’re often dealing with double the prospects while juggling double the workload. It can be tricky to get things into that perfect “pocket” of a balanced workload.

For me, the more leads I get on new business, the more time I’m spending on estimates and business requirements. As a result of that, the less time I have available for the projects in-process. Is it smarter to keep the prospects waiting, the existing clients waiting, or the wife and kids waiting?

I want to know what you do to balance your time between new projects and projects in the queue when things are insanely busy, and I want to know how you spend your time when things are slow.