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You are here: Home / Archives for sales strategies

What three business problems are keeping you up at night?

April 24, 2019 by Jake Poinier

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business problemsI belong to a forum of business owners that meets for a few hours once a month to share stories, solve problems, and keep each other accountable. During last week’s session, the forum leader asked: What three business problems are keeping you up at night?
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Filed Under: Get New Freelance Clients Tagged With: business problems, prospective clients, reality check, relationship strategies, sales strategies

How do I charge for meetings with a new freelance client?

July 27, 2018 by Jake Poinier

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charge for meetingsA reader asks…Dr. Freelance: Yesterday I had an extended (almost 2-hour) meeting with a potential new client. The good news is that they have a project for me, assuming the estimate is acceptable, and they said there would be more in the future. The bad news is that the project is small enough that I can’t possibly recoup the costs for my time, because it would basically double the estimate. I know you believe you should charge for meetings, but how do I do that in this circumstance? I don’t want to price myself out of a freelance job!—Time Is Money (i.e., you can call me “Tim”) [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Make More Money Freelancing Tagged With: estimating projects, negotiation, pricing freelance jobs, prospective clients, sales strategies

In praise of saying yes to freelance jobs

February 9, 2018 by Jake Poinier

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saying yes to freelance jobsA Google search of “saying no to freelance jobs” currently coughs up 9.2 million hits, while “saying yes to freelance jobs” clocks in at half that—and a quick look shows that most of the latter results are really about saying no. I don’t disagree that it’s important to turn down work that waves a red flag in your face. At the same time, that’s not the philosophy I take into the business arena. As Tom Robbins noted in Still Life with Woodpecker, “There are only two mantras…yum and yuk. Mine is yum.”
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Filed Under: Get New Freelance Clients, Manage Your Freelance Business Tagged With: client perspectives, Freelance jobs, positive impression, sales strategies, saying yes

Do your clients really want you to succeed as a freelancer?

December 1, 2017 by Jake Poinier

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succeed as a freelancerWhat does your ideal freelance client look like? Great (and fast) payer…high-profile (and rewarding) projects…lots of positive feedback…sends plenty of referrals…prompt, responsive, and easy to work with? I agree. Over the course of 18 years of running my own business, though, I’ve found it comes down to this: Do your clients want you to succeed as a freelancer? And do you want them to succeed, too?

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Filed Under: Manage Your Freelance Business Tagged With: best practices, how to succeed as a freelancer, prospective clients, relationship strategies, sales strategies

Is your freelance client serious? Here’s the test

February 9, 2016 by Jake Poinier

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serious freelance clientDr. Freelance: I have a prospective freelance client — an author who needs his book edited — and he appears to have the money and desire to hire me. He keeps pressing me for a price estimate, but I haven’t seen the manuscript, just one sample chapter that I edited. I’m concerned about extrapolating, because it’s a long book and I’m not sure of the overall quality. What’s my next step?—Hurry Up and Wait [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Get New Freelance Clients Tagged With: client relationships, estimating projects, prospective clients, red flags, sales strategies

Is BookGrabbr the answer for self-published book marketing?

December 10, 2015 by Jake Poinier

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bookgrabbr freelance booksAs you may have seen on social media, I’m experimenting with BookGrabbr. (UPDATE: The promotion is over as of March 8, 2016.) It’s a relatively new book marketing tool that provides readers a free preview of a book in exchange for sharing the link. (I’ve uploaded the first 7 chapters of The Science, Art and Voodoo of Freelance Pricing and Getting Paid.) Before I get into my initial take on the tool, though, I want to discuss why I’m giving it a try. In short, it’s because I believe experimenting is a critical component of freelance success. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Manage Your Freelance Business Tagged With: experiments, Freelance Pricing, sales strategies, science art and voodoo, Social media

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