Hi Reader,

Happy Friday!

Well, this week has been considerably better than last (more on that in a bit).

As well as juggling builder quotes, having new electrics installed, and finally having a working oven, I also ran a workshop for a private community and had no less than four discovery calls.

How's your week been?

Here's more info about what I got up to:

👉 I wrote 4 pieces for clients (Shopify, EmailToolTester, and Positional)

👉 I created one proposal and one presentation for new clients (see the presentation here)

👉 I had 4 calls with potential clients

⏱ Approx hours spent on client work this week: ~24

⏱ Approx hours spent on non-client work: ~2

💰 Total revenue this week: £2,900

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🤓 New on the blog...

Want to know how I've never had a month with 0 work in the entire 10 years I've been freelancing? I put it down to my "marketing strategy" which, if I'm being honest, isn't really a "strategy". It's basically just a list of things I like doing.

Read: The (flexible) formula I use to market my freelance business​

Friday Freelance Tip​​ ✨ ​

Last week, I shared that I’d started a fresh pitching sprint to pick up some extra work. I often do this throughout the year because I like to practice what I preach (I can’t teach Pitch & Prosper without knowing what the pitching landscape looks like, right?!) and because I like to keep my client roster topped up with awesome new clients.

I like to keep things fresh.

So, after sharing my initial rush of activity, here’s how it panned out.

First, the numbers:

Cold pitches sent: 3

Warm pitches sent: 7

Cold pitches are pitches I send to brands who I haven’t interacted with before. They may or may not have seen my content online, but we’ve never had any direct communication.

Warm pitches are pitches I send to brands I already have a connection with, whether that’s because they’re a past client, an existing client, or simply someone who’s in my network.

Out of those, I landed three new contracts for definite. These all came from the warm pitches (showing the power of having a network!). I received two responses from the cold pitches that sound promising, but nothing has materialised yet.

But there’s been an unexpected and very interesting thing that’s happened.

Over the past week, I’ve been sharing a lot of content about losing clients (inspired by my own true story, no less). I’ve talked about it on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X. I’ve also updated my website to showcase my latest portfolio pieces, spotlight recent results, and provide more information about my latest services (content management and strategy).

Now, I’m not sure if there’s a direct correlation here, or whether it’s because it’s simply the start of Q2 and a new financial year (or whether clients are actually like buses!), but I’ve had a huge influx of enquiries this week.

In the past three days, I’ve had 4 discovery calls with new clients and have landed a dead cert project that will almost replace the income I lost last month.

Best of all, these projects are all wildly different:

• A content strategy project for an ecommerce brand
• A simple content writing project for a SaaS company specialising in client experiences
• An interesting journalistic style content writing project for a huge name in the ecommerce world
• An ad-hoc content writing project for a brand I worked with more than two years ago
• A web copy overhaul for a client who helps scale-ups develop software

​
I can’t remember the last time I had four new enquiries in a week.

Safe to say, I’m feeling a lot less panicky this week than I was last week.

But this just illustrates how important it is to have a network.

When times are tough, I know that I have a wide pool of people I can lean on to help me out, whether that’s the 100+ clients I’ve worked with in the past or brands who have wanted to work with me at some point but I haven’t had the capacity. Or, you know, people who just follow my antics on LinkedIn.

So, if your roster feels a bit flimsy, here’s what I recommend.

Reach out to your existing network

Ask for referrals from freelancers and existing clients, see if your current client base needs any extra help, and reach out to people who already know who you are.

Have a list of dream prospects handy

Whenever I do a new pitch sprint, I always reach out to a few prospects on my dream client list. I keep this list handy (complete with the content lead’s name, contact info, and any other pertinent details) so I can shoot off a pitch ASAP.

Put yourself out there

It can be scary to “ask” for work, but how will prospects know you’re available if you don’t let them know? I’m usually fully booked and I’m pretty vocal about that, so most companies probably think I don’t have availability to work with them. As soon as I announced I had lost a client, I suddenly saw an uptick in enquiries.

Re: the latter point. I’m not saying you should head straight over to LinkedIn, slap on an “open to work” badge, and announce you “don’t have any work so are looking to pick up some”.

Instead, be strategic about it. I’ve seen a lot of freelancers announce that they have a rare opening in their schedule. This makes it feel exclusive and can create a sense of urgency.

You can also do what I did—describe the type of work I want to do this year. This tells prospects what kind of projects I’m looking to take on, so if they see a match, there’s a good chance they’ll reach out.

Finally, trust the process.

I’m really bad at this.

You’d have thought I’d know by now that things always work out, but it’s really hard to believe that when you’re in panic mode. Remember, there are cycles in the freelancing world, especially if you work with brands with financial calendars and quarterly goals (which is most of the B2B world and a lot of B2C world).

The end of each quarter often feels a bit uncertain for me, but things always pick up as soon as a new quarter starts and new budgets have been approved.

I’m considering running a live challenge/program soon to better prepare us for the start of a new quarter. Let me know if this is something you’d be interested in!

In the meantime, make sure you check out the latest blog post on the Freelance Magic blog which is highly relevant to today’s newsletter.

This week’s submission comes all the way from Japan 🍣

Where are you based? Japan, but I work with US-based clients.

How long have you been freelancing? 8 years

What do you do? I specialize in blog content and strategy, including sales copywriting and SEO strategy. I work with both B2B and B2C clients across different industries.

What was your 2023 revenue? $32,886.62. It was my highest earning year.

What was your net profit in 2023? I have $28 sitting in the profit account. I basically use all the money I earn via freelancing.

How much did you take as a salary?

$20,805.17 for the year.

I use a Profits First system [editor note: From the namesake book by Mike Michalowicz]. I pay myself what I can afford after expenses, so my monthly salary varies. I always try to balance the needs with keeping the business running. My income took off from the summer, so I paid myself more each month after that.

How much did you pay in taxes?

$1,193.91. That’s about 4% of revenue (Japanese income tax).

What are your business expenses?

About $500 a month averaged out. I also spent $2991.35 on subcontractors on Upwork last year. But I had to redo everything myself. It was a total waste of money that I regret.

Do you contribute to a pension?

Yes, I’m paying into Japanese National Pension from my income — $110.53 monthly.

Do you have any hot money-management tips?

I’m certainly not an expert, but Profit First helps me cover profit taxes and expenses! I’m curious to see what others are doing.

As always, happy freelancing :)

Lizzie ✨

P.S. What steps can you take next?

Arm yourself with the resources, templates, and tutorials you need to find and pitch high-paying clients in 2024. Get £20 off the Pitch & Prosper program.

​Get Workflow Wizard, your handy library of freelancing templates, tutorials, and email scripts to help better your business.

Want to learn the exact process I use to write £1,000 posts for the likes of Shopify, Hotjar, CoSchedule, and Sprout Social? Access Create Better Content here.​​​

Follow me on Instagram and on Linkedin, where you can see the behind-the-scenes of my business.