How I Accidentally Did 12X Profits While Doing The Same Work

[GuestUserX09]

I'll keep it short but I definitely want to help out people who may be in the same situation.

I was freelancing copywriting, web design, app building, graphic design, content writing, etc on and off for years. My rates were always $5-$20, usually for an hours worth of work. Couple hours of work per day.

I got to this point in life where my parents and friends were officially declaring me a bum. I had no worthwhile job and still struggling to get a degree. It got hot in the kitchen so to speak..

My goal wasn't to profit more. My goal was to appear more professional. So family and friends might take me seriously.

So what any online entrepreneur does to appear more professional, I launched a beautiful website, paid for a animated commercial, and made a landing page. The process took a couple of days.

Here's how it accidentally happened. As always, a freelance client asked if I could do a $10 project for their massively successful business. Instead of giving them the killer deal, I switched it up. I referred him/her to my website. "My branding company would be a better fit for you on this project, visit us here at mywebsitelinkhere.com"

Me, playing entrepreneur and all, would get an email from the prior freelance client and quote an insanely high price– just to seem official and all. Surprisingly, the first quote went through. And the second, and third, etc.

**Just to add, I had over 700 positive reviews backing my freelance work. But what happened was, I rose my prices 10-20x for essentially the same work. And, it stuck! Typically I had been terrified of asking for more money. (Idk, its a self worth thing, working on it)

I quit my day job (I deeply miss the "busy" feeling), and was making twice as much on my new website, doing 1/5 the work I did at the job. My current concerns are: Will the river run dry? Should I keep raising prices? How can I not freak out during a dry spell of clients?

For inspiration: It has been two weeks at this new business venture.
2-weeks old job: $1k
2-weeks new business: $2k

TL;DR - I've tried dozens of money making online for several years. Everything has failed up till now and I've felt like a total idiot for even trying. I felt like a cult member by guzzling business and self help books that everyone else laughed at. And one day, it seems to finally have clicked. Chances are, you've accrued some hefty accolades over the years of "failure". If you're worth a certain value, charge for that value. I'm currently using 10% of my energy on business and 90% of my energy to refrain from becoming a slowlane consumer (Very tempted to buy shiny things so family and friends will take me srsly)

 

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[OVOvince]

A marketing professor told me once that effective pricing is the fastest way to increase profits because operational changes don't have the same impact.

He also said usually for most businesses is, the optimal pricing is found by increasing it rather than decreasing is like everyone else. Try it man, go after big fish and charge more.

I'll send you some pricing primers and slides if you want later when I get home. Although I'll tell you that it's very technical, I personally don't understand it all completely. There is research involved in the methodology, but who knows you may find it interesting.

 

[GuestUserX09]

@OVOvince It is funny that pricing is one of the last things I've ever considered. You are very right, I'm spending essentially the same amount of time in operational cost.

The professor is so right, I had always tried to be the cheapest proposal out of any bunch.

I'll definitely check those out if you can PM them? I'm going to look heavily into how to plan out my pricing structures going forwards.

 

[CLE]

Awesome. Always glad to hear things like this. Don't ever let your friends and family drag you down either. They are likely to be the first to try.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Thank you for sharing your story as it proves just how important a presentation can be. The biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make is thinking that price is the only factor involved in consumer buying decisions. There are dozens of factors as you just demonstrated, in your case, it was worth 12X more to figure just one of them out.

 

[GuestUserX09]

@MJ DeMarco So awesome to see your reply. Your book is one of the first few of hundreds I had read in the past years, I'd have to credit a percentage of my current achievements to you! I remember being so excited, it was like a new world for me in that book. You are totally right, I took the training wheels off, long overdue.

@CLE I dont even know how to feel about it yet, it's very surprising but seemingly obvious. And yes, unfortunately, my parents alone have been the biggest deterrent to all of my fastlane dreams.

 

[Ninjakid]

My man, you sound like like you got yourself some CERTIFIED BOSS SYNDROME!

Wtf are you doing in negative rep? I'm gonna change that for you in second.

Thanks for this story, it's a real inspiration and anyone new or old to this path can benefit miles (or in my case kilometres) with this advice.

 

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[GuestUserX09]

@Ninjakid It has opened my eyes to so many aspects of my entire years of hustle that could have been optimized or have other big light switch solutions.

About the negative rep!! - I took my website link out of my bio, then put it back, then took it out, then changed a grammatical error in my description.. then boom -$60. I have no idea if that is how it works but it said -$20 for incomplete profile on each change I made.

 

[Andy Black]

I'll keep it short but I definitely want to help out people who may be in the same situation.

I was freelancing copywriting, web design, app building, graphic design, content writing, etc on and off for years. My rates were always $5-$20, usually for an hours worth of work. Couple hours of work per day.

I got to this point in life where my parents and friends were officially declaring me a bum. I had no worthwhile job and still struggling to get a degree. It got hot in the kitchen so to speak..

My goal wasn't to profit more. My goal was to appear more professional. So family and friends might take me seriously.

So what any online entrepreneur does to appear more professional, I launched a beautiful website, paid for a animated commercial, and made a landing page. The process took a couple of days.

Here's how it accidentally happened. As always, a freelance client asked if I could do a $10 project for their massively successful business. Instead of giving them the killer deal, I switched it up. I referred him/her to my website. "My branding company would be a better fit for you on this project, visit us here at mywebsitelinkhere.com"

Me, playing entrepreneur and all, would get an email from the prior freelance client and quote an insanely high price– just to seem official and all. Surprisingly, the first quote went through. And the second, and third, etc.

**Just to add, I had over 700 positive reviews backing my freelance work. But what happened was, I rose my prices 10-20x for essentially the same work. And, it stuck! Typically I had been terrified of asking for more money. (Idk, its a self worth thing, working on it)

I quit my day job (I deeply miss the "busy" feeling), and was making twice as much on my new website, doing 1/5 the work I did at the job. My current concerns are: Will the river run dry? Should I keep raising prices? How can I not freak out during a dry spell of clients?

For inspiration: It has been two weeks at this new business venture.
2-weeks old job: $1k
2-weeks new business: $2k

TL;DR - I've tried dozens of money making online for several years. Everything has failed up till now and I've felt like a total idiot for even trying. I felt like a cult member by guzzling business and self help books that everyone else laughed at. And one day, it seems to finally have clicked. Chances are, you've accrued some hefty accolades over the years of "failure". If you're worth a certain value, charge for that value. I'm currently using 10% of my energy on business and 90% of my energy to refrain from becoming a slowlane consumer (Very tempted to buy shiny things so family and friends will take me srsly)

Great story and lesson.

Thanks for sharing @Square1Hype

 

[The-J]

Awesome post. I think it deserves Notable status, maybe even higher for this:

If you're worth a certain value, charge for that value.

In general, consultants tend to think of the 10X rule. Your work is worth 10% of the value the companies stand to get.

If you think that you will work 40 hours on a project, and that project will net them $40,000 over the course of its lifetime, charge $100/hr. Don't worry, you're worth it, and without you they're delaying that $40,000.

My girlfriend, who is currently working in sales while she applies for jobs in her field, feels like she's 'bullying' customers into buying something if she's getting an upside. This isn't the case: there is mutual benefit in selling! That includes whether you're selling clothing for a retailer, selling clothing for your own business, or selling your own services.

If there is value, let it show.

 

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[GuestUserX09]

In general, consultants tend to think of the 10X rule. Your work is worth 10% of the value the companies stand to get.

Thank you so much. But seriously, after I wrote this post, I wrote on my to-do list to brainstorm ways to 10X the business further or in other areas, after seeing it live in person.

And, yes about the sales job! That was the job I was in, pushing high prices on people inside of trade shows. Yes, it helped so much with my confidence on asking for high prices and closing deals. My old mentality was, to have the lowest price and "will somebody.. maybe.. um take my.. proposal?" I recommend everyone take a few sales courses or try a sales job at least once!

 

[Leo Hendrix]

@Square1Hype could you share more about your animated commercial please.

Did you do it yourself? Pay freelancers for it?

I'm waiting for my prototype to be completed, improve my landing page, work out my revenue model and pricing and a lot of other work but I never thought about an animated commercial until you mentioned it.

Cheers, I appreciate you sharing your journey.

 

[GuestUserX09]

@Square1Hype could you share more about your animated commercial please.

Did you do it yourself? Pay freelancers for it?

Hey Leo, I broke it into three parts and paid for each.

#1 - I wrote a script, about 250 words of pure copy, and had a voice over made.
#2 - I found a whiteboard drawing animator and gave him a visual script (Kind of like a short movie script)
#3 - I had someone combine the two, add music, sync it all up.

I can share the link to it if you PM me. Altogether it only cost $30 and it looks great. I never really liked the idea of "talking head" explainer videos, at least for this kind of business. I'll probably have a new one made very soon

 

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[GuestUserX09]

Just wanted to bump this and add an update.

This business was sold in April. Along with larger clients came larger expectations. It was just me and a team of unreliable contractors trying to hold the glue together. A friend of mine made a very low ball cash offer that I took, in which I could only get 20% upfront.

Prior to the sale, it was a very rough week. My contractors were dropping the ball left and right, I had no new clients for the longest stretch yet and had to refund a partial project. The offer came at a time of struggle and I took it, I most definitely got the very short end of the stick in that deal. Just for an idea.. I sold the business for about the amount it had earned the previous month. One month. Pretty much was frustrated and gave it away.

Looking back, I rather have invested in a partner or even more quality contractors. It was an impulse sale but I'm happy to have made it that far. I do see now that not everyone can solopreneur it out till the finish line. It definitely spruced up my resume and brought me some greatly valuable lessons and connections.

To avoid the overwhelm in my newest venture. I reconnected with an old friend over the last couple of weeks and officially partnered with him today.

I think some do stumble upon success but they need to be ready to handle it. Notice, the title of this thread said "by accident", meaning I wasn't expecting it, I wasn't ready. Next time, I'll be prepared.