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Documenting my journey to become a freelancer

KushShah9492

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In the past few months, I have dabbled with a lot of things. I've tried coding, graphic designing, copywriting, SEO. Stuck to something for a while, and then moved on to the next cool thing. I was on the sidewalk. And it has wasted a lot of time. I tried getting clients on upwork/fiverr but no results. Sent proposals, a lot of them, but didn't get any response. What was I doing wrong? Were the proposals not okay? Was the portfolio bad? How do I get them to at least interview me? As I was looking for answers to these questions on this forum, I came across @BlackSuperman 's thread here and it has given me the much needed fuel I needed to keep going. I enrolled in @Fox 's freelancing course a few days ago, and the content is really good so far. I'm really hoping this would lead me somewhere, and get me started on the journey to financial freedom.

So, in order to get started on this journey, as my first step, I'll update this thread as I go along, since I think doing something in public would hold me accountable and also get me some instant feedback as to where I'm going wrong and what I should be doing instead. Hopefully, I'll find some success this time around.

My goal is to get at least 2 clients by the end of October, regardless of what they pay me. I'm happy to work for free as long as it gets me started.

As far as the course is course is concerned, I'm currently on the Sales section of the course "Why questions sell?" , understanding the value of asking GOOD questions instead of just random ones in order to be able to actually help the clients in a way that's valuable to them.

Books I'm reading along with the course: SPIN selling fieldbook, TMF .

Time dedicated learning today: 45 mins

I'm aiming to get as much value as I can from the course instead of just speeding through it. I'll keep updating as I go along the course and share any major or minor updates.

Cheers!
 
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KushShah9492

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Minor update: I just got a job offer from a reputed company. While I am in dire need the financial stability, I’m confused. Accepting the offer would spiral me down to the slowlane, but also, the offer would give me financial stability, experience with design, grow my network, and enough time to work on freelancing.

It’s like getting paid to learn something new.

I may or may not take the job. Will keep this thread updated.
 

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Minor update: I just got a job offer from a reputed company. While I am in dire need the financial stability, I’m confused. Accepting the offer would spiral me down to the slowlane, but also, the offer would give me financial stability, experience with design, grow my network, and enough time to work on freelancing.

It’s like getting paid to learn something new.

I may or may not take the job. Will keep this thread updated.
When I switched from IT freelancing to Google Ads freelancing, I took a couple of permanent jobs to reskill and keep paying the mortgage. I was able to slowly grow a portfolio of Google Ads clients on the side. Then I went back 100% freelancing, but with a new skill, more experience, and a starting base of revenue.

I’m not advising for or against. Just don’t dismiss it out of hand because we want to be “jobless”.
 

KushShah9492

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When I switched from IT freelancing to Google Ads freelancing, I took a couple of permanent jobs to reskill and keep paying the mortgage. I was able to slowly grow a portfolio of Google Ads clients on the side. Then I went back 100% freelancing, but with a new skill, more experience, and a starting base of revenue.

I’m not advising for or against. Just don’t dismiss it out of hand because we want to be “jobless”.
I am looking to up my skills as well, and I think this job might help me do this, but only if it gives me enough time for freelancing as well. If not, I won’t be doing it anyway.

It never hurts to get paid for learning something new.
 
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KushShah9492

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Reading spin selling as I go along the course. I wish I found this book earlier. I learnt about the S part of the SPIN selling process, Situational questions i.e questions that are about finding the facts about buyer’s existing situation.

Too many of those results in a failed sales call, so need to ask them economically.

example: how many people do you employ at your location?
How are you getting your sales as of now?

can someone give more examples of this? Thanks in advance.

Due to a lot of personal chores and guests visiting at my place, I couldn’t carve out much time for learning. Although instead of giving it up completely, I went through just one lecture “Understanding the situation(of the business)” and read a few pages of the spin selling book.

time spent learning: 25 minutes.

Tomorrow’s going to be the same, although I do hope to give this some more time, ideally an hour or two.

will be back with another update.
 

KushShah9492

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After a lot of pondering, I've decided to give this a try. The job offered to me has a pre-requisite. I need to complete a test before they can hire me. And I have 4 days to complete the test. I figured I'd complete the test to the best of my abilities. At the very least, if I don't get selected, I'll have something to show for my portfolio.

Will update if anything comes up.
 

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A job can still help if it lines up with your end goals.

Do what is going to help the most in the long run.
 
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KushShah9492

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A job can still help if it lines up with your end goals.

Do what is going to help the most in the long run.
Yes, if I do get a job, it’ll also help me grow my current network, thus resulting in more probability of getting clients.
 

KushShah9492

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Didn’t get much done today as I was down with a headache and severe cough. Got started with ‘Problem questions’ part of fox’s course but couldn’t get through. I figured I’d have to take a break from everything and take rest. I did get started on the design test that the company gave me as well, but again.. couldn’t get through it.

One thing I did though was starting a newsletter, where I’d be sharing my journey of figuring out freelancing, how to get clients, what skills would you need, etc as you go along. With zero subscribers, I have nothing to lose
 

KushShah9492

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Here's what I have to do for the assignment:
You have to create an application for one of the best car-selling facilities in India. The users are salespeople who are not tech-savvy nor highly educated. They are also not very well-spoken in English. They come from all over India, between the age group 40-50 years old.

What they do is, when a customer walks in, the salesperson greets them, understands their requirements. They have to register the person in this mobile app - personal details, details of the car they are interested in, budget, finances, etc. Then the salesperson shows the car’s features from this application to the user - top 5 features, videos, 360-degree viewing. If the customer opts for a loan, check its eligibility. Set reminders for follow-ups.

Currently, they do all these things physically and manually - on paper.

Here's what I have come up with so far:
Car view WIP.pngFiltered selections WIP.pngRegistration Screen.png
Everything's Work in progress so far, but I am open to feedback.
 
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KushShah9492

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Thinking of cold calling two businesses today.
1. A homeopathy clinic.
2. A gym that started just a few weeks ago.

Let’s see how that goes.
 
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KushShah9492

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Step 1-Language Selection.pngStep 3- Buyer details.pngStep 4- Filtered car options.pngStep 6- Ask user if they need a loan.pngStep 6.2- No loan.pngStep 7- Personal Details.pngStep 8-Final payment stage.pngStep-5 selected car view.pngStep-2 Login Screen.pngStep 4- Filtered car options.png
Here is the final test project, completed. I'm going to submit these today, and get on with the cold calls that I was supposed to make yesterday. Still a bit under the weather, but that's no excuse to be lazy.
 

KushShah9492

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The designs were rejected by the company. They said it wasn’t upto their expectations but they will consider me in case there’s an opening in the future. Neither happy nor sad. Literally didn’t care about the job.

anyway, still haven’t made those cold calls. Was down with fever for a day, and still recovering from that. Once I recover fully, I’ll get back to work. This is the 2nd time in 15 days I got sick. I should be doing something about my immunity.

Will update soon once I recover.
 

KushShah9492

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Couldn’t find the time to go through Rob’s course even today. Although I did find some time in between breaks to catch up with ‘Cashvertising’ , and I have to say, I am intrigued by the idea of copywriting. I wish I could pursue copywriting and web design at the same time, but I probably shouldn’t.

planning on making those cold calls tomorrow as well as catch up on rob’s course once again.

Will keep this thread updated.
 
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KushShah9492

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MAJOR UPDATE:

Cold called the homeopathy clinic I was talking about. Turns out she's a friend from school, and would love to have her website designed by me. I'll be doing it for free since it's my first project. Didn't talk much on the call, but I'm meeting her in person day after tomorrow to discuss further details for the website. Her business is going well, but she'd love it if she could get more reach, which I'm going to be helping her with.

I'll be spending an awful lot of time preparing the questions for the meeting. Hope everything goes well.

Thanks @Fox for your guidance through the course, and @Andy Black for all the advice around helping people.

It's a small step, but a significant one.
 

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MAJOR UPDATE:

Cold called the homeopathy clinic I was talking about. Turns out she's a friend from school, and would love to have her website designed by me. I'll be doing it for free since it's my first project. Didn't talk much on the call, but I'm meeting her in person day after tomorrow to discuss further details for the website. Her business is going well, but she'd love it if she could get more reach, which I'm going to be helping her with.

I'll be spending an awful lot of time preparing the questions for the meeting. Hope everything goes well.

Thanks @Fox for your guidance through the course, and @Andy Black for all the advice around helping people.

It's a small step, but a significant one.
Well done.

Sorry you didn’t get that job you were going for. Well done putting in the work. It’s good experience.

Keep chipping away.
 

KushShah9492

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Well done.

Sorry you didn’t get that job you were going for. Well done putting in the work. It’s good experience.

Keep chipping away.
Thank you for your support and your gold threads Andy, would definitely be referring them as I go along this project.
 
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KushShah9492

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Apart from the website, I was thinking maybe to run a google ads campaign for this project. We haven't had proper discussion yet but I feel google ads would help her get better reach maybe? Just my thoughts.
 

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Apart from the website, I was thinking maybe to run a google ads campaign for this project. We haven't had proper discussion yet but I feel google ads would help her get better reach maybe? Just my thoughts.
Personally, I'd just go in to get to know her and her business. Have a goal to help her the best you can, including suggesting things you don't do or referring her to other people you know. Watch what happens.

I don't know if you've listened to these yet:
 

KushShah9492

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Personally, I'd just go in to get to know her and her business. Have a goal to help her the best you can, including suggesting things you don't do or referring her to other people you know. Watch what happens.

I don't know if you've listened to these yet:
Exactly, I don't know what she wants yet. I guess I'll just help her in the best way I can. IMO this is a great to learn as I go along.

Haven't listened to these yet, listening to them right away.
 
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If you can outsource the job then take it and have a VA do it.

And stop 'freelancing'. That's for broke people. You ever meet a rich freelancer?

You now run a firm. People have made millions from their firms.

Do it pro from the get-go.
 

KushShah9492

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The meeting was postponed by 2 days, which gives me more time to prepare the questions I need to ask her, and suggest a layout for her website. Here's what I came up with so far:

WEBSITE LAYOUT
Section 1: Hero Section, which would consist of her business name and what problem it solves(in a single line of course.) and a bio describing who she is and what the business does.

Section 2: Some videos and articles regarding how homeopathy might help the patients.

Section 3: Reviews, she's got like 20 5-star reviews on Google, which is a major plus point. Gotta figure out a way to fetch them directly to the website.

Section 4: Services she might offer, alongwith the prices and a CTA

Section 5: Links to her personal social media profiles, contact details, and other details such as operating hours, location etc.

A bit unsure about the last section. Need feedback from you guys in case I need to make any changes

QUESTIONS
  1. What is it that you do exactly?
  2. How are you currently handling new patients?
  3. How are you getting new patients?
  4. What kind of problems do you cure for the patients?
Yet to come up with some more questions, any suggestions are welcome. Rob has a call included in the freelance course helping a student with a similar situation, might go through that again to come up with better questions.
 

KushShah9492

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If you can outsource the job then take it and have a VA do it.

And stop 'freelancing'. That's for broke people. You ever meet a rich freelancer?

You now run a firm. People have made millions from their firms.

Do it pro from the get-go.
Not possible to outsource the Job, not fretting about it. It's okay I didn't get it.

Hmm, never thought about freelancing this way. In a way, this IS a firm, or at least it eventually will be in the future.

Going at it PRO, one step at a time :)
 
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KushShah9492

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Just an hour or so until the meeting with my friend for her website. I'm thinking of recording the conversation so that I can come back to it whenever I want, and not miss out on crucial details. Also going to be noting down some important points during the conversation.

I have some questions prepared, but mostly it's going to be a friendly conversation. Sure, I'm gonna go into problem questions and uncover the BIG NEED, I'll try to do it in a way that doesn't feel too formal. I've just finished the CORE SALES PROCESS section of Rob's course, and before moving ahead, I think I might go over this section again. So much information that I'd need to get back to.

Just hoping for a good meeting, and uncover some problems that I could potentially solve.

Will get back to this after the meeting's done.
 

KushShah9492

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Finally had the meeting. It was short, to the point, and revealed some problems that I could solve as well.
The 2 main problems she had were:
  1. Needs more patients from different parts of the country.
  2. Wants to target international clients as well.
I suggested her that once the website is done, we can run google ads as well to get her more reach. She needs more reach because it's a new clinic, and all the patients she got were through referrals. I told her I would need the before/after photos of the results she got for her patients, some articles related to her field, reviews/testimonials, etc.

I also asked if she had any other websites or doctors with similar websites in mind, and got a few names as well. I will go through those as well. I gave her a timeline as well- 20-25 days.

First I'd deliver her the design which I'd be making in figma, and if she likes it, I'd create the website using webflow or create it from scratch or use an existing template. Also told her that if she comes across any other problems that we haven't covered, just give me a call.

Using Rob's techniques, I got most of the details regarding her business and what kind of website she would like.

I hope I can do this well, I wouldn't want to disappoint my first client.

Will keep this thread updated. Also, please leave some feedback as to what more details should I be getting or what more problems could she potentially be facing. I'd be calling her again next week, but until then, just let me know if you've done a similar project. I'm gonna need a lot of help with the website.
 

KushShah9492

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So here's what I'm gonna do next for the project:
  1. I'm gonna go through similar websites for those kinda businesses in my town, as well as in other parts of the country and see what's working for them, and probably take some inspiration for my design.
  2. I will create a wireframe, and google document with the basic structure of the website. I will also add a user flow explanation and our plan in getting more sales for her.
  3. Next, using the inspirations, I'm going to create a mockup in figma which will consist of the following(taken directly from Rob's course)
    • Logo/Branding
    • Trust building content
    • Videos and photos showing the business in action
  4. After I complete the mockup, I will send her the design and wait for her approval. If she doesn't like it, I will make the necessary changes, and if she does then I will move on to the next step.
  5. After the design is finalised, I will be building the website in webflow, or HTML/CSS or use an existing template, but I can't afford to spend on a paid template since this is a free project, so I will be looking for free solutions. But in case I don't find one, I will have to use HTML/CSS. Please do let me know if you have any resources for free HTML templates.
This is it for now, once the website is up and running, she also wants to run a google ads campaign. I will update that in the thread too once I get to that part of the project. My goal is to complete the website by the end of the month, and have the website up and running by 1st November, 2021.
 
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So here's what I'm gonna do next for the project:
  1. I'm gonna go through similar websites for those kinda businesses in my town, as well as in other parts of the country and see what's working for them, and probably take some inspiration for my design.
  2. I will create a wireframe, and google document with the basic structure of the website. I will also add a user flow explanation and our plan in getting more sales for her.
  3. Next, using the inspirations, I'm going to create a mockup in figma which will consist of the following(taken directly from Rob's course)
    • Logo/Branding
    • Trust building content
    • Videos and photos showing the business in action
  4. After I complete the mockup, I will send her the design and wait for her approval. If she doesn't like it, I will make the necessary changes, and if she does then I will move on to the next step.
  5. After the design is finalised, I will be building the website in webflow, or HTML/CSS or use an existing template, but I can't afford to spend on a paid template since this is a free project, so I will be looking for free solutions. But in case I don't find one, I will have to use HTML/CSS. Please do let me know if you have any resources for free HTML templates.
This is it for now, once the website is up and running, she also wants to run a google ads campaign. I will update that in the thread too once I get to that part of the project. My goal is to complete the website by the end of the month, and have the website up and running by 1st November, 2021.
Curious if you can knock up a simpler site or even just one page, and start running ads immediately?
 

KushShah9492

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Curious if you can knock up a simpler site or even just one page, and start running ads immediately?
I can try that too, maybe build up a free website using carrd just so she could start getting queries. Do you suggest on keeping the site as it is or should I keep editing while the ads are running?
 

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