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From Freelancing To Fastlane

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Musashi

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Hey guys,

Without further ado, lets jump right to it:

Where am I right now? At least with one leg in the freelance-trap. I started to work as a freelancer last year besides my master studies and it didn't take long until I could earn my living with it. Which is great because I thought it would take me much longer to achieve location-independence (a big goal of mine). But now its time to take the next step...

Where do I want to be?
I am trying not to set monetary goals (remember the cat metaphor of TMF ?). What I know: While I do enjoy my freelancing work, I hate the feeling to be dependend on one stream of income. I want another one. I also want a business that has the potential to earn money without me sitting infront of my laptop. E-commerce, a website-idea and writing an E-book are buzzing in my head.

My motivation? 3 things
  • Support my mother financially once shes retired (in 3-5 years),
  • be an example for my younger brother that he can achieve everything he wants in life and
  • shut them naysayers up.

The biggest problems right now:

1) Say no to money. I never earned that much money as I am doing right now (only had student jobs before). I enjoy it and hate to refuse clients. The problem? I take on new projects day after day - and then rarely have time left for new business ideas.

2) Choose one idea/direction and execute. I have business ideas nearly every idea. I jot them all down in my little notebook - and then I do nothing.

3) I still want to invest more time in my freelancing business. My hourly wage is steadily increasing, this month will be a new record. I want to raise it until I reach 50 euros per hour.

3 Skills I want to focus on:
  • Copywriting
  • (Digital) Marketing
  • Skill X [to be found]
What I need:
Some sort of an actionable plan, take a decision of what to pursue besides my freelancing work - and then block free time for it every day.

On a side note: I will become a digital nomad soon. Hopefully it wont take long until I can name myself digital entrepreneur.
 
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ch3wy

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Congrats on your hard work! It's great to hear such awesome things happening in the freelance world! I am planning on doing a little bit of freelance as well to free up some time for myself to work on creating my course. Did it take a lot of time away from your studies and other obligations?

To be honest, I thought one of your motivations was to also beat Kakarot one day too...but no worries! Just don't slack off! I'm rooting for you!
 

Andy Black

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Andy Black

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I even created a blog at the start of the year, but kinda forgot about it.

You might find some useful articles in there:

(Don't subscribe to it... I think I switched email service providers and didn't relink it up. I wasn't sure whether I could commit to writing on that blog. Let me know if you find it useful.)
 
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Eugen

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Good luck! I'm in a somewhat similar situation.

I've been working as a freelancer/remote worker and have some Amazon affiliate websites which earned me quite a bit last year, but due to neglect they're not making much anymore.

If you don't have, I suggest hiring a VA - you can easily outreach many tasks which would take you precious time.
 

Lex DeVille

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Thanks for the links @Andy Black ! You've been giving me so much helpful tools!

And thanks for the 1st like @SinisterLex ! I bought your course on Udemy and I will definitely be applying what I learn!

Awesome, thanks for picking it up. Hope it helps you. You mentioned reaching 50 euros per hour in your first post. Might be worth it to start thinking about how to separate your time from your freelance income by changing your pricing model.

Since you're already getting clients, that seems like a reasonable next step. Then you can charge way more than 50 euros per hour and work less. Andy also can suggest ways to achieve monthly recurring revenue which can help grow that amount further, so you might check out his blog when you have time (I dunno if he talks about it there but he's got some great book suggestions on the topic).
 
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Andy Black

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Andy also can suggest ways to achieve monthly recurring revenue which can help grow that amount further, so you might check out his blog when you have time (I dunno if he talks about it there but he's got some great book suggestions on the topic).
Ooo. My first referral to my blog. Maybe I should keep updating it then.

Here's one of the books I recommend:

And here's a post about not being a freelancer anymore:
 

NVaz

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Last edited:

ch3wy

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Awesome, thanks for picking it up. Hope it helps you. You mentioned reaching 50 euros per hour in your first post. Might be worth it to start thinking about how to separate your time from your freelance income by changing your pricing model.

Since you're already getting clients, that seems like a reasonable next step. Then you can charge way more than 50 euros per hour and work less. Andy also can suggest ways to achieve monthly recurring revenue which can help grow that amount further, so you might check out his blog when you have time (I dunno if he talks about it there but he's got some great book suggestions on the topic).

Thanks for putting the knowledge out there! I'm in the process of trying to create the profile on Upwork. I hope you don't mind if I reach out to you if I have any questions! I see a keyboard at the back of your recordings, so I'd be more than happy to exchange piano help if you need it (that was what I majored in while I was in college)! But i'm sure you're already a beast at it!

I'm think the rest of that post was for @Musashi, but nonetheless, it is still great advice for when my freelance business is going to take off! And I'll be sure to get a hold of the book that you recommended @Andy Black!
 
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Musashi

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Thanks so much for the all the answers guys.

I will definitely check out all the links from @Andy Black . Thanks!

Did it take a lot of time away from your studies and other obligations?

Yes but because I chose to do so. My idea was to treat my freelancing business as my 9-5 and work on another project on the side. That didn't work out so well, I probably should reduce my freelance work.

You mentioned reaching 50 euros per hour in your first post. Might be worth it to start thinking about how to separate your time from your freelance income by changing your pricing model.

I guess you mean charging by project and not by hour? I am already doing that. [Im simply calculating my hourly wage for every finished project.]

Currently I am also looking for other freelancers to outsource some of my projects. Lets see how that goes.
 

Andy Black

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