bootstrapper
Contributor
Hello everyone,
I loved reading MJ's two books and this forum, so I wanted to share my experience. I'm looking for feedback on how to do this better and hopefully I can inspire people.
First of all, I was inspired by @Lex's thread on how to start on Upwork if you have no cash and no experience (https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/lex-devilles-2019-step-by-step-upwork-tutorial-for-brokeass-bootstrap-beginners-who-need-cash-now.87418/).
I wanted to start earning extra on the side for two reasons: one is that my wife is on maternity leave, and I promised that I would replace her salary; the second is that I wanted to save up to buy a web business.
The thread talks about doing copwriting and web design. I don't have any of those skills nor did I want to spend the time to learn them well, so I got startedby doing what I know how to do...financial models and business plans. With that, I got started on Upwork. I had been approved a long time ago and got started.
With that, i started in the third week of January and here are the results so far:
1. I already had a profile, but it was stale after not being used in a long time. With Lex's help, I was able to dust it off and rework the language to make my profile much more appealing and you-focused. That's key, as before, I wasn't articulating the value proposition.
2. I already have a decade of expertise doing financial models, business plans, etc. so I tried to leverage that skill, specifically targeting people who need high quality materials for banks, investors or other third parties.Customer who need this will understand that good materials mean the difference between success or not, so they are not trying to nickel and dime.
3. I started applying for jobs with "You" focused proposals. Frankly, i think that this is where I had fallen down before.Earlier, I had tried to IMPRESS potential employers with credentials or my previous portfolio...whereas now I just drill down to what they want, what I can do for them, and then a couple of intelligent questions that assume the sale. As an example, I always ask "Who's the audience?", as VCs want different things than a bank. Or I ask what they want to get out of the process.
4.Sometimes in the proposal I chip in a little bit of my experience where it's relevant, but more like "in my experience, you should do it this way..." and it's usually well received.
5. The thing about this kind of work is that people don't know what they don't know. Once you open up for them the world of good financials/reporting and good planning as a way to run the business, keep lenders/investors happy, then they are open to a bigger engagement. Sometimes they ask for helping getting in front of investors. Either way, there is a much higher potential wallet than what's indiciated on Upwork.
6. Results so far in January and through the 15th of Feburary:
- Paid $18 x 2 for a membership with a healthy budget for connects
- Sent out 14 proposals.
- Got interviews from 4 of those.
- Got invited to interview for 2 roles. This never happened before on Upwork.
- Was hired for a $200 job, but had to turn it down due to conflict of interest (I have an ownership stake in their main competitor!)
- Was hired for and have collected $900 from one job.
- Was hired and am working now on a $2000 job. Received a $500 milestone already.
- Was offered a $1500 job but it hasn't started, so I will believe it when I see it.
- Have 3 outstanding discussions/interviews at the moment. [these are when we are trying to set up a phone call essentially]
Total: $1400 collected, another $1500 in the pipeline, and plenty more proposals going out there.
7. Needless to say, an extra $2000-$3000 in the space of six weeks is good...and knowing that I can do this nights and weekends and make that much every month is life-changing. If I keep this pace then I will tell the wife that she doesn't need to go back to work unless she wants to.
8. Wanted to think about how to FastLane this more. In the future, I will take this in two directions.
- The first is to offer business plans,financial models, pitch decks as now, but to position it more as "strategic advisory" so that the price point is higher and the engagement stickier.
- The second is ideally to hire employees/freelancers to help me. First off would be a designer to help with the design element of pitch decks. The second is maybe an employee to update spreadsheet templates that I design, and then I just review their work. With that, I think I could take on a bunch of lower-value jobs (e.g. the $300 financial model) work and just collect the margin of $100 per job.
Any way, thank you everyone! You can do it!
I loved reading MJ's two books and this forum, so I wanted to share my experience. I'm looking for feedback on how to do this better and hopefully I can inspire people.
First of all, I was inspired by @Lex's thread on how to start on Upwork if you have no cash and no experience (https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/lex-devilles-2019-step-by-step-upwork-tutorial-for-brokeass-bootstrap-beginners-who-need-cash-now.87418/).
I wanted to start earning extra on the side for two reasons: one is that my wife is on maternity leave, and I promised that I would replace her salary; the second is that I wanted to save up to buy a web business.
The thread talks about doing copwriting and web design. I don't have any of those skills nor did I want to spend the time to learn them well, so I got startedby doing what I know how to do...financial models and business plans. With that, I got started on Upwork. I had been approved a long time ago and got started.
With that, i started in the third week of January and here are the results so far:
1. I already had a profile, but it was stale after not being used in a long time. With Lex's help, I was able to dust it off and rework the language to make my profile much more appealing and you-focused. That's key, as before, I wasn't articulating the value proposition.
2. I already have a decade of expertise doing financial models, business plans, etc. so I tried to leverage that skill, specifically targeting people who need high quality materials for banks, investors or other third parties.Customer who need this will understand that good materials mean the difference between success or not, so they are not trying to nickel and dime.
3. I started applying for jobs with "You" focused proposals. Frankly, i think that this is where I had fallen down before.Earlier, I had tried to IMPRESS potential employers with credentials or my previous portfolio...whereas now I just drill down to what they want, what I can do for them, and then a couple of intelligent questions that assume the sale. As an example, I always ask "Who's the audience?", as VCs want different things than a bank. Or I ask what they want to get out of the process.
4.Sometimes in the proposal I chip in a little bit of my experience where it's relevant, but more like "in my experience, you should do it this way..." and it's usually well received.
5. The thing about this kind of work is that people don't know what they don't know. Once you open up for them the world of good financials/reporting and good planning as a way to run the business, keep lenders/investors happy, then they are open to a bigger engagement. Sometimes they ask for helping getting in front of investors. Either way, there is a much higher potential wallet than what's indiciated on Upwork.
6. Results so far in January and through the 15th of Feburary:
- Paid $18 x 2 for a membership with a healthy budget for connects
- Sent out 14 proposals.
- Got interviews from 4 of those.
- Got invited to interview for 2 roles. This never happened before on Upwork.
- Was hired for a $200 job, but had to turn it down due to conflict of interest (I have an ownership stake in their main competitor!)
- Was hired for and have collected $900 from one job.
- Was hired and am working now on a $2000 job. Received a $500 milestone already.
- Was offered a $1500 job but it hasn't started, so I will believe it when I see it.
- Have 3 outstanding discussions/interviews at the moment. [these are when we are trying to set up a phone call essentially]
Total: $1400 collected, another $1500 in the pipeline, and plenty more proposals going out there.
7. Needless to say, an extra $2000-$3000 in the space of six weeks is good...and knowing that I can do this nights and weekends and make that much every month is life-changing. If I keep this pace then I will tell the wife that she doesn't need to go back to work unless she wants to.
8. Wanted to think about how to FastLane this more. In the future, I will take this in two directions.
- The first is to offer business plans,financial models, pitch decks as now, but to position it more as "strategic advisory" so that the price point is higher and the engagement stickier.
- The second is ideally to hire employees/freelancers to help me. First off would be a designer to help with the design element of pitch decks. The second is maybe an employee to update spreadsheet templates that I design, and then I just review their work. With that, I think I could take on a bunch of lower-value jobs (e.g. the $300 financial model) work and just collect the margin of $100 per job.
Any way, thank you everyone! You can do it!
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