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How to Build a Freelance Business

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Build a freelance business

Build a freelance business that allows you to leverage your skills and remain available for those special moments of your children’s lives. Such as when you want to pick them up from school, or take them to soccer practice, or go to that school play.

In the US, the number of parents staying home with their children has risen 60 percent since 2019. As technology advances, there are different tools and software that empower professionals to work from home (whether as a freelancer or for a company).

Freelancing has several benefits. As a self-employed freelancer, you would be in charge of your hours, work flexibility, and rates. With all of the options available online, you might not know where to start.

Steps to build your freelance business:

Write down a list of your skills and interests. Consider your former work and volunteer experiences and how they can be leveraged online. For example:

  • If you’ve worked in project management, maybe you could market yourself as an online business manager.
  • If you have administrative experience, maybe you could be a virtual assistant.
  • Are you great at writing? Maybe you could write articles, grants, or eBooks for clients online.

Build onto your current skills. Start by paying attention to what is in demand now and what you are most interested in. Then, find free and paid courses to enhance your skills and increase your value as a freelancer.

Invest time or money into learning sales and marketing. One part of being a freelancer is being able to market yourself to clients. Read books, take courses, or work with a coach so you can enhance the way you market yourself.

Use your skills to work your way up. If you can, start with smaller projects to build your portfolio. Consider it on-the-job training! Reach out to friends, family, or former colleagues to see if your services can help them at a discounted rate. After the project is complete, ask them for a detailed testimonial!

Create an online presence. Whether you use a social media platform, a website, or both, you should have a place online where future clients can learn more about you. Let your online platform paint a picture of what it would be like to work with you.

Find a community of other freelancers. Get support, ask for advice, or make networking connections with others who will understand your unique challenges.

Include taxes and benefits in your rates. As an employee of a company, the company offers you benefits such as health insurance, paid time-off, and sometimes 401k matching. They also pay for a portion of your taxes. As you estimate your freelance rates, consider taxes and benefits.

Decide how you will spend your time. Freelancing gives you the flexibility of time. When will you work on your business? Will it be while your children are at school or napping? Decide in advance times you will definitely spend on your business.

Grow your portfolio of reviews or testimonials. Showcasing reviews or testimonials of your work will help build your trust and credibility with people who want to work with you. Ask former colleagues, bosses, and clients to write a descriptive review of your strengths, skills, and why they enjoyed working with you.

The transition into freelancing may sound daunting at first. But you can make the transition simple by taking everything one step at a time.

Building a freelance business can give you the flexibility and freedom to be present in your children’s lives. Before you know it, your babies will become adults and parents themselves. Making the time to be a significant part of their lives is priceless.

How to Create a Mailing List the Right Way

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How to create a mailing list and get it rigtht

Today I will show you how to create a mailing list the right way. Then I will point out two of the worst pitfalls you should NEVER do. Whether you are trying to make a profit with affiliate programs or trying to spread the word about a new product you just created – You know you need a mailing list to help you get the word out and boost sales.

Mailing lists are commonly used as a way to give customers information about a specific product or service which the customers opt-in to learn more about. So you need to create a mailing list of people who actually WANT to hear about your product. That is easier said than done, I’m afraid. It takes time and effort. But, the rewards are worth every minute of your time. I promise.

The thought of doing all that work may overwhelm you. Then you might hear yourself saying, ” I think I’ll create a mailing list the EASY way!”

Buying Mail Lists Is a Very Bad Idea

That’s when you shop around and buy a safe list. This is a list compiled by third-party marketers for the purpose of selling to people like you. Their list is supposedly made up of people that once showed an interest in your product keyword at some point. Somewhere on the internet.

The problem with buying lists is they can end up classifying your site as a spamming site. You are sending emails to people who have absolutely no clue who you are. Or how you got their email address. So the first thing they do is send your email to the Junk bin. If they are having a particularly bad day, your unsolicited email may send them over the edge. Then they report you to your ISP. Nothing good ever comes from that.

My best advice is to avoid buying lists at all costs. While it may take some time, you have a better chance of achieving success by creating your own mailing list.

Create a Mailing List Using True Value Content

How? It’s not hard to do if you offer true value. Value in your product. Value in your articles. Value in your free gifts. Value in the content of your website. If you offer true value, people will recognize that value and crave more.

Your newsletter should be packed with quality content. Give your readers information that they can use. For instance – you could write about a new product that is currently being developed. Discuss what its benefits will be over the previous version. This type of information gives customers an insight into the products you offer as well as how they work. This also increases the chance that they will end up buying from you at some point in the future.

Your article must not only be helpful to your readers, but it must also be original.

Private Label Rights (PLR) Can Cause Trouble

Never, ever, copy and paste a PLR article into your newsletter. PLR articles, are articles in which the author or owner of the article gives you Private Label Rights over the content of the article. You may change it as little or as much as you wish, and you can claim it as your own.

If you don’t re-write it, Google will instantly flag it and penalize your ranking.

I personally use PLR articles quite often. But, I use them as a way to generate ideas and structure the points I want to make. Then I re-write it completely. The finished article is on the same subject and may even resemble the original – but it is not duplicate content.

A sure-fire method of enticing readers to sign up for your newsletter is to offer them an incentive.

To Create a Mailing List – Give a Reason to Sign Up

finish line

This could be a discount, a tell-all “How To” article, free membership, or some other incentive that is geared towards your product. In today’s tough economy more and more people are looking for ways to get something for nothing. So, give it to them!

Follow that up with quality content and you are on your way to building a quality mailing list. A list made up of people that are interested in what YOU are saying, or doing. You have created a relationship with these people. They feel like they know you, and trust what you say.

At that point, you have built a quality mailing list. You should nurture it and treat it like the prize it is.

Mind Mapping and Crafting Sales Copy

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mind mapping and brain storming sales copy

Mind mapping is a valuable tool when it comes to creating effective sales copy. While most are unfamiliar with the mind map concept, chances are you have seen the approach used to great effect.

Essentially, mind mapping is the presentation of a collection of ideas. The concepts or words all relate to a central understanding.

When you apply this approach to the flow of your sales copy, mind mapping provides unique ways to identify benefits. Hopefully, this approach will attract the right consumer market.

Here are some ideas for using the mind mapping approach:

  1. Identify your central understanding. In this case, that would be your product offering. This will serve as the point of destination that all other attributes will map back to. Keeping your product as the central focus makes it harder to drift away from the task – identifying elements for your sales copy.
  • Use single word designations to identify the main functions of your products. This broadens on the central theme, but is still vague enough to allow for more investigation.
  • Take it one level deeper. Within the context of those broad themes or ideas, provide examples of how your product benefits work. For instance, if you are selling a carpet cleaner, one broad theme may be the deep foam action. Drilling a little deeper, you can also note the foam lifts dirt easily from both carpet and furniture upholstery.

Resources for Further Reading

By mind mapping, you are helping yourself visualize the flow of the text. You are creating images with words for the reader. This approach makes it easy for your readers to relate.

Mind mapping lets you brainstorm, generate, and connect ideas.

Here is a great article called 5 Different Ways Writers Can Use Mind Mapping – written by Leslie A. Joy

Her article is very well written and explains mind mapping in an easily understood manner. It was a great read!

I recently posted a free video seminar by Ann Handley called How to Level Up Your Writing and Make it Ludicrously Spectacular The video is entertaining and enlightening. I highly recommend it to you.

Try this method in your next writing project. See what new and different angles you can come up with to demonstrate the effectiveness of your product. Have you ever used this method before? Is this concept new to you? Tell me what you think in a post, I’d love to hear from you!

Starting a Business in your Twenties

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If you are in your 20s and starting a business, good for you. Congratulations on making a career choice to become an entrepreneur at such a young age. Most business people are at least 35 when they start a business, but there is no reason you can’t be successful.

Starting a business in your twenties

As a person who was born with technology at their fingertips, there are so many options for you. You can start a side hustle, or you can start a business. Maybe you’ll create the next “YouTube sensation,” start a digital marketing agency, or become a social influencer? The world really is at your fingertips today if you’re in your 20s. However, you may need to make some sacrifices.

Stop Partying (all the time)

You don’t have to give up all your fun, but the truth is, partying every weekend is not the way to create a successful business – at least not in the beginning when you’re doing a lot of the work yourself that you can later outsource.

Get a Financial Education

Educate yourself in finance, both business, and personal. There is a lot of information that you likely don’t know, or even know how to ask to get the right answers. When you don’t even know what questions to ask, it puts you in a dangerous situation. Instead, accept that there are things you don’t know yet and educate yourself about them.

Explore Ideas Before Starting a Business

Make a list of your ideas that fit in with your skillset or things you’d like to learn. Take a course, find a mentor, or get a business coach to help you get started faster. Doing the research beforehand is better than jumping right in. Give yourself a few months to explore ideas.

Write a Business Plan

Once you are set on your idea, write a business plan. Visit the local SCORE.org office to get some help with this. Check out your local library, college, or university for classes, workshops, and more regarding starting a business to get some assistance.

Once you have chosen a business and have the plan, that means you’ve investigated all aspects and are ready to start. Set your intention by putting all tasks and actions in a calendar for you and anyone on your team. Then do the steps and start the business. You will be so happy you did. By the time you’re 35, you’ll have an established business while your friends are just getting started.