Photo by JennyHuang.

This article won’t be for everyone. Not all of us care to grow a large business or automate our income. Many of us are perfectly satisfied to earn dollars per hours and that’s great!

However, I have a lot of freelancers ask me this question:

How can I scale my business? I can only take on so many clients before I lose my sanity, free time, and desire to work!

So for those who want to increase monthly income and perhaps even automate it, how is that possible for a freelancer–without simply raising prices?

Below are some ideas that I and others have used to scale and automate our freelance business.

Option 1. Productize Your Services

This isn’t nearly as difficult as it sounds and the only way to truly automate and scale your income beyond six figures.

Now don’t instantly balk at this. I understand that not all of us would want to offer products alongside our services. However I encounter many service providers who want to scale their business but don’t think it’s possible to offer products as a service provider.

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And How a Little Experiment Turned into a Multi-Million Dollar Enterprise

Sure, pushing papers for the Big Boss mortifies us. But every freelancer knows that calling our own shots isn’t pure bliss either. I don’t know about you, but on at least two occasions, I’ve nervously looked “bankruptcy” in the face and by pure luck or karma, bypassed it by mere centimeters.

In my more cautious years, I’ve learned to develop systems, test them, then expand them. Yes, this even applies to freelancing.

How? Because turning a prospect into a client is a process-based on a system. Identifying deliverables and executing campaigns for a client is a series of tasks based on a system.

Create the right system and you can almost flawlessly guarantee success and satisfaction every time.

It was in the spirit of such experimentation that I stumbled upon the singular system largely responsible for turning my struggling personal consultancy into a multi-million dollar venture that is scheduled to land and manage over 100 projects every month and has won clients like the NFL, BlogTalkRadio, and best selling authors like Christine Comaford-Lynch. Continue Reading

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With the coming recession, I get a lot of questions about whether it will be increasingly difficult for freelancers to get new clients and, more importantly, projects that pay appropriately.

Over the past eight months, the following industries have proved extremely lucrative for freelancers. I categorize them into Spheres.

The Extreme Sphere

The industries in the extreme sphere are those that are currently crashing or booming. Why would a crashing industry be a good industry to find clients in?

If you’re a freelancer, you’re less expensive and easier to handle for a struggling entrepreneur or business than an employee would be. Additionally, if you provide marketing services or can help them secure a presence online, they need you. Continue Reading

Photo by aussiegal.

Most new freelancers make one vital error: we catch ourselves acting like employees.

But even as we become more seasoned, even the best of us can fall into the ‘employee’ mindset trap that is at the foundation of virtually every major freelance mistake:

“As long as I do the specific job I was hired to do, and I do it well, everything will be fine.”

But unfortunately for us, when something goes wrong with any portion of a project we’re working on, somehow it’s always our butt on the line.

So how can you approach each client’s project in a way that protects you, protects their interests, and helps secure overall success and fuzzy feelings?

Well let’s look at common mistakes we make, and how to prevent them. Continue Reading