Turning Your Business Book Reading into Action Plans
In my previous article, I offered tips on how to read business books — and profit from them. At the end of that article, I mentioned the 12-part action plan that I’d just created. It follows the 12 chapters from Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage, and Ed Gandia’s new book, The Wealthy Freelancer. (Not read it? Read our book review.)
Since my plan’s rather lengthy, I’ll summarize it here. Each of the book’s chapters offer a Wealthy Freelancer secret, and here are the three that really got my attention:
Secret #3: Create a buzz piece and promote it.
Since Kristen Fischer just covered this topic, let’s just say that a buzz piece is a short (10 pages max!) document that would be useful to your clients and potential clients. In my case, I’ve been a web gal since 1995. Many of the people who come to me have this “deer caught in the headlights” look when it comes to the act of designing or redesigning their site.
Oh, they want it done, all right. But websites don’t just happen. They’re the result of a collaborative process. So, to help these people out, I created the Web Design Client Workbook, which I posted on my website and in my LinkedIn profile. And I sent a news release and promote it via my e-mail signatures.
Has it resulted in lucrative clients yet? Nope. I just put it on my site in late May – and then I started promoting it heavily. So, give it time.
Secret #7: Price your services for success.
A good bit of this chapter talked about project pricing, which I already do, so no big revelation there. The part that really bopped me over the head was the notion of having a fee schedule. I’m one of those “Every job is so-o-o unique and different!” designers, so it took a while to warm up to this idea. But I began to realize that my projects do fall into categories, and I developed a fee schedule based on those categories.
Shortly after I was finished, I e-mailed my schedule to a lead I had contacted, and guess what? She didn’t faint at the sight of my fees! And she still talks to me! Wonder of wonders, we might even do some business! One of the cool things about fee schedules is that they’re a great way to boost your rates. And, if you think your new, higher prices might be a turnoff to some of your clients, that’s a risk that you’ll have to take. You may well have outgrown them. But, on the other hand, you may find that they’re perfectly willing to pay you what you’re worth.
Secret #9: Boost your productivity without breaking a sweat.
For me, the best bit of advice was this: “Get your @#$%& to work!” (Will everyone else who’s guilty of being a procrastinator please raise their hand too?) The Wealthy Freelancing authors followed this admonition with something that’s helped my focus tremendously: Create a daily schedule. For Super-Short Attention Span Martha, this has worked wonders. I’ve made the first hour of work my prospecting hour, and that has absolutely put an end to the question of when I will make time to call and e-mail leads. That now happens between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., and, no matter how many client projects I have going, that first hour of the day belongs to me. If business is slow, that prospecting hour might turn into two or three hours, if not more.
As for the client projects, I’m now making appointments with them. There’s Client A’s project from 9:30 to 10:30, Client B’s project from 10:30 to 12:30, and so goes the workday. The authors recommend Google Calendar, and I heartily concur. Nothing like a well-designed tool that’s free.
I’d like to conclude with one small bit of advice from the Wealthy Freelancer guys, and it’s helpful for anyone who writes proposals. Have you ever done one of those things, then sent it to your prospect and heard nothing? And when you finally get up the nerve to call, you find that the prospect is now working with someone else? (The nerve of that prospect!)
The solution is to follow up the same day you send the proposal. I guarantee that it will eliminate post-proposal sulking sessions from your life. And, if there’s a proposal that you have been sulking about, be brave. Pick up the phone, send an e-mail, do whatever you have to do to get in touch with your prospect. I did this yesterday, and guess what? I got the job!
In regards to Secret #9, I think you hit the nail on the head. Freelancers can identify the areas where they tend to slack off a little more than usual (for me it’s replying to feedback on revisions) and then dedicate the first hour or so to doing that thing each day.
This is solid advice, and really helpful. Thanks for sharing Martha.
Great article. I made an action plan out of the book Rework by Jason Fried and it led me down a new path with my Web App Review site AppEveryDay. The author hits the nail on the head with the necessity to have some takeaways from a business book.
Wonderful article, I really like your feedback on secret #3, I’m new to freelancing but it’s a problem I found early on. I actually developed a system to discover the look of the site and then the technical side of things. I separated the two because clients felt they needed information on the entire site and it was so much easier to think about the look and feel first while they put together the content, and answer questions about their company and web services.
Q&A (to learn about the need), Discovery (for design), Homepage (strictly elements found in the homepage), Web Form (everything else)
Will try to do secret #3 and #9. Having #9 will make sure that I do a baby step for each project and not to choose one project over another.
Active reading is a great way to brain storm ideas.
very good suggestions here – #9 is some really good advice that every freelancer should take into consideration – great post!
Martha – This is a great post! Thanks for sharing how you’re implementing some of the ideas from the book! Sounds like your plan is starting to yield results. Best part: You’ve done what 95% of people never do — you’ve taken action. So congrats on creating a smart plan, taking action on that plan, and keeping up the momentum. May you have your best year ever!
Another great post as always, Martha! Thanks so much. I picked up The Wealthy Freelancer earlier this year and have implemented many of the great tips. Still working on my buzz piece, but am really enjoying the projects and the people I’m working with this year. It really pays to be selective if you can.
I actually read books for the purpose of applying what I read. However, since I’ve made it my goal to read at least one book a month, I rarely establish an action plan based off of the book.
This post definitely offered great insight. I may just have to go back and develop action plans from some of the past books I’ve read before I pick up a new one.