Make Your Own Lane: Choose Who You Want To Work With

It is your choice if you want to handpick the kind of clients you want to work with, knowing that the project will add value to your experience, learning and earnings or be at the mercy of clients who would choose to work with you.

Take Control

What may apparently seem like a great project may actually turn miserable, time consuming that lead to huge waste of bandwidth and unnecessary stress in the following cases: 

If the project owner (The client) is in control of everything

Looking to pay cheap or pick your brain for free. 

Asking for samples to gauge your competence while you have dozens of client testimonials that speak volumes about your good work

Ask yourself

How can a pitch deck or presentation or business plan sample of Real Estate industry tell the prospect how good you can do something similar for a company that deals with dairy products in a different geography altogether?

Turn the table

Clients who genuinely want good work on professional terms are open to suggestions and will never compromise on quality of work.

I have worked with clients who did not have the budget or who could not afford to pay my charges end to end, so they got a small part done by me to suit their budget and also build the required relationship quotient for future needs.

Top Four Tips – Client / Project Evaluation Prior To Engagement

I Timelines

If someone is asking for a business plan within 24 hours, isn’t that a huge hint about the client’s sensibility and sensitivity quotient?

a)   He is not even bothered about how you will deliver it.

b)   He is expecting you, though unspoken, to abandon all work you are currently doing for other clients and prioritize his assignment

c)   Even worse, if he is willing to pay more for this turn around – He actually believes there are people who will commit the impossible for a few dollars. He probably does this based on this past interaction with other freelancers who were willing.

II Take Charge

Do not give the power in someone else’s hands – You not only refuse such assignments upfront, you rationalize your decision of doing so by educating the client about the probable consequences of a quick TAT: 

a)   The project will be under researched.

b)   It affects buyer’s credibility to deliver such below standard work to an intelligent target audience.

c)   The client needs to use his best people skills to negotiate timelines with his audience instead of trying to negotiate turn around time with you.

Client is likely to value your work and perspectives, if what you say actually activates his thinking cell about how his decision to insist on incredible TAT can affect his end business outcomes.

III Try Paid Sample

It will be misleading to proceed with this assumption that all buyers on freelancing portals are low paying clients. There are many who are just being cautious due to past experiences or lack of domain knowledge or judgment to assess the right freelancer for their work. As a precautionary measure, they can give you small assignment before they let you do the big project

Do not be in that race to test who charges the lowest fees.

Do propose to do a quick paid assignment to be on the same page regarding quality work, timelines, competence.

Ask yourself again

Why do they need samples of other business, if you are willing to give them a paid sample for their own business?

IV Bid or Pitch

Bids are for newbies – who are new to online income, new to freelancing portals and new to the whole concept of trading skills.

Once you have a rough idea of what niche skills you have, where it fits in best, who is willing to pay for that, you know where to pitch instead of being limited to freelancing portals. Pitch is the fastest way to build an enterprise of your own,

Freelance marketplaces is your practice pad, a starting point and that is it. It is not your end all future. It is just one of the avenues/ revenue streams/ income options.

Try twitter platform to pitch your skills and drop a comment about  your experience for peer support

***Click here to open your Payza account to receive your online income***

Make Your Own Lane: Why You Should Never Pick Such Projects?

When I write these blogs, I try and make sure, I do not sound preachy or super instructive because all I am trying to be is proactive – protect you from same grave mistakes, save your time / energy and keep your motivation to pursue this intact. I also kind of keep my tone neutral when I comment on certain project briefs, that I get to see on various freelancing portals.

We share these on a case to case basis as we have a growing virtual team of BECKON Aspirants in different modes. They are most likely to find this helpful and proactively work out a way to manage such queries from prospective clients.

In the BECKON Learning Community,  the beginners can be in any of the following modes:

1.   Reading mode – These members self-learn by reading different sources including a beginner’s guide for online working.

2.   Learning mode – These team members are working on their skills with one on one support from BECKON Coach to refine their offerings and deal with clients with more confidence

3.   Delivering mode – These are associated with local or global assignments however the project lead who is training them on this live job is front ending the client. This is entirely a collaborative effort.

Each of these members, in different modes cannot initially gauge what they are getting into when they respond to project like the one indicated below:

Project Brief

I'm looking for someone to finish this proposal

Here is what you need to consider before you respond:

1.   Reading Time

If you want to figure out what is wrong with client's current proposal, you have to read it end to end for a quick gap analysis. A proposal can be anywhere between 8 to 10 pages. Do you want to offer this at no cost – Your first impressions of the draft – Good, Bad or Unacceptable!

2.   Research Time

The amount of research time required to deliver as per client's expectations

3.   Rationale Time

You will never be able to figure the exact rationale first draft writer had when the content story board was created.

  

For all you know, the first draft writer delivered was as per instructions he received from client. You cannot expect the client to ever admit his own mistake to you – if at all there has been a communication gap from his end. 

If he does admit, you can treat this as a fresh assignment and get started. You can completely ignore the earlier outline to begin with a fresh perspective that is relevant now. The client should be able to call out now – what exactly he wants or trust your expertise

Based on your conclusions, you may want to probe client for further inputs before even considering the project.

1] If the client is not happy with the existing draft and needs a better version, can he articulate what changes he needs? What he finds missing in the first draft? If he is not crystal clear about his needs and edits he wants, you can be sure he is relying on you to do something with the document.

2] The client may have his own learning requirement. While discussing the order, you can assess if he knows his mind or is in two minds about the draft. If he is not clear, you educate him based on your expertise. Whether you want to do this business coaching for free as part of relationship building or as a paid order so that he gets a sample of your thinking horizon – it is absolutely your call.

The point here is – you have to know why the first draft did not satisfy the client.

Stay away from freeloaders

Some portals empower buyers to claim refund if they are not satisfied with delivered content. If the client is not able to clarify what the draft proposal lacks, he is probably just running the same document through another pair of expert eyes - for free.

I am not sure how neutral was that? I am sure you got the message by now –

1] Stay miles away from any kind of messy document created by someone else.

2] If you really have  to clean any mess, it better be your own because, that will at least be part of your learning experience - a revised version of your own work, is any day a subtle skill enhancement.

Connect with us here if you are unsure about any assignment - if you should proceed and execute or just drop it due to lack of adequate direction for the right output

Make Your Own Lane: Live Feedback On Pitching and Quoting For End To End Work

Here is an excerpt from one of my mails to a beginner pitching for end-to-end work for an Australian client

Scope of Work:

Market research

Social Media Strategy

Promotion 

Website design

Website content development

Product Package design

How much to quote:

Hourly to fixed rates?

Find hourly based on current salary:

That is your prevailing market rate based on past experience

To pad, quote three times that rate

Factors to consider if you have to drop that rate

Client background

Your first time in this domain

Possibility of repeat business

Is it a new feather in your cap – adding to your portfolio?

Is it increasing your world dominion – A client from a new geography?

Is it good for your capability case study?

Does this project require your intervention in different functions?

Client in scope:

The client has outsourced quite a few jobs 

Client has received good feedback from freelancers.

There is a potential for big projects with this client.

Time required:

Market research:                                $250 (10 Hours)

Social Media Strategy:                        $250 (5 Hours)

Promotion                                          $250 (Ongoing)

How should you propose if you include a freebie?

 Market research:                                $300 (10 Hours)

Social Media Strategy:                         $300 (5 Hours)

Promotion                                           $300 (Ongoing)

WIX at no cost                                    (4 Critical Pages)

(The amount indicated here is for illustration purpose only)

WIX Advantages:

 Practically site readiness is free for client

Ready WIX design

72 hours delivery

User friendly – Easy maintenance for client

Loads of features

Content readiness based on your research

First time market feedback before final website construction

Reasonable monthly charges instead of hosting charges

Saving the trouble to handle multiple freelancers

Remember, you are not just a resource, you are the coach

Source Freelancers (Extra Mile)

Product package design

Look up for professionals proficient with graphic designing.

Upgrade skills to pitch for end to end projects:

Going forward, objective should be to bid for end-to-end projects, starting from market study to competitive intelligence, marketing strategy and launch, web design and social media campaigns to support specific target market (Startups/ first time entrepreneurs)

Building credibility: 

Based on projects completed, you need to come up with small case studies and include those in website.

The website link will be a sum of all your assignments that will contribute to your branding

LinkedIn profile is a sum of all your roles – present and past that partially brands the firms you are associated with.

You share the website link with your clients if you do not want them to know about your primary occupation.

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com if you have challenges regarding your side hustle, client pitch, justifying quotes and designing your proposal. We have a few quick tips handy that has worked for a few BECKON Learning Community members.

Live: It Is Your Skill, Your Clients, Your Business And Your Choice

Here are a few of my email responses to job consultants, recruiters and hiring managers in the past few months

Dear ABC,

 I have met XYZ yesterday. My constraints are with time and therefore have to pass this opportunity for the more deserving. Thank you for letting me have this learning experience. In my personal capacity, I will definitely refer my contacts to avail your services, whenever the need arises. I am already following your firm on twitter for industry updates 

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Yes please

 I will be interested in the opportunity however on contractual basis or assignment basis (Not full time) I have relocated to Kolkata a couple of months back therefore we will have to collaborate on SKYPE. If this arrangement is okay, I will be glad to take this forward. Regards 

         ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am based in Bangalore and cannot relocate to Chennai. I can remotely support training/ learning function on demand/ contract basis like I support other start companies with plans, content, website, coaching modules etc, if (Company Name) is open to the concept.  

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Thank you for contacting.

 (Company Name) HR has directly sent me a mail for this opportunity. As I support startup companies with business plans, website content, marketing campaign, leadership coaching, training modules, on demand basis, I have reverted back to (Company Name), if they are open to similar idea of me supporting transition function without being a full time employee - Transition role is need based subject to deal wins. If sales do not win new clients, transition team does not have much to do which is a huge bandwidth waste. If you can pitch this idea to them, do reach out to me if there is a possibility. As far as I know (Company Name) is a 60 member transition team - I just do not want to be another new hire there please. I can sign NDA/ Contract/ confidentiality clauses to ensure there is no conflict of interest. Just that after 11 years in BPO, over 6 years in Bid Management and Transitioning several projects across Banking, Telecom etc, I need better exposure. Thanks again.

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That is how polite I am while responding to job inquiries today. First thing you will notice is I have stated my priority upfront - My time.

You will also notice, I am not flatly refusing the opportunity - I am leaving the note with a subtle pitch they may want to consider to avail my services. 

Seriously, what I did in my corporate years, AltLearn Ventures is just an extension of that capability backed by a virtual team to serve more than one company. So each of these companies can be our potential clients. Inward marketing is just as good as outward marketing.

Though I know it will take a while, may be close to another decade when even the large corporations will begin to think on those lines and feel the need to switch to part time consultants and contractual assignments for their daily activities. This is not outsourcing processes, job or office activities. This is need based in-sourcing.

M&M

You have a perfect plan for the day. To optimize your productivity you decided to do all the “thinking” piece of work when your mind is fresh – before lunch.

Traffic was not easy somehow you got over it when you got yourself a steaming cup of coffee. Just when you were about to begin work, you were called for a meeting.

The problem here is your reporting manager also has similar plans to do all the important meetings - before lunch.

So the “thinking” piece of work moves to late evening and by the time, your first and final cut is ready, the whole thing spills over to late nights.

That was my first aha point.

I write long mails in the portal itself and that is all I do to understand my client's work and deliver my assignment. I do not share email ID, SKYPE ID, phone number - nothing.

Denial Mode

Many people I know stay in denial about the reality of their job situation. They are okay with 

Extended work hours

Working weekends

Doing the mundane

Lack of recognition

It is not the company's increment and incentive structure that is holding them back or the fact that the job market is not quite encouraging. They are yet to identify their top sell-able skills to find clients based on their individual capability without a company's name to back their credentials or achievement.

After years in Corporate, the first client acquisition based on your lead, pitch, proposal, credentials does a lot of good to your confidence - the path and vision gets clearer. With every new client, your working style becomes better and a proven model.

That is the second aha moment

Now, as I hand hold others seeking alternative careers, additional income through a startup or part time venture, either through my booklet or coaching session, I facilitate their journey to reach exactly those two aha moments first.

1] Freedom from M&M - The age old saga of meetings and managers. 

2] Winning a client purely based on your skills - Without any recommendation

Soon, I and many like me, should be able write this,to every recruiter who has time based role offer,

We are not really good match

Can we talk skill based role please?

I find myself more resourceful as an external coach, unaffected by internal sycophancy, politics, people pleasing attitude, bureaucracy and waste of time or bandwidth that runs in many organizations as part of their culture, too deep to ignore and tolerate.

I also know a decent percentage of population is already out of corporate to work on their business ideas, establish online income independently, work their own hours, do their own thing and passionate about their work.

Are you keen to launch your coaching business or trade your skills and expertise to many clients?

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com for a checklist to get started