Are you ready to make a solid, sustainable income as a freelancer?
I can tell with just one question…
My question for you…
“What’s your salary?”
If that question seems odd to you or you’re not sure what I mean or how to answer it, there’s a very good chance you are what I call a Level One Freelancer (more on that in a minute).
If you know the answer without even thinking about it, then you are a Level two or even Level Three.
And that’s how I know your current earning potential. Let me explain…
The Three Levels of Freelancer
I’ve identified three levels of freelancer.
Level One: The Freelance Employee.
Level Two: The Business Owner.
Level Three: The Entrepreneur.
Most freelancers get stuck at level one, the land of hourly rates and order taking.
Some will graduate to business owner. This is where you can make up to a comfortable, low, six-figure income.
The final level is a bit more rare.
The entrepreneurial freelancer. Their income is largely what they decide it to be.
Let’s take a closer look…
The Freelance Employee – Level One
This is where most of us begin.
A client wants a logo, so you design a logo.
Or they want a ‘modern’ looking site, so you deliver that.
Maybe they need an email onboarding flow, and you write one…
…And that’s all good, at least for a while, but you soon realize there’re three problems with this model.
First, you are always competing on price (because you are selling deliverables).
Second, you are never calling the creative shots (because the client comes to you with a shopping list).
Third, your client sees you as a very temporary employee.
If you want to hustle for a few extra bucks, being a freelance employee will get you there, but you’ll run out of satisfaction and patience (not to mention time) pretty quickly.
The Business Owner – Level Two
This is a huge step up.
You are no longer a freelance employee and the entire relationship between you and your client has changed.
You’ve built some core business skills and are using these to transform how you earn your living.
You’re attracting better clients, competing on reputation rather than price, and offering clients more high-value, interesting services.
This is where you are comfortably making six figures a year.
What’s more, you know the answer to the question, “What’s your salary?”
Because you understand that you are not your business and that it pays you for your work in it, and gives you handsome pay raises for your work on it.
Yet, despite all the improvements to your situation, there is one serious limitation you have carried through from being a freelance employee.
You are still selling hours.
Even if the hours you’re tracking are internal only. And entrepreneurs don’t sell hours.
The Entrepreneurial Freelancer
There are three things that separate you as an entrepreneurial freelancer from business owners and freelance employees.
The first is that you no longer even think of yourself as a freelancer.
You are a business owner and a peer to your clients.
The second is what you sell.
Business owners and freelance employees sell deliverables and charge for the hours it takes to create them (even if they hide those in project fees).
Entrepreneurs sell solutions and they sell them based on the value they bring to the client.
The third difference is about where the money comes from.
Entrepreneurs know the most dangerous number in business is One.
Never rely on one client.
Never rely on one way to get leads.
And never rely on one source of income.
Developing multiple revenue streams is a major goal.
That might be passive/residual income and/or switching from a one-to-one to a one-to-many business model.
This is what ultimately allows you to scale your revenue.
How you get there
Making the transition from freelance employee to an entrepreneurial-minded business owner is more than having a light bulb going off in your head (but there will be plenty of those).
It’s a transformation of who you are and how you think – about yourself – and about business. It takes time and diligence.
Like all journeys, there’s the hard way and the smart way.
Thankfully, the smart way is remarkably simple – yet incredibly effective. In fact, there’s a $1.75 trillion industry based on this idea (franchising).
Your quickest path to your own success is to copy people who have successfully achieved what you wish to do.
(Now, to be very clear we’re not talking about franchising here. Freelancing and franchising are very different business models, but we are looking at the enormous benefits you can almost instantly gain by looking at successful freelancers and copying them.)
We are talking about smart copying. The kind that begins with understanding.
That’s what I’m going to help you do, by putting the tools and frameworks in your hands and giving you the understanding needed to use them effectively.
I’m going to help you cross the gap between where you are now and who you will become as a savvy business owner.
There are three ways you can do that right now…
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Enroll in my free Breakthrough Clients course.
