I’m adding a new section this week. I usually cut 50%+ of the articles I read while curating. This week I’m going to include some at the bottom without any additional commentary.

Reply and tell me if you found them useful or not.

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First contact: How to survive your first call with a potential client (nusii.com)

If you don’t have a sales process setup yet, steal this one from Nathan Powell. It’s almost identical to the one I use with clients, except I don’t do proposals and I talk about cost in the first meeting.

The secret art of the follow up email (jasondoesstuff.com)

I cannot stress how important follow up emails are. I can’t think of a project I’ve won that didn’t require a follow up email or two (or five). I use a CRM to track mine but Jason has some low-effort ways to manage them.

Want to start freelancing in a month? (theadmin.org) SPONSOR

If you’re just getting started or you need to restart your freelance business, having a day-by-day guide can get started on the right path. Don’t waste your time doing the things that don’t matter.

The Winner Gets Twenty Thousand Dollars (ittybiz.com)

Naomi has a talent for writing headlines, right? In here she talks about client objections and how you can never predict which ones a client has.

The shortcut approach if you need clients now (theadmin.org)

In this article I share one way to quickly find a new client. It’s not for everyone but if you can pull it off, you’ll have 0 competition.

Jobs to be done, and jobs that are simply done (nathanpowell.me)

Nathan Powell writes on his own blog about how difficult it can be to see progress over the long-term. I’ve seen the same thing and actually started to do something similar to what Nathan started: writing down your accomplishments every week (and a nightly "what happened" journal).

Pivoting On Your Business Model (envato.com)

In this article Martha Retallick writes about what she did when her web design business started slowing down. There are some great lessons here about being flexible and adaptable to change.

How to scope out your freelance competition (freelancersunion.org)

Kate Hamill writes about researching your competition. A little bit of competitor analysis is great but don’t go too far overboard. A lot of businesses have no clue what they are doing online and marketing-wise, so it doesn’t make sense to try to match or mirror them.

Quick Links

4 Ways to Handle Buyer Reference Requests (consultingsuccess.com)

Stop stressing so much about decisions, says science (freelancersunion.org)

How Entrepreneurs Can Pay Off Debt on an Irregular Income (bidsketch.com)

Dealing with odd responses to your initial client email (curtismchale.ca)

Thanks, I’ll see you next week

Eric Davis (@edavis10)