(Yeah, I know I'm slightly late for this update, but I got it out)
This week has been my first really productive week since probably Week 2. After a short break last week to re-charge my batteries and allow time for my partner to get some work in, I'm moving back into the groove.
Taking more lessons
I've started taking the course again and I'm finished the first of four modules and will start building my audience with the help of the next module. I have the initial topic figured out, and think I have a product/market fit, but until I build an audience I won't know for sure.
The real work
I have decided to separate my new company from my existing company on the public side, they will be two businesses within the same company. The topic that I have decided on is a bit different than what I have been doing in my company so I think that makes more sense.
I have also decided to work on the two audiences at the same time, so starting in the winter the newsletter subs that I document down below will be for the two different lists. I'm hoping to be able to double my impact or at least lower my initial risk by working close to full time on both topics. There is enough overlap that I don't think that this is going to be an issue.
Posting Articles
Starting in the new year I will be posting a new article to each site every week. One on Tuesday and the other on Thursday. I will be spending a lot of effort over the week promoting these posts. I will send them to the newsletter lists, post versions on Linkedin, the steem blockchain, etc with the goal to get people to sign up for the newsletter.
Incentives for the newsletter
I am documenting the various segments of my audiences as I go and by March will have a couple of interesting "things" that I'm hoping people will give me their email for.
The Gig-Work
One of my challenges this week was saying NO. I am pretty good with what I do, so I get cold called with interesting projects really often. To help combat this I have implemented my 2020 rate schedule early, and its a 15% jump from 2019.
My goal with this large jump is a couple fold:
- Start filtering clients earlier.
- Remove the current clients that may not be a great fit. The ones that cost extra time.
- To free up time to work on this project, #noloafingmoney without reducing my current cashflow to zero all at once.
Higher Rates
This is a little bit of an aside for all anyone that is currently a freelancer working in the gig-economy.
> Raise your rates!
Santa making sure that you are raising your rates before he drops down the chimney
You are very likely charging too little and therefore have to hustle with too many clients all the time. Start raising your rates this year, if you haven't done it in a while raise them by 10% at least! And do it across the board.
Don't think about it too much, just do it. Give yourself a raise, you deserve it.
The goal
The goal is to build a product or series of products that allows me to scale. The financial goal is to build a business that has a monthly revenue stream of $5k with less than 20hrs worked on average by the end of March 2020.
The Why
If this is your first time here, thanks for stopping by. I wrote my first post on this topic in November 2019. They all have a "special" tag, so you can find them all here: #noloafing. If you want to see where this all started, its with this post, Money and the Gig-Economy.
How I'm Doing
Hours worked: 10.4hrs
Revenue: $0
Expenses: $129
Newsletter Subs: 180*
Be sure to follow along and leave a comment below!
Cheers,
NL
(*) I culled my list this week from anyone that hasn't engaged within the last few months. I want to make sure that I have a high quality list, vs vanity numbers.