What Corporate NEVER Taught You About Freelancing That Will Help You Build A High Income Freelance Business [ Freelancing to Financial Freedom ]
Are you great at what you do but still struggling to get clients, charge what you're worth, or turn your expertise into a profitable freelance business?
Being excellent at your corporate job doesn’t automatically prepare you to run a freelance business. When you go out on your own, you’re no longer just doing the work. You’re responsible for finding the work, selling your expertise, building credibility, pricing your services, managing client relationships, and protecting your profitability.
If you’re talented but finding freelancing harder than expected, this episode will help you understand what might be holding you back.
By the end of this episode, you will:
Learn why being highly skilled doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to consistently attract clients, and what you need to learn to build a more reliable pipeline of freelance work.
Discover how to package and position your expertise so clients understand the value you provide, making it easier to confidently sell your services.
Understand the difference between income and profitability so you can build a freelance business that is actually stable long term.
TRANSCRIPTSBy the end of this episode, you're going to learn why being great at the work doesn't mean you know how to get work. Why your technical skill might not be the only thing limiting your income, and how to think about profitability versus income.Welcome back to the show. I want to talk about this and this being why being great at your corporate job might not translate into success as a freelancer. Because I've seen this in my group, and it's really difficult when I'm working with these people who are excellent at their corporate job. Maybe they got laid off for whatever reason, or they think because they're excellent at their job, like, hey, it can't be that hard to transfer this into, like, freelancing, or consulting, or whatever it is. It's just so much more than being good at a job, ok, like it's hard to… it's hard to talk about this, because at the end of the day, yes, you need to be great at what you do, and you need to be amazing at it, because that is your reputation, and that's gonna kinda help you get more clients, but you need to prove that first, right? So, if you're looking at starting a freelance job, or role, or career, and you're… or consulting, or whatever, and you're like, hey, I'm amazing at what I do. This can't be that hard. Let's go through this. Let's kind of break it down.Being great at your work and what you do doesn't mean you know how to get work. And I think that was one of the hardest things for me, because you have to put yourself out there, right? And when you're working a corporate job, someone else brings in the clients, creates the projects, keeps the work coming for you. As a freelancer, you're now marketing, networking, selling, following up, and basically maintaining a pipeline in whatever form that looks for you. That's now part of your job. Just because you're really good at copywriting, just because you're really good at marketing, just because you're really good at being an assistant, just because you're really good at, you know. what's another? HR stuff, like, I… that's the kind of stuff, like, customer service, whatever that is. Just because you're really good at that doesn't mean that you're going to also be good at that in freelancing. And I see a lot of people fail and fall flat on their face in their beginning stages of their business because of that. They're like, I and then they don't know how to like market it, right? And that is really, really hard. We're… let me get into that in a second. No, yeah, you know what, guys, let's just talk about it right now. So, you need to learn how to turn what you do into something people will buy. And it's much harder than just saying, this is what I do, and this is… I'm really good at it. Why aren't people signing up, you know? having valuable skills doesn't mean you have a good offer, or a valuable offer, right? Because you need to, like, learn how to package your expertise, and I teach you how to do this. I teach you how to get away from hourly and package it into a way that's really compelling for the buyer, for the client. So you need to package that expertise, learn how it solves a direct problem for the person, learn how it really solves a pain point and something they struggle with. You need to communicate that outcome as well, and then price it in a way that makes sense. Wow, oh my God, that's a lot to think about, right? Especially if you're coming from a corporate world. So again, having that valuable skill doesn't mean you have a valuable offer. And that is where I see people fall flat because they know they're good at what they do. But why can't people sign up and work with them? And this is why. Because you're not helping them discover the pain point, selling them the outcome, and pricing it in a way that makes them say, okay, okay, yes, I get that. Another thing is that your reputation as a freelancer builds. As you go along and as you have your business and as you have clients. When you're first starting out, your reputation at your company doesn't automatically transfer outside of it, right? So, you might be that go-to person in your department, you might have that impressive title, but these prospective clients out there, they don't know that. Even if you have recommendations on your LinkedIn profile or you have recommendations on a piece of paper, right? Like whatever references, that's what we call it in corporate. You still need to build your credibility outside of your job and outside of your company and learn how to communicate that experience and why it matters. Yeah, that's another big one, right? And I… and this is why it's so difficult to talk about, because I think a lot of people hear this, and they're like, okay, I'm gonna give up now. This is too difficult. It's not difficult. You can do it right, and I can teach you how to do that and hold your hand through it so that you learn how to actually communicate what you do. Sell yourself in a way that gets you clients. Okay? Another issue. Your technical skill might not be the thing limiting your income, okay? So, the most talented freelancer doesn't automatically make the most money. Eek! I know, that's different from corporate, right? If you're the most talented tech coder, you're gonna probably make a lot more money than someone who isn't. But someone like your competitor, your freelance competitor can make. Like, more than you. By being less skilled, just because they're better at positioning themselves, relationships, sales, pricing, all of that, and maybe they have more client experience, maybe they have more clients under their belt. So they'll build that more successful business, because they have all those extras. That you are still learning and you're still trying to figure out. And this one was a hard pill for me to swallow because I knew I was really good at what I did, and it was really frustrating to see my competitors win over me because I was like, wait a minute. I can make more money than them. This isn't cool. Like, I know that I'm better than them. I have more experience. I've been doing this since I was like 15. How are they getting more clients than me? And then I discovered how to actually package that. Hey, I've been doing this since I was 15. Learn how to package it with some pricing that made total sense for my clients, so I wasn't doing hourly anymore, and this is what I teach my students as well. And then I started seeing more clients, right? I learned how to market myself, put myself out there, etc. Another thing you need to think about is coming from a corporate world, you can't just be thinking about income, you need to be thinking about profitability. A hundred K salary for easy numbers and a freelance business bringing in a hundred K are just not the same, right? And my husband and I used to have discussions about this all the time because now as a freelancer, you have expenses, taxes, unpaid time, marketing, vacation benefits, all those gaps between clients, like the client income that you need to consider and you have to understand what you're actually earning. And this is where, like, the boundary thing gets tricky, this is where the hourly thing gets tricky, this is where, like, sometimes packages get tricky as well, and I have a student right now who is, you know, struggling because he's putting his packages out there, he has a high paying client, but he still feels like he's getting. Overridden and just miserable with this client, so this is another thing coming from corporate. You need to understand profitability versus income. And the last thing is, and you hear me talk about this all the time, but there's a reason why I talk about it all the time. You need to stop thinking like an employee and start thinking like a business owner, right? As an employee, you know, being dependable, working hard, saying yes, over-delivering, that helped you climb the corporate ladder. But as a freelancer, that's gonna lead to scope creep, boundary issues, underpricing, burnout, just to name a few things, right? So you need to start making decisions based on what's best for the business. And you are the business, and not just what makes you a great worker, okay? These are just a few things you need to think about. These are what I call, like, the core reasons of why being great at a corporate job isn't enough to see success as a freelancer. So to recap, right? Being great at work doesn't mean you know how to get work. Your reputation doesn't transfer outside the company. You need to learn how to turn your expertise into something people will buy. Your technical skill could not be the only thing limiting your income, and that kind of turns into, like, expertise and why you need to learn that, and how to make people buy it, right? You have to understand profitability, not just income, and then finally, you gotta stop thinking like an employee, right? That's going to hold you back from being the most successful freelancer out there, in all honesty. Now, if you feel like you're struggling with this and you're a freelancer and you're like, hey, I still have these issues, I would love to do an audit on your business and see where we can improve it. So sign up. There's a link in the show notes. Free call with me. I would love to hear from you. And then we're going to be talking about coming up, how to think critically and solve business problems, and why that's going to help you get ahead as a freelancer. So that'll be the tip of the week coming up, and I would love for you to stay tuned for that. As always, keep flourishing.