What My First Year As A Freelancer Was ACTUALLY Like, And The 1 Thing I Did To ACCELERATE Growth & Start Getting Freelance Clients

What if your freelance business is one small investment away from it’s biggest breakthrough?

If you’re trying to grow a freelance business while juggling a full-time job, inconsistent income, or uncertainty about where clients actually come from, this episode gives you a realistic, behind-the-scenes look at what the first year truly takes. 

You’ll hear about my finances during my first year freelancing while also working full time and what it took to go from pennies to building a six-figure business, with the specific strategy that accelerated client growth.

By the end of this episode you will:

• Learn the expenses and income breakdown from my first year in freelancing

• Discover the strategy that led to long-term, high-value clients in my freelance business

• Get an honest understanding of the time, effort, and momentum-building required to transition from side hustle to full-time freelance career

Press play now to shortcut months of trial and error and uncover what helped turn a struggling side hustle into a sustainable full-time business.

Connect with Kiri, the host:
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Episode Transcript:

[00:00] Jump right into this episode and find out what my first year as a freelancer was actually like and the one thing I did to accelerate growth and start getting clients. Welcome to the Freelance to Freedom podcast. This podcast helps early freelancers learn how to get more clients with clear strategies that help your freelance business make more money in less time. I'm your host, Kiri Mohan, founder of Flourishing Freelancer.

[00:23] Let's dive in. By the end of this episode, you're going to find out what my first year as a freelancer was actually like. We're gonna take a look at my expenses and my income, and what was the one thing I did to accelerate growth and start getting more clients so I could quit my full time job. Welcome back to the show. Today, we're gonna be talking about my first year freelancing

[00:45] and what that looked like. I had been kind of dabbling in freelancing for a little bit from 2012, I wanna say, to 2014. And then if you've been listening to this podcast or have been following me anywhere, you know that I had a lot of pregnancy problems. And that kind of pushed my decision to see if I could take freelancing full time because the multiple doctor's appointments, the stress of having to

[01:10] hide everything, like going into the office the day after a DNC, like, girl, please, why did I do that? What I really look at as like the first year of freelancing was 2014 because that's when I decided to take my business from just this, like, side hustle working off my social security and actually register it as a business in my town, start tracking my expenses, and really grow the income to a

[01:36] place where I can make it full time. Officially, I registered my business in April 2014, and I was able to quit my full time job in July 2015. I do wanna point out that I was making by the time I quit my job. Like, if if I had stayed status quo, it would have been $20,000 less about or was it more from my full time salary at that point?

[02:05] It was like, alright. Do I take the risk? Do I make the jump? And I had a really, really strong lead at that point, so it made sense for me to make the jump. And thankfully, worked out, and he didn't ghost me or anything because then I would have been probably kicking myself. But let's just take a look at what financially it looked at.

[02:21] And we need to obviously make exceptions for inflation and different salary numbers now and all of that. But at least it will give you a good idea of ratios. Now freelancing, one of the great things about it is it's one of the cheapest businesses you can start. Like, really and I had an episode about this recently that you should go listen to. It's like, what do you really need to start freelancing?

[02:42] It's like you need a laptop, you need Internet security. I suggest, you know, business email, register your business, all of that. So, like, financially, you're not looking at much. Like, there's more upfront costs, right, if you're building a website and whatnot, but then it really lowers quite a bit. So for me, when we're looking at the very first year of my expenses, I'm

[03:03] looking at it right now. I'm showing that I actually registered my name, my domain registration before I even registered my name, and that was in February. And then I did the registration of the business in April. So I was already thinking about it and going through it. And total for the entire year was $641 When I look at my income for

[03:27] that entire year, so again, really started in April. And I know that I kinda had like this learning stage from April through August. I allowed myself a few months to really dive into like the running a business portion. What does it mean to run a business? What does it mean to actually go out there and market yourself consistently and not just apply to jobs and whatnot?

[03:48] And I spent that time diving into that. And then I started marketing myself in earnest in August, and I ended up expenses wise, $641 is what I spent. Income, 14,600. So we're not looking at a big income here, guys. Like, I mean, I was doing a lot of hourly work. I think I got my first real client on a package in September, and that

[04:13] was really exciting for me, and that was a fluke. But now that I'm looking back at my expenses and what did I change and what did I do in order to start earning more and get clients, I think my thought process of it being a fluke was not true. So my very first, I guess, consistent client on a package base was from someone

[04:36] I met in a networking group. She did general VA work, and she knew I was like, I will do anything at this point. And so she wanted to raise her prices. She raised them, and her client could not afford them. And so she's and the client was basically saying, do you know anyone else? Anyone. And she had met me a few times at a networking event.

[04:57] And I remember always being mad that there was another freelancer there because I was like, man, I wanted to be the only freelancer and get all the business. And she was so similar to me in what she did, and it was really, really frustrating. But she ended up hoisting off this client to me, and we had an intro call. And she was actually one of my mistake clients, but she was

[05:14] my first client. And sometimes your first client is a mistake client because I didn't did not know what I was doing. I was trying to do package plans. I undersold myself. I think I ended up working for her sometimes like twenty bucks an hour depending on the month and how much it was. So, no, it was not a good choice. But she was my first client.

[05:35] And the reason why I even got her that soon after starting to market myself, it wasn't because of my marketing. It was because this this other girl had met me in networking groups. And when I'm looking at my expenses and what I spent and I I had very low expenses. Did not spend a lot. Keep in mind also, I was working full time. So it's not like I could

[05:55] spend all this time trying to find clients. The one difference, I think, between my first year and then my second year, my third year looking at everything is really that I invested in very niched groups. When I spent my money, the like, most of the money outside of, like, random software stuff and my domain email is really classes to further my education, niched online groups. I I know they're almost like online

[06:24] marketplaces. Right? Like Upwork, but for specific professions for freelancers. So I went, sought those out, and paid a monthly fee to stay part of those groups to learn from other people. And then some of those groups also had a, like, job board, right, that clients would post on. Also, I it looks like I invested a lot in community education, like I mentioned,

[06:47] but also real life networking groups. I really did. I ended up going to so many networking groups in the area for entrepreneurs and for business owners. And I think when I look back right at that first client and I say like, oh, that was a fluke. It wasn't because she had seen me and met me so many times that maybe it was just a matter of time for her

[07:07] to refer someone to me. It looks like I did invest in Google Ads, but I didn't do that very long. I got my second client in October of that year. And that client I had for ten years. And I ended up increasing my rates, and we became really close. And we worked together for a really, really long time. That was amazing. Right? That was actually from my cold pitching.

[07:34] I found in here a software that I invested in that would like, when someone connected with me or asked to be connected on Twitter, it would send them an automatic message just telling them what I did and all of that. And I didn't keep it for very long. I remember it wasn't very good. It was just the beginning of when these apps were coming out, when these softwares

[07:52] were coming out. And I remember it would, like, friend people on Twitter and also send the message. And it ended up getting, like, really crazy weirdo people. And I remember doing it for client as well at one point, and they were not happy with that. It's really fascinating to see that, like, what I invested in was really niche groups. And the more people knew me and the more people knew

[08:13] who I was, the more the word spread. Now that's not to say obviously, I just said I got this my second client from doing other marketing efforts. But the third client I got was from a networking group, actually, a referral from within a networking group. The fourth client I got over the next year was someone who I got through one of the niched marketplaces. Okay?

[08:37] And then the fifth client I got was from a niche marketplace. Now the final client when I quit my job and I was like, oh my god. I'm not making that much money. Will I be able to to make some more? It was actually from just LinkedIn marketing, just posting and connecting with people, and he just happened to see my stuff. All of this works, but the one difference

[08:54] was the investment in the niche groups. So again, I would say I made $14,600 in the first year. Well, I would say that's from February, it looks like, through December 31. And then my expenses were $641 Now the next year, I made a little bit more. I made $70,000 which was pretty good. And then the next year, made 90,000. And then from there on out, I made

[09:19] over 6 figures. This is just to give you a little bit of, like, a realistic understanding of how much I made that from February. So for eleven months, from February through December, I did not make much money in my first year. I could not quit my job on that. But it was good to see, like, okay, what did I really do that was

[09:39] different? And that was I invested in niche groups. That's what it came down to. So if we're gonna recap this, it's really like find where the likely clients are gonna be and actually invest money in that because that's more likely to get you your money back. Again, this is really what the first year looked like financially and the one change I did, which is investing in those niche groups.

[10:04] And I know a lot of people don't wanna spend money, but it looks like for me, that's really what accelerated and pushed me over to the point that I can make this my full time career, and I've never looked back. Right? So this is what the first year was actually like. And if you wanna know more about, like, the time and effort I spend into

[10:23] it, have a lot of episodes on that. But really, it's just like I would get up super early, and I would work from about, like, 05:30 or six to 07:30AM. At 07:30, I would start getting ready to leave, and I would go to my job. And then at lunchtime, I would work from my car or I I did live about, like, fifteen minutes away. So I was really lucky in that.

[10:42] I know sometimes I went home and quickly, like, worked on my home commuter with stuff, but I think that was as I started getting clients and getting more busy, not in the beginning. And then at the end of the day, I would come back, I would have dinner, and then I would work another, like, two or three hours in the evening just to move my business forward.

[10:57] So that's like the schedule size. But it seems like financially and what that looked like, it really is just the niche groups I invested in, and that started snowballing and helping me out in my business. So I hope this helps give you like a very realistic sense of what's going on in my business. Because, again, I did not get where I am today in that first year or

[11:19] even that second year. It really took the third year for me to start really honing in on my message, understanding exactly what I do, how I need to get clients, and where the clients are. As always, I am Kiri Mohan, the founder of Flourishing Freelancer, and I really do wanna hear from you. If you're in the first year and you're struggling and you don't know what you

[11:39] should be investing in or if you should be investing in anything at all, please, please, I have a free call in the show notes, and I would love to hear from you and help guide you a little bit on your journey and give you a bit of a free audit. Alright? Stay tuned for Thursday. We're gonna be going into a very quick short tip of the week, and we're

[11:56] gonna be talking about a step that you're probably skipping and why you're staying stressed. And this will really help you pivot your business a little bit and move you forward in the right way. And then next week, the lesson is gonna be great. We're going to be talking about seven secrets to why you are so busy and not getting the clients you want and seeing that freelance success.

[12:20] So stay tuned for next week's lesson, seven secrets on why you're so busy and not getting clients you want. Until next time. Again, I'm Keiri Mohan, founder of Flourishing Freelancer, and I would love to hear from you. Set up a call with me in the show notes. Are you struggling to get the income you desire as a freelancer? Download my money mapper for a clear view of the earnings you need to

[12:41] achieve your dream salary. It calculates monthly income while factoring in taxes, expenses, and the best part is that it grows with your business to include contractors and a SEP IRA. Head to the link in my show notes to calculate what you should be earning to start increasing your income.