Pjama Profit: The Millenial’s Guide to a Sustainable Freelance Career

• The amount of money you can take from this flowing river is the amount of value you can add to it.
• You’re free to take as much money as you want from this river; no limits. The only rule is that you have to put in value that is equal to or more than the money you take.
• Find your value. Communicate your value. Deliver your value

• Always remember that skills that are harder to learn will be scarcer in supply (Web development, academic research writing, market research, Game Development, 3D Modelling, Product Management, App and back-end development, etc.)
• If you are starting out you could take 3 to 6 months to get good at the skill, build up confidence, and then take up your first project OR learn the basics in a week and start bidding for a project after that.
• If you want to get paid while learning, do the latter.

• A positive attitude towards learning and picking up new skills goes along way—especially when our skills tend to become outdated every few years. Something we’ve learned the hard way.
• Let’s get one thing straight; when you start freelancing, you are automatically in sales.
• You are effectively selling your skills and services and you will be compared to people selling their skills and services in the same price range.
• Always invest in yourself by taking up free and paid courses. You must prioritize self learning in order for you to become updated.

• Learning a skill increases your confidence and makes it easier to learn the next one.
• Creativity lies in being able to use those individual skills in a manner that results in something truly original that looks and functions well.
• Get rid of the misconception that you need to be passionate to learn a scale that makes you money—just go ahead and learn it, then see how that scale becomes your ability to earn your freedom to do the things that drive you.
• Nobody is born with a passion for something; it’s something that you have to constantly discovered in life.

• For a business to hire you, they have to be convinced that you are the perfect person for the job and hiring you will give them better results than hiring anyone else.
• So how do you win? The answer is plain and simple—communication.

• A fixed price project is one where the price of the project is virtually agreed upon before work begins.
• As a sign of commitment from both sides, it is also recommended to take an upfront payment of anywhere between 25 to 50% of the project cost.
• Stay away from projects that is not willing to pay a downpayment because there’s a high chance that the client will disappear after the final email.

• An hourly billing project is one where you get paid for every hour of work put in.
• Your hourly rate is decided beforehand, a rough budget is agreed-upon, you track your time whenever you work and send the timesheets along with your invoice. The scope here is dynamic.

• You sell the client chunks of your time, one week at a time. So, for example, if you expect a project to take about hundred hours, but it could possibly be more depending on changes and edits, then you can give them a fixed cost per week, with additional weeks if things stretch.

• The magic is in finding the balance— a sweet spot. That is the perfect intersection of the clients expectations and your skills.
• YOUR DAILY MANTRA: My value was what I chose to make as long as I could communicate and deliver, I could charge anything.

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• Platforms are like a training ground where you get paid to get better at your skills.
• Be the best player you can do the best of your capacity and eventually the game will recognize it and reward you when the time is right.
• Where do I land my first project? Aim for REFERRALS from your previous clients.

HORIZONTAL PLATFORMS: Freelancing platforms with all kinds of clients, posting all kinds of projects, across the industries and skills.

VERTICAL PLATFORMS: Platform for solo business owners, Small and medium sized business, and top companies to find the best freelancers.

• The easier the skill; the greater than number of applicants.
• While writing proposals, think about whether you are talking about yourself or talking about the value, your skills can bring.
• Personalization and thoughtfulness will make you stand out in the crowd.
• You’ve taken the time to read the requirements of the job, you personalize your covert letter to highlight the skills needed, and why you are a perfect fit, and you’ve mentioned a timeline for successful completion of the project. That is the formula for making great proposal.

• if you play the game, honestly, delivering the maximum value to clients in patiently leveling up, you will be rewarded.
• REFERRALS: This is the number one source of new projects if you play your cards right and successfully deliver on your promise.
• But, as the demand for your skills caught up in your area and you grew your network, this allows you to increase until it made up more than 90% of your projects.
• Try to visualize what your ideal client looks like and think about where you can find them online.

• It's about finding and working with people who enable you to produce your best work.
• Observe your working relationship, the way it makes you feel, the things that are important to you, and the things that irk you.
• Remember that your goal should be to one day stop using a freelancing platform and be able to land clients on your own.
• To do that, you need to create an awesome portfolio.

Set Targets

• Targets help you make sense of your progress help you move forward and discover what your bigger roles are.
• As a sign of holding yourself accountable, it helps to set tangible targets and goals with realistic timelines and numbers.

Secret Formula

• Tangible goal setting
• Set clear 3 to 6 months goals
• Study quality learning materials
• Work on your skills
• Develop a passion for building things
• Learning how technology works
• Follow advice on bidding and building a personal brand
• Build a network of like-minded friends.
• Keeping your self-disciplined

How do you reach a level where you receive a couple of inquiries every week?

Authority: Establish yourself as an expert and an authority in your chosen field. Write a free ebook to download.

To make your brand valuable, you need to put out content. Share what you know. Engage with the community. 

• Teach what you know. Your perspective while just starting out is very different from the perspective of people who've been working on it for years. 
• Today, people listen to those who have just started out, people who have an intermediate level of skills, and people who are "almost there", so they can plan their roadmap.
• It's the people creating great stuff and putting it out there. It's the ones who care about their craft and like talking about it online.
• In the age of the internet, you might be great at what you do, but unless you put it out there and help, your presence and impact is nil.

• If you're creating blog posts, you could create a WordPress site for hosting or you could post them here on Deepstash.
• Experiment with where you host your content and how it affects traffic.
• Two things you must consider if you are creating a personal website: what you want to communicate and how you will communicate.
• Landing page content must be Introduction, Sample Works, and Contact Information.

• Social networking sites
• Hacker News
• Reddit
• Quora
• Deepstash
• Facebook
• Facebook groups
• Twitter
• Threads

Whenever you are posting content, be mindful of the community guidelines.

Make sure to genuinely contribute to discussions.

Use these topics of discussion to come up with an icebreaker when he/she is a prospect.

• Work on enough projects and gain references to be notable in your field.
• Create a WordPress website.
• Post original contents and pick a regular schedule of posting.
• Build a recurring audience by sending out newsletters.

• Sales is an integral part of the freelance game.
• Find a list of prospects that might be interested in your freelancing services. Find their email and send personalized emails.

Finding Prospects

• Go to your LinkedIn account, sign up for a FREE 30-day trial, and go to Sales Navigator.
• Filter your leads by identifying your desired demographic and industry. Below is the sample.

Demographics: United States

Industry: Education, Technology, Architecture

Title: CXO, Partner, Owner, Vice President

Company size: 20-1000

Then, create a Google Sheet where you will put the name and email of the prospects.

• The longer it takes for the call to happen from the client's first reply, the higher the chances you will lose your project.
• In the business world, the only thing that can lead to opportunity is conversation. 
• You must make yourself out to be someone fun to be with.

MONEY STASH

• Savings and Health Insurance Fund: 35% of income
• Monthly Spend Fund: 25% of income
• House Rent and Subscriptions: 15% of income
• Learning Fund: 10% of income
• Splurge Fund: 15% of income

BANK ACCOUNTS

• Business account
• Savings account
• Splurge account

• Don't take things personally
• Set Tangible and Achievable Goals
• Have Faith in Your Abilities

• Have creative outlets in a world that is becoming more connected but at the same time, more isolated.
• Entering the freelancing world, you must find and pursue your mission in life rather than strive to become a cog in the machine.
• Step out now and bring the world your unique flavor of passive, creativity, and skills.