I closed almost $5,000 in sales after attending CreativesAtWork Mentorship Programme
Guest Post by: Fur
As a relatively new freelancer, I’ve been actively looking for ways to better myself. Be it in terms of knowledge, skills, or even internal processes. I’d like to believe that I have been doing somewhat well over the 1.5 years of freelancing.
Besides, I’m currently managing school, part-time work, and freelance work. Whatever additional income I earn as a gig worker was supplementary for me. However, I wanted more jobs. I wanted to stop working part-time and focus on freelance and school work. But without much guidance, I found it challenging to balance it all.
When I found out that the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) offered a freelancing workshop in partnership with CreativesAtWork, I knew I had to sign up for it. I’ve stumbled upon their website once before and liked what they did, so signing up for this workshop was a no brainer for me.
The CreativesAtWork Mentorship Programme
This was a 6-session programme spanning over 12 weeks. The sessions were helmed by Jayce and Yen-Lyng, both experienced and knowledgeable in the industry. Each session had its agenda, and clear deliverables were set.
Jayce and Yen-Lyng conducted the sessions in a clear, structured, and logical manner that progressively mentors you into a well-groomed freelancer. It helped that there were 2 weeks in between each session, and that “homework” was given to you to work on. This gave us time to think and execute on the knowledge shared to us by them.
Session 1: Learning About You
In the first session, Jayce and Yen-Lyng took the time to get to know us, our skills, and what we wanted to achieve at the end of the whole programme.
The lesson covered:
1. The service you want to provide
2. Your target market
3. Deciding your rates
4. Your branding
Now I won’t be giving away everything that’s covered in every session, but I’ll talk about it from an overall perspective.
Firstly, determining the service you want to provide is the first step to being a freelancer. Jayce and Yen-Lyng shared with us that we should identify a specific target market and focus on servicing them for a start. This was important as it will help you gain clients and experience quickly. They also shared on the different ways to determine your rates and suggested their preferred method to price their services.
After settling on the above, we moved on to building a brand and a personality for ourselves. They shared on the different professional personas we could take on that will attract different types of clients. Your professional persona is important as it defines your personality, the way you craft your marketing messages, and it should fit exactly to your target market.
Session 2: Creating an Online Presence
In this session, we learnt how we could establish an online presence, which platforms we should use, and how we can market ourselves in each platform.
Jayce and Yen-Lyng focused heavily on LinkedIn. They are firm believers that a good LinkedIn profile is a natural lead magnet to get you more clients. I couldn’t agree more.
We went through the different elements on a LinkedIn profile and learnt the different ways we could optimise it better to attract clients. Jayce and Yen-Lyng then reviewed our profiles and provided recommendations on how we could improve it.
After that, Jayce and Yen-Lyng shared the different platforms we could use (this really depends on the service you provide), and the ways you should use the platform to generate leads. They also shared that you should actively build on your portfolio and collect testimonials.
On top of that, Jayce and Yen-Lyng mentioned that search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the best ways to generate leads. If you were to do your SEO well, you’re likely to attract higher quality leads. And as an SEO specialist myself, I agree. If you’re interested in reading more about SEO, I wrote an article here.
Session 3: Things You NEED To Take Note Of
This session was probably the driest yet the most important session of all. Jayce and Yen-Lyng covered the most crucial things you need to take note of as a freelancer. Things such as legal contracts, incorporating a business entity, and proper financial management.
They shared with us on the importance of having a contract and what we should include in them. They also weighed in on the pros and cons of the different business entities in Singapore.
Personally, this was the most important part of the whole programme and the one that I lacked in. Previously, I was operating based on WhatsApp messages and unclear terms for my freelance projects. I found that scope creep and miscommunications occurred way too often. Thankfully after incorporating their advice, I have not experienced such issues.
Jayce and Yen-Lyng also covered the importance of proper financial management. This stretched from tracking your finances to the types of insurance coverage you will need as a freelancer. I found this article that covers what you need to take note of when doing financial planning as a freelancer.
Session 4: Finding Clients
In this session, we learnt 10 different ways that we can use to find clients. Jayce and Yen-Lyng mixed different inbound and outbound strategies available and shared their opinions on the effectiveness of each method. They also shared some examples of how you can utilise these strategies to get better results.
Similar to lancerX’s free course, Jayce and Yen-Lyng mentioned that you should make a list of companies that you want to work with. Both lancerX and CreativesAtWork recommends cold outreach, utilising freelance job boards, and reaching out to your social circle. Some of the other methods shared were also pretty interesting that I haven’t thought of before.
Lastly, all the participants shared the content that we have been working on since session 2, and feedback was given to us on how we could improve!
Session 5: Pitching and Negotiating
In this session, Jayce and Yen-Lyng shared with us how to pitch our service to clients and how to negotiate the contractual terms. This session was fairly interesting as the tips shared here were simple yet powerful ways to get the client to agree on more favourable terms (to you).
A role play was also done during the session where each participant is given a scenario (depending on the service they provide) and had to pitch according to the lead’s needs. This was fun yet challenging as you had to identify the problems that your lead is facing, propose a customised solution, and negotiate thereafter.
Jayce and Yen-Lyng then provided us with feedback on how we could improve our pitches and taught us how to identify problems that were not explicitly mentioned by the lead.
Session 6: Closing the Deal
After pitching, your lead will usually take some time to think about your proposal and discuss it with the relevant decision-makers. In this session, Yen-Lyng shared with us on how to progress after the pitch.
Sometimes, you might miss out a few details in your pitch that your lead did not raise. Therefore, the tips shared in this lesson were essential to closing the deal as it involves identifying gaps in your pitch and addressing them.
Yen-Lyng also mentioned how and the number of times you should follow up with your lead before deciding to walk away. This was also another problem I was facing before attending the programme as I did not know when to walk away from an uninterested lead.
Conclusion
The programme has helped me generate more leads in a month than I’ve ever could over 1.5 years of freelancing. Within 2 months of finishing their programme, I managed to close $4,494 in sales. If I were to close all the leads I’ve got so far, I will be looking to generate $16,500 in additional sales by the end of 2020.
All in all, I feel that the entire 12-week programme will be beneficial for both new and freelancers alike. The strategies shared were evergreen, and both Jayce and Yen-Lyng took their time to personalise their teachings to you. If you are ever thinking of starting a career in freelance, I would highly recommend CreativesAtWork’s mentoring programme!
Author Bio
Fur is a self-taught SEO specialist in Singapore. An active and avid learner, he spent countless of sleepless nights self-learning and adapting his SEO techniques from various authoritative sources. He shares his knowledge on firdaussyazwani.com to provide SEOs and those who are keen an objective view of the different SEO techniques available online.
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