In the last few weeks, I’ve been getting on Zoom calls with freelancers and journalists and giving them specific tips and strategies to increase their income within the next 30 days.
You may not know this, but I started writing professionally when I was 19 years old. I’m 42 now and have made an income with my writing every single month for the last 23 years without fail (including while I was on maternity leave). While most people see freelancing as an unreliable source of income, for me, it’s my backup. When times get tough in business or publishing, my first thought is, “Well, I can always find new clients.”
And so, if I were to find myself short on cash today and needed to bring in money quickly, here’s what I would do:
1. Get in touch with former clients
Lost a client during the pandemic? Get in touch today and ask if they’re working with freelancers again. Connected on LinkedIn with an editor who just changed jobs? Ask if the new role includes working with writers. You see where I’m going with this? Someone who has worked with you and enjoyed working with you is more likely to do so again, but not if they don’t know you’re available. Tell them you’re available.
2. Ask friends for referrals
Reach out to your freelancer friends and ask if they have any clients they can recommend you to. Don’t just blast out a “looking for work” message on social media. Make it personal. Email or DM them individually. Further, make it easy for them to refer you. They don’t know your background and skills, you do. I would treat this email as an LOI where you detail what kind of work you’re looking for, what you’re good at, and why you’d be a great person to refer. Again, make it easy for them. They should be able to forward your email to a client without changing a thing.
3. Make an offer that’s super attractive
If you sell books or products directly, come up with an offer that’s incredibly attractive for your readers or followers. When you’re short of cash, I don’t recommend discounting. Instead, bundle up a series of books, offer a bonus course or training with a purchase, or sweeten the deal with a group coaching call or two. By the way, if you’re in Wordling Plus you have access to an incredibly detailed training that lays out the exact steps to do this, with email scripts and templates. I used it to 4x my book sales in 10 days.
4. Double down on your best marketing strategy
Look at all the work that’s on your plate right now. Where did it come from? In the last 3-6 months, what has been the biggest growth channel for you? Pitches? Meetings? Referrals? I want you to take that strategy and double down on it. Reverse engineer the process, though, so you know exactly what you need to do to get results. How many referral emails resulted in a new client? How many pitches? How many meetings?
This is what I call strategic hustle. For example, I know I can get 1-2 assignments for every 5 pitches I send. Great. So if I wanted to get 4 assignments within the next month, I need to make sure I send out 20 pitches. And if I were really short of cash, I would send out five pitches a day until I started landing the assignments.
Why do I have such a high success rate with my pitches? I have a specific process I’ve mastered and refined over two decades. (Of course). To learn it, go here.