Any tips for building my pipeline so I don't have to live on beans.

17 replies
I am starting out and while I have some savings, right now some weeks I am not sure if I am making enough money to cover anything and then other weeks I live like a king.

I want to sort out a way that I have a better pipeline of work so everything is a little more consistent.

Apart from the obvious and having lots of savings or using my credit card to live on, what do you do to make sure you have enough work constantly.

Thanks for your advice.
#beans #building #live #pipeline #tips
  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    What exactly do you do?

    Do you freelance?

    If so, what kind of service?

    Can you turn your services into PRODUCTS so you can earn a passive income?
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  • Profile picture of the author SummerDaze
    Hi,

    Sorry I should have included that.

    Services I am offering include copywriting / content development / blogs.

    I have a marketing background and have worked in brand development and software marketing as well, but love online content.
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    • Profile picture of the author ukpropinvest
      Banned
      Originally Posted by SummerDaze View Post

      Hi,

      Sorry I should have included that.

      Services I am offering include copywriting / content development / blogs.

      I have a marketing background and have worked in brand development and software marketing as well, but love online content.
      Be highly professional. Get everything covered and go for business that are not scared to spend. The worse thing you can do is waste your time with people/businesses that are broke or have no intention of paying. drive you mad.

      Good luck
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      • Profile picture of the author SummerDaze
        Originally Posted by ukpropinvest View Post

        Be highly professional. Get everything covered and go for business that are not scared to spend. The worse thing you can do is waste your time with people/businesses that are broke or have no intention of paying. drive you mad.

        Good luck
        Yes, thanks for this advice.

        It's hard to for me to figure out who is genuine sometimes. I have chased a couple of people who were all talk but when it came to putting forward the money it never came so i am doing the deposit payment before I start work process, it just seems like a better idea as if I don't I have no idea if the people will end up paying and I really don't like chasing people it's an awful feeling.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ellen Chedid
    What do you do exactly?
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  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    and, what are you doing now to generate clients.

    Are you listed on all the major freelance sites? Have you thought about creating a simple gig for fiverr with a some nice upsells to go with it?

    This is a good topic to discuss but you need to open up a little and give us some info to go on.

    al
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    "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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    • Profile picture of the author SummerDaze
      Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

      and, what are you doing now to generate clients.

      Are you listed on all the major freelance sites? Have you thought about creating a simple gig for fiverr with a some nice upsells to go with it?

      al
      Yes, I have started to create profiles on the freelance sites and I am discussing projects with clients too. I have had a couple of offers for work which I am working on which is great, it just takes a while to get the projects.

      I was thinking about creating an offer and hopefully giving people some opportunities to purchase bundles of content such as blogs and get organised for next year. It's way better for me if I can do blogs in blocks of 5, 10 etc as I am on a roll then and also I can earn without having to find each individual project.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I am not sure if I am making enough money to cover anything and then other weeks I live like a king.
    Building a customer base takes some time. But, managing the income you have is something too many providers ignore. When you work on commission or other fluctuating income - YOU have to even our the income by managing it wisely. Sounds 'preachy' but it's the truth. If you want to control your business you need to control your finances, too.

    Make savings an 'emergency only' fund - do NOT live on credit cards. Cut your monthly expenses to the bare bones and don't stop working until you have covered those expenses each month.

    You should never "live like a king" unless every week exceeds the income you need. Use the good weeks to prepay bills or build an emergency fund (for the dry months) or invest back into your business for ads, etc.
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    Sometimes I just want someone to hug me and say...
    "It's going to be OK - here's a horse and two million dollars."
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    • Profile picture of the author SummerDaze
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post


      You should never "live like a king" unless every week exceeds the income you need. Use the good weeks to prepay bills or build an emergency fund (for the dry months) or invest back into your business for ads, etc.
      Thanks Kay, I don't necessarily live like a king on the weeks that I get payments it just feels that it is either feast of famine. I realise that I need to stash the cash away and build savings so that I have a regular stream of cash available.

      I am aiming to pay myself a wage at some point so that there is the regularity that I am used to from my previous work and it is just a big learning curve.

      I only have the need for a few tools of trade thank goodness so my outgoings are fairly low right now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by SummerDaze View Post

    . . . some weeks I am not sure if I am making enough money to cover anything and then other weeks I live like a king.

    The very first thing you can do is take better care of the income you do have. You should be disciplined and not "live like a king" sometimes if there are other times you are not "making enough money to cover anything."

    Learn to save money during the good times for use during the bad.

    A second bit of advice: never use a credit card for living expenses!

    OK, so how can you "smooth out" your feast-famine work cycle? The first thing that seems obvious to me is you need to pump up your personal marketing efforts. When you provide a service, you can't expect clients to just come calling. You need to put yourself "out there" and spread the word about your availability. A press release could help to announce your service to the world. Well placed content that is targeted to your "perfect" clients is another way.

    Of course, if part of your service offered includes blogs, you should have your own content development blog - that goes without saying. Do you have one?

    Do you have a logo and are you promoting a brand campaign for your services?

    Have you joined the free lancing sites and made your intent known?

    Have you done paid advertising with the niches of your perfect clients?

    Have you given away some writing gigs in exchange for powerful testimonials and endorsements that you can use in your marketing?

    Have you approached others for inclusion in their subscriber newsletters or advertising on their web sites?

    Have you developed or licensed any writing products that you could sell which validate your experience and talent as a writer?

    Have you been building a subscriber list of people who need writing services and are you giving them free valuable content yourself?

    Do you have your own web site (your home base where you give examples of your content quality) and talk about the benefits of your services?

    Do you have affiliates working to help you in your business?

    Have you spread the word in your clients' niches that you are available to provide free content for their email lists, newsletters, or web sites in exchange for a small resource box with a link back to your services?

    When you don't have enough work to sustain yourself full time, you hustle and do everything within your power to expose your brand and "be seen" in the niches you serve.



    Originally Posted by SummerDaze View Post

    I have a marketing background and have worked in brand development and software marketing as well
    This may not be what your want to do right now . . . but it would be smart to draw upon all the talents you have to "fill in the income gaps" that you are experiencing. Anything you do in brand development or software marketing is going to help you with your eventual service business in content and blog development.

    Good luck to you,

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author SummerDaze
      Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

      The very first thing you can do is take better care of the income you do have. You should be disciplined and not "live like a king" sometimes if there are other times you are not "making enough money to cover anything."

      Steve
      First of all, Steve you are an absolute champion - I really appreciate your ideas and comments.

      “Learn to save money during the good times for use during the bad.”

      I am learning to save money and budget - this is a work in progress and I haven’t been too flash at this in some cases, however I know how important this is and I don’t like the ups and down of the cash flow affecting my work.

      In regards to what I am doing, this too is a work in progress, however here is where I am at:

      - I communicated via eMarketing to announce what I am now doing and I did get a good response to this. A few people have shown interest and one or two are getting me to work on projects for them - I thought I might send out an email quarterly as I don’t want to be too annoying and I don’t know if I will have that much news to share if I did it monthly - that too is something I would love everyone’s feedback on.

      - I have a logo and I am working on a website - not yet live

      - I have created social media pages - considering advertising wondering if this could be a good test

      - I don’t have my own blog yet - this will be on the website. I am creating blogs though and banking them to use on this.

      - I have joined freelancing sites - it is a little slow going and I feel like I am up against some people from overseas that will do 10 times the work for a lot less, however I think the employers see the quality is different. I have had a few wins on there it is just a massive investment of time to get one gig. But i have these sites open all day and I think this is probably where a lot of my leads can be gathered from so for now I think this is a really good way to get noticed and get some work.

      - No really paid advertising as yet - I thought Google Adwords could work, or would you suggest something else

      - I am following some great people and I will definitely approach them about being included in their newsletters and even their websites once I create some banner ads - amazing idea

      - Subscriber list - I don’t have a live website yet however I have got a contact list and I have been adding people here. I think when I have my website live and a blog up and running this will be really effective.

      - filling the gaps - yes, I am basically taking any marketing jobs in the meantime to get the work in - product descriptions, general marketing work, research - you name it. I am happy to do this as it shows people I have a broad range of talent and often they ask if I know anyone that can do ‘XYZ’ and I am able to offer my services for that too.

      I know it is going to take some time and I feel like I am driving my new venture down everyone’s throat but I get so excited when I do get a win and the feeling of freedom is just so amazing, I know it’s worth the sleepless nights!

      Thanks again for all your ideas. I have a massive to do list and I am excited.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tonester
    All great points Steve B.

    Something I also want to mention to SummerDaze is that when make money with a service, you are basically exchanging money for time. Therefore, you are limiting your income because your time is limited.

    Although you can make good money this way and it's a good place to start, you should think about how you can use this service and create products to sell or a membership site giving way content. Couple that with building a list, and your income can be much more predictable.

    Providing a service means you always have to be prospecting for new clients, and there is always the worry that next month, you may not find enough clients to pay the bills.

    When you have a responsive list, that worry goes away.

    Tonester
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    • Profile picture of the author SummerDaze
      Originally Posted by Tonester View Post

      All great points Steve B.

      Although you can make good money this way and it's a good place to start, you should think about how you can use this service and create products to sell or a membership site giving way content. Couple that with building a list, and your income can be much more predictable.

      Tonester
      Interesting, so I create a product and sell it too as another revenue stream? Do I create this from scratch or is this something that already exists. Sorry I am not really familiar with this but the idea of having both service and products to balance out the income is really appealing.

      Are there any thread on here that would provide more info?
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  • Profile picture of the author Digitallabz
    Hi Summerdaze since you do copywriting, content development and blogs why don't you do a "how-to" book and get it published in Kindle. You can also develop a course about content development and branding. A source of stable income could be working an agency as well. There are so many ads on twitter for content writers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tonester
    As someone mentioned earlier, a "how to" book in your field such as copyrighting or creating blogs. Then, as you drive traffic to your product, you're creating a list, and when people buy, you now have a list of buyers that are interested in whatever topic they bought, say copyrighting.

    Or, you can document how you got some clients on the freelance sites, and market that as your "system" for making money. You'll have already gotten clients, made money, now you show others how you did it so they can do the same thing.

    From there, once you have a list, you can continuously market to these people via email products that are related to whatever they bought initially. You won't have to continuously look for new customers to produce an income.

    That being said, you would still have to constantly drive leads to your product, to build up your customer list. That means, the larger your customer list, the more money you can make in the long run.

    Over time of building your list, it can be quite substantial.

    Hope that helps.

    Tonester
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    • Profile picture of the author SummerDaze
      Originally Posted by Tonester View Post

      As someone mentioned earlier, a "how to" book in your field such as copyrighting or creating blogs. Then, as you drive traffic to your product, you're creating a list, and when people buy, you now have a list of buyers that are interested in whatever topic they bought, say copyrighting.


      Tonester
      I'm going to look into this for sure. I really appreciate your comment. It's certainly something I haven't done before so I will suss out if there are any threads on here to get some suggestions for this.
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  • Profile picture of the author marydelacroix
    You would also do well in creating niche blogs for affiliate marketing since you can do all of the writing. You can also charge sponsored posts for your own blog. I see services in fiverr where they also charge $15-$20 per guest post posted on their blogs.
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