Life after fiver for those providing a service.

Hey guys, just wanted to give back to the forum. I'm a video producer with 10 years of broadcast tv experience. I was let go from my job a few months ago with little to no warning and I'm scrambling to make it all work. Here is my game plan.

I mainly create motion graphics videos, or text videos or animated videos (they go by a lot of different names) but recently with the rise of fiver especially in the IM community its been harder to get sales. Why pay alot when you can get it for cheap? Hey I understand, no harm no foul. We aren't here to debate that issue.

So what happens to those of you who are starting out when all you are earning is 5 bucks (wait 4 bucks) per job? How do you build something off of that? Well first, realize that fiver is not a career, its a stepping stone. It's a way to build up your skills and portfolio.

After you feel comfortable providing services for your clients, there are several things you can do to branch out.

1. WSOs/Work for Hire. Establishing a reputation of this forum and others, providing a great sale to warriors and posting regularly in the work for hire section will get you more sales. You should start to price your work in a more realistic range. Why? Because, you already know that if you break down your hourly time spent on your service by how much you earn on fiver, you know the candle really isn't worth the light. But you may say, why should people pay more?

• a. self selection - some people don't trust cheap prices. They self select for quality and if you can provide it hassle free they will gladly pay.
• b. comfort with fellow warriors/forum members vs. fiver strangers
• c. hell they may not even know about fiver, or have been burned in the past. Just remember its a market for a cheap car and a luxury car.

2. Partnerships - find other service providers who are going places but lack the services you provide and ask them to join their team. Join several teams. This creates multiple markets for you to sell your services in. Also join up with people outside of the IM niche. There are customers out there who will pay premium prices for quality work. Yes you make have to take a hit on your profits to make more, but your getting a lot of the heavy lifting done for you. And probably making way more than you were on fiver. Make good deals on what you are willing to give your partners in exchange for your services. Don't give away the farm, but make it worth their while as well. We are all in this to make money.

4. Offer more services. Start to offer more services to your existing clients and partners. Use your list to see if they need other services that you can provide. As you learn new things while working on your own IM goals, offer those skills to your customers. Earn while you learn.


This isn't every trick in my arsenal, but its a few of the good ones, I have more ideas in the vault. But this alone has keep the lights on the last few months. Just keep thinking of new ways to apply what you know. Good luck!