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This lesson is called how to land your first clients, and it will teach you how to secure your first

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jobs as a freelancer and get those five star reviews that will propel you forward.

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This lesson is important because landing your first clients as a freelancer is one of the most challenging

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parts of the entire journey.

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And I'm talking from experience here because there was a while where I was without a first client and

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I was trying to figure out how I can secure that first client that will open the door to my future.

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And that is exactly what I'm going to be teaching you in this lesson.

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I'm going to be showing you how you can get over that obstacle fast of not having any experience.

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And use a freelancing hack that I've learned to help you get those very first clients.

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This will help you secure those first good reviews, which will open up the pathway to your future freelance

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success.

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We will be going over how to land your first trial clients, your first jobs as a freelancer, next

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how to do the math, and this is all about the success rates and how to plan for success as a freelancer.

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And lastly, we will cover how to use the power of massive action as it relates to landing your first

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clients.

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It all comes full circle here as we went over this in the beginning modules of the course.

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Now I'll be showing you how to apply this so you can get those first few deals.

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And now I am going to reveal how you can get your first client.

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And I like to call it the trial client.

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What this means is you're bringing someone on to the Upwork platform so you can get that first good

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review.

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The reason is a trial client is because it's a one time project to start.

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The goal of the trial client is so you can secure that five star review on Upwork that will kick start

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your freelance business.

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You can use this to scale to multiple clients in the future.

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But without having at least a couple client reviews on your profile, you are going to severely limit

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your potential on Upwork.

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So a trial client, is you going out into the marketplace and getting a client to pay you on the Upwork

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platform?

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This way, you get to secure that good review.

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Upwork gets to make the money through the platform, and the client gets to have that service that you're

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offering for a discounted rate.

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You can use a script like this to get your first child clients, so you can post this on Facebook and

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have your friend share it, or you can send it directly to business owners, you know they can even

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be friends or family or friends of friends, et cetera.

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The whole goal here is to reach out to a business owner that needs a problem solved.

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And you are the one that is the curious student.

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So you were the one that is going to say something to the effect of Hi everyone, I'm currently learning

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Google ads right now, and so far I'm getting some awesome results.

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But before I can start charging full price for my services, I need to find a business willing to let

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me practice everything I've learned so far.

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In return, I will offer a massive discount on my monthly Google ad package.

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Please comment below if interested.

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So for this example, I filled it in with the skill I provide, which is Google ad services.

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But you can just put in whatever skill you want to provide and that you've been studying and learning.

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You can always go back to the skill demonstration lessons if you want to expand your skill set or look

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for the most profitable skills you can offer.

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Once you've posted this, you can go through all of the responses and you can choose who is the best

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fit for you from there.

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It's super simple.

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All you need to do is just tell them to sign up for Upwork as a client, and it will walk them through

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if they want to invite freelancers to that specific project or if they want it to just be a public project.

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And from there, you can do everything through the platform, submit the work and get that first good

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review.

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That's a great way you can secure your first few clients on Upwork, and it's something that I wish

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I knew when I was first starting out because when I was starting out, it took me months to get my first

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recurring client.

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I would have a couple of small projects here and there, but it wasn't anything that bill any credibility

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on my profile.

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But when you get this trial client and you get a couple of them, it not only shows that you've earned

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money on the platform, but it also shows five star reviews, so that shows that you're delivering amazing

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service.

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In addition to that, you can also use that to create portfolio items such as case studies using the

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case study blueprint, which will help your profile stand out even more.

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Lastly, by doing this and getting a trial client and building case studies, it all helps you in the

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Upwork algorithm.

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They will start to serve you and your profile to more potential clients because they see that you're

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having success, and that's their whole goal.

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They want to match up high tech business owners with freelancers who know what they're doing.

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So go out there.

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Post this script on your social media.

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Don't hold anything back.

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You have nothing to lose here.

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And if it gets a lot of engagement, remember you don't want to take on a lot of these.

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Your goal is quality, not quantity.

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Start with the ones you know.

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You can deliver great service and value to and great results so you can show that off and get those

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first good reviews.

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As you get out there in the marketplace and you begin to send out those proposals and you're working

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on those first few jobs, I suggest starting with a one time projects.

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This is a fixed price project that you can help provide exceptional value on that will help you get

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those five star reviews in start to build your profile.

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I don't suggest going out there and starting with an hourly long term project right from the start,

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because what you want to do is you want to be able to get those good reviews if you're working on a

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long term project right when you begin freelancing.

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That is not going to allow you to get that five star review quickly because you only get that review

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after the project is completed.

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So that's why with the trial clients and with your first few jobs, I highly suggest going after some

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intermediate level work that is a one time project.

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This way, you can deliver exceptional value.

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Get that five star review and move on to the next client to continue building your profile.

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No, to use those previous results that you begin to get to land more clients.

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So with all those trial clients and the first jobs, you get billed out as many case studies, testimonials

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and portfolio items, you can, it's all about momentum and getting the ball moving forward.

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So think about it like pushing a car.

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If your car ever ran out of gas, you know how hard it is to get it moving at first.

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But once it starts rolling, AKA, once you start getting some trial clients and some jobs on your profile,

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everything starts to become easier.

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The car starts to roll along.

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You start to land more clients.

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All you need is a little push to help that car start going, and that's what those trial clients are

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for you.

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So the more people you get to help push that car, a.k.a., the more jobs you land on Upwork and the

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more reviews you have to expand your portfolio and your profile before you know it, the car is moving

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at such a high speed that you're well on your way to a profitable freelance business.

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So think about that metaphor as you begin this journey.

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And number three, go after jobs, you know you can crush.

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That means, you know, you can do well on.

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You need perfect scores here.

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That means five out of five reviews, and that means good testimonials that are well thought out with

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multiple sentences there.

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If you don't provide exceptional service in the job, just turns out OK, the client is not going to

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want to leave you a lengthy review.

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They might give you a five star review, but your goal is an exceptional review, and that's how I've

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built my profile.

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And I also ask the clients after each project is complete.

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I make sure to tell them.

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Mark the job as completed successfully, and I let them know how important that perfect score is to

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me.

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When you make that clear and you make that understood during the scope of work of the project, the

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client knows that you're working very hard for that good review.

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So make sure you let the client know you're not just in this for the money, you're in this for the

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long term relationship and to secure a good review for them in return for providing exceptional work.

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Now it's time to do the freelance math.

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The freelance math is how you can start to project your success rates if you do the freelance math and

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you begin to plan ahead for the proposals you need to set out in the meetings and the client calls you

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need to have.

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You will set yourself up for success.

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It all does depend on your market, the skill you're providing and your capabilities.

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But it is also dependent on how hard you work.

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So this is where that law of massive action starts to kick in, because if you don't fall fairly close

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to the stats I'm about to reveal, you need to go back and look at what you're doing.

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Because as you execute the law of massive action, you also need to make sure that you're focusing on

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that quality.

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Some markets are going to be much more competitive than others in the freelance space.

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But take into account these stats to see if you're on the right track.

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Let's say you send out 20 proposals, and this is 20 proposals using the winning formula.

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So that means you're doing the work, you're getting that attention in that opener, you're providing

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reviews.

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20 proposals should gets you on average, about six responses.

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Our response is just a client reaching back out to you after you send that proposal.

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So they'll send you a message on Upwork and they might ask you a question, or they might ask you to

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schedule an interview call.

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So out of those six client responses, you can expect on average to get about four client calls slash

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sales demos out of those.

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And the reason for that is because there's always a drop off at every level, even though six people

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got back to you.

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It doesn't mean that you're going to get all six of those people on the phone.

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On average, a couple of people and a couple of potential clients will fall out along the way.

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So it's important to do this math and understand this journey so you don't get discouraged at any stage.

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After those four client calls and sales demos, if you're doing everything that I teach in this academy,

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you should end up with about two closed deals.

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And that means you're closing about 50 percent, which is very, very good.

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But that is easily achievable when you're going above and beyond and when you're using all of the profitable

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freelance sales principles that I teach in this academy now, it's time to start to assign some time

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to this equation.

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Those 20 proposals should take you about 20 hours to complete.

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Now it's time to start to do the math and get realistic with yourself.

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If it's not taking you about an hour per proposal, you're not doing it the right way.

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You're not putting the research in, and you're definitely not providing the level of quality of relevance

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and actually showing some of the work that's needed to stand out.

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It takes a lot of time in the beginning, especially when you're new to creating these proposals.

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But as you go forward and you get better, you will get more efficient over time.

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So even if the proposals take you an hour to start, that's 20 hours to begin with, and that is what

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is needed to get to that level of six client responses.

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Those six client responses will take you about another two hours of time.

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And that's because you're going to need to reach out to them.

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You might need to go back and forth with messaging and scheduling.

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They might even want to have a quick five 10 minute preview call before they even schedule an in-depth

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interview.

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Call with you.

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So all of those things take time when you get those for client calls slash demos out of those six responses.

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Those will take about eight hours.

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The reason I gave that eight hours is because each client call and demo should take at least an hour

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of research and prep beforehand and then an hour allocated towards the call.

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So if for every call you're doing an hour of research before planning it out, putting together your

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call script and HubSpot like you should be doing and doing that client research on the back end, you

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should be spending at least an hour doing that and then an hour speaking with the client and actually

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conducting the call or the demo.

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So that's another eight hours right there.

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So to get those two close deals, you should understand.

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The freelance math says it takes about 40 hours to get there.

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This is very important to understand.

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That means it takes about a full workweek to land two clients.

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Of course, remember these numbers may vary, but this is just a general baseline of what success can

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and should look like.

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When you use all of my teachings, once you do the work, it will start to pay off.

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But you need to remember the big picture here.

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So be careful spending your time on those tiny jobs that are not worth your time.

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You need to work with high Typekit clients.

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That's the whole goal.

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When you work with those high tech clients, you're able to turn those into long term projects.

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That makes that 40 hours of initial work well worth it.

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Also, remember that when you send out those proposals and don't get a response back in my journey,

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I used to get very discouraged at first.

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But when you understand the freelance math, you know that that proposal got you one step closer to

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that final close deal.

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So remember this freelance math as you go out there into the marketplace?

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And the truth is, one good week can create a thriving freelance business, as we discussed in the beginning

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of this academy, massive action is needed to have sustainable success.

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But full time freelancing could be much closer than you think.

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So many clients are out there looking to fill opportunity and jobs and problems they need solved.

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So many people always complain about the economy and no jobs and no opportunity.

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But those people often don't ever change their perspective and go out there and find the opportunity.

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There's always clients hiring.

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There is no risk to get started as a freelancer, but be aware of any.

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Get rich quick scheme to anyone that says that building a profitable business is super easy and can

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happen overnight because it is not.

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However, if you understand the freelance math like we just learned in this lesson, you will be putting

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yourself at a much greater chance for having success.

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Use the law of massive action here.

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Make sure you're only putting your all into everything you do.

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And once you start to combine all of those things together, you can see how a good week of massive

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action can change your life and build a profitable business.

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That is the end of the finding and closing high ticket clients module.

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Now you understand everything that goes into the freelance sales process.

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How you can go out there, find those clients execute everything I taught you and close them.

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I look forward to seeing you in the next module.