How I Got My First 5 Clients as a Freelancer

1 – Okay, so I’m a creative, and I really want to go full time. From what I can gather, there are two main ways to offer my ‘skill’: as a service, or as a product.

That’s correct.

2 – And the difference is?

In a nutshell, if you offer your skill as a service, people will pay for your time doing the skill for them.

• e.g. I will pay you $25 an hour, for 5 hours, to design my logo.

If you offer your skill as a product(s), people will pay for that specific product(s). Your time is not factored in.

• e.g. I will pay you $50 for this pack of logo templates in your online store.

3 – So if I offer my skill as a service, I’m going to need clients, right?

Right. I started out as a freelance graphic designer, and for five years that was my ‘offering’. I posted a video last week about how I got my first 5 paying clients. No ads, no money spent: just by being resourceful.

4 – And now you’re more ‘product’ based, right?

Yes, now people don’t pay for my time, they pay for my art. My first book, Travel Problems Southeast Asia, went live on Tuesday and the 2nd in the series, South America, is now online for pre-order.

Neither of these products factor in my time spent on them. They are absolute. You pay X amount for X thing, and that’s that.

If someone were to approach me however and say ‘Dale, I’ve written a book about travel and I’d like you to do the illustrations’, then I would switch back to service: ‘That will take me 20 hours, my rate is $30 an hour, so 20×30 = $600’ – hypothetically speaking.

It’s important to understand the difference when deciding how you want to sell ‘your skill’. You can do one or both, but always remember that

• with a service, you can only be paid for a limited amount of time (because of physics and dimensions and shit)

• and, with a product, the time spent on it you initially will not be paid for, and may never be if the product does not sell (although I’m sure you’re stuff is awesome, so don’t worry about that).

5 – Thanks Dale. I’ve always thought about releasing a book, but I’m stuck for ideas. Any advice?

Funny you mention it…

Until next time superstar x