Margaret and Chris talk about how to systemize your freelancing, delegate your work, and grow your freelancing practice into an agency without losing what's special about your offering. We also discuss why it's so hard to get content from your clients, the dangers of minimizing laguage, and how to build a funnel!

You can find Margaret on Twitter, or visit her online at https://margreffell.com/

Highlihgts:
Started solo

Tired of doing everything personally

Went agency-style

Issues:

• Clients don't want to be handed off


• Have to keep myself as the face of the business


• Lose clients in the funnel sometimes


• Have to avoid over-system-izing


• Nurture the human component


• How to systemize your freelancing without losing the human touch

Clients often overlook the same things developers do with regard to sales funnels

It takes huge amounts of content, time and money to get a sales funnel to the point where it's truly automated - part of how to systemize your freelancing

Clients always struggle with content:

• Look at existing content


• Take note of keywords


• Little bit of coaching


• Send them to my copywriter

Other agencies funnels:

• Addressed AFTER the clients are taken care of


• Often lacking in creativity


• Opportunity to improve my site where others are coming up short

How I get leads & close deals:

90% come from referrals
80% proposal close rate

Contact form on site - assistant Sasha not great for qualifying, has more of an administrative screening:

• Looks for keywords in the contact


• Minimizing language is a HUGE red flag


• When you systemize your freelancing it's easier to filter this out

systemize your freelancing quote
"If you're consistent and diligent about creating content then that's what puts you a step above."
Knowing they need a thing is not enough:

• We need to educate them as to the potential ROI


• We also need to educate them when they need LESS than they think

Existing clients referring
Past clients referring
Past clients re-activating

Not currently soliciting referrals; they happen organically:

• This will become a priority soon, however

Recurring clients provide an excellent base of revenue
It's sometimes easy to get complacent

Check in every 2-3 months with past clients:

• Sometimes it's quiet because it all works, or they're busy


• Simple e-mail template to help systemize your freelancing

Fix-it projects are fraught with landmines & gotchas, and are best avoided