My 2023 Recap: +60% Growth
2023 was my 2nd year of freelancing full-time, and things have improved significantly. My breakthrough is that client quality trumps quantity 24/7.
Since 2019, when I began my freelance journey, I didn't dare to go all in until last year, doing true independent consulting, aka freelancing, working with multiple clients on multiple projects.
Now that I have passed the €100k in total revenue milestone from independent work, I can say what drives most of my success: working with quality clients vs. wannabe entrepreneurs.
In 2019, I had a few side projects, and then, in 2020 and 2021, I was a full-time employee, so there was no time for playing around.
In mid-2021, I said I had to try it and switched from full-time employee to full-time independent consultant. My biggest mistake was working with one client at a time. That led to 2-3 months "commitments." Most were local entrepreneurs with little to no knowledge of running and growing a business.
So the hard lesson I learned last year is to have one or a maximum of 2 big clients that you can focus on, build a human connection, and deliver quality work, and a few smaller retainers (2 to 3 clients maximum).
This year, 50% of my income came from one client; it's a steady, small agency run by two very successful and great leaders I've been working with since the beginning of the year (bye-bye, 3-month entrepreneurs).
Almost 25% of my income came from a no-code SaaS I love working with. The average contract a SaaS has with independent contracts is relatively low, so I'm aware that this can end anytime soon.
The other 25% came from a local marketing agency and a few smaller projects.
Here is another mistake ... months with no payment.
Last year, I had two months with zero revenue. I had to slightly overcharge in the following months to compensate for this loss.
I learned my lesson; I only had one month with no revenue this year.
I noticed that January started quite shy, but the next couple of months made up for it, so it wasn't a big deal, more time with my family.
With a new baby coming in mid-January, I expect the same slow growth at the beginning of the year but solid growth starting in March.
TL;DR Here are my plans for 2024 to have another +60% growth:
- be peaky with the clients I work with; quality is key
- switch from hourly-based to productized services and sell packages
- charge at least €1500-2500 per client and work with only 3-4 clients
- be more active on a few high-quality online communities and try to meet more founders and marketers face-to-face, which builds a connection faster
- two of my biggest clients came through my info product (https://www.thebootstrappedway.com/), so I should promote it more and use it to build trust.
How did you find clients as freelancer?
My first clients were actually my preciously employers. Nowadays I have an info product TheBootstrappedWay.com that I use both to test different marketing strategies and also as a lead magnet.
For client acquisition I used a mix of 1-to-1 interviews with the founders asking them about their growth strategy and sharing with them my info product to build trust. Almost always that leads to them asking what I do (the trick here is to use Linkedin to message them so they can view your profile).
A few weeks ago I started testing another approach, more proactive, applying to full-time remote jobs but pitching my freelance services. The hook is to start with a smaller (paid) project at around $500, like an audit, and based on my findings to lay out a strategy.
If they like what I have to say, we move to a retainer based collaboration.
Hi Daniel, for applying to full-time remote jobs way, did you apply via Linked in as well?
Only via LinkedIn, although I tested other job platforms nothing worked, no replies.
How are you balancing your work-life?
one word: remote
this gives me flexibility to work in the morning 3-4 hours, go to the gym, then go back home and spend some time with the family, and then work again 2-3 works between 8 and 11.