The most underutilized method of acquiring new clients

Direct outreach includes e-mail prospecting, sending letters in the mail, etc.

Many don't believe direct outreach works. They are inundated with spammy requests all day and thus, they think all direct outreach is spammy.

But the truth is, direct outreach is an effective method of acquiring new work and it doesn't have to be spammy.

Personally, direct outreach has lead to 30% of my income this year.

My goal with this post is to share with you a few methods on utilizing direct outreach to grow your freelancing business.

Blog, Business Development, Consulting, Creative Guides, Freelancing, Launch your Career, Marketing, Remote workJake JorgovanNovember 16, 2014direct outreach, e-mail prospecting, kurt elster interview, work remotely, work remotely and travel

It's time to rethink networking

If you are like most people, you hate networking.

The idea of walking into a room and schmoozing a bunch of people hoping to find an ideal prospect probably sounds horrible.

But networking doesn't have to be that way.

My goal in this post is to share with you just a few ways to expand your network without feeling sleazy about it.

Blog, Creative Guides, Creative Projects, Business Development, Consulting, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, MarketingJake JorgovanNovember 3, 2014

The art of client communication : How to win clients and keep them happy

One of the biggest areas of freelancing that many people fail to even think about is client communication.

Client communication may be one of the single most important factors in building your business.

How you connect with clients has the ability to turn one off jobs into repeat clients, referrals, and raving testimonials.

My goal with this post is to teach you some of the basic concepts of client communication.

Blog, Business Development, Creative Guides, Consulting, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your CareerJake JorgovanOctober 26, 2014client communication, freelancing, art of client communication

The 9 steps of selling a creative project

There is one question that I get over and over again from creatives.

How do you handle the sales process of a creative project?

Sales is scary when it is foreign to you. Yet a strong understanding of how a sale flows from beginning to end will make it much easier to handle.

My goal with this post is to walk you through the entire sales process from beginning to end.

Blog, Business Development, Consulting, Creative Guides, Creative Projects, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your CareerJake JorgovanOctober 7, 2014

The secret to building a steady freelance income

One of the biggest struggles for many freelancers is building a steady income. There is always this constant fear of not knowing wear the next job is coming from, and that drives many freelancers either crazy or bankrupt.

It doesn't have to be that way.

In this post I will give you some simple strategies and tactics that can help you build a steady pipeline of clients and flow of income for your freelance business.

Blog, Business Development, Consulting, Creative Guides, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, MarketingJake JorgovanAugust 24, 2014how to generate steady freelance income, steady freelancing income, freelance marketing

How to work with friends and not end up hating each other

The first place that creatives should look for sales when getting started or when thing slow down is their existing network.

Your friends, coworkers, past employers and acquaintances can all be great sources of freelance projects and quick wins.

But if you don't handle these project properly, it is easy to ruin a once great friendship.

My goal with this blog post is to teach you how to work with friends and acquaintances and keep those relationships strong throughout the process.

Business Development, Consulting, Creative Guides, Creative Work, Freelancing, BlogJake JorgovanAugust 17, 2014working with friends, how to work with friends

The unconventional pricing strategy that tripled my income

One of the biggest problems for creatives is figuring out how much do I charge?

In this post I am going to break down the traditional guidance about pricing and teach you a non-conventional pricing strategy that will rock your bank account.

Business Development, Consulting, Creative Guides, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, Marketing, BlogJake JorgovanAugust 9, 2014freelancer pricing, creative freelancer pricing, unconventional pricing strategies, value based pricing

How to write proposals and actually win them

A few months ago I adopted a new proposal system and I have been astonished by the results.

I am closing twice as many clients and at higher budgets than ever before.

In this post I outlined the proposal process in it's entiretey and also include an example proposal for reference

Business Development, Consulting, Creative Guides, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, BlogJake JorgovanAugust 3, 2014how to write a design proposa, creative proposal writing

How to make sales not feel sleazy

For many creatives, sales can feel sleazy.

For others, they simply don't know what to do and botch every potential sale they come across.

In this post, I am going to cover a sales technique that is extremely easy to learn and that will help you turn sales from something intimidating, to something fun.