Weekly discussion by freelancers and professionals about running a business, finding clients, marketing, and lifestyle related to being a freelancer.
Episode 357: TFS 345: Who is The Economic Buyer of Your Services?
In this episode of The Freelancers Show, Erik Dietrich explains the term economic buyer and how it can affect freelancers and business owners. An economic buyer is the person within an organization who has the authority to purchase something. Knowing who your economic buyer is will affect how you market your product, for freelancers, this includes labor or services. Starting with the most desirable, Erik lists the main types of buyers’ situations. The first is the autonomous buyer situation. A lone buyer makes the decision about purchasing a product. Erik shares the example of a manager taking the team out for lunch. They didn’t have to consult anyone and decided to do that on their own. The next situation and the second most desirable after the autonomous buyer situation is the buyer and research assistant/influencer. For this situation, Erik uses the example of the CIO or director of engineering choosing the new IDE for a new project. They may not care about the finer details or don’t have the technical know-how or time to do the research, so the pick someone to do the leg work and allow them to advise them on the purchase. The next situation is the buyer committee. In this situation, the committee debates the purchase and will eventually make the purchasing decision. Erik shares an example of an organization overhauling its website and wanting to get a CMS and starting a blog for marketing purposes. This involves IT and Marketing and has multiple paths to choose from. The last and least desirable situation is the system/algorithm. The example Erik shares is the hiring process for a large organization. An interview is held by someone who has little or no authority in hiring, they are there to play their part in the system. The actual buyer would be the CIO or VP of engineering, who would sign your checks. They can’t be involved directly so they delegate to someone who delegates to someone else, leaving standing orders to fill a specific number of positions. The developer hired is as Erik puts it of no valuable than a stapler to an office manager, they are replaceable. Erik explains the more you can talk directly to the buyer the more advantageous the situation is. He goes over examples of different types of economic buyers. The economic buyer you deal with will vary based on the size of the organization, the larger the organization the more vertically distributed the economic buyers get. The highest authority starts at the top and slowly trickles down, the economic buyers you deal with have varying names and degrees of authority. Next, Erik explains what difference this all makes from a sales and marketing perspective. With a system/algorithm it is very difficult as each process differs, so marketing to a system takes a lot of effort and time for each organization. With a buyers committee, it is possible to train yourself to address rooms full of people and maintain more control over the process. Buyers and research assistant/influencer situation is even easier with only two people to convince. The best situation is dealing directly with the buyer, with only one person to get to know and convince. Erik gives advice on how to go from appealing to the whims of a system to working directly with the economic buyers. First, he suggests switching things up and marketing to smaller organizations that don’t have a system. Doing this could help you the credibility needed to work directly with economic buyers higher up in a larger organization. Another way is by looking at the four-step problem-solving solution. This is where you diagnose a problem, prescribe a therapy, apply the therapy and finally, reapply the therapy. Start by looking at your context in the solution, most likely you are applying therapy. Knowing this you can work your way backward and find the diagnoses. The diagnoses made by the economic buyer can help you understand what the buyer cares about. Another suggestion he gives is working your way up the value chain, working through each level of economic buyer, finding what the next level cares about and marketing towards them. Or, he suggests selling smaller offerings that will change up your economic buyers. Finally, he explains the first step to any of this is by thinking about who your economic buyer is, get your wheels turning on how to reach those people. Just doing this will help you market more efficiently which will lead to more work and help you be better in what you do. Panelists Erik Dietrich Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan Sustain Our Software My Angular Story CacheFly Links https://twitter.com/daedtech https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Erik Dietrich: Million Dollar Consulting The Hit Subscribe Side-Hustle Email List
Episode 356: TFS 344: Publishing Books
In this episode of The Freelancers Show the panel share advice and experiences for publishing technical books. Each of the panelists has experience publishing books. Reuven Lerner published a book, Core Perl back in 2000, using a publisher and has self-published two more books in recent years. He is currently republishing one of his self-published books using a publisher. Erik Dietrich has written three books, two of which were published through a friend and the third was self-published. Jeremy Green contributed to The Independent Consulting Manual and runs a SAS called Remarq, a tool for those who want to self-publish. Why write a book? The panel warns listeners that if your goal is to make money that most likely will not happen. They explain that authors who make real money from their books are rare and authors who make money off of technical books are even more rare. One reason to write a book is so that people will know your name and want to hire yours. Another reason is that writing a book will give you more credibility with clients. Having published a book can really impress clients, Erik shares how his book has brought him leads. Reuven explains how it shows prospective clients how knowledgeable and reliable he is, this is one reason he is republishing his book through an actual publisher. By having a publishing company publish his book it verifies his expertise for prospective clients, or as Erik puts it a book is social proof of your expertise. By having a published book, Erik receives a lot fewer requests for references or other proof of knowledge. The panel addresses the profits made by publishing a book. Reuven shares a little of his experience both with a publisher and without one when it came to making money. His first book Core Perl he went through a publisher and didn’t make more than the advance they gave him. Frustrated he decided to self-publish his next two books. Reuven admits he was a fool for turning down the publisher when they approached him about one of his books. Since working with that publisher, they have sold more than 4x as many copies as he had in four years. He may not make more money but his name will reach more people. Jeremy explains one of the downsides of going through a publisher. When a publisher sells your book you don’t get any information on who buys your book. You can’t reach out to them. You can’t share other products with them. When self-publishing you get all that information and are able to do those things to drum up more business. The panel explains that there are three parts to self-publishing a book. First is the production of the book, writing it. Next, how and where to sell your book. The last thing to consider is marketing, how do you reach the people who will buy your book. The panel addresses each step and shares advice. Jeremy explains how Remarq uses markdown in the production step of publishing the book. Reuven shares what he is currently using for his publishers and admits he would rather be using Remarq. In the past, Reuven has used so many different toolsets and each one was frustrating. The once piece of advice the panel has for production besides the tooling is to focus on the informational content first and design second. Selling the book, Reuven explains how he used nearly everything to try and sell his book the first time around. Selling your book on your own is a major time suck and headache. Reuven suggests doing as he did and going through a third party, they have it all figured out. Lastly marketing, Erik advises building a funnel to your site using youtube or other media, if you are unwilling to use amazon to market your book as he does. Reuven explains how he advertises his books like courses and mentions his book everywhere he can. It is hard to compete with publishers when it comes to marketing, they have the numbers and the followers. Writing for a specific audience will make marketing easier. If you know who you are writing for then you will know how to market to them before your book is even done. Jeremy suggests using people from your target audience to read and review your book as you right, not only will this help you focus your book but will also have people who will spread the word about your book. Now that they cover self-publishing, Reuven shares what it is like working with a publisher. It starts with a development editor, someone who finds authors and books to publish. Then you sign a contract with or without the help of an agent. Only after you sign the contract do you get assigned to an actual editor and a technical reviewer. These will read everything you write and give you feedback. His work is also read by a group of reviewers who give back feedback, some of which is a little harsh but all of which helps the book be better. Reuven explains how all of this has been a positive experience and that his book is better for it. The last topic address in this episode is when you should you write a book. First, you must like to write, the panel advises those who hate writing not to write a book. Second, you must have something to write about. Publish something in a niche. You won’t make any headway writing a book about a well-known language and a well-known topic. Next, you need to have a plan for your book. Ask yourself what you want to get from writing this book. Lastly, find your audience, write a book that will appeal to your client base, not your peers. Panelists Jeremy Green Erik Dietrich Reuven Lerner Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan Adventures in Blockchain React Native Radio CacheFly Links Core Perl Python Workout Blurb AsciiDoc Gumroad https://twitter.com/jagthedrummer https://twitter.com/daedtech https://twitter.com/reuvenmlerner https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Jeremy Green: Remarq.io The Independent Consulting Manual. Erik Dietrich: Starting to Unit Test Developer Hegemony: The Future of Labor Reuven Lerner: The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age
Episode 355: TFS 343: Defining Success
Episode Summary In this week’s episode of The Freelancers Show the panel discusses the importance of defining success. Jeremy Green explains why this concept of defining what success means to you is so important. Without success behind defined you might put your nose to the grindstone and miss your own success. Inversely you might be grinding away, missing the signs that what you are doing isn’t taking you to success and you need to stop and reevaluate. The panel considers some of the obvious signs of success like key performance indicators. Are you making enough to pay your bills, save and play? It is easy to think success is making a million dollars. If that is your definition of success, the panel explains that you will all your success along the way. They invite everyone to sit down and really think of what success means to you. How do you want to spend your time? Are you doing something you love? Do you want to spend more time with friends and family? Jeremy explains why he wanted to talk about this topic. He went to a conference and this seemed to come up a lot during talks at the conference. It can be hard to reconcile how you feel about success when looking at other people and their circumstances. Deciding what success means to you can help guide your life and get rid of some of that uncertainty. Erik explains the hedonic treadmill, which shows a phenomenon that says highs from successes wear off fasters than the pain of failure. No matter how high you climb there is always someone higher and your success of getting where you are is forgotten as you attempt to catch the person above you. If you set goals then you can more easily see the success as the come along. Jeremy shares some of his success criteria. He realized at this conference that he was doing well enough in freelancing and consulting that could pull back and focus more on other things he has been wanting to improve. He realized he got sidetracked and started grinding towards saving as much money as he could for retirement. By figuring out his goals, he saw that was actually doing much better than he thought and didn’t need to grind so much. Erik describes a similar moment of realization for him at the end of 2016. He was feeling pretty burnt out from traveling, so he sat down and quantified all his work for that year and decide what he wanted out of his lifestyle and made goals in his work life to help him reach that lifestyle. Erik explains that by not having explicit goals, implicit goals be pressed on us by our surroundings. The panel considers how in this world there is never enough money, but by defining our earning goals and deciding what is enough for us, we can find success in more than one way. The panel considers how easily freelancers can get carried away overworking and pushing themselves. Employees have an employer that won’t let them overwork, employees have gaurd rails that protect them from this sort of abuse. Freelancers constantly feel that pressure to use their time wisely, to do more. By defining success, you give yourself a way to take an objective look and say I am doing well, I can’t take the night off. Erik shares his approach to this process. He explains that he starts by looking at his life and what will make him happy and work his goals back to work from there. He gives tips on how to quantify qualitative things in your life so you can evaluate your success. The definition you give to success is very personal and will differ for each person. The panel considers it from a Maslow’s Hierarchy of business standpoint. The survival needs being are you staying afloat and the different needs moving up a pyramid all the way up to self-actualization or success. Finally, the panel discusses the need to define failure as well as success. It’s important to know when to bail out or reevaluate a situation. Panelists Jeremy Green Erik Dietrich Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan Adventures in DevOps Views on Vue CacheFly Links https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Jeremy Green: Company of One The Mythical Man Month Erik Dietrich: The 4-Hour Workweek Hit Subscribe
Episode 354: TFS 342: B2B vs. B2C
Episode Summary In this week’s episode of The Freelancers Show, Reuven Lerner teaches about B2B and B2C business strategies, giving advice and examples from his own life. He begins by defining B2B or business to business, selling your services to businesses. This type of exchange usually happens behind scenes, Sysko being one example of a B2B company. B2B doesn’t necessarily mean businesses, it could be government agencies or non-profits. Reuven defines B2C or business to consumer, selling a product or service to individuals. This type of business is seen all the time in advertisements and tv commercials, Coca Cola is the example he gives. The first thing to decide is what you want to sell and then to whom. Next, Reuven explains why most freelancers go with B2B. It is an established and safer route, especially if you are offering something like web development or web design. Companies are always looking for that kind of help, using contractors and agencies. Reuven does Python training for companies, which is a B2B service. Reuven goes on to talk about how to find B2B clients. There are two ways to do this outbound or outreach and inbound, which Reuven prefers. Outreach, he explains is reaching out to companies and offering them your services. Reuven gives some advice on this but explains that it is very difficult to get in and very easy to be brushed off. Inbound, meaning your clients find you. He explains that inbound is all about making yourself recognized as an authority, which can take years to build that kind of reputation. Why works so hard for B2B business? The simple answer Reuven gives is money. He explains that if you do get in then you can become that company’s go-to person for years. An example he gives form his own life is a company that purchases trainings from him every year. Reuven gives the most common timelines from making contact to actually doing the job at 6 months to a year and advises listeners to plan ahead. Reuven’s advice for getting in is to get in front of a head technical person. The way he does this is through speaking at conferences but webinars and blog posts will help with this. Webinars and blog posts could not only catch the eye of a head technical person but will also them you know what you are doing. Next, Reuven prepares listeners by explaining what businesses will expect from you. B2B will be way more formal, including paperwork and contracts. He advises listeners that businesses will expect them to be incorporated and insured, treating them as a business. Moving on to B2C, Reuven discusses the types of products developers might offer to consumers, e-books, online courses, training, and coaching. He explains that the main advantage of B2C over B2B is that there are a lot more people in the world than there are businesses. Rueven explains that the key to success with B2C is volume. He goes over ways of reaching people, videos, blog posts, and posts using Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube. Reuven spends a lot of time discussing mailing lists. He shares the doubts he felt about mailing lists when he first heard of them but strongly suggests that everyone has one. He explains the advantages of using mailing lists. Reuven shares free content with subscribers, getting his name out there, while also including advertisements for his products. Reuven shares some of the specific details of how his mailing list works. YouTube is the next topic Reuven talks about. YouTubers can get thousands of followers, Reuven himself is currently working on building up his following. In his videos, he shares free python information all while advertising his products and building up his credibility. One last tip for B2C, Reuven suggests you have multiple products. More product means more for people to buy. People can become very loyal and you could end up with groupies waiting for your next product. Cross overs between B2C and B2B, Reuven explains is very unlikely. He shares instances where this has happened which were quite rare. He explains a way he is hoping to see more crossover through his mailing list. Considering that both B2B and B2C both take considerable amounts of time, Reuven suggests focusing on one. When it comes down to it, Reuven, for the most part, suggests B2B. He explains that it is easier to get started in B2B. B2C is very risky because you start out as an unknown and untested resource. Reuven talks about the time that he tried this in the beginning and it did not go well. The only exception he makes is if you have a niche market that fills a hole, a product or course that people are desperate for. Panelists Reuven Lerner Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan Adventures in DevOps Views on Vue CacheFly Links https://www.drip.com/ https://www.youtube.com/reuvenlerner http://lerner.co.il/newsletter https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Reuven Lerner: Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
Episode 353: TFS 341: From Freelancer to Agency Owner
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan Adventures in DevOps Views on Vue CacheFly Panel Erik Dietrich Summary Erik Dietrich, the owner of Hit Subscribe, does a solo episode on the journey from freelancer to agency owner. He starts by defining three different roles in this journey, freelancer, business owner, and agency owner. He overviews the typical journey from freelancer to agency owner and evolution of roles and responsibilities that occurs on this journey. He then outlines his own journey. Erik discusses the possible motivations one might have for becoming an agency owner, money, equity, and time. He also addresses the struggles of being an agency owner. He lists questions to ask yourself before deciding to go down this path. He ends the episode by giving advice to those who decide this is something they want. Links https://daedtech.com https://join.dynamitecircle.com/ https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Erik Dietrich: Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html https://www.hitsubscribe.com/
Episode 352: TFS 340: Content Marketing for Freelancers in 2019
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan Adventures in DevOps Views on Vue CacheFly Panel Erik Dietrich Summary Erik Dietrich does a solo episode sharing his content marketing expertise. Erik runs a content marketing agency, Hit Subscribe, he starts by sharing his background and how he got to this point. He defines marketing as a strategy to show your goods to your customer, content marketing is doing this with content. He explains that by offering free content you build trust with your audience. Listing the various types of content, blogs, video, podcasting, email and more, Erik ranks them on their effectiveness and gives his recommendations. Start with one source of content and make it sustainable, this is Erik’s first recommendation, once you have that down, expand but maintain that sustainability. Unless your situation is desperate, Erik encourages everyone to start content marketing. He explains the benefits, filtering out clients that are a bad fit, finding leads, and the value of an audience. He also explains that content marketing is the long game and to manage your expectations while staying motivated. Erik leaves the listeners with valuable tips for how to get started and to maintain and how to grow your content marketing. Links https://www.hitsubscribe.com/ https://devchat.tv/freelancers/choosing-content-marketing-topics/ https://devchat.tv/freelancers/228-fs-non-writing-content-marketing-methods/ https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Erik Dietrich: Hit Subscribe’s Youtube Channel Whiteboard Friday Ahref’s Youtube Channel
Episode 351: TFS 339: The Dark Side of Freelancing
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan CacheFly Panel Erik Dietrich Jeremy Green Summary Jeremy Green and Erik Dietrich discuss the unforeseen pain points of becoming a freelancer and share solutions that they have used in their lives and businesses to address these pain points. They considered pipeline management, not having enough work, having too much work and having ill-fitting work. How companies treat vendors and dealing with rejection are discussed. The loneliness of a freelancers life and how to combat it are considered. The hidden cost of working on your own and owning a business are addressed, including health insurance and taxes. The positives and negatives of time and money management are compared. They warn against bad clients and give warning signs against them. Links https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Erik Dietrich: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field Jeremy Green: The Independent Consulting Manual Increase Your Consulting Fees - Email Course
Episode 350: TFS 338: The Devchat.tv Mission and Journey with Charles Max Wood
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan CacheFly Host: Charles Max Wood Episode Summary Charles talks about his journey as a podcaster and his mission with Devchat.tv. Devchat.tv is designed to home podcasts that speak to all developer communities. Charles also plans Devchat.tv to host shows for technologies that are on the verge of a breakthrough and will be a lot more widely available in the near future such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). There are new shows being added continuously to reach out to new communities, some examples of which are: a Data Science show, a DevOps show and an Open Source show. As a kid, Charles would record his own shows on a tape recorder. He was always interested in technology. While studying Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University, he worked in the University's Operations Center. Upon graduation, he started working for Mozy where he was introduced to podcasts. Listen to the show to find out the rest of Charles' story, some of the lessons and tips he learned throughout his journey and the evolution of the shows on Devchat.tv. If there isn't a show for your community and you would like there one to be, reach out to Charles. Also if there was a podcast about a programming related subject that ended abruptly and you would like it to continue, reach out to Charles. Devchat.tv would like to host these podcasts. Links Charles' Twitter EverywhereJS JavaScript Community EverywhereRB Ruby and Rails Community Find Your Dream Job As A Developer Devchat.tv on Facebook Devchat.tv Picks EverywhereJS JavaScript Community EverywhereRB Ruby and Rails Community Netlify Eleventy https://github.com/cmaxw/devchat-eleventy
Episode 349: TFS 337: Breaking the Cycle of Indefinite Engagements
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry’s small plan CacheFly Panel Erik Dietrich Reuven Lerner Summary Erik and Rueven define indefinite engagements, warning against staff augmentation type of consulting and contracting gigs. They explain how this is not a good business strategy. Thinking of yourself as a business is the first step to breaking out of these types of engagements. Erik and Reuven give more advice for breaking away including having savings before breaking away, identifying what your best at, market testing and weaning your current client. The benefits and drawbacks of working shorter and more high powered gigs are considered. The episode ends with a discussion of the importance of maintaining good relationships and a good reputation. Links https://www.facebook.com/freelancersshow/ Picks Erik Dietrich: https://TubeBuddy.com/ http://HitSubscribe.com/ Reuven Lerner: https://YouTube.com/reuvenlerner Long, daily walks -- try it!
Episode 348: TFS 336: Personal Finance for Freelancers
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan Paymo |Opt for monthly & get 30% discount on paid plans for 6 months CacheFly Panel Eric Dietrich Reuven Lerner Summary The panel shares experiences and advice for managing finances as a small business owner. They discuss the differences in personal finance as a salaried employee and consultant. The panel explains unexpected expenses when becoming a freelancer such as health insurance, taxes and gives advice on how to handle them. The importance of savings and retirement are considered. The panel advises keeping personal funds and business funds separate and consider what you can expense to your business for tax right offs. Picks Eric Dietrich: Expensify.com streamable.com Reuven Lerner: The Tick - Season 2 https://store.lerner.co.il/pandas
Episode 347: TFS 335: Financial Models
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan Paymo | Opt for monthly & get 30% discount on paid plans for 6 months CacheFly Panel Eric Dietrich Reuven Lerner Summary The panel discusses different billing models and their experiences with each. They start by sharing their current billing model, upfront payment. Net +30 and Net +60 are discussed; the panel advises freelancers to get used to waiting for payment. The upsides and downsides of hourly billing, fixed rates, value pricing, and retainers are considered. The panel explains how to choose a billing model, how to evolve to other models and how to raise your rates. Picks Eric Dietrich: Million Dollar Consulting https://www.hitsubscribe.com/apply-to-be-an-author/ Reuven Lerner: Alexander Hamilton
Episode 346: TFS 334: Working Across Borders
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan Paymo | Opt for monthly & get 30% discount on paid plans for 6 months Try GanttPRO FREE for 14 days | Software Development project template Use coupon code “devchat” to get $50 for using GanttPRO CacheFly Panel Eric Dietrich Jeremy Green Reuven Lerner Summary The panel discusses working across borders, sharing examples and advice. They discuss the best ways to receive payment. Currency exchange rates are considered. The panel discusses paying taxes and the different types of taxes in different countries. They share how they communicate with clients and how they manage contracts. They advise getting the correct work visas and professional insurance. Links https://stripe.com/ Picks Jeremy Green: Chernobyl Miniseries on HBO Eric Dietrich: transferwise.com zoom.us Reuven Lerner: A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, and More Efficient Tax System https://www.azlo.com/
Episode 345: TFS 333- Conference Booths
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry small plan Paymo| Opt for monthly & get 30% discount on paid plans for 6 months Try GanttPRO FREE for 14 days| Software Development project template Use coupon code “devchat” to get $50 for using GanttPRO CacheFly Panel Jeremy Green Erik Dietrich Reuven Lerner Episode Summary The panel discusses the advantages of having a booth at a conference. Having a booth at a conference is a great way to learn about how conference advertising and finance works. It is also a great way to network and collect leads. Reuven talks about his experience at getting a booth at Pycon 2019. He shares tips on what to give out at the booths such as flyers and t-shirts and how many to order and in what sizes. He talks about the best way to work out the logistics for the materials for the booth and tips on attracting visitors to the booth. One takeaway Reuven had for his next booth was to have more Medium sized t-shirts made! Listen to the show to learn about more tips on getting a booth at a conference and the best spot to place your booth at the conference job fair. Picks Jeremy Green: Interactive Composition by V.J. Manzo and by Will Kuhn Chernobyl Miniseries on HBO Erik Dietrich: RetroGames Website Putting Your Phone on Airplane Mode Overnight Reuven Lerner: Logitech R800 Wireless Laser Presentation Remote
Episode 344: TFS 332: When to Offer Discounts
Sponsors Sentry– use the code “devchat” for two months free on Sentry small plan Paymo | Opt for monthly & get 30% discount on paid plans for 6 months Try GanttPRO FREE for 14 days | Software Development project template Use coupon code “devchat” to get $50 for using GanttPRO CacheFly Panel Jeremy Green Erik Dietrich Summary The panel goes into detail on the most common reasons to give a discount, sharing experiences and whether or not it's a good idea to give these types of discounts. They generally agree that a "friends and family discount" is never a good idea and discuss the long term problems it can cause both in relationships and your business. The panel discusses offering a discount to get your foot in the door and to better your portfolio. Supporting non-profits and making sure you receive the proper credit for your work is discussed. Offering discounts as part of your business model is considered, discounts such as paying upfront or high volume discounts, are weighed. Jeremy Green shares an experience and warning against helping a business just because you like what they are doing. The panel gives advice on how to say no to someone asking for a discount. They finish the episode with more advice on why to give a discount and explain some of the negative effects giving out too many discounts or giving discounts for the wrong reason can have on your business. Links https://www.squarespace.com https://www.shopify.com Picks Jeremy Green: Practical Object-Oriented Design, An Agile Primer Using Ruby Erik Dietrich: Ready Player One Hit to subscribe
Episode 343: TFS 331: Using a CRM
Sponsors: Sentryuse the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan .TECH – tech/Freelancer and use the coupon code “FREELANCER.TECH” and get a 1 year .TECH Domain at $9.99 and 5 Year Domain at $49.99. Hurry! Try GanttPRO FREE for 14 days| Software Development project template Use coupon code “devchat” to get $50 for using GanttPRO CacheFly Panel: Jeremy Green Erik Dietrich Reuven Lerner Jonathan Stark Episode Summary: In this episode of the Freelancers' Show, the panel talks about advantages of using a CRM software in their freelance business. They share their own experiences of how their business improved when they started using it and why they needed one in the first place. Picks: Jeremy Green: Sanebox Erik Dietrich: The Hiring Post Giftly Jonathan Stark: The Trusted Advisor Interview with Charles Green, author of the Trust Advisors Reuven Lerner: The Trusted Advisor Disrupted Amazing sandwich suggestion: peanut butter + pickles + hot sauce