Blog
Honest, practical notes for freelancers and small teams. No filler, no invented statistics, no busywork.
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Pitching editors: what actually gets commissioned
How to pitch an editor and read the commission that follows: angle over topic, kill fees, first serial rights versus work for hire, and when you get paid.
Thinking like an owner: the mental shifts that change your numbers
Four pricing beliefs that show up directly in what you charge, each paired with the number it moves, including what a 15% discount costs you to undo later.
The proposal document: what to include and what to leave out
What a freelance proposal needs to win work and protect your margin: outcome, scope boundary, exclusions, price options, payment terms, expiry date.
The operating habits that separate freelancers who last
Five freelance operating habits, each with the metric that proves you do it: invoice lag, same-day hours, pipeline weeks, change orders, effective rate.
Cold email that gets a reply, line by line
A cold email template annotated line by line, plus the four-minute research that makes it work and the CAN-SPAM, PECR and GDPR rules that apply to you.
The mistakes that lose the deal, by stage
Deals die at five specific points, not at the price. The most common mistake at each stage of a freelance sale, what it costs, and the change to make.
What the person hiring you is actually worried about
The four risks a client carries when they hire a freelancer, why each one loses you work you were qualified for, and the exact lines that remove them.
The conditions that predict whether freelancing works, not the personality
Freelance survival is predicted by circumstances rather than temperament. Five conditions that actually forecast the outcome, and how to test each one today.
Other freelancers are your best referral source
Peer referrals and subcontracting, money first: who holds the contract, who carries the payment risk, what margin the prime keeps, and what a fee is worth.
The first 90 days after you leave: what has to be running
An operational plan for days 30, 60 and 90 of full-time freelancing, built around the reason cash gaps appear in your busiest month rather than your slowest.
A seven-day plan for when you need work now
Seven days, one finite action each, ordered by how fast the channel turns into cash: past clients first, cold outreach last, with the message to send.
Where your pipeline is actually leaking
Five pipeline stages, the symptom at each, the likely cause and the one change to test. Why more leads is usually the wrong fix and the expensive one.