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A couple of weeks ago, Freelancermap published their groundbreaking Freelancer Study 2024, which we both supported and reported on with selected highlights.
The final, extensive PDF report also included quotes from 11 leading freelancing experts, including Robert Vlach as the founder of Freelancing.eu and best-selling author of The Freelance Way. His recommendations quoted in the report were distilled from written answers to submitted questions.
Here are Robert’s answers, published in full as a follow-up. They offer deeper insights into various aspects of freelance entrepreneurship, such as pricing, sales, business negotiations, career strategies, and more. Enjoy!
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Are you struggling to stand out in the crowded freelance market? Austin Church shares a game-changing strategy in this extensive article, encouraging freelancers to consider productized services as a method to boost their business. This involves repackaging your skills into clear, fixed-price offers with defined scopes and deliverables.
As Church says, productized services streamline your workflow and make your offers more attractive by solving direct problems, which means less time marketing and more time earning. He outlines a step-by-step process to transform your freelance offerings, from identifying popular services to combining them into compelling, profitable packages. However, he also mentions the drawbacks, suggesting that they are not suitable for every client or situation.
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Let us introduce you to Impact Hub Dresden, which runs two unique coworking places, where our international freelance meetup takes place next week.
Here’s their intro from our invitation:
“Impact Hub Dresden is a proud member of the international Impact Hub Network. It operates two beautiful coworking spaces known as Hauptbahnhof and Galerie/Zentrum, both close to each other by walking distance. They boast a perfect central location and ideal working environment for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and transformative organizations. You may enjoy carefully designed office space with flexible membership plans, friendly community atmosphere and memorable events.”
In other words, a perfect workplace for freelancers 💜
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In this older but very relevant article, Nick Maggiulli presents how to think about time in relation to economic activities, such as investing or freelancing, and money through the lens of maintaining long-term health.
Maggiulli explains that even a moderate investment of time in exercise (e.g., four hours a week) can yield substantial benefits, adding years of healthy life, which, as we all know, is crucial for us independent professionals.
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Our international freelance meetup at Impact Hub Dresden on June 20–21 is almost here!
Register for free — and check out the program of the event on LinkedIn or Facebook.
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What (not) to do when a potential customer won’t disclose their budget? First of all, avoid drafting a proposal without sufficient information, says Matthew Fenton, who offers some valuable recommendations in the article.
"As a soloist, your time is your inventory. And a proposal is a significant investment of your time. Before writing one, identify the budget owner, the buying process and the fee expectation. Always."
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Here’s a video invite to our upcoming international freelance meetup in Dresden (Germany) on June 20–21, presented by Robert Vlach, founder of Freelancing.eu and best-selling author of The Freelance Way. Robert will hold a debate on freelance business and a workshop on pricing at the event.
Registration is free. See event page on LinkedIn or Facebook for details.
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“Successful freelance pricing is not a one-off calculation. It is a continuous process of gathering intelligence and being bold in acting on it,” explains Robert Vlach in the latest editorial of our newsletter. Read it in full on his Twitter or LinkedIn.
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German Freelancermap published a highly anticipated Freelancer Study 2024 which rightly belongs among Europe’s top surveys focused on freelance economy.
Even though it is not statistically representative (85% respondents were men, 74% senior experts, €98 hourly rate on average), it offers invaluable insights into livelihoods of more affluent European freelancers. Here are some highlights:
See the final PDF report for more data, insights, beautiful visuals and graphs, and quotes by the panel of selected experts.
Great job, Freelancermap and Stefania Volpe nailed it again!
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Robert Vlach was a guest on Freelancers: Next Gen podcast hosted by Matt Dowling of the UK’s Freelancer Club. The result is a fantastic, broad-ranging interview of the two figures shaping the current freelance discourse on important issues—from freelance advocacy and policy (from Matt’s side) to turning increased demand into better business deals and conditions, preventing stagnation in freelance pricing, and more. Listen on Spotify:
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