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Introduction
So you’ve got a skill that you want
to turn around and monetize? Great! You’re not the only one.
In fact, there’s an army of people out there that think that
they can do a better job than you at whatever you want to sell or
offer.
Using some of the advice listed in this
report, we will show you how to avoid some of the pitfalls and
traps that the majority of freelance workers face.
Ultimately, your success relies on how
good you are and how dedicated you are, but at the very least,
we’ll help you cut through some of the horse crap that can
get in the way of you running a successful sideline business.
Time is money and money is time. Take your
pick for what you personally find the most important but for the
author it’s all the same. If you’ve ever purchased an
e-book online in the past, you’ve probably quickly realized
that a whole lot of it is fluff. E-book authors love to justify the
price of your purchase based on the number of pages that they
provide you. This makes no sense. Essentially, you are paying THEM
to waste YOUR time.
The bottom line is simple. You bought
information and you want information. The point is not to flood you
with useless information but rather give you relevant information
that is easily absorbed.
What’s a Sideline
Business?
Anything you want it to be. Everyone has
talents and skills that someone else is looking for. Personally,
I’m a technology specialist and do make a fair amount of
money providing technology services to those who require them.
What makes my sideline is the fact that I
do have a fulltime job with fulltime responsibilities. I love my
job and the people I work with (most of them anyways) and I have no
intention of leaving my work. My sideline helps me pay the bills,
and expands my professional network to the point where, if anything
happens at work, I can still live comfortably for a while servicing
other customers.
Think of the things you’re good at.
Better yet, think about the things you love doing. Almost anything
and everything that you can think of can turn around and make you
some money.
Why do you want to Sideline?
So many people out there are trying to get
you to fall for the “Get Quick Rich” garbage.
Don’t fall for it. The information and advice provided in
this report will help you forge your own sideline business that can
generate a bit of extra income for you. You’re not going to
quit your job using this advice unless you really want to. This is
not what a sideline is about. It’s about making that car
payment, or buying that vacation down south. More important than
anything, a good sideline makes it easy to go to work because you
know that not all your eggs are in the same basket.
Chapter 1 – Be Reachable
What’s the point in starting a
sideline if you’re not going to have any customers? It all
depends on your market. At a minimum, there are a few things that
you’re going to need in order to market yourself.
1) Business Cards
2) Some kind of online presence
3) An phone line
4) An email address
What does all this have in common? They
are ways for people to contact you. You are nobody if people
can’t find you. I’m dead serious about this.
Let’s take a look at how you’re going to set this
up.
Business Cards
A simple inexpensive business card is key.
Here’s what you do. Go to your local Staples and get the
plainest card possible. You don’t need the glitter and the
embossed writing. Save your money. On this card, you put your name,
your telephone number, email address and website address.
Do not indicate what products or services
you are offering unless you are 100% sure that you will be offering
these services for a long time. I assume that if you are reading
this guide, it’s because you’re starting out, so
don’t lock yourself into product or service that you might
not want to offer in a month or so. At least this way, if you
change your mind, you’re cards can still be used. A business
card is not a brochure but rather a way for people to contact you
so you don’t need to write down everything you do.
For example, Johanne is a part time closet
organizer. She doesn’t need to have the words “Closet
Organizer” written under her name. This would lock her down
into only doing closets. Rather, she could put down that she is
into life space management, which can encompass everything from
closets to office space.
I don’t want you guys to spend your
money on something that cannot be used in the future. The best
course of action is to keep a business card simple and to the
point. If you’re going to be handing it out, make sure you
let people know what you are offering. Trust me, they’ll
remember you if you make a good impression.
Online Presence
You do not need a big website or dot com.
Why? Because it’s a waste of time and money if you’re
not into the technical field. What you need is a page somewhere
online that is easily accessible, simple and easy to use.
Last year, a friend of mine wanted to
start an after hours car repair business. His first instincts was
to go online and register FredsAutoRepairService.com. He even found
another “friend” of his to create this great website.
Bottom line is, he wasted his time and money building a site. Fred
doesn’t sell websites or programming, he sells car repair
services. He need one page that outlines what he offers, who he is,
where he is located and how to contact him. That’s it. All
that could have been put together in about half an hour. If Fred
went to a site like Blogger.com, he could have started a simple
blog named FredsRepair.blogger.com with all the information needed.
In fact, his site would have been indexed by search engines quickly
because he was on blogger.com. You don’t need to have a full
website going to attract business. In fact, your website
isn’t about attracting business, but rather to have your
business contact you. Here’s what you need for your page:
1) Your name
2) Your service
3) Your rates
4) Your address
5) Your phone number
6) Your email address
You can dress the page up if you want, and
use colors you like and all that stuff, but just make sure you get
that site up quickly and for the love of God, keep it simple.
Earlier, I told you to put your site
address on your business card, but I also told you to not directly
advertise your services on your card. In the case of Fred,
FredsRepair.blogger.com would pretty much be a dead giveaway to the
services he is offering and as such would lock him into a
particular product and service. Here’s a good trick to use in
order to make your address completely generic. Once you have your
simple site going, go to http://webalias.com/ and sign up for a
free redirection account. What this company does is create an alias
of your site address using their own name. So in essence,
FredsRepair.blogger.com could be http://up.to/fredsmith. If at
anytime Fred decides to change his service offering, he can
redirect http://up.to/fredsmith to point to
fredsmarriagecounselling.blogger.com instead.
If for some reason, you need to have a
full website and don’t know where to start, then simply email
me and we’ll see what we can do.
A Phone Line
This is a very simple thing to cover. You
don’t want customers calling you at home, but at the same
time you don’t want to miss calls while you’re out. Get
the cheapest cell phone possible and put it on a pay as you go
card. It’ll cost you next to nothing to have and your
business will have it’s own phone number. Add the voicemail
option and create a professional answering message. Using this
method, if ever you decide to stop sidelining, you cut service to
the phone and you get your life back.
An Email Address
Hotmail.com, Gmail.com or Yahoo.com.
Create a generic account that reflects you as a person and not your
services. By this I mean
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
and not
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Once again, you aren’t locked
down!
I personally advocate using Gmail,
Google’s email service. With Gmail, you can create multiple
email accounts that can be forwarded to one email account of your
choice. If you really wanted to have a specific email address like
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, you could forward that email address to
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. This makes email checking simple because
every single email address you have will be forwarded to a single
email account.
Chapter 2 – Market
Yourself
This step really depends on your market. A
plumber would market himself differently than say, a freelance
programmer. Here are a few pointers.
Online Marketing
Classified Ads
First and foremost, you need to advertise
your services on classified ads sites. Different countries and
regions have different sites that offer free classified ads, so
Google around to find the best ones for you. Once again, keep your
ad simple and enter the information that is found on your simple
webpage. Give people a way to contact you and let them know the
services you offer. Most of these sites are free, so don’t
worry about not going into specifics. In fact, be a bit more
specific on these sites since you can run multiple ads and expire
any ads that you don’t think are relevant to you anymore.
Facebook
Why not let your friends, family and
extended social network know about the services you offer? The best
advertising you will get is word of mouth advertising and Facebook
is great for that. For example, use your contact list to message
your friends and let them know what you are up to. Also, on your
“What are you doing now?” message, talk about the
current project you are working on so that people get notified of
the work you are doing. Set up a photo album on your Facebook page
that displays images and pictures of whatever you are trying to
sell. Inversely, you can create a Facebook page specifically for
your business. This way you can add your customers as friends, and
their friends will see you listed. It’s a great, worry-free
way of generating word of mouth adverstising.
Email Signature
In your email client, set up an automatic
signature where in one sentence, you describe the services you
offer. It’s crazy sometime how a forwarded email or joke can
find it’s way to thousands of people. It’s viral
marketing.
Real World Marketing
There are many different ways to advertise
your services. The best ways are the ones that give you the best
return for the money you spend and because we don’t like to
spend money, here are a couple of free ways to let people know that
you exist.
1. Give out your business card to as many
quality people as possible: By quality, I mean people who have
follow up potential. Leaving a business card with the homeless guy
you gave a buck to is not really what we would call good business
potential. Try leaving a few business cards with good friends and
family. They will often be happy sharing these cards with others
when the opportunity presents itself.
2. Give out freebies: Depending on your
business and the services you offer, it might be a great idea to
give out some freebies in order to generate some hype. For example,
if you are in the business of interior design, why not offer
interior decorating to a local daycare center in a working class
upper working class neighbourhood. In exchange, place a small
plaque on the wall that says, “Decorating services donated by
Fred D. Painter: 555-555-5555”. When the parents come to pick
the kids up, they will see the work you carried out and they have a
great way of contacting you. Be original and try to think outside
the box.
3. Advertise on your car: Put up a sign in
the window of your car. Put your name, services and phone number on
a printed sign and place it somewhere visible on your vehicle. If
you drive around a lot, this can generate leads and sales. Be
careful not to drive like a madman however, as nobody wants to buy
something from someone who just cut them off.
4. Network with other freelancers: Find
others in your area that offers products and services that are
complimentary to yours. In the example above, we used an interior
decorating business as an example. As an interior decorator, why
not get affiliated with a painter, or movers? Whenever you have a
decorating project, you could forward the painting work to this
painter, who in return would forward decorating business to you,
every time he paints a home or office. This can be especially
practical as all partners involved can benefit from each
other’s advertising efforts. Don’t be afraid to contact
other freelancers and businesses by phone. The best way, in my
experience is to send them a letter and follow up with a phone
call. Give them real reasons why this would be a good idea for them
and why it is for you. If it doesn’t cost them money, and has
the potential to generate extra income, it’s a winning
proposition anyway they want to look at it.
Chapter 3 – Estimates and
Contracts
As a freelancer, you need to protect
yourself. A good customer or contract can turn into a nightmare in
seconds so you need a way to defend against conflicts. The best
advice I can give is for you to get everything down on paper before
you begin working with the customer. Here is a site I use for
inspiration when drafting up agreements: www.formsguru.com. Another
tip is to save previous versions of documents in order to use them
as a template the next time you have to draft a contract or
estimate up.
Estimates
The first document that you should create
is a simple estimate. This is especially important when you are in
the service field. Once you understand what a potential customer
wants, you go to your computer and fire up your favourite word
processor. Write down all relevant customer information, and detail
the work that the customer would like to get done. Provide an
estimate of the time it will take to carry out the work and factor
in your hourly rate. Be generous with your estimates while staying
within the confines of a competitive price. For example, if a
specific job will take you about 3 hours, jot down 4 or 5 hours in
order to give yourself some wiggle room. Sometimes, unknown factors
can turn a given job from a 3-hour job to a 5-hour job so you need
room to breathe. On the other hand, some customers love to haggle;
so bumping an hour off your estimate will make them ecstatic, while
not costing you a dime. Also, be sure to state that the estimate is
not a legally binding document and that it is simply an outline to
be used when drafting up an official contract.
Contracts
Once an estimate is agreed upon, you need
to turn that sucker into a binding agreement. The difference
between an estimate and a contract is that a contract is more
specific. Be specific in order to protect yourself. Give out
delivery dates per item on your contract. Clear up as many details
as possible. For example, if you are offering construction
services, point out on paper if you or the customer is paying for
supplies and materials. The devil is in the details so cover as
much as you can. If at all possible, provide terms and conditions
on paper for dealing with possible conflicts. For example, if a
customer would like to amend the contract and add something to it
while the work is being carried out, provide clear instructions on
the contract on how the customer can communicate these amendments
with you.
A contract does not need to be approved by
a lawyer or other professional, just as long as it’s clear
and signed by both parties. Provide a signed copy to your customer
and save the other signed copy for yourself. Make sure that the
contract doesn’t come off as scary to the customer. Put in
clauses that are in both your favour and that of the customer. I
like to include a revisions page at the end of the contract where
notes can be written down so that if the contract needs to be
modified, you have something to work with when you come back to
your desk. Just be sure that the note page is not included in the
contract itself. By this I mean adding a clause at the beginning of
the note page that states that this page is not a legal contract
and is simply there as a reference document used in contract
revisions PRIOR to the signature process.
Chapter 4 – Invoicing
Don’t go crazy. Seriously, you
don’t need an accounting package. You need a nice clean way
to generate invoices, make receipts and track your income. My
answer to all this is PayPal. Even if you don’t operate an
electronic business, PayPal is the key for you to invoice your
customer. Open a PayPal account and link it to your bank account.
Use PayPal’s invoicing tool to generate an invoice and send
it by email to your customer once the work is completed.
If your customers are hesitant to pay you
online using a credit card or direct debit, simply print the PayPal
invoice and hand it to them. Using PayPal to generate an invoice
doesn’t cost you any money, nor does it mean you have to be
paid via PayPal. This way you can invoice from anywhere at anytime.
Furthermore, PayPal will track invoices, payments and customers for
you.
I’d love to give you more
alternatives in terms of invoicing, but frankly, unless you are
completely self-employed, you don’t need an accounting
package. Save your money and your time and stick to simplicity.
Chapter 5 – Your Portable
Office
Because you operate your business as a
sideline, it is generally assumed that you are not always in front
of your personal home computer. In the past, this meant that you
could only access business documents from your home PC. Sure, you
can use a portable storage device to haul your work around with
you, but that’s not really the best way to go. Sometimes, I
have customers that require that I send them a copy of an invoice,
or even a contract while I’m at work or at a friend’s
house, so I use Google Docs.
Google offers a web based word processor
and spreadsheet application that I can access from anywhere with my
username and password. When I work with documents on Google Docs,
they are saved to their servers and accessible anytime. I have
templates of contracts, folders for customer specific information,
and spreadsheets for cost analysis documents and so on. Best of
all, if you signed up for GMail for your email account, you already
have access to Google Docs. As an added bonus, you also have access
to Google Calendar in order to plan your work. Gmail also works
create for managing your customer contacts. When all is said and
done, you have one great portable office that you can use to manage
your business from anywhere.
If you are already used to using Microsoft
Word and Excel, the transition to Google Docs is easy since Google
has a great import feature, which enables you to use your existing
documents within the Google Docs environment.
On top of that, Google Docs feels just
like any Microsoft product with the same functions and options. The
learning curve isn’t that steep and the rewards are
fantastic.
I have tried many different packages, and
none rival what Google has done. Portable documents in an easy to
use interface enable me to give great customer service, and keep on
top of my business at all times.
Conclusion
Some of what has been discussed in this
guide may be old news to some, and revolutionary to others. This
guide is really just a primer as most every point listed in it can
be expanded upon even further. All that being said, the goal here
was to provide you with the quickest, cheapest and most efficient
way for you to begin offering services to the public. It is
important that you use your head and apply the methods that make
sense for your business.
Once you have some of these systems set
up, the hardest part is to actually generate sales. There is a lot
of footwork involved with operating in the service industry, and
the time you have saved using the techniques listed above can be
used towards perfecting your product and bringing money in.
Useful Sites
Google Docs: http://docs.google.com
Gmail: http://gmail.com
Blogger: http://blogger.com
FreeWeb: http://members.freewebs.com
WebAlias: http://webalias.com/
Facebook: http://facebook.com
Forms Guru: http://formsguru.com
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