Top Five Funnels for Creative Freelancers

Let's face it—the freelance model is broken. 

You're limited by the number of hours you can work each week. Your clients are paying you for your time, and there will always be a conflict between how many hours you need to spend on a project versus the number of hours they're prepared to pay for. 

You're also doing all the things, all of the time

Finding and onboarding new clients, talking through briefs, estimating, invoicing, and everything else that isn't the creative work you signed up for. Of course, the simple solution is to raise your prices, but you're worried your clients can always find someone cheaper.

I get it; you're overwhelmed with everything you have to do just to make ends meet. 

You've got years of experience, yet you're designing for clients who don't appreciate your skillset. They're paying for your time, not your ideas. 

You find yourself wondering when this relentless pace will end? How are you supposed to retire in 20 years with no superannuation, let alone take a holiday? Will you ever create work you love? 

The good news is you can stop struggling with burnout—there is a better way. You can pivot your business model away from trading time for money to double your income and start scaling by introducing a funnel. 

You've undoubtedly heard the expression "stop working in your business and start working on your business?" Well, my friend, that time has come.

The Internet has enabled various new tools and business models that automate the customer acquisition process and put you in the driver's seat. For example, you no longer need to be a hard-core coder to build sales funnels—we have Kajabi for that. Likewise, you don't need to be a "sleazy marketer" to make money online—people value authenticity, which means embracing your weirdness. 

Consider this: if you can sell a $100 product to a thousand people, you have a $100,000 a year business. 

As a creative freelancer, you're perfectly positioned to combine your creative skills, knowledge and expertise in ways people value and use sales funnels to automate the acquisition and delivery process. 

Once you learn how to do that, you're no longer limited by your time, and you can put your creative business on autopilot. 

I have seen firsthand that you can double your income and have more control over your time by pivoting your creative business model.

In this blog post, my goal is to open your eyes to the new ways you can make money with your creative skills that don't involve trading your time for it. 

Download this blog post as a case study. Click the banner below.

Let's look at five ways freelancers can earn more by doing less.

Case Study One: The Frazzled Freelancer

Meet Lana, the frazzled freelancer. Lana runs a solo design studio and can never seem to take a break. She is constantly juggling multiple design projects, kids, admin, overwhelmed and never gets a chance to come up for air.

If you're a frazzled freelancer, the solution is to streamline your offerings and focus on productising one key service. 

You can standardise and automate many steps by turning one of your custom services into a product. This cuts down on the time you need to nurture and onboard each customer. It also reduces the time spent producing proposals and estimates because you have set prices for set services. 

You can use automated sequences to send forms, follow up reminders, calendar bookings and scheduling deadlines. You can also use a video to explain your process once and send it to every prospect before your first discovery call to cut out 80% of their initial questions. 

The standardised acquisition and onboarding process means your customers feel reassured that you're a professional who has offered this same service multiple times. They know what to expect every step of the way.

Let's take a look at how Lana applied this to her business.

Lana started by streamlining her offerings to focus on what she enjoyed most and was the easiest to systemise. In recent years, Lana has found herself doing multiple branding packages for health and wellness clients, so she focused on productising that service. 

Lana listed all the steps she typically followed when completing a branding package and developed a suite of add-ons to the basic branding package. Lana was then able to price each level of a branding package and list those on her website.

Once Lana productised her branding service, she was able to build a customer acquisition and onboarding funnel.

The automated funnel removed the time-consuming back-and-forth discussions about pricing and design services and automatically filled her calendar with pre-qualified leads. She is also cash-flow positive now because she charges for her services upfront. 

By productising her service and building a customer acquisition and onboarding funnel, Lana has brought calm to her daily routine and predictability to her income.

The next step for Lana is to bring on an assistant to delegate some of the more manageable steps to free up more of her time and focus on scaling her business.

Case Study Two: The Undervalued Freelancer

Meet Ashleigh, the undervalued freelancer. Ashleigh is creating work she doesn't love for clients who pay her by the hour, not for the value, she can create.

If you're an undervalued freelancer, the solution is to build a profile where you can attract customers based on your unique offerings rather than your hourly rate.

By creating work that highlights your skills and talents outside of your client's work, you can attract a different type of customer. It can be slow going initially, but creating the work can also help you hone your skills and style if you're unsure of what they are at this stage.

Once you become known for a particular style or service, you can pivot your offerings to leverage this following. 

Let's take a look at how Ashleigh applied this to her business.

Ashleigh wanted to build her profile as a lettering artist, so she participated in multiple Instagram challenges. She was able to tap into the shared audiences of the challenges by using the challenge hashtag and kept herself accountable to create new work regularly. Over a year of regular posting, she honed her skills, developed a unique style and built an audience in the process.

One benefit of this profile-first approach was that Ashleigh could experiment with various techniques and see which resonated with her audience. 

When she began seeing the same questions appear on her social media repeatedly, she knew it was time to create a suite of digital products that answered these questions. Ashleigh started by creating a mini-course teaching one of her techniques using Procreate on the Apple iPad. 

Once Ashleigh had started creating her mini-course, she created a list-building launch funnel and gave away five of her Procreate brushes for free. 

The giveaway ensured that anyone who opted-in to her mailing list already had Procreate and an iPad and would be the perfect customer for her digital products. So when she finally launched her mini-course, it was to an email list of people who were primed and ready to buy.

Ashleigh has released four mini-courses and a range of digital products, such as brushes and stickers. As a result, she has doubled her freelance income. In addition, she's built an email list of raving fans who buy whatever she has to sell, so meeting her launch goals gets easier every time. 

Ashleigh's next step is to continue to serve her email list and create a higher-priced signature course. Then, she can scale her income to a level she could never have achieved if she continued servicing her one-on-one clients.

Case Study Three: The Expert Freelancer

Meet Kelly, the expert freelancer. Kelly has exhausted her local market by delivering high-level strategic branding services to local businesses, and she needs new customers outside her local area.

If you're an expert freelancer, the solution is to package your signature service in a way that can be delivered online.

By systemising your one-on-one coaching method and the deliverables, you can streamline the process to allow you to deliver more value during the one-on-one sessions. You can also deliver the sessions via the Internet and use software to automate the booking process.

Let's take a look at how Kelly applied this to her business.

Kelly realised she had to take her one-on-one branding consultations from in-person to Zoom delivery. Her usual process was to co-create the branding strategy with the person sitting next to her, channelling her advice and expertise at the time. Instead, Kelly needed to systemise the consulting method and delivery assets to feel customised but delivered in a pre-designed framework to help streamline the process.

One benefit of developing a signature method is that Kelly can now position herself as a branding expert. She creates expert content around her topic and is building her authority and online profile.

Once Kelly had systemised her method, she created a consult funnel and delivered her coaching sessions online. 

Kelly can now create authority-building content that attracts new customers into her funnel by systemising the process. So instead of searching for new customers one at a time, she can focus on building her expert profile and deliver a higher-value service to anyone who comes through her funnel as a customer.

Kelly's next step is to write a book detailing her signature coaching methods "What" and "Why". Then, she can establish trust and authority with her potential customers by offering a book as a low-cost lead magnet and further streamlining the customer acquisition process. After that, her one-on-one coaching sessions are where she delivers the "How" of the method.

Case Study Four: The Passion-project Freelancer

Meet Maddison, the passion-project freelancer. Maddison has developed a range of physical products and has no idea how to sell them.

If you're a passion-project freelancer, the solution is to create a community of VIP customers.

By creating a community around your products, you create die-hard evangelists who sell your product for you and buy everything you create. Think of Harley-Davidson fans or Johnny Cupcakes.

The problem with physical products is that they can quickly become commodities. So it is a losing battle if you compete on price, function, or service, especially for smaller creative brands. 

The best way for a creative brand to sell products successfully is to focus on the experience of buying and owning your product. By doing things differently and focusing on the experience you create for your customer, you can foster a sense of belonging and build a tribe of raving fans who buy all your products. 

Let's take a look at how Maddison applied this to her business.

Maddison worked with a local producer in Mexico to create a range of handbags and purses made from cactus leather. The bags address two primary issues: classic handbags are made from leather, which isn't great news if you're a cow, and the other is that most vegan solutions are made from plastic, which isn't great news for the planet. 

By going the extra mile to create her bags from eco-friendly vegan leather, Maddison is paving the way for a tribe of raving fans who are planet and animal friendly. 

Maddison named her brand after the lake under Mexico city, and whilst she is Australian, the vibe of the brand and all her marketing is Mexican eco-friendly. In a time where global travel is limited, she gives her audience the experience of Mexico through the product range and the brand story.

Once Maddison had received the first batch of product samples, she created a challenge funnel. 

Maddison has ongoing challenges where she asks her audience to create their "Mexico at Home" experience. She offers inspirational tips and images that showcase her products with a "Mexico at Home" vibe. 

In addition, Maddison rewards anyone who shares an image using her hashtag with a 20% discount code on her products and sends them a branded keychain whether they buy anything. This way, she has a reason to ask for their contact details and sends them a constant reminder of her brand and invites them into the exclusive club. 

Maddison has pre-sold her first range of products and is taking orders for the next shipment. 

Maddison's next step is to create a range of other products which complement the bags, such as scarves and purses. The focus for physical products is to engage with and sell more products to the same customer.

Case Study Five: The Bored Freelancer

Meet Lisa, the bored freelancer. Lisa is a children's book illustrator who has taught the same material for years to multiple groups of illustration students, and she's over it

If you're a bored freelancer, the solution is to turn your years of experience into an evergreen course.

You can scale your content delivery by taking the experience gained from group coaching and packaging it into a course. For example, suppose you already have a structured delivery method for your content and defined results and timeframe. In that case, you can easily repurpose this content into a series of videos and worksheets and host them in an online course portal.

Once you have packaged your structured content into an evergreen course, you can focus on acquiring new customers instead of teaching the material. 

Let's take a look at how Lisa applied this to her business.

Lisa had spent many years teaching the same children's book illustration course and refined the teaching materials, lecture slides, and worksheets over the years. 

The main difference between in-person delivery and self-study online is that Lisa would need to remove herself from the delivery process. This change in delivery meant finding ways to systemise her "teaching" methods and anticipate any students' questions. 

Lisa developed a framework for her lessons and modules and recorded a series of videos where she talked through the process step-by-step and showed multiple examples from her work and the work of her past students. She also created downloadable worksheets and housed the course inside Kajabi, an all-in-one online course portal. 

Once Lisa had created her course, she built an evergreen course launch funnel using an automated webinar. 

One benefit of hosting her course online is that Kajabi takes payments from the students, gives them access to the course and allows Lisa to see who is completing the modules and email people as they complete each step. 

Once the hard work of creating the course is done, Lisa is now free to focus on attracting more students and building out additional modules and resources to help them complete it successfully.

Lisa's next step is to create a back-end membership to assist students who have come through her course and need ongoing help and support with their illustration careers.

Which funnel will you build first?

Imagine five years from now; how will your business be different if you streamline and scale using one of these five funnels?

• Have you productised a core service and streamlined your processes so that you have control over your time again, like Lana?
• Do you have a suite of digital products making a passive income that allows you to create work you love like Ashleigh? 
• Maybe you've developed your signature method and established your authority and expertise in your topic like Kelly?
• Do you have a successful online store and a tribe of raving fans building your brand for you like Maddison?
• How about an online course teaching students on autopilot like Lisa?

My vision for you is a business where you're valued for your creative work, not your time, where you have customers, not clients, who allow you to focus on creating work you love and delegate the rest. It is possible.