Wow, what an awesome experience at the huddle in LA last night!
Chad did an awesome job getting everyone to open up about their experiences and there was some awesome information being passed around.
I think one of the most magical things to see was how diverse the crowd was.
There were all different people that did all different things on Upwork to work and earn an income.
We all shared similar experiences about what it takes to get started, and also some strategies to get in line to grow.
What I thought was also funny was that one of the most highlighted instructions were to increase your prices and work on hourly projects, instead of fixed cost projects.
They are so right.
One of the main anxieties that someone brought up in the crowd was taking on a fixed-based project and then not being able to complete the project on time.
Let me tell you something, almost every project is going to change or alter which may lead to changes for the completion day.
And the more intricate and complex the task, the more it intertwines with other members of the client’s team, which will make your goals completely reliant on the client’s ability to manage projects.
It’s not just about you.
And your payment and earning shouldn’t depend on that. Your payment shouldn’t depend on anyone else except you or your client.
You need more certainty and you can’t just wait around for payment.
If you’re working, you should be compensated, and if the client needs to change course or you have to do things that maybe other members of the client’s team CAN’T do, you need to feel good about jumping on that.
If you don’t have it set up that way. The project will go stale because you won’t feel good about jumping in, plus it will be difficult to take on more work.
This is a sloppy place to be if you’re trying to consistently bring in income.
Personally, when it comes to Upwork, I think the easiest strategy is to trade time for money because it’s directly controlled by your spare time.
I’m able to manage a baby, traveling, fitness, fun…etc all while working on my own time.
This is why you need hourly projects.
The greatest thing about Upwork is the ability to use the time tracker and manage MULTIPLE projects at a time. This makes things so easy. It calculates all of your time as well as creates a memo for your tasks at hand.
This ensures that payment is made on time every time, so you don’t have to worry about any invoices or handouts.
You should really be concentrating on work instead of payment collection, and Upwork solves that on a wide scale.
I currently have many different projects rolling, and at any point, the client can hit me up and I can get immediately to work without any BS whatsoever.
It creates a long-term relationship and allows me to make this a full-time endeavor, instead of an anxiety filled freelance position.
Treat this like a business and get your clients under a contract that lasts forever.
Of course, you need the reviews to support doing this but one thing will lend itself to the other if you want to be someone that’s very helpful for their clients.
Back to the event…
I’m glad I went, the people seemed super normal, and it was great to see the people beyond the avatars. This company is going to grow and grow and I’m excited to be a part of it.
