Setup guide: freelancers and solo operators

Who you are reaching

The people who hire for your skill, which is almost never other people with your skill. A freelance designer's queue full of designers is the most common freelancer mistake.

Prospects settings

• Their Job Titles, by skill:
• Design: Founder, Marketing Manager, Head of Marketing, Product Manager, Brand Manager.
• Writing and content: Head of Marketing, Content Lead, Founder, Demand Generation Manager.
• Development: Founder, CTO, Product Manager, Head of Engineering (at small companies).
• Video and photo: Founder, Marketing Director, Events Manager, Brand Manager.
• Words to Watch For: project-shaped phrases. Rebrand, new website, launch, redesign, case study, pitch deck, need a hand, overwhelmed, backlog.
• People to Skip: your own title in every spelling. Designer, Freelance Designer, Creative Director (if you are one), Copywriter, Developer, Agency.
• Words to Skip: open to work, looking for clients, rates.
• Target Country: optional. Freelancers can work anywhere; set it if your clients are local.

Train Allen

Bio: what you make, for whom, how you work. Rules: "never offer my services", "never say I can help with that", "never mention availability". Goal: add insight or share an example. Length: short.

Sample comments

On a founder posting that their new website took four months and still is not live:

• Add insight: "Four months is almost always a decisions problem, not a design problem. Every time a site stalls it is because three people can approve and nobody can decide. One owner, one week of review, and it ships."
• Share an example: "Watched a client go through the same thing. The fix was embarrassing: they launched the version from month two and changed one page a week after. Nobody noticed it was 'unfinished'."
• Ask a question: "What is actually blocking it right now: copy, design, or someone's sign-off? In my experience it is the third one wearing the costume of the first two."

Autopilot

Five a day, weekdays. Freelancers get the most from consistency because you have no sales team; this is it. Keep it running during busy delivery months, which is exactly when the pipeline usually dies.

Watchlist

Every past client, every person who has referred you, and the thirty companies whose work you admire. Add from profiles with the extension.

The first DM

"Thanks for the reply on the website post. The one-owner-one-week thing is the whole fix in most cases. If a two-paragraph version of how I have seen it work would be useful, say so." Never attach a portfolio to a first message. They will ask.