Month: August 2019

  • How to Differentiate Between Serious Clients and ‘Time Killers’

    These two type of clients have a role they play in the internet business space. If you are a part-time or full time Freelancer, you have met one of them or if not, you are yet to meet them when looking for gigs.

    Watch video to learn more

    So, who is a serious client and who is a time killer? It’s really harder to differentiate the two because both of them will definitely hire and pay you. Most seasoned Freelancers with experience and those who have built a reputation online are the ones who can differentiate the two type of clients.

    Having worked online for now close to 10 years, here is my definition of ‘serious client’ and ‘time killers’;

    Serious Client

    Has defined goals from the time they contact a freelancer. They have outlined instructions on how their project should be completed. They also have a set standard of quality to be met by the Freelancer. At the beginning, their demands may be intimidating and the freelancer will be tempted to walk away but at the end, if you get a chance to work with them, the experience will be worth it.

    Time Killers

    They have a rough idea of what they want and need guidance from an expert in the field they are hiring on. They only have one problem, they are not open enough to be guided. Also, they are not ready hire yet. If you are a serious Freelancer, you will find yourself doing a lot of things beforehand hoping to make the client commit.

    Here are 8 things that differentiates the two.

    Serious Client Time Killer
    Have clearly written down their requirements before contacting a freelancer for work. They just have a rough idea of what they want and expects a freelancer to guide them towards ‘what they really want.’
    They are sure that what they want will work for them thus they commit/hire faster.They are 50/50 and thus they fear to commit. They rely on conviction from the freelancer.
    To show their level of seriousness, they hire a number of Freelancers and pay for a ‘test’ project. They ask for Free tests.
    They address freelancers by their names. They just write ‘hi’ at the beginning of the mails despite knowing the Freelancers name.
    They set timelines and require a Freelancer to commit to it before they hire them. They don’t have any timelines. In most occasions, Freelancers are the ones setting the timelines in order to push them to pay.
    They provide detailed easy to follow feedback once the project is completed. They give shallow feedback which is more generalized. The Freelancer hired is forced to ask them for more clarification.
    They are Flexible on Budget. e.g If there is an additional cost, they are ready to meet. They are are always negotiating. They never accept additional cost if it arises later.
    Once they get what they were looking for, they are happy. They are never happy with the work you deliver to them. They are picky.
    Table comparison between serious clients vs Time killer clients

    These are common differences. There are many more. Who would you like to work with between the two?

    If you enjoyed reading this blog-post, let me know in the comments section below. Also, subscribe to my blog-post to for updates.

    And if you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for your software, app or website, let me know here.
    Until next time. Bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

  • 4 Pillars To Building Trust From Scratch Online As a Freelancer

    A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

    Chinese Proverb

    This is a common saying that originated from a Chinese proverb and it applies in our every day life. If you are starting to build up your online Freelancing business, you are making your first ‘single step‘ towards success.

    Overnight successes don’t last so you should avoid at all cost the temptations to fall into it.

    Watch video

    This blog-post is written for people who are interested in building a long lasting reputation online. Before you read further, I am assuming that you have considered the following things before launching your business online.

    • Niche – The marketplace you are going to target online. You have to be very specific. i.e Photography – Photo editing and design
    • Expertise – It should be something that is giving value to people. Also it has to be something that you enjoy doing. This way, you will be able to make it better everyday without anyone pushing you to do so.
    • Consistency – You are in a position to provide consistent services to your audiences/customers. Also, being prepared to do it for as long as you live.

    These are key things you have to look into before launching your business online. It’s important, because once you are on, challenges will be there that will make you want to give up. With that said, lets now get into the first Pillar.

    Own the Skills You Are Selling

    You must first own the skills that you are selling by showing. Do a video trailer that highlights your services. Publish the best samples of your work online. Let people see that you have the skills they are looking for. Let your samples show that you truly understand the industry you are in. This way, you will have made the first impression.

    Share a Short Description of Yourself or Team with a Nice Photo

    Most people will overlook this but the impact it has is beyond what you can imagine. While people will love to hear about your hobbies, take time to think about how you will want them to connect with you. Let your profile description lean on your expertise and experience. It should contain at least 10% of your personal life.

    Prospective customers are most interested in knowing the founder and less interested in knowing about your team. If the prospect is a big enterprise, then they may be interested in your team as a display of your capability.

    Sharing this also demonstrates that you are a proud owner of the business you are running. Be happy and excited about it.

    Communication Style – Be Professional

    Let’s say someone stumbles upon your website. They find what you sharing is interesting. They makes an inquiry about the services that you offer.They write their inquiry in a non-professional way. Their inquiry carries a clear message. Will you toss that mail onto the trash folder and imagine that they are not serious?

    With spammers getting clever day by day, you should take time to look into their mail inquiry more closely. Is the mail encrypted? Does it have the lock icon? Grey or green lock icon indicates that the mail source is secure. Also, the e-mail address should be from a real domain with an existing website.

    If upon checking on the mail, you find that the features are there, don’t hesitate, reply to the e-mail. In your reply, address the sender by his/her name. Then clearly address their need. Use simple language and let it sound you are a human. Let them feel you. Your reply will inspire them to take you seriously.

    Write Regular Blog-post About Your Niche

    Posting a video trailer or some product demos of your work and details about your business is not enough. To ensure that your website remains optimized and up to date, you have to build consistent traffic. You can only do this by writing regular blog-posts and sharing the posts on social media to generate back-links. Also do short video highlights and share them on YouTube to generate back-links.

    With time, your organic traffic with surge and you will be getting more inquiries and comments on the blog-posts you publish. This is the art of building trust online. There is no need to rush if you are already enjoying what you are doing.

    And that’s it. Apply these and you will be on the right path to building your online reputation as a Freelancer.

    Thanks for reading through the post.

    If you need help to create professional screen-cast video tutorials for your website, mobile application or software, let me know here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • 5 Sure Signs That You Need to Start Hiring Freelancers For Help

    We all know the obvious reasons most people would hire a freelancer – when he/she has a lot of work at hand. Most entrepreneurs will wait until demand for their services skyrocket then they start to hire.

    While this; realistically is the best approach to hiring a freelancer as you only hire on demand, the same approach is so predictable and in a long run, it tends to crash when dry spell hits.

    Any Freelancer or an Agency with a tendency of hiring freelancers using this strategy, should think beyond just hiring Freelancers with the skill they need.

    Let me break this down so that you understand what I am talking about here.

    Let’s say you own a highly rated Agency or you are a highly rated Freelancer. You get an e-mail from a client who is very interested in your services. The client hires you for a mega project which will require that you hire other guys to help you out.

    This is the right time to hire freelancers. While your main focus will be to hire guys with specific skill set, your thoughts should go beyond that. Here are two other professionals you should include in your list when hiring.

    • Marketing Expert – While the client you are currently working with might have organically found you on the internet and hired you, it’s good to use the opportunity he/she has offered you to find other clients. And you can do this with the help of an expert. This way, you can focus on supervising activities of your company.
    • Virtual assistant – If you already have someone working for you as a virtual assistant-you are good. If you don’t have one, consider hiring. A virtual assistant will relieve you from the burden of prospecting and allow you focus on growing your business.

    Now that we have tackled the first sign, let’s proceed to others signs.

    SIGN #2: When You are Receiving Invites to Work on Projects that are Related to Your Area of Specialty

    Being a specialist in something makes you stand out. I can say this over and over again so that it sinks in. I have benefited a lot from mastery. But I often receive requests from clients asking if I can help them work on graphics designs for print. When I tell them I can’t help, they ask if I can recommend someone. Asking me if I know someone is a sure sign that they trust me enough. In most occasions, they have offered to assign me their projects having the knowledge that it will be done by someone else.

    SIGN #3: When You Find Yourself Attempting to Learn On the Job for the Sake of Money

    There is nothing wrong watching a you-tube video tutorial on how to do something and doing it yourself. While you might be quick at learning, it is always good to ask yourself if it’s really worth learning it anyway. For instance, while I can learn quick-books and do my accounts myself, I honestly don’t like it. I would rather hire someone who enjoys doing the job to help me out. So, why not negotiate for a price with someone who is good at it and hire him/her?

    SIGN #4: When Your Profit Margins is Good

    We all need more time for ourselves. This can only be created by working less. Now, most video editing projects requires a lot of attention to details. This means spending most of your time on them. What if you could hire someone to do the same job for half the price? Wouldn’t that be great? Always look for ways to accomplish more and by working less.

    SIGN #5: When You are Travelling and Your Current Client Wants You to Work

    Some projects are worth your time and you will do everything to keep them. Therefore you must always find a way to compensate your time when you are out of office. So, how how can you keep your projects running despite you being out of office? Simple. Hiring someone who can do the job exactly as you always do to help you out. Here, your job will only be to review and ensure the quality meets the required standards.

    You can only grow and expand your freelancing business if you creatively think of ways to bring on-board expert freelancers to participate your project.

    And that is it.

    If you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for your app, website or software, let me know here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • Scared of Hiring a Freelance Agency? This Why it’s Worth it

    When most startups or a new clients fresh at hiring freelancers hear about a ‘Freelance Agency‘, they picture a big company charging a lot of money to accomplish a given freelancing task. They overthink and imagine that they can’t afford to hire one.

    If you are one of them, I have good news for you…You can!

    Now it depends with the kind of task you are looking to hire a freelancer for.

    Having operated a Freelance agency for more than 5 years in the video production niche, here are reasons you should consider hiring an Freelance Agency to work on your next project.

    Agencies Create Job Opportunities to Budding New Freelancers

    Depending on where you find the agency, consider contacting them to hear how they collaborate with clients. Focus on their capabilities. Most agencies are setup with one vision in mind, to spread tasks among different experienced freelancers. As a result, new ideas and fresh approaches. At the end, you get the best results.

    You may pay a little higher for the service, but have this in mind, you are hiring a team, not an individual. So long as they guarantee satisfaction, take that shot and hire them.

    You Get Extra Service With an Agency than an Individual Freelancer

    Let’s say you are hiring someone to produce several video tutorials on how to use your website. To brief the freelancer on the task, you will do a video call where you share screen with the freelancer or the agency manager talking about what you want covered in the videos. Considering that the tutorials will help you sell your website services to the potential customers, you will want the best in terms of quality and messaging.

    When you hire an Agency with a professional script writer, voice over artist and Video editor, you are guaranteed to get the best. Each person working on your project in this case is a specialist. This means that they give a lot attention to details in every aspect.

    Agency Will Save You a lot of Stress

    Still in the video production niche, in cases you where you could have hired a freelancer to do a voice over, then another one to do script, then another one to produce the video, an Agency will take care of that all on your behalf. In cases when you need a 3D animation production in some parts of the video i.e intro logo, the video production Agency will take care of it too. They know exactly which Freelancer does the best job.

    So besides, doing the real project for you, an Agency will get the best talent on your behalf who will give you the best value.

    You Save Time and Money as You Pay Only One Entity For a big Project

    This is a good thing SME’s or companies with several employees. You can easily lose track of your business if all of your time is spent communicating with several freelancers working on a common project. Instead of doing the whole job as company, hire an Agency capable of handling the whole project. When you do so, you will only be contacting one person who manages the project.

    And that is it from me here. Do you think Companies should hire Agencies to help them work on their projects? Let me know on the comments below.

    Looking for an Agency to help manage your next video production project? We are right here to help you out. Talk to us today.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Make sure you follow me on twitter @cheptiony