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The Briefcase Technique
“Top to Bottom”
Today, I want to emphasize a top-to-bottom approach to earning money on the side.
How many people do you know that get hung up on the details?
- “I need to get my website up!” (without ever understanding their customer)
- “Where should I advertise?” (without ever understanding exactly what they should say in the ads)
- Worst of all is when we get hung up on the million things we could do…and end up doing nothing
I’m going to challenge you to embrace a top-to-bottom approach when trying to earn money.
“Top” or “high-level” items are the big areas of your business — strategy (what you’re doing), target (who you’re going after), and things like that.
“Bottom” or “low-level” items are the tactics (how you achieve your strategy), down to the level of the individual words you use in your pitch.
3 Yes’s
Yes, at a high level you need to understand your customers and get in their heads.
Yes, you also need to understand how and where to reach them.
And yes, you also have to be able to write a compelling pitch to them — down to even using the phrases that will resonate with them.
In other words, to successfully earn more, you’ll have to get good at handling your approach from top to bottom — at every level.
This can get overwhelming, so today I’d like to show you TWO examples:
- The Briefcase Technique: A low-level technique that you can use with your very first paying client. This one has generated thousands of dollars for me
- A high-level look at how to think about earning more money, a sneak peek of the full Earn1k course
Let’s get to it.
The Briefcase Technique
Here’s a simple tactic you can use with your very first paying client.
Note that it looks obvious, but the real magic is in doing your homework before you ever set foot in the room. As I’ve said, 80% of the work happens before you ever sit down for a meeting.
Here’s a sample from the full Earn1k course, which contains hours of all-new techniques, lessons, and examples, shot in HD video
http://earn1k.s3.amazonaws.com/R_Solo-the%20briefcase%20technique%20copy.flv
Why does this work? How can you use the principle here for yourself?
How do you earn more money?
Here’s just a taste of the worksheets you’ll find in the full Earn1k course
The Earn $1,000 on the Side 16-Step Roadmap
Does this surprise you? How does it change what you previously thought?
“In the first two weeks of Earn1k, after I pitched 229 people by email, I presented to 45 in person, booked 10 consults , took on 4 new clients (I’m 2 for 2 closing consults, 8 out of 10 are scheduled for the next two weeks and two people bought lesson packages directly w/out an additional consult) and have $679 on the books in new revenue as a result.
My goal at the start of Earn1k was to get this up to a steady $2,000/mo in private lesson revenue, so with more leads in my funnel to follow up with, I’m feeling great about how this is going to grow.”–Dan Kleiman, Earn1k Alumn
Today’s To-Do
So far this week, you’ve learned about:
Now, let’s get to the action.
LEAVE A COMMENT WITH
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The most surprising thing about this whole private Earn1k course is how blatantly obvious each and every technique is. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: sometimes I need to pay money to be told something that’s staring me right in the face.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Lack of motivation. It’s easy to get going once I get a couple results, but every single excuse I tell myself just gets in the way of actual work. Plus, it’s a hell of a lot easier to give in and not do any work and complain.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I’m extremely interested, but the price tag is so hefty for me that I know it’ll bring my already dire financial situation even further to its knees. I recognize that it’s an investment in myself, but I’m torn – should I really be spending more money when I can hardly pay my current bills?
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
How practical it is and how many practical plans of action I’ve come up with just by answering some questions.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Knowledge of what likely clients really need and how they think about their problems.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Interested enough that I discussed it with my husband as a possibility. Given that it’s from an entity I know mostly by reputation and he knows not at all, that means I’m pretty interested.
Awesome, I did this on an interview (not for freelance work)awhile back and they were all over it – I created a presentation about all the areas of their site and online marketing that I would change immediately and the projected outcome. Good reminder that this is how we need to approach freelance pitches as well.
I just semi-tried the briefcase technique minus a briefcase and Ramit’s smoothness but the client completely turned into my puppet practically. I was shocked. After that I pulled out my prices and they weren’t phased at all! They barely even glanced at it and I was able to offer more products and they just said put it all together and give me a final number. Its for web design by the way…
I know its not a done deal yet but the reaction I got after my sad attempt of the “briefcase technique” was enough for me. I am definitely going to work on fine tuning this process!
Thanks Ramit!
1) How common sense most of the advice is, and yet how few of us thought about/applied these ideas in the past. For instance, your first lesson about asking the potential customers what THEY want.
2) Deciding what to do or focus on is my largest hurdle thus far. By asking people about my various ideas I can let the market choose what I offer them. I dog sit for one person now, perhaps I can expand that (I know you don’t like pets, Ramit, but for some people they replace children, which means people spend money on their care.). I also pick up an adjunct position every other semester or so, which might be expanded into tutoring during semesters I’m not teaching.
3) Very interested, but concerned about being able to make the live video events. I feel that your program surpasses some business classes, which I would otherwise take.
Cheers!
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
Changing focus from “what can I deliver with my wonderful talents” to “how can I get into my customers’ heads to solve their needs/problems/fears/wants/desires”
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Self confidence. Breaking through the self- and family-imposed barriers (“Why are you doing this when you have a good job?”, “How will this utilize your engineering degree?”)
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Show me the dotted line. Need to figure out how to sell to wife so she’ll agree. Maybe I should show her how this solves her needs/problems/fears/wants/desires
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
How tough it was to answer the questions. It really helped me focus on my goals, and think about what my niche is.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Time. Focus. I’ve learned a ton about the focus part in the free course, and am using the money I earn now to pay for more free time.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I am very interested in the program. But, and I know you will find this ironic, I don’t have the money and time to invest in the course right now.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I expected the course to be beneficial, but I was expecting the content to more along the lines of the iwillteachyou blog: straightforward and instructive with examples. I didn’t expect actual case studies with video or assignments, and these added to the course tremendously!
I didn’t expect to get SO MUCH valuable info from a sampler, and I’ve really enjoyed it so far! Just doing the exercises and answering questions has been phenomenal. I was answering the questions on how I’d spend $500, $1,000 and $5,000 (didn’t post, but did it for the intrinsic benefit), and my immediate response was “I actually have at least $1,000 I could spend in the next few months…why am I not already investing in these things?!”
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Time. I work 40 hours per week, train in the gym 15+ hours, have a 90-minute roundtrip commute daily, and I’ve struggled to complete these assignments on the day given. I am willing to put in the time when I can put it in. I also think my lack of time will mean results will be slower since I’ll be working on the side business piecemeal…and I’ll need lots of patience with that pace in order not to give up too soon.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
VERY INTERESTED! I hope I’m able to pay for it without having to dip into any savings…only because my savings is earmarked for my train-fulltime-in-2012 fund. However, I think the course will pay dividends, so I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen!
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
How “simple” some of the techniques you recommend are. E.g. Briefcases are very 1980’s. Are people still impressed by that kind of stuff? Not saying they aren’t but suprising.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Actually getting THE idea that will bring me $1000 and more.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific
I’m pretty interested but wondering how I would get out of it knowing I don’t have my million dollar idea yet.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
There was no holding back on the quality of material presented here. Shouldn’t be a huge surprise I guess, but even for free I’ve learned a lot, and feel better for having been able to take notes so far rather than do nothing.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I have absolutely NO idea what I would do. I haven’t had that “Aha!” moment, where a skill I have seems to fit with a present demand. I feel the need to do more research, introspection and generally immerse myself in figuring out what I could do that would work for me. (Reading case studies helps a LOT with this — seeing how other people figured it out.)
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I’m very interested, but the timing just does not line up for me. Right now, I don’t have either the financial resources or the time to devote. I hope that this is something you’ll do more than once, Ramit, because I would absolutely love to go through it when I’ve got the time! (Time is more important than money.)
Also, I think that something like this would be even better for me after I finish the Personal MBA Business Crash Course. It’s the basics I need and I feel like with that under my belt, I’ll be a better student in other business-type courses.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
How interactive it is; the quality and depth of case studies (loved the pitch from Matt to you) – real life; the level of specific detail.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Frequency of prospect/customer engagement (and consistency of same).
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Very – need to align time commitment with my travel schedule over the next 8 weeks. Also, would like to participate in some of the web events, but am 8 hours ahead of PST which means 7PM does not work for me.
Thanks so far.
PS for Ramit…
re: the person who suggested threaded comments, yes yes please! Or even better, for the actual course, a “forum”. It’s hard to keep up with conversations in this format, where everything is mashed together!
PS To Matt re: the websites…
I think you are right that they want the BENEFITS of having a website, but not the work. (And why would they, they’re not web developers!) It DOES sound a bit like Ramit’s “I don’t want to learn to cook!” video
– and I think if you charge monthly, you create some nice income streams!
About the trouble you’re having, it sounds like they’re not getting VALUE part of the equation.
IE – they’re hearing the cost, and it seems like too much. (They don’t perceive that the value of what they’re getting is worth that much money.) But, you are countering by justifying your cost in terms of how much work you are doing.
From the client side, the amount of work you do doesn’t matter. All that matters is – is the benefit they get worth the cost. If you could do something that made them an extra $100k, but it only took you 5 minutes… do you think they’d only pay $20? For $100k, isn’t that service worth alot more, no matter how much time it takes on your end?
The reverse is that – if they don’t see how they will actually make money or otherwise benefit, it doesn’t matter how long it takes you to implement, why would they want to pay?
So – I think you need to figure out how to reframe the value they receive into terms they care about. Something like – how many new customers will I get? How many sales? How much more business will I have because of this? Will they be able to gain more market share? Will it be easier for new customers to find them?
If they think they will benefit more than the cost (“pay me $100/month, but you’ll be making $1000/month extra” – it becomes a no-brainer.)
Also, can you see what their competitors are doing online, and use that? If the competition doesn’t have a website – great – you are now more visible, people who search online will find you but not them. If the competition does have one, get some traffic estimates, show them how the competitor is taking customers away from them, it’s not even a fair fight, because they’re not in the ring – they’re losing by default.
I don’t know, that’s what occurred to me when I read your posts. Hope it gives you some ideas! Good luck!
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
Ramit – I just found your blog and this course at the same time, so I honestly had no idea what I was signing up for! So far, I’m really enjoying it. The biggest surprise for me has actually been how much I’m enjoying your videos. In past courses, I’ve always *hated* video, as it’s usually paced way too slowly (I end up reading another page while the person is talking). Your videos are awesome though – *very* entertaining (you’re a funny guy!) while still offering wonderful information. I actually find myself looking forward to them
Another (good) surprise – is how interactive you are. The fact that you don’t JUST survey, you actually talk about what you find and act on it. And that you react here in the comments. As a potential customer, it makes me feel *valued*. In another course I took, the upfront promise was “we’re here for you, you’re not alone, we’ll walk you through everything” – but the people who set up the course never actually answered questions or responded on the forums after they got paid. It was very disheartening, and has made me less inclined to buy any courses online. So I’m surprised – and THRILLED – to see how accessible/interactive you’ve been.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
- Still no clue what I can offer. I’ve been playing with a couple ideas, but I feel very far behind everyone else that seems to have a business already in place and is just looking to optimize/make more money! There is a huge amount of fear around this too – worry that maybe there’s just nothing I can do that will be valuable to anyone.
- Time. I’m still super stressed about time, and being pulled in too many directions. I’m taking a week off in mid Feb. though, so that should help temporarily give me a little more to work with. (It’s hard to feel insightful at 1 am, when you know the alarm is going off at 6:30!)
- Divided Interests. I’m really torn between a desperate need to find a way to support myself without a corporate job (all of the jobs I’ve had feel like they’re making me LESS intelligent, creative, and fit. The job is killing me
!) and writing. I’ve put off the writing for years – to go to college, to get a job, etc… and I’m afraid that I’ll never get to it. But, I also think that I have to find a way to ditch the job, or even with the writing, I will never be happy – the job just sucks too much out of me.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Very. I’m sure this was on purpose, but I feel like I’m already IN it.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The number of people at the webcasts. I secretly hope that a lot of people don’t sign up for the course so that those who do can get more personalized attention. (I was also *very* interested in a one-off mention you made referring to the fact that you are working on material involving productizing as a business. I think this is where my inclination lies.)
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Determining what kind of offering to go with…then doing it all. I know the course is designed to alleviate that.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
When I signed up I was mostly in it for the free stuff. Now I’m quite interested. Other than the financial aspect, my big barrier is myself — is freelancing what I really want to aim towards? Will I honestly put in my best effort to do the material? (I’ve been, um, less than fully engaged with the material this week.)
These fears are currently battling with the voice of reason that tells me I take home $1500/mo right now, so if I do nothing more than replace my current income at your minimum acceptable hourly wage ($25/hour), I’m coming out with 20 extra hours a week. I like this.
Finally, whether or not I buy the product can be vetoed by my partner. We have a strong relationship and have learned the value of getting a second pair of eyes on things.
What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I can tell you what I found most useful:
* Do ONLY the things that count. Fail fast, and fail cheap.
This resonates with me, because I am such an analyst when it comes to doing things – my number one mistake. But starting with the idea that I can improve things as I go, that nothing is so permanent that I can not improve it later, is liberating. And shouldn’t I be improving things as I go anyway? If I wait until I have everything figured out, it will never get of the ground. Good stuff.
* Define a highly specific niche for what you offer , and exclude everyone else to create uniqueness and scarcity.
This was a bit counter intuitive for me – that a smaller demographic could in effect be a larger market – and probably the second largest mistake I have been making in developing sound ideas.
What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
* Assessing my skills and knowledge in a way that translates into a sale-able, scaleable, niche-able product. This is in itself, a skill. It is going to take some work to get good at it.
How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
* All indications are that this course is going to be expensive (> $100) and time consuming (> 1 week to absorb). I get the value proposition, but something of this size and expense could be more of a barrier to me getting started. Plus don’t forget, the amount of time I invest in absorbing it is part of the cost.
At this point I need to start integrating your concepts into my efforts. In other words, I am not there yet. I see your course as more of a way to solve the problems I have after I have had some experience developing my ideas, testing my markets, etc.
Still, I am interested in the course as a body of reference material. I want to learn the concepts quickly, and then be able to find specific answers when I run into a hitch. I do NOT want to take on a large learning effort as a prerequisite to starting things moving. So at this point I just do not know enough about the way the course structured to know if it meets my needs.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
Nothing much has surpised me about the content of the course as it fits in with Ramit`s style that I’m used to via the blog. What has surprised me is the effect it has had on me in terms of how it has made me look at myself and ask exactly what I am prepared to do to generate extra income and why I’m not already doing it.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Not taking sufficient action. Not thinking clearly enough about how I can use my skills.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I have found this site to be very beneficial so far. I has complements two evenings courses that I am currently taking and I feel that the full course will be even more motivating and more of the ‘just get on with it’ style that Ramit has. So I am really interested.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The thing that’s surprised me the most so far was how much I got out of the Work for Free quiz. To be honest I have incompletely engaged with most of the material, but the quiz drew me in in a way that still amazes me. It has me thinking about free to fee and how to get that going as a business model
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
The speed at which it’s happening. At my current rate, which I hope to fix by raising my prices, it will take me 3 months to reach $1k
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
At this point I am mildly interested. I see myself as a proto-salesperson. Sales is not my expertise and I don’t think I have enough experience and background to successfully extract enough benefit to make it worth the effort.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The amount of hands-on and TRUE information. I have absolutely no experience in stuff like this, but everything you have said so far is so logical that a five year old should get the point and a ten year old should be able to come up with it. Except they don’t.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I have just finished the equivalent to High-School and am not sure if I have a skill that could earn me 1k. So the biggest area of weakness is doubt in my abilities.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Man, you sold me yesterday already. Even if I use this 5 years from now it will be worth (value!) the money. Remember how it was when this guy told you about his 5k fee and wanted to walk away? I feel like you right now. -.-
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
How well everything has been broken-down in to ‘bite-size’ chunks. No self-respecting human could say that they don’t know what to do next after reading the material you’ve shared over the last week. I did the to-dos (actually wrote the answers down), and was surprised of the value I got out of them (rather than just doing them in my head). It’s the reason why I’m actually replying to this post!
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Finding the time to invest in it. I work an intense 40-hour-a-week job, which leaves me drained at the end of it all. I know I WILL do it eventually, but it might take me a little longer than someone with more free time/works a more menial job.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Very interested. I’ve been impressed with the quality of the material so far, and am looking forward to finding out what could be in the full course.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect, as this is the first time I’ve signed up for one of these online-courses. I very much like that there were specific exercises to do, which changed it from being ‘just another blog-like post’ to somethin I was actively engaged with.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Time. And money! I understand what you are saying about investing in yourself, but I have very little income that isn’t spoken for by bills. Yes, I have started applying your book, and recently automated everything, but I need to earn more in order to invest in myself!
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Yes I am, but it’s entirely dependent on cost. Not that I don’t think you’re worth it – but I won’t put it on a credit card. That I have relatively little disposable income probably puts me out of your target market !
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The most useful bits for me have been the assignments you give out and the questions you ask. So far for me, it’s been all about the right questions and what they’ve made me think about. If I were imagining the best parts of the course before we started I would have guessed the videos or other materials would be the most effective.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I sit around thinking too much instead of executing.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Honestly, I’m interested but still doubtful. The doubt is mainly centered on me rather than the course. I’m sure the course is worthwhile if I can execute on what I learn from it.
To be honest, I wouldn’t say that anything here has “surprised” me in so many words. It is fantastic and I expected nothing less from Ramit, I hope that many people follow in his example in their own fields of interest and can provide this much value to people. That is what it takes to really make money, you have to want to improve people’s lives, not make money; when you improve people’s live they WANT to pay you because they feel grateful and are often inspired by your honesty and dedication. What is said in this course doesn’t “surprise” me because it is all perfectly logical, but I WOULDN’T HAVE THOUGHT OF ANY OF IT ON MY OWN and neither would most of us. Ramit doesn’t just tell you what to do, he TEACHES you how to THINK. He gives you techniques as well as the understanding needed to DEVELOP YOUR OWN.
My biggest issue is that I care far more about growing my own skill set than about making money. I need to find a way that I can make money, WHILE I am developing this skill set. But who wants to hire a Philosopher/Inventor/Computer Engineering Student/Artist/Writer/Wannabe Linguist? I’m have trouble finding practical use for the skills that I consider to be the most important. I’m a really fast learner (good self-learner) and a very good problem solver but I don’t know how to bring that down to a niche. I feel like I just need more education and further developed skills.
I am interested in it to read and understand the method so that I can apply it to other things, such as the business plan for a service website I am working on with a friend. We aren’t free-lancing but we still need to be inside of our customer’s heads, we need to supply a service that people are looking for. But I’m not sure how much of the course will be as easy to translate into our model. I am certain that the course is fantastic, but not certain that the time is right for me. I don’t know if I can market my skills in a way that would not hamper my education, which is the only thing of importance to me, besides helping others. Of course, I do need to find a way to continue to pay for college.
Before I answer your questions, I have a question of my own. I get the having a plan to solve all of of the client’s problems, and the theatrical event of taking it out of a briefcase (hope a folder will work, since I don’t carry a briefcase) but at what point DO you bring up cost? Is it on the proposal? Do you wait until they agree to the project and then throw a price at them? I typically try to ask what the clients budget is, get them to tip their hand first, if they do, then I throw out a number thats near what they had in mind. However, some clients are hesitant to show their cards first.
1. I’ve followed the blog for a while now, so I came in knowing your style, but I guess I never used to watch all the videos you posted. This was also my first time attending one of your live webcasts, and the sheer volume of people surprised me! It was overwhelming at first, but fun.
2. Oh, there are many weaknesses… Deciding IF I should niche it down, and how. Asking for money…. I always feel like I need to justify the cost I am asking people to pay. I tend to over deliver, but more because I feel bad asking people for money. Finding new clients… so far, they have seemed to find me.
3. I am definitely interested, but it will really come down to cost for me. I have been saving for a new computer (business expense) and planned on making that purchase this month. If I have room in the budget, I think this would be great. I have a couple of business advisors, and lots of connections in the industry to get specific advice from, but this is really the focused on the business end, and presented completely different than anything else I have done/am doing.
Also, as someone else mentioned, I am hesitant about how many people will be in the course… I lost connection half way through the webcast, and was never able to get it back.
Looking forward to the tear downs, hoping I am one of them
1. I was surprised that the course seems more of a prolonged sales pitch for the earn1k course than really teaching techniques. I am not saying I did not learn this week. I did. But was expecting a little bit more information than 1-5 minute lessons.
2. My weakness right now is, that I started second guessing myself in the area I want to freelance (photography). I wonder if I should get back to the drawing board and decide if there is something better. Especially that I have another – product based business idea, too.
3. I am interested in the course although I do have a little bit of concern. It seems to me that this course is for freelancing. What about a product based business? As I mentioned above, I am second guessing myself on the freelancing decision. If I decide later to change to a product based business, will this course be relevant? My guess is that it will probably be to a certain degree. But I cannot tell.
1. I’ve been primarily surprised by the slow roll of the course. I’m not particularly more or less interested in it now than I was when the week began. I’ve learned some useful ideas this week, which is what I expected based on your prior work. I’m still waiting for the final sales pitch.
2. My biggest area of weakness at the moment is a lack of market research and a concomitant lack of customer focus.
3. I’m interested enough to take the course if I can afford it.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
Honestly, what has surprised me is how much we’ve been getting sold on the course. I knew coming in to this that you must have been planning something, but it feels like we are constantly reminded about the course. You’ve done a good job at not making it feel like one big advertisement though. A lot of really good stuff has been offered up by you leading up to and including this course.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Just getting started/finding the right idea to start with. You have said it before, but passion comes from doing something well (as opposed to doing something well because you are passionate about it). My issue is finding my niche. But I feel like once I find where I can put my skills to good use, I can make great strides after that.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I would say that I am very interested.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The daily todo’s, and some folks getting direct feedback. It does make you wish everyone did, but I know that’s not really feasible with how many people are reading!
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Picking an idea and going with it. If I do pick, I get overly invested in concepts and fail to fail (fast) while my enthusiasm for it peters out.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Based one what I’ve seen so far, super-interested in getting a kick in my ass and some guidelines to make me push something through. Getting a more independent opinion/guidance is probably the most looking forward to: ‘this is a good idea, tweak’ or ‘this sucks, here is how to fix it up’, or even ‘what the hell are you thinking man, no no no’. Hoping my piddly bank balance can take it though.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The amount of hands-on, “watch-how-this-works-in-reality” material along with the “meta-lesson” demonstrations through the course itself.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I’ve been trying to get myself off the ground for a long time, striving for the unrealistic goal of launching *everything* once it’s “perfect”.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Completely sold — to the point that I’m convinced that this really will be a magic bullet when acted upon. Honestly, the PDF at the end of today’s lesson really did seal the deal for me, EVEN RIGHT AFTER YOU FINISHED TELLING US WHAT A BRIEFCASE TRICK LOOKS LIKE AND IS MEANT TO DO.
Good Lord. I must have these powers for myself now.
Matt, Ramit, & Jenn,
I, too, am starting up a web design business. Ramit’s course has already completely changed my perspective from what *I* want to what the *customer* wants. I am also having the struggle of having to educate my customers as to why they pay that price and why they have to maintain their own site. They just don’t know enough about web design to know how much is involved behind the scenes. And I now realize it’s not their responsibility to find out. They don’t care. That’s not even their focus.
I’m going to take my own stab at what Ramit is trying to tell Matt:
The customer wants to see numbers. Not the price, but the results of the improved sales to their business. And if you package the site maintenance in a monthly way like you’re thinking of doing (and me as well), that can be part of an “ongoing results” option. You and I both know enough about SEO to know what happens to sites that are showing new and fresh content on a regular basis, and other ways to gain an advantage. The clients would not, but they would like to see numbers on it. In fact, if you add in even more results-oriented marketing for them, ie Facebook, Twitter, your mama, whatever, you (and I) may be able to bring this whole thing even further up into a total business marketing “program”. And not just a website. Exactly like your analogy of the stocked kitchen (which I love).
Learning about marketing is icky (for me), but also painfully eye-opening. I’m seeing that I was a fool when I started this, thinking only about me and what I wanted to sell. Now I am seeing why my original plan would have flopped before it even started. And why so many others’ do as well.
Okay, so that’s my stab at it. I agree that threaded comments would be great! Thank you Matt, Ramit, and Jenn for reading!
Karen
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I’ve always heard that clients are thinking “what’s in it for me,” but I never realized how in depth you could go. I thought you could come up with a few benefits and that would cover it. Now I see you can go much deeper.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Two, actually. One is that I have a hard time selling myself. I use all the wrong words (maybe, probably, etc.). Two, sometimes I have a hard time translating information into one of my niches (yoga at work) because I can’t think of quantifiable results to give a potential client. There are wellness studies, but I can’t tell a business that yoga at work will reduce their turnover by 25 percent or increase productivity by 35 percent, etc. So I don’t know how to directly show how my service will meet their needs. I’ve been trying to think of ways to apply the material to my situation.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I’m very interested in the course. I think Ramit hinted about it in an e-mail last fall, and I’ve been impatiently waiting to see what it’s about ever since. I’m past most of my major barriers and ready to get serious about growing my existing freelance business and starting my yoga business later this year.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The questions at the end are solid. I love them because they serve as a call to action, and make me think REAL hard. Also, I love the graphics of the logos/layout, it gives a professional looks to your premium course – double thumbs up to whoever designed them.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Time management. Specifically, I’m running my own blog and working hard at my day job, it doesn’t leave me a lot of time doing freelancing.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I’m very interested in learning all the ins and outs of freelancing and the tactics behind them. Even if I don’t end up freelancing I believe I could use the skills at other aspects of my life. It should be a good investment.
I’m still not clear on what sets your program apart from similar ones on the market. What is the unique value?
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC. I was expecting pep talk to get out there and make it happen, but was surprised by some of the detail offered.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)? Finding an niche of high demand. I work in information technology. I am an expert in server systems, but I don’t know how to convert this to something I can do on the side. I also just don’t understand how to figure what information technology skills are in demand besides the typical virus removal which EVERYONE expects to be done for FREE. You know who are!!
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific. I’m very interested, but am curious if we would be allowed to pay over time, you know $xx per month for 12 months, without a financing charge?? I am confident in the value of Ramit’s products, so I have not reservations about signing up. I just don’t have the upfront money for a premium course.
Hey J, what’s the worst that could happen if you do all this planning and fail?
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
1) Some of the video will play right in the browser, some of it won’t. some of the audio recordings can be downloaded for further study, some of them can’t. Feeling like I’m missing some things.
2) Fear, don’t want to do this much planning and still screw up.
3) Depends on format. Will all video play in browser?
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The speed at which the course moves, I feel like if I’ve missed any of the actions I’m behind, one of the biggest ones is identifying my skills, whereas I feel like I should already know what I’ll be doing..
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Sticking with it to a point where I actually get the customer & do the work (and get paid!).
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Very, although I think I’ll need to be confident that I’ve found a niche service with a viable market. Price and payment options may also affect my ability to join the course…
Yes, Matt, you’re on the right track.
I’ll save more (and threaded discussions — we’ll look into that) for the full Earn1k course.
Hope to see you inside.
@Ramit and @Jenn – thanks for the comments and interest in my situation.
Ok, responding to Ramit – here’s what I think you’re getting at. I think what my clients really want are the marketing benefits that come from having a website, not the actual website. Therefore anything that requires them to have to learn or work on the website itself is a barrier for them. They just want it, and they want it to work and for all these wonderful benefits to come raining down on them.
Of course then there are also the people every now and then who want a website because they think its what they SHOULD do, not because they actually see any specific benefit from it. Those are usually bad clients though…
I think this is what Jenn was trying to say in a way too. Her “A customers” have a plan and want to be in control of their marketing and therefore just want a website and they can handle the rest. Then, the “B customers” are the ones that don’t have a plan themselves, but rather just desire the benefits that they think a website will bring.
For me – I don’t mind working with either type, but it tends to be that they B customers tend to expect a lot and don’t want to pay very much because they have unreasonable expectations. And its hard to bring their expectations into line with reality without also losing them as a client.
So, is there something I could do to remedy this situation? I mean I guess I could just try a lot harder to find A customers, but as I said, most of the people I find that tend to want websites end up being B customers…
Peace,
-Matt
PS. Ramit, would you consider enabling threaded comments (aka nested comments) on this blog? Would be much easier to have great discussions like what we’re doing right now. Here’s an excellent example:
http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/2010/01/16/two-specific-tools-for-tuning-up-your-mental-game-of-entrepreneurship/
I’d be happy to help you with this functionality if you’re interested…
@EMCGUIRE: Thanks for the tips. I was hesitant about letting it out that I was a recent graduate, but I think in this case it was extremely useful. I’ll have to check out those blogs. Thanks a bunch.
Christine- I agree, and I think we have similar dilemmas since we’re in the same industry. I graduated a little less than 2 years ago. Here’s one quick thing I learned, I very quickly took everything off my blog or website that said I had just graduated art school. I found that when art directors knew I was recently graduated they were more hesitant to hire me.
Also, A few art directors (Irene Gallo, Jon Schindehette) have blogs that are pretty helpful in telling you what they want from artists. Irene had a post of very clear do’s and don’ts, for example.
And, as for niche type issues, the best strategy I read was being one of the top 10 artists a client could think of off the top of their head. Even if it means getting typecast a bit, if they can remember they want to use you for -something- you’re more likely to keep getting work.
Take care!
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I expected that I would be learning from the course itself. I was surprised to find how much information and new ideas I gained from reading the comments.
I really appreciated the daily exercises, as it forced me to focus my rambling ideas into more concrete plans of action. The exercises have enough structure with a deadline to actually move beyond abstract planning. However, there are so many people in the course and so many different types of freelance ideas, I wonder if there will be enough feedback to take these ideas to the next level. This may be something you’re already planning to do with the 6 teardowns, but it would be really helpful to see feedback for different idea types — people who are niching to a local market, people who are trying to enter an established market, people who are offering a service, people who are offering a product, etc.
It would also be helpful if certain topics don’t directly apply to our situation, to point out alternative approaches: For example, in my case, I don’t have as much control over meeting my client (art directors who primarily find new talent through submissions or other publications) and trying to add value to their business. I can’t expect as much face time with my clients as the “briefcase” method assumes.
I’m glad that you will be offering transcripts for the long videos. I really appreciate how in your blog, you break the audio/videos into different topics so that I can watch in clips. I frequently learn by taking down notes or rewriting things with my own words, so not having to rely solely on fast-paced videos where I pause and rewind constantly as I take notes will be extremely helpful.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Having only recently graduated, I am a complete unknown in the illustration and art industry, and I’m still in the process of developing my art and strengthening my portfolio. However, since it is an industry that is constantly seeking new talent, I aim to make myself as strong a candidate as possible.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I’m very interested. As a recent graduate, paying for classes that bring you knowledge and equip you for your future is not a foreign concept. I do worry the benefits won’t be as directly applicable as I had originally hoped, mainly because the illustration and fine art industry is an imperfect fit for what you are targeting this course for. However, just going along with the exercises in the past few days has improved how I was thinking about my approach so far and forced me to concretely plan for what I would do. If I can apply 50% of what you’re teaching to my situation, I still come out ahead. Thank you.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I don’t feel scammed! No offense Ramit, but I’ve been burned by empty promises from other online courses. Also, I feel like I’m being taught and pushed to act, rather than merely inspired. It’s completely different than my other experiences.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Figuring out what to offer. I’m having a hard time seeing my marketable skills since I tend have multiple, rotating interests rather than one deep interest. I *am* putting together a survey to post on my Facebook page about one of my specific ideas though. I’m hoping that will help me drill down where my focus should start or if I should scrap that idea and try something else.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I’m going to do the course. At this place in my life when I’m feeling poised to makes changes and earn more money, it would be self-sabotage not to do it. I haven’t done the bootcamp or Scrooge Strategies up to this point – I’ve only bought (and I’m currently reading) the book. It takes serious time and quality information to earn my trust, but I’m feeling safe enough to invest in the course and in myself.
1. I have been REALLY surprised by how well the exercises are working at simply ramping up my creativity. As I think about how to get into my customer’s heads, new ideas keep popping into MY head that never would’ve occurred to me before. I’m a freelance portrait photographer and after Monday’s exercise I promptly created a survey of my target market and immediately got 20 or so REALLY interesting responses that shed lots of light on the emotions and problems of my market (moms) even though I AM technically part of my own target market.
2. I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out who is gonna pay the most for what, and how to niche it down so that I can focus my efforts on the most lucrative customers. For example, I love photographing newborns and could easily target pregnant women only, but sometimes I think moms of toddlers will buy a whole lot more prints because of the various expressions and personalities of their kids. Also high school seniors and newly engaged couples seem like gold mines, but I’m not as clear about how to find them and pitch them.
3. Very interested. My biggest hangup is feeling like I’m already well on my way with this freelancing stuff and intuitively know most of the stuff you’re teaching from my past sales and marketing experiences.
I’m interested in what Ramit said: what Matt’s clients want is not a website.
Thinking on this comment – what they want is a) simply a website or b) someone to build, manage and maintain a web presence for them constantly (one they don’t have to manage at all).
I think it’s two different clients. And one of them really does just want a website. Sadly for Matt, he’s getting a lot of customer B, and customer B is in shock over cost.
Customer B however CAN be sold. The second part of Ramit’s comment is true: it’s how you present it to them. Value beats cost when the client is worth your time. When value doesn’t beat cost, it’s not worth your time. The exception to this rule is if you are looking for the small wins. Matt is not – he has a price structure of what he finds acceptable for his hard work, and thus he will tweak his presentation and focus on the value driven customer B, and quickly pass by the cost driven customer.
1. What’s surprised you so far?
I’m surprised at how much of this I’d figured out already, but wasn’t able to put into words. The articulation of these concepts has been nice.
I even had my own pseudo-version of the briefcase technique- I brought a nicely printed and bound portfolio of my work to any interviews or meetings, and after clients show some interest, I offer it to them to take home. It isn’t the same as a business pitch, but it’s one less barrier in getting them to remember my work and visit my website. Among other things, I got my full time job at a major animation studio with this method.
Although it isn’t completely relevant to my field, I’m surprised how much of this I hadn’t considered before, and how cerebral the strategies were. I was thinking much harder about my clients minds than I had before.
Like Peter though, I’m surprised at the premium course pitch to content ratio.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Self promotion, and time management. I brought in about 16k freelancing last year, but to keep that going I haven’t had time or a good strategy for a good promotion campaign.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
You’ve definitely piqued my interest, but I’m really not sure if the course applies to my industry (illustration) enough to justify the investment. The personal coaching would probably be the most helpful for me. I’m waiting to see what you say in this free course about marketing and self promotion, because that is genuinely more valuable in my industry than most of the other strategies.
In some fields (art, music, design, photography, writing, etc) it’s pretty obvious to the client if the artist or designer isn’t good at what they do, and no amount of email scripts, business proposals, and word manipulation will convince a client to pay them more for an inferior service.
But learning how to increase exposure and stand out in a sea of talent, that is priceless.
Thanks again.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
Honestly, I am the guy that spent all of his time creating a website, blog, business card, etc. I also outlines all of my potential services that I could offer to my potential (and non-existent) clients. What surprised me the most, was the whole “get inside their head” concept.
No joke, in the last two days I used this concept and got a lead from a co-worker who’s relative is a doctor at a small office.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
As with some of the other participants, I consider myself a generalist. I do IT, project management, video editing, and so on. Coming up with a specific skill for a niche market is hard for me, but I know that it’s necessary. Also, I’ve never been good at sales and marketing, but I think that the “get inside their heads” concept is helping.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Very. Just seeing the results (the aforementioned lead) in a few days shows me the it’s worth it. I’ve read a boat load of freelance help sites, but so far this has been the most effective, and it’s not even the full program.
Excited.
Matt, you’re conflating 2 things:
* What your clients REALLY want (hint: it’s not a website)
* How to best deliver it to them
Think about it carefully. Remember, they don’t care about a website. Think deeper.
We break both down in the full course.
@Jenn – Thanks for the comment. I definitely do have a hosting service that gives me some income from bringing clients to them. Its not much but its nice. But when you charge an upfront fee, and then you’re also going to have them pay a month fee after that, they’re guaranteed to ask what the monthly fee is for.
Basically, my problem is twofold – first some leads are so woefully ignorant about the internet that they think having a custom website designed shouldn’t cost more than $500 – for everything including hosting… I mean $500 may be fine if all your doing is some simple html/graphic design, but even then to expect hosting to be included is absurd. And then these people also want complex Wordpress sites with widgets and ecommerce, etc. If I have to design/code for $500 that works out to peanuts per hour and its not worth it for me.
Assuming the client gets past the fact that a good website should cost a decent amount of money, they still don’t understand why they should give me three payments of $650 AND then still pay $15 per month into eternity. Hosting is also just one example – its the same way when I tell them that they have to manage the site themselves (which is easy using wordpress, but none-the-less still a disappointment for them). Maybe its just one too many disappointments in a row for them. Like they’re saying to themselves, “Wow, so its going to cost $1950 instead of $500, AND I have to pay $15 per month for this hosting thing, AND I have to put in a bunch of my time and energy to learn this wordpress thing, AND more time and energy to update it every month too?” Its just too far from their expectations, even though their expectations may very well be unreasonable…
That’s why I think the solution may be to just offer an ongoing service for a fixed fee per month to just take care of all their web needs. Its just so much simpler, and it may avoid some of the sticker shock.
So, to complete the analogy, my current way of doing things is more like setting their kitchen up for them with all the pots and pans and appliances, but then telling them that they have to learn how to cook AND buy groceries to keep it stocked in order to have food. Maybe what they really want instead is to just have someone cook for them on a regular basis…
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The emphasis on getting inside the customers head – its hard for many people, but it’s the key to getting a client to say yes. I am quite capable of delivery, but connecting with a client in a way that they will *want* to work with me has always been a challenge. It’s happened with a couple of my freelancing clients, and the thing I noticed in common with them is they were both value-focussed, not cost focussed, and were probably my most profitable clients.
I’m also curious about the degree to which you are using techniques from the upcoming course in selling the course to us, and how deliberate that is as part of the learning itself. I see this as a great example; it’s really making me think about what my clients want, how they think and feel. Because I am simultaneously thinking as a supplier, and as a client.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Keeping focus. And making the leap on cost setting – I find it really hard to accept that someone is prepared to pay a large sum when I’m not, so I find myself looking for ways to reduce the cost to make it more palatable to myself. I think it’s a self-confidence issue, under the hood. I got some really good feedback on this yesterday. In my day job we submitted a proposal for software development to a potential client. After we did the costing exercise, I was seeing some very large numbers, which I was not comfortable with, but we submitted anyway. Yesterday they came back and were very impressed, and asked us to do even more than was in the scope. The key takeout for me was that if you show them the value and focus on their pain points, which we were really trying to do, they are prepared to pay. Which is just what you’ve been saying. I just have to learn to trust it.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I am interested, curious to see more details. I am in a quite different timezone, which makes it difficult with interactive events.
Just wanted to add that I’m not some cheap bitch that wants everything for free. I did buy your book. I did try the Scrooge Strategy. Right now, even though I’m broke, I’m still going to classes at my gym — I canceled the expensive membership, though, and pay for individual classes and cut down on the number of classes I take because I value those classes but can only take what I can afford. So, it’s not like I don’t pay for things I value — I do — but things are seriously squeeze tight so I have to make sure it’s something I can afford. For the record, I’d be more interested if the pay structure is a monthly fee (like Scrooge Strategy) and less interested in a fee-up-front structure like Boot Camp.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The different types of people that are all looking into the course. I figured that the people looking into this would all be very similar, but you’ve got a diverse group of people here. An awesome surprise.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I’ll go with indecision. There are other hurdles to jump once I get started, but I can push through something even if it’s not comfortable. Choosing what to push through is my biggest weakness though.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Very. I’ll sign up unless it’s exorbitantly expensive.
1. How much of it ends up feeling like an infomercial for the Paid Earn1K course. I have gleaned little tidbits here and there, which I’m happy about, but SOOO much of the video conference on Tuesday was dedicated to Pimping the Paid Course that I started wishing I’d skipped the video and stayed at my networking event longer instead of leaving early for the video.
2. Biggest weakness is probably myself: I know I have the talent, the passion, and the competence to launch a successful photography business, but I am so unsure of myself and without any coherent personal brand that I start feeling nervous about going forward without someone holding my hand.
3. I’m interested in the scripts on the Earn1K course, but my finances are *tight*. I’m trying to make money on the side, but my day job has been furloughing us so much, I’ve stopped putting money in my savings account and actually using savings to make ends meet, so I’m not sure how much I can fork over for the course.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I found it really intuitive when you applied your methods to real life situations/freelancers. I think even with the briefcase technique, you should apply it to somone’s freelance idea and show how it can be applied to a freelance photographer, chef or babysitter etc.
2.
Being unsure of how to market myself when my credentials don’t deem me a freelancer. I feel as though no one would pay for my services because there are so many other freelancers who have far superior portfolios and merits than I have.
3.
Very much so. I’m interested in what you mean by “personal coaching” and how “personal” it is to my specific goals/talents.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I am MOST surprised with Andrew Baber’s case study. I am extremely surprised how a NYTBSA and Network TV Celebrity would be so accepting of a new incoming team member AND take the time to offer help. There are countless celebrities that we DREAM would pay attention to us. Very few keep in contact with their fans to your extent and even fewer are accepting of new unknown team members. Is there some key thing that I am not seeing in the emails? Is there a secret I don’t know of?
You state that you’ve been pitched heavily, possibly on a daily basis. Are great email pitches that RARE? Are great people that hesitant about pitching?
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I am hesitant to charge people money. I understand how trade works and that money is exchanged for services. However, I have spent A LOT of time volunteering and am hesitant about charging people for services.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
Since upon discovering your work, probably via Jared Goralnick’s blog technotheory, I have always been interested in your work and courses. I am VERY interested in your full Earn1k course.
–
I still have much to learn. I am not a particular fan of delicious, but I love psychology.
Jeff, yes, most pitches I get are horrible. Just horrible. That’s the Craigslist Penis Effect in action — and it means that if you can master these skills, you can often COMPLETELY CLEAN UP when trying to earn money.
@Matt: could you perhaps consolidate all your information that the non-savvy client needs (host, etc.) into one package and just give them the package? They don’t need to know about the host unless they ask about that line of the broken down sales cost. You can even look into a host service that offers you some sort of kick back or affiliate income for each new client you bring to them. This lets you focus on educating the client about the website they need, not all the extraneous things that have to be done to set it up. Make it simple for them, they don’t want to learn – they just want it done.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
The biggest surprise for me from the private course so far is the call to action in these end of day questions. I am enjoying the challenge and appreciate the attention that Ramit is obviously giving to the answers that people are providing.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I’ve discovered that my product requires a lot of time to prepare and offers very little profit. The biggest weakness is how time consuming it will be to produce. So much so, that I had nearly given up the dream in order to pursue something more profitable, before I realized I wanted to love the work AND the money.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I am mildly interested. I am not freelancing a service, so I have to try and dig through the suggestions and tips and make them relevant to my situation. It’s certainly do-able, but obviously the course is catering to a different business model than what I am setting up.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
-I am surprised how much I have gotten out of it, honestly. I came in thinking I might pick up some tools and tricks that could be used in my current business or to start my next one, but now I want to try freelancing.
I knew in the back of my head that I shouldn’t try to make everyone happy, but you really hammered ruthless niching enough that it finally clicked for me. More niche = more rare = more concentrated demand = higher $/hr.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
-I am pretty busy running a tax business right now.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
-I think it would be great, but I don’t know if it is for me. It may be premature for me to invest in a course like this. I am sure the value will exceed the price for a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I can afford to risk it right now.
Hey Eain -
I’m going to pull a Ramit here!
I do game design consulting for a wide variety of clients, both in academia and the business world. They mostly want help with intractable problems that need playful solutions! In order to do this, I make observations, participate in problem discovery, write game design documents, do research, show them relevant academic studies, and teach them about games and play. I also help clients design and implement research studies that show whether their approach is working.
I’ve got more freelance work than I can handle; I’m using this course to get paid more for what I do, not to generate new leads. So, is this a job you think you could do? Pitch me on why I should be hiring you to help me out!
While I suspect the whole community will be helpful, I can give you feedback not just on your pitch itself, but also on freelance angles within our industry.
–Jess
Would you please provide a transcript of the video for those who have visual or hearing impairments? Thanks.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
NOTHING SO FAR. I DID THE BOOTCAMP AND I KNOW YOU WERE ALWAYS OVER DELIVERING… SO MY FIRST SURPRISE WOULD BE WHEN YOU ‘UNDER’ DELIVER IF EVER .LOL
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I AM A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER IN MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGIES, BUT SORTA JACK OF ALL, AND WE ARE IN MAITENANCE MODE FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS AND SORTA SLOWLY KILLED MY TECHNOLIOGY APPETITE FOR KEEPING UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST AND DUE TO MY CURRENT IMMIGRATION SITUATION I HAVE TO WORK ONLY FOR THESE GUYS!!. I AM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT SHOULD I LEARN MORE BIZ SKILLS/ TECKIE SKILLS , AND IF SO WHAT SHOULD BE MY SPEICIFIC FOCUS AND HOW TO MAKE A CLIENT ORIENTED SKILL IMPROVEMENT SO AS TO DIRECTLY COVERT THAT IN TO $$$,ON THE POSITIVE I AM PREPARED TO SPEND TIME AND PUT EFFORTS IN TO MASTERING SPECIFIC SKILLS BEFIRE MOVING ON TO THE SIDE PROJECTS …
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
VERY INTERESTED, THE ONLY DOWNSIDE I AM THINKING ABOUT IS I HAVE AREADY COMMITED TO THE PMBA CRASH COURSE AND ALSO I AM GIVING MY LEVEL 2 CFA EXAMS, HENCE TIME CONSTRAINTS IS WHAT I AM WORRIED ABOUT MOST AND SECONDLY ALSO THE COST FACTOR I HAVE COMMITED TO THE OTHER 2 COURSES + MY SON STARTING HIS SCHOOL {3 YEAR OLD !!} THIS MONTH.
DO YOU PLAN TO HAVE A BORKEN DOWN PAYMENT PLAN FOR THE COURSE ?
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? I am surprised and how direct each presentation is and how you several steps to help me get in the right direction and actually implementing each step
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Having the financial support to put more time in my ideas/side businesses.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Very interested but not sure if it is just set up for freelancing designer. If so then not really.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
Probably just how compelling each of the exercises are. There’s a decent amount here that I’d heard of in other places before in passing (though never in this level of detail and clarity) and there’s other things that I’d never even thought about before… Yet here I am trying to go through every task as best I can instead of just flicking past it.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Right now my biggest weakness seems to be that I still don’t know what I can offer. I have certain skills that I can use (mostly to do with 3D, though I can write fairly well and draw too), and I’ve seen how some other people use their knowledge in the industry and seem to make money at it. Usually by teaching; the problem there is that I’m still only a student myself. What I need to work out is how to take what I can do, and turn it into a service.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I didn’t expect to be interested in it at all; I was wrong. Assuming the price is affordable I see no reason I wouldn’t sign up for it.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I’m positively surprised by the some of the unintended revelations I’ve had in completing the exercises. I’ve really appreciated some of the tangential breakthroughs I’ve had while working through the exercises. For example, the OVER SERVE exercise made me realize that my main idea severely violated the 80/20 rule.
I’m negatively surprised by the number of attendees. My opinion right now is that if the course is over 250 people it could really dilute the value. For example, in the live chats it’s been virtually impossible to make any meaningful commentary due to the volume of comments.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
My biggest area of weakness is identifying customers. Yet even if I could identify customers, how can I get them to even give me 30 seconds of their time to be sold to. I’ve offered to do free work a little bit in the past and have yet to receive even so much as a response. I’m really going to need some help in this area.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I’m very interested provided my above concerns are addressed. I would really like to know how many people sign up before I fully commit.
1. I have been surprised with all of the ideas out there from the community. I have been able to take from everybody else and make mine better.
2. Right now my biggest weakness is the quality of my product. I haven’t been able to get a hem that looks good on my golf cover. I feel once I have a good product, I can sell them
3. I am not that interested. I feel I have learned a lot of stuff from this course that I haven’t applied yet. I want to get out of the cycle of continual learning with no application.
The “briefcase technique” is genius. I love little hacks like this.
It reminds me of the ManagerTools podcast on How to Close. The have an extremely specific script on the very last thing you should say in a job interview.
1. The level of polish, thought, and effort that goes into every aspect of it so far. It is seriously the best looking, most relevant material I have seen online. As far as the relevancy, I am really surprised at where it hits on two levels: first is understanding the difficulty and barriers to getting that first 1000, but also that the techniques can be applied to any business to make it thrive. On the one hand it seems like it is undershooting to only focus on the first 1000 based on how impressive the materials are, however I think it is very smart to recognize and respect the gravity and difficulty of making that lead. Very cool approach.
2. I have made a little money and had a bunch of failures already (which I feel have been positive) but I still feel like it is completely unsustainable and the wins for me so far have come at a great cost of time and effort. It takes some considerable effort to put yourself out there again and again and I feel like so far I’ve been learning the hard way at every step.
3. Very interested. Unless it is prohibitively expensive (which is unlikely but that part of me still chimes in…) I will be joining. I have been on the edge of freelance work for close to a year now; I think this will be the perfect investment of money and time to really get my freelance work rolling.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Nothing really. I walked into this with a very open mind and very little expectation and found I was extremely happy with the content.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I’m a person with skills in many areas and mastery in nearly none. I’m really having a difficult time figuring out what I would want to do freelance. I’m a writer by nature and I keep coming back to that, but I’m not confident that I can niche that down to the level that I would stand out from the other freelance writers currently competing for work.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? At first, I wasn’t very interested. Currently, my interest has been piqued, especially with this last presentation. I think I could learn many tactics that I could use in my business life, as well as, freelancing.
All great comments!
1. Yes, there WILL be transcripts of all the long videos in the course
2. Yes, we cover “how to identify your market and create your service offering” EXTENSIVELY in the course
3. Yes, there is private coaching / personalized help for your specific business challenges, or even for an accountability partner
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
- To be honest I am surprised at how hard you are selling the premium course. I expected it to be more wow us for a few days give us a little information on the premium service and then at the end sell us on the premium service. Currently I feel like the “basic” 1K course is just an extended sales pitch for the premium service. I was expecting more of a stand alone product that was simply less comprehensive than the premium service.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
– My biggest weakness is not forcing myself to pick an idea and go with it. I am someone who is good at a lot of things and I have a lot of interests. Which allows me to do great work in a wide variety of area.
For example I am currently working as a construction project manager in the oil industry. However, my company is fairly small so I help with marketing, tech support, training, etc. In my free time I am currently helping build a network of blogs and supporters clubs to support a fan buyout of Newcastle United (professional football/soccer team in England -see link attached to my name above for their website). I also volunteer at my church mentoring teenagers.
As you can see I have a wide variety of talents/interests, however I am not world class in anything. So picking one talent out as a service I should offer is very difficult. I need to sit down pick a service/product and develop my skills to the point I can feel comfortable selling it and just go with it. I believe the act of trying even if it fails would be crucial to eventually developing an alternate income stream.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
– Interested, but I am always skeptical until I have full details. I tend not to purchase anything expensive unless I am 100% sold on it. There is always a $20 book I still want to read so I will probably just do that if I am not really really excited about an expensive course.
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Ramit, if you’re reading this, I’m a bit concerned that there hasn’t been info on *how to figure out what freelancing work to offer*. That is my #1 hang-up. I have specific, niche technical skills (I’m a electrical & mechanical engineer), but almost all of the projects I work on would be full-time jobs at an engineering firm. My skills are in high demand, but _not_ for freelance work. How can I identify a target area to use these earn1k techniques on?
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
One pleasant surprise: daily action items. This is exactly what will get me where I need to be. Working through each day’s exercises has already helped me figure out my pitch.
One unpleasant surprise: so much video! I don’t learn well from video either, and would use transcripts if they were available.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Getting paid what I deserve. I have lots of prospects and clients lined up, but I am having a hard time charging enough to make the amount of work I do for them worthwhile. I suppose I have already earned my first $1,000, but I want to earn a lot more per hour of work!
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
After seeing this first week, I’m likely to do it – though I’m hoping I won’t have to sign up right away, as I want some time to think through the things I’ve learned from this intro course before moving on.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I am surprised that I can apply it to my business so well.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I have already earned $10’s of thousands of dollars from consulting.
I am trying to learn how to freelance better and he more choosy about what I work on and niche it down more.
One of my challenges is that the best work I have done was for previous employers. My previous employer does not want me advertising this work on website, etc. Because I am in competition with them, to a degree.
Dealing with clients is a challenge to me and I want to be able to better manage them and their expectations on me.
Deciding when to pull in help and outsource or subcontract work is an important issue to me right now.
I am starting to get really busy and I am running around like a crazy person not showering or eating and working 24/7. I would like things to be more civilized.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I am very interested. I am perhaps a bit further along this process than some of the other potential people taking the class. I have had my own business full time since last summer.
I hope that the class does not spend too much time with figuring out business ideas, and dives into the real world challenges of dealing with clients.
1. The most surprising part, actually, is the briefcase technique. Up to that point, I recognized every other tactic or question, whether from Ramit’s blog, psychology, or business books. This looks like an excellent tactic to close the deal.
2. My biggest area of weakness is identifying a niche where I can grow a client base and use my skills.
3. I am very interested in the course, if only because it packages all the info I know into a set of steps, making it easier for me to act without over analyzing everything.
Hi Ramit, et al,
Great post today. Ok, here’s the answers to your questions. First of all, I am a full-time freelance web designer, but I constantly feel like its harder to get clients than it should be, and I would say my business is more of a stop and start trickle than the strong stream I would like it to be. I make probably about $1000 a month already, so I guess I’m not totally your target market for this, but I would really love to increase that $1000 a month up to something more like 4,000 or even 8,000.
1) I’ve been surprised by how targeted your advice has been so far. I thought this was going to be more of a series of inspirational articles to try and get people pumped up about earning money on the side, but its definitely given me some very specific tactics and ideas to use in my freelance business.
2) My biggest areas of weakness are definitely finding leads and then communicating to them why my services would be of value to them. It seems like most of the people I meet who need a web designer are small business owners that are older and not very technologically savvy. This leads to two problems for me – 1) they don’t seem to value a web presence very much because they themselves don’t really use the internet much, and 2) as soon as I start talking about the process of web design, they’re eyes glaze over and they seem to get kind of uncomfortable.
I mean, how do I explain to them why they need to pay for web hosting when they have no idea what a server even is, much less a web hosting company? Its very hard to convince people they need to shell out money for something when they have no idea what that something even is. So, I find that I end up having to do a ton of educating before I can even speak to them about what it is I could do for them. And it seems too many potential clients get lost along the way because learning how everything works is too far over their heads and they don’t see the value in it.
So, one thing that your podcast and article yesterday really made me think of is to offer an ongoing service where I do everything for them for a fixed monthly fee, rather than building them a website for a bid price and then turning them loose when I’m done actually constructing the site for them. Basically, rather than trying to teach them to cook, I’m just going to cook for them. Seems like this would really reduce the confusion for them if I could just tell them, “Look, I’ll make you an awesome website and do everything associated with it from now on for a fixed monthly fee. You don’t have to worry about anything, ever.”
3) At the start of this week I wasn’t really interested almost at all in the premium Earn 1k course, but now I’m definitely thinking about it. My major concern (and I’m sure I’m not the only one here) is the price, as I only make about 1000 per month and that has to pay for everything for me…
Peace,
-Matt
LEAVE A COMMENT WITH
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course? Be SPECIFIC.
I like the review on every lesson. I like how it seems to be drilled into my brain.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
Confidence and organization
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course? Please be specific.
I am very interested. I am hoping this course can provide me the organization needed to pursue new customers for my business as well as come up with different avenues of revenue for my business
We will provide text versions of all the long videos in the Earn1k course.
1. What’s surprised you so far in the private Earn1k course?
How much of the course is video-only. This surprises me in a negative way, for the record. I don’t absorb video well, and would really prefer if there were transcripts available.
2. What’s your biggest area of weakness for earning your first $1,000 (and more)?
I don’t know what I’m capable of doing. Really, at all. I know what I can do in my CURRENT job, but I really haven’t the foggiest how those skills could translate into any other kind of industry. (My hobbies are all related closely to my line of work, so I don’t know that I have a separate set of skills from that.) What do I do? I’m a video game designer. Generally, it pays dick. I’ve got middling skills with Photoshop, decent skills with Excel, and a lot of writing and balancing skills, but I honestly don’t know how that would segue into something else.
3. How interested are you in the full Earn1k course?
Fairly, but I’m concerned with how valuable it would be to me (see above about “hours of video”). Text, please!
1. The emphasis on getting into your prospects’ heads and finding their needs. It really shouldn’t have surprised me because it’s so important.
2. Finding leads that are willing to pay well, or convincing mediocre leads to pay more.
3. Honestly, I wasn’t too interested at first. I signed up just to hear what you had to say. But after seeing just some of the material you’ve prepared, I’m now very interested.
So is this video and pdf your “briefcase?” If so, it’s very effective. =)