Is it possible for freelancers to escape the time-for-money trap?
It’s tough to completely not have to work for money.
But I personally believe you can create a life where you can have the option to work minimal hours and still earn a comfortable income that supports your lifestyle.
The ideal income differs for everyone.
Some of us wanna make a lot of money…
Some of us wanna make enough just to spend time with our family.
And it all depends on what you prioritise right?
After all, we don’t need a lot of money to be happy (and to survive).
What inspired me to write about this was a conversation I had with a grab driver recently.
This guy is a 38 years old single dad with 2 girls.
He works 8 hours a day, and probably takes home around $3k-$4k a month.
He wants to earn more, but has no idea what else he can do.
This conversation got me thinking about my own journey…
I was a freelancer once too.
I worked as a private guitar tutor.
But there came a point when I realised I can’t do this for life.
Because there would be an income cap.
The income as a guitar tutor wouldn’t be enough to give me the life I want.
Especially right now, when I have 2 kids and I want to really be a present dad.
Being a guitar tutor wouldn’t allow me to do that, and I probably can’t afford to take time off to travel…
Because if I were to go on a holiday, that means I can’t teach.
Which means I would lose my income.
Today, I kind of escaped having to trade my time for money.
I still have to work.
It’s work I REALLY enjoy.
But I have the freedom to work anywhere, anytime…
And have a decent work-life balance.
Now, I get paid not by the hours anymore…
But by the value I provide through the products and services I sell.
(Consulting, products, monthly retainer fees)
So here’s my journey on how I got to where I am.
(I’ll also share what I’ll do if I were the grab driver wanting to make more money)
1. Be the middleman
If you’re a freelancer providing a skill, and you don’t want to take on more jobs…
The easiest way is to refer it to someone else and earn a referral.
I did that on a bigger scale by building a platform as the middleman.
I was getting tired travelling around teaching private guitar lessons.
So what I did was I created a website to match private guitar teachers and students.
I ran ads to collect teacher’s data.
I also advertised our private guitar lessons service.
For every successful assignment matched, I earned a 50% commission from the teacher’s first month fees.
That averages to be around $100 per assignment.
On a good month, we were able to get about $5k worth of commission.
To earn that amount, I’d have to teach 100 hours of guitar lessons.
(My hourly rate was $50/hour)
Plus I can now go on a holiday without worrying about losing my income.
2. Productize services
This applies more for freelancers like web designers or agencies.
Instead of billing by the hour, you offer a standardised, pre-packaged solution.
For example, building a website in a week, with a predetermined number of pages and features at a fixed price.
For my music school, we started creating 12-lessons guitar/keyboard packages.
Plus, we conduct group classes.
This allows us to increase our hourly revenue.
A plus point of this is you help prospects see the outcome rather than the service.
Paying $500 to learn how to become a guitar player in 3 months sounds better than affordable guitar lessons at $10 per hour.
3. Create digital products
These are mainly video courses when you teach people a skill.
By far my favourite product to sell, because my online music courses are all pre-recorded.
When it’s sold, it’s being fulfilled.
They have to watch and learn on their own.
So whichever niche you’re in, you can create your own course.
But you have to be very clear on the outcome you can deliver by the end of your course.
As I’m writing this, I just recalled I created a product that teaches people how to sell their knowledge via a course.
Click here to see how you can get paid selling your knowledge.
4. Build a team or outsource
This is probably common sense…
Hire a team to do the work so you don’t have to.
However, this is probably the most challenging part when it comes to scaling up.
Finding the right people and training them.
It’s been 2-3 years since I last conducted a music workshop, because I’ve got a team of 10 freelance instructors conducting my programs.
For stuff like administrative work, marketing, you can go to sites like www.onlinejobs.ph to hire a virtual assistant to
5. Build a coaching/consulting business
This is where you can get paid the most for your expertise in terms of hourly rate.
If you value your time a lot…
And you want to get paid a lot for an hour of work…
Then definitely build a coaching/consulting program.
Because it can help you shift your focus from execution-based tasks to higher-level strategy and advisory roles.
Clients are willing to pay more for expert guidance compared to hands-on work.
By offering consulting or coaching services, you position yourself as a problem solver and strategist.
This gives you a higher perceived value, thus you can command higher rates.
For example…
Instead of designing a website for $2,000, you can charge $5,000 to consult on a client’s entire digital marketing strategy, helping them understand how their website fits into a larger business goal.
A freelance copywriter could offer a two-hour consulting session to help a client craft a messaging framework for their brand, rather than spending weeks writing individual pieces of content.
After acquiring all the marketing knowledge I have, I now consult business owners on their campaigns and overall marketing strategy.
This allows me to charge $300-$500 per hour.
So let’s go back to the story of the grab driver.
I learned that before working as a grab driver, he was a personal trainer in a gym.
I asked him why he didn’t continue.
He said because Covid hit, it was hard to get clients.
So here’s what I’d do if I were him (and I needed more money)
First, I’d create an Instagram page dedicated to posting fitness related content.
I will be very clear what my value proposition is by using this framework:
I help (target audience) get (outcome) in (timeframe).
For e.g, I help busy working professionals become more flexible in 12 weeks.
Every day, after getting back from a full day of driving, I’d spend 1 hour before bed creating a piece of content to post on IG.
It’ll likely be content that educates people on how to become more flexible.
Then, my next aim is to get 3 clients after 1 month of posting content.
Whether it is a paying client or not…
The idea is to produce results for 3 people.
So I can get 3 testimonials to put on my IG page.
After which, I’d start adding call-to-action after every content I post on IG.
Whether it’s in newsfeed, in IG stories or in reels.
For example, after posting a video on how to stretch, I’d add in my CTA:
If you’re feeling stiff everyday, and want to become more flexible so you can do more of the activities you enjoy…
I’m looking to work 1-1 with you to help you become better.
Send me a DM if you’re keen and we can chat.
I will do this at least 3-4 times a week until I get the amount of clients I want.
Let’s talk about numbers.
As a grab driver, he now earns an average of say $3.5k a month, working 8 hours a day.
As a personal trainer, I’d start by charging $90/hour.
(That’s the market rate)
1 client will get me $360 a month. (Once a week session)
10 clients will get me $3.6k a month.
I will work damn hard to get the first 10 clients and I know it will be worth it.
Why?
10 clients means working 10 hours a week.
Compared to having to work 40 hours a week to earn that $3.6k.
Plus I know once I get to 10 clients, I’d have more content and success stories to post and get even more clients.
My next aim then would be to get to 20 clients, giving me $7.2k per month.
20 hours would probably be the max hours I wanna work in a week, given that I want to spend time with my kids.
NOW…
What I’ll do is to build a video course teaching people how to become more flexible in 12 weeks.
I’d price this at maybe $99.
And start plugging it into my IG stories and reels.
I might even consider running ads to sell this, since right now I have more income to grow my business.
So combining video courses with my income from personal training, the aim is to hit $10k in income.
This would then 3x my income as a grab driver.
Again…
This is what I’d do if I needed more money.
I’m not saying it’s a must to do this.
Because like I said at the start, how much we need really depends on our lifestyle.
But my take remains the same:
It is possible for you to increase your income without having to trade your time for money.
