Ok, so you can’t wait to get started with your new career, but wait a minute!

The market may be ready for you, but you’re not yet ready for the market. If you want to capitalize on the opportunity, the way you present your services is of critical importance. They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression – so you have to make the first impression count.

Let’s say you decide to order some Christmas gifts from an online shop. It seems like a great way of saving time, so you look for a likely-sounding store in Yahoo! Gary’s Gift Grotto seems to fit the bill, so you click through.

Unfortunately, the site is so graphically intensive that it takes ages for the home page to load. When it eventually does, you discover that there is no ‘search’ facility to help you find the products you want. You try to browse through the listings, but several times you get a ‘Page not found’ error.

What are you going to do?

Will you persevere, figure out how to place an order and hope that Gary and his pals deliver in time for Christmas? Of course not. You’ll hit the ‘back’ button and move on to someone else.

Behind the scenes, it could be that Gary’s Gift Grotto is a wonderfully-efficient enterprise. They may offer the lowest prices, the largest stock, the fastest delivery times and the best customer service. But it’s all for nothing. The first impression didn’t cut the ice, and another customer bites the dust.

So how do you make a good first impression? The answer to that question lies in preparation. Before you launch into a marketing campaign, you need to think about how you and your service will be perceived by potential customers, and how you can turn that to advantage. If you can convey an image of professionalism and expertise from the first moment of contact, you are half way towards securing a contract.

With that in mind, let’s start with one of your most important marketing tools, and find out.

If a client is seriously interested in using your services, the first thing you will be asked to do is to forward your résumé. And here is the perfect opportunity to blow the prospect’s socks off and leave your competitors floundering.

No doubt you already have a résumé prepared, so now I’d like you to find a copy and examine it closely.

I bet I can tell you how it goes.

It probably offers a factual and orderly summary of every facet of your career to date, plus a list of your qualifications, hobbies, interests and aspirations. The structure is likely to be similar to this:

Is that about right? Great. This is what I want you to do…

Hold the pages with both hands at the top, the first finger and thumb of each hand gripping the paper at the center. Now pull your left hand towards your chest, while simultaneously pushing your right hand away. Continue this movement until you have ripped the pages completely in two. Crumple up the two parts and throw them in the trash…

Traditional résumés make great personal histories, but they’re no use for marketing. If you want to earn real money as a freelancer, you need a profile that really sells!

Imagine a McDonald’s radio ad that went something like this:

“McDonald’s Corporation has been in business since 1953 and now has over 200,000 restaurants worldwide. This fast-food chain is renowned for the consistent quality of its products and an enduring commitment to service.”

Now, would that make you want to rush out and buy a Big Mac?

No, it certainly wouldn’t, you’re more likely to hear something like this.

“Try the new Triple Mega Mac, the biggest, juiciest burger you’ve ever tasted. Buy one today and get one free.”

Benefits, benefits and more benefits. This ad ‘sells the sizzle’, and shows you exactly what you get in return for your money – taste, quantity and value. Any information which doesn’t persuade the customer to buy is ruthlessly cut. Your résumé should be equally effective.

It’s your prime selling tool – your big chance to communicate the benefits of using you, instead of someone else. In fact, a résumé alone isn’t enough. You need a hard-hitting presentation pack.

When you use a presentation pack, sales become much easier to achieve.

Gone are the days when clients will pour over your résumé, ask for more information then dither and hesitated some more.

When you send a pack by email or through the post, providing the prospect with all the information needed to make a decision. More often that not, you will get a call in reply saying:

Great! When can you start?

Usually, they will include:

A one-page personal profile

An up-to-date client list

A selection of relevant testimonials

A few samples of related work

A personalized covering letter.

Each of these is clearly focused, providing concise information that demonstrates why you would be ideal for the project in hand. Together, they provide a complete sales pitch that hammers home a wealth of important benefits.

This is the replacement for your traditional résumé. Remember that your prospective client is not looking for a long-term employee, but for a short-term solution to an immediate requirement. If things go well, it may turn out to be a long-term relationship, but that’s all in the future. Right now, the client wants to know if you can deliver a specific service with a high standard of quality.

And that’s why a conventional résumé just doesn’t work. Take a look back at Joe’s résumé, and consider the obstacles it presents for the prospect.

A – Hidden benefits

Joe’s résumé gets off to a poor start. The client wants to know what Joe can do, but instead Joe forces him to read through all his personal details. Contact details are important, 當然, but here they are taking up prime selling space. The client won’t need contact information until he has read the document and decides to pursue things further.

Then we reach Joe’s career objective. Unfortunately, however, the client couldn’t care less what Joe wants to achieve. She’s only interested in her objective, and how you will help her achieve it. Anything else is simply a distraction.

Next we reach education. Having a relevant degree is a major asset, but having the right experience is even more critical. So a paragraph on education is slowing the prospect down, and increasing the chance that she will never get as far as reading about skills and experience.

B – No ‘sizzle’

Then we get to skills and experience, cunningly hidden under the heading Employment History. This heading is not only dull, it is again focused on Joe, and not on the customer.

A heading like Skills and Expertise would be more likely to attract her attention. But if the heading is dull, it’s nothing compared to the job descriptions.

The language is passive, and totally impersonal – not so much as an I to inject a little life and interest. What we have is simply an incredibly boring list of career steps.

C. Irrelevant information

Additional information? Who cares? Unless you can pick up on a point and show its relevance to the job in hand, you are simply wasting the prospects time, and increasing the chance of your résumé reaching the circular file.

D. Poor structure

Finally, we reach ‘Computer Skills’. But as this is the real meat of the issue, why hide this section at the end?

The References section doesn’t belong here, either. If you’ve got good references, these should be included in the pack, so that the prospect has all supporting information to hand. We’ll look at this point again under ‘How to get great testimonials’.

So now we’ve seen what’s wrong with a traditional résumé, let’s see if we can do something better. Let’s build a personal profile page that really sells your skills and expertise.

The basic principles of selling remain the same, regardless of whether you’re selling baked beans or consultancy skills.

So we can take the most successful sales techniques used to market products worldwide, and apply them to your profile. And the most popular and successful approach to writing copy that sells is:

AIDA … which stands for … Attention … Interest … Desire … Action

It’s a simple formula, but still very effective. You aim to capture the prospects attention quickly, then stimulate interest by showing the benefits. You provide enough information to generate a desire for your service, then encourage them to take action by getting in touch.

In the case of your personal profile, you might use the AIDA formula to produce a structure like this:

Write a benefit-driven summary paragraph that captures attention. This will highlight your key strengths, and shows why you are the perfect choice for relevant projects.

Generate interest by listing your key skills and competencies in bullet point format, so that the prospect can immediately see what you have to offer.

Demonstrate the depth of these skills by showing how they have developed during the course of your career, creating a desire to find out more.

Encourage the prospect to take immediate action by providing all necessary contact details at the end of your profile.

I think I’ll give him call, just in case I redesign my corporate database. So what have we done? 好, we have:

Replaced the rather dull word résumé with profile, which suggests a more interesting document

Supported this with a subheading, Freelance Programmer and
Database Consultant, so that the prospect can see exactly what skills are on offer

Stressed the benefits to the client in the summary (deliver quality work your projects remain on schedule)

Written in the first person (I can)

Used active, positive language (deliver, help, gained, offer)

Supported the claims with facts (degree, relevant experience)

Mentioned major clients, to reassure the prospect

Demonstrated appropriate experience through recent projects

Ended with a ‘call to action’ and key contact details.

A strong client list is perhaps one of the most valuable assets you can acquire during your freelance career. A wide selection of clients shows that you have a broad range of experience. And if you can name some well-respected organizations in your list, you will immediately be taken more seriously as a potential freelance.

Of course, if you’re just setting out on your freelance career, you will not have many clients to list. If that’s the case, simply omit this part of your presentation pack for the time being. But as soon as you have some jobs under your belt, create a list and use them to advantage.

You don’t need to list them alphabetically. On the contrary, you’ll want to name your big guns first to make a strong impression as quickly as possible. If you have some impressive clients, a simple list may be all you need. But if you’re still building up, or your customers are individuals or small organizations, you can add further information, such as the kind of work undertaken for each company.

If there is one element that will convince your prospects faster than anything else, it’s a great set of testimonials. After all, it’s easy for you to make claims about yourself that are somewhat exaggerated. A potential client may be impressed by your résumé, but still unsure. But if you back up a strong résumé with rock-solid recommendations from existing clients, you’ve virtually closed the sale.

The trouble is, clients rarely send testimonials. If they think your work is great, you may get a ‘thank you’ call or two, but you are unlikely to get anything in writing. So how do you get a great testimonial? There’s only one way. Ask!

In many cases, a client will be happy to recommend your services. You just need to persuade them to put pen to paper – or finger to keyboard. The best way to do this is to send a letter, outlining your request, and including a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Wording the letter is a delicate matter, as you don’t want to put the client under undue pressure.

另一方面, if you don’t ask, you don’t get – it’s as simple as that. You might write something like this:

Dear Jessica,

Thanks for asking me to help with your recent projects, and I trust they are all progressing well.

I am currently updating my résumé and portfolio, and would like to include recent testimonials from satisfied clients. If you are happy with the work I have completed for you to date, it would be very helpful if you would consider writing a short testimonial.

Whilst I understand that you are busy, I am sure you appreciate this will help potential clients reach a decision more easily. Your cooperation would be much appreciated, but if you would prefer not to respond for any reason, please just discard this email.

I hope to work with you on many more projects in the future, and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes,

Your Name

If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the proof of your expertise is in your samples.

Building up a good portfolio is an essential element in developing your career and how to promote yourself effectively. As time goes on, you will undertake an ever-wider range of projects, allowing you to build up a diverse portfolio. So whatever a client is looking for, there’s a growing chance that you will be able to demonstrate relevant expertise.

Having experience of exactly the right kind of work can be surprisingly important on how you promote yourself. Clients have an unfortunate habit of pigeonholing people and skills. Someone looking for a freelancer to take photographs for an annual report, for example, may demand a photographer with an impressive portfolio in this field. Although any professional photographer may be able to undertake the project with ease, those with no annual reports to show may never be considered.

Although this can be frustrating, it demonstrates the importance of keeping samples from every job you undertake. If you are involved in producing printed materials – magazines, brochures, adverts, etc. – be sure to get hold of a file copy for your records.

In many cases, you will have to go out of your way to get them, but it is important to persevere on how to promote yourself effectively. If you are, say, an interior designer or a landscape gardener, remember to take photos of every project, preferably both before and after.

Once you have a good portfolio, you can then select appropriate items to send to individual prospects, turning each pack you mail out into a personalized presentation.

The cover letter may be the last item you think about, but it will most likely be the first one 如何提升自己 that your prospect reads. So you need to ensure that is well written and professional in approach. As in your profile, you need to emphasize the benefits, sell your skills and suggest a call to action.

Make sure the letter is personally addressed to the individual concerned – and triple check that you’ve spelt the name correctly. Names are very personal, and misspelling them is a sure fire way to kill a working relationship before it has even started.

If you have had contact with the prospect, either in person on the phone, try and make reference to something you discussed. This will help to establish that the letter is a personal response, not a standard reply.

A typical letter in response to a telephone inquiry might run as follows:

Dear John,

Thanks your enquiry regarding database consultancy services. As we discussed on the phone, I have considerable experience in this field, and would be free to work on your project from Monday the 15th.

I have undertaken similar work for hi-tech clients in the last two years, including a major project for Hewlett-Packard. The project sounds interesting and challenging, and would allow me to use my formal qualifications and practical experience to good advantage. I am committed to delivering excellent work, often to tight deadlines, and would welcome the opportunity to contribute to your success.

I hope the attached documents will provide all the information you need. But if you would like further information, please let me know. You can call me on 415 123 1234, or send an email to [email protected].

I look forward to hearing from you soon. Best wishes,

Your Name

So now you have all the materials for your presentation pack – profile, client list, testimonials and samples, plus a separate covering letter. If you’re going to send the package by mail, or deliver it personally to a prospect in a meeting, it’s worth investing in good-quality binding.

Again, first impressions count. A bundle of loose papers shoved into a folder won’t impress anyone. A wire-bound presentation with quality report covers shows a professional approach.

Nowadays, however, most business communication happens by email. This is a big advantage, as it means you can get your presentation pack to a prospect within minutes of your first contact. There’s a definite advantage to striking while the iron is hot – so make the most of it.

The simplest and most convenient way 如何提升自己 and send your presentation pack is to use the covering letter as your email message, and add the other elements as attachments. But using attachments raises a couple of issues.

Firstly, if you have a number of samples to send, you could end up sending a long list of attachments which could be rather daunting for the prospect. You can resolve this by combining your profile, client list and testimonials into a single file, and keeping your samples to a sensible number. Three samples should be enough for most circumstances.

Secondly, there is the issue of file size. If you’re sending graphics files, presentations or Acrobat documents, downloading them could be a problem for your prospective client. Try to select smaller documents, or warn the prospect in advance. Alternatively, you could post them on the web, so that he can view them online without downloading.

Thirdly, and most significantly, there is the virus issue. Sending attachments is an easy way to accidentally forward a virus, and many people are rightly wary of opening attachments.

Of course, you should install the latest virus detection software on your computer, to minimize the risk of picking up an infection and passing it on. Trashing a prospects hard disk is not a great way to generate business.

Marketing your skills over the web is something we will address in more detail a little later. But as we are talking about presentation, we need to cover the subject briefly here.

After all, creating your own website is the most effective way to showcase your skills. All the elements of your presentation pack can be included on your website, with as many samples as you feel are required. Photos, graphics, presentations and even programs can be uploaded for prospects to browse at their leisure.

Here again, you need to be sure of making a good impression. If customers find your site through a search engine or directory, for example, it will be their first point of contact. If you don’t achieve the right impact, they will hit the back button and try elsewhere.

OK. So you’ve created your presentation pack, you’ve launched your website, and now you’re ready to do business. Now let’s go out and make money.

生產力這個概念聽上去可能比較乏味——無聊的管理- 說如果有的話. 然而，您在完成工作方面的工作效率對於您作為一個人的盈利能力至關重要.

我們在利潤公式中看到，您計費的小時數是一個“乘數”因子:

收入= (時薪 x 計費時數) – 費用
那是, a small improvement in billable hours can have a big impact, because its effect is multiplied by your hourly rate. Yet there are only so many hours in a week, and you don’t really want to spend your evenings and weekends slaving away to increase your income…

So how do you increase your number of billable hours? You must increase your productivity.

Now that doesn’t mean that you have to turn into a work machine, trying to do several things at once, and not giving any one task the attention it deserves.

What it does mean is that you should learn how to get the most from your time, using the hours you have to greater advantage.

And in order to do that, you must learn to value your time.

我希望我知道這是誰寫的——它真正體現了時間的價值:

想像一下，有一家銀行每天早上將 $86,400.

它每天都沒有餘額. 每天晚上都會刪除您白天未使用的餘額的任何部分.

你會怎麼做? 把所有的都畫出來, 當然! 我們每個人都有這樣一家銀行. 它的名字是時間.

每天早上, 它歸功於你 86,400 秒. 每天晚上它都會寫下來, 丟失, 無論如何你都沒有為良好的目的進行投資. 它沒有餘額. 它不允許透支.

每天它都會為您開設一個新帳戶. 每晚它都會燃燒白天的殘骸. 如果您未能使用當天的存款, 損失是你的. 沒有回頭路. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow.” You must live in the present on today’s deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today. Treasure every moment that you have! And remember that time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present!

(Author unknown)

We often tend to think of them as a disposable commodity. If a complete stranger asked you to put your hand in your pocket and give him ten dollars, you would very likely give him a few choice words instead. But if you get held up in a traffic jam for ten minutes, you are likely to brush it off as a minor inconvenience.

After all, 除了一點時間，它沒有花費你任何東西.

然而，時間是迄今為止我們擁有的最有價值的商品. 我們只有有限的數量, 如果我們浪費它, 它永遠消失了. 請記住，當您按小時出售時間時, 你正在小塊地拍賣你的生活.

不要低估自己. 一個常見的錯誤是計算全職工作每小時可以賺多少錢, 在...之上 9-5 工作週. 但自由職業與正規就業有很大不同. 作為一名員工, 你只是因為出現而得到報酬. 當你在飲水機旁聊天時，你會得到報酬, 去洗手間——甚至在你生病或度假時.

作為一名自由職業者, 您只會根據為特定客戶投入的時間獲得報酬. All the time spent on interruptions, administration and personal matters have to be accounted for out of your own pocket.

Let’s say you decide to charge $50 an hour, and expect to work 40 hours a week. At first this looks pretty good – hey, you’re going to make over $100,000 a year. But when you start deducting time spent on vacations and illness, you find your revenue dropping sharply. Then there’s all the time devoted to looking for work, managing your finances, and everything else.

By the time you’ve finished deducting all this time-sucking overheads, you may find that, on average, you are earning nearer $15 an hour. That’s not much more than you could earn part-time in McDonalds.

So improving your productivity can have a real impact on your earnings. In fact, 如果您可以在計費時間內每天多花一個小時, 你的收入 (在 $50 an hour) 會增加 $13,000 在一年的時間裡.

為了得到額外的一小時, 你需要學習有效時間管理的秘訣.

有效時間管理的秘訣 良好的時間管理不是與生俱來的技能.

我們都以不同程度的低效率工作, 努力把事情做好, 但不斷被日常生活分心. 您有多少次以一個單一的目標開始新的一天, 但不知何故到了這一天的盡頭，那個目標仍然遙不可及?

這是一個熟悉的問題, 但好消息是它可以被解決. 有效的時間管理是可以學習和發展的.

如果你是一個有創造力的人, 例如作家或設計師, you are more likely than most to have a problem with time management. Creative people tend to have fewer left-brain skills, and so find logical tasks such as time management more difficult.

That doesn’t mean you have an excuse for avoiding time management – it just means you need to work harder at it.

To start with, you need to understand what time management is, and – more importantly – what it’s not…

Time Management is not doing the wrong things quicker. That just gets us nowhere faster. Time Management is doing the right things.

So let’s take a look at the right things you need to do get things done.

Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Finding out which time of day suits you best can have a big impact on your productivity.

One of the big advantages of being a freelancer is that you have greater freedom over your choice of working hours. You are not tied to a 9-5 schedule from Monday to Friday.

So take some time to analyze when your most productive times are. If you work more efficiently in the morning, for example, make sure that those morning hours are free from interruptions, so that you get the most done in the shortest possible time.

One hour of planning can save you ten hours of doing.

That’s a statement that’s worth taking notice of. So rather than rush into your day with only a vague plan of action, take enough time out to plan your schedule for the day.

Prioritize your tasks, so that you ensure that the really important things get done. Be realistic, however. There are only so many hours in a day, 你不會僅僅因為你已經制定了一個長長的“待辦事項”列表而完成更多的工作.

決定那天真正需要做什麼, 當天實際上可以完成的事情, 並創建一個將兩者都考慮在內的時間表.

當您面臨完成任務的壓力時, 讓文件堆積在您的辦公桌上可能很誘人. 花幾分鐘把東西收拾得井井有條似乎是不必要的打擾.

但是當你的工作空間變得雜亂無章時, 你的工作可能會變得混亂, 也. 幾分鐘在這裡尋找文件, 花幾分鐘在那裡尋找電話號碼——不知不覺, 你一天的大部分時間都被浪費掉了.

當你遇到不知道如何立即處理的事情時, it’s easy to put it back into your ‘pending pile’. But the more times you handle each piece of paper, the more of your time is wasted.

Try to get into a habit of dealing with documents as they arrive. When you open your mail, remember the three D’s:

Deal with it

Dump it

Delegate it.

Make sure you apply one of the above to each piece of paper that crosses your desk, each email that arrives in your mailbox, and every item on your action list.

Putting things off until tomorrow doesn’t help – it just gives you an even larger ‘to do’ list to deal with in the morning. The more you put things off, the more impossible the task becomes.

If you don’t allocate a specific time for a task, 很容易發現這項工作花費的時間超過了合理的時間.

而不是專注於所需的項目, 你可能會發現你的思緒在遊蕩.

回電話或削鉛筆可能突然看起來比繼續工作重要得多.

為了避免以這種方式浪費寶貴的時間, 學會有效地預算你的時間. 給自己一個合理的時間來完成某項任務, 然後確保你堅持下去.

不要在細節上迷失太多. 繼續工作並完成它比陷入小問題更好.

時間管理的最大問題之一是處理分心和乾擾.

您可以從一組看似簡單的目標開始新的一天, 相信您可以在有空閒時間的情況下完成所有這些.

然後電話響了. 客戶需要對最近的項目進行緊急修改. 您檢查電子郵件並發現需要立即關注的問題, 然後交貨到達，您必須確保妥善處理.

在你知道之前, 計費時間正在流逝.

雖然幾乎不可能完全消除此類干擾, 你可以把傷害降到最低. 明確表示你在工作時, 你不會被普通的家庭問題打擾. 在你的優先項目完成之前不要檢查你的電子郵件. 並獲得答錄機或語音郵件服務，以便在您忙碌時屏蔽您的來電.

最重要的是, 學會說“不”. 人們只需要在你的工作時間了解到這一點, 您根本無法幫助處理可以等到以後的事情.

您制定了多少次新年決心, 到一月中旬就把這一切都忘記了? 設定職業目標是一回事. 實現它們完全是另一回事. 然而，如果您應用以下三個簡單的技巧, 你會發現實現目標要容易得多.

說你想賺更多的錢, 或者有更好的生活方式都很好, 但是你如何衡量你的成功? 而不是模糊的雄心壯志, 把具體數字放在你的目標上. 如果你說你想賺 $100,000 a year, 然後你就有了一個具體的目標——你會確切地知道你什麼時候到達那裡.

將目標寫在紙上的簡單行為是實現目標的重要一步. 一旦你把它們寫下來, 毫無疑問，你正在致力於什麼——很難與印刷證據爭論.

沒有截止日期的目標是毫無意義的. 不斷推遲保質期永無止境的目標很容易. 給自己一個期限, 你會發現你更努力地去擊中它.

研究表明 75% 的美國工人經常抱怨他們累了. 這並不奇怪, 因為普通工人每晚的睡眠時間顯然少於七小時. So the vast majority of people start the day firing on just three cylinders. No wonder that poor productivity is such an ongoing issue.

But it gets worse. Some 40% of working people skip breakfast, and 39% miss lunch. And of those that do manage a break for lunch, half allow themselves 15 minutes or less. These are big problems, especially where time management is concerned. If you think that working late nights, burning the candle at both ends and missing meals makes you a hard worker, you really are missing the point.

Productivity depends not just on the hours that you put in, but also on the quality of work that you produce. If you are tired and not eating properly, your productivity will plummet. As your blood-sugar level drops, your body automatically slows you down to conserve energy. Add tiredness on top of this, and you might as well give up all pretense at working. The lights may be on, but there’s probably no-one at home.

That’s the negative side. Now let’s turn things around and look at the positive. Increasing your fitness can have a really dramatic effect on your productivity. You don’t need me to tell you what that entails – regular exercise, getting enough sleep, eating nutritious food and establishing a routine that your body can become familiar with.

Don’t forget to take regular breaks. Your body and mind needs to relax from time to time – you can’t operate for hours continuously like a machine.

We all know that getting in shape is easier said than done. But if you can improve your level of fitness, you will be amazed at the impact this can have on your working life. You will approach each day fresh and with greater enthusiasm. You will find it easier to solve problems, and you will get more done than you ever imagined possible. If there was ever a way to get 25 hours out of each day, fitness is it. Look after your health, and your wealth will take care of itself.

Most of all, try to ensure that you are undertaking work that you enjoy. That way, you can enjoy the journey as well as the destination. Thomas Edison said that he never did a day’s work in his life – it was all fun!

That surely is the best way to get the most from every week of your working life.