5e9c9f15e014f94c6da68cf8 - Freelancer Starter Kit by The Smart Founder

THE
ULTIMATE
FREELANCER
STARTER
KIT
BY
The Smart Founder
THE SMART FOUNDER The Ultimate Freelancer Starter Kit | 02
Are you ready?

How would it feel to start & grow a profitable freelancing
business? Whether as a side hustle, or full time. Where you
get to work wherever and whenever you want.
To be in control of how much you make. To solidify your

family’s security. To stack up savings with a little extra money.
To pay off debt. To move out & get a new car. Whatever your
vision or goal, a profitable freelancing hustle may be what
you need!
No more waiting for the raise, or looking for the next best
thing, or fearing your job can be gone tomorrow. When you
are Freelancing the right way, you are in control. You know
what you can do, and you do it. No more relying on other
people. YOU are in control.
© The Smart Founder - All rights reserved. Do not share, copy, or reproduce.
Why freelancing?
Freelancing is the easiest and cheapest business to start. The
only real investment up front is your time. You don’t have to
pay for a website. You don’t have to spend years growing an
instagram following or email list. You don’t have to invest in
inventory or equipment. All you need is you, your
determination, and a willingness to learn and put in the work.
With that, you can grow your Freelancing business into

whatever you want it to be. It can be an extra $1,000 - $2,000
on the side.
OR, it can grow into something much bigger. Take us for

example. We started our current 7 Figure / Year agency from
just freelancing on nights and weekends to what it is today.
What started as just an extra $2,000 per month has grown into
a business that does over $1,000,000 per year. The same skill,
just at a bigger scale. But that’s because we wanted that. You
don’t need to go that big if you don’t want to!
You can just keep it simple and turn it into a $5 - $10k/month

personal income. Which isn’t bad for having the freedom to
work on your own terms.
Getting started with Freelancing.

To help you kickstart your Freelancing journey, there are
three important steps you need to take.
The good news is, once you have all the details (which we’re
going to give you in this Starter Kit) they are pretty easy!
Step #1: What are you going to offer as a service?Keep going,

we’re going to show you how to find this today. Don’t worry,
you don’t need a special skill yet.
Step #2: How am I going to sell this? We’re also going to give

you guidance on where and how to find your first clients!
Step #3: What are you going to do with the extra income? This
one is the most exciting, so we’re saving it for last!
Keep reading, because we’re going to help you take all 3 of

these steps, and help guide you so you can get started
TODAY!
Keep reading, because we’re going to help you

with each of these steps, and help guide you
so you can get started TODAY!
STEP #1
WHAT SERVICE WILL
YOU OFFER?
Every Freelancing business starts with a service. The most

important first step is dialing in the service you’re going to
offer. This will guide everything else. It’s going to put it all in
motion.
If you don’t have a special skill, no worries! That’s totally fine,

you don’t need one. We’re going to show you how to get
started developing one you can profit from.
For now, just keep reading. At this point, you may have a few
ideas of what service you’d like to offer. The end result here
is to be crystal clear on what that is, so you can stay focused.
Focus is the only way you’ll make money, and enjoy what
you’re doing. If you try to do too much at once, you’ll stress
yourself out and give up.
No matter if you have a service idea or not, the following 4

Guiding Strategies will help you choose the service offering
you’ll love the most.
Before we jump into these

questions, there’s a concept you
need to understand to help you
decide what service will be the
most profitable.
The goal is to find the perfect

balance between a skill you
love, and a pain point or
struggle a business owner is
having that they would pay to
relieve.
Your Skill (Or General Service)

First let’s define a skill: A skill is anything someone will pay to
have done for themselves or their business.
This doesn’t have to be a crazy technical or super niched skill.

Notice we said anything. It can be anything from copywriting
to office organization, data entry, marketing, design, sales,
cleaning, social media posting, customer service, you name it!
All of those are skills you can sell.
In a few pages, you’ll see a list of possible skills to spark

some ideas. If it’s something someone will pay to have done
for themselves or their business. It’s a skill.
IF you’re still reading this, you’re in one of two positions right

now. Either you have a skill you know you can sell, or you
don’t have a skill but you’re willing to learn one.
The good news is you don’t have to be the best of the best at
your skill. You just have to be a little better than whoever
you’re selling it to. We started selling our skill before we even
entered the beginner stage. We just knew we had the drive to
learn, and become great. Don’t wait to be great, you need a
version 1 of your skill first, then keep refining and getting
better from there.
A skill or Service is anything

someone will pay to have done for
themselves or their business.
Your Potential Client's Pain or Struggle

People will pay for your service when you offer a solution to a
current pain, struggle or desire that is strong enough for them
to pay to get taken care of. People don’t just pay for anything,
your service has to bridge the gap between their pain and
pleasure (happiness).
It needs to be something that makes life easier for them, and

gives them a quick path to the transformation from their
current state to a desired state.
For example, a business owner currently spends half their day

responding to customer service emails for the product they
sell. That is their pain, they hate doing it. You offer to take
that from them and do it for $15 - $20 / hour. They are willing
to pay for that because they get back that time, so they’ll pay
you to do that for them.
Their Pain: Responding to customer service emails.

Your Service: Responding to their customer service emails.
Their Pleasure: Not responding to those anymore so they can
do other things in their business.
It’s that simple!
PS: We did this exact thing for customer service, and within
two months that business was doing $8k/month.It just comes
down to this...
You need to be clear on what your ideal customer considers a

“must have” solution.
The two best ways we’ve found to understand a potential

buyer’s pain is to just straight up ask them. We’ll get into this
more in the 6 Guiding Strategies section of this guide!
Keep reading to learn how the potential for

profit applies to the Freelancer Cycle
The Potential For Profit

The one thing you need to keep in mind is that some skills
have more potential for profit than others. You’ll want to do
some quick research to see what people are paying for certain
skills and services. If you want to make $50/hr you need to do
a skill that people already pay $50/hr to have.
For example, general admin skills will go for around $10 - $25
/ hr while design skills can go for $50 - $100 / hr. Don’t let
this hang you up, we started off with $15/hr skills, got the
hang of freelancing and worked our way up. The biggest thing
you need to do is START.
On the flip side, $50/hr design jobs will be much more

difficult to find than a $20/hr admin or customer service job.
So it’s give and take. You’ll get more work at a skill that goes
for a little less an hour, so technically you could make the
same as if you were charging more!
Again, don’t let that hang you up, just get started making
some money, feel the confidence from that, and then work
your way up!
Keep Reading To Learn How To

Find Your Skill, And First
Client!
THE 6 GUIDING
STRATEGIES TO FIND
THE PERFECT SERVICE
6 Steps To Start Freelancing
Guiding Strategy #1: Find A Niche You Love

Your instinct would say to start with finding a skill you already
have, but when you’re thinking about selling something - you
want to start with finding a niche you can sell something to.
Stick with us, this is going to come together. The goal here is
to align a skill with a niche that is willing to pay for it. This is
your fastest path to making money.
List 4 niches you know you are passionate about.

(ie: local business, eCommerce, a specific type of brand or hobby, etc.)
1)
2)
3)
4)
Guiding Strategy #2: Skills You Have

Next, let’s list out skills you know you already have. Don’t
overthink this, it’s okay if these skills aren’t crazy! They can
be as simple as “cleaning” or “taking notes during meetings”
or “writing”. (*It’s okay if you don’t have any, shortly you’ll
discover what to do…)
List 4 skills you currently have.

1)
2)
3)
4)
Guiding Strategy #3: Discover The Pain

Alright, so now in this one we need to look at the niches you
said you were passionate about, and discover their pain. You
may already know this, or it MAY take some research.
List 4 problems or desires of the niches you chose.

1)
2)
3)
4)
QUICK TIP: If you’re targeting business owners, almost every

business owner has pain for more time and more money. So
look for ways you can GIVE them more time, or make them
more money. Look for ways they may be wasting time on
small tasks.
On the flip side, if you are more along the lines of offering a
service to general people (personal training, house cleaning,
etc.) - just think of your own pains here. Think about the
annoying things in YOUR day.
Guiding Strategy #4: Make The Connection

The most important thing if you want to sell is connecting the
problems and desires. Out of all of the problems and pain in
step 3, which one do you feel is the strongest?
The most important factor is the “problems and desires”.
Out of all of the problems and desires in step three which one
do you believe is the most powerful? Which one is the biggest
problem they want to relieve either from their plate, or to
make them more money?
Now, take that problem and define how it would look on the
Pain To Pleasure chart below…
Example 1: Their pain is they hate doing customer service for

their business. Their pleasure is they don’t want to spend 3
hours a day on it.
Example 2: Their pain is they don’t have time to write blog

posts. Their pleasure is they have blog posts on autopilot for
their business.
Example 3: Their pain is they hate doing their business’s

bookkeeping Their pleasure is their bookkeeping is done
every week and they didn’t touch it or stress on it.
Guiding Strategy #5: Define The Service

Now that you know their Pain & Pleasure transformation, it’s
time to define the skill. This is simple, just answer this
question… Do you currently have the skills OR knowledge to
solve this problem and help take them from Pain to Pleasure?
From a current state to a desired state?
If “YES” Great! You have your niche and service selected! If

“NO”, don’t worry about it! Most problems are pretty easy to
solve, and the skill to learn is also very easy to learn typically.
If your answer was YES, move on to Guiding Strategy #6. If

your answer was “NO”, we have a few more options…
Option 1: Pick A Skill

If you aren’t that passionate about your niche, you can go
ahead and move on to the “Profitable Freelancing Jobs”
section and pick something generic!
Option 2: Learn A Skill

But, if you are super passionate about your niche, let’s work
on learning the skills needed to solve the problem listed
above.
1. S t a r t b y w r i t i n g t h e p r o b l e m d o w n i n o n e o r t w o s e n t e n c e s :
2. H o w h a v e o t h e r f r e e l a n c e r s o r b u s i n e s s e s s o l v e d t h i s
problem?
3. C a n y o u c o p y t h i s t o h e l p s o l v e t h e p r o b l e m ?
4. M a k e a l i s t o f t h e t h i n g s y o u n e e d t o l e a r n i n o r d e r t o c o p y
the people already doing it.
5. M a k e a c o m m i t m e n t o v e r t h e n e x t 7 d a y s t o l e a r n t h a t s k i l l !
Guiding Strategy #6: Price Your Service

The good news is you have a lot of flexibility on how to price
your service, but the ONE THING you need to be aware of is
what other people are charging for that same or similar
services. The best way to determine what you should charge
is to do some quick research.
There Are Two Ways To Do That

1. Google your service and price yourself similar to
competitors.
2. Sign up for a free account at and Upwork
(https://www.upwork.com) and see what top sellers are
charging for similar services!
If you want a competitive edge to just get going, you can

price yourself a little lower, but don’t go too low! You want to
be around what other people are getting paid in your country
for similar or same services.
Believe it or not, price can also signify quality, so going too

low may tell potential buyers the quality of work won’t be
good. On the flip side, going too high can out-price yourself.
So right around what others are charging in your country is
the perfect place to be.
STILL UNSURE OF YOUR SKILL/SERVICE

OFFERING? LET’S DO ONE MORE
EXERCISE...
Final Skill Exercise (Only if unsure, skip if you

are sure in your skill/service)
Let’s do one more exercise to guide you on your skill finding
journey. If you can’t answer one or more of these questions,
that’s okay! Just do your best, you don’t need amazing
answers to all of these questions. Remember, you can use our
Freelancer Skills People Already Sell on the next page to
select something you think you’d enjoy.
What is one thing you love to do every day?
What was your favorite job of all time?
What did you love about that job?
Was there one thing you did that you felt was more fun than
others?
What’s something you think you’d enjoy doing, that you’d love
to learn?
Look at the common theme in those questions. if there was a

skill at your previous job you loved, and they were paying
you to do it, other people and businesses will pay you to do
the same thing!
FREELANCING SKILLS PEOPLE

ALREADY SELL
Still not sure what skill or service to sell? Here are some
things people already pay for to inspire ideas! Don’t feel like
you need to recreate something, you can just pick one of
these and go after it!
Bookkeeper Adobe Illustrator Experts

Virtual Assistant Adobe Photoshop Experts
Content Writer Creative Writers
Copywriter Data Entry Specialists
Customer Service Excel Experts
Database Administrator Microsoft Office Specialists
Data Scientist Microsoft Word Experts
Graphic Designer Project Managers
Information Security Proofreaders
Analyst Social Media Marketers
Logo Designer Video Editors
Mobile App Developer WordPress Developers
Resume Writer Software Developer
Sales Consultant Software Engineer
SEO Expert Email Marketing
Social Media Manager Display Advertising
Technical Writer Marketing Automation
Academic Writing & Research Lead Generation
Article & Blog Writing Market & Customer Research
Creative Writing Marketing Strategy
Editing & Proofreading Public Relations
Grant Writing Social Media Marketing
Web Designer Telemarketing & Telesales
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF THESE 6

STRATEGIES
Go through these steps one at a time, in order. Maybe even do
them a few times. Spending a little more time on those 6
strategies now can save you wasted time and energy, while
helping you start selling FASTER.
Let’s actually get you committed RIGHT NOW. Mark your

calendar and commit to getting this done over the next 2
days. Seriously, open your phone up now, go to your
Calendar, and block off some time to get it done!
DON'T LET THESE LIES STOP YOU...
Lie #1: I Can’t Do This

Yes you can. YOU CAN DO THIS! Seriously, don’t let this
thought creep up. Don’t let fear creep up. Push it aside and
keep going. Just take the steps, they will build momentum
and the momentum will deliver results. But without action,
you’ll never do it. Just start taking action.
Lie #2: I Don’t Have Time

Yes you do! You have time! You don’t need to start off
spending hours a day on this. Start small, get some wins, then
start adding more time in as you get the hang of it. Just a
couple hours a week is all you need to start freelancing.
STEP #2
HOW TO SELL YOUR
SERVICE
Step #2: How are you going to get clients

and sell this service?
Now that you have your skill & service dialed in, it’s time to
start selling it! Your first sale is always going to be the most
challenging, but once you get the first paying client, you’ll get
the confidence you need to keep getting more and more! Here
are a few places you can find your first (and continued)
clients.
1) EXISTING FREELANCING MARKETPLACES

This is where WE started. The beautiful thing about
freelancing is there are already marketplaces business
owners (and regular people) go to for hiring out pain points!
These are great because they connect YOU directly with
business owners.
Here's how they work...

1. You sign up for an account,
2. Fill out your information.
3. Submit proposals to jobs you know you can do/help with.
4. Get jobs & get paid!
5. BONUS: As you get work and build credibility, people will
start to ASK YOU to submit a proposal to their job. It’s
beautiful!
Here are the top Freelancing networks, we recommend

signing up for as many as you can to start!
https://www.upwork.com
https://www.toptal.com/talent/apply
https://www.freelancer.com
https://freeup.net
2) FACEBOOK & LINKEDIN GROUPS

Facebook & LinkedIn Groups are also a great place to find
potential clients! While our first pick is the freelancing
marketplaces listed above, Facebook & LinkedIn Groups with
your ideal client are another great place to source business.
They are an awesome way to engage, show your expertise,

and build relationships. The great thing about these groups is
they are usually a place business owners go to ask questions,
and they are expecting help! When you help them you are not
straight up selling your service right out of the gate, but
you’re slowly building trust to open the door.
Put It In Action: When you’re given access to the group, you

can use the search box to enter keywords related to the
problem your skill set solves.
For example, if you are offering customer service as a service

and you’ve joined a Facebook Group for online store owners,
then you could enter the word “help” or “customer service” to
see what types of questions are being asked in the group, and
where you can offer tips to start relationships.
Once you engage with someone a few times, add them as a

friend or contact, and after they accept, send them a message
We recommend getting started

with the freelancer networks first!
That will be the fastest path to
getting paid work.
STEP #3
SET GOALS AND
MOTIVATION
What are you going to do with the extra

income?
It’s important to have a driving force that inspires you to put
in the work to do this! Building your Freelancing hustle isn’t
going to come over night, but it will if you take action, stay
consistent and keep going! Again, action builds your
momentum, which is what will get you results.
So what is going to motivate you? What is something you

think about every day that a little extra money can fix?
Let us inspire you with a few personal goals that

motivated us!
1. Stack up savings.
2. Get out of debt.
3. Buy our first house.
4. Leave the corporate grind.
5. Have security knowing WE control our income.
What’s going to motivate and inspire

you? Write it down!
WHAT IS IT LIKE HAVING A

SUCCESSFUL FREELANCING HUSTLE?
Having your own Freelancing business is one of the most

empowering ways to take control of your life, and start to
work your way to freedom. Whatever that looks like to you.
And more importantly, it’s one of the best ways to secure and
build your income without relying on someone else to
hopefully offer you more.
It’s what’s allowed us to grow our online business to 7-Figures
It has allowed us to live on our own terms, and have the

confidence that we can ALWAYS make money. No matter how
bad the economy gets, we have one of the most important
skills you could ever acquire. And that’s SELLING a service.
We can sell any service, and we’ll adapt however we need to
in order to survive.
Freelancing is PERFECT for anyone who is struggling to get

by, who is struggling to find consistent jobs, and are ready to
start shifting their life away from uncertainty, to confidence.
If you want to take control, to make more, to secure your

future with confidence, getting started with Freelancing may
be what you need. It’s an amazing time to start a Freelancing
business.
The number of new online businesses who need services are

growing rapidly, and won’t stop as more and more people are
ordering online.
Stick with us, and we’ll show you what it takes to move from
feeling stressed about the future, to moving into becoming a
profitable freelance business owner.
One who says yes to taking control, making an impact, and

living life on their own terms.
Thanks for beginning your Freelancing journey with us! We're

excited to help guide you along the way!
CLICK HERE to read our story, we hope

it helps inspire the start of yours!
DISCLAIMER
This goes without saying, but we must include it...
The Smart Founder (West Product Group LLC) can not and does not
make any guarantees about your ability to get results or earn any money
with our ideas, information, tools, or strategies. Nothing in this PDF, any
of our websites, or any of our content or curriculum is a promise or
guarantee of results or future earnings, and we do not offer any legal,
medical, tax or other professional advice.
Any numbers referenced here or on any of our sites, are illustrative of

concepts only and should not be considered average earnings, exact
earnings, or promises for actual or future performance. Use caution and
always consult your accountant, lawyer or professional advisor before
acting on this or any information related to a lifestyle change or your
business or finances.
You alone are responsible and accountable for your decisions, actions
and results in life, and by downloading this document you agree not to
attempt to hold us liable for your decisions, actions or results, at any
time, under any circumstance.
If you want results in anything, it takes a lot of work. This is NOT a get
rich quick guide. If you are looking for get rich quick strategies, you
won't find them here. Because honestly, they don't exist.

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THE

Are you ready?

To be in control of how much you make. To solidify your

With that, you can grow your Freelancing business into

OR, it can grow into something much bigger. Take us for

You can just keep it simple and turn it into a $5 - $10k/month

Getting started with Freelancing.

Step #1: What are you going to offer as a service?Keep going,

Step #2: How am I going to sell this? We’re also going to give

Keep reading, because we’re going to help you take all 3 of

Keep reading, because we’re going to help you

Every Freelancing business starts with a service. The most

If you don’t have a special skill, no worries! That’s totally fine,

No matter if you have a service idea or not, the following 4

Before we jump into these

The goal is to find the perfect

Your Skill (Or General Service)

This doesn’t have to be a crazy technical or super niched skill.

In a few pages, you’ll see a list of possible skills to spark

IF you’re still reading this, you’re in one of two positions right

A skill or Service is anything

Your Potential Client's Pain or Struggle

It needs to be something that makes life easier for them, and

For example, a business owner currently spends half their day

Their Pain: Responding to customer service emails.

It’s that simple!

You need to be clear on what your ideal customer considers a

The two best ways we’ve found to understand a potential

Keep reading to learn how the potential for

The Potential For Profit

On the flip side, $50/hr design jobs will be much more

Keep Reading To Learn How To

Guiding Strategy #1: Find A Niche You Love

List 4 niches you know you are passionate about.

Guiding Strategy #2: Skills You Have

List 4 skills you currently have.

Guiding Strategy #3: Discover The Pain

List 4 problems or desires of the niches you chose.

QUICK TIP: If you’re targeting business owners, almost every

Guiding Strategy #4: Make The Connection

The most important factor is the “problems and desires”.

Example 1: Their pain is they hate doing customer service for

Example 2: Their pain is they don’t have time to write blog

Example 3: Their pain is they hate doing their business’s

Guiding Strategy #5: Define The Service

If “YES” Great! You have your niche and service selected! If

If your answer was YES, move on to Guiding Strategy #6. If

Option 1: Pick A Skill

Option 2: Learn A Skill

Guiding Strategy #6: Price Your Service

There Are Two Ways To Do That

If you want a competitive edge to just get going, you can

Believe it or not, price can also signify quality, so going too

STILL UNSURE OF YOUR SKILL/SERVICE

Final Skill Exercise (Only if unsure, skip if you

What is one thing you love to do every day?

What was your favorite job of all time?

What did you love about that job?

Look at the common theme in those questions. if there was a

FREELANCING SKILLS PEOPLE

Bookkeeper Adobe Illustrator Experts

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF THESE 6

Let’s actually get you committed RIGHT NOW. Mark your