You asked, I answer.

This will be the most transparent newsletter I've ever written. (Yes, we'll also get to the money talks.)

Two weeks ago, I wrote about my life as a freelance marketer and part-time writer.

Many of you, readers, got back to me to share your own freelancing stories and ask further questions: on pricing, getting started, and more. Thank you!

(If you missed the previous newsletter on freelancing, you may want to check it out here before continuing with this one.)

Before I get to the Q&A...

This newsletter will be my last one this season. I'll be back in business & marketing world in September 2024.

I will still write & send my monthly literature/writing/life update newsletter. Find the past issues here and subscribe.

Strangely, I'm somewhat nostalgic about leaving the business world. Yet I'm also looking forward to the days when I don't open my laptop at all. I'll wake up, make coffee, read for a while, and continue writing my book on a notepad. It will feel like being back in the real world.

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I often think how lucky I am to be able to live off my freelance work and take 4-month vacations to work on other projects. It didn't come easy. But still, a lot of it is luck, too.

Building the life you want is a mix of knowing what you want, working for it, and being lucky for things to pick up.

Hopefully, the following Q&A will help with your own work/life goals. (I left my favourite questions to be the last.)

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On getting started...

🟧 Question #1: Can you speak a bit about the build and release model?

I got started as a freelance marketer while working part-time for Scoro (in 2017). Later, after I moved to Paris and worked still part-time for Bolt, I began taking on more freelance consultation gigs and structuring my services.

My go-to service is working as a part-time "visiting" CMO for tech startups.

I go in, help to build a marketing strategy and implement it across channels, and hand over the project to a new full-time hire in 3-6 months. However, I'm flexible in the exact project scope and timing. All my projects last up to 6 months.

Sometimes, I also do coaching and one-off marketing audits. All my projects are related to high-level growth strategy, marketing tactics, and branding.

I'd recommend anyone looking to go freelance to get at least 50% of their monthly income from freelancing for at least 6 months. Validate that you have a stable flow of incoming projects and only then quit your full-time job with a stable salary.

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🟧 Question #2: How do you find clients?

I got all my first freelance projects via referrals, from friends and colleagues.

I also write a popular marketing blog so many marketers and CEOs know me. When someone asks who's a good marketing freelancer, I'm often mentioned.

Now that I've freelanced full-time for 3 years, my past clients also refer me to other CMOs and CEOs. However, I think that 70% of my freelance collaboration offers still come thanks to my LinkedIn posts, blog articles, and this newsletter.

If you want freelance clients, you have to work for it. Nobody will find you if you're not out there, offering value.

Instead of cold outreach, you should create useful content and become a thought leader on a subject. The project proposals will follow.

Also, it's (obviously!) important to let your network know that you're accepting freelance gigs. If you're still working full-time, you can do it half secretly by letting some friends know. And they can recommend you to the companies in need of help.

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🟧 Question #3: How to reach out to potential clients?

As I wrote above, I never reach out to companies on my behalf. All the project offers come to me. It took me years to get there.

Now, whenever I have room for a new project, I post about it on LinkedIn and in my newsletter, and leads will contact me on their own.

In busy months, I might get 5-10 new project offers/month. Thanks to this, I can be quite picky. See my main reasons for rejecting projects in this LinkedIn post.​
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If you're just starting out, you could...

1. Offer to work on 1-2 projects for free to build up your portfolio.
2. Ask your friends and colleagues if they know of any suitable freelance gigs.
3. Write a cold outreach to your top 5-10 dream freelance clients.

If you do point 3, make sure to do research and write hyper-personalised, long outreach letters. Be clear about what you want to do for them and why you're the best person to do it.

But again, really, try to build up your reputation as an expert first, and then get inbound requests – it's much more efficient in the long run.

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💸 On pricing... 💸

So many of you asked about pricing so let's get into the hot-hot topic. 🔥🔥🔥

I'll be 100% transparent, so you'll get some new interesting considerations.

1. I price my freelance marketing projects at €200/h. This is pre-tax!! [*]
2. If I like the product and it's ethical, I lower the price by 20%.
3. I only work on projects with €4000+ monthly fee.
4. If a company doesn't have this budget, I refuse OR offer to work pro bono. I currently have two pro bono projects running.
5. I track my time with 1-second accuracy on Toggl, and send each client a detailed time report with every month's invoice. [**]

[*] During the most intense 80-hour workweeks, a maximum of 30 hours is billable. I also work on my personal brand, blog, newsletters, school, writing, etc. It's very rare to have 30 hours of billable time/week. Usually, working full-time on freelance projects, I bill for max 20 hours/week.

[**] I dislike agency-style retainers where clients have no transparency and a fixed monthly fee. Who worked on the projects? What was exactly done? How much time did it take? Most agencies won't tell you that (a few do!). I want to have a fully transparent relationship with my clients.

In Moomin language: I want everyone to know what's going into the soup.

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🟧 Question #4: How did you set the price for freelance work?

I set the €200 hourly rate about four years ago and haven't changed it since. Perhaps I should, with almost 2x inflation over the past years...

An average European marketing agency prices their projects at €80-€180. I know that I'm at least 2x more efficient and skilled than a mid-level agency expert and my clients can't find this kind of service almost anywhere.

An average monthly CMO salary in Estonia is €6,000+ gross, in London it's £8,000+ (minus 50% taxes). Or higher... Many small tech companies can't attract a top CMO to the team right away, so hiring me for the same fee as part-time is the best option.

About 90% of the time I propose a collaboration schedule and price, the client accepts. If they don't, I can sell my time to another company that understands the value I bring to the project.

The reason I can bill this high is that my experience and skill set are unique.

I bring to the project some skills that the alternative hires couldn't. For example, I create high-level growth strategies, help with investor presentations, manage and design and copywrite paid ads, write blog articles, do SEO, etc... It's very hard to find all this in a single person or agency. My long-term experience in Bolt and other startups helps here. So does feedback from my past clients.

If I offered agency-level marketing services or just one type of marketing service (e.g. managing Meta ads only), I'd have to keep my pricing much lower, on the same level as agencies and other freelancers.

The pricing also depends on the country you're paying taxes in.

In Estonia, the tax rate for private companies is insanely low (liberal capitalism at its worst). While I used benefit from this, I wish that companies would have to contribute more to public welfare.

In France and UK, freelancers pay 50% or more of their income as taxes. In Estonia, with salary + dividends, the taxes average at ca 30%.

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🟧 Question #5: How do you pay yourself salary and dividends?

I pay myself a rather low monthly salary to contribute (in taxes) to the general welfare. And once a year, I can submit an annual earnings report (done by my accountant who costs ca €80/month) and take out dividends.

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🟧 Question #6: Do you work on retainers or month-to-month invoicing?

This depends.

I usually work for a client for 3-6 months, and contribute 8-16h of my time weekly. I send invoices monthly.

While I agree on the monthly maximum fee and number of hours, if I work fewer hours, I also bill for less.

I use Toggl to track my time with 1-second accuracy. Many freelancers and agencies work in 15-minute time blocks, I find it unfair to the clients to bill for 15 minutes even if I only work on their project for 5 minutes sometimes.

I also do marketing audits and in this case, it's a one-off fee.

If you're just starting as a freelancer, I'd recommend agreeing with each client on the number of hours per month + hourly fee. So it's kind of like a retainer.

Above all, be transparent – trust is the most important aspect of client-freelancer relationships.

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🟧 Question #7: Do you return to some clients' projects multiple times?

Normally, I don't. My goal as a visiting CMO to a company is to help them fix or launch their marketing activities and hand it over to the in-house team or a new hire.

As I like switching to new projects, I never keep any client with me for a period longer than 6 months.

However, I've sometimes done a marketing audit for a company and they later hired me for a long-term project.

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On time & project management...

🟧 Question #8: How do you structure your days and hours with various projects?

Some months, when working up to 80h/week, I have 3-4 simultaneous projects going. Some might be brief ones like an audit. I also ned to work on my blog, newsletters, school, writing, etc.

To manage my time and tasks, I use Teamweek by Toggl. Every morning, I review my schedule and place more brain-consuming tasks on top. I do work on multiple clients' projects during a single day.

If I have a large project with a client, I sometimes dedicate specific days to those projects only – to give them the space they deserve.

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🟧 Question #9: How do you schedule your meetings?

I set recurring meetings with all clients and therefore it's easy to plan my time around them. And I always make sure to leave some space between the meetings to do actual work or catch up with something.

I prefer to have meetings in the afternoon because mornings are my best working time. Quite often, I push back on morning meeting requests and try to find a later time that works for a client.

I always keep Fridays meeting-free to have time and space for focus work.

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🟧 Question #10: How do you stay sane during 80h workweeks?

I must confess that I thrive under pressure... 🫢

But still, I do get overwhelmed during intense work periods.

I dislike the feeling of chaos, and sometimes work over weekends to catch up with the projects.

I never ever go over the agreed-upon deadlines, no matter what. I want my teams to be able to 100% rely on me.

Some tips for stress relief:

1. Organisation! I need to have all my tasks in the Teamweek project management tool.
2. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. During work-heavy periods, I think about the time off this makes possible later. And it motivates me to keep going.
3. Long walks, dinners with friends, running, vitamins, healthy food, 8h+ of sleep, that kind of stuff...

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On lifestyle and attitudes...

🟧 Question #11: About my choice of cities...

I'm just wondering why you're staying in the most expensive cities, when you can spend especially those 80hours/week months in the heaven-like and cheap places. Although I assume maybe you get clients from there and you need to be there.

For me, big cities are "heaven" in a sense... Paris and London are where I want to be.

I like to live in intellectually stimulating places: good art exhibitions, intellectually interesting people, lots of cultural events, top architecture and restaurants.

I freelance on remote projects and could live in Estonia or South France or Bali...

But I would be terribly bored in those comfortable, less-expensive places. I know a lot of people enjoy the tropical climate and an easy, fun life. I like the struggle of surviving in big cities and what it offers in return.

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🟧 Question #12: How did you frame your mindset to create thought-leadership content?

I think it's above all a personality thing. I didn't have to frame my mindset because I've always been rather outspoken and opinionated.

However, it took me a lot of time to feel that I have anything interesting and original to say.

There are so many content creators now who create meaningless, soulless LinkedIn posts that are copied from top creators. I don't see the point there...

I only create content when I feel it contributes real value to someone. Even in this newsletter, I try to share original and helpful advice and thoughts that aren't available elsewhere.

I guess the mindset should come with experience. Once you feel you've learned something that others don't yet know, you can create content around it. Always create value and don't post for the sake of posting.

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🟧 Question #13: What factors did you consider when you took the leap to pursue an MA in creative writing on top of your marketing freelancing?

I'd always wanted to pursue my literary studies further and the timing and opportunities aligned. I had set aside some money, so I knew I could have one year of lighter marketing work while doing the MA.

Because most of my freelance projects are 8-16h/week, I knew I could balance the workload between work and school.

The beginning of the year was crazy intense. Since January, I've refused some interesting marketing projects to guard my uni and writing time.

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🟧 Question #14: If you like to write, why work in marketing?

Most writers, no matter how good they are, never make enough money just by selling books and their other writing.

It is sad in a way, but I also take a different view many artists wouldn't agree with...

I see art-making as a hobby that shouldn't be paid for by other working people (via taxes and benefits, etc.)

I think there should be grants and support for a few top-level artists who deserve to work on their art 100% of their time.

However, there are nurses, cashiers, teachers, cleaners working for minimum wages who, maybe, would also rather have time for their hobbies.

So what right does an artist have to say that their time is more valuable than that of these millions of people doing full-time underpaid work?

I prefer to work on marketing projects to be able to pay for my writing time.

If I were to earn money by writing, I'd lose creative freedom and would have to work on low-paid projects I don't want to be writing for. And I must add that I do like my marketing work, it's much more gratifying in the short term than working on a book.

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🟧 Question #15: If you had to start all over with no connections or personal brand, how would you do it?

I already shared some above and here are some more...

Start freelancing alongside a full-time job and only make the jump if you feel secure enough, e.g. when you've had 50% or more of the past 6 months' income from freelance gigs.

Develop a freelance service that's unique and that you're the best at. It's mostly the top experts who get project offers and can ask for a fair price.

Build your personal brand. This is a must-have. If you don't feel like becoming a thought leader on social media or through blogging, this type of career isn't probably for you. As a top freelancer, you kind of need to "productise" yourself.

Be generous and kind, don't measure every little activity in money. In the business world, the free value mostly comes in the form of tips, advice, templates, newsletters, etc. Personally, I also do pro bono work for some cultural projects, another way of contributing something good to the world.

Go out of your way to deliver high value to your clients. These are the people who will tell about you to their colleagues and friends. If you underdeliver in a project, the word will go out and you won't get new referrals.

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And remember...

There is no single recipe for life. Nobody (and no thing) can tell you what you should want in life. It's up to you to figure it out.

Your career is only a small part of who you are. Don't lose your real self to a standardised job shared by millions of people.

Keep some of your mental energy to pursue your real, non-work-related interests. Perhaps you realise you don't have any. So refind them.

And read books, hehe. Not the self-help business books but actual literature. Here are some recommendations...​

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Thanks and bye!

This is my last marketing newsletter of this season.

From May 1st, I'm off to work on my non-fiction book on the human-nature relationship and forests.

I'll be back in the marketing world in September 2024. If you'd like to collaborate with me in the autumn, you can reach out now or in late August / early September – we'll make it work.

Thanks for bearing with me, sending all your kind feedback, and thinking along.

Merci! 🐿️

Karola