Hi Reader,

Happy Friday!

I'm making excellent headway with The Hello Effect. I've put together a short landing page (here) that gives you a bit more info about what to expect and you can get yourself on the waitlist if you're interested (I'll only promote it to the waitlist and you'll get a founding member discount).

P.S. This week on Instagram, I shared how you can nurture freelance clients without it feeling icky. Check it out here. And don't forget to give me a follow for regular tips and tricks!

Here's what I've been up to this week work-wise:

👉 I wrote 3 pieces for clients (an influencer marketing tool and Klaviyo)

👉 I refreshed 2 pieces for Shopify

👉 I did more outreach and LinkedIn posts for a client

👉 I held 1x mentoring sessions

👉 I created more content for The Hello Effect

⏱ Approx hours spent on client work this week: ~22

⏱ Approx hours spent on non-client work: ~4

💰 Total revenue this week: £3,275

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Check out my three practical courses that have helped 500+ people get more clients, earn more money, and create better content.

Friday Freelance Tip​​ ✨ ​

This week has been WILD.

On Tuesday, I found out someone has been impersonating me to get work (does this mean I've made it?!). They used my portfolio, samples, and an email address with my name in. It was only when the company got on a video call with them that they were rumbled... and even then they still tried to get work out of it.

Just a reminder that there are ugly sides to the internet and posting publicly! I'm hugely grateful to the company who immediately let me know, but it's still a worry that there's someone out there potentially damaging my reputation!

Anyway, I don't want this to be all doom and gloom, so I've got a useful, practical tip for you this week.

We spend so much energy chasing the next client... you know, posting on LinkedIn, optimising our website, and trying every new platform, that we forget to ask the most obvious question: How did my actual clients find me?

This week, I want to walk you through a simple audit that can completely change how you think about getting clients. It takes less than an hour, and it might just be the most useful thing you do all month.

Go back through the last 6–12 months and look at every client you worked with. For each one, ask yourself: how did this come about?

List every client from the past 6–12 months

Even the small ones, the one-off projects, the retainers that ended. Write them all down. You're building a picture of your whole client landscape.

Note exactly how each one came in

Referral? A cold DM? Someone saw your LinkedIn post? They Googled you? Be as specific as possible... "a referral" is less useful than "a referral from a past client" vs "from a fellow freelancer."

Mark the best clients with a star

Best could mean highest-paying, most enjoyable, smoothest to work with, or best fit for the kind of work you actually want to be doing. You decide.

Look for the pattern

Where did your best clients come from? Chances are, one or two channels are doing most of the heavy lifting and you might barely even be focusing on them.

This is always a bit of an eye-opening activity for me, but it really helps show you where you should or could be putting your effort.

Tip: When you do this audit, pay attention to these nuances as they'll make your findings much more useful:

• The source vs. the trigger. Sometimes a client found you via Google, but they reached out because they saw you speak at an event. The original source and the tipping-point moment can be different things.
• Seasonality. If you're looking at a quiet patch, you might draw false conclusions. Look at a full year if you can.
• Where you've been putting your energy. If you've been active on a platform for three months but nobody from there has turned into a client yet, it might just be too early or it might be a sign to cut your losses.
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Once you've done this, feel free to let me know if you were surprised by the result or if you had an inkling all along.

This week, we have a B2B writer who lives in Greece.

Where are you based? Athens, Greece (but originally from the US).

How long have you been freelancing? 6.5 years.

What do you do? B2B writing for SaaS brands.

What's your revenue? $61k (USD).

This freelancer freelances full time and this was not their highest earning year.

How much did you take as a salary?

$2,500 per month (without distributions, as I have an S-corp set up).

How much did you pay in taxes?

about 7%, thanks to strange Greek tax laws and my US S-corp which keeps taxes low for me.

What are your business expenses?

About $500/month, including my coworking space fee, software subscriptions, and phone bills. I also splurged on a new MacBook laptop as mine was old and quite slow.
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Do you contribute to a pension or invest?

Hopefully this year I will, as I have set up a Solo 401k, but in 2025 I didn't.

Do you have any hot money-management tips?

My S-corp has been great, not just at saving me in taxes but also in having a very proper set-up for all my business accounts and payments.

We need more Freelance Money Diaries entries! I'm forever grateful to anyone who shares their finances with us (you can do it totally anonymously!).

Click the button below to do yours!

As always, happy freelancing :)

Lizzie ✨

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