Subscribe Now For A Free Five Step Tutorial
Get a free five-part email course that shows you how to find, validate, and launch your side hustle idea — no experience required.
What It's About
A graphic designer draws up a full-time nomadic lifestyle doing freelance work.
Business Model
Service
Skills Required
Graphic Design & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
Medium
Words of Wisdom
Kassandra shares the importance of ratings for freelance work, “Just with a single UpWork rating, I managed to go from applying for 50 jobs a week and getting no bites to applying for 50 jobs and getting one or two jobs from it.”
Fun Fact
UpWork has 12 million registered freelancers but perhaps more importantly, over five million employers looking for workers. It’s a great way to get your feet wet in the world of freelancing.
Notes from Chris
Episode 1443
Kassandra Marsh spent years studying graphic design in Australia. She enjoyed it and was excited to get out into the world, assuming she’d start a high flying job the moment she graduated. But, unbeknownst to her, there was no job waiting. Not for another long, arduous twelve months. Until a job ad in the local newspaper caught her eye. The ad described a job for someone with experience working with kids, along with an ability to design business documents. Kassandra, thinking it was such a curious mix of the two skills, applied straight away. After all, she was the ideal candidate! Turns out, the job posting was an accident—the company erroneously placed a single ad for two jobs, instead of two ads for single jobs. Even so, Kassandra’s mix of skills surprised them and they agreed to hire her on a freelance basis. Her job would be to take their dull business documents, and redesign them so they were off the charts! It wasn’t sustainable relying on only one client, so she set out to find more. To do that, she posted a profile on oDesk—which is now called UpWork—and promptly received … very little attention. Like zero divided by zero attention. Kassandra modified the one variable she could: her prices. She gradually dropped her rate until she had someone employ her at the going price. It would mean working for peanuts but hopefully scoring a few prized reviews after nailing the job. Eventually, she found an equilibrium, where she could charge the maximum amount possible yet still receive responses to her bids. Kassandra would often use a trick to ‘lever’ her pricing and schedule. When really busy, she’d price herself highly, to justify taking on additional work. When things were a little slower, she would drop her prices to drum up interest. Between the website and her UpWork client stream there’s no shortage of gigs available to Kassandra. She now earns over twenty-six thousand US dollars per year, all while living remotely.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Learn more about Kassandra and her business from her website, Lakazdi.com .
- Freelancer Starts New Hustle to Help Frustrated Clients: Many of this freelancer’s clients all suffered from the same frustrations. They needed more time and fewer headaches—so she started a project to help them build productive systems.
- Public Health Employee Earns Extra $2,000/Month with Salesforce Consulting: An enterprising nonprofit employee bids for consulting contracts, earning a steady second income each month.
- Google Employee Makes $100,000 Using Fiverr: In just one year, this Google product manager earns an extra $100,000 by providing marketing services on Fiverr.com. Learn his tips to hack the platform for yourself!
Quote of the Day
"I am really glad to have got to learn through mistakes and build a nice business for myself."
—Kassandra Marsh #SideHustleSchool
