I found a bunch of great resources for you this week. There’s stuff on building systems, sales, marketing, and specializing.

Enjoy!

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Follow up Automation for Agencies (bidsketch.com)

It’s important to build systems for your sales and marketing. Otherwise you won’t have the time or energy to do them when you get busy. This article by Christina Gillick goes into using email autoresponders as a system for following up with every lead.

4 Mistakes Freelancers Make When Selling Themselves (doubleyourfreelancing.com)

Brennan Dunn shares four pieces of advice when doing 1-on-1 sales.

Learn How To Start Freelancing, Find Clients, and Create a Successful Business (theadmin.org) SPONSOR

If you’re starting to freelance or need help finding the ideal clients for you, join my free newsletter for freelancers. With 67+ weekly lessons, you’re sure to learn something new every week.

Follow This One Step To Launch (summitevergreen.com)

Though geared towards product creators, this article is valuable for anyone who creates. It could be projects for clients, marketing material, or even your own products. The concept of stock and flow is an interesting idea, especially when you look at the bigger picture of your entire business as a set of interconnected systems.

Clients want you to solve their problem (theadmin.org)

It can be easy to get stuck selling your services just as set the activities you do. Design WordPress themes. Write articles for blogs. But actually, clients hire you because they have a problem they need solved. Clearly stating that you solve that problem for them will let you stand out in the market.

Increase your likelihood of winning the gig by decreasing your pool of clients (freelancelift.com)

Similar to the last link, Liam Veitch writes about how to stand out using attention, desire, and justification.

CoSchedule, Revive Old Post, and Buffer: My Social Content Tools (curtismchale.ca)

Curtis McHale has been going through the tools he uses in his freelance business. In this article he writes about the three he uses to promote his content to Twitter and LinkedIn.

The newbie freelancers guide to engaging marketing (guerrillafreelancing.com)

Mike Smith has an interesting twist to the standard advice about how to build a brand. I’ve started trying this technique in a few places myself.

What to Do When Your Clients Got You Feeling Depressed (consultingsuccess.com)

Drawing a line between clients and your life can be hard, especially when urgent problems turn up. Just one minor problem can throw you off for the rest of the day, even if you’re not working. Michael Zipursky writes about how to get a better handle on these situations.

How to fail proof your business for 2015 (freelancersunion.org)

Larissa Pham writes about a number of things you can do now to make 2015 better. I like the idea of ranking clients to figure out what the best ones have in common.

Freelance Freedom #366 (studioblog.envato.com)

The freelance version of the “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” comic.

Thanks, I’ll see you next week

Eric Davis (@edavis10)