2 things are happening right now that is reshaping society and the way we live day-to-day:
Thing #1. Freelancing is taking over the world
Freelancer’s Union recently published a study which projected that more than 50% of the workforce in America will be made of independant Freelancers by 2027.
In other words, traditional jobs are on their way out and a majority Freelance based workforce is happening whether you like it or not. Soon, if you aren’t Freelancing you are gonna be in the minority and that means you’ll be competing in a shrinking job pool.
If you think it’s hard to get a decent paying full-time time now, just wait until most of the people competing for your job are 1099 flex Freelancers who require zero HR, zero benefits, and don’t even need office space because they work from home. Whether you like it or not, agree or disagree, this is where the workforce is headed and it’s going to be easy to get left behind.
That means pensions, retirement plans, and “job security” will soon be a thing of the past.
It also means that by 2027 over half of all companies will have at least one Freelancer working in their business. No longer will it be considered “weird” to work from home, when you want, and with who you want.
It will be the new normal.
And for those of you wise enough to recognize this now…
Thing #2. A smart, select few will see massive rewards for taking advantage of “the easy times”
If you care about how you earn your living then this is the most important graph you’ve ever seen:
It’s called the Roger’s Adoption & Innovation Curve and it can save your hide from being taken advantage of if you know what it means. You can also use this graph to reach a 6-figure income while it’s still easy to do so (in 5 years it’ll be too late).
You see, every time a big change happens in society, like new technology or changing how we work, people will naturally fall into one of these 5 predictable groups:
Group 1. Enthusiasts
These people are sometimes called Pioneers and financially speaking… they have the easiest time making the most money. Why? Because they “get in on the ground floor” before the market gets crowded and the competition finds out how good things are. If you haven’t started Freelancing yet, you’ve missed your chance at becoming a Pioneer, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late.
Group 2. Visionaries
These are the people who see the Pioneers and Enthusiasts doing well and think to themselves, “Hmmm, I should give that a try, looks cool.”
When it comes to Freelancing, I’m part of this group. 10 years ago only a handful of people were calling themselves Freelancers and slinging their services on the interwebs. Even fewer people were sharing HOW they were achieving success. It was all very hush-hush and most of us had to figure it out as we went along.
I spent the first 5 years of my career just explaining to clients what a Freelancer was and how to work with one. These days, my clients have teams of Freelancers and internal systems and procedures for how to best maximize us as assets in their company (a good thing for us because it means they know how to keep us on longer).
Group 3. Pragmatists
If you were to join the Freelancing revolution today, you’d be a Pragmatist.
At this point in history it’s common knowledge that Freelancing is the most optimal way to create an income and live a healthy lifestyle. Examples:
One-fifth—or 3.2 million—of U.S. freelancers are making at least $100,000 per year
Want to Earn Six Figures In Your Pajamas? These Freelancers Will Show You How
No Pants Project Success Story Case Studies
The good news is that you’re still early enough in the adoption curve that you’re in what I consider the “early stages” of profitable Freelancing.
Here’s what I mean:
From 1896 to 1899 Alaska experienced it’s own Gold Rush with prospectors from all over the world rushing to her mountains and streams to get rich by digging up yellow rock from the ground.
If you had been a young man in Philadelphia at the time and had read a newspaper report of someone striking it rich in 1896, then sold all your belongings and ventured to Alaska in 1897, just one year into the rush, you would have arrived early enough to find cheap land for prospecting. Prices would have been reasonable, a system of towns and travel would have been established so as to make your stay more bearable, and by that time, methods for gold extraction would have been perfected enough to make your job significantly easier than had you arrived in 1895.
However, had you waited just one more year, entering the Yukon in 1898, one year before the rush ended, you could have been forced to pay more than 100x for similar land rights compared to what you would have paid in 1897. Equipment would have been multiple times more expensive and harder to obtain as demand outweighed supply, and very likely you’d have struggled against severe – even murderous – competition.
Right now, you are in the 1897 of the Freelance gold rush.
It’s cheap and easy to get clients right now.
There is very, very little real competition.
The path to 6-figures has already been laid out by the Pioneers and Visionaries.
But soon, it’s going to get very difficult for newcomers to make the same quick rise in success as a Freelancer.
Soon, clients will be difficult to get for newbies to the field. It will be expensive to operate because competition will be fierce.
The good news, if you get in now, is that once you establish a base of good clients (shouldn’t take more than 90 days) you never have to worry about competition or rising costs of client acquisition.
Why?
Because, if you follow the No Pants Project philosophy of client getting you will do what I have done:
Get a few good clients who pay between $2k and $5k a month and hang on to those few clients for years and years.
The gig-to-gig Freelancer will struggle because getting clients is going to get harder.
The Freelancer who has fewer, better clients will ALWAYS succeed regardless of what happens in the market. My suggestion:
Get in now, get your core clients quickly, and serve them well. If you do, you’ll be able to look back and say “I sure am glad I got started when it was still easy.”
But, if you’re a stubborn mule and still want to refuse that the Freelancing revolution is happening, you’ll fall into the next group of people…
Group 4. Conservatives
These are the people who, for whatever reason, wait until the very last minute to make a move.
Typically, these are people who were forced into Freelancing by a layoff or some other circumstance (like health related issues).
It is still possible for them to be successful in the field, but they will struggle. Partially because the market will be more crowded, but also because of mindset issues.
Imagine someone who hates to swim finally being forced into the deep-end of a pool. There is a lot of thrashing about, some cursing, and maybe even a few moments of “oh no, I’m sinking.”
Eventually, they’ll learn to swim, but it would have just been so much easier had they taken those swimming lessons back when it was easier to learn things than to wait until that moment in time to learn how to float.
If you’re the kind of person who has to wait until the very last minute before finally making a decision, you can still be successful as a Freelancer but it’s going to hurt a lot more. People like this often view success stories, try to implement, and then complain about “how come I can’t make it happen as easily as they did?” The reason, of course, is because they waited until it was much harder to replicate those results.
My suggestion:
Get in early and take a leap of faith.
It’ll save you a tremendous amount of heartache and grief in the long run.
Group 5. Skeptics
This is the group you want to avoid becoming at all costs.
Skeptics are the ones who sit around a table with friends talking about “if I had just jumped in at the beginning I’d be so successful right now!”
This is the Ishouldacouldawoulda crowd.
Often, these people are good hearted but arrogant. They think themselves too smart or too clever to be affected by change.
While it’s worth celebrating these people when it comes to adopting certain technologies (example: someone who refuses to adopt social media because of its harmful effects), when it comes to the economic forces that shape how we work, there’s nothing to celebrate about someone who is left behind in the workforce.
Those individuals who refuse to adapt to the rise in a flex-based workforce have a rude awakening headed their way. As automation, decentralized work styles, and increased specialization force traditional workers into Freelancing, the Skeptics will suffer the most.
By the time they wise up and see the writing on the wall, it will be too late. Client getting will be near impossible as prospects begin to question, “Why are you only now getting into Freelancing?” The cost to acquire new clients will skyrocket as competition peaks at its max saturation point. It will be extremely difficult to differentiate oneself in the market as nearly all the good ideas will have been taken.
Thinking back to the example of the Alaskan Gold Rush, the Skeptics are the people who showed up to the Yukon in 1901. The land was picked over, the gold all gone. Prices remained high but there was nothing worth digging for.
The landscape had changed.
The point of all this is to say…
NOW is the time to make the transition into full-time freelancing while it’s still SUPER easy to do so.
NOW is the time to get those handful of clients who will remain loyal to you for years and pay monthly retainers to keep you on their time.
NOW is the time to carve out a niche and make yourself known to prospective clients.
NOW is the time to establish a base of work which will last years.
In 5 years, it’s gonna be really, really hard to do all those things. I guarantee it.
Right now, it’s easy.
A while back I did a little Facebook Live video that has been watched more than 188,000 times by people just like you thinking about diving head first into Freelancing.
You can watch the video by clicking here.
In that mini-masterclass I break down how best to take advantage of “the easy times” by attracting the best clients (think: high pay, low drama) through a few little tweaks any Freelancer can make to their business.
It’s a process I call “Greasy Math” and it’s a big reason why so many of my students generate success stories like this.
You don’t have to be perfect to get started, but you better get started.
Otherwise, you might miss the boat.
If you’d like help to get started so you can get up and running as fast as possible, click here to watch my case study breakdown of how I built a $26,500/month Freelancing business from scratch.
At the end of that video you’ll be invited to jump on a call with one of my staff to plan out the best steps forward for YOU to build your business asap. We’re really, really good at helping people get results FAST (it’s sort of what we’re best known for) and the cost of the call is zero dollars so you’ve got nothing to lose.
Want more?
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