Jovan Cicmil's Blog - Communication

Pitch Ideas to Your Freelance Clients Like a Pro

May 31, 2023

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a freelance client back in 2013. We were talking about the software we were developing. He paused for a moment, sighed, and then said: “You developers are full of ideas but I always have to drag them out of you.” That stuck with me. How many opportunities have I missed out on because I kept my mouth shut? How many products could have been ...

How To Handle Clients Asking You To Lower Your Rates

May 17, 2023

Of all the things clients do to freelancers, asking you to lower your rates mid-project might be the most treacherous. It might be worse than being ghosted. When a client disappears, you know where you stand. Being asked to lower your rates after you’ve started work feels demeaning. But, it’s not always an act of malice. Sometimes, it’s a justified business move. It’s happened to me ...

How To Avoid Getting Cheated by Freelance Clients

March 8, 2023

One of the most common questions I get asked is: how do I avoid scams? Beginner freelancers are deathly afraid of being cheated by clients. This fear is often valid. There are malicious clients out there scheming for ways to wrangle free work out of you. Some disappear when you send an invoice. Some try to sn...

How To Effectively Use Twitter as a Freelancer

February 8, 2023

Social media is notoriously bad for your focus, your productivity, and, ultimately, your mental health. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Used properly, social media can be a valuable tool in your arsenal. Freelancers who master their social media presence rarely lack work. Their problem changes from “how do I find clients” to “how do I scale my business to keep up with demand”. ...

How To Find the Best Clients on Upwork in Three Steps

January 25, 2022

A lot of people complain about the quality of projects available on Upwork these days. Cheap clients , ridiculous requests, impossible projects — you name it, it’s there. Well, I’ve got some news for you. First of all, none of this is new. Upwork (and every other freelance platform, for that matter)...

How To Deal With Difficult Freelance Clients

December 20, 2021

Most of my clients over the last decade have been wonderful and easy to work with. I attribute this partly to luck and partly to my ever-growing standards. However, I’ve had my share of difficult clients, particularly in the first couple of years of my freelance career. Here are five types of freelance clients that are difficult to work with and how to handle each one. How to handle che...

How to Write Follow-up Messages That Generate Clients and Close Deals

August 18, 2021

Following up with prospective clients is tricky business. There’s a fine line between a confident, entrepreneurial message and a spammy ping notification that serves no purpose other than to irritate the person on the other end. During my decade of freelance experience, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to experiment with different approaches to communication. I’ve also had the pleasure...

The Two-Step System for Getting a Better Deal From Marketing Agencies

August 6, 2021

A digital marketing agency reached out to me a few days ago with an offer to promote my recently released book. The exchange didn’t go well, but it was highly instructive and I believe I’ve discovered a neat two-step approach to filter marketing offers. Their proposal was simple: for a flat fee of $2,000, they will promote my book to a number of top industry blogs and get me featured on a c...

7 Excuses Software Developers Make

May 3, 2021

Fear of responsibility is part of human nature as much as fear of the dark. We software developers are no different. I have made many excuses in my career, especially early on. Later on, I have heard many excuses from the standpoints of a colleague, team leader, and client. Here are some of the most common programmer excuses along with a translation from dev-speak into human English and some...

5 Unexpected Indicators of a Great Team Member

April 16, 2021

There’s a never-ending debate around selecting and interviewing candidates. Hire based on experience. Hire based on knowledge. Hire based on education. Hire based on a technical interview. All these criteria have merits, but have you considered hiring based on whether a person plays chess, or based on how they take a joke? Here are 5 unexpected ways to identify potential great team members...

Six Ways Emotions Can Make You Fail as an Entrepreneur

March 19, 2021

Entrepreneurs talk a lot about common problems: building a product, reaching customers, getting funding, and hiring the right people. On the other hand, there is little talk about the things going on within the entrepreneur’s own mind that can make or break their plans. Here are some ways psychology can stand in the way of success. Being prepared for potential problems is half the cure. Wh...

How to Find Meaningful Work

November 3, 2020

What is meaningful work? The answer to this question changes from age to age and from society to society, but only on the surface. The essence remains the same because it comes from the very core of our humanity. “Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky Philosophy is no match for evolution For hu...

How To Adopt Radical Open-Mindedness

October 21, 2020

I recently read Ray Dalio’s book, Principles. Dalio is one of the most successful investors in history, and a person of remarkable breadth and vision. In this book, he outlines the principles that he built over a long and rich career, and that we can use to guide our life and work. Out of all the concepts in the book, possibly the most important (and certainly the most widely applicable) is r...

How To Upsell to Clients as a Freelancer

April 30, 2020

If I have learned something in ten years of freelancing, it is that the best kind of client is a repeat client. The overhead of searching for new projects, applying, interviewing, vetting clients and acquainting yourself with the project is immense. This is why it’s very important to regularly search for opportunities to extend your relationship with your existing clients. The trick is doing it ...