749: $150/hr from Home: Upskilling to Work Less and Earn More

27:08So I went back to them and I said, I'm so excited to start at this role, but would you be open to me reducing my hours to 24 hours instead of 40 hours and doing that? Like, what would that look like? And they were open to it. Surprisingly, they got back to me and they said, okay, we'll just pro rate your salary based on 24 hours. And that math came to, I think it was like$63 ,000. which to me was still a win and I was still living based on my old salary so my cost of living was already really low I didn't have to pay for gas because I was working from home so even earning 63 ,000 was still a win yeah yeah now I'm thinking it's like okay I took a baby pay cut from the original job that I now have had for six months but I'm still up compared to the other one I don't have the commute and I'm down now just to just 24 hours yeah exactly that was so amazing and the whole point for me was, okay, if I can work 24 hours, then I can get back two more working days, right?

28:08And then I can leverage that time to kind of build something on my own. So that's when I started looking into freelance consulting, upskilling in that way, learning more about that, and then starting to get clients on my own to kind of supplement that income with the hopes that eventually I would, at the time I was like family planning, getting ready to have my daughter, and I really wanted time with her. So not just time freedom for the sake of time freedom, but I wanted to be the kind of mom that was there for her when she woke up, that spent her early days with her. And I can only do that if I kind of brought back my time this way.

28:46So at the same time as I was working at this 24 hours consulting position, I started acquiring my own clients. And then when I took maternity leave, I realized like I don't have to go back. I can just continue to work for myself. And that's been the paths that I've been on since then. Oh, okay. So there's this recognition, and I think a lot of side hustlers probably relate to this, is this mindset shift of even if I'm working a day job, that just happens to be my largest client so far, right? I'm free to go out and get more. And especially if you're, you know, having kind of the two extra working days per week to go and do it.

29:24Was this still LinkedIn networking? What kind of drove these initial freelance gigs or freelance consulting contracts? It was a combination. I had a contact who was a Salesforce administrator at an organization and he was leaving for another job. And they were needing to augment the hole that he was kind of leaving at his job. They weren't ready to hire a full on Salesforce administrator because they didn't have the kind of budget for it. So kind of partnering with my contact there, I reached out to them and the opportunity presented themselves that they were looking for someone who can work for them about five to 10 hours.

30:04They were looking to hire a consultant. So that's how my first client came. And as I was kind of having those conversations, I realized I knew nothing about how to set up a freelance consulting business. And that's when I looked into Bradley Rice's freelance course. He has a great course that kind of helps you learn how to do client acquisition, how to do some of the documents that you need to produce, like how to write the contracts, how to do the invoice and all of that. So I kind of skilled up again, skilling up is always a theme, right? Whenever you're trying to do something, go to the person who already did it, learn from them.

30:42It kind of fast tracks your process. And that's been my approach. And so after taking that course, I kind of had a better idea of how to position myself, what rates to set, how to write the contracts, how to protect myself. And I landed my first client through networking, basically. And then the second client also came through networking, too. Just being connected to other independent consultants and being in regular connection with them. when one of them was looking to offload a client, I had already expressed to them that I was growing my independent consulting. And if anyone had opportunities to reach out to me and that statement was in the back of her mind.

31:25And when she was ready to offload a client, she reached out to me and that's how my second client came about. So networking. And that wasn't a red flag. Like, I don't want to work with these people anymore, but you, it would be great for you. Yeah. Well, she was looking to do a different type of work. So it wasn't a negative experience. She was pivoting into kind of changing her business model a different way and didn't want to do as much technical work. So it worked out really well. And both those clients are still my clients today. Is there, and maybe you can school me on this, like a nichification of within the Salesforce world to, you talked about positioning through this freelance course, like Salesforce admin, Salesforce consultant, like seems pretty broad.

32:08or is it Salesforce consultant for nonprofits? You know, something more and more specific. How did you go about it? Yeah, that's a great question. So I mentioned earlier how I kind of always leveraged my industry experience, right? A lot of my industry experience was in nonprofits, associations and higher ed. And those are the clients that I centered my intention on and the consulting organizations that I worked for served the nonprofit industry and the higher ed industry. And then when I went on my own too, that's my specialization. So I kind of positioned myself as a Salesforce consultant to help mission-driven organizations.

32:48They can be nonprofit or for-profit, but really like mission-driven, helping them leverage technology and advance their impact through leveraging technology. So that's my specialization. Other people focus in on platform specific. They'll be like CPQ or marketing cloud. They can specialize that way. There are some who specialize in like manufacturing businesses. So there's ways you can niche down your expertise and then focus on those clients. And in most cases, those clients know they're already using Salesforce as their tool. So they know they are looking for somebody with that skill set rather than something more broad.

33:28Correct. Or it could be that if you can kind of become an expert in an industry, then future clients who are looking for a new platform. For example, nonprofits have low budgets sometimes and they use disconnected systems. So there's an opportunity there to kind of help them get away from Excel sheets and using Microsoft forms and having a more connected, integrated experience to managing their constituent data. So that's kind of like my approach. So another person's approach can be like there's a lot of like small fitness instructors And they're looking for a way to manage their fitness process, like their client acquisition or managing their client journey and that kind of process.

34:16And if you specialize in that, then you can even people who don't already have a platform, you can pitch your services to say that you can implement that solution for them. Did you have to do a lot of proactive applications or cold pitching? Or was it mostly just, look, I built up this network over the course of the last three or six months where people kind of knew my name. They knew what I could do. And, you know, when they had a gig open up, I was on the top of the list. I haven't had to cold pitch. And that's also because I'm not trying to, like, grow massively super fast. Right now, my goal is I don't want to work more than like 20 to 24 hours per week because I still want to be like the primary caretaker of my daughter and still be a super involved mom in that way.

35:02But I know other people who make themselves visible on LinkedIn by like being thought leaders in their industry or in their specialization. So they'll kind of post about solutions and kind of put themselves out there that way. And that's also kind of a passive way of bringing clients to you if it makes you uncomfortable with a cold outreach. That's another approach. Well, this is a really common theme or thread on the show throughout the years is piggybacking on the popularity and search volume and interest around different software tools, whether it's Salesforce. We've had people do this with Asana and FreshBooks and ClickUp and HoneyBook.

35:42And a lot of times they go down that path of creating the content like, hey, I'm an Asana consultant. and today we're going to learn how to do blah, blah, blah. It was kind of creating the video lesson or did you know, or we're going to share this little hack you can do in Excel and creating some level of authority and credibility that way. But then there's other ways, your kind of quiet style, behind the scenes networking, you know, building one-on-one connections, which totally works too. And I love the discipline of keeping it at, look, 20 to 24 hours a week. That's my goal. My task as the entrepreneur is, well, how do I squeeze the most out of those 20 to 24 hours a week?

36:18How can I level up my skills so that I can make what I was making before or more in just a fraction of the time? I think that's actually kind of a fun challenge. And I really like that. Do the clients come to you with a rate in mind? Hey, we need somebody 10 hours a week. We need somebody five hours a week. Or is it like, or do you come to them with like, look, my retainer is a thousand bucks per client. What works in this world? Hermela's answer plus her fire plans for the future coming up right after this. Maybe it's a prospect trying to book an appointment. Maybe it's somebody looking for a quote.

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38:23And every side hustle hero needs a sidekick, right? Well, with Shopify, yours is built right in. Their AI assistant sidekick is ready to help you build, troubleshoot, and keep moving your business forward. Shopify already powers millions of businesses worldwide, including brand name powerhouses like Mattel and Gymshark, but also dozens of guests you've heard on the side hustle show. I'd love for you to be next and you can get start it for free at shopify.com slash side hustle all you need is the idea shopify handles the rest start your free trial at shopify.com slash side hustle once again start your free trial today at shopify.com slash side hustle it could be both it could be project based where they have a specific project in mind where they're looking for someone to implement that project for them So it could be like, oh, we want to adopt marketing cloud or some sort of marketing tool.

39:17We want to integrate it with Salesforce. And that's the project we have in mind. And we scoped it out. Here's what it is. And people bid for that job or that project. And then you can bid your services. You can say, here's the scope of work. Here's how much it would cost. And you can do hourly or you can do value-based costing for that pricing. For me, I kind of focus more on managed services. So it's already clients that had the platform. that we're looking for ongoing management of the platform. And then as part of that, we can have enhancement projects where if you're looking to kind of enhance it or integrate more tools into it, then we can work on those things.

39:56So my approach has been recurring revenue as much as possible. So having contracts in place. Well, it saves you from the feast or famine of like, well, I've got this project and now after four weeks of implementing it, now it's done and I got to find another client. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that kind of weather proofs you too. You can become a long-term partner, which I really love. I love working with my clients and kind of helping them think even forecasting long-term. Hey, what are some things you have coming up? Some programming that you're doing? How can I make your job a lot easier for you?

40:32Are there areas for efficiencies? You know, are there areas where your process has bogged down that you're doing manual steps so much. How can we improve that? So I love being a long-term partner to my clients in that way. What is a typical engagement? Is it hourly or based on the number of hours you expect to spend or kind of like, look, I'm on call, I'm on retainer for you. If you have something that comes up and just, you know, a day or a week in the life, if there is such a thing and on one of these client projects or client engagements. My packages are ranging from anywhere between like a five hour per month engagement for some of the nonprofit clients who don't have a lot of high touch, but they just want someone there to kind of maintain the platform up to like 40 plus hours per month.

41:21And I think each client contract is slightly different depending on what they asked for. But my goal is I don't want you to sign up for any contract level that you don't have the work for. So in the sales process, we kind of scope out together what kind of work they're looking to do on a recurring basis or a one-time basis. And we find the sweet spot per month for them. And that's kind of their reoccurring charge. So let's say they signed up for 10 hours per month, and that would be their reoccurring fixed charge per month. And then if anything comes up more than that, then we can always add on more hours.

41:59but at least the minimum number of hours is something that I know they have the work for. So that way it's fair to them and it's fair for me, like in terms of capacity management for me and my willingness to take on additional clients. Okay. What's typical in terms of an hourly rate for somebody now with five years of experience in this space? Starting out, I've seen people charge as little as$50 per hour,$75 per hour, up until I think the highly specialized and experienced people charge even like 200, 225, 250, 300 per hour. The more experience you have, the more you're able to charge. I think the sweet spot is around like that 125 to 150 per hour.

42:47On average, that's achievable for a lot of people. It also depends on the industry. If your clients are nonprofits, then you tend to charge less per hour. And then if you have more for-profit clients, you know, you can charge upwards of$250 to$300 per hour. So how are you tracking towards that ultimate goal of whatever the numbers that Bradley shared were? The 18-hour work week and some obscene, you know, multi-six-figure gig? I kind of followed his model of how I can approach freelance consulting. He kind of gave me a concept for it, that I'm not necessarily looking to make the most I can right now.

43:24I think my goal is make enough that I can support my living expenses, invest enough to meet my financial goals, but mainly protect my time so I can spend more of this time with my daughter while she's a toddler. I think once she's in school, then I'll definitely look to making as much as I can and like accelerating my path to financial freedom. But I would say because I kept my lifestyle and my expenses so low throughout all this like income progression that I've been able right now to reach like Coast 5 by 59. So if I was to stop investing completely today, I can still retire by 59, which I won't stop investing, but it's like a great marker.

44:12You know, I was only able to do that for one, managing my money well and keeping my expenses low, but two, increasing my income so much that I can invest all of that difference. Yeah, I love this concept of Coast Fi. And we did an episode with Andy Hill about this from Marriage, Kids and Money, where this is the idea of front-loading your investments and your nest egg, and then kind of enjoying life more in the moment, like finding work that you love, of course, being part of it. Maybe that's a part-time gig. Maybe that's a job that you really like. But then, you know, letting your expenses kind of creep up and letting compound interest on that nest egg do its work for you.

44:55And so I think that's kind of a powerful place to be coming, you know, from a position of financial strength. Like it sounds like you are. So I think that's really cool. Yeah, I would add there's also opportunities in subcontracting. So eventually, once you like pivot into the industry, you can subcontract under consulting firms where they're looking for a specific amount of help, like fractional help for a specific project that they have. So that's also what I do in my revenue. I look at my own solo consulting clients, but I subcontract. I partner with other agencies whenever they have a gap they're looking to fill.

45:34they bring me in and I get hours and income that way. The hourly rate is a lot less, right? It's like 50 % or 70 % or something like that of what you would make on your own. But to start out, that's also possible. There's a lot of consulting firms who just need additional help for a specific project for a fixed number of time. So you can do that as well. Yeah. And it's one relationship to manage versus now trying to be the marketer and salesperson for your own business. It's like, well, they're going to go out and find the clients for you, and that comes with a cost. So there is something to be said for that as another client acquisition channel.

46:14Yeah, I think this whole experience has really like also sharpened my entrepreneurial mindset. I'm like, okay, I've increased my effective hourly rate, right? I have a high demand skill that earns a higher per hour income than I would have in my prior career. Now I'm looking at how can I increase more passive income, like where I don't have to like actively work the hours to earn the money. And that's where like I recently started a YouTube channel and an Etsy shop called Ease Into Earnings. And a lot of my focus there is creating budget templates and different tools and systems to help people manage their money and seeing if I can use that as a means for some passive income source as well.

47:03Yeah, this is awesome. So carving back your time, leveraging up your skills, using your hours more effectively, and now saying, well, front-loading the investments, right? Like kind of following all of these steps and saying, well, now how can I kind of plant some digital money seeds in some cases, plant some maybe more time leveraged income streams. So ease into earnings.com. We'll definitely link that up. Hermelo, what's like, what surprised you the most over the last few years of doing this or any, anything you would do differently? I would say the value of connecting with people and creating meaningful relationships and how much like the quote, like your network is your net worth, like it's so true.

47:42like who you're connected to and what opportunities come your way is like very correlated. I would say that as someone who's not necessarily like super outgoing and not the obvious extrovert, I think I surprised myself at my ability to like connect with people and make these meaningful relationships and how those have been like super fruitful for me. What do you think made your message stand out in the inbox from everybody else? It's like, what do you think people gave you the time of day? I think genuineness. Like I looked at their profile and I always mentioned something about them. So it's like, oh, I see that you went from working from this company to this company, or I see that you've been working in this industry for this long.

48:27And then I said, why I'm reaching out? Like I'm reaching out because I'm curious to learn about your career trajectory or your career journey. And then I finished always with an ask. Like sometimes I have people who reach out to me and they connect. They're like, oh, I would love to connect. But I'm like, OK, I mean, sometimes I accept, sometimes I don't. But then it's just it's dead. But in my invites and my connections on LinkedIn, I always leave with, hey, would you be open to a 15 minute conversation or a 30 minute conversation? Always giving that ask. And a lot a lot of people are open to it.

49:02Like some will ignore you and then you just kind of like let it roll off your back. But I think most people are open to connecting and like sharing about their journey. And like, especially if someone is genuinely asking and expressing their interests to follow the similar career path as them. Yeah. People like talking about themselves. Yeah. Kind of pump them up a little bit. Like, oh, that's so cool that you made this transition. I'm trying to do something similar. Yeah. And I made sure like in the conversation, it kind of kind of like how we're talking right now. Like I was just my genuine, authentic self.

49:35I was always honest about my intention. I wasn't necessarily asking them, hey, get me a job at your company. But they already knew like, hey, I'm trying to make a career pivot or I'm looking to grow my client portfolio. Would love to know how you're approaching your freelance consulting or whatever it might be. I was just always honest and upfront. There wasn't any hidden agenda. That's one of the things that stands out the most to me in this conversation is, look, is freelancing, I think it's a great side hustle and so many guests have started there. But the kind of gut reaction is like, well, am I going to be bidding on jobs with workers from all around the world?

50:13Like, how am I ever going to stand out and compete? And it's like, Hermela just laid out the playbook of how you're going to stand out. You're going to cut the line by going direct to decision makers through this networking approach. Yeah, exactly. All right. So we've got easeintoearnings.com and the Ease Into Earnings YouTube channel. Anything else got you excited for this year? What's coming up? My goal is to reach full financial independence by 50. So I have some ways to go. Focusing on that. I also love traveling. So I'm kind of looking at my next trip. I would love to go to Portugal. And I feel like I've been seeing a lot of the positives about Portugal lately.

50:51So So I'm kind of looking forward to that as well. And seeing where ease into earnings goes. I'm hoping for the same amount of success I've had with Salesforce to kind of translate into doing YouTube and Etsy shop and kind of scaling up in this way. I think content creation is really interesting. And I think a lot of people have leveraged it to kind of increase their time freedom, financial freedom, vocation freedom. So I'm looking to see how this venture goes. Very cool. I've got some Etsy episodes I'll send to you afterwards. I've got some good ones on selling some digital products. Again, easeintoearnings.com and you check Hermela out over there.

51:30We'll link up the YouTube channel as well. Let's wrap this thing up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation. Don't just side hustle for extra cash. Think bigger. Think of side hustle as a way to buy back your time. Always keep your expenses low so that you have leverage to leave a job or to upskill and to mine the gap by investing more. If you can manage your finances well, if you can manage what you have really well, then it can give you the leverage you need to get high demand skills, earn more money, increase your effective hourly rate so that you can have more freedom back. I think what I appreciate is the long-term vision that you took where it's like, I don't have to reinvent the wheel here.

52:14I understand this is not gonna be an overnight thing, but, you know, zoomed out over the course of half a decade or a decade. It's like, I've made a meaningful shift in where I'm going. What started as, hey, you know, how can I try this 12-week bootcamp? Or, you know, just, it seemed like low risk, but high upside. Recognizing that your skills aren't set in stone. Really like the call, your line was focused on what you have, like the skills that you do have and how those might be applicable. I think that makes it a softer landing versus, like if I was trying to transition to be a plumber or something.

52:49And it's like, well, I don't know how podcasting is necessarily going to relate to pipes and wrenches, but maybe there's some personal skills that maybe apply to something. But finding what's on the shoulder or what's just to the side of what you're currently doing, and maybe there's an opportunity there. And then this call to kind of design a life with intention and saying, look, if I want to work 20 to 24 hours a week and make what I need to make and set aside what I need to set aside, I'm good with that. And that's kind of the season of life that I'm in. Your daughter's only going to be this age once, so might as well make the most of that.

53:24We will link up the episode that we mentioned with Bradley. It is number 441 if you want to scroll back in your archives and check that one out. Definitely a classic episode that gets referenced by multiple guests. So I encourage you to check that one out and appreciate you tuning in. Big thanks to Hermela for sharing her insight. Thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone. You can hit up sidehustlenation.com slash deals for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place. Thank you for supporting the advertisers that support the show. That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in.

53:58If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share with a friend and make it go viral if there is such a thing. But fire off that text message to somebody who needs to hear Hermela's story. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen, and I'll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show. Hustle on.