How to sign your first freelance client while working full-time

Welcome to part two of the freelance side hustle playbook.

Hi everyone! I’m back with part two of my freelance side-hustle guide. Today, we’re talking about how to set rates, structure your first contract, and navigate client conversations while working a full-time job.

As a refresher, part one covered how to define your service offering, qualify leads, and send an effective cold email, including the exact note I sent to Poppi that landed me a contract within a week.

I firmly believe anyone is capable of landing a client. To this day, I’m still surprised by how straightforward the process is. If you’re curious about freelancing but your brain is feeding you a tired story about how you need more experience, hard skills, time, money, or connections — listen up: you are wrong.

The worst-case scenario? It takes longer to land a client than you hoped. The best case? You build confidence, earn extra income, sharpen your skills, and open the door to an entirely new career path through self-employment.

My favorite place to freelance from

Today, I’ll walk you through the tactical steps to sign your first client, along with the emotional hurdles, like imposter syndrome, legal anxiety, and pricing stress. Let’s be honest, the latter is often more challenging.

This series is available exclusively to paid subscribers. Upgrading to paid will unlock part one, the rest of this post, and the final post, which will be released in a few weeks.

1. Part 1 | The starter freelance side hustle playbook
   Who it’s for, what to watch out for, how to qualify leads, and send cold emails that get responses

2. Part 2 | The ultimate guide to signing your first client
   How to set your rates, structure your contracts, and navigate freelance conversations while working full-time

3. Part 3 | How to be a great freelancer
   Tactical tips to onboard and retain clients, grow word-of-mouth referrals, and raise your rates with confidence

Steal my ChatGPT prompts, client call scripts, and contract tips — the same tools I used to make an extra $30k freelancing while working full-time. Subscribe to get the complete guide (and part 3 soon).