Hasty Treat — Freelancing Hot Tips 🔥

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: This hasty treat focuses on freelancing strategy, especially how to win early clients, price work effectively, raise rates, and decide when to use tools like WordPress themes. Wes and Scott argue that reputation, referrals, clear scoping, and value-based pricing matter more than a polished portfolio or hourly billing, and that using prebuilt tools is fine as long as clients are honest about what they’re getting.

Main Topics: Building credibility and landing first freelance clients: The hosts explain that a portfolio matters less than referrals, public presence, and professional communication. They recommend networking, blogging, speaking, and directly reaching out to businesses to get early work. Estimating projects and understanding client budgets: They emphasize discovering the client's actual business goal, the value of a lead/customer, and the client's budget before discussing price. This helps shape quotes and avoid sticker shock. Value-based pricing vs. hourly billing: The episode strongly favors pricing based on value delivered rather than time spent, arguing it benefits both client and freelancer and avoids resentment over hours tracked. Raising rates on long-term clients: The hosts advise being honest when scope, effort, or market conditions change, and being willing to lose clients who won’t accept higher prices. Scope definition and fixed-bid quoting: Scott describes breaking work into discrete pieces with explicit inclusions/exclusions, then assigning a fixed price to each, especially for recurring client projects. Using WordPress, pre-made themes, and other tools ethically: They discuss when it’s appropriate to use existing tools to move faster, stressing that clients should not be misled into thinking a prebuilt theme is custom work. Career growth through custom work and proprietary tooling: Wes explains how moving beyond basic theme work to custom plugins, integrations, and his own starter setup increased both his skill and earning potential.

Key Arguments: A strong portfolio is helpful, but referrals and reputation drive most freelance business. If you have no referrals yet, you must actively tell people what you do and reach out to potential clients. Understanding a project’s business value matters more than quoting from industry averages. Asking for a client’s budget is a practical discovery tool, not greed. Value-based pricing lets freelancers avoid being punished for working efficiently or for reusing code they already wrote. Hourly billing can create resentment because clients focus on hours instead of outcomes. When scope changes or work grows, freelancers should renegotiate rates honestly. Using WordPress or a pre-made theme is acceptable if the client understands it is not a unique custom build. Long-term success often comes from moving beyond commodity website work into custom development and integrations. Creating your own starter stack can combine speed, consistency, and skill growth.

Data Points: Mini-sode length estimate: 20–25 minutes - The hosts describe the episode as a short-format “mini-sode” / “hasty treat.” Direct outreach list size: 100 businesses - Wes says he made a list of 100 Toronto businesses and emailed them asking if they needed work. Freelance price range cited: $5,000 to $20,000 - Wes gives this as a typical range he would quote for websites, depending on scope. Free email course length: 6 days - Jonathan Stark’s value pricing boot camp is described as a six-day email course. Value of a client: $6,000 - Used as an example of what a real estate client might be worth to a business. Example project price: $3,000 - Used as an example of a lower-cost build using a pre-made theme and faster delivery. Example custom build price: $10,000 - Used as an example of a fully custom website that would cost more than starting from a theme. Example component price: $5,000 - Used multiple times as an example price for value-based work such as a store locator or website module.

Pivotal Quotes: "your portfolio really doesn't matter as much as your credibility and your referrals" — Wes: On what matters most when trying to land freelance clients. "What is it at the end of the day that you need?" — Wes: On how to frame discovery conversations around business goals, not surface-level feature requests. "I'm a huge proponent of value-based pricing." — Wes: On why charging for outcomes is better than charging by the hour.

Implications: Freelancers should prioritize reputation, clear scope, and outcome-based pricing over polished portfolios or hourly tracking. Using tools and templates is fine, but honesty and communication are essential for trust and long-term growth.