Why I quit full-time Upwork freelancing after making $60,000

Another Wednesday arrives, and with it, another issue of the Freelance Income Accelerator newsletter!

In this newsletter, Anthony Muhye, your favorite freelance guide, covers one burning ❤️‍🔥​ freelance topic in depth - and by the time you’re done reading, you will be at least 1% better!

In this issue, you will learn:

• Why I quit Upwork after making just over $60,000 (I’ve never told this story before)

• Crucial tips for every freelancer who wants to start a fresh new income stream - and how to create it

• I’m traveling - so no Loom video this time. Hopefully in the next one. 😌​

Total Reading Time: 7.3 minutes.

Are you ready? The only valid answer is YES. Let’s dive in!

In 2019, I more or less quit Upwork as a freelancer.

I never wanted to talk about this before on LinkedIn because… well…

I guess I thought I would be judged for it. At the end of the day, I was afraid that:

• My audience would stop believing in my freelance skills

• I’d be seen exclusively as a client and people wouldn’t respect me

• I would be seen as “outdated” in terms of freelancing know-how

But the truth is that quitting didn’t mean the end of my freelance career.

It was actually a very interesting beginning. In fact, since 2022, I’ve been hired by two Enterprise clients (one being Microsoft, I’ve already told you about this).

So I’m far from done as a freelancer. I’m just getting started, as I continue my transition into solopreneurship.

But what led me to make this decision?

It was early 2019 and I was working for a client who was paying me $2,500 to $5,000+ monthly on an Upwork hourly contract.

But one day… he just decided to pause the contract.

No warning. No response. He left me on “seen”.

It was up to me to fill a $35k-a-year hole in my income and Upwork wasn’t about to do that.

Sure, there were projects out there that could get me to that amount.

But I would have to either land a project that size every month.

OR I would have to find a retainer client. I chose the latter.

But I looked off Upwork. You see - I had already built a fantastic relationship with a publishing client (of many) who worked with languages.

I reached out to him, told him my situation and we got on a call. It didn’t take long for us to make the connection.

Within a week, I was working with him in a full-time management role.

My salary would be around $3,300 a month. Think of that for a sec: it took me a WEEK to replace my biggest ever client with another huge client.

Just because I leveraged an old connection. Because I looked outside of Upwork, where you’re not controlled by hourly rates, time tracking, and service fees.

The realization arrived: Did I need Upwork to be my Plan A now? Probably not. Hell, did I need Upwork at all? Maybe sometimes.

But my dependency on Upwork was dead. And that’s how I started a new stage.

P.S. The “ghost” client came back out of nowhere in 2021 to apologize and rehire me… but that’s a totally different story, with a happy ending, too.

So, how should you effectively build more income streams?

The first lesson for you today was in the above story: leveraging networks.

You don’t build side income streams in your room, isolated from everyone else and just sending outreach messages.

Gurus and ‘experts’ who tell freelancers to send cold DMs should be banned.

Instead, your goal is to bring yourself closer with existing leads, clients and connections, and to start looking at the potential opportunities there.

Above all, use LinkedIn, not Upwork to build these links.

• Do they need some kind of authoritative ghostwriting on LinkedIn?

• Can you help them update and improve their designs?

• Can you offer new services to an old client?

• Are they in need of a new website?

Importantly, it always works better with people who know and trust you, so stop reaching out to strangers.

Lesson number 2: focus on retainer projects.

Some people enjoy doing short-term or one-time projects. That’s fine.

But how much growth do these jobs allow you? How much long-term value do you get? Can you pay the bills for a year with them? No.

So, the best course of action is to offer monthly value in exchange for a retainer rate.

Sure, this isn’t infinitely scalable, but it helps you deal with “dry” periods.

Final lesson number 3: don’t limit your pricing models.

My best clients are those I’ve been direct with when quoting rates.

Those I haven’t tried to negotiate too much with but instead simply gave a high but fair number, and then used value to demonstrate I was worth that much.

Those are the clients you should target. Not the ones who are penny pinching and trying to get the lowest possible rate.

Offer premium and normal-level services, if you must, that force clients to pick.

But keep your pricing fair to yourself as much to the client. Don’t base it on the market.

Believe me, this is a totally positive way of making more money…

…escaping dependency on one platform or client…

…and taking back CONTROL of your income, like any freelancer should.

That’s all for today, don’t forget to rate the newsletter!

Finally, if you enjoyed this newsletter and want to say thank you, feel free to do it on my latest post on LinkedIn: HERE

See you next Wednesday, and if you don’t follow me yet, find me on LinkedIn!