How I Built a $10K/Month Social Media Business on Upwork with No Experience

What is up, guys? So, in this video, I'm going to be breaking down exactly how I built a business that makes me $10,000 a

month from my laptop with zero prior experience, zero relevant skills, and honestly, zero idea what I was doing

when I started. I tried like every other online business model. None of them worked for me, but

with this one, I was finally able to reach that sacred 10K per month. And I know like every single person on YouTube

says that uh every single person has like some crazy income claim in the in the thumbnail.

And then when you watch the video, it's either like mad vague or they're just trying to sell you something. So, before

I explain anything, I'm going to show you the proof first, and then after that, I'm going to break it down

completely step by step so you can actually go do this yourself. So, the business model is social media

management, specifically through this platform called Upwork. But before I explain everything about it, I want to

show you actual proof because like I said, I don't want to be one of those guys

uh that just fakes everything and tries to sell you a dream. Uh

so, here's some withdrawals to my bank account uh from my clients that have paid me through Upwork. You can see the

amounts, 300 right here, 2,300, uh 2,400,

um and then you can see here's my Upwork profile. Uh you can see 40K earned,

top-rated plus. Um and also, my profile is public on Upwork, so you can literally go look

this up right now. So, it's impossible to be faked. Um but yeah. Um I also want to let you know

how I got started because I think that's kind of important. Um when I first got into this, I was charging like 15 an

hour uh on Upwork. If you don't know what Upwork

is, don't worry. I'm going to explain everything, but I was working for basically minimum wage doing social

media work for small business owners. My first real retainer client was paying me 700 a month, and I thought that was

crazy money at the time. And at that point in my life, it kind of was. I had no experience, I

had no no portfolio, I had nothing, and I just figured out a system that worked, and I ran with it.

Fast forward a little bit, I raised my rate to 25 an hour, and now the clients I work with are paying me anywhere from

1,500 to 2K a month each on retainer, meaning they're they're paying me every month. So,

yeah, you do the math. If you get five clients, and they're all paying you

2K a month each, that's 10K a month. And that is very very achievable, so I'm going to show you exactly how to get

there. Um but first I want to show you why this

business model works so well for beginners. Um there's no cold calling or cold emailing. I hate cold outreach. I

think cold outreach is stupid. It's especially if you're just starting out, you need to do some type of warm

outreach. It's very hard to scale. Um so yeah,

there's also no paid ads. No startup costs, so this starting this is pretty much free.

The only expense you might have maybe connects, but there's even even then there's loopholes to get around that and

not have to spend money to find these clients. So, yeah, there's there's no startup costs. There is no specific

skills needed. You don't need to know anything. You can literally

automate everything, hire subcontractors. Um and it's also very easy easy to

automate and scale as I mentioned, especially with the warm outreach aspect.

Um So, you need to understand

what is social media and why are we using Upwork?

Uh but yeah, let's start at the beginning. What even is social media management?

Basically, business owners need contents. Uh they need someone to run their Instagram, their Facebook, uh

TikTok. They need reels edited, they need graphics made. They need captions written, uh posts scheduled.

Uh they need the whole thing, but but most business owners do not have time to do this themselves. A lot of them

generally don't know how, so they hire someone to uh do the whole thing.

Um and that someone is me and you. Uh so, here's where most people go

wrong. Uh they try to do social media management and they start off with cold outreach like DMing random businesses on

on Instagram, uh sliding into people's DMs saying like, "Hey, I noticed your page. Uh and you could use some work. I

can help." And you get annoyed. Or you cold call a bunch of businesses try to do the same thing and still get annoyed.

Um or you uh spend months like building some like crazy personal brand, uh

creating a bunch of reels, and trying to attract clients organically. And it takes forever and it's exhausting.

And I don't do any of that. I just use Upwork. And this is the key to make the whole model work. The entire business is

run through Upwork. So, uh if you're not familiar, it's basically a freelancing platform. Uh

businesses and individuals go on there and post jobs, and they're looking for someone to help them with a specific

thing. And uh uh freelancers like you and me go on there and apply to those jobs or

sometimes clients just reach out to you directly, but that's after if you kind of get your profile built up and have

some uh some rank in the search, but um here's why this is so powerful.

These clients are coming to you. They're already looking for the service. They already know they need help with their

social media. Uh you're not cold calling strangers. You're not like begging people who don't

want your service. The demand is already there. You're just showing up to the right place.

Um now a lot of people are going to say Upwork is saturated and that there are

too many freelancers you can't compete with. Uh there are too many friends freelancers

so you can't compete. I just want to address that because it's completely wrong. Uh there are thousands of

businesses posting jobs on Upwork every day looking for social media management specifically.

Every single day uh there's new businesses, new budgets, uh

new needs. Like there's a a whole uh crazy pool of potential clients

uh and it's constantly going up. It's constantly refreshing. Uh

and the reason people think it's saturated is because they don't know how to set up their profile the right way.

They don't know what jobs to apply for when they're starting out. They don't know how to write a good proposal, which

is all stuff I'm going to go walk you through right now. And honestly the the warm outreach

aspect of it is something I think is underrated. Cold outreach is brutal. Uh you maybe have like a 2% response

rate if you're if you're lucky when it comes to cold outreach, but on Upwork when someone posts a job and

you send them a proposal, uh they open it because they're actively

looking for that service. Like the difference is night and day and the conversion rate is so much higher.

But uh yeah, step two is you really need to define your offer and

pricing. Uh you need to figure out exactly what you're offering uh and what you're

charging. Your service is social media management, um but you need to get a little more

specific than that because social media management can mean a hundred different things. So, here's

what I recommend when you're just starting out, uh you pick

uh one or two deliverables and just use those. For me, it was short-form content, uh so like reels and TikToks

plus like feed posts and like basic graphic design. And that was it. That was all I offered.

Like I wasn't trying to do uh ads management uh or like full marketing strategy or email marketing. I

was just doing content creation and posting. And that kind of simplified my process

and like slightly productized it. Uh and it was also very easy to explain to the client.

Um when I when it comes to pricing, uh there are a whole lot of beginners

who um undersell themselves or price themselves

out of jobs. Uh that and they don't even know like what

they're doing wrong. Uh but when I started on Upwork, my hourly rate was 15 an hour and I did

that because uh I didn't believe my time was worth 15 an hour. Uh it was all part of the

strategy because when you're brand new to Upwork and you have no reviews and no job history, you need to build

credibility fast. And a lower rate than the competition makes it easier to land your first few clients uh and get those

reviews and get your profile working for you. You're essentially investing in your reputation uh by spending a little

bit of of your time uh at a lower rate for the that profile build-up.

Um but once I had a few reviews and some job history behind me, I raised my rate

to 25 an hour and um yeah, you'll notice something happens when you have a good profile with good

reviews. Like clients will stop uh questioning your rate. Uh the trust is already there.

Uh they they see that other people have hired you and that they were

uh you they were happy. It's it's worth way more than any proposal.

So now in terms of like retainers versus hourly

when you're starting out, you probably need to do some hourly work and and some like fix fixed price projects and that's

totally fine. But the goal is eventually to get clients on monthly retainers because that's where the stability and

like the real money is. Uh at 15 an hour doing 10 to 12 hours of work

uh a month for a client that's like 150 to 180 and that's good as a as a starting point, but that's that's

nothing. Uh but a a retainer is where you agree to like a set amount per month for a dema-

defined scope of work. My first retainer was uh 700 a month. Now they're between uh 1,500 and 2K a

month. So the amount of work I do per client hasn't actually increased that much. Uh

what increased is my uh positioning, my profile, uh my ability to communicate value.

Um but yeah. Uh to summarize step one, your offer is

social media content creation and management. Uh pick a few specific deliverables. Uh start at a lower rate

to build your profile and then raise your prices as your reputation grows and work towards getting clients on those

monthly retainers. But yeah, getting into the next step,

you need to build and optimize your Upwork profile. And this is genuinely one of the most

important things in this whole video. So, you you got to pay attention. Your Upwork profile is going to be your

entire business. This is your storefront, uh your resume, uh your portfolio,

uh your sales pitch. Like if your profile is weak, it doesn't matter how good your proposals are. Clients are

going to look at your profile after reading your proposal and if it doesn't back up what you said, they're going to

move on. Um but yeah, let's let's break down what

makes a strong Upwork profile. Uh first, your profile needs a good photo.

Um it sounds basic, but you will not believe how many people actually mess

this up. Like you can't have like a selfie, uh

like any like group photos, like no sunglasses. You need to get a clean, professional-looking headshot, uh good

lighting, uh neutral background. You need to be looking at the camera, uh preferably

smiling. Uh you you just need to look approachable and that's all you need.

Like first impressions matter and your profile is the first thing that someone sees.

Uh second is your title. Um this headline that shows up right under

your name, uh it needs to be specific, it needs to

have keywords in it, it needs to not just be like, uh

"social media manager." It needs to be something like, uh "social media manager" and uh

and include like content creator. Uh and then your description needs to be packed with

uh a bunch of keywords like including Instagram, TikTok, uh talk about graphic design, video editing.

Those are all searchable on Upwork, and clients are browsing, and they uh they type those in, and the Upwork will

push you up in the algorithm when you have those in your profile. So, um

yeah, when you're building out your your description, you really need to talk about your clients' pain point. Uh

what problem are they coming to Upwork to solve? Um they're probably overwhelmed.

Um they're probably don't have enough time to create content. Uh their Instagram

has probably been dead for a while. Um and uh

they they know they need to be more active, but they just can't get to it. Uh you need to acknowledge that in your

description. Um and then you need to explain how to

solve it. You need to be specific. Uh be like, "I create uh short-form video content including Reels and TikToks, uh

design branded graphics, write captions, and uh manage your posting schedule, do your social media

uh so it stays consistent without having you having to think about it." Um and yeah, you need to list your skills

and tools, uh like specifically software as well, like Canva, CapCut, uh Premiere Pro,

uh your scheduling tools. These are also keywords that uh clients are looking for.

And you need to end with a call to action. Uh be like, feel free to message me or

invite me to your job. Uh something simple. Um

And another thing is your portfolio. Uh this is a little where a lot of uh

like beginners panic because they don't actually have any client work to show yet.

But here's what you do. You make some. Uh pick like three or four made-up brands

or uh just any uh real brand and like that I'm sure

they they wouldn't care. Uh or you just use your own social media as a case study. Um and just create uh

sample reels, sample graphics, uh content calendars, and put them together in like a nice portfolio.

Um and clients do not know that these aren't real clients. They they don't care about that. They're just looking

for the quality of the work. If it looks good, it's good. And uh yeah, everybody does this when

they're starting out. So uh don't feel bad. But once you have uh

real client work, you can swap that in. Uh so yeah, don't let not having a

portfolio stop you from launching your profile. Uh just make the samples today,

put them in, and move on. Um But yeah.

And uh once you start building up your profile and people start inviting you to the jobs, you will eventually get

reviews. Here are some examples of reviews I've gotten. Um

and yeah, that will just everything will just compound from there.

But uh getting into step four, you need to feel you need to find the

right jobs to apply to. Um yeah, you got your your profile up.

It looks clean and you need to find good jobs. And this is where a lot of beginners make a critical mistake. They

go straight for like big retainer jobs, like the uh 2K a month social media management

packages, uh like the long-term contracts with established brands, and they get ignored, and they get disturbed

discouraged, and they quit. But uh here's the truth, when you're

brand new with zero reviews, you're not going to win those jobs. Not yet, and that's fine.

But uh that's not the game you should be playing right now. When you're starting

out, you the goal is not money. The goal is reviews. Uh

reviews on Upwork are are everything. They're the difference between getting zero responses to your proposals and

having clients reach out to you directly. So, one good review is worth more than the

best proposal you've ever written. So, uh the strategy in the beginning is to go for a small, quick, uh easy-to-win

jobs that will get you that review fast. Um and what does that look like? Uh

I like small one-off projects. Uh like I need five Instagram posts

designed, um edit this reel, write captions for 10

posts, set up my content content calendar. These are jobs that are usually like $100 to $300, and they

take a few hours. They're very easy to execute. And most importantly, they're easy to win because the competition

is uh much lower, and the clients' expectations are manageable. So, you do

a good job, you do a really good job, and deliver on time, you communicate well, and you ask for a review.

And now you have a five-star review on your profile. And that will just jump-start and you

will compound from there. Uh and do that three or four times, and your profile

will be pretty much set. Like you'll start getting invites. Um

and here's where things start to change. Like um Upwork will show your profile to a lot

more clients. You'll start uh getting direct messages. And

you can apply to those uh like big retainer jobs and you have credibility, you have proof.

Uh you're not the like some random person with an empty profile anymore. You're someone who has done the work and

has happy clients to prove it. So uh

yeah, to recap step four, when you're starting out, apply to small one-off jobs uh in like the $100 range. Focus on

building your reviews, not your income. Once you have three to five solid five-star reviews, start applying to

bigger jobs and start going after the larger retainer clients. But uh

yeah. Here's an example of a uh

client that has a really good profile, uh really good history. Uh you can see he has a 100% higher

rate. Uh he's spent 52K plus. Um he has 117 hires,

and his average rate is $28 an hour. That is a client you want to go for once your profile is built up.

Um but yeah. Step five is writing proposals that

actually get opened. Um, this is very important. Because

this is um how you get responses even when your

profile is thin, like you have nothing on it. And a bad proposal will get you ignored

even like when your profile is like strong, when you have a lot of reviews. So,

let me tell you what a bad proposal looks like. Uh, because a bad proposal sounds like

this. Like, "Hi, I'm a professional social media manager with 5 years of experience. I'm very hard working and

dedicated. I will do a a great job for your business. Uh, let me know if you have any questions."

Every client on Upwork reads 50 of those a day. And they all sound identical.

Uh, they tell the client nothing useful. They're all about the freelancer. Uh, none of it is about the client.

Uh, but here's what a good proposal looks like. The first line would uh address

something specific about the job post. Um, not like, "I saw your job posting." It

tell that tells them nothing. Something like, "I noticed you mentioned you've been struggling to stay consistent on

Instagram." Uh, that's actually the most common thing I hear from business owners I work with.

Um, immediately they know that you read their post and you're not just like mass applying.

Um, and second, you need to briefly explain who you are and what you do. Uh, you got to keep this short. Uh, one

or two sentences. Um, you could be like, "I'm a social media

content creator focused on short form video and graphic design for small businesses.

Uh and done. Uh and then third, you need to show them that you understand their problem. And

so, you tell them how you would approach solving it. Uh this is where you actually demonstrate value. Uh you'd be

like, "For a business like yours, I'd start by building out a content calendar for the first month. We nail down your

brand voice and visual style. And from there, I handle all the reels, graphics, and captions so your feed stays

consistent without you having to think about it." Uh and fourth, you want to mention

something uh relevant from your portfolio or past work.

Um I've attached a couple uh sample reels I created for similar businesses. Happy to share more.

Uh and yeah. Fifth, uh you need to go with a soft close. Um

you you could be like, "If this sounds like a good fit, feel free to send me a message. I'm happy to jump on a quick

call to talk through what you need. Uh easy, no pressure." Um and yeah, that

is the whole proposal. And it should maybe be 150 to 200 words. Not like a big essay because clients are not going

to read all that. Um it needs to be concise and relevant. And that's what

wins over uh something that's like long and and generic every time.

Um but yeah, I want to talk about AI as well for a second because I know a lot

of people are going to think about using ChatGPT to write their proposals. And

uh look, AI can be a useful starting point. There's nothing wrong with using it to

help you structure thoughts or get like a first draft going. But uh

here's the problem. If you just paste in the job description and say

uh write me a proposal and then copy and paste whatever it gives you and send it. The client is going to know. I

promise you they're going to know. The phrasing is too clean, it's too generic, it sounds like a press release. It

doesn't sound like a human being. Like you need to know what a good proposal sounds like before you can use AI

effectively because then you can't prompt it properly and you're going to edit it and you need to edit it to

actually sound like you. The raw AI output is never the finished product. It's you can use it as a starting point

but you have to put your own voice in it and you have to make it feel personal. But yeah.

Let's go on to step five. Or step six, you need to handle responses

and book the call. Um But yeah, once you've sent out some

proposals and you've got someone to respond um what do you do? First

of all, you you don't freak out. I know it sounds obvious but the first time a potential client messages you it's kind

of exciting and nerve-racking but uh

yeah, some people overdo overthink it. Um and you need to keep your messages short

and professional. Don't try to close the deal over messages. Don't start like listing all your prices and

packages right off the bat. The goal of the message exchange is one thing. You need to get them on a call.

Um that's it. Everything else comes after. Here's an example of a booking page

through Upwork. Um I just send a 30-minute meeting uh showing all my availability.

Uh and then they they schedule. Um but yeah, when

uh someone responds, you need to uh acknowledge their message, maybe answer uh

one quick question if they ask one and then uh you direct them to that call. It'd be like uh

something like, "Thanks so much for reaching out. I'd love to learn about more about your

uh business and what you're looking for. Uh I have some availability this week. Would you be open to jump on a quick 20

to 30-minute call?" And yeah, uh you can use that Upwork built-in scheduling feature that you can

see here uh where you can send a booking link directly. Uh I use it all the time. It's

uh pretty good. It's professional and it keeps everything on the platform because Upwork will actually ban you if you take

clients off platform. Um but yeah, makes it super easy for the client to just pick a time and uh

there's not a lot of back and forth. Um but yeah, one thing I want to mention is

the communication style. You need to respond promptly. Um

not immediately like you're just sitting there refreshing every 2 minutes, but within like a few hours

uh during during business hours. Um being responsive signals professionalism. It tells the client

that if they hire you, you're going to communicate well, which is actually one of the biggest complaints clients have

about freelancers. Uh a lot of freelancers do decent work, but communicate terribly. Uh if you're

responsive and clear, you're already ahead of a large chunk of the competition.

Uh but yeah, Let's get into step seven,

uh, which is the sales call. Uh, when it comes to this,

uh, this is where a lot of people get in their heads. And I get it. Like I was terrified the

first few times I did these, but I'm going to break it down in a way that's going to make make it a lot less scary.

Uh, the number one mindset shift you need is uh, is this. You The sales call is

not you trying to convince someone to give you money. It's a conversation to figure out

whether you can actually help them. And that's it. Uh, when you get on to a call with that mindset, the whole energy is

different. Like you're not desperate, you're not pitching, you're just trying to figure out if it's a fit. And, uh,

here's how I structure my calls. Uh, the first five or 10 minutes is all about them. You got to ask

questions. Uh, ask what does what does their business do? Uh, what have they tried before for

social media? What's been working? Uh, what's their goal? Uh, are they trying to get more

followers, more engagement, more leads? Uh, what platforms are they on? Uh, you're basically doing like a a mini

audit of their situation. And, uh, the reason this matters is two things.

One, you actually need this information to, uh, know if you can help them. And two, when clients feel heard and

understood, they trust you more. You're not just throwing like a package at them. You're you're listening first.

Then in the middle of the call, you start presenting your approach based on what they told you. And this is

important. You got to tie everything back to what they said. Uh, you mentioned your main goal is to get more

leads from Instagram. Here's how I'd approach that. Uh

not like here's what my package includes, you got to tailor it to them specifically.

And um you need to be specific about what you're going to do.

Uh you could be like I create eight to 10 posts per month including four reels, four static graphics,

uh all captions written, and I'd manage the scheduling. Uh being specific builds confidence.

Um and when you're being vague, uh clients become nervous. So,

um when you after that, you can present the price.

Uh you need to be direct about it. Uh don't say like,

"So, it would be uh sort of around the 1,500 range, maybe." You got to say, "My rate for this scope

of work is 1,500 a month." Uh you got to be confident. Uh you got to be clear. You got to

And if they push back on the price, uh don't just immediately give them a discount. You got to ask what their

budget looks like and see if you can uh adjust the scope to fit it rather than just dropping your price.

Uh adjusting the scope is uh different from just caving on your rate. So,

uh now in terms of objections, you'll you'll feel you'll hear a few common

ones. Uh some people will say like, "I need to think about it. I need to talk to my uh business partner.

Uh can you do it for less?" Um but here's the thing with most

objections. Uh they're not usually uh about they're not usually they're

usually not about the thing that they say they're about. Um "I usually think about it" usually means

I'm not fully convinced yet. So, instead of just saying, "Okay, let me know." uh you ask

uh "Totally understand. Uh is there any specific thing that you're unsure about

so I can help clarify?" Um and nine times out of 10, they'll tell you the real thing.

And uh the last part of the sales call is the close. Uh you don't leave it open-ended. You

end the call with a clear next step. "If this is If this all sounds good, I can send over a simple contract and invoice

today, and we can get started this week." And that's it.

Uh like you're not being pushy. Uh you're just You got to be decisive. And clients actually want you to guide them

to the next step. If you end with, "Okay, well, just let me know." um and leave them to figure it out

themselves, that's where a lot of deals fall apart. But um yeah, that's it for sales.

Um Let's get into step eight. Which is the last step.

You need to actually deliver great work and keep the clients. So,

after you first after you've closed your first client, um

you have to actually do the work. And Look, I'm not going to pretend service delivery isn't where a lot of beginners

struggle. Um because it is. Uh not because the work is hard, but because they underestimate

how much time it takes, and they start to feel overwhelmed. Um

So, let me give you uh like the principles because that matters here. Uh first, set up expectations

clearly and be upfront. Before you start, you got to confirm confirm with the client exactly what you're

delivering. Uh you got to tell them by when you'll

deliver it and how you'll communicate with them. Uh if they're getting daily posts and

you think you um agreed on three times a week,

um that's a problem. You got to get it in writing. Even if that's just like a message recap just to

confirm like here's what we agreed on. Do that with every new client. Uh second, you need to create systems.

You can't like reinvent the wheel every month. You need to uh build a constant calendar template

you use with all your clients. Um build a process for how you ideate, create, and schedule content. Uh the

more systematized your workflow is, the faster you

um the faster you will get at it and the less mental energy it takes.

Um and third, you need to communicate consistently. You need to You don't need

to be messaging your clients every day, but at least once a week with a a quick

update is huge. Um you could be like hey this week's content is scheduled. Here's a preview

of next week. Uh let me know if you want any changes and

that alone makes clients feel uh taken care of. And clients who feel taken care of don't cancel.

Uh clients who feel like they're in the dark will cancel on you. And

uh now let's talk about uh scaling.

When I first started, uh I was doing everything myself. I was creating all the reels and the graphics.

Uh and for a while that was that was cool, but it came to a point where I had

enough clients that it was just too much. I was spending way too many on execution

and not enough time on actually growing the business. Uh so, what I did was I hired

subcontractors. And uh specifically, I found people on Upwork uh from Pakistan who are

genuinely talented and charge uh affordable rates. So, uh I got uh the video editors, graphic designers,

um and I would manage the uh the client relationship. I would handle

the strategy and the communication still, but they will they would handle the production side of everything.

Uh and this is where the business model really opens up because um

now I'm not the bottleneck. I can take on more clients without working more hours. My job shifts from uh

doing the work to managing the process and the relationships and that's a much more scalable thing.

Um now you don't need to do this right away when you're starting out. You can do

everything yourself. Uh you need to learn the work before you can manage people doing it. Uh

but keep this in mind as your uh as your goal because this is how you go from a freelancer to running an actual

agency. Um but yeah, I I want to take a second to

uh be completely honest with you about something.

Uh a lot of people who watch videos like this are thinking one of two things.

Uh either this sounds too good to be true or this sounds cool, but I don't have

the skills to do social media management. Um

but let me let me take those one at a time. This is Is this too good to be true? No.

Yeah, uh but it's also not passive income. It's not like a magic button. The reason I was able to scale this to

10K a month is because I actually did the work. I spent real time optimizing my profile. I wrote real proposals. I

was honest on my sales. I I I delivered real results for my clients. And there's no shortcut in there. But the ceiling is

uh genuinely high and the barrier to entry is genuinely low.

Uh both of those things can be true at the same time. Uh and the second thing is

or you could say I don't have the skills or uh

But uh what skills? What skills do you need for this? You need to be able to like create a

decent-looking social media content or you could just hire someone to do it.

That That's That's all you need. Canva is free and has thousands of templates. CapCut is free. You can learn the basics

in a weekend. Um and you don't need to be a designer or a

video editor at a professional level. You just need to be able to produce content that is uh slightly better than

what your client is currently doing, which is often terrible. So, the bar for most small businesses is low. And look,

like if you find yourself working with a client whose content needs are beyond your current skill level,

uh you can just go ahead and hire someone who can do it. Um and that's literally the whole model at a certain

scale. You don't need the best creator in the world. Uh you don't need to be the best creator in the world. You just

need to manage the process and deliver results. Um

But yeah, let me do a quick recap of everything we went through today.

Um Step one was understanding what social media management is and why Upwork

works. Uh it's warm outreach. The clients are coming to you. It's not saturated. Uh there are thousands of

businesses looking for this service every single day. Step two is defining your offer and your pricing. You need to

start uh specific with uh a couple uh deliverables. Um

uh you need to begin at a lower rate to build your profile. Aim for 25 an hour as you grow, work towards uh getting

clients on monthly retainers in the 1,500 to 2K a month range. Um

and step three is building out your Upwork profile in the right way. Uh get a professional profile, uh a

keyword-loaded title and description, um a portfolio with real uh or sample work, and that is your

foundation. You need to get that right. And uh step four is uh finding the right jobs to apply to.

You need to uh go for small, quick jobs in the $100 to $300 range. The goal is reviews, not income, remember. Once you

have that credibility on your profile, um it will start compounding and working

for you. Um and step five is writing proposals that are personal, uh specific, short,

uh address their actual problem, show that you read their posts, uh don't just mass

uh blast copy-paste nonsense. Uh if you use AI to help, that's cool, but

edit it heavily to make it sound like you. Um

step six um When you get responses, you need to keep

the messages brief and professional to and get them on a call. Uh you can use Upwork's booking feature and

be responsive and communicate well. Um and uh step seven, on the sales call,

you need to ask questions first. Um Present your solution based on their

specific situation. Be direct about pricing. Um and handle objections by asking

questions and end with a clear next step. Uh step eight, uh deliver great work,

set clear expectations, uh communicate consistently, and as you grow, hire subcontractors to handle the production

side so you can scale without burning out. And eventually, it will lead to these results here.

Um but yeah, that's the whole thing uh that is genuinely everything I wish someone

had handed me when I was starting out, and I'm giving it to you for free right now.

Um so if you found this useful at all, uh the one thing I would ask is that you

hit the like button and subscribe. Uh it helps the channel. Uh and I'm going to keep outputting

stuff like this. So, don't hold anything back. Uh everything I know about uh this business, I put in these videos.

And if you're someone um that uh wants some more personalized

help, uh just s- uh write a comment. Uh

let me know in the comments. I d- I don't have a course. I don't have uh anything like that, so uh yeah, just let

me know in the comments if you want some help, and I'll respond. Um but uh

yeah, uh good luck go build something

and I'll see you in the next one.