Success Story: $100K On Upwork and 500 Orders Completed On Fiverr

Introduction:

My name is ‘Mohammad Kasim,’ and I am a UX.UI/Product Designer. I started freelancing in 2016. And it’s been five years in the freelance industry. I started small on Fiverr back in 2016 and worked very hard to complete 350+ Orders in the first three years. Then some of my fellow freelancers asked me to start on Upwork. That resonated with me, and I started on Upwork, and the results were fantastic.

I wanted to share my success story before, but I was waiting for that $100K badge to appear on my profile. On the other hand, I have completed 500+ Orders on Fiverr. So I have a lot to share.

Back Story:

Before we dive into “How I did it,” let me tell you guys about my back story. I graduated from Bahria University in 2015. And I started working in a US-based company. There I was exposed to Product Design / UX UI Design. That had my interest, and I wanted to pursue that field intentionally later. Because I was into Photography and Art before, so the attention to detail attribute was already there. After one year of the Job, I realized this is not working for me.

I had responsibilities of an elder brother of 4 younger siblings and my parents, of course. The salary I was getting in the Job was way too less to support my responsibilities. If responsibilities are not met, it’s tough to think about your lifestyle. One night I sat and started researching what else I can do. I started teaching “Home Tutions” in Islamabad to add extra bucks into the monthly salary. On the sideline, I created a Fiverr profile and started bidding.

I still remember 50 Screens for $50 on Fiverr as my first order, and it took me ten days to complete. Then I realized this freelancing thing is accurate, and I should put my blood and sweat into it. So I skipped teaching. During the day, I was working on my day job, and at night I was working on my freelancing profile. After sometime when I started hitting $400-$500 on Fiverr. I left the Job. And started full-time on FIVERR. By full time I mean 16 hours of work, Daily. Seven Days a Week. No Breaks. Again, the driving force was the responsibility.

Building my initial Fiverr clientele:

As I was growing as a freelancer. I learned more. And I learned a lot. I remember I was reading all the time. I was scrolling through Behance, Dribbble and other people’s work whenever I am free. And then the good thing “I was practicing what I was learning.” So I learned very quickly about “Value Based selling.” It’s merely about how to charge more for your service. I was selling based on the value that my deliverable is making to the customer. When I started doing that, I started converting my new clients into ongoing accounts. They started to feed me work consistently. I started to “Build Great Relationships.” After that, I never saw myself “Bidding.” I can recall I started making $3000-$5000/month on Fiverr. Then I sustained this success for the next two years.

Note: If you’re selling value-based and your craft is not justifying what you sell. Please don’t do it. Don’t grab the clients but win. Don’t Sell but Serve.

Starting on Upwork:

One day I had a terrible experience on Fiverr that might have caused my profile to get banned but guess what? Fiverr took my side. You know there are some of “THOSE CLIENTS.” So in that panic, I resumed my Upwork profile.

Not to mention, I had my Upwork profile sitting there since the days of ODESK. So I completed that profile. I have asked some of my clients to give me some work there. I quickly earned the “Rising Star” badge, followed by the TOP RATED BADGE within some months. Now the ‘time management’ was the challenge. I wasn’t able to manage everything myself. So first, I started delegation and then I started hiring people on the payroll.

Hiring was not the only task. The real task was to train them “the way” I sell and “what” I sell. Now I had a full-time business developer bidding on my Upwork Profile, and I was on the back, supporting him and coming up with the latest strategies.

My Upwork Secret Strategy:

So we were selling time instead of FIXED price jobs to sustain the monthly success. I was $35/hour considering the skill set, but that wasn’t fulfilling the $10K-$15K / month goal. This is where I came up with my secret recipe for Upwork that helped me not only hit $10K-$15K a month but also sustain it.

Over time I built and polished the skill set that enabled me to do 8 hours of work in just 2-3 hours. And when that work is presented to the client, it usually looks like two days of work. When you’re selling time, you’re limited, but what if you can log 24 Billable hours daily. Let’s talk about it.

I asked my business developer to bid on hourly projects and bid only on those projects that can go to 4-5 months of billable hours. My business developer felt very comfortable because now he was not after 100 various clients but only three clients that can sustain us for 24 hours DAILY!

We managed to get those clients who sustained us for 3-4 months, and we hit our desired goal. And now, let’s talk about the last spice of my secret Upwork recipe.

Now we know we have three clients going on, and we’re able to log 24 hours daily. We manage our client queue very well. We are considering our craft and the quality we deliver. Most of our clients are happy to wait for 2-3 months until we have a slot. So when we have a slot available, we immediately notify the customers in the queue and hire us. This is how we sustain $10K-$15K on a single profile on Upwork.

The workload is not pain; it’s growth:

If you’re selling time, you’re limited. And if you’re working alone, you’re limited. Let me explain.

We were logging 24 hours daily. But that limited us to earn further on that profile. That ate up all of our billable hours. So I went ahead and created an agency account on Upwork and started to hire exclusive agency people on the platform. At this particular time, I am trying to put together a strategy to grow my agency’s profiles. The goals are more prominent this time. Wish me luck.

With the increasing workload, we had to add more designers/work force in the agency locally to support the work coming in. Remember, I have Fiverr. I didn’t leave it. So this is how we started to hire great designers from the industry.

Ending Notes

So a lot of tedious is reading, hah? I would leave you guys with some gems.

Seek focus. Like any other business, the more focused you’re, the more successful you’re. JAAN JAAYE PAR “FOCUS” NA JAAYE

• Don’t Grab the business but win it.
• Continuously work on your craft and improve.
• When tired, take a break and don’t quit.
• Break routines and meet people. So you’re not isolated. It sucks.

Read a lot.

Thank you for scrolling through my story. I hope my secret recipe will help most of the people out there.