When I started my email marketing freelance business, I made MANY mistakes.
But there's ONE that 100% killed my business—and forced me back into a 9-5
I struggled for years (and my marriage almost fell apart) because I didn't learn this lesson in time.
So today I'm going to share the #1 mistake that killed my freelance business—how it started, how it got worse, and what I'm doing differently now—so you don't waste years like I did.
I hated outreach so much I'd find any excuse not to do it
When you start an email marketing freelance business, you need clients.
No one knew who I was (or that I even had this skill), so they wouldn't come to me.
So I had to come to them.
This is what's commonly referred to as "outreach" (or "Satan," as I came to think of it).
I'd email them and send messages on Facebook, LinkedIn and every other platform under the sun.
But I DESPISED it.
Painstakingly collecting the emails of 120 potential clients, customizing the intro, and sending them out—only to get ZERO replies.
It felt awkward and desperate and was tanking my confidence with every failed attempt.
So every time I sat down to do it, I'd find a reason to do something else instead.
Like fixing my website first. Or updating my portfolio. Or taking another course on email copywriting.
Anything but actually reaching out to potential clients.
And the worst part?
I convinced myself these other tasks were "productive."
I was working on the business, right?
I was making progress.
But the truth is, I was hiding from the one activity that actually mattered most: having conversations with people who could pay me.
Because here's what I know now that I didn't know then:
There's a direct correlation between how much outreach you do and how much money you make.
Everything else is just details.
A mentor of mine (Nicolas Cole), who've taught 1,000s how to become premium ghostwriters—shared these statistics for the students inside his program.
The amount of effort required to land 1 client is, on average:
• 100 quality outreach messages
• 50 quality "Free Consulting" Loom videos
• 10 follow-up messages per lead
And when he says quality outreach messages, he does mean QUALITY.
As in researching the client, figuring out their problems, and do some free consulting about it. Not blasting out messages to a 100+ people like I did at times.
So if you're not doing a good amount of outreach, then you don't have a business, just a time-consuming hobby.
Every time I landed a client I'd stop outreach completely
But here's where it gets worse.
On the occasions where I finally managed to force myself to do enough outreach to get a client... I'd immediately stop the outreach and focus 100% on delivering good client results.
It made sense in my head.
I'd tell myself:
"Okay, now I can finally relax and just do great work. If I make them happy, they'll stick around, refer people, and I'll get some breathing room. Then I can restart outreach later."
Happy client = Steady income = Referrals, right?
(and subconsciously, I may have been hoping that all my future clients would come from referrals so I didn't have to do any more outreach...EVER).
But that's not what happened.
Because clients churn.
And many times, it's for reasons completely out of your control.
Their budget gets cut. Their priorities shift. They hire someone in-house. They go out of business. They ghost you for no reason.
(especially when you're new and may be working with inexperienced business owners who don't think further than a month ahead).
It happens all the time–and when it does, if you've stopped doing outreach, you're suddenly back at zero with no pipeline.
This happened to me multiple times.
I'd land a client, stop outreach, pour everything into the work, feel good about it—and then they'd churn.
And I'd be right back where I started: scrambling to find someone new, hating every second of outreach, desperately trying to land the next client so I could stop again.
It was a vicious cycle that turned my dream into a nightmare.
And it kept me broke and frustrated for 4 years.
I don't want that to happen to you.
The only solution is to never stop
So here's what I'm realizing as I'm making my second attempt at this.
You can never stop.
You ALWAYS have to feed the Gremlin.
(Aka "fill the pipeline" or "drum up business.")
Even when you're busy. Even when you're tired. Even when you hate it. Even when you're delivering amazing work for someone who's paying you well.
You still have to keep the pipeline moving—because if you don't, you're one churn away from panic mode.
And then you start acting desperate:
- Reeking of neediness in sales calls
- Taking on nightmarish clients who contact you day and night
- Lowering your prices at the slightest pushback from potential clients
Promising yourself: "just this time, because I REALLY need the money."
I'm not saying you need to spend hours every day on outreach when you have active client work.
But you do need to stay consistent.
Even if it's just 30min a day.
Because the worst time to do outreach is when you're desperate and have no income.
The best time is when you already have a client and don't need the next one yet—because that's when you can be selective, confident, and focused on the right opportunities instead of just taking anything that moves.
So here's what I'm doing differently this time:
Outreach is priority #1.
Everything else is secondary.
Client-work. Website. Content creation.
It's uncomfortable. I still don't love it.
But I'd rather be uncomfortable for an hour a day than broke and desperate for years.
Here's what I wish someone had told me before I started:
Freelancing isn't about being great at your craft. It's about being consistent at the activities that create clients.
You can be the best email marketer (or designer, or developer) in the world—but if no one knows about it, your business will die.
And chances are you're not the best.
But you're good enough to help someone solve a problem. And that's why they need to know about you.
The mistake that killed my first freelance business wasn't a lack of skill. It was avoiding the thing I hated most (outreach), and then stopping it completely every time I got a client.
That combination kept me stuck, broke, and frustrated for 4 years.
So if you're building a freelance business on the side right now, here's my advice:
Make outreach non-negotiable.
Block a time for it every single day if possible (and every week if not).
Even when you have clients. Even if you're tired. Even if you hate it.
Because the alternative is worse. Trust me.
