International Freelancers Day -- the biggest-ever FREE online conference for solo pros is returning this September! #IFD2012

Maggie Buerger

Excellent sales tool. Thanks for sharing.

http://www.womackcompany.com Jason Womack

Ed, I appreciate this video...a SOLID reminder of what's important.

I can share: following up, even if I don't get the work, has proven to get me referrals - internally AND externally.

I'd write more now, but I got a few phone calls to make!

Jason

http://www.oldfashionedoffice.com Jeanette

What a great and simple tool! Thanks a bunch, Ed, for sharing it with us.

http://www.thesavvyfreelancer.com Lexi Rodrigo

What a neat, useful tool, Ed! I'm usually way too lazy to do anything like this, but I can see how simple it can be to use. I'm going to try it!

Thanks for sharing

http://www.thewealthyfreelancer.com Ed Gandia

Awesome, guys! Thanks for the great feedback. Glad you're willing to try it. It IS simple. And very effective. Great way to get a handle on what you have out there and when it might come in. Takes a lot of the stress out of the process.

Jason -- GREAT point. Always call and get a post-mortem. Find out what you did right, what could have gone better. And ASK for referrals. "Do you know two or three colleagues who could potentially benefit from what I have to offer?" That's one of the best times to ask. If you've done things right, they'll be happy to give you some names. Partly because they trust and like you. And partly because they feel bad that you didn't get the project. Yes... guilt works! Use it to your advantage.

http://www.insurancecopywritingnow.com Kathryn

Thanks so much Ed! As usual you have managed to provide other freelancers with information that can be immediately put into practice.

Follow up is critical in this business. Having in place an easy tracking system helps to remind me that I need to always ask for a referral once the project has been completed.

Thank you,
Kathryn

http://idea15.wordpress.com Heather Burns

Great idea!

I am going to tweak your excellent spreadsheet to show a 12 month period as the financial year (which in the UK is April to March) rather than the calendar year of January to December. In my experience the clients with the largest budgets decide to spend money at the beginning or the end of the fiscal year, but rarely the middle of it, and it's those middle months that become tight.

http://www.ashleyfesta.com Ashley

Just signed up for International Freelancers Day, and I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks for putting on this great event. I also downloaded the Pipeline Tool. Awesome resource --- but JULY is missing from the spreadsheet! Just wanted to give you a heads up.

http://www.DrawnBySuccess.com Carlos Castellanos

Great tip, Ed. Simple and easy. Anything that helps systematize what we do on a daily bases is money in the bank.

http://www.webdesigndream.com Rob

Hey Ed,

Awesome tutorial and a really handy spreadsheet. I have also found that Pulse (www.pulseapp.com) is great for the same kind of forecasting, although it focuses more on cash flow than opportunity tracking per se.

Another quick question for you - do you use any CRM software, like Highrise? Any recommendations on how that fits in to the prosect/lead/opportunity funnel?

Thanks for the great stuff!

http://www.NickYeoman.com Nick Yeoman

This is a great process. I also found that there was not a sufficient tool out there for tracking proposals so I had to build my own. I did mine as a Joomla extension instead of a spreadsheet.

But that's for more creating, sending and revising the proposals. I don't really track the income amount.

thanks for the vid.

http://www.aurove.com Diego Sanchez

Thanks Ed, nice tool!
But as Ashley said: JULY is missing.

http://www.108p.pl Piotr

great tool, really makes your future more predictable, thanks!

http://www.MeuterCommunications.com Violet Meuter

Thank you Ed! Simple system, easy to maintain - and it's FREE!

http://www.internationalfreelancersday.com Ed Gandia

Thanks for all of the enthusiastic responses, everyone! Glad to hear you like the tool.

We fixed the spreadsheet over the weekend, so if you want to go back to http://budurl.com/PipelineTool you'll get the fixed version. Sorry about that!

Rob - I used to use Salesforce.com (SF) back in my sales days to forecast. That was back in the day when I was tracking 30+ opportunities at any given time. But now I find that SF is overkill for the level of forecasting I need. Instead, I use it as a contact management system and then use this spreadsheet to track opportunities and do simple forecasting.

http://www.words-that-sell.biz Scott

Excellent tracking tool, Ed. Thanks for sharing!

http://www.internationalfreelancersday.com Ed Gandia

Thanks, Scott!

Nicole Schmidt

Excellent ideas. Much better idea to track this stuff rather than to keep it all in my (rather scattered) brain. Thanks!

http://www.SharieOrr.com Sharie

Thanks very much, Ed, for your generosity. This is an excellent tool,
and saves me doing it long-hand.

http://www.netmediaconsultants.com Jube

Thanks for this nice simple tool. Most tracking/accounting tools are made by detail folks, which does not work for creative types. The only thing I would add would be a Row with the estimated hours the project will take so we can see where we might need to get a sub contractor. thanks again.

Deb

Great tool Ed. It's a great, simple way to keep it all together at a glance.
And, you can tailor it from here.
I like the idea of adding the hours.

Thanks and Looking forward to International Frfeelancers Day,
Deb

Michelle Olsher

I can't access the tracking tool from this URL. Can you help?
Thanks,
Michelle

http://www.writingfrommyheart.com Lynn Wallace

I turned the volume on my computer up, but I could not hear the video.

CMColeman

Hi Michelle,

If you are having trouble accessing the tool from http://budurl.com/pipelinetool then email me, crystal@internationalfreelancersday.com, and I will send it to you via email. Keep in mind that you need Microsoft Excel in order to view the file.

CMColeman

Lynn, did you accidentally hit the "mute" button in the screen? It's the speaker icon. You may want to try toggling that on/off when the video is playing to check if that's the issue.

http://www.editorialcreatives.com Cristina Dimen

Wonderful and highly informative. Thanks for this video and great tool. Great reminder on the basics--the post-mortem is vital to know what we've done right or need to improve.

http://beckyblanton.com Becky Blanton

Ed this is FANTASTIC! I have been so frustrated for months with clients who delay getting info to me, and since I am constantly taking on new clients I find my days double-booked, or that I have committed to projects I have no time for. When I had 3-4 clients it was easy to keep track of. Now that I'm working with 15 to 20 some months things are too complex to keep in my head or on a white board. This is perfect! Thank you!!

tim dow

Outstanding tool. I love that it is so simple and does not give you any reason for procrastination. Thank you I will be trying it.

http://www.allwayz.co.za Ndu

Hi Ed I'm having trouble accessing the link. Has it expired perhaps if, is it possible for you to email it to me? nduduzo@allwayz.co.za. Thank you

CMColeman

HI Ndu,

I've sent you an email.

Kunal

Hey, Bud

Thankx!

http://travel-wisdom.com Lynne Christen

Great pointers. Right on target. Could apply to any types of "sales." Statistics show that almost 80% of referrals and sales leads are never followed up. So many opportunities lost.

http://articulate-articles.blogspot.com/ Sarah (Articulate Articles)

Thanks for this great tool, Ed. Not only will it allow me to forecast what I have coming up, but it will be great to look back upon my increasing workload over the previous months (I'm hoping
Now all I want to know is how do I land the jobs that are bringing in the big bikkies like in your example vid! Many thanks, Sarah.

http://www.empeiriatech.com/ Anubhav Misra

Thank you so much for sharing this information and the tool.

I am going to use this for tracking my future prospects and stay on top of monthly objectives.

Gunther N. Ansari

Hi there folks!
I just saw the Prepping video #1 for the International Freelancers Day (scheduled for Sept 24th - 25th.) It was just great, and very instructive indeed!

Recommended for ALL, especially Greenhorns like myself!

http://www.supramedia.dk Soren

Hi,
what a cool idea you have made there!
How do I join a seminar - is it necessary to book a seat, so to say, beforehand?

http://www.internationalfreelancersday.com Ed Gandia

AWESOME, everyone!! So glad you've found this tool useful.

Sarah - We have a few sessions scheduled on how to land more and better clients -- and how to do that more easily. So make sure to "attend" those.

Getting very psyched about the event, y'all! Great to feel your energy as well.

CMColeman

Hi Soren! Be sure to register for the event and the details will be emailed to you.

http://bit.ly/anzprofile1 Adeel Malik

Amazing Tool! Thanks a million ....

http://medarbindia.org Lexinternationale

I am new entrance to linked-in, Excellent method. I appreciate it.

Roger

Hi Ed;

I type this address in Google and Bing but they say it does not exist? Help.

Roger

http://www.internationalfreelancersday.com Ed Gandia

Roger - I just tried it and it's working. Here's the link again, just in case:

http://budurl.com/pipelinetool

Ed

http://www.mysaleshero.net Mark

Nice. Clean. Simple. I've created and used similar.

Something I find helpful is inserting a hyperlink to work related to the opportunity and booking listing for easy access. It doesn't require any technical know-how (other than right-clicking) and only takes a few seconds.

Thanks for the download.

Amr

hey guys first thanks a lot for your efforts
i have some problem every time i play this video i get crushed and hang i don't knew why
i have have 512 k/s internet speed
and when watching similar video on youtube i don't get this so guys plz try to fix or try to allow downloads of this videos
thx alot

Masud Pervez

Hi Ed!

thanks for your helpful and instructive video. And also thanks to Mark for reminding the hyperlink option.

Please do something about the videos, It takes a lot of time to load and stuck like a scratchy CD. Please try to resolve the problem as there is no time left for the conference to start.

Regards

http://www.writeconnection.org Suzanne Boles

Great Tool. I just quoted on a project today and I was wondering how I would remember what I quoted and when I quoted it. This tool allows me to put that in so I can follow up, then when it becomes reality I can put it into the area where the work will take place. Awesome! Thank you.

http://www.bestfinance-blog.com MeredithTyson19

If you're in a not good position and have got no money to get out from that point, you will have to take the home loans. Just because that will help you definitely. I take short term loan every time I need and feel fine just because of that.

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