From zero to your first three proposals

The situation

You have one skill — design, writing, data entry, WordPress, video editing, whatever you have actually done — and no clients. In a few evenings you will produce everything a freelancer needs before the first proposal goes out, and then send three real ones.

Nothing in this lab is pretend. The job posts are real, the businesses are real, and the replies (or the silence) are real data about the market you are entering.

What you'll be able to show

• Decide, with a number, whether to freelance full-time or alongside what you do now
• State one specific service for one specific client, and prove that people are paying for it
• Write proposals that are about the client, not about you
• Price a job with arithmetic you can defend, and set terms you can paste for years

What you need

• An account on one freelancing platform (Upwork, Fiverr or Freelancer — reading job posts is enough)
• A document for the seven parts, and a calculator
• The templates from lessons 5 and 8

Tasks

1. 1Your runway
   Write the number of months you could continue with little or no income from freelancing. From that number, decide: full-time, or alongside a job or your studies. Write one sentence on why.
   A correct result: One number, one decision, one sentence — and the decision follows from the number, not from hope.
2. 2The offer line, proven
   Write: I do [specific service] for [specific type of client]. Search exactly that on your platform and read ten real job posts. If fewer than ten exist, change the line and search again until they do.
   A correct result: The final line, plus the titles of ten real posts that match it.
3. 3One portfolio piece
   Make one piece for a business you chose yourself — a before-and-after where possible. Write two sentences on the reasoning behind the choices you made.
   A correct result: One file or link, and two sentences a client could understand.
4. 4Three proposals
   Pick three of your ten posts. Write a proposal for each in under 150 words, following the lesson's structure. Then reread each and delete every sentence that is about you rather than about them.
   A correct result: Three proposals, each under 150 words, with no more than two sentences starting with I.
5. 5Price one job
   Take one of the three jobs. Price it with the four steps from lesson 6, showing the arithmetic. Find three comparable listings and write where you sit against them and why.
   A correct result: A price, the arithmetic behind it, three comparisons, and one honest sentence about the gap.
6. 6Terms and the money route
   Write your five-line standard terms (what a project includes, revisions, deposit, timeline, payment terms). Research one payment route for your situation end to end: fees, time to reach your bank, documents needed.
   A correct result: Five lines of terms you would paste tomorrow, and a small table for the payment route.
7. 7Send, and log what happens
   Send the three proposals — or, if you chose local businesses, the three specific free samples. Record the date and time sent, and keep a reply log for seven days.
   A correct result: Three sent timestamps and a reply log. An empty log is a result too: it is the arithmetic the course warned about.

What to hand in

One document with all seven parts, and the reply log after seven days — even if every line of it says no reply.

How it is marked