Ep. 3178 - Q&A: “How do I stop every freelance project from starting in chaos?”
Side Hustle School
Chris Guillebeau / Onward Project
4.8 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 September 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you begin every freelance project in panic-mode? In today’s episode we build a repeatable onboarding sequence that turns new clients into smooth projects—no assistant required.
Side Hustle School features a new episode EVERY DAY, featuring detailed case studies of people who earn extra money without quitting their job. This year, the show includes free guided lessons and listener Q&A several days each week.
Show notes: SideHustleSchool.com
Email: [email protected]
Be on the show: SideHustleSchool.com/questions
Connect on Instagram: @193countries
Visit Chris's main site: ChrisGuillebeau.com
Read A Year of Mental Health: yearofmentalhealth.com
If you're enjoying the show, please pass it along! It's free and has been published every single day since January 1, 2017. We're also very grateful for your five-star ratings—it shows that people are listening and looking forward to new episodes. 😎 🙏🏼
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | business owners are built differently and there's nothing more satisfying than your business keeping up with you. |
| 0:05.8 | But of course, sometimes your growth outpaces what you can handle, especially when it comes to shipping. |
| 0:11.1 | That's why I'm so grateful to our longtime partner, ShipStation, been helping us out for many years, |
| 0:15.3 | been helping out many of our listeners as well. With ShipStation, you can make all your packages |
| 0:19.9 | count and save up to 90% off rates on all |
| 0:22.7 | major carriers. Basically, if you ship out product, you're going to save money with ShipStation. |
| 0:27.4 | I've heard it over and over from our listeners, and that's why I'm happy to partner with them. |
| 0:32.3 | Upgrade to shipping software that does more than keep up with your business. Shipstation propels it |
| 0:36.2 | forward. Start your 60 day free trial at Shipstation.com code hustle with your business, ShipStation propels it forward. Start your 60-day free trial at |
| 0:38.6 | Shipstation.com code hustle. Once again, Shipstation.com code hustle. |
| 0:46.5 | Lemonada. |
| 0:51.4 | Hey friends, what's up? Welcome to Sidesol School. Got a question today from a solo |
| 0:59.6 | freelancer, somebody who's just kind of working on their own. And of course, that's a big |
| 1:03.5 | demographic. We've got lots of people out there who are freelancing one way or another. |
| 1:08.1 | And they're struggling a little bit, today's caller. They get a new project, |
| 1:11.8 | and it seems like, in their words, they are reinventing the wheel. They have to go through this whole |
| 1:16.0 | onboarding process that's a little bit more chaotic than it is calm. And so they're searching for |
| 1:21.6 | some calm. What can you do when you have a new client come on board? How can you streamline that process so that you can just kind of get into the work and do the work and then acquire more clients and do the things you want to do instead of being stuck in this onboarding chaos? |
| 1:39.1 | Big agencies solve this with playbooks and account managers, but in this scenario, you don't have an account manager. You're a business of one. So what can one person do? Let's try to give our listener and maybe some |
| 1:49.3 | other frazzled freelancers out there, an onboarding system that runs itself. I love that promise. |
| 1:55.2 | I'll do my best to fulfill it right after this quick shout out to our sponsor. |
| 2:00.4 | One characteristic that successful side hustlers have is they are curious and they are willing |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Chris Guillebeau / Onward Project, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Chris Guillebeau / Onward Project and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.