Freelancer’s Framework, Guidebook 1: Building Brand
How Engineers of Physical Products Can Attract Paying Clients Through Building Brand
Erin McDermott relays guidance on building brand as a valuable technique for freelance physical product engineers to attract paying clients. She distills her years of experience in sales and marketing as applied to her own engineering company.
When starting out, freelancers can be overwhelmed wondering how they’ll survive. They probably didn’t take a college course in how to provide hardware engineering services as a business owner. They probably never even saw a book on the subject before this one. Every part of making a living as a freelancer can be perplexing at first.
What are the steps involved? How do you make sure you don’t go hungry? Where do you find prospective clients? How do you get these strangers to want to pay you?
A variety of skills are needed to survive as a freelance engineer, but the most important one is the ability to connect with paying clients. In turn, building brand is one of the most impactful activities in attracting those paying clients. It’s also something an engineer can begin at any stage of his or her career – even before graduation. That’s why this book focuses on that first vital step a freelancer needs to succeed: building their brand in order to attract paying clients to them.
WARNING: this book is NOT about the typical MBA definition of building brand. There is no help within on picking your company colors, nor your mascot. It’s not even about designing physical products to look snazzy. No, this book is all about building a solid understanding in the minds of others about what value your engineering skills can bring them.
