Are you interested in starting your freelancing career but unsure where to begin? In this episode, Kasim sits down with Jan Slovnik, a Freelance Google Ads PPC Specialist and expert in the industry, to discuss the ins and outs of building a successful freelancing career.

From getting started in the industry to overcoming common challenges and invaluable tips from Jan himself, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to kickstart their freelance career. Don't miss out on this engaging and informative discussion between Kasim and Jan!

Connect with Jan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janslovni...

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0:00 How To Start Your Freelancing Career with Jan Slovnik

5:44 Billing your clients as a freelancer

11:30 Your business won’t grow until you start saying no

15:57 The importance of continuous learning for you and your client

18:23 Jan’s advice for those who want to start their freelancing career

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Scotton with the Daily Google News I'm here with my buddy Jan Slo.

Nick?

Yes.

How did I do?

Good.

Yeah.

Long time YouTube subscriber asks Brilliant, brilliant questions.

One of the sharpest guys that shows up to our live regularly.

How long have you been watching us on the Tubes?

I think I've subscribed before you had one K subscribers.

Back when we didn't know what we were doing, the truth is, is we

still don't know what we're doing.

in the infancy of the YouTube days super appreciate you man.

You've always been just like, so engaged.

and you bring hard questions.

And those are my favorite people.

'cause it means you're thinking , Jan moved from the agency

world to the freelance world.

Correct.

And I love those stories 'cause I feel like so many people.

Need to do that in art maybe or want to do it and don't know how.

we're gonna hopefully get there a little bit.

Jan, tell us, if you don't mind, just a little bit of your background.

A little of the story.

Yeah.

Maybe I just wanna touch on, because you said I think a lot

of people are scared to do it.

Yeah.

Because.

it's a hard move to make because you don't know, like whenever something

is hard, I feel like you grow, right?

I think it's really important to ask yourself those questions if you are a

right person to do something like this.

And if you can do it or, or at least try to do it, it's gonna make you grow no

matter if you go back to work for someone else or if you're gonna stay a freelancer.

I grew like personally and on a business level the most since I've moved.

So it's been, three good three years now.

I started in an agency because my brother is an agency owner, but

I quickly figured out it wasn't for me like the nine to five.

I'm not a morning person, so it was really hard for me to get up.

I like to stay up late at night.

I figured, and also he figured out like after a year and a half-ish

that it just wasn't working right.

This isn't where you're most effective.

I wanna meditate on that for just a minute.

We, for some weird reason globally, like to shame people that don't fit in the box.

Agree.

Yeah, right.

Like that's, you just, there's something about it.

It's like, oh, you don't conform, and so you need to feel bad about yourself.

You're doing it wrong, it's such a flawed model because.

Often not to pander, but those are the sharpest people.

the people that really should maybe be given the flexibility that they need

to go do the thing that they're doing.

And my business partner John Moran, is, he's like that, John's a night owl

stays up two o'clock in the morning.

John is horrible at following processes.

John doesn't do a bunch of things that if we were a brick and

mortar, no, not brick and mortar, but like, you know, ivory tower.

White glove agency, like he wouldn't have lasted 30 days, and yet he's the best

Google Ads guy in the whole wide world.

Yeah.

So what I'd love to do, and this is more for our listeners and our

viewers, Yan, than it is for you, but I love what you said, like, oh, I

figured out this didn't work for me.

That's okay.

Stop trying to smash yourself into a box like your Play-Doh.

You're not.

if people really like the nine to five and they feel really comfortable with

the security and they're like, gosh, you know, I have a ton of fun being here.

Awesome.

If not, there's nothing wrong with you and do what Y did and

take the leap, which is scary.

So talk to us about that.

Like a year and a half in the agency you figured out like, all

right, this isn't really my jam.

Were you scared?

Were you ready?

How did that feel?

I definitely wasn't ready.

I wouldn't say I was scared ' I'm like not such a person to be

intimidated by something I feel.

Yeah.

Like I just go with the flow.

Right.

What happens, happens.

I'll figure it out in a way.

Right.

But I can just step back a bit 'cause I think it's important

'cause it starts in school, right?

Because you just learn.

wide variety of topics and you can be only good at one, but the school

system tells you, ah, you are bad.

Right?

Right.

But if you're good at that one thing, just do that one thing Right.

And just do it great.

And things are gonna work out for you, I feel.

I don't think I was scared, but now that I have.

Eight clients.

I manage eight clients with my girlfriend as well.

Business is going great.

when you answered two of my questions Yes.

But, but you skipped forward.

Go out on your own.

When you go out on your own, how did you get your very first client?

Because that's every freelancer's biggest problem is where does

my first client come from?

So basically, My girlfriend was working with a guy that was

working as a freelancer for another company, and he said that they

needed a Google Ads advertiser.

Okay.

So it was kind of easy to get the first one.

Yeah.

so thats the story that I hear from a lot of people is they started their freelance

career after a client fell into their lap.

Yeah.

And so really for those watching that wanna, start freelance, maybe that's

the key is run a flag up the poll.

Yeah.

You know, on, on LinkedIn, put word out, start talking to your network and just let

people know, Hey, I'm interested and you don't have to quit your job by the way.

You can work your job, work freelance on the side.

And then, kind of figure it out.

How did you decide what to charge them?

How did you know what to bill?

Basically the agreement was about a minimum wage for Slovenia.

let's say you get about a thousand euro net in Slovenia, it's a bit lower,

or it was a bit lower at the time.

when I went as a freelancer you have to open a sole proprietorship

and you have to pay taxes.

So it was like a thousand plus the taxes, let's say.

So I knew I was covered On the lowest level I could be.

And then I was like, okay, I'll get through the day with this kind of money.

Right?

And the initial agreement was that I will be working eight

hours a day for that company.

And I also did and still do some, a Facebook advertising for them.

But nowadays I don't do closely to eight hours a day for that company.

But I don't think that matters at the end.

At the end is what you bring to the table, right?

how well you can do your job, right?

Yeah, dude, so you just said something that I think is really brilliant.

the first piece of the freelancing model for me is you have to cover your nut.

Like make sure that you can cover your core expenses.

And then once you've done that, now you can start to be, you know, branch

out, be more sophisticated, have higher end clients, but covering your core

expenses is critical, number one.

Number two, the thing that I really liked is, Avoid anything that's hourly.

It's not about the time in, it's about the output.

What is it that you're doing?

What is it that you're pushing out?

And that's, the freelance model.

If you're gonna be paid hourly, go be an employee somewhere.

That's my soft opinion.

I guess maybe I don't wanna project that onto you.

Do you agree or do you work on an hourly basis?

I totally agree.

I.

Really rarely work on an hourly basis.

If I know it's gonna be a really short project.

For example, I might go with hourly rates, but I really try

to avoid it as much as I can.

Yeah.

And so if you've got eight clients, how did you get the other seven?

Yeah, I think for about a year I only had that one client and I

didn't feel like even I was capable enough to take on more clients

'cause I was still figuring it out.

Right.

So I was mostly working for on Google ads and sometimes I felt

like I had no clue what I was doing.

And that's where your channel came in.

It doesn't go away, by the way, Jan, yeah, You're doing some right?

I still have this.

Yeah.

But at least now I know.

Okay.

I can do it at a decent level, let's say.

Right.

To put it mildly, but I was still figuring out a lot of stuff.

I was watching your channel, like I still do basically daily, that's how I leveled

up my knowledge and everything I do.

And then I got the second client.

After, I think it was just about a year, maybe a year and two months

after the first one, and they reached out to me on LinkedIn.

It was an agency that was looking for a digital agency that was looking for a

Google ads advertiser because they didn't have a proper one in-house, let's say.

And I still work with them to this day.

And I work on a, on two projects with them.

That's awesome.

I love that they came from LinkedIn, by the way.

I, I feel like LinkedIn is underappreciated and it's a really

good opportunity to do some networking.

Not, not that cold outreach, Dr.

Jump in your dms bss, but like some, honest to goodness

real networking and outreach.

If I, if a meteor hit my business tomorrow and I had to just pound

the pavement and get new work, it, it would be on LinkedIn for me.

It's so many people are so accessible and if you'll take the time to

really get to know them and their needs I get that question a lot.

Where do you find clients?

And I think LinkedIn is a good place, but it's not just like, oh, can I do

your Google ads via direct messenger?

It's, it's being, you know, intelligent and sophisticated

and having good conversations.

I don't even do that much on LinkedIn on its own.

it's kind of surprising to me how.

Many outreaches I get how many people write to me that they need help with

something or even job offers, and I.

Basically always decline them because they want someone on the site, right?

Mm-hmm.

And I'm like, no, I'm really grateful I can do this,

freelancing work from my home.

Especially like I'm a big introvert, even though it might not show I kind of

learned how to be an extrovert, let's say.

But in my core, I'm still a huge introvert and I really don't like,

Big groups of people and that's why this didn't work for me.

Right.

most of my clients came from LinkedIn or referrals.

Someone knew someone that needed help that's the easiest way.

I feel like the longer you are in business, more people

will reach out to you.

Work flows to the competent.

That's exactly right.

Yeah.

And when did your girlfriend start working with you?

It's been almost a year now.

Maybe a bit less.

Okay.

Maybe eight, 10 months, something like this.

Yeah.

she also brought a client with her when she started working.

we don't do work with them anymore because It was too stressful, too painful.

And I think that's also important, knowing when to say no.

do everything for money, right?

Like, I mean, of course cover your basic expenses, like we said at

the start, but at a certain point, just don't do it because of money.

It's not worth it.

It's really not worth it.

Your business won't grow until you start saying no.

I agree.

that's a weird lesson to learn, and it took me longer than it should have.

But your business will not grow until you start saying no.

And a lot of times this no has to come because also a client

says, okay, I can't pay this much.

Can you go lower?

You have to say no at a certain point.

Right?

Yeah.

I think it happens quite often, especially in Slovenia, it's a small market.

There's 2 million people, in Sloman.

It's.

A really, really small market.

I don't think we have a billionaire in Slovenia.

No company I think ever sold, or maybe one sold close to a billion.

it's a really, really, really small market and the average income is

also not high, but that's why people will always try to push on the price.

Hmm.

And you just have to start saying No here.

It's really, really important, I feel.

Are all your clients in Slovenia?

Yes.

All of the clients are in Slovenia, but they mostly sell internationally.

Like I think like the community, like e-commerce community in Slovenia

is quite strong, I would say.

there's a lot of companies and they start to mimic each other.

They're really similar in certain ways.

A lot of times they copy, what do they do?

Like sell similar products and so on.

But most of them basically sell outside of souvenir you can make a

living, but it's kind of small, right?

Yeah.

you're not gonna get super rich if you just sell.

In Slovenia.

So but yeah, I have two clients that have over 10 million in revenue, which

is quite, quite, quite big for Slovenia.

It is quite big for here.

Course I'm not at 10 million in revenue.

hopefully there will come a day.

What are your plans for the agency?

Do you want to grow in scale as big as you can get?

Do you prefer a lifestyle business?

Like what's the, what's the grand scheme?

that's a tough question.

I don't think I wanna like grow it as much as I can.

I don't think that the market is even maybe big enough to support

just Google ad specific agency.

Probably is, but you would have to Be really well networked.

I'm not this kind of person I feel, it would be kind of hard, I feel Hmm.

To grow as an agency.

Maybe if I would be a lower level and someone else takes

over the business side of things.

Yeah, sure.

But it's not a goal right now.

I just want.

For my clients to do Well, basically I want to take that burden of Google

Ads and do the best work as I can.

And also I wanted to talk about client education, right?

'cause I feel like you and John taught me so much about how you should think as

an advertiser, because in an agency you.

Don't think from a business development perspective, you just think as an

advertiser, when I worked, I'm jumping a bit here, but when I worked in

an agency, I get a fixed pay.

I'm not incentivized.

I'm sure not all of the agencies work in such a way.

Also, I was a junior, there's that, but you're not incentivized.

To think in a business development way as an advertiser in an agency, I feel.

And if the agency doesn't have someone that will think in that way, then

the agency will basically stagnate.

And now that I.

Transferred into freelancing.

Yeah.

From start, I was still thinking in an advertiser way, but now the more

I educate myself, I realized how important it is to tell the client,

look, it's not all about the roas, right?

especially here, with most things, we're like three to five years behind the curve.

Normally on general things, it's the same is true for advertising, I would say.

And everyone still talks only about roas.

No one talks about MER or they talk about lifetime value, but

they don't really calculate it.

Mm-hmm.

Or customer acquisition costs like, Okay.

You still have to have the cashflow for this.

And there's not that much investment going on like in the US 'cause I know

there's companies that get millions and millions of dollars and can't

afford to have negative cashflow, basically because they get investments.

But still e-commerce business owners don't think in such a way.

And I think this is really important.

I wanna bring this forward.

Too light.

And so they start thinking in that way because they will grow out of it.

And like we will all grow as a result.

that's really, important, I feel.

Yeah, I love that note.

What other advice do you have for either people that wanna become freelancers

and, dude, you know what's funny I don't consider you a freelancer.

A freelancer for me is somebody who's doing ad hoc projects.

is more of like a Ronan, you know, they're a traveling samurai.

You're an agency owner.

You've got eight clients consistently.

You've got a staff member who's your girlfriend, but still you

have a team that's an agency.

It's a small agency.

And I'm not.

If you're, well in the freelance badge with pride, then good for you.

I don't wanna take it away from you, I think it it, for me, freelance is one step

below agency and you've graduated agency.

And for whatever that's worth, I wanna congratulate you on it

'cause it's not a small feat.

what advice do you have for people that wanna move into

freelance and or agency ownership?

I would say don't be scared, even if it looks like a big task to overcome.

It's not as tough later on.

I would say when you make that first step you'll figure out a way.

I feel people they thrive on like challenges.

I feel.

Maybe it's not for everyone, but I feel that most people that are

just even thinking about this are.

One, foot through the door, right?

Yep.

So just like shy le above says just do it.

I think s Shy le Buf stole that from Nike, I'm pretty sure.

Yeah, yeah, probably.

But he made it popular.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know what else.

we were talking about how I feel like I wasn't prepared, I didn't know how much.

Work still has to go into this business side of things.

I had to figure out stuff like taxes invoicing and everything

that comes with it, right?

So it takes a good chunk.

The more clients you have, the bigger chunk it takes out of your day.

But it's not like impossible to do, right?

Hmm.

It's not that hard that you won't figure it out.

You will Yeah.

it's been the best move I've made.

So yeah, just did it.

Would you take clients that come to you from outside of Slovenia?

Yeah.

But it kind of depends.

I and my girlfriend, we do Google ads for companies from Slovenia,

for other countries as well.

So it would be kind of easy.

But I feel like the US market, for example, is so much harder than

European market because whenever I try something in the US, I.

It has like 50% chance of not working if compared to if I try it

in on any European market almost.

Except maybe the bigger ones like are also tougher, like uk,

Germany, France, for example.

France is one of the hardest ones, by the way.

I'm definitely open to it.

If everything you also have to feel the energy from the other side.

I feel sure.

sometimes get on a call and I just don't feel it.

after the call okay, I don't think this will work out.

I wish you well.

And that is it, right?

you have to have similar goals in mind.

I feel.

How many languages do you speak?

Well, it's English, Slovenian, and then server Ian.

I speak it three and a half outta five.

also speak some Spanish, like basic level, here's what I'm asking.

If you're willing to take clients, and maybe it sounds like specifically

clients from Europe could be.

Great for you.

And then there's a multilingual thing to contend with in Europe that the

States doesn't have quite as much.

If somebody's watching this video and they wanted to work with

you, how could they reach out?

LinkedIn is the best.

Okay.

We'll include a, a link to your LinkedIn profile in the description of this video.

Last words to you, anything else that you want to touch on that we didn't touch on?

I just want to thank you, John, Regina, FA, Osama Colby, I don't know.

I probably missed someone.

You guys are doing God's work, really.

I can't believe your content is free.

We've tried to charge for it.

It just goes poorly.

So we never cracked that code.

I mean, in a way it's not free.

I feel like in a way it's not free Of course you get something out of it, right?

Yeah.

But just the fact that someone can type in something Google ads related

on YouTube and get it like this, right?

It's a miracle of humanity, isn't it?

Yes.

Like we're just all helping each other, and then you get it back

by many, many multiples, which is pretty cool too, I think.

Like creating content is, I don't know, like this great.

Think that one can do.

I don't do a lot of it.

I don't feel like I'm the right person to do it.

'cause it's really stressful for me to do such stuff.

But whoever does it, I admire them lot.

so I'm a bit of a gamer myself and I've tried streaming, for

example, it's so damn hard.

I swear to God.

It's really hard.

Everyone thinks you just sit there and play games.

It's.

Much, much harder than that.

So whoever does content, I know how much work goes into that.

And I just applaud you really.

And I really, really wanna Thank you.

I learned so much from you guys.

who do you like more?

Me or John?

Hmm.

That's so hard to answer.

I know the answer's obvious.

no, no.

I, it's not obvious.

you just have such different traits that you are not comparable.

I feel you're a great team.

That just works together seamlessly.

you are both great at what you do.

That's a very diplomatic answer, man.

I appreciate you.

He's, the brains behind the operation for sure.

I like to make people uncomfortable and ask that question.

'cause I know how smart that guy is.

Dude, you do great.

you said you're uncomfortable creating content.

That's surprising to me 'cause this was a great video.

It's a great interview.

I think you're gonna provide a ton of value to people.

If you're watching this hit ya on up.

If you're anywhere in Europe and you're looking for a Google

Ads manager, it sounds like he's gonna be awesome, knows what he is

doing, has a heart for his clients.

If you're thinking about freelancing, do it.

Go for it.

Make it happen.

what's the worst that can happen, right?

what is the worst that can happen?

Don't quit your job.

I hate that whole narrative, like burn the boats, jump ship, you know, go all in.

No, don't do that, run a flag up the pole and just tell some

people, Hey, I'm looking for.

freelance client or two, and then be honest.

What I like to do what I did in the, anytime I enter any new market, I'm

like, Hey, I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm brand new at this.

I'm still figuring it out.

Now the trade off there is you're gonna get it for way cheaper and you need

to get it otherwise, and I'm going to dedicate my life to getting good.

And I think there's a lot of businesses that are really, really

receptive to that type of narrative.

So if you're thinking about freelancing, going, with that heart and just be

honest and It sounds like it's the best thing that happened to you.

It's the best thing that ever happened to me is going out on my own, and

I know half of our subscribers are, maybe thinking along those lines.

I appreciate your inspiration today.

Dude, if you're watching, like coming and subscribe, I shoot a video every day.

I'll see you tomorrow.