June 2025 wrap-up
What have I been doing and learning this month? This blog post triples as my notes, a status update, and a way to share the things I found interesting this month.
Writing
This was the final month of the Bolt help center overhaul. Over the course of the project, I:
- Delivered new structure.
- Introduced a style guide.
- Overhauled and updated all existing content.
- Filled information gaps and added new material, in particular better support for less technical users.
Learning
Trying out Claude Code was my learning highlight of the month. It feels good to have finally given AI-assisted coding a proper test. That said, there's more I want to do before I share the experience: I have a draft blog post ongoing, but one final phase of the experiment that I want to try.
Watching
The Marketing Meetup: Growing a freelancer/consultancy business in 2025 - Mel Barfield & Ben McKinney
Before going freelance:
- Check your finances. How much do you need for this to be viable? Keep in mind changes to expenses.
- Is there really a need for the services you want to offer?
- Build your network.
Pricing:
- Be aware of your industry day rate as a benchmark, but don't let it restrict you.
- If possible price by project (rather than day rate).
- The price should be the highest amount you can say out loud without laughing / The lowest amount should be the lowest you can work without resentment.
- You can price yourself out of a job by being too low.
- Don't compete on price. Differentiate yourself.
- Putting price ranges on your website: a good idea. Your price shouldn't be a surprise.
- My note: I need to think about this . . .
- Raise prices regularly.
Some ways to find your differentiation point:
- What's unusual or eyecatching in your experience? Your story?
- Sit down with friends or trusted peers and describe each other and yourselves. This helps you see how other people see you.
Getting past the embarassment of advertising yourself:
- The more you do it, the easier it gets.
- Realise how much you need to. You have to self-promote: it's essential for your business to succeed.
- Don't overthink your social media. Get posts out in their natural form, don't spend ages editing.
- Focus on messaging around how you can be helpful.
Finding clients:
- Networking.
- Direct outreach (cold email, even letters). Tailor it. Advantage of outbound is you get to cherry pick clients more.
- Buy leads: find another consultant or agency who is overloaded and buy some of their leads off them.
- Social media to generate inbound leads.
- Build genuine friendships. Eventually these can turn into referrals (but don't go in wanting that).
- My note: reminds me of an old blog post of mine, How to get the most out of online communities.
Common surprises and mistakes to avoid:
- Get an accountant!
- You may end up being 'always on', struggling to switch off.
- Be generous with time and advice, but don't give everything away.
- When you don't have work: use the time productively and don't moan about it publicly. It's not attractive to clients.
- My note: this. A million times this.
How to balance being busy with clients and doing business development:
- Don't confuse volume with success.
- Keep space in your schedule.
- Prioritise your goals and your good clients.
AI the Docs
AI the Docs is a virtual event run by the API the Docs team. This year, it was two days of AI and documentation content. The talks will be published, so when that happens, I'll come back and link the ones I want to highlight.
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