Top-Rated Plus | $600K+ Earned | I'm Here to Help You Succeed

Nav

Sharing My Expertise for Free
I’ve been fortunate to achieve success as a freelancer, and I know how challenging it can be to get started or take your career to the next level. That’s why I’d love to give back by helping others in the freelancing community.

Proven Tips and Strategies Profile Optimization
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your approach, I can share tips on building a strong profile, crafting winning proposals, and effectively managing projects. I’ve learned a lot over the years, from creating compelling portfolios to navigating tricky client situations, and I’d be happy to pass along what’s worked for me.

Skill Development
If you’re trying to level up your skills, I can also share resources or offer guidance on areas like motion design, video editing, or animation. It’s always great to see others succeed, and I believe we can all learn from each other.

Collaboration
I’m open to small collaborations to help you build your portfolio or gain experience.

Let’s Connect
Feel free to reach out if you have questions, need advice, or would like feedback on your work. I’m here to help at no cost just to support the community that’s been so rewarding for me.
Let’s grow together!

Mallclerks

Nav Welcome to the party. Thanks for being here.

anovikov

Hi @Nav . Biggest question i have to you: what next? Where is the jump from where you are now to anything more serious?

anovikov

I'm asking because i'm stuck myself. Became insanely good at landing and executing on Upwork and non-Upwork clients, many years ago. Moved to $1M+ a year in net profit. But seem to be hard stuck: i've got to move somewhere from here and have no idea where or how, and none of the reachable contacts appear to be of any value because everyone who achieved anything significant, had a life path so completely different from mine there's just nothing in common to even discuss and no path from point A to point B.

Nav

anovikov That's a great question, and one I can definitely relate to. I worked with Toptal for a while and hit a significant milestone, earning $400K. But despite my success, I was let go without clear justification likely because they started prioritizing local U.S. freelancers over international talent. It was a wake-up call for me about the volatility of relying on platforms like Toptal or even Upwork, which is now showing similar patterns.

Platforms like these milk the market early on, onboarding as many freelancers as possible, only to shift gears once they've established dominance. It's not far-fetched to imagine Upwork eventually going the same route changing policies or shutting down certain opportunities in a way that leaves freelancers scrambling.

The way I see it, the next logical step is to build independence. Invest in your own business or brand create something where you have control over client relationships, pricing, and long-term growth. Focus on attracting direct clients and diversifying revenue streams. It’s definitely a risk, but it’s also the way to future-proof your career and avoid being at the mercy of platforms.

For me, the ultimate goal is building something sustainable and scalable whether it's an agency, a productized service, or even consulting in your area of expertise. Platforms like Upwork are a stepping stone, but they’re not the endgame.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this perspective!

anovikov

For a rational thinker, it would be natural to follow this line of thought: "observe your clients, see which of them succeed and which ones don't, try to think of what do those who succeed have in common, and build a product similar to theirs, just better" - and that will cut it. My problem though is that in 25 years of a career i haven't seen a single successful one. Of course, whenever we built some feature or new version or just maintained something that already existed before and was successful (in this case business part of it was invisible to me - i was talking to a manager or a developer or someone else who had little understanding of how business works let alone how it was created), that was one thing. But whenever anyone came to us asking to build them a product/MVP/anything from scratch - they have all failed, without a single exception. Which seems to leave me no path for next step. How was your experience in this regard? Did you have any client for who you developed some product from scratch, they launched it, and achieved success significantly better than your own you have with custom development?

Nav

anovikov I get what you're saying, and it’s something I’ve noticed too. Most clients wanting to build from scratch often fail not because of the tech, but because they don’t fully understand their market or plan their launch properly.

The few successes I’ve seen were with clients who had already tested their ideas on a smaller scale. We weren’t creating something entirely new; we were improving or scaling what they knew worked. Another key factor was collaboration projects that involved user feedback during development did better.

Building the product is the easy part; making it succeed in the market is where things get tough. That’s why I’ve started looking closer at a client’s readiness before taking on a project.

Maybe the next step is working with people who already have proven success in their field. Joining forces with someone who knows the market might help turn skills like ours into something bigger.

What do you think about working more as an advisor to clients, helping them plan their launch while building the product?

Best,
Hassan

anovikov

Well, that wasn't my point. I'm not directly interested in client success per se: client success usually means remote contractors are let go of and local team is hired (this is usually a condition of VC rounds and that actually makes sense, like i agree with it). What i'm interested in is seeing what works and what not to gain experience to launch my own products...

as an advisor to clients, helping them plan their launch while building the product?

If i had to give them an honest advice, for the most of them that would've been advice to not try, because the idea seems dead on arrival. doing so will quickly put me out of business.

rlatief

@anovikov I'd simply put the money into mutual funds. and aim to make it sufficient to cover at least for my food and daily needs (if it doesn't already). It might sounds very ordinary but they're right imo because we can't work forever.

Unless I find something very promising, perhaps a guaranteed getting rich by teaching people how to get rich business, then I might pursue it 😀

anovikov

@rlatief that's what i'm doing of course.

rlatief

anovikov I'm not sure how old you are. I'm nearing 50, have tried building (IT-related) businesses and none really succeeded. I basically know why, because I'm no good with management. I assume you manage people and quite succeed, maybe you could just stick with that so you can reach the goal of living off mutual funds (or stocks if the risks are ok) sooner.

Unless, again, one of those many 'other opportunities' is worth pursuing.

I've actually had around 4 years of happy living where I basically didn't have to ~~code seriously~~ work in one of the businesses, but poor management has brought me back to where I am now. My mistakes was, I guess, I should've work with someone who can see the market better, and also to "manage the people".

I understand and agree with everything you said above about dealing with the opportunities, clients, etc. and I've experienced that they're not easy to answer. I also experienced that being the first does not necessarily mean a continuous success.

anovikov

for me "not having to code" is the opposite of happy :) i love coding. i'm 45.

Ravi

I love coding too.

I am trying to make a comeback after several years.