Matt Inglot – Founder Tilted Pixel

Matt Inglot is the owner of Tilted Pixel and producer of the Freelance Transformation.

Tilted Pixel is a 9-year-old web agency Matt started while in college.

Freelance Transformation, is a podcast devoted to helping people in creative services TRANSFORM their business.

On Freelance Transformation, Matt helps fellow consultants and creative service providers earn more and build a business around their lifestyle, rather than the other way around.

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MATT’S JOURNEY

Matt started out his career like so many of us do. He went to college and was on track to get that coveted “real world” job when he decided to take a part-time job doing marketing for a virtual reality company.

It was in this position where Matt’s outlook on work and life would change. This change started after he discovered one morning that his key card no longer worked to get him in the building.

Turns out, he, along with a third of the company, had been let go.

Fortunately for Matt, he was able to fall back on his website development skills and, as a result, Tilted Pixel was born.

Matt got Titled Pixel off the ground by approaching people he knew first, then branched out to basically anyone who would show an interest.

In his words, “If we talked for more than five minutes, you knew I built websites for a living.”

Matt continued to hustle and build Tilted Pixel while continuing his college education. Like many start-ups Matt Ingot went all out, hiring a staff and renting office space.

Later Matt would discover, these “strategic” moves he was making with the brick and mortar business, were a big mistake.

As he continued to add fixed monthly costs to his business, he continued to hustle. 12 to 14 hour work days become the norm.

Matt’s story sounds eerily similar to Lisa Mitchell’s story.

Matt eventually came to the realization that something had to give. It was quite literally, him or his business.

This was when Matt decided to take a real, unfiltered and honest look at his business.

Determined to turn his business around, Matt reviewed everything.

Some of his key discoveries included the following.

– 20% of his clients made up 80% of his profits.
– 80% of his clients were “build it and forget” one-time only clients.
– His fixed costs were driving poor decisions.
– He needed to identify his high-value clients.

Matt ultimately made the tough decision to close the brick and mortar business.

This decision allowed Matt to focus on his high-value clients while at the same began the process of transforming his company into a virtual one.

High-value clients are clients who stand to gain a lot from working with you. Matt and I discuss a couple of great examples of his high-vale clients.

Matt decided to drop his “one and done” clients and start focusing on the high-value ones. This allowed Matt to triple his rates while lowering his overall expenses.

HOW TO START FREELANCING / CONSULTING

Matt and I spent time talking to the listeners who may be interested in starting a consulting business or becoming a freelancer.

Matt has “been there, done that” so he understands the fear of the unknown, the problem with taking bad clients, and the feelings of not being to provide for your family.

He offers us 3 distinct ways you can overcome these fears including,

– Worse Case scenario
– Minimize the downside
– Do your homework