Introduction
Are you considering becoming a Pro-Freelancer? Perhaps you're already Freelancer but want to take your business to the next level. Or maybe you're just curious about what it takes to become a successful Freelancer. In any case, this article is for you.
We'll walk you through everything you need to do to become a Pro-Freelancer in 30 days or less, from setting your rates and finding clients to creating a portfolio and maintaining your work-life balance. By the time you finish reading, you'll be ready to take the plunge into Freelancer life!
Finding the Right Freelancing Platform
The great thing about the Freelancer economy is that there are a ton of platforms to choose from. So, if you're just starting out, it's important to do your research and find the platform that's best for you.
Some factors to consider include the services offered, the client base, the fee structure, and the payment process. And don't forget to check out the reviews from other freelancers to get an idea of what it's like to work on the platform.
Setting Up Your Profile
Now that you know what you need, it's time to set up your profile. This will be the first impression potential clients have of you, so make sure it's good!
Your profile should include:
-A professional headshot
-A brief introduction of yourself
-Your skills and experience
-Your rates
-Contact information
Make sure everything is up to date and accurate. You don't want clients to think you're unprofessional or unreliable.
Creating Your Portfolio
In order to start Freelancer, you're going to need a portfolio, Freelancer. This is your chance to show off your skills and highlight your best work.
Your portfolio should include a selection of your best writing, design, programming, or other creative work. If you don't have any previous work to showcase, you can create some dummy projects to show off your skills.
When putting together your portfolio, be sure to tailor it to the job you're applying for. If you're applying for a writing job, include a few writing samples. If you're applying for a design job, including some of your best design work.
The most important thing is to make sure your portfolio is professional and looks great. You want potential clients to be impressed when they see it.
Building Your Brand
Now that you’ve built your portfolio and identified your niche, it’s time to create a strong presence for yourself on the web. Your brand is how clients will recognize you, so it’s important to put in the effort and make sure it reflects who you are and what services you offer.
Start by creating an eye-catching website with an intuitive design. This is where potential clients will go to learn more about you and your services, as well as read testimonials and reviews. Once your website is up and running, start blogging to share your thoughts on current topics related to your industry or services, which will help establish you as a thought leader in the space.
Make sure all of your online profiles are properly optimized with keywords related to your skills and interests. This will help those looking for you find you quickly and easily. You should also create social media accounts with diverse content that speaks to why people should work with you. Finally, consider creating video content to share on YouTube or other video platforms to further promote yourself and establish yourself as an expert in your industry.
Developing Your Niche & Acquiring Clients
Now that you’ve got the skills and knowledge to become a Freelancer, it’s time to narrow down your focus and define your niche. This helps potential customers understand why you are worth paying for and why you might be the right fit for their project.
The key is to find an area that you love and have experience in, as well as one that is relatively unexplored. Also, try approaching possible clients that are in related industries to yours, this can give you an opportunity to expand your professional network.
It's also important to remember that the best clients come from referral networks. So tap into any contacts or previous employers who can help connect you with potential clients. Putting yourself out there will take some courage but with the right attitude and dedication, amazing opportunities will come your way!
Tips for Successful Freelancer Gigs
Now that you've got the basics down, let's talk about how to make sure your freelance gigs are successful. This is where the experience you've gained over the last 30 days will come in handy!
First and foremost, communication is key. Talk to your clients regularly and keep them in the loop. Ask questions if something isn't clear, or use tools like Slack or Trello for project management and collaboration.
Second, get organized. Use an online calendar for project management, set up a filing system to store documents, and stay focused on one task at a time.
Third, stay flexible. As a freelancer, you're pretty much constantly dealing with unexpected issues. So if a client changes their mind or adds new tasks along the way—go with it! Just remember to communicate any changes and make sure they're reflected in your original quote or agreement.
Finally, have fun! This may be work but it should still be enjoyable—but don't forget to be professional in all your interactions :)
Fiver Freelance: Becoming a Pro in Just 30 Days
With the rise of remote work, more people never want to become a freelancer or start working for themselves. Which brings up the next obvious question...how do you start freelancing?
Fortunately, becoming a freelancer is easier than ever. More than 57 million Americans were self-employed in 2019, and the trend continues to grow with more than 50% of Generation Z choosing to be self-employed.
Not only is being a freelancer more popular than ever, but companies are increasingly comfortable hiring freelancers instead of full-time employees.
Many jobs can be performed remotely, and companies are not required to provide freelancers with the same health care or financial benefits as full-time employees.
So maybe it's time to work for yourself and start a freelance business.
Let's talk about how you can start a freelance business with very little money.
How to Monetize Instagram Reels With Bonuses?
List box
1. Define your goals for working as a freelancer.
2. Choose what general skills you will work with as a freelancer.
3. Define your client's goals.
4. Package your skills into a service offering.
5. Establish your company legally before starting work as a freelancer.
restart
Take the next step
1. Define your goals for working as a freelancer.
It all starts with knowing your goals for starting your freelance business.
You wouldn't get in your car and start driving if you didn't have a destination, and you shouldn't even start an independent business without a destination.
Without a destination, it's hard to know which direction to take. Goals provide a starting point for your freelance business.
Start with why you want to start freelancing.
Simon Sinek is best known for his TED talks that encourage audiences to "start with why."
Every day, you must motivate yourself to find clients and do extraordinary work for them, and the first step is to understand your "why."
Why did you want to become a freelancer in the first place?
- To generate some extra income?
- To replace your full-time income?
- How much do you want to earn as a freelancer?
The reason you want to become a freelancer will be your north star, whether you succeed or not you are successful.
Start freelancing as a part-time or side job.
Freelancing is a great place to start as a part-time or side hustle. When the pressure to generate immediate income is less, you can be more thoughtful about the type of work you do and the clients you do it with.
For this reason, it's actually a good idea to check before you think you need it. Freelancing is often built on trust and relationships with clients, and those relationships take time to build.
So, if you start freelancing part-time or on the side, you'll give yourself time to build the important relationships you'll need to make a full-time living as a freelancer.
Taking the leap to start freelancing full-time
If you're ready to jump in the deep end and become a freelancer full-time, that's great! It's never been a better time to be your own boss.
If that's your goal, you'll want to calculate how much you need to earn to cover your living expenses. And I mean all your expenses including taxes, health insurance, and even retirement.
This is your freelancing income destination!
If you have urgent bills to pay or even debt, you need to manage that income goal so you don't end up in a deep hole.
You might not hit that number in the first month, but knowing what your income goal is will help you get there sooner.
How to grow Instagram followers quickly?
2. Choose what skills you will start freelancing with.
Whether you're ready to become a full-time freelancer or on the side, your business will be built around the unique skills you have to offer. Those skills are your greatest asset.
So the first step is identifying the various skills you've built over the years that other people don't have and want to pay you to use.
Start with a simple spreadsheet. In the first column, start listing every individual skill you can think of.
Start listing your skills.
Start freelancing with skills from previous jobs.
It would be easiest to start with all the skills you've already been paid to take advantage of. It didn't matter if the job was full-time or part-time, as long as you were getting paid.
If an employer was willing to pay you for the job, chances are you're pretty good at it! This is a skill that you can potentially leverage to start a freelance business.
Think about your past several jobs: What were you being paid for by those companies?
Don't go back It could be customer service, graphic design, photography, or financial modeling.
If those roles require creativity or the use of specific software, it's even more likely that someone will be willing to pay you rather than take the time to learn the skill themselves.
Some common examples of software would be Adobe Photoshop, Figma, Sketch, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, etc.
Start freelancing with skills outside of your job description.
When you're thinking about your previous jobs, don't limit yourself to job descriptions or key responsibilities.
In most full-time jobs, employees find themselves doing things that weren't originally in their job description.
For example, if you were responsible for running a company's social media accounts, you may have acquired some writing skills as well.
So instead of just thinking about your social media skills, you might also be a good fit for a copywriting or marketing job.
List each specific skill – the more skills you can name, the better.
Start freelancing using your hobbies and self-taught skills.
Your skills are not limited to what you are paid to do. Go beyond what you've taught yourself, or even paid for your hobbies.
What do you spend time doing just because you love to do it? Think about everything.
For example, if you collect stamps, you are probably a strong researcher and organized, and you may even be good at negotiating!
If you've taught yourself how to design graphics in Canva, that counts too.
Again, at this stage, the more skills you can list, the better.
Narrow down your list of skills.
Once you have a list of all the skills that you have been paid to use, teach yourself, and use as a hobby, we can now start narrowing down the list.
First, prioritize the list you want to get paid the most for.
You can create a new column in your spreadsheet and sort them in order, starting with the first number.
Prioritize your list of freelancing skills.
It's good to be ambitious here. If it were up to you (and it is), what would you be paid to do every day?
Next, you may want to do a little research.
When it comes to Freelancers, competition is a good thing. If other freelancers aren't already getting paid for the work you decide to do, chances are there isn't much money to be made.
Check out sites like Upwork or Fiverr and find freelancers using the five best skills you've identified.
In another column, note the high and low ends of what other freelancers are getting paid per hour or per project.
If no one is making a decent income using your preferred skill, check a second or third one, and so on until you find a skill that people are paying real money for. and you're excited to start Freelancer. around the business.
3. Define your target clients.
Once you've identified the skills that will be most profitable and enjoyable for you, it's time to think about who will pay you to use them.
Many freelancers fail to be thoughtful and ambitious here.
They start freelancing and become so afraid of selling that they will take any client who offers them any amount of money to do anything.
Don't be like these frills
Does this client avatar make sense?
Once you've defined your target client and you think you understand them, it's time to do a git check.
For this avatar to be serviceable, a few things have to be right. Ask yourself:
Is this client aware of their problem and seeking help?
Is this client worth your help?
If not, you may need to go back to the drawing board.
Sometimes, the people we want to help the most can't afford our help or don't even realize they need it. Many people find they want to work with nonprofits or startup companies, but these clients often don't have the budget to work with.
You may be able to convince someone that they need your help - but it's much harder to start a freelance business by working with people who already know they need help.
And to be honest, there are too many people who want help already that it's not worth spending the time and effort to convince someone who doesn't.
If you believe that your target clients know that they need help and are able to afford it, then let's go ahead!
Identify real people and real companies.
Now that you have theoretical descriptions of your client avatars, let's get real.
If you could work with any person or company in the world that fits your self-described avatar, who would you choose?
Create a new spreadsheet of your dream clients.
You might think it's silly to include the names of famous companies like Disney or celebrities like LeBron James, but write them down.
Anything is possible - but only if you believe in yourself and work for it.
Don't stop writing your list until you hit at least 50 dream clients. And if you are really serious then write 100.
The first step to working with your dream clients is admitting that you want to work with them. Then, over time, you can build the reputation and relationships that help you get there
4. Package your skills into a service offering.
Choosing your skills was just one step in starting a Freelancer business – next, you'll need to sell them.
Turn your service into a solution.
Let's take it a step further. Selling a solution is better than selling a service.
| "I can help you write better sales emails that convert into more customers."
How do Monetize my youtube channel?
Positioning your solution for your target client
Think about the service you want to offer and the persona of the client you are offering it to.
- More customers, clients, subscribers, or followers
- to increase their profitability (increase revenue or decrease cost);
- feeling better about oneself (void)
- Explain how working with you will help them look better, feel better, or rank higher in the eyes of the people they care about.
In our example, our freelancer has decided they want to start a freelance business using their skills in marketing, copywriting, and social media.
Now that you have defined the service you provide and the client for whom you provide it, you need to decide how you will charge for your services.
Retainer: A flat, monthly fee. Usually, this is based on an hourly rate and a forecast of hours worked on a monthly basis. Retainers are primarily used for ongoing projects.
- Makes you excited to get up and work.
- Not trying to compete on being the cheapest price.
- Still competitive with market rates
Competing on price is a race to the bottom and will burn you out if you build a reputation as being the "cheapest" option. Instead, look for a number at the mid or high end of the market rate for similar services that excite you to project.
You can compare market rates for services by looking at other freelance businesses on Upwork and the rates they charge.
To really put a bow on your service package, wrap all of your decisions in what I call your client formula.
Your service solves [problem y] for that person.
And you are selling it for [price Z].
I know it's weird to mix math and creativity, but hear me out.
Try to sell them your services as a [solution y].
Package price at or above [price z].
Example
Let's say you're a videographer and you believe [independent realtors] will pay [$500] for [a video about you].
5. Legally incorporate your business before starting Freelancer.
Now let's talk about how to legally start your own Freelancer business.**This is a good time to point out that I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice!**
The first step in filing your business is choosing a name. It can be anything you want - it can include your own name, or it can't. It may be a made-up word, or it may not be.
Perform a basic name search.
Before you officially launch your freelance business with the name you've chosen, you need to find a primary name to make sure it's not already in use.
An LLC works just like a sole proprietorship (with no legal business entity) but the biggest advantage is legal protection for your personal assets.
How would you actually use these skills for someone else?
What service do you provide with these skills?
It's a fine line, but it's an important distinction.
Writing is a skill and email copywriting is a service.
Coding is a skill and creating custom mobile apps is a service.
To sell your skills, you need to think of them as a service.
Here is a list of the most common services people use to start a Freelancer business.
Telling a small business owner that they can hire you for copywriting is not too compelling.
A business owner may be wondering, "What does this mean? Why do I want to Copywrite?"
When you only share the service you perform, it leaves it up to the client to imagine how it might apply to them.
Now let's formulate this as a solution:
"I can help you write better sales emails."
Better, right?
And if we take it a step further:
Now that's something I'm willing to pay for. I know exactly what you are promising, and this solves one of my problems: I want more customers!
People pay for solutions. They pay for results.
The clearer you are about the results of working with you, the more successful you will be in selling your services.
What problems do they want to solve? What results are they looking for?
There are tons of articles, podcasts, and interviews about sales or negotiation strategies.
But people usually only rent because they want one of three things:
And arguably, getting more customers is also towards the goal of increasing profits
.
So when you are communicating with a potential client, all you need to do is:
If you're not showing how working with you can increase their profits or status, you're leaving it up to them to connect the dots.
Sometimes they will, but usually, they won't.
So connect the dots for them.
Show the client how paying you for this work will put more money in their pockets.
It may not pay off immediately, and if it doesn't, you should help them understand how long it will take them to see a return on their investment — either by increasing income. or by reducing costs.
If you can show how $1 becomes $2 today, you'll never run out of paid work.
Example solution
They've identified that their ideal clients are creators like me: people who are great at creating podcasts, courses, articles, etc.
The biggest issues for these creators center around time. Creators don't have enough time to do all the things I know I should be doing – including being active on social media.
And since I'm not very active on social media, I'm not growing my presence as quickly as I could.
So one solution that our freelancers can provide is social media management. If they offer to build my social media presence by posting content for me every month, that's a great way to leverage their talent.
Social media management is a service, but it can be hired as a solution for someone who is too busy managing their social channels.
How will you price your services when you start freelancing?
There are many pricing strategies for your freelance business and many nuances in which strategy you choose.
But at a basic level, there are four common pricing methods for freelance businesses:
Hourly: A standard rate for each hour worked for a client. Hourly pricing is used for both ongoing and short-term projects and requires freelancers to track their own hours.
Fixed Project Fee: A one-time fee based on an agreed-upon scope of work and project deliverables. Fixed project fees are mainly used for short-term projects.
Value-Based Pricing Fee: Similar to a fixed project fee, but based on the value of the client's work, not the amount of the service provider's work. It has the most potential but is the hardest to sell to a client.
Let's return to our earlier example of a marketer providing social media management for content creators. This service is probably an ongoing project and therefore an hourly or monthly retainer is appropriate.
Freelancers love retention clients for their freelance businesses because they provide some level of predictability and income stability.
Ultimately, regardless of the pricing strategy you choose, the numbers are entirely up to you.
I recommend choosing a number that:
One of the best pieces of pricing advice I've ever received is to "think of a number that makes you a little uncomfortable asking, and then increase it to 40%." Gives."
Pull it all together with your client's formula.
Your client formula is the heart of your freelance business, and it looks like this:
I help [person x] solve [problem y] for [price z].
In this formula:
Your target client is [person x]
Let's take the example of our marketer. Their formula might look like this:
I help content creators grow their social presence for $2,000 per month.
In the past, I built WordPress websites for entrepreneurs. My client formula was:
I help entrepreneurs bring their businesses online for $5,000.
There is a bonus for
Your elevator speech is a short, memorable way for you to answer the question, "What do you do?"
"I help content creators grow their social media presence"
"I help entrepreneurs bring their business online"
And when you add cost, you have a whole set of assumptions to go out and test for your freelance business.
It's just like testing a hypothesis in science class.
you need to:
Talk to people who match [person x]'s client avatar
Your client formula looks like this:
I help independent realtors show off their personalities to clients for $500.
But what if you can't sell an independent Realtor for $500 on a video?
When you're not receiving payments or purchases, it's easy to think that your experience, as a whole, is a failure.
But you need to remember that there are three variables.
So if you can't get independent Realtors to pay you $500 for a video about you, we just know that part of the experience is off.
It may be that a team of Realtors pays that price for this service.
Or maybe independent Realtors would love to invest in a video, but won't pay more than $400.
And maybe you shouldn't target Realtors at all – maybe accounting firms pay $800!
You can experiment with all these variables. But the first step is defining your formula.
You can delay this step, but I recommend doing it sooner rather than later to make tax planning easier from the start.
"Start a freelance business" sounds intense - but it's not. Technically, starting a Freelancer business is as easy as incorporating a legal entity.
Disclaimer
It is entirely up to you. Ultimately, I chose "Freelancer School" because all the content is related to freelancing, and I wanted to show that learning is part of the business.
I could just as easily have used my name, something like "Jay Clouse Creative" or a hybrid like "Jay Teaches Freelancer."
Nothing you choose is permanent, but it's a bit of a pain to change. So when you start your freelance business you should not let this step be a hindrance, but take it seriously.
It is also used for legal purposes as opposed to marketing purposes.
If you file an LLC under the name "John Doe Creative" and later decide you want to call the company "Doe Designs," you can operate under the name "Doe Designs" but still have your company incorporated as "John Doe Creative". You will only see the former name on things like your bank account, invoices, etc.
And if you really want to change the legal name, you can either file or open a new entity called a business name or DBA (Doing Business As).
Find the name.
Just as you wouldn't want other businesses to use your name, you can't use someone else's. If you have a name that is so similar to another business that it causes confusion among consumers, you may be in violation of a trademark.
You can avoid all these risks and headaches from the start by searching the name of your Secretary of State's website. If your name has been taken, or similar names are already in use, you may want to choose something else to start your freelance business with.
File an LLC.
When you start a Freelancer business there are different ways to incorporate, and you may have heard the acronyms "LLC, C-Corp, S-Corp" and similar terms.
Most independent Freelancers are best suited for an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) when starting a freelance business. But if you're an independent freelancer making more than $175,000, it might be worth exploring an S-Corp.
An LLC works just like a sole proprietorship (with no legal business entity) but the biggest advantage is legal protection for your personal assets.
How to File an LLC
You file an LLC directly with your Secretary of State. It's a very straightforward process that can even force the name search we were just talking about to make sure the name you've chosen for your LLC already exists. Not being used.
Most states allow you to file an LLC online in just a few minutes. To check if you can file your LLC online, and for links to where to do it for each US state, check out his spreadsheet.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, if you want to start freelancing, the first step is to identify the skills you have that can be marketed to potential clients. Once you've done that, you need to create a portfolio that demonstrates your expertise in those areas. Finally, you need to start pitching yourself to potential clients and market your services to them.
The good news is that there are plenty of resources available to help you get started, and there are plenty of people who are willing to offer advice and guidance. So don't be afraid to get started. The 30-day plan outlined in this article can help you get on the right track and start freelancing sooner rather than
Post a Comment