Steps to Becoming a Successful Freelancer

#career #hiring #productivity

Freelancing frees us from the 9 to 5, but it definitely has lots of challenges that'll bring us stress. We have to find clients, do marketing, collect payment and much more. If you're big enough to hire a team, then you also have to manage the team.

We'll look at the steps to becoming a successful freelancer.

Getting Clients

This is the first priority for any freelancer. Freelancers need clients to survive. To get clients, you can either use freelance job sites or tap into your personal network.

Freelance sites like Tychoo, Upwork, Freelancer.com, Fiverr, etc. all offer paying jobs from very low pay to high pay. Fiverr specifically has lots of people offering small, low-priced jobs.

The competition is fierce on these sites and there's no way for beginners to stand out in the sea of people with 5-star reviews and lots of completed jobs.

Sites like Tychoo is untapped since it's newer and has more people looking for jobs. There's less competition since it's not an established site that everyone finds.

To avoid competition, it's also a good idea to tap into your personal network to see if anyone needs help with anything that you can help do.

It doesn't have to be friends and family. Social media is a good bet to find lots of people that may need help with something that you're good at.

Create a Brand

A brand is very important for any business. It distinguishes you from the sea of competition that's out there. Again, social media is a great way to build a brand. Also, a website is a must to distinguish yourself from others. It's your presence online.

The design of your website doesn't have to be the best, but it has to distinctive and provides a good user experience for the user.

Build a Track Record

To build a track record at the beginning, building a portfolio of work is a must. Also, getting testimonials from people that you worked with is also very important. Otherwise, it's hard for people to trust you to do anything.

Over-Deliver

Once you get your first clients, you must over-deliver what you promised them. This way, they won't be disappointed and stop hiring you. Instead, they'll be happy and hire you again for more jobs.

They'll also refer you to more clients, so it's a very good idea to keep them happy by over-delivering.

Paperwork

Invoices are needed for collecting payment. It's also useful for recording transactions for tax purposes. Also, contracts need to be looked at so that you'll get the best deal out there.

You can put all their invoicing stuff into some invoicing software to make something easy. Accounting software like FreshBooks also has these features.

Conclusion

Freelancers have to a jack-of-all-trades. If you're a freelancer, you have to be good at marketing, sales, and bookkeeping. There's no way around it. While you can work anywhere at any time, there're still deadlines and you have to collect payments and report taxes yourself.