Many people think freelancers are swimming in thousands of dollars. This is not entirely true. Freelancing is hard and not an easy route to take. But there are a few steps you can take that can help you excel in your freelancing career
Think like a Boss
Having the right mindset would go a long way to dictate how successful you would be as a freelancer. You need to believe in yourself and back yourself. If you do not believe in yourself then you are more likely to fail. Have a positive mindset and believe that you can do it and you would see yourself doing just that.
Choose a niche
Choose a problem you want to solve in a market or sector. You cannot be anything to anyone. If you do not choose a niche you would find it difficult to position yourself as an expert, find potential clients, and land freelance jobs. If you do not choose a niche you would also not figure out how best you can serve your clients. Not everyone needs your service.
Identify your skillset
To identify your skillset,
- You have to list your current skills and interests.
- Also, list what you want to know more about
- Identify among the skills, which of them you can translate into a remote role
- Find out gaps in your knowledge and what you need to learn
Create a website
Some people think this is not important but it actually is. If you have the funds available please engage in this investment. Creating a website helps you get a custom domain and a professional email address. Many people today expect every business to have a website.
A website makes you look professional, reinforces that you are an expert, and capture the attention of potential customers. It also gives you an easy way of displaying your portfolio and services.
Set your rates
Here, you determine how much you would charge for your services. Methods that can help you determine what you would charge for your service include:
Find out how much your dream life would cost, it would help you know how much you need to make weekly, monthly, and yearly and as such you would know how much you can charge.
What are your industry benchmarks? Find out what others are charging for that service. It would give you an idea and help you figure out what a fair rate for your service is.
Learn How to Pitch
This is one of the most important skills as you commence your freelancing career. Sharpening your pitching and selling skills would be useful for your LinkedIn profile, writing cold emails, podcast interviews, LinkedIn introductions, etc.
If you do not have any work experience, you may consider working for free to get testimonials and the transition of those clients onto a paid module.
Optimize your social media platforms
To succeed as a freelancer, you need to create an Upwork, fiver, or Bixex profile and spend time using the apps. You need to make sure your online presence is attracting the right clients to your business.
When you optimize your LinkedIn and Instagram profiles, you would not always generate potential leads manually rather they would come to you.
Create your business process
It is important that you have a business structure and a day-to-day process of running your business. Have a business plan but be willing to adjust it from time to time to suit what your business needs.
Lastly, join Bixex and network with fellow freelancers and also get freelance jobs from business owners. Start here.
Read Also: How To Grow As A Freelance Writer.