Whether you’re freelancing to earn extra money or you’re doing it full-time, you must be prepared to be your own boss and set your own schedule. It can be easy to get distracted when you’re working from the comforts of your home, however. To help you be more productive and understand the nature of freelance work, here are 5 important things you should take into consideration.
1. Do your research
When most of your work is done online, there are a lot of ways to make it more convenient and efficient. There are a lot of tools and programs available to help you in your profession. Whether you’re in eCommerce or digital marketing, your tools can make or break your career. Therefore, it’s so important you know what you’re going to use. So, if you’re just starting out, you might want to read a review or two (click here for an overview), and then pick one that the majority of people in your niche approve of.
2. Getting to work
Now that you have your tools of the trade ready, it’s time to get to work. When doing so, be sure to prioritize quality over quantity. This might sound obvious, but when working from home, it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing the bare minimum so you can be done with it and move on. Remember, freelancing isn’t just a one-time project; you need to think about the long term. Making sure you deliver quality work on time is a great way to nurture your relationships with your clients and make sure you get paid on time.
3. Build a portfolio
If you want to make it far as a freelancer, you need to have a portfolio ready with your samples as a way to market yourself. Your samples determine your worth, so it’s a good idea to always have examples of your past work when pitching to new clients. To do so, consider creating a website where you can put up all the relevant links – this way, your clients will know where to find you as well.
4. Pitch more
Finding work is a top concern for most freelancers. Because the profession is so unstable sometimes, you never know when your client might be your last one. So, if you want to make sure you never run out of work (and money), consistently pitch to new clients and keep track of your current clients. Remember, if you ever get discouraged, pitching is a numbers game.
5. Scale up
Finally, if you’ve been following all the above tips correctly, all that’s left for you to do now is scale up. To scale up your freelancing business, you first need to make sure you’re ready and that you’re offering is valuable to your clients. If that’s the case, consider outsourcing your current work and raising your future rates. Be selective with your clients, otherwise, you can easily burnout from freelancing.
