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Have you been wondering how successful freelancers brag about their success? Or you have read and listen to a lot of freelancing success and still find it difficult to make it to a level in your freelancing business. Do not worry because in this post, you will learn the step-by-step guides on how to become a successful freelancer.
One of the biggest mistakes most failed freelancers do is that they do not get themselves prepared to be freelancers to sit at home and think work will come to them. The word 'Freelance' means work. Internet business is now a competitive market where anyone who wants to succeed will have to strive hard to get out of it. The reality of it is to work. You mist strive to get things done in this competitive market that we all surf. You must work all days and night, take to many strategies, be determined and you will be out of it.
Here are some helping steps that can guide you to making yours out of freelancing. Using these steps and a bit of determination will get out you of their desk jobs and start working comfortably by yourself within 30 days of initials.
1. Improve & Be Good First
To some, this is so hard to do. This is because most are lazy to develop themselves into that thing that can illuminate the world. Why will you need success while or when you are lazy? You have to do the things that will draw you success not just being there and be looking for the smoothest ways to make it. No one should tell you by now that success can be gotten easily. You have to walk to where it is before getting it.
As someone who seriously needs money, first of all develop yourself. How? This is done by getting yourself an education, tutorials or daily practices. Look at yourself and think of what you can give to the world that can fetch you money. For example, if singing is what interests you, get to learn at least 30 to 40% of it, be the percent of your percent and give it to the world, the rest will be known to you while working. Understand the basics first. As an initial singer/musician, you can do voice over, sing a path, write songs, etc. Or you can teach how to sing, train voice, compose, play instruments, edit music on phone or computer, write songs and even if you are natural with dancing, you can teach how to dance.
If your budget does not meet the course that you intend to learn, go to YouTube and learn. To be real, no one taught me how to handle Photoshop. It was my friend, Paul, who sent me to YouTube after asking him to teach me. He ignored me because I did not have his money. He priced me heavily and so with that, I headed to YouTube and learnt it by myself, without paying a dime. Although it took me time, I still managed to cope with it because I realized it would profit me later. Now, I can handle Photoshop more than how he handles it. So, you can learn anything to any standard on YouTube if only you are ready to give it all what it takes.
Related Post: How to Single-handedly Learn A New Course Absolutely for Free
When you are good at a course you have learned, you can create lessons or remade courses and teach as a freelancer. There are free websites that allow people, particularly, newbies, to learn courses of their choice for free. One of them is Alison. This is for a general purpose course. You can go there to study a course or many for free of charge but will have to pay for certificate after the completion of your course at a very low price. Having a certificate will add meaning to your course of study and speak more of you that you really studied it to an expert level. Some other examples are Google Education, Saylor Online Academy, EDX, and so on. They offer free and paid certificates which can also be used as well.
#2. Get A Mentor
Yeah! Freelancing needs mentoring in order to perform well while at it. This will disclose everything that one needs to do. Find someone that is trustworthy, follow his or her teachings and things are going to work for you. This will disclose the secret of your lining freelance. Find someone who finds joy in you or who will be there to get your questions and answer you without any complaint. You can make an expert of your field your mentor or your online master, or your friend whose experience is more than yours.
3. Get the Necessary Materials
As a freelancer, you should be able to know the kinds of tools or other materials needed for you to get started . Not having the right tools ready for the work means you are not getting yourself well with it. As a graphic design freelancer, you will need a phone or a computer, pencil and drawing books for sketching ideas, designing software like Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, etc. Also as a singer or musician, you will need a mic, writing materials, computer or phone too, and other things that will make your work professional.
If at all you do not know the right tools for you, do a research about it, lists them down and go with the ones you can afford. Half bread is better than none! Start from a point. Try to make use of the avoidable or borrowed tools very well at first and in the later day, you can get other best tools with the money you have earned.
4. Write A Plan Of Action
Writing a plan of action is the best way to get yourself started. This is basically a brief on what to render, how to render it and who to render it to. Most failed or failing freelancers make it wrong when it comes to this. They do not make up this cogent preparation before going into working things out for the clients. At the end of it, you will then realize that you are not making sales or good profit. Let your mind be on what to render as I have foretold above.
In the designing industry, we have many things to work out there. You as a designer, for example, should note that what to render are not limited to logos, banners, wraps, labels, t-shirts, and other types of designs. The kind of service will determine the kind of amount it will be plus your experience. As a beginner, neither rush into many services nor charge very costly as it can send clients away. Write out a plan based on your experience, your creativity and your capability. These things will let them believe you and accept your offer. Be real as you let them know your main service(s), time or days of service, what you will render and your charges.
How to render it is what you need to understand before anyone hires you. Learn how to get the clients details, design and package it and lastly, how to deliver it as a services that has been done then lastly on this, focus on who to render it to. A designer needs to find those who are in need of designs not those who are in need of singing. Your last focus on your plan is to
5. Work On Your Personal Brand
Do you really need to set up yourself as a brand? Yes! You must set up yourself and have your brand identities that are going to speak about your services in your freelancing business. Brand Identities include the name, logo, description, business profile such as your about us content and what you offer (let it be strong, balanced length and convincing) and most importantly, your portfolios. Having these will boost your business as it will speak and drive in more sales.
6. Contact Everyone You Know
Anyone who wants to move on will surely depend on other people for survival. After the set-up, your next target is people. Start from contacting those you know. Let them know that you are doing this and that. Tell your friends or followers on Facebook, Twitter, groups, pages, etc about your business. Try and publicize your business. Don't just go into someone's DM and start disturbing with your messages.
7. Start From A Place For Free
This is known to be your first journey to making it in freelancing. Create impressions by offering free or less expensive services that will attract their attention. Social media groups are good for this. Attract their attentions by working for them freely the first month of freelancing. People love free things and with that, they can do anything for you after the service. Refer them to your freelancing platform using your gig link, let them create accounts on it for hiring. Persuade and tell them after the service to advertise your gig or brand and also to recommend you to other people. People are ready to do this for you if you do them well.
With that, they can take you to any length of success by referring you to their people and leaving good replies. Persuade them to rate your gig well and also, to give good testimonies, remarks and comments. These will beautifully advance your business and experience. Do it for the first month, push them to give good responses and you will see your business going higher. That will serve as proofs, to the other coming clients, that you have been hired and rendered the services well.
8. Find A Platform
After that, you can advance into the freelancing marketplace. Join the freelancing platform that is the best for you. We have many of them on the internet. Join the one that you love most, build your profile, portfolio, determine your price, find work and focus on relationship. For example, I as a freelancer joined Fiverr, and Guru when I started my freelance job. You can also join them or any of the other ones like Truelancer, PeoplePerHour, Upwork, Freelancer or any other one you might find interesting. Create an account and set it up. Build attractive gig(s) that will make them see your services. Join one and make your work ready for hiring.
Don't wait to start later, Join Fiverr now.
9. Promote Yourself
Promoting your business is the best thing you can do for yourself. And the first thing you can do to promote Yourself is to engage people. Write posts that talk about your business like tutorials, helping tips and competitions. This will let people trust you. And with that, you can advertise yourself with what you engage them with. Create an account that its name will tell people that you are a problem solver, write posts, add your gig, share the post and that is it. You can join groups on Facebook or any massive forum like Quora and Reddit. Build engagement that will boost your business. Don't be lazy to do that. Share, share and share your engagements.
Also, competitions are good for this. Compete to know your stand. You can use your portfolio that you did for free (don't tell the that you did it for free) to let them know that your work is unique. Let them know the levels of your outputs. This will let them trust and follow you up. Tell your people, friends, students and also, your clients to promote your gigs.
10. Do Research For Available Jobs
Don't sit and wait for work. You search for it instead. Write messages to people for jobs, write project proposals, join events and competitions, add more friends of your field and write to them, find jobs on many platforms, join online companies that are in need of your services and will hire you, post gigs to groups, make use of the comment section.
11. Always Pay Close Attention To Competition
As a freelancer, you need to pay attention to competition. This will make you fire the more. Internet market is highly competitive. Only those who stand out are those who really work harder than before. Don't be someone who fears. Be strong in everything you do. Try not to look clients down. Help them by rendering your best. That will surely give you the best too. Do unique work that has the power to drive anyone to you. Outputs can also make people ask who rendered the service. This will make you stand out of competitions. If things are not working out, just do not relent. Keep firing.
Also, pay good attention to what people say about you or any other renders, why they say it and the kind of effect it bring. Good things go better while bad things go worse. Train yourself well to render good service.
Doing all these will give you the chances to making real money online. Freelancing is a good job that can be done part-timely or full-timely. Develop yourself and be creative to anything. This will bring more people to hire you. Respond to your messages and learn how to manage your time. Make yourself ready for it as it comes. I wish you success in all fields.
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