How to become a freelancer in 6 simple practical steps

 

Did you know that freelancers (freelancers or freelancers) currently make up 35 per cent of the working class in the world? This means that there are currently about 1.1 billion freelancers in the whole world, 57 million of them work from home, according to the statistics of 2019. You might think that they constitute a much smaller percentage than this because this category is not widespread in your country. But let me add to your information that the projections say that Freelancers could represent 80 per cent of the working class in the world by 2030. Now, have you decided to be part of that? Well, let me help you in this article by introducing 6 simple steps that you can take right now to become a freelancer - a freelancer.

Before we start, let me answer you're troubling question:

What are the benefits of becoming a freelancer?

You choose when to work and when to stop: The era in which your employer determines when to start work in the morning has ended, when to end in the evening, and how long to take time off. The freelancer is the one who determines his schedule, the number of days off and when he gets it.

You can choose with whom you work and when to stop working with one of them: The freelancer is not satisfied with working with one client, but rather chooses a limited number of clients, whether they are individuals or institutions, and he who decides with whom he wants to work and when he stops working with an institution or a client.

Benefits related to the price of services and the workplace

You set the price of your services, not the market: I know that most of the time, when you find a traditional job, the organization determines the monthly wage that will be paid to you, and even if you have the possibility to discuss the fee, it will not exceed their offer, otherwise, they will apologize and pass it on to the candidate after you. The idea in self-employment is that you are the one who determines the price of your services, and whoever does not want to pay the price has to look for someone else. You are not bound to market prices at all. Your price is closely related to the quality of your business and your experience, which does not have to exceed 6 or 10 years in order to be called a great experience. It's enough for your job to be great and I know people who have succeeded in that in two years at the most.

The workplace is your choice: here, too, the era of going to the office and being imprisoned in a chair between four walls has ended, from eight in the morning until five in the evening. The freelancer determines his workplace: whether he wants to work from a public café, from his bedroom, or from a carpet on a beach on a tropical island .. Everything is possible and no one has the ability to imprison you where he wants.

Your future is in your hands: The beauty of freelance work or freelance is that the future and your options are limitless. You can work while building your next business idea and you can establish your own company while you freelance. You won't remain attached to the company you work for and there are no limits on the ideas you can develop.

This was one of the most important features of freelancing - Freelance - and of course there are many other points that I did not mention. As for now, I will immediately start talking about the practical and simple steps that will open up these unlimited horizons in front of you:

The first step: study your decision well

People should not understand from this article that jumping straight into the world of entrepreneurship is the ideal solution to all of their problems. exactly the contrary. I invite everyone to think carefully about their current opportunities, and according to their situation, they can determine whether self-employment is suitable for them or not. If you work in a traditional job now, do not leave it to become a freelancer until you are sure that you can survive and succeed in this field. My advice is to start the Freelance experience at the same time and don't quit until you see positive results.

Also, there is an important point that should be noted, which is that freelancing does not give you some of the advantages that you get from a traditional job. For example, you do not expect to be paid while you are on a summer vacation or any other vacation.

Second Step: Choose the appropriate method to search for your customers

There are many ways to find clients. Most freelancers use freelance websites because they are much easier than other methods, but each site has its pros and cons. I recommend that you read more about each site before you choose to start with it. But the best way is to find your customers on your own. How is that? You can turn to marketing and sales techniques to find customers, here are some examples:

Facebook groups for freelance work: You can view your services there.

LinkedIn: Many freelancers are finding clients on this site. Just research and communicate with potential clients.

Email Marketing: This method is also adopted by companies. You can search for your customers, collect contact information with them, then send email campaigns and wait for answers.

Other techniques: You can try other techniques after searching for them on the Internet and choosing the best method that works for you.

Third Step: Create your profile

In the event that you choose to start with the easiest way: working on freelance platforms, you will have to build your own profile - your profile - that will talk about you and provide an overview of your business and experiences to potential clients. This step is very important because the personal file is the alternative to the CV, and it will be very important to build a high-quality personal file because the first idea presented to the visitor may determine the fate of your professional relationship.

Building a profile depends on many factors, including the type of platform you have chosen and also your speciality.

Fourth Step: Create a portfolio of your previous work - Portfolio

Contrary to traditional work, where the CV is the most important factor in selecting the best candidate, in self-employment, there is much more important than a CV and profile, which is the previous work file or the so-called Portfolio.

This file collects your best past work and the nice thing about it is that you can create one even if you have neither previous business nor previous clients. How is that? By imagining you do the work for a client who has requested it and then work on it and put it in your file. You can also offer clients a price reduction in exchange for samples to place in your portfolio.

Whether you are a content writer or a website programmer, you cannot find clients without a portfolio of previous work. If I were you, I would focus on creating a strong business portfolio that displays the quality of the work in a way that interests the customer and persuades him to work with me. There will be other articles on the blog to expand on this point.

Fifth step: Determine the prices of your services

Freelancer price

One of the big differences between freelance and traditional work is that you do not wait for companies to quote on prices. Rather, you determine it. There are many tools and websites that help you set your rates according to your industry and your number of years of experience. You can read our previous blog article to see its details.

Among the strategies for setting pricing:

Dependence on the number of years of experience: Determine your price based on the number of years of experience you have, as it rises the higher the latter.

Based on market price and competition: See the prices of competitors in your field and determine a price that suits the market

Rely on the quality of your work: Ignore all other factors and set a price based solely on the quality of your work

On the size of the request: ignore all other factors and set a price based on the volume of demand that affects your business. The fewer hours you work per week, the higher the price.

The sixth step: Search for work - or clients - to be more precise

Finally, we have reached the stage of searching for clients or projects that you want to accomplish. This is the last stage and often requires a lot of time in the beginning, but if you follow the previous steps with their details, you will not find it difficult in this step.

Look for projects that you can only complete with high quality: It is important that you only order projects that you trust in your ability to complete them with the required quality. I noticed that a lot of Freelancers are asking for projects that they don't know how to work on. This is a fatal mistake in the world of self-employment. It will make the customer lose confidence in you and put a bad rating in the end. Is that what you want is someone who is still in the beginning? of course not.

Dedicate an hour a day to researching the best opportunities: the more time you invest in research projects and clients, the higher your chances of obtaining them.

Write persuasive proposals while requesting projects: do not just ask for projects. Most freelance platforms will ask you to write a letter of motivation or offer explaining why the client should choose you and not others. Try to talk about the project more than yourself. Put yourself in the place of the customer and re-read your offer... If you do not convince yourself to work with yourself, do not think that the customer will be convinced of that.

In the end…

These steps will seem difficult at first. But once you try it and learn from your mistakes, you will notice that it was very necessary for success in self-employment, and it will begin to give promising results after only a few months or weeks. Often, getting the first customer is the hardest step.