How to succeed as a freelancer
To succeed as a freelancer has become easier than before especially with the impact Covid-19 has had on many businesses.
Many business owners, in an effort to stay afloat, had to take their businesses online. And as a result, the number of people working remotely and the demand for freelancers increased greatly.
Now, where does this leave you as a freelancer? A position of advantage, I must tell you. But hold on. So you don’t put the cart before the horse, there are things you should know in order to succeed as a freelancer. Without further ado, let’s examine a few of them:
Networking
If you’ve read my post on knowing whether to freelance or not (you can find it here), you would have come across the term ‘networking’. Networking is one word that cannot be overemphasized. After all, as a freelancer, you are not dealing with Martians.
You need to network with people. Know someone that knows you — as a freelancer. It’s important people know what you can do. Many a job that can be done by a friend or the friend of a friend has ended up on the screen of someone in another time zone whose last name, the owner of the job does not even remember.
Getting jobs on freelance market place is awesome; however, you know what can be more awesome? Getting jobs through your own act of networking.
Doing your own networking and then signing up on a platform like this allows you to leverage on the already established network of the site. That, is a good thing — with one downside. The downside is that you don’t control the network. You can’t reach out to the people whenever you choose; rather, they come to you when they need you or if they remember you, but the people in your own network? They are just a call away — I believe.
How much should you charge?
I can’t begin to tell you how crippling it can be for a freelancer who is a newbie when these words enter her auditory nerves: ‘how much do you charge?’ Everything seems to slow down, at least for me. I begin to think…and then smile — sheepishly like a six-year-old cutie. ‘Should I charge this person or do it for free? After all, it won’t take time.’ I would snap out of this thought when the client asks the question again and still wouldn’t be able to say something solid.
Is it the same thing with you? It is? It’s okay. Just read the next line carefully.
That you enjoy doing something doesn’t mean you should do it for free.
Read it again.
And another thing:
You are a freelancer. Not a volunteer.
My two cents:
I would not advise you to charge per hour. It’s deceptive. You know why? You have become an expert who has been able to reduce his work duration per project to the minimum. That’s a bit unclear. Let me do better.
If as a newbie, you were using two hours to, let’s say, do an E-card.
Now that you’ve honed your skill and can pull it off in a matter of minutes, will it make sense for you to reduce your fee simply because you’ve become better at your craft? Doesn’t make sense, right? Good. On the contrary, you should actually increase it. Yeah! You’ve gotten better for crying out loud!
But the sad reality is that many freelancers try to economize for their prospective clients and end up shortchanging themselves. You can’t succeed as a freelancer this way.
Let me ask you these questions:
Did your prospective client show you her bank statement? No.
Did she say she is broke? I don’t think so.
Did she ask you to do it for near-to-nothing? I doubt that.
Let’s slow down a bit here before I get misquoted. I am in no way insinuating you should extort your client. Far be it from thee to act in such a manner. Far be it from thee.
What you should do is to structure your charges in such a way that you are not at a disadvantage. And bringing down your fee in order to beat the competition is simply not the way. It seems like it, but it isn’t.
So, charge per project, if you ask me. Take revisions into consideration, if you ask me. Consider commission(s), if you ask me. And charge with the value of your service in mind, If. You. Ask. Me.
Impression
Come out of you for a second and view your online profile through your grandma’s eyes. Do you understand what you wrote in your bio? Does your description make sense, at least to you? Will your grandma understand it? Will mine understand it? How about a client? Will she be really really interested in having you do what you say you can do?
Hey, look here. Give me your attention. I know you know your craft. I don’t doubt it. But you see, the sons of men don’t see your heart. It’s lugubrious but they are not to blame. What they see is their screen and the uninteresting and unenthusiastic way you probably presented your profile page.
To succeed as a freelancer — fast — you need to start thinking like a client and present yourself as a company. How they perceive you will go a long way in determining how far they will be willing to go to hire you.
This is not just about creating a positive impression on a freelancing platform like 10Times Pro for instance, it also applies to your social media presence. There should be a form of consistency about you on the internet regarding the posts you make on your timeline, the post you share, the people and pages you follow, etc. All these should be designed as a way of optimizing your page to communicate to prospective clients that you are indeed someone who knows what she is talking about.
There are other key things like communication and attitude to work that are necessary for you to succeed as a freelancer but for the sake of this post, I think I will put a stop to it — for now, maybe.
