How to start freelancing? Full time freelancing

 How to start freelancing? Full time freelancing

As much as 70% of the traditional workforce in the US would love to do additional freelance work next to their full-time jobs to increase their income. And, the number of top US companies and who are open to hiring freelancers is rapidly increasing.

To start freelancing while you already have a full-time job, you’ll have to consider the following steps:

Define your business goals

Before you start freelancing, you’ll have to be honest with yourself, and answer an important question:

• Is freelancing just a side gig? Or do you plan to expand it to a full-time business?

The answer to this question will determine your next steps, considering that you’ll either aim to balance your full-time and freelance work, OR aim to work your way out of your current job to pursue a full-time freelance career.

The answer to this question is your long-term goal. To pursue it, you’ll have to set a number of short-term goals and answer questions such as:

• What niche will you specialize in?

• What services will you offer?

• What amount do you want to be earning on a monthly basis to decide to quit your full-time job (if applicable)?

These are just some of the vital questions and short-term goals you need to work through to take your freelancing career off the ground.

Find a perspective niche (and stick to it)

No matter whether you’re a graphic designer, copywriter, developer, or anything in between by vocation, it’d be best if you were to specialize in a particular area of work:

For example, If you’re a content writer, don’t aim to write about any topic under the sun, from Top 3 Ways to Prepare Your Garden for Spring to Taxation Laws in all 50 US States Explained.

Sure, you may start by writing various topics, to find your ideal niche, but eventually, you should pick one, and stick to it.

But, Cryptocurrency or Technology content writer always sound much better in your CV than General content writer. Moreover, they inspire more confidence in you on the part of the clients who’ll always be looking for specific, and not general content.

The same is true if you’re a graphic designer:

• consider your level of experience
• your current pool of connections
• your natural inclinations to a particular design niche

Then, make your pick — focus on delivering interface design for apps, creating new custom logos, devising layouts for books, or any other specific design work.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should downright refuse to work on anything else. But, you will be building your experience, skills, and reputation in one specific line of work, which will increase your likelihood of getting hired to do side gigs for reputable companies looking for experts in a particular niche.*

*You should check with your employer on what’s the company’s policy of working on such side hustles. Perhaps your contract forbids you from accepting freelance work in your respectable niche, outside of the company.

Identify target clients

Just like you shouldn’t aim to cover every niche in your industry, you shouldn’t aim to cater to the needs of the entire industry’s market.

Small businesses, teams, remote workers, or even other freelancers may all require the same type of service you’re looking to offer. But, you’ll need to target one or two types of clients especially.

Say you want to start a blog about everything related to working remotely. There are freelancers, teams, but also entire businesses working remotely, and they can serve as your starting point.

But, just like with choosing a niche, specific is always better.

Think about the age of your desired readers. Perhaps you’re a Millennial, so you can write a blog about working remotely for Millennials?

Think about the location. Perhaps you want to cover predominantly the US market?

Think about the education level. Perhaps you want to cover newly independent remote workers, who’re just starting out their careers?

Think about income. Perhaps you’re looking to write for people with a limited budget, but who want to try digital nomadism?

Think about gender. Perhaps you want to predominantly target women freelancers?

These are only some questions you should ask yourself, but they reveal a lot. For example, that you can write for fresh-out-of-college female Millennials from the US looking to start and cultivate a remote career while traveling abroad with a limited budget.

This is specific enough to draw in the right crowd, but general enough not to alienate other remote workers. After all, you’ll still mostly write about challenges, tips, and hacks of remote work, which will likely interest all remote workers.

But, you’ll get a more specific idea where and how to market your blog, and what kind of copy you should write for your Landing page and subsequent pages.

Set your freelance rates

Setting your freelance rates always seems like a challenging point, but it’s a lot more straightforward when you list the necessary parameters that help determine your ideal (and realistic) pricing:

• Experience (if any)
• Education level
• Supply and demand for your services
• The prices in your industry
• The average freelance hourly rates in your niche
• Your location

 

Once you have all this data, you’ll need to calculate your hourly rate based on it — higher education, experience, and demand for your niche will mean you can set higher prices. If you’re based in the US, you’ll likely be able to command higher rates than if you’re based in the Philippines. Of course, your living standards and expenses will be higher, so you’ll also need to command higher rates.

For calculating your ideal hourly rates, we recommend trying our free hourly rate calculator that can give you a pretty good idea of where to start. To track the exact hours and minutes you spend working and have them converted into earnings (based on your hourly rates and the time you’ve tracked for a freelance project), try our freelance time tracking app Clockify.

In any case, you shouldn’t price yourself too high in relation to the listed parameters — because you’ll become too expensive to clients when compared to the competition.

But, even more importantly, you shouldn’t sell yourself short either. After all, you’ll need to think about covering your freelance expenses and making a profit. However, once you price your work too low, it’ll be difficult to increase your prices later, even if you find that you need to.

Create a website (and portfolio)

Once you’ve defined your business goals, found a niche, identified your target clients, and set your prices, you’ll want to create an online presence. And, the best way to do so is by creating your own website with a portfolio showcasing your previous work, skills, and expertise.

Creating a website for free through a website builder like Wix is fine, but you’ll be better off if you were to buy a domain name from a hosting website. You’ll get a unique name for your online presence and a customized email address, so you’ll look much more credible and overall more professional to potential clients.

Regardless of what your industry is, it may be best if you were to choose your own name for the domain, especially when you’re mostly looking to showcase your portfolio. You’ll stand out better, and it’ll later be easier to switch to a different industry (or niche) if you find that you want to.

Once you’ve selected a host and domain name, you can install WordPress to your website, and choose the website’s theme. Then, you can add a landing page describing your services, and prices, maybe even a separate page for a blog where you’ll write about industry-related topics.

Don’t forget to optimize your website for search engines. Include the most common industry-related keywords in your copy, to help Google position you better, and clients find you easier.

Most importantly, create a separate page just for your portfolio — depending on your industry, this can be:

• a video reel (if you’re a video producer, 3D, or 2D animator…)
• a selection of your best photographs (if you’re a photographer)
• an overview of your best articles (if you’re a writer)

Find your first client

Your first client may contact you because of your personal website portfolio, but you should also actively pursue your first gig bearing in mind what employers look for. There are several ways you can do this:

Get involved in your industry’s community

Join a forum catering to your industry, offer opinions on pressing issues and questions, and partake in discussions.

 

Also, don’t be afraid to ask questions yourself. If you see a wall mural, application, logo design, or any other industry-related work you like, contact the client who commissioned it and ask what he/she requested from the person who delivered the work.

Ask how they found the freelancer they hired, and why they hired him/her. After all, clients can best tell you what they want from the professionals they hire.

Learn how to pitch through email

Knowing how to pitch your expertise and skills is as important as having said expertise and skills. And, sending cold emails to potential clients is a good way to start. So, identify potential clients in your industry (a simple Google search can suffice), and start crafting your emails:

1. Personalize emails. Make sure you address the person in your email (avoid the popular “To Whom It May Concern” phrasing).
2. Make sure you pitch the email to the right person. If you’re pitching an online magazine to land a writing gig, make sure you send the pitch to the magazine’s editor, and not the magazine’s Art Director, or any other person unrelated to the field of writing.
3. Create a thoughtful proposal. Do your research, understand what the company or website you’re pitching to is looking for, and understand how your services tie into that.

You’ll probably need some practice with email pitching, but you’ll get the answer to how efficient your emails are soon enough. If no one replies to you, you’re likely doing something wrong and need to rethink your approach.

Finding your first client is the most difficult, especially if you haven’t yet made a name for yourself in your industry/niche. But, your first client (if he/she is satisfied with your work) can give you a referral to serve as your credibility among future clients.

Look through freelance job platforms/websites

You can go through general freelance job platforms, but also those aimed at developers, designers, virtual assistants, writers, translators, etc

Specifically, you can start with:

• Simply Hired, CareerBuilder, and FlexJobs (general)
• Github Jobs (development)
• If You Could Jobs (design)
• ProBlogger Job Board (writing)

Then, work your way from there.