Are you eager to start freelancing? Being a freelancer means selling single assignments and services to other companies and individuals. You often run your own business or use a self-employment company like Shoutly to bill your clients. Working as a freelancer is very different from a permanent job and means a lot of freedom for you because you control your time and tasks yourself.
Of course, there are both advantages and disadvantages of working as a freelancer, you can read more about it here.
Here are some tips that might be useful to keep in mind before you take on your first assignments.
The art of selling yourself
When you are going to sell yourself to a customer, you are competing with countless people and some will certainly have more experience than you and some will be cheaper than you. It depends, of course, on the industry you work in, but also on what expertise you have.
What the vast majority of people do when selling themselves is to describe what experiences and training they have. This is of course good, but you should also try to focus on how you, with your skills, can benefit that particular company's business. It is usually a more interesting angle for the company that is going to buy your services and can make you stand out from the crowd.
Putting a price on your services
Pricing is also extremely important when working as a freelancer, your clients pay for your experience and your results. You need to think about what your customers get for their money and value your services accordingly. The same type of job can be valued differently for different companies and it is difficult to set a completely standardized price, adapt it to your customer.
If you are completely new to the market, of course, you cannot take the same money as someone who has worked for years, has hundreds of jobs in the bag and strong credentials. Pricing too high if you are new will not get the jobs you want so be flexible.
Sometimes it might be better to accept a lower salary than not to take the job at all if you can use the work to strengthen your portfolio. Which in turn can lead to you getting better paying jobs in the future. Here you have to be strategic.
As a rule, never do anything for free, your work and time are always worth something. You will certainly get requests to do something for free against exposure or to use the material in your portfolio. Keep in mind that they would not have requested your services if it had not benefited their business, if the company makes money from your material or services then you should too.
How to become a better freelancer:
- Invest in yourself and develop your skills. Get better at selling, attend trainings and learn new things all the time.
- The basis of being able to enjoy freedom as a freelancer is discipline. Plan your time and assignments, look ahead and be proactive.
- Set aside time to build your own brand by being visible. It can be through networking or sharing your knowledge through an instagram account, a blog or similar.
- Define your target audience and become an expert in that field. It's more interesting for a company to bring you in if you have a niche than if you know a little about alot of things. This is also where you can stand out in the crowd and start charging.
- Find channels where you can find new customers. Don't depend on someone else to find a job, spread out the risk and build a steady clientele on your own. Marketplaces for freelancers can be a great start or a complement to your other assignments.
- Understand your pricing and try to find out how you stand among the competition.
- Sign agreements with your customers and ask for clear requirements. It should be clear what is expected of you in order for you to be paid. A well-written agreement means that both you and the company have something to lean back on if a dispute arise.
- It may be a good idea to use a self-employment company like Shoutly if you find it difficult to keep track of taxes and fees. Then you get your money paid out as salary directly into your account without having to hassle with accounting.
- If you are going to start your own company, you need to familiarize yourself with how it works to run a company. It might be good to take a course in running your own business. Remember that you yourself are responsible for putting money aside for the pension if you run your own business.
