How to Start Freelancing
Freelancing - the mention of the word alone proves to be quite inspiring for
most people, especially today in a world of modern digital information
technology and fast communication systems. For most people, this means freedom
from all the hassles brought about by the conventional 9 to 5 slave-to-the-grind
employment opportunities that populate the business world. But before you go and
go all gung-ho and violent with your supervisors, bosses, and everyone else who
all just seem to control your time whenever you're at the office, you should
consider planning ahead in order to pave a successful road to freelancing
freedom.
First, you need to determine the profitability of such a freelancing venture
since you would need to feed and subsequently raise your family in the process,
too, which can be a fatal aspect to miss whenever you're up in the clouds
dreaming of attaining the higher level of consciousness that can be brought
about by freelancing freedom, or at least a successful one. This means that you
should identify your skills and compare it not only against your competitors,
but rather the demand of the market as well for the skills you possess.
This requires you to conduct market research of your own. Of course, you don't
need to acquire the services of other people to do this task for you since you
wouldn't want to be dependent on others while you're trying to establish your
niche in the freelancing industry. In addition, this could prove to be a
self-defeating move since the ones you assign to conduct market research for you
would probably have enough time to realize just how much profitable and
liberating freelancing is, which would evidently make you hurl your market
research papers straight to the bin since you would need to re-draft the
competition percentages in your chosen niche due to the added numbers brought
about by the same people you hired.
If you possess a multitude of skills, then all you need to do is focus on your
strongest points that are also the most sought-after services in the industry.
You need to pick at least the two most proficient services you can carry out in
an effective manner from your wide array of skills in order to determine the
marketability of your services. This plainly means that you should hold firm
ground with what you do best and continue to plan ahead on how to market
yourself further.
A website will come in handy. This is the most cost-effective means for you to
advertise and market your services. If you don't know anything about web design
and development, then let the experts do the job for you. of course, you may
want to consider acquiring outsourced web design and development services since
these people are first, freelancers like you or what you intend to be, next,
they charge dirt-cheap fees, and finally, they're as skilled as the ones from
the most powerful and digitally-advanced countries of the world. You would also
need a SEO consultant in order for your website to actually reach your intended
market which is, in this case, prospective clients.
Next, you need to know just where your targeted market of clients go to chat
about their needs for the services you offer. Identifying the places your
prospective clients hang out to look for freelancers providing the services you
yourself offer, online or offline, will play a crucial role in bolstering your
chances of attaining freelancing success. If you're outsourcing your skills,
then going to the conventions mostly held in other countries would totally be
out of the question since this would cost you a fortune.
Web forums will definitely be a crucial element in your plans of freelancing.
You should consider hanging out at web forums that are relevant to the services
you intend to offer your prospective clients. You should actively participate in
the conversations that can be found ensuing in such web forums, and you should
keep in mind that advertising your services to the point of being accused of
actually spamming will be severely detrimental to your plans of freelancing your
way to success.
Finally, you should keep your rates as competitive as the cheapest rates out
there in the outsourced markets. But you should always remember that humility
needs some form of dignity, so you shouldn't work doubly hard freelancing when
you could get the same rates at half of your output from a conventional
part-time job being offered by a business establishment near you. You should
never compensate the quality of your services for your rates, so stay as
competitive and on top of your competitors by always providing quality services
to your clients. Word-of-the-mouth advertising is the most effective form of
marketing, and you should keep your clients talking about you and your services
at all times. Of course, it is but common sense to stay out of scams, so do your
own credit investigations on clients that seem to be too good to actually be
true, especially if they have expressed their intentions of hiring your services
- this goes the same for those websites that seek freelancers to work for them.