Regardless of whether you are a Software Developer, QA or Software Tester, Management Professional, Graphic Designer, Web Developer, or Freelance writer, I am here today to share some of the field-tested principles that should serve as exemplars for building a successful freelance business. Before we move on to the tips let’s explore why freelancing is getting so popular nowadays.
Why Freelancing?
When you have a fulltime job, you are always limited by the company you are working with. You have a fixed salary, working schedule, and more or less similar daily tasks. Your work strongly depends on the decisions of upper management and organization policy. For sure, such a job provides stability and confidence. And a lot of people are completely satisfied with that. Freelancing in its turn is suitable for people who are not afraid of risks and challenges, prefer independence, take full responsibility for the work they do and ready to work/earn on their own conditions.
A career of a freelance professional provides the following opportunities:
- Try many different projects and industries.
- Combine work and study.
- Have direct communication with clients.
- Learn the latest tools and trending techniques.
- Gain a wide professional experience.
- Work on several assignments at a time.
- Manage your vacations and free time as per your wish.
- Earn much more than a regular job in less time and effort.
Actionable Tips for Successful Freelancing
Find a site, register, create your profile, and start looking for jobs. Easy, right? Well, not exactly. Freelancing sites are always swarming with potential clients. But, most of the sites are also filled with millions of freelancers who compete with each other to land the job. So the key to winning is finding a fairly new freelancing site with low competition, showcase your skill set like a pro, and hypnotize your clients with a killer proposal.
An incomplete profile is never highlighted, so make sure to complete your profile by adding all details like education, certification, hourly rate, and previous work experiences. It’s advisable to keep the hourly price low if you are a beginner and looking for converting more jobs.
Once as a freelancer your profile has been reviewed and approved, you can start submitting proposals, but mind it submitting proposals doesn’t guarantee the chance to get the job, but it is the first step for a freelancer to be considered for the position. Most likely clients would review your applications and contact you for interviews.
For a freelance position, factors checked are whether the candidate has the right skill set, availability, per hour rate, portfolio of past work and recommendations.
A lot of freelancers get caught up in the details of contracts, and it’s ultimately wasting a lot of time that should be spent making money. All you need for the time being is a general agreement ( in many cases the freelancing platform also provides the contract format) that covers some basic, yet important terms that both you and the client need to agree upon. Having some basic terms in place for every project will help protect you, but more importantly, will help inform the client of how you work.
Be the name and face of your business, because your business is you. You can shape that however, you’d like, but the key is, not to fake. Also, when a client is interested in working with you, be transparent in conversing with them. If you only take on freelance opportunities part-time, let them know. Otherwise, you could run into a situation where expectations are misaligned and conflicts pop up as a result.
Many freelancers make the mistake of filling their portfolio with work just to show that they have some sort of skill in design. But most often, the work just comes off as all over the place, and will only do your portfolio a disservice. Your freelance portfolio should only contain the work you specialize in and want to continue accepting via client work.The work can consist of past client work or even personal work.
Just because you work from home doesn’t mean you’re not a business owner, and every good business owner needs to know their numbers. Such as Business revenue, expenses, deadlines, effort spent etc. Knowing these numbers will shed light on the areas that are working for you and what areas need improvement.
As serious Freelancer, you should start separating your income and savings. For every dollar you make that’s business-related, you should split it into:
- Business-related expenses
- Income Taxes
- Personal Savings
- Living Expenses
Saying “No” is hard, as most of the time as a Freelancer you don’t want to disappoint anyone, so you offer to help any way you can, not really considering the strenuous load it’ll put on you. Whether it be the client because you’re unable to deliver halfway through the project, your family because you’re working long hours, or yourself because you’re so stressed with the work you’ve chosen to take on. So if your rate is not met, please don’t underrate yourself and say Yes, instead say No.
Please feel free to share thoughts in the comment section and do subscribe to my channel or try my course on Software Testing for learning more.
Thanks!
Prashant Kumar
Prashant Kumar 