Are you planning to become a freelancer?
This guide and tips might help you.
As the year's pass, freelancing is not just a trend today. It is the future of work. According to the study conducted by a large freelancing platform provider, Upwork, if the trends continue growing in coming years, many people will be freelancing in the future.
Suppose you are not a freelancer yet and are interested in joining the freelancing world and earning money. You must first need to learn and understand the advantages of being a freelancer.
When you hear the word freelancer, what comes first in your mind?
Yes, it is. A freelancer is a self-employed person who offers clients services—freelancers commonly known as virtual assistants or administrative support.
Here are some services that freelancer can provide to business owners/entrepreneurs:
General Virtual Assistant
Social Media Management
Transcription
Social Media Marketing
Bookkeeping/Accounting
Writing/Editing
Web Design
Graphic Design
Data entry
Some are focus on general areas while others are in specific industries such as real state assistants or their chosen niche such as copywriter.
As you know, many people want freelancing thinking that it's the fastest and affordable way to get started working. All you need is skills and equipment for you to get started work from home.
Here are some advantages of freelancing:
Affordable to start
Suppose you can provide a particular service you also already need to have equipment and pieces of training. If you think you have it all, then you can start it now.
You can set your hours
Freelancing is flexible. You can work part-time or full-time on your projects at your convenient hours.
High demand job
Because of high demand, the freelance market is competitive and reliable, and quality professional freelancers are growing. Today, many businesses are not hiring employees and rely upon freelancers because of the trend that freelancers cost-less to companies than employees do, even if freelancers are higher in rate - to think that they don't have payroll fees benefits.
Work/life balance
If you choose to do what you want to do and you get great paid for all the work and happy with whom you work with, you feel more balanced and comfortable in your life because happiness depends on your work success.
Work wherever you want
This is great for those who want to work from home. If you love traveling, you could work and travel simultaneously as long as you have access to the internet.
You can pick and choose your clients.
You start freelancing. You probably want to take any client that will hire you, but you can also pick a client depends on the work they ask you to do. If you think that it's your niche, you can tell them that you can work with them, but if you feel it is not your chosen niche, be honest and tell them to find another that fits the work that clients are asking.
If there are advantages, there are also disadvantages of freelancing that you must know before you decide if you are suited to it.
Freelancing is not an overnight success.
You need to have a proper time management plan, be ready and prepare to work hard to deliver your work on time when you have plenty of work. Find a client who's willing to pay for the quality as quickly as possible—charging affordable costs if necessary.
You are in charge of all aspects of your freelancing career.
You need skills aside from the ability to do work freelancing is continuous learning while working. Marketing, bookkeeping, invoicing is all part of freelancing.
The work Isn't always consistent.
So for you to avoid the issue, you must know these little tips. Find clients with substantial volume consistent work and deliver outstanding results so that they become regular service providers.
Your responsibility to pay for your benefits
If you are a regular employee, you are automatically enrolled with many benefits, insurance, healthcare, and retirement plans. But as a freelancer, you are the one who chooses where and what group of insurance you might want to join with. You can be enrolled as a voluntary or self-employed individual to pay for your social security and healthcare.
Managing multiple clients and projects
It is a challenging part. You have to pace yourself to produce and deliver quality work on time.
Client have schedules
Most clients are not the same with our time, and you need to be set your time as what your client availability. If your client time is available at dawn, you need to be up with the roosters to see your client.
Ways How to Get Started as a Freelancer
There is an easy way to get started as freelancers by using freelancing sites such as Upwork and OnlineJobs.Ph for Filipino freelancers, you can find work, or visiting one of the freelance websites can help find you a job.
Take note! Make sure you follow the rules set up on-site for communicating and receiving your payments from clients.
Create your online portfolio
Decide what services you can offer
Know your target market
Decide how much your services rate
Market your services
Now that you know some of the guide and tips for freelancing and your decision to start your career as a freelancer, it's time for you to come up with your action plan and build a success mindset. :)