How to start a freelance business?

Introduction

courtesy: Unsplash

Have you always wanted to do something you love and eventually, making money out of it? If that sounds good then move on.

Freelancing is the new norm, but how to know if it suits you or not? Freelancing is not at all a quick-rich scheme, it takes patience, hard work, perseverance, and consistency to build a freelancing business. What is it? Freelancing means offering a service to a potential customer who needs it, you work on your own terms and get the flexibility to work from anywhere around the world at anytime you want.

People who travel the world and support themselves are known to be as 'Digital Nomads.' However, I will not be focusing on that part.

Learn a skill

You have to offer services to people who need it, so the first step to start a freelance business is to have a skill you can offer to customers. Either you have a skill you can offer or you can learn one.

As the world going toward digitization you have got a hell lot of opportunities. You can look around yourself, most people are consuming digital content in one or the other way. The internet is full of resources so you don't have to pay to learn anything or maybe a trivial amount. All you need is the zeal to learn, nothing else. Look at the infographic below, the intersection is where freelancing resides.

Where there is an opportunity, there is competition. Make sure you study the market before deep diving into it, by that I mean research that there are enough jobs available in the particular field. If yes, then you are good to go. 

Don't be afraid at all by thinking that there is too much competition, I should tell you I too delve into a competitive arena of graphic designing, but got paid well and enjoy working on projects.

Here are some resources from where you can learn the skills of your choice.

• YouTube (almost everything is available here for free, just make a 'How to' search)
• Class Central 
• Open courseware (free courses from MIT)
• Harvard online courses (free online courses from Harvard university covering topics such as art & design, business, computer science, etc)
• Udemy Free courses (over 649 courses available)

I'll be updating the list in the future. 

If you already possess a skill then move forward to the next heading.

Making projects and building a portfolio (getting real-world experience)

Now you have a skill, maybe web development, graphic design, digital marketing, video editing, lead gen, marketing, or anything you can offer. It's time to put all of it at practice.

You must have the experience of working on projects before you close your first client, this way it is much more easygoing than to figure it out at the time of project delivery. By this I mean do you have all the essential tools in order to complete the project? Are you well-versed with the processes used to complete the required gig?

You must ask the above questions to yourself, if you are a beginner then make as many projects you can or work for other people may be for free initially but not necessarily. If you know how to edit videos then edit enough videos, if graphic design, then do try to make different pieces or composition so that it becomes bread and butter for you.

Where to showcase?

To bring clients to your table you should have something to showcase so that they can hire you. Now your portfolio can be totally different if you are a video editor from a person who is in web design.

You have to choose a platform where you can show off what you can do, and how much value you can provide them. If you are using social media mindlessly then you are losing lots of potential clients. For me, I closed my first client on Instagram! Isn't that great? social media is great unless you use it in a proper way. Social media is at your disposal why not use it for your business? Further, I'll tell you how to get clients from social platforms. Just make sure you post about something you are well-versed with.

Getting clients from Social Media

Now I'll show some real-world facts of how can you close clients from social media whether Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or even Reddit. All you need is to search for the appropriate term and use proper keywords.

Here I'm searching 'need a web designer' on twitter and the results are in front of you.

There are people looking for web designers. Yes, you can definitely get clients from social media. Here I used twitter you can replicate the same process on Reddit or Facebook. It's a little different on Instagram however.

On Instagram, it's about analyzing the profile of the person you are going to send a message. Unfortunately, there is no search method like on twitter or Reddit, so what should you do? simply analyze the profile then send them a direct message.

Don't ever send "Hi" or "Hey", as said earlier analyze the profile properly read what the person is posting about and then use it as a context to send an affirmative message. Example "I like the post on your account about business and strategy. Would love to see more from you, btw I'm Shashwat." Like this, you are making a personal relationship with the person and not just spamming.

What if the person doesn't reply? No problem, in the introduction I said you need perseverance. At least message 100 people you'll surely get one, just don't get blocked by Instagram!

Getting started with freelancing platforms

If you don't want to post on social media then freelancing platforms bring you another opportunity. There are many platforms out there in the market where you can easily set up your profile. If you have followed the above steps then you can continue and start today itself. If you are starting on these platforms then you have to put up your portfolio, depending on the platform.

Like on Freelancer and Upwork you have to write proposals. What are the proposals? The buyers post about the job they want to get done and provide you with their budget. You have to persuade them so the work is awarded to you. Now here the client may take your portfolio into account or he/she can be happy by how you present your proposal. A lot of things can be taken into account as there are many filters on the websites. 

Here I'll enumerate a list of platforms -

• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Freelancer
• Guru
• people per hour
• Hubstaff talent

These are not ranked according to any criteria, I recommend you to make your profile on at least a minimum of two platforms or you can make on all of them. After that just start uploading your portfolio and write a short and sweet bio, show them numbers, tell them what skills you got and how you can help the customer by putting them to use.

Anywhere you go there is competition, so you don't have to stick to one platform initially. Make sure your profile is complete wherever you sign up. I closed clients from social media only after that I came on Fiverr. On Fiverr, it's the other way round the client comes to you instead. You have to post what services you offer in terms of gigs. You describe everything about what you are offering and can make different tiers of it with a separate pricing.

The price starts at $5 and goes up to $995 to know more read this article. You can publish up to 7 gigs. If you publish 7 then chances of getting an order increase 7x times, so try to utilize it.

Be accountable

Having the right mindset is essential, that is the reason I call it freelancing business and not just freelancing. When you treat it as a business you start analyzing how to grow it more. Treat your customers with respect, and follow the ethics. 

Always try to deliver the project on time that is how you build trust among your clientele. If you are utilizing the freelance platforms always communicate on the same platform; they provide you with everything you need.

Conclusion

Don't get demotivated, use the kaizen technique to improve yourself every day. It can take up to a month to land your first project. And I must tell you the first one is the most difficult after that you become good at it. I too didn't knew anything about this earlier. But see now I'm writing a blog post about it.

The infographic above shows how to solve a problem. It's simple to follow. After following you'll forget about quitting in any situation in your life. Just tweak your processes and adjust them. Happy freelancing, enjoy the journey.

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