Freelance
Making the leap from a full time job to freelance can be a scary thing. No longer do you have a steady paycheck, benefits, or the luxury of a paid vacation. On the flip side, freelancing can be a great thing. It gives you the ability to pick your own projects, make your own hours, and do what it is you enjoy most.
If you have decided to take your hobby of design, coding, blogging, etc to a full time freelance gig, it can be a rough start. Building client lists, finding jobs, and create some sort of steady income can be hard. Once things get off the ground and you have some regular clients, things will get much easier. I would say the a good 80% of your business will be from repeat clients or word of mouth from past clients.. Doing a good job as a freelancer can go a long way.
Starting Up
If you want to start your freelance career the right way, there is more to it than just putting some of your past work on a portfolio site. Theres marketing to do, branding to create, accounting to understand, and business forms to fill out. Taking the time to start your freelance business the right way will help you feel and look more professional. Theres no rule saying that a freelance business can’t have look of a larger firm.
Getting your business started is almost as hard as keeping it running. Once you get the legal and accounting paperwork out of the way its time to start marketing your self and looking for clients. they will be your best friend and your worst enemy all at the same time.
Clients
Your clients are going to be your bread and butter as a freelancer. Do all that you can to make your clients happy, but don’t sacrifice good business practices. This includes not doing business on spec, working for free, or sending un-watermarked samples. be upfront and clear with your client and it will save both of headaches later down the road.
As mentioned above, much of your business will come from your repeat client in one form or another. Once you finish a project for a client, try to get them to write a review or testimonal about your services. This is like gold to you as a freelancer. You can use these testimonials to help promote your freelance business.
Getting Organized
While working at home can be a blessing, its not as easy as it sounds. What is easy is to blow off working so you can watch TV, or loose motivation and just go out. As freelancers we often take on more than we can chew. This partly do to us trying to create some sort of steady income. Because of this and the detail oriented nature of our business, it’s easy to get disoraganized.
Its not unheard of to forget a project completely, forget to invoice a client, or email the wrong samples to the wrong client. Finding the right tools to help keep you motivated and organized will increase your productivity and hopefully your paycheck.
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