Mastering the Art of Freelancing: Kickstarting Your Professional Journey

Starting a freelance career opens up possibilities, allowing you to work on your terms and follow your passions. As a new freelancer, crafting an engaging personal introduction is your gateway to success.

Showcasing your expertise, past projects, and unique skills can establish credibility and capture potential client's attention. Whether you're exploring freelance writing, web development, marketing, design, or any other field, your introduction should reflect your dedication and professionalism. 

Platforms like work offer tips to create a standout freelancer profile that makes an impactful first impression. Remember, a well-crafted bio can enhance your image and make you more appealing to potential clients. Embrace the journey of self-promotion as successful freelancers. Combine your passion with strategic presentation to excel in this dynamic career choice.

Here are the steps you should take to start your freelance career.

#1 Define Your Business Goals

Before venturing into freelancing, it's essential to address a crucial question honestly: Are you considering freelancing as a side gig, or do you envision turning it into a full-time business? Your response to this question will shape your approach, as you may opt to juggle freelance work alongside a full-time job or transition away from your current employment to embrace a freelance career fully.

The solution to this query is your long-term purpose. To pursue it, you should set some short-term goals and answer questions such as:

• What niche will you focus on?
• What services will you provide?
• What monthly income must you earn to consider leaving your full-time job (if applicable)?

Those are some crucial questions and short-term goals you want to pursue to take your freelancing career off the ground.

#2 Find a Specific Niche (and Stick To It!)

Specializing in a specific area of expertise is crucial, whether you're a graphic designer, copywriter, developer, or involved in any other profession. This focused approach allows you to refine your skills, build a targeted portfolio, and position yourself as an expert in a niche market. Clients are often drawn to specialists who can demonstrate deep knowledge and proficiency in a specific domain, making your freelance services more appealing and competitive.

For example, if you're a content writer, avoid targeting every topic, from "Top 10 Effective Ways to Prepare Any Garden for Spring" to "Taxation Laws in All US States Explained." While you may start by exploring various topics, eventually choose one and stick to it. However, being a cryptocurrency or technology content author sounds more impressive than being a general content writer. It instills more confidence in clients looking for specific, not generic, content. 

The same applies if you're a graphic designer:

• Consider your level of experience.
• Assess your current connections.
• Reflect on your natural inclination toward a specific design niche.
• Then, focus your consciousness on delivering interface designs for apps, creating new custom logos, devising layouts for books, or any other specific design project.

Make a choice and focus on delivering high-quality work in that specific field while still building your experience. While you don't have to refuse other types of work, specializing increases your chances of getting hired for side gigs in your niche. 

However, check your company's policy on side hustles. Your contract might prohibit freelance work in your primary niche outside the company. 

#3 Identify Target Clients

Just as you shouldn't try to cover every niche in your industry, avoid attempting to cater to the needs of the entire market. Small businesses, teams, remote workers, or even freelancers may all seek your exact service. However, you'll need to target one or two types of customers specifically.

For instance, if you want to start a blog about remote work, you could focus on freelancers, teams, or entire companies operating remotely as your starting point. However, being specific is always better. Consider the age, location, education level, income, and gender of your target audience. If you're a Millennial, you can write a blog about working remotely for Millennials. 

• Reflect on the consideration of the region.
  • Perhaps you need to cover the predominantly American market?

• Consider the training stage.
  • Perhaps you want to support newly independent remote workers just starting their careers.

• Consider the aspect of profitability.
  • Perhaps you aim to write for individuals with a limited budget, but who would still like to explore obtaining a digital nomad visa?

• Consider gender.
  • Perhaps you want to target female freelancers primarily? 

These are just a few questions you must ask yourself, but they reveal a lot. For instance, you could write for freshly graduated female millennials from the United States looking to start and grow a remote career while traveling abroad on a limited budget. 

This is specific enough to attract the right audience but broad enough not to alienate other remote workers. You'll still generally write about challenges, tips, and hacks of remote work, appealing to a broader audience. However, you'll know where and how to market your blog and what type of copy to write for your landing and subsequent pages.

🏆 Business Fact!

Learning how to write articles and getting paid for them is crucial.

#4 Set Your Freelance Rates

Setting your freelance rates may seem challenging, but it's more straightforward when you consider the essential parameters that determine your ideal (and realistic) pricing:

• Experience (if any)
• Education level
• Supply and demand for your services
• Rates in your industry
• Average freelance hourly rates in your niche
• Your location

Once you have this information, calculate your hourly rate based on it. Higher education, experience, and demand in your niche may allow you to set higher rates. You'll likely command higher rates in the US than in the Philippines. Adjust your rates based on living standards and expenses in your location. 

However, don't price yourself too high, or you'll be too expensive compared to the competition. But more importantly, don't undervalue yourself. You'll want to consider your freelance rates to make a profit. Pricing your work too low makes it challenging to increase your rates later on. 

#5 Create a Website (and Portfolio)

Once you've defined your business goals, chosen a niche, identified target clients, and set your rates, establish an online presence. Creating your website with a portfolio showcasing your past work, skills, and expertise is essential. 

Developing a free website using a website builder like Wix is good, but purchasing a domain name from a hosting site adds credibility and professionalism. You'll get a unique name and a customized email address, making you more credible to potential clients. Regardless of your industry, choosing your name for the domain, especially when showcasing your portfolio, is a smart move, mainly while you're typically looking to show off your portfolio. It helps you stand out and makes transitioning to a different industry or niche easier if needed.

After selecting a host and domain name for your website, the next steps involve installing WordPress, choosing a theme, and creating pages to showcase your freelance services and rates. Additionally, you may consider incorporating a blog section where you can write about industry-related topics. A blog adds valuable content to your site and positions you as an authority in your field, attracting potential clients interested in your expertise and insights.

Don't forget to thoroughly optimize your website for search engines like Google. Include common industry-related keywords in your copy to dramatically improve search rankings and make it easier for clients to find you. Most importantly, create a separate page for your portfolio tailored to your industry:

• A video reel (for video producers, 3D or 2D animators)
• A collection of your best images (for photographers)
• An overview of your top articles (for writers)

🏆 Business Trivia!

You can become a freelance writer without prior experience through dedicated learning and finding clients.

#6 Find Your First Client

Your first client might reach out to you through your personal website portfolio, but actively pursuing your first gig is crucial. There are several ways to do this:

• Get Involved in Your Industry's Community
  • Join a forum catering to your industry, provide insights on pressing issues, ask questions, and connect with professionals.
  • If you see work you admire, whether a mural, app design, or logo, contact the client who commissioned it and inquire about their experience with the freelancer. 
  • Ask how they found the freelancer and why they chose them. Clients can even provide valuable insights into what they seek from their hiring professionals. 

• Explore Freelance Job Platforms/Websites
  • Browse general freelance job platforms and those specific to developers, designers, digital assistants, writers, translators, etc.
  • Start with popular platforms like:
    • Simply Hired, CareerBuilder, FlexJobs (general)
    • GitHub Jobs (development)
    • If You Could Jobs (design)
    • ProBlogger, Job Board (writing)

Then, work your way up from there.

#7 Expand Your Network

When you've landed your first consumer, you'll want to work on finding recurring clients. Perhaps your first customer turns into a recurring one. And, maybe the referral the stated first customer has given you will encourage others to contact you and offer a regular flow of work. 

In any case, expanding your network is paramount, and this is where the renowned Pareto principle comes into play. According to it, cultivating excellent dating with 20% of your clients will help you discover 80% of the latest paintings through their referrals. Furthermore, every new 20 referrals increase your possibilities of getting new projects through eighty.

To expand your network, you can:

• Participate in industry webinars
• Attend events
• Join Facebook groups and communities
• Expand your LinkedIn network
• Send invitations to professionals in your field (or a field that often requires your services)

Professionally Start a Freelance Career Now!

Ultimately, it's crucial to establish your boundaries and lay down fundamental guidelines to balance your full-time responsibilities with your freelancing projects. On the other hand, if you're considering freelancing without prior experience, choosing a field that aligns with your passion is advisable. Alternatively, you can opt for a line of work that doesn't demand formal expertise, such as data entry.

You should also highlight your hard skills in your freelance work and give equal attention to your soft skills—this will help you advance in your career. Most importantly, never work solely for exposure or to build a reputation. If you excel at what you do, you are always deserving of compensation.