Want to Start a Freelancing Business?
Here’s All you need to Know about starting a Freelancing business.
What is freelancing?
Selling the skill digitally in exchange for money is known as Freelancing. You work for yourself and take control of your life. The person who does freelancing is called freelancer.
Now, the question is that
How to learn a freelance skill?
Which skill you can sell?
How to Sell Freelance skill?
where you can sell?
Which Freelance Skill you should chose?
This can be any skill that can help someone solve his problem in the digital world. Chose a skill on the basis of your interest, education and surroundings. What fascinates you the most, what makes you lose track of time, what cuts you away from the world, This is your skill.
By the way, if you can do effective search/research on Google then you can sell this skill too.
How to Learn a Skill?
Learning any skill nowadays is just a piece of cake. You can learn any skill easily with no or less money from the internet.YouTube is the best way to learn new things/skills.
You can also buy premium courses if you want to and if you can afford them. There are also many websites that offer free courses in specific fields, you just have to search for them on google.
How to sell Freelancing Services?
You have many ways to do freelancing or sell your skillsYou can get clients from Freelancing Marketplaces (traditional or non-traditional), from Facebook groups or Facebook or Social Media Marketing and last but not the least from your own website.
Compulsory Soft Skills for Freelancing;
Along with the technical skill you need to develop your Business development and Communication skills and these will help you a lot to win more and more potential clients.
Business Development
You should have a business sense and basics of business. So, you can grow your business and develop a good team/ company.
Communication skills
you also need good Communication Skills to convince the clients. Use the right words at a right time, use polite language, listen carefully to the client and so on.
Freelancing Marketplaces:
Two types of Freelancing or Freelancing marketplaces are;
1) Traditional
2) Nontraditional
1) Traditional Freelance Markets
An Online space where the clients come and post their requirements or projects and freelancers send their proposals and get selected on the basis of their good business development and communication skills.
Examples are, Upwork, Guru, Freelancer, some Facebook Groups etc.
2) Non Traditional Freelance Markets:
It’s a new kind of freelancing where freelancers post their skills and expertise and got selected by the clients who need these services on the basis of how they have presented their skills or expertise.
For example, Fiverr and Some Facebook groups etc.
How to become a good freelancer?
The only things you need are;
- The right frame of mind
- Good Communication and Business Development skills
- Consistency
- A good looking portfolio and (enough to convince clients) previous work.
- Good command on your skills
- Patience
- A PC with a good Internet Connection
Who should do Freelancing Business?
Now, as we know what we need to start but we don’t know who can start freelancing.
A simple, short and sweet answer to this is “Everyone/anyone can start Freelancing business”.
More specifically,You can start freelancing if you’re;
- A student and want to pay your fee or earn some extra pocket money
- A stay at home Mom and want to earn money for yourself and your family.
- Fed up of your 9 to 5 job and want to start your own business and live your life.
- You want to do some side business
- You want to upgrade your lifestyle.
If you fall under any of the above-discussed categories then you can Start Freelancing.
Top 10 Freelance Marketplaces:
There are a lot of Freelancing marketplaces on the Globe but some of them are most popular among Freelancers and Buyers.
Some of them are discussed below;
- Upwork; A Traditional Freelancing Marketplace and one of the largest one.
2. Guru; Traditional Marketplace and also a large one.
3. Fiverr; NonTraditional MarketOne of the greatest one.
4. Freelancer
5. People Per Hour
6. 99 Designs
7. Toptal
8. Craigslist
9. SimplyHired
10. SEO Clerk
You can check all of these Marketplaces and chose the one that suits you.
How to find clients/ Tips to find and win Clients:
There are different ways to find clients as a freelancer.
You can find clients from freelance markets.
As there are two types of marketplaces. So, each has a different way to get the clients.
For Traditional Markets:
In traditional Freelance Marketplaces,
The clients come and post the project and freelancers bid or send proposals on those projects. And the proposal that the client likes the most is selected for the project. You need to make your proposal stand out if you want to win the clients. A model to follow if you want to write an effective, attractive and convincing proposal:
A 7 Rangi Formula Given by Hisham Sarwar is very effective and it works most of the time.
1. Start the Bid/Proposal with GreetingsSay Hi/ Hello, and the name of client.
e.g, Hello Jennifer.
2. Write a summary of 2 to 3 sentences explaining the project of client.
3. Introduce Yourself Discuss your skillset, experience, achievements and how you can help the client.
4. What you can do to help, you’ve identified the problem and now you should explain how you will solve the problem and complete the project.
5. Now present your portfolio and give him the link to your portfolio. (If you’re a beginner then you can build your portfolio by offering free services).
6. Ask the client a question or give an attractive offer or free mockup/service. This may convince the client to hire you.
7. Close with a great sentiment and provide your info so that he can contact you.
For Non-Traditional Markets:
For Non Traditional markets,
You have to attract customers/clients by posting your services. Some important tips to attract clients,
1. Make an attractive and beautiful Thumbnail to showcase your skills and expertise.
2. Use good copy writing in title and description so you can get client’s attention.
3. Do good keywords research to get your gig, task or skill rank higher on the particular keywords.
You can also get clients from Facebook groups and Social Media Marketing.
In Facebook groups,
There are again two ways to get clients.
In some groups, people post the project and ask for proposals and portfolio and if you can impress them with the proposal and your portfolio then they’ll hire you.
And in some groups, the process works in reverse direction i.e, you as a freelancer post your skill or expertise and the potential clients come on your post and send you their requirements and if you’re good enough to convince them then you’ll get hired.
From LinkedIn,
You can also get clients from LinkedIn. People post their projects or jobs on LinkedIn, if they match with your expertise or skill then you can apply and get the job.
From Social Media Marketing,
If you can invest some budget on Marketing then you can also get a lot of clients from Social Media Marketing.
You just need to create an ad using an attractive image or video, good copywriting with benefits for clients and set the budget and run the campaign or you can hire a Social Media Marketer who’ll get the job done for you.
You can also do freelancing and get clients by creating your own website. There you can also showcase your previous work as your portfolio. But you need some money to start your own website. You can get clients by doing SEO and Marketing of your website.
Important Things to keep in mind before starting a freelancing business;
1. Client Retention:
You should try to retain your clients because it’s not easy to win new clients every day, every week or every month.
2. Customer Satisfaction:
You need to satisfy your client with your work. Go some extra mile to impress the client.
3. Deliver on time:
You should always deliver your work on time. Don’t delay the task or project because it makes a bad impact.
4. Good Customer Service:
Always try to make your customer comfortable. Use right words at right time. Understand and listen to what the customer wants from you.
5. Upgrade your skills
You need to upgrade and update yourself and your skills if you want continuous growth.
6. Invest in Yourself and your Business
To grow the business, you need to invest. It can either be your time or money. If you’ll invest time, you’ll save money and vice versa.
But if you invest both of them smartly, then you can get good quality and quantity of success.
So, be prepared to be patient and work on skill development and also invest to buy premium memberships of Different freelance markets. Invest in your marketing and if you do this in the right way, I can assure you that you’ll get the maximum result.
7. Never Stop Learning:
Learn new things every day and never stop the learning process.
Benefits of Freelancing
1. Time Flexibility:
If you’re a freelancer, you have flexible time to do your work. You can do it any time you want to do. But don’t delay your task, complete it on time.
2.Become your own Boss:
Unlike 9 to 5 job, in freelancing you don’t have any boss and you’re your own boss and can do your work and tasks according to your will.
3.Good Lifestyle
Being a Freelancer, you can live your desired lifestyle. You can sleep and rise at any time and can spend much time with your family and also you can have your dream house or car etc and many more.
4.Work from anywhere:
There are no restrictions to work in the same office every day. You can work in your office, your home, even in the parks, also on the trips and wherever you want to do.
5.Earn as much as you can/More Growth Chances.
You can earn as much as you can work, in freelancing. There are many earning and growth opportunities as a freelancer.
6.Build a team
Once you’ve established your freelancing business and you’re getting more and more clients then you can hire more people and build your team and also your company. It can be achieved if you have good Business Development skills.
7.Start with no or less money:
You can even start with no or less money. As you need only a skill that can easily be learned by YouTube and can be practised easily.
8.Multiple income sources:
Freelancing allows us to have multiple income streams. You can do freelancing along with our Job, Our Studies, as a side business, or you can work as a freelancer even if you’re a housewife.
Top in demand, growing and High paying Freelancing skills
Most in demand, growing and Highly paid Freelance skills are following:
1. Career Advice/Counselling
2. Writing and Editing
3. Website design and Development
4. Virtual Assistant
5. Video Production and Creation (videography)
6. UI/UX Design
7. Accounting and Bookkeeping
8. Business/ Management ConsultingConclusion
9. Machine Learning/ Artificial Intelligence
10. Digital and Social Media Marketing
11. Software/App Development
12. E Commerce Development and Management
Takeaways/Conclusion:
1. Freelancing doesn’t guarantee you the evergreen earnings.
2. You’ll have to work consistently, if you want to earn some money.
3. Freelancing should be the first step, not the end goal.
4. You’ll have to retain the clients if you want continuous success because it’s difficult to win clients every day.
5. Your Communication and Business Development skills should be well enough to convince the clients as well as to grow your business.
6. Share the load of your work with other freelancers to manage the load of your work.
7. As a beginner offer free services, extra services, good customer service and good skill services to build your strength and quality portfolio because Portfolio is very much important as A Freelancer.
We can conclude that Freelancing is a type of Online Business which help you to Take control of your life but you should have some skill along with Business Development and Communication Skills.
On the other side, it also requires a lot of patience, consistency, hard/smart work and the right mindset.
I hope you’ve got some clue about freelancing and if you have any question then tell me in the comments box.
And also share what’re your views about freelancing. If you think this information is valuable and can make an impact on someone’s life then share it.
