Starting a freelance business can be highly rewarding. You work for yourself as your own boss, when you want, and where you want.
Since the 2020 pandemic, the number of freelancers has increased, many of whom have been disillusioned by the nine-to-five life.
But making it solo isn’t as easy as it might seem.
New freelancers have to work hard to set up a client base and earn a good income. As a result, it could take weeks or months before you develop a decently sized clientele.
For that reason, we’re going to give you nine freelancing tips for beginners to help you get started. These freelancer tips can serve as the foundation for a successful freelance career.
Keep reading to find:
2. Become a Generalist or a Specialist
5. Pick Tools Within Your Budget
9. Communicate Clearly — An Often-Neglected Freelancer Tip
Final Thoughts: 9 Freelancing Tips for Professional Success
Freelancing Tips
- Understand your niche
- Become a generalist or a specialist
- Build a website
- Create a process
- Pick tools within your budget
- Set your rate
- Leverage social media
- Find the right job boards
- Communicate clearly — an often-neglected freelancer tip
1. Understand Your Niche
Although this freelancing tip may seem obvious, it isn’t. Before taking other steps, new freelancers must understand the space they’re about to enter. Therefore, they must conduct comprehensive research to understand their niche and how they fit into it.
Some freelancers might have knowledge about their niche from previous full-time jobs, but that isn’t enough when you’re handling all the work by yourself.
Since you’re going solo, you need to dig deep into your niche. Your research should help you identify:
- Potential clients
- Trending or evergreen content topics
- Your goals as a freelancer
- Work processes used by top creators in your niche
For example, if you want to be a freelance copywriter, your research can include reading freelancer tips and guides by experts to identify how they made it big in copywriting. You don’t have to follow every step, but it should give you an idea of what a career in your industry entails.
Your research should involve extensive Google searches related to the role you would like to fulfill. Also, look at any significant platforms relevant to your industry to see how they work and what you need to succeed on them.
2. Become a Generalist or a Specialist
As a freelancer, you can be a generalist in your industry, or you can venture into specific topics and services.
A freelance writer, for example, can choose to write for any niche they find clients in, or they could build authority in one niche, let’s say health and wellness.
Generalists are qualified for more gigs. That increases their chances of being hired, but the level of competition is rising, according to Upwork’s 2020 report.
High supply and limited demand lead to mediocre compensation. After all, there’s a reason why many companies look for the cheapest talent rather than the most effective.
Unless you’re extremely good at what you do or have years of experience, it’s hard to ask for higher rates as a generalist.
In contrast, a specialist freelancer needs to have the expertise to back their application.
For example, in the health and wellness freelance writing scenario, the writer must have medical knowledge and preferably formal certification to prove to prospective clients that they know what they’re talking about.
If you choose to be a specialist, you’ll have fewer clients to pitch to, but once you’re approved/hired, you can set higher pricing right from the start since you’re an expert source/contributor.
No matter which one you choose, this is a freelancing tip you should consider before starting your freelancing career. That way, you get to enjoy the perks they offer as soon as possible.
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