Written By : Raven Diana
So you find yourself reading this article because ‘YOU’ want to start your career as a freelancer and want to be a successful freelancer. Are you ready to dump that boring nine-to-five corporate job and start being your own boss and earn money? I was there at some point. Tired of ungrateful bosses, superiors that overwork ou, backstabbing co-workers. You name it, I’ve been through it.
Let me tell you one crucial thing. You may be thinking that you will lay back, wear your pajamas and work will magically come to you. Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s not that simple. I will explain to you a few steps that will increase your chances of scoring those high figures on your paycheck.
I know this may seem weird at first but try to message all the connections you have like 30 days before going full freelancing. Let them know that you’re more than happy to help them by taking projects.
One of the main reasons for this is because later on, these projects will turn into experience, portfolio, and references. These people can also recommend you further to others, thus expanding your network.
When I first started working as a freelance graphics designer I poked all of my friends that I knew would benefit from my skills, I made small projects for them that I later turned into a nice portfolio that I could show to my potential future clients. Even if those small projects were either poorly paid or free (expect this in the beginning).
Making a history of work and creating credits paves the way to become a successful freelancer
Even if the projects are free, keep in mind that you still benefit from them. Of course, there will be a point where you MUST start charging people.
I cannot stress enough with this one. Normal people work for a company or a brand. Us freelancers ARE our brand. WE are our own image. When you are selling a service, you are actually selling yourself.
Set up your profile on as many social platforms as possible and be as active as you can. Answer questions, propose ideas and tactics, help people, etc. You will make yourself easy to find, easy to remember, and good to know.
Don’t get discouraged if you didn’t get 1000 followers in the first month. Because the most important thing here is that quality always wins over quantity. So keep focused and treat every new connection as a potential best friend. You never know when you hit the jackpot.
When I first started working as a freelancer, I took on multiple projects at once. I didn’t have a clear plan on how to manage them and my time. I would find myself focusing too much on one project and too little on the other as well as giving up on my free time because I was behind with everything.
You need to always set up a goals to be a successful freelancer. This can include:
Treat every opportunity as something new that you can learn from and always find ways to improve and optimize your strategies.
To me, it was really overwhelming. I would study day and night whether it was social media, reading blog posts, study other artists, find out the new trends, etc.
When you need to be successful freelancer continuous study is required to keep up the trend and learn new technologies.
At the end of the day, you have to filter out what’s relevant for you. I realized that the most helpful thing is to study your competition.
Pick other people’s social media and learn how they do it but don’t copy! It’s never ok to copy. If you want to stand out you have to be original. You can take inspiration from anything but make sure to give it a personal and original note to it. Clients LOVE unique and genuine people.
As I said above, talk to everyone as if they were your best friend and I actually meant it.
While I was in the beginning I was networking like crazy and tried to be friends with this really popular graphics designer. Slowly but surely we developed a nice friendship where she showed me a lot of tips and shortcuts for free and I am really grateful to this day! Little did I know that she passed on to me one of her projects and I got to do it for her and landed a pretty neat reference.
This help can come from any place but make sure to always be open, thankful, and always willing to work your ass off for what you love.
As a final piece of advice, I just want to say that there won’t be one single path to take, one single story to write.
You are your own story and you have to write it yourself. It’s your job to look at the big picture and pick that part that you’re good at and what makes you who you are. And be prepared to work your ass off for it.
Don’t get discouraged when you are at your lowest. We’ve all been there. You will only gain strength and wisdom if you start picking yourself up.
Also..people will say that you are crazy diving into this unknown, this uncertainty. But if you are strong enough and determined, you can just prove them wrong!
