5 Steps That Will Turn You Into a Successful Freelancer

Everybody knows that a freelancer is a self-employed person who sells his or her services to different companies, without being long-term committed to these firms. Because it is made up of the word “free” and “lancer” it is very easy for others to believe that being a freelancer is all about doing whatever one likes, whenever one pleases, for whomever one wants. But, if things were that easy, don’t you think that the world would be over-crowded with freelancers?

So, as you can see this is a risky path, but if you are very passionate and talented and if you know you can distinguish yourself from the others then this is definitely the road you must walk on. However, unfortunately one cannot simply rely on his or her talent, but one must impose oneself a set of rules, which must be followed rigorously. In what is to come, you will be presented five steps that will guide you into the successful world of freelancers and since prosperity is what you are looking for, you should definitely check them out.

Step #1: Prepare a beautiful portfolio

It goes without saying that at first you will earn less or you will even work pro bono. But, this is something that you should do, in order to be able to create a fantastic portfolio, which you will later present to some potential customers. As you can imagine it will be a bit hard, but you must be determined to create your brand, because once you will accomplish this task big companies will start seeking your services. Therefore, start with a solid foundation because once you have managed to create it, you will be appreciated, successful and famous.

You can read more, here: Tips to Build an Effective Portfolio Website

Step #2: Advertise yourself

Being on your own definitely means that you must take care of all the focal points that will get you a favorable outcome. And promoting yourself is definitely among these important points. After all, your tremendous work will be in vain, if you won’t make it public for all those interested to see. Therefore, what you must do is contacting important people in your area of expertise and presenting your brand to them. Make it as attractive as possible and offer details in a clear manner, so that they will understand you and your work.

Also, you could create your own website or you could start blogging, because it will sure help when trying to promote yourself. Here, one should talk about interesting things related to his or her work, should offer tutorials, tips and tricks for the audience and should definitely create an interesting and experienced image, so that people will feel safe and will totally desire to buy one’s services.

Step #3: Prioritize your tasks

Now that you have promoted yourself, you have managed to get some clients. Well, if you want to preserve the serious and reliable image you have created so far, you should definitely learn to prioritize your work. This means that you should set some criterion (the deadline, the volume of work, the importance of the company in your business, and so on) upon which you should solve your tasks. This will help you keep control over your business and will definitely help at constructing beautiful and long lasting relationships with your customers.

Step #4: Be organized

If you have a high number of customers it means that you are doing your job right and why not, that you are quite a lucky person. However, you should not turn this fortune into chaos and you should always be on top of things. One could achieve this by being organized; this means that one should set a schedule with normal working hours; one should arrange the projects in separate folders, so that one will not end up messing his or her work and last but not least one should definitely plan the days ahead, in order to increase efficiency. So, try to create a healthy program for yourself, and in this manner you will find the key to success.

Step #5: Do not accept all the projects

This is the point that most freelancers find hard to comply with. Why? Well, they are eager to work more and more, and to become famous in their domain, so they accept everything, without taking into consideration the deadlines, the research work, and so on. But, this will definitely harm your business and as a result you should totally learn that is safe to say “no” sometimes. Analyze the situation and all points before accepting a project, and in this manner you will become a professional, you will respect your clients and most important of all, you will respect yourself.

These five steps will definitely help you in your early stages as a freelancer however this doesn’t have to mean that this is enough. Put your mind into it, let your imagination work and trust your ideas, because after all you represent your business and therefore all you think about is valuable and worthy to take into consideration.

About the Author!

Mihaela is a teacher / freelance writer. She likes reading, listening to music and travelling. You can connect with her on Facebook.