5 Tips To Help You Make Money Freelancing

Freelancing holds significant potential as an income earner, whether in a part-time or full-time capacity. Before you decide to take that bold step into freelancing, however, you need to be well aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of freelancing and how each impacts your own life. More than that consider what it means to be a freelancer, the risks of quitting your job if you are in employment, anticipate the hardships and cover all the bases. If after adequate research you understand everything about becoming a freelancer and decide to move forward with it, the following tips should come in handy.

1. Focus on a niche

Most individuals will start by targeting an entire industry in their chosen category, which is usually the wrong approach. Instead of focusing on the whole industry, build your freelancing business to be specialized on one niche. For example, instead of focusing on every aspect of writing, you can focus on articles and even then, you can still specialize in real estate article writing as your niche. This allows you to hone your skill and gain better market penetration, generating leads and evolving your business into a brand as opposed to focusing on an entire industry and not having anything special to show for it.

2. Secure your network and devices

Data loss can be a nightmare. Similarly, sabotage is something you have to consider. If you do not wish to wake up one morning crying foul at unseen forces that you can’t seem to track, it is much better to take precautions. Various software can help protect you from hacking, malware, adware, and many more threats, but be wary of security holes that may become present in weaker products. Furthermore, when choosing the best software to use though, make sure it’s versatile enough to be used on multiple platforms, such as Apple and Windows since this allows much-needed flexibility and cost consolidation.

3. Employ effective pitching

It takes a really long time and hard work before clients start coming to you. Before then, you need to market yourself and your services. Over time, you need to develop a pitching strategy that is easy to follow but effective and for that, you need to understand your potential market. What are your clients after? How well can you deliver? How great are your communication skills? Granted, you may need a couple of guidelines on how to pitch effectively but once you get the hang of it, it becomes more like an extension of whom you are and closes deals for you. Even so, it is usually a numbers game and you shouldn’t expect 100% success. Send out as many pitches as you can effectively manage and wait for the responses.

4. Focus on building a client list before profits

Majority of people get into freelancing with the hope that they will have made it in a fortnight or less. The truth, however, is that it takes a long while before one begins to enjoy the hard-earned profits. The beginning should never be about the money but more about building a stable brand and rock solid portfolio. You need to create a name for yourself and a sparkling reputation that will then guarantee repeat clients. In truth, repeat clients are the lifeblood of freelancing and as such, your client list should be the greatest focus before you set the premium rates and start comfortably earning as a freelancer.

5. Build on your skills

It is only when you start freelancing that you understand the vastness of any given niche. The requirements are ever shifting and new methods are in constant development to make your content more effective. By keeping with the trends, you remain a step forward, enhancing your skills and staying ahead of your competition. Having more skills under your belt makes you more noticeable and coveted as a freelancer.

The Takeaway

Starting out as a freelancer is hard, demanding and very frustrating but that happens in almost every other job. The key to striking out is persistence, patience, and practice. Develop your skills in your industry and soon enough they’ll be selling themselves without the need for pitching.