Five things you need to become a freelancer
Have you ever thought about becoming a freelancer? Freelancing is when you are self-employed and sell your services and expertise to clients without being employed by those clients over a fixed term.
Freelancers work in many fields, such as writing, consultancy, graphic design, web design, marketing, photography, programming, tech support, and many others.
There are many advantages to working as a freelancer, such as an increase in flexibility or working hours and procedures, the ability to work from home or wherever else you may want to, and (potentially) a higher income and reduced working hours!
However, freelancing has some drawbacks, such as lack of sick pay, an increase in unpaid tasks (e.g., doing your own marketing, admin, and accounts), and a general lack of stability. However, these potential drawbacks can be mostly avoided if you have the skills and tools needed to succeed as a freelancer.
But what are these things you need in order to become a successful freelancer? In this article, we will explore five of the main ones.
1) A drive to succeed
Freelancing usually involves being proactive in looking for work, advertising yourself, and networking. This isn’t something that can usually be done passively by just setting up a site (although you should do this too) and waiting for clients to roll in—you will need plenty of drive to succeed.
2) Good communication skills
Although you are unlikely to be working in an office space with co-workers, you will still need to liaise with clients regarding projects regularly. Your communication skills need to be up to scratch, and it doesn’t hurt to check your emails often too!
3) An online presence
An online presence is essential when it comes to being a freelancer. Even if you carry out face-to-face work such as gardening, you will probably need a website and social media presence in order for potential customers to find you and contact you. If you’re looking for web design Birmingham, there are fantastic skilled web design companies that can help you to create an effective website.
4) Organisational skills
One of the aspects that freelancers often struggle most with is organising their schedules. Work can be more sporadic and less predictable than when you are working for another company, so you will need to be on top of things and develop a flexible yet robust schedule to maximise efficiency and reduce the chance of double-bookings!
5) Self-discipline
Freelancing isn’t exactly the same as having no boss. While you won’t have someone in charge of you telling you what to do 24/7, you will still have to fulfil clients’ requests if you want to get paid. The upside of this is that you don’t have to quit your whole role as a freelancer if you don’t like working with a particular client—you can just simply choose not to work with that client again!
Because you don’t have a “superior” telling you what to do and when to do it, you will have to do it yourself and be your own boss! This involves a significant amount of self-discipline. Whether it is pushing yourself to go out of your comfort zone or to stick to a planned schedule, the voice telling you to stay on task must be your own.
Freelancing is not easy, but if you think you have these skills and tools, it may well be the best decision of your professional life!
