So You Want to be a Freelancer Heres How! – Freelancing
So You Want to be a Freelancer Heres How!
Vishal P. Rao
Not that long ago, freelancing was something people did mainly in larger metropolitan areas where work for writers, artists, and other creative types was plentiful and easily accessible. Today, however, the freelance landscape has dramatically changed.
For one, you can live practically anywhere in the world and still be able to maintain a successful freelance career. Not to mention that the creative fields arent the only areas where freelancing is popular any more.
Today, accountants, trainers, computer technicians, etc. are all able to earn a living as freelancers. Regardless of the freelancing field you are interested in, there are some important things you should know that will help you get started and get successful.
Before we discuss those, however, we need to talk briefly about the pros and the cons of being a freelancer. You need to know both sides before you make your decision so you truly understand what youre getting into.
Freelancer Pros
1. You set your own schedule
As a freelancer, you get to determine what time you get out of bed and what time you turn in at night. You get to decide how much vacation time you can afford to take this year and you can elect to skip work one afternoon to spend time with your children.
2. You dont work for a boss
Even though you are answerable to your clients, they dont wield the same power over your life that a boss does. Yes, they can fire you, but you can also quit working for them if things get too difficult.
3. You determine how much you earn
While a conventional job pays a set amount of money regardless of how hard you work and in some cases how long you work, freelancing allows you to make practically any amount of money that you wish because you determine how much your services cost and how many jobs you take on at one time.
4. You are able to work from your own office
Whether you prefer working in a home office or renting space somewhere to do your business, you are in charge of designing and maintaining your own comfortable office. You get to pick the people you work with. You get to pick the type of computer, post-it notes, and bottled water that you use on a daily basis also.
Freelancers Cons
1. You can become overworked quickly
When you start working steadily as a freelancer, it becomes nearly impossible for you to truly take a vacation. You have projects and clients that need your constant attention, so being gone or getting sick even for a day can put you behind schedule.
2. You have to deal with clients who can be more difficult than bosses
Most of the clients freelancers work with are genuinely good people, but there are others out there that are not. Every freelancer has probably been ripped off by a client at one time or another, even if they take steps to protect themselves.
3. You dont have a steady income
Unless you have one or two truly constant streams of work, you can expect your income to fluctuate dramatically. Some months you may feel like you struck the lottery while others may make you think youre heading for the food stamp line, especially when you are starting out.
4. You dont have a way to separate work from home life
If you have a home office, you may find it difficult to recognize the difference between being at home and being at work which means that while your watching television or eating dinner you may begin to feel like youre actually still on the job.
As you can see, each positive has a negative aspect as well. However, many of these negatives can be easily handled once you have experience as a freelancer, but to get to that point, you need to know how to get started.
Find Something You Enjoy Doing
This is critical to your success. If you dont already have something in mind to do as a freelancer, you need to be sure that you pick an activity that you truly love. Remember, you will be doing this type of work every day. Also, the more you enjoy your work, the more passionate you are about it. Potential clients will spot that passion and will be more inclined to work with you.
Save Some Money
Most freelancers actually start out as conventional 9-5 workers. In fact, many of them maintain their full-time jobs in addition to their freelance work for the sake of a stable income, health insurance, or other benefits. If you choose to go freelance full-time, however, you need to be sure to have a comfortable nest egg in the bank. Most experts agree that you should have enough money in your savings to cover six months worth of your basic necessities. If that sounds impossible, then try juggling some freelance work with your regular job for awhile. Save up all of the money you earn from your freelance work and use that as your nest egg.
Start Finding Clients Today
One mistake that freelancers often make is that think they can only start networking and marketing their services after theyve gotten started. The truth is that if youre considering becoming a freelancer, now is the time to start networking and marketing. Let people know that you are thinking about going solo and get their reactions. Start building a database of possible job leads. In fact, you may want to line up some work beforehand so you can be sure of having an income initially.
Be Prepared
Most potential clients will want to see references and/or samples of your work before they give you a project. You need to have these prepared in advance. Dont wait until someone calls to possibly offer you a project to get your portfolio in order or to line up some qualified references. Have those ready to dispatch as soon as you get off the phone or finish the email.
Find an Accountant
The most difficult part of freelancing can be the handling the financial aspects: tracking invoices, staying on top of bills, figuring your yearly taxes, etc. Unless you are already skilled in accounting, you need to find someone to help you out with this from the beginning. It makes it much simpler for you and for the accountant.
Start a Web Site
Use the Internet to your advantage. Create a professional-looking but simple web site advertising your experience and your services, then place it on the Internet. Its one of the best ways of attracting new clients.
These suggestions will help you start your freelancing career on the right foot, but the most important key to your success will be your perseverance. If you give up easily or dont follow through with things, you may never truly make it as a freelancer. You must be able to take rejection. You must be self-motivated, and you must be persistent. Only then will you be able to experience firsthand all of the benefits of being a modern freelancer.
Useful sites:
http://www.elance.com/
http://www.guru.com/
http://www.allfreelance.com/
Copyright 2004 Vishal P. Rao
About The Author
For opportunities, ideas and resources to start a home based business, visit: http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com
For more articles by the author, visit: http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com/library/reprints.shtml
Make a Living, Or Simply Get That Extra Money That You Need Working as a Freelancer – Freelancing
Make a Living, Or Simply Get That Extra Money That You Need Working as a Freelancer
Aleksandar Petrovic
Its not important if you dont know how to programm, design, optimize sites or do similar things. You can still earn money doing things everybody knows. Start working from your home today, without any extra investments.
You can do many "non-technical" things. Some of them are writing articles, reviews ..., data research/collection finding specified info on the web, data entry mostly copy/paste, translation and many more. Offcourse for all those technical people, there are things like programming, design, seo and others.
Sites to find jobs/projects :
Scriptlance - This is a great website. Most of my projects were done on this website. And I recomend it. While its name determins that most of the jobs are in web development, there are other not so technical jobs as article writing, data entry, data collection research and others. You dont need to pay for signup, their fees are one of the lowest 5% and you can withdraw money in many ways. They also offer escrow system, so you are enshured from cheaters. Users can leave a feedback about eachother - wich is a nice option.
https://www.scriptlance.com/cgi-bin/freelancers/r.cgitechcode
Rent A Coder - I did only one project over this one. The overall mood on this site somehow isnt right, but never the less, you can find lots of different jobs there, not just coding. Also there are some restrictions that make communication with the buyer a little dificult, and they dont offer bank wire withdraw - wich I like to use. Their fee is 18%, one more reason for me not to use it to much.
http://www.rentacoder.com
Freelancers Network - This is a UK based website. So naturaly many of the jobs are UK specific. Offcourse there are many jobs that you can work from anywhere in the world from your home. The good thing its FREE, yup no fees, at the same time, thats the bad news, and it might happend that you finish the job, and not get paid. That canot happend when using escrow systems.
http://www.frelancers.net
There are many other websites. But these should be enough for you to start. Eventialy you will realise that its best to concentrate on one or two of this websites. Mainly for the reason of feedback. Most freelance websites offer a way that buyers rate service providers after project is completed, and few good rates, with some nice words about you can work magic in geting future bids.
So at first it might we wise that you bid a little lower than people with more feedback. But dont think that giving the lowest bid, will enshure that you are picked. Sometimes I won bids even if there were people that had much more projects behind them, and less bids.
Your words also decide, make nice bid text, send personal message with questions if you have some, and details of what you plan to do.
Also you will realise that many of the people wich you found over this sites, will contact you latter for some additional work if you worked ok for the first time - so you will start to build your regular clients.
Good luck with your bids !
About The Author
Aleksandar Petrovic is an freelance web developer. And he has been freelancing for more than two years.
Beginners Blues: How to Collect Samples, Testimonials, and References as a Freelancer – Freelancing
Beginners Blues: How to Collect Samples, Testimonials, and References as a Freelancer
Brian Konradt
Beginners Blues: How to Collect Samples, Testimonials, and References as a Freelancer by Brian S. Konradt of BSK Communications and Associates
My samples are self-selling. They gleam behind protective covers in my portfolio and snatch me business. "Wow, I really like this one," says a new client, studying one of my newsletter samples. "Thats what I want. Can you do something similar for me"
"I sure can," I tell the client. "I think we should shoot for four colors, instead of two. And thick texture paper would be better for self-mailing."
The client agrees. He also agrees to pay me $850 for the 4-page newsletter, half now and the rest when I complete the job.
"Your samples are your most persuasive tools to seal the deal," advises Mary Anne Shultz, a NY-based freelance writer who specializes in ad copy.
"At least seven out of my ten clients had asked to see some sort of samples before hiring me for the job," says freelance writer Joan Berk. "Clients want to know what you are capable of doing for them."
"Even if your new client does not ask to see samples, you must have samples," says Louie Markowitz, a freelance writer specializing in corporate newsletters. "I show every new client at least one of my samples -- a sample that is similar to what they have in mind. This helps me get constructive feedback and insight into what the client wants."
This is easy for the established freelancer to say, who has collected professional samples over the years and knows that samples sell themselves to clients.
But what about the beginning freelancer who has nothing
According to freelance writer, Scot Card: "Dont panic. Many freelancers start at the bottom. Its where I started. And probably so will you."
As a beginning freelance writer embarking on a part-time or full-time freelancing career, youll need to do a lot of "grunt" work in your field of specialty. Depending on your approach or what you choose, youll be doing assignments and working on projects for little or no money, but the payoff will reward you in the long run.
Writing a brochure for a local non-profit organization or writing a press release for your churchs summer events will come in handy the day you need to show your first client what youve been up to. But it doesnt just begin with freelancing to local non-profit organizations or churches. You can tap into many other outlets to collect samples while improving your experience, skills and knowledge before you begin freelancing part-time or full-time.
Your first step to get started is obvious: Take inventory of everything you have written.
Everyone has done some writing in the past: writing term and thesis papers; writing articles for your college newspaper; providing copy for a flier or brochure for an organization; helping your friends write their resumes, or your own. The list goes on.
Of course, a client wont hire you after he glosses over your high school term paper with the bright red A at the top or a short poem you scribbled in a birthday card. But all of your past writings can serve as a benchmark as to where you stand now. You may even possess samples hiding in your closet or lost somewhere in the massive directories of your hard drive, waiting to be reworked and re-edited for a fresh facelift.
Take inventory of all of your writing samples and evaluate them as if you are the client. What grabs your attention What makes you squint away. Do your samples have anything in common with your specialty Can you rewrite any of your samples for improvement If so, redo them and use them to begin your portfolio. If not, listen closely...
Here are some ways, endorsed by established freelancers in the field, that can help you collect samples of your writing, including testimonials and references; but by no means do you have to follow them. Be creative and seek out other alternatives.
Joseph Martenello technical writer: "I worked as a part-time stringer for my local newspaper for a year. Howd I get the job I responded to an ad in the newspaper, even though I barely had any writing experience. Next thing I know, I was covering town meetings and local events, boring stuff. I didnt get paid much -- not enough that I could live off -- but this lead to a higher paying position writing short features for a while and freelancing for neighboring newspapers for dirt pay...I was able to collect my published articles and put them into a portfolio. Even now, six years later, Im able to state in my sales letter that I worked as a newspaper reporter. That title has a lot of clout with clients. My clients expect short, tight copy -- the type of copy evidenced by my published newspaper clips."
Judith Corbishley PR consultant/writer: "I started my so called freelancing by catering my writing services to local organizations. You wouldnt believe the demand for freelance writing in organizations! And the reason why is that many [organizations] will not pay you, at least the non-profit ones wont. I basically immersed myself in everything I could get my hands on. I wrote press releases, developed brochures, published fliers, you name it. Gradually, my specialty -- from having to handle many writing tasks -- emerged. I fell in love with PR, and now do it full-time, supporting myself with my writing. And it all started by contacting the director of a local non-profit computer education organization. You can do the same. Check your community newspaper or local bulletin board for volunteer help. Then call up the director or contact person. Ask if they need somebody for writing. Most likely the answer will be yes! Youll be able to do the writing at home under a flexible deadline. When the time comes to produce your promotional material, you can list the organization as one of your clients. You are under no obligation to state that youve worked for free. Leave this information out. Go for it and good luck!"
Brian Konradt copy writer/DTP publisher: "Years ago I had joined a national writers group. I started a newsletter for the organization, out of my own expenses, and charged each member $3 for a copy. I also wrote a press release to publicize the newsletter. My press release was published in three trade magazines. I never made a profit -- in fact, I lost money on this endeavor. But I used the newsletter and the published press releases as samples. Members also mailed me testimonials about how much they loved the newsletter and how professional it looked. This was my very first professional sample that I stuck in my portfolio, and possibly, I believe, persuaded my first client to invest in my services. You can do something similar."
Michelle OReilly copy writer: "Network. Meet people. You got that My first client came as a result of my being in the right place at the right time with a stack of my bright white business cards tucked away in the fist of my hand. I had attended a marketing seminar that was held by a local business chapter. The seminar had attracted a large gathering of business professionals, entrepreneurs, and other freelancers. There was time afterwards for networking -- and thats what I did. I handed out my business cards to anyone who sounded as if theyd be interested in my writing services. And somebody was interested! A few days later I received a call from a young entrepreneur who was looking for a way to promote a new product. Was I interested in writing a brochure for him I told him lets get started, Im ready, with not even an idea of what I was going to charge him. I only got paid a fraction of the amount I demand now, but it helped me launch my career. Whenever theres a social gathering in your area, make sure you attend and network. Put your face in front of the crowd. Let everyone know you exist and you have these great skills as a writer. Network. Remember it. Its a great way to get clients and referrals."
Andi Lipschein technical writer: "If you want to get yourself samples, attend a workshop. Its how I got my first professional sample: a technical manual, critiqued and corrected by the instructor, on how to operate a piece of equipment. My advice is attend as many workshops as you can in your area of specialty. They offer tremendous benefits: you increase your knowledge on the subject, you get trained by a professional, you get hands-on experience, and you walk away with professional, critiqued samples for your portfolio. Many local community colleges and high schools offer writing workshops as part of their Continuing Education series. The information and samples you obtain will last a lifetime."
Rita Clayborne PR writer: "I interned my way to success...My experience and skills came from interning for five different public relations firms in New York for two years. I got a lot of hands-on experience -- and a lot of headaches, but I learned how to work with deadlines and how to deal with clients. I also got tremendous insight into the field, such as pricing my services competitively, how to tap into my market, and how to make a business succeed. This had a positive impact on the success of my PR business today. You can intern part-time a couple of days out of the week, or full-time five days out of the week. I got paid for my work as an intern, but dont always expect to get paid. Call up some PR firms in your area and speak with the person in charge. Ask if they offer an internship program; if not, ask if theyd be willing to accept you as an intern. You can locate PR firms in the Yellow Pages. Alternatively, you can contact the Cooperative Education department of your local college and ask the director to help you in your search. As an intern, you will collect many professional samples, references and contacts!"
John Palmeri graphic designer: "When the company I worked for was planning to do a newsletter to celebrate its 30 years of service, I jumped at the opportunity. I was only a stock clerk there, but I was attending college for my bachelors degree in Communications Arts, and I had some skills as a layout artist. My boss agreed to let me produce the newsletter, and boy, did I get excited. I didnt get paid for doing it -- although there was a bigger Christmas bonus for me -- but it helped me produce my first sample with my name on it. At that time I wasnt planning to freelance -- but that changed down the road when I wanted to make more money doing what I love most: producing newsletters. To this day, I still produce newsletters for the same company I had worked for five years ago. The difference now is I get paid top dollar to produce it, and Im my own boss."
NOW WHAT Once you have samples, youll need to prepare a portfolio, plus a brochure or sales letter or web site selling your services. Your promotional material should contain testimonials for hard-hitting power. As a beginner, dont spend a lot of money advertising your services. The time will eventually come when youll turn "pro" and youll spend at least 25% of your earnings on promotion. For now, decide to place a small classified ad in your local newspaper, tack up fliers on the bulletin boards at your local supermarkets and libraries, or advertise your services on free job boards on the Internet. See what types of responses you get. Be persistent in your search for clients. Most of all: Dont give up! The professional is the amateur who had never quit in the first place.
When you get your first client, let the client do most of the talking. You will find that many clients will not even ask to see your samples -- so dont even bring it up. Many clients will accept you as a writer -- on your word alone -- and will work with you.
Work hard and good luck!
About The Author
© 2003 B. Konradt
Brian Konradt is webmaster of FreelanceWriting.Com http://www.freelancewriting.com, a web site dedicated to help writers master the business and creative sides of freelance writing. Mr. Konradt was formerly principal of BSK Communications & Associates, a communications/publishing business in New Jersey, which he established in 1992.