More and more people (in fact over 54 million Americans), are choosing to have a non-traditional job, and deciding to work for themselves in a freelance business. Whether it is to pursue a passion project, want a more flexible career, or want to work globally, we are seeing a big shift in how businesses work. And a lot of that is down to the use of freelancers and the world wide web. Choosing to hire freelancers over full-time employees has many benefits for businesses, so it is easy to see why more and more people are looking to have a freelance career.
But if you are in full-time employment at the moment, how do you go about taking that leap from being gainfully employed to working for yourself as a freelancer? It isn’t going to happen overnight, as building a client base is important, as well as making sure you will have enough work to pay your bills. So here are some steps to think about, if you are wanting to boost your career with some freelance work.
Set Goals
If you don’t set yourself any goals, then you won’t know what you need to be doing and when. So setting some clearly defined goals, is going to help you get on your way to becoming a freelancer. It may be that you just want to earn a second income. You may want to take it full-time. But decide what you want to do, and how you can go about doing it.
Choose a Niche
To be a freelancer, you have to find something that you can be freelance in. That will be what you can market and what people will be paying you for. So decide what you can do that people will pay for. Would it be website design or graphic design? How about copywriting or SEO? Are you a trained and qualified accountant? You could also go down the route of creating courses or eBooks for people to buy, as well as formal work in your chosen niche.
Choose Target Clients
You need to have a rough idea about who you want to be doing work for. If you design logos, for example, would smaller jobs for bloggers be your preference? Or would you prefer to go down more of a corporate route? This can work for whatever your niche is. Choose and identify your target clients, as you can then market your freelance business accordingly.
Set Pricing
Knowing what you are going to charge is a good idea. Not only that, but it will help you work out how much work you need in order to quit your job and do it full-time, or how much you need to pay certain bills. Check what competitors are doing, but don’t get too hung up on it. Think about the time you will spend on a certain project, and the expertise someone is paying for. Then you can figure out what your pricing is going to be, and go from there.