Starting the freelancing journey is not as easy as one might make it. It is essential to know the corners of the freelancing career before going ahead. Before jumping to starting a freelance career, let us know “What does freelancing mean?”, “What are its best practices?”, “How can you start your career?”, and so on. A freelancer is an individual who gets paid based on a per-task and per-job basis. It offers a better work-life balance as freelancers are free to work from a non-traditional workspace or home with a flexible work schedule. The best thing is that freelance is for the professional of every field, including content writing, SEO, website development, designing, etc. It offers:
Freedom to choose the clients with no obligation of project or work.Setting up own value based on the skill sets.Flexible workload allowing complete control over the work and project.
However, working alone, insecurity and irregular cash flow can make people doubt it, but after setting it up, it becomes easier to pursue a career as a freelancer.
Freelancing Jobs
It is vital to know where to start and what are fields one can explore to become a freelancer. Here are some of the top domains that can use your skill sets:
Writer
It is a job for mainly content writers, translates, and transcribers that are best for writing hooking content. The writers are primarily responsible for writing ebooks, blog posts, comments, reviews, social media content, online stores descriptions, web content, etc., under their names or company’s name. They use several tools like Grammarly, Amberscript, Copy.AI, SimilarWeb, SmallSEO Tools, etc., to quickly write quality content. It is an excellent way to earn money by working on writing assignments or tasks for clients.
Graphic & Web Designer
If you are a stickler for excellent graphics and designers, why not pursue a similar career. It is about creating animating videos, GIFs, images, logos, powerful presentations, etc. The skills in designing can be a good start that can appear in the magazines and papers. Tools like Canva, Filmora, and Adobe can help designers start their journey.
Web Developer
Applications and websites are the core for everyone as our lives revolve around them. Be it chatting, calling, social media, eCommerce, and fitness, everything is online now. The companies need to hire a web developer (pass-time and full-time) responsible for managing databases, analyzing statistics, and developing a website, application, or software. The developers who use JavaScript, CSS, and HTML can start their freelance careers. The candidates can also go for developers’ free online certification courses.
Financial Support
The companies hire part-time finance support or freelancers that work on pricing, market sizing, fundraising, financial modeling, data analysis, Excel, interim CFO work, real estate, etc., that focus on solving business challenges. It can be an excellent opportunity for finance experts or graduates to tend towards flexibility.
PR Consultant
The primary role of the PR consultant is to maintain the public image of the brand. However, small organizations usually go for freelance PR consultants to accomplish the job. The highlight of such a career is that consultants can pick simultaneous projects and earn money from the corporates.
Photographer
The typical freelance job that professionals are opting for nowadays is photography. There are different domains that they can cover, such as weddings, editorial, sports, fashion, etc., using software like Shutterstock. The freelance photographers can boss up the business, choose preferred jobs, plan a schedule, and efficiently fulfill the client’s requirements.
Marketing & SEO
One of the significant prospects for businesses in the present world is to market their brand. However, marketing and SEO are the fields that require experts that can use their experience in the area to benefit the brands. There are tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc., that one must be aware of to work in a field (part-time or full-time).
Online Tutoring
With pandemic, the concept of online education or eLearning has gone to a whole new level. Earlier, people believed that only Udemy and Coursera offered courses and certifications to the professionals, but now the school students can get online tutoring. However, the students can obtain online tutoring in the new normal. It has become easier to give online classes to students who require it.
Voiceover
Voiceover is not just a narrative but also a television production, radio, theatre, filmmaking, etc. The individual reads the script and works as a specialist voice actor, which can be an excellent way to earn money. Tools like Murf – AI Voice Generator allow anyone to curate digital voice without any skills and experience.
Best Freelancing Practices
The internet and technology have made it easier for individuals to connect with businesses easily. The gig economy has been rising with time, especially in the past decade. People believe that technology has made many jobs obsolete, so many opportunities are introduced in the market. However, here are some practices that one must keep in mind when establishing a career as a freelancer.
Understand the Business Structure or Niche
The first and foremost thing any freelancer must know is to understand the niche and company’s structure that you want to work with. Know the work, limited companies, sole trader, and other options such as business partnerships, social enterprises, and overseas companies. It will help companies understand what type of work they want to take up and move forward.
Have the Right Equipment
Just like a designer requires the tools and a sound configuration system that can help enhance the quality, it is vital to have the equipment needed. One needs to have all the gears required to make it easier to pursue a career as a freelancer. It can be the smartphone, laptop, software, etc.
Upskilling and Reskilling
Freelancers need to have the skills to help them get the projects in their pockets. Whether it comes to content writing, graphic designing, transcribing a podcast, etc., one needs to acquire the desired skills. One needs to polish their skills, learn the basics, use different formatting and writing styles to get paid.
Prepare a Portfolio
It helps build a reputation in front of the clients when it comes to portfolios. It allows freelancers to showcase the projects to get new clients and increase the payout with time. The portfolio helps the new client understand the type of work you have done, a concept that one is aware of, skills, etc. help build the reputation. It published employment and crafts in a single place, allowing freelancers to share the client’s portfolio link.
Know the Right Proposal
Jumping and saying yes to every project is not a good idea. One must choose a project and understand that every project is not worth it. There are several ways freelancers connect with the clients, such as a direct approach and using the freelance marketplace. However, the clients’ freelancers need to have complete information about the project and payouts before saying yes.
Register to the Right Freelancing Platform
There are several freelance marketplaces that one can use to hire part-time workers or get a freelance job. However, freelancers must understand the value of clients’ quality and employment before they jump onto Freelancer.com and UpWork. It is a great way to increase landing a job at the desired place. Freelancers can engage in bidding wars to obtain the project.
Come Out of 9-to-5 Mentality
Freelancing and full-time jobs are different as full-time jobs are mainly around 9-to-5 hours, whereas freelancing is all about flexibility. It is essential to get out of that mentality and set the boundaries. The freelancers can set the time or take off according to their requirements unless it hurts the client’s project.
Conclusion
Freelancing is not something that can happen overnight. It happens slowly and can take a lot of time. One needs to start with low-paying projects and gradually move up the ladder. The freelancers may have unreasonable expectations, but in the start, one needs to keep the market in mind before jumping into any projects.
