If you’re considering working as a freelancer, you’re not alone. Millions of people have chosen to take the freelance plunge, and for good reason—freelancing can be an incredibly rewarding experience, and it gives you the freedom to do what you love while helping you grow professionally and fifinanciallynancially along the way. So if this sounds appealing to you, here are six ways to make money with freelancing so that you can start your business on the right foot.
1) Find Some Work
First, find a site that connects freelance professionals and job-seekers; Odesk, Elance, Upwork are good places to start. Scope out available jobs and make sure you’re qualified for them. When you see something you like, bid on it—but don’t go overboard. You need to win jobs fairly regularly or your profile will suffer in reputation rankings, which is how many of these sites determine who shows up first in searches. The goal is quality work not quantity so don’t rush through your work or cut corners just because you think you can get away with it. It may cost more at first but in the long run having high quality assignments is more lucrative than low paying ones done fast and cheap.
2) Narrow Down Your Target Market
When you’re freelancing, you’re your own boss, so it’s important to decide which type of business you want to run and who will comprise your target market. If you want to work directly for an established company as a consultant, then your target market would be people within that company or organization. On the other hand, if you want to start a freelance business working on different projects for different clients, then your target market could be anyone who needs help in one of those areas.
3) Bid on Projects
If you want to make money from freelancing, then you’ll need to start doing some research on what people are hiring freelancers for. Start by looking at relevant job postings online, then expand your search to include freelancer websites and online forums. Once you know what people are paying for various services, you can advertise your skills and set a price. The more skilled you appear, of course, the more money you can expect to make.
4) Set Clear Expectations
You should be able to identify what your client expects from you and what you expect from them. This is important because there may be times where your expectations don’t match up. If that happens, you may want a guarantee so that your client has to pay you even if they change their mind on a project or product. You also need to set time-sensitive expectations so both parties are aware of how long it will take to complete a project and how much time needs to be invested in preparation.
5) Overcome Objections
If a client isn’t sure they want to pay you, they will come up with all sorts of reasons why they can’t. It’s your job to overcome these objections and close them as quickly as possible. An easy way to do so is by telling your client what other clients are saying about working with you—make them jealous!
6) Keep track of your time and expenses
Time and expenses are two factors that determine how much you’ll earn as a freelancer. If you don’t monitor these, you won’t know whether or not your freelance business is profitable. It might take some time and energy to set up systems for keeping track of these factors, but they will pay off once they’re in place. Some freelancers keep separate accounts; others use specialized software like Freshbooks or Billings.
