Around much of the Western world, the 2008 financial crash caused many problems and led to a significant drop in living standards. Further, millions of jobs are lost, including many established professions that are left without a job. It was also during this downturn that many people became self-employed and could run their businesses. It appears that the surge in freelance work is unabated and is not likely to slow down.
Freelancers: What Do They Do?
Whatever a person’s specialization is, there is often a chance to freelance and sell their services to whoever needs them. Some of the main benefits of this type of work include:
- Clients and projects can be chosen freely: When you are working as an employee, you will have no say in selecting a client. Freelancing allows the flexibility to “hire” a client if you think the project is worthwhile.
- Location flexible: Perhaps the most significant upside to this type of work has the freedom to work wherever you want. Although beaches and cocktails might not be the perfect office, the point is that you should be fine as long as you have an internet connection and the device you work from.
- Increasing your earning potential: Once you become well-known in your space, you can dictate your price, not your employer.
- Constantly networking: Because you will be working with numerous clients, your ability to increase your network will also expand. This should eventually lead to even more work.
- An opportunity to experiment: You are your boss, so you can decide how you want to approach a project.
Top Tips For Becoming A Successful Freelancer
Now that you know the benefits of going down this route, you will probably want to start as soon as possible. But how exactly can you get started in 2021?
- Identify Your Niche
If you don’t have a niche, you won’t be able to market yourself successfully. There are many ways to identify your unique freelance niche, but most of these only give you a few topics to choose from, such as writing or design. However, there is a much more comprehensive way to do this: identify your client’s needs and build products that meet them. This approach is more potent than just narrowing down a few topics, and it can also lead to more targeted traffic and more sales.
- Set Up A Plan
Before going full throttle in your chosen niche, you should spend some time creating a business plan. It would help if you treated this like you would any other business and note down some key points, such as what you want to get out of freelancing and what your unique selling point could be.
- Make Yourself Known
Making yourself known far and wide is the next step. This could be via social media, email marketing, a website, or even telling your friends and family. You might have to spend a lot of time at this stage without getting many customers, but it begins to increase exponentially once you start to get a few jobs.
- Build Your Client Base
If you have managed to market yourself well, then you should find yourself getting more clients. An excellent way to find more business is to know where to look. For example, many freelance websites allow you to create a profile and detail the services you provide. Fees and commissions are usually involved, but your client base will grow with time, making it worthwhile.
- Take Care Of The Business Side
As soon as you become more successful, you might want to consider changing your status from sole proprietor to what is known as an S-Corporation. This situation allows you to choose how much you will pay in self-employment taxes resulting in significant savings. However, it will be up to you to figure out the reasonable compensation of an S corporation shareholder to pay the correct amount that is owed. You can do this by looking at the official salaries for those doing a similar job but in official employment. In other words, how much would someone else get paid to do the same position as you? Once you know this, you can use it to set your pay rate as a freelancer.
- Establish A Schedule
When possible, create a schedule in advance and stick with it. Nothing is more “disruptive” than a new project that keeps you from working on your current one. You will also want to set up times when you have a break to don’t burn out.
Freelancing is satisfying work and allows you to be your boss and set up your working hours. However, you still need to put in the effort to build up your client base and pay the correct taxes.
