We are living in an age that is ripe with change. There are opportunities all around us and they are growing daily if we know where to look. One of the main things the pandemic has taught us is that we cannot rely on one stream of income.
Capital makes you powerful, while growing up, I never truly understood the power of capital until I improved my social circle. If you are living in the western region and you have a good internet connection, freelancing could be a good way to generate a side income until it becomes your main income.
I am sure most of my audience have some idea of what freelancing is and others might even dip their toe into it already. If you are just entering into this world, welcome but be prepared to fight for every client because it’s not easy and it’s not getting easier. But don’t let that deter you, if you are someone who loves challenges and will do whatever it takes to succeed, you can succeed.
In this guide, I wish to pull the curtain from over the window blades, to give you a different perspective on the whole topic. Grab a notebook with a pen and let’s begin.
Where Should I Start?
Before you even think about freelancing you have to first evaluate yourself. Look at where you are now, analyze your habits, your values, and your entire existence. You might be wondering why is this necessary, it’s easy to fool ourselves.
Often times we try things initially, then stop only after a couple of months or even weeks and jump onto something else totally. Forgetting why we are even doing this in the first place. By knowing who we are, why we are doing what we are doing will give us the drive the push forward.
I am not really deep into the self-help guru “woo woo” kind of stuff. But it does help to look at where we are currently and evaluate ourselves to see if there is anything in the way that might trip us up later.
Organization and Efficiency
It’s not a mistake that Alibaba’s CEO Jack Ma said that on numerous occasions Forrest Gump is his favorite movie. Within the movie Forrest Gump is portrayed as being “dumb” but yet still he achieved lots of success due to one key trait.
He was good with making habits out of things and focusing on that one thing until he becomes a success. Sometimes I wondered if he was even aware of how successful he was.
Make no mistake it takes a lot more than that, but forming good habits is essential. Once you choose to venture into freelancing and you are occupied by a day job or even on other things, you have to be efficient and organized.
Let’s say that you have 3 hours per day to invest in this venture, that’s 15 hours a week excluding weekends. That’s not a lot when you have others working full time or even investing 5 hours a day. But it’s not about the time, it’s about efficiency.
You have to ensure that within those 3 hours you are as efficient as can be, shut out the world and get to work. Let chaos build up outside of that little bubble. After those dedicated hours you can get back to reality.
Don’t multitask, it’s unproductive especially if you are doing something creative. It will show in your work and clients can and will know. Remember that you are competing, you don’t have a day job where your boss is pointing fingers and you are behind him. You are the CEO of yourself, so manage it like it.
Passion vs Skill
Another thing you need to think about is the battle between passion and skill. What you might be passionate about might not be the thing that will bring in money and it’s rarely ever the case. You have to be realistic when you look at this situation and never fool yourself.
For example, let’s say that you are passionate about drawing or writing, you can do it extremely well, but when you go online you realize that it is super competitive. Don’t seriously think that you are going to stand out and win over clients from established giants.
You either have to do market research to find another market that is lucrative and has potential. Or do something that you are skilled in that will rake in money. There is no easy answer to this but looking at it from a pure business perspective, market research is the way to go.
Market Research
Within any business market research is key. Are you going to cast a wide net and attack everything you see or target a specific segment of the market that will provide enough income to be successful?
For example, you get one client a week making you USD $1,000 or you are working with 20 (It’s all on you).
Another thing with market research is to research the skills that are currently in demand and are profitable. Some of the skills that I find always in demand are:
Graphic Designing
With graphic design, you are mainly dealing with digital art. You can design logos, do retouching, e-book design, etc.
Computer Programming
If you are competent at computer programming you can make it your full-time job but you have to be competent. There is no way around it, the market is competitive but if you know your craft and you are constantly sharpening that craft you can easily make over USD $90,000 a year.
Some of the in-demand skills are web development, database management, cyber security, etc. It’s a vast field, you just have to know what you are good at, who your clients are, and position yourself properly within your domain.
Writing
Clients will always need writers until the day artificial intelligence takes that task over. If you are a competent writer or editor and you can spit out articles at good speed coupled with low mistakes you could try your shot at writing. You could write blogs, advertisements, books, scripts, etc.
Virtual Assistance
Working online can be draining and things can get complex pretty quickly. Hence often times online business owners outsource some of their mundane tasks to virtual assistants. It can be a profitable career if you find the right client with who you can work.
Depending on the region, time zone issues can become a problem but if you have no problem shifting up your schedule such as working at night, you can probably even juggle two clients. That’s if you find that opportunity.
Tutoring
Online tutoring is on the rise as in-door classrooms are becoming unpredictable. If you know a topic really well and you understand the level where you want to teach, you can make good money doing online tutoring.
Using YouTube to share your knowledge as well could be a great marketing tool. You could then channel that traffic to your main freelance page or website landing page promoting your classes.
Digital Marketing
As businesses start to do more online marketing, they will be in need of competent digital marketers who can bring in “consistent” results. Similar to computer programming, this field is also vast and the skills tend to converge and vary.
Some of these skills would include search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, content marketing, video marketing, social media management, etc. You just have to do your research and see where you can add value.
Exotic Skills
If you are ambitious and really want to separate yourself from the market. You can have a look at skills that will be in demand within 5-10 years. These are what I call exotic skills.
They have all the buzzwords surrounding them such as artificial intelligence, blockchain development, internet of things. Persons are really in need of engineers who can work within these niches and they offer big bucks due to the current lack of skilled workers.
Summary
Overall, this is just the tip of the iceberg on the skills you can offer and market research. My advice is to go on these platforms and search around, look at what clients are asking for and see where you fit within that puzzle.
See if you can learn a skill or two to compete. At first, it might look daunting but never let that deter you.
Knowledge Worker and Tools
“You are only as good as your last success” – Tim Grover
Once you are a freelancer or basically working on your own, your future is within your hands. You are now a knowledge worker, being a knowledge worker is someone who thinks for a living and is creative.
As a knowledge worker, you have to ensure that you are always improving, your life should never be static. It should be ever-shifting within a sea of change. That’s how you are going to win. Never let go of that pressure to improve, unless you choose to.
If you want to learn how to up your skills, here are educational platforms you can take advantage of. Some offer free courses while others are really cheap:
- Udemy
- Coursera
- Udacity
- Skillshare
- Pluralsight
- KhanAcademy
- Youtube (Don’t take it for granted it’s probably the most accessible and powerful!)
Freelance Platforms
Let’s say that you have a skill and you are prepared to enter into a niche. Now, where should you go to make money, below is a list of platforms that you can use:
Upwork
Upwork can be pretty useful if you know how to use it. It’s a bit competitive but if you can present yourself well and bid for jobs, you could reap rewards. It has over 1.5 million clients and you can find jobs for almost any skill under the sun.
Fiverr
Fiverr is pretty competitive, basically, you will be the one creating a gig which is basically an advertisement promoting a skill.
It’s pretty easy to set up but you will probably have to do a lot of online marketing to get your first couple of clients unless you find a niche where it’s not yet crowded.
PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour is not bad at all especially if you have skills in certain areas such as marketing, search engine optimization, and web development. It has a nice interface and good usability.
Guru
Guru is also not a bad option either. It’s similar to Upwork and less popular but you can still find jobs if you are persistent and know where to look.
It also gives you the option to do a productive job search. You can choose jobs hourly, work by project, location, etc.
Freelance Writing Gigs
If you are good at writing and editing you can have a try at this platform. The good thing is that the jobs are always fresh so you can find daily jobs pertaining to your interest.
99Designs
If you are good with graphics, you can find high-quality design jobs on this platform. It is based on a contest. You will be presenting your design along with many others based on the client’s demand.
Once the client chooses the design he or she likes, they will work with that freelancer and pay them. It’s a bit competitive but don’t let that deter you if you are competent.
Closing Remarks
Now that you are thriving on a freelance platform. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Having a schedule is a must. Additionally, you need a system to organize tasks and deal with clients. You can use slack, Trello, and various other online productivity tools to keep things organized.
As it relates to finances you can use PayPal to get paid, it’s the most accessible. You could even use Payoneer which is also another payment gateway that is accessible on some of these platforms.
When you are bidding for jobs on websites like Upwork for example, you have to stand out. You can use the foot in the door mentality, which is to quickly work on the project before the client even realized it.
When you do this and then you let the client become aware of it, he or she will often be amazed at your enthusiasm and come to appreciate it. It is not a guarantee that you will get the job, but it will put you above the competition.
Additionally, you can do other things such as a video introduction or even recording your screen discussing the project and what you can offer. There are a lot of ways you just have to be creative.
Lastly know your worth, if you know that you are worth more than they charge, well let them know, or don’t even bother to bid. This is important and it can save you from headaches working with clients who have high demands with low pay.
Hopefully, you find this guide helpful and you can extend on it with your personal experience and journey.
