Are You Making These 5 Mistakes? When you start a freelance business, there is a great deal to learn. You’ll master your craft through trial and error. There are many mistakes people make when getting started. Here are the 5 biggest mistakes so you can avoid making them and speed up your learning curve. Charging Too Little When you first get started, you may feel like you’re living your best life ever. You’re getting paid to do what you love on your own terms. As a result, many new freelancers charge too little for their services. You may also charge less than you’re worth to secure more clients. This isn’t a good long-term strategy. The sooner you start charging what you’re worth, the better. There are three important steps that will help you set your rate:
Then, set your rates accordingly. If, at first, you don’t feel confident in your skills, offer more value. As you gain confidence, charging what you’re worth will start to feel more natural to you. Taking Every Job that Comes Your Way You’ll be excited to get new clients and line up work. One mistake people make is that they take on every single job offer that comes their way. The result is that you get too busy. Plus, you might end up taking on work or clients that aren't appropriate for you. When you get started, clearly define what services you offer and what services you don’t. Learn how to set clear boundaries with clients who ask too much. Look at your schedule and determine how much work you can take on at a given time and stick to it. Burning out The first casualty of any freelance business is work-life balance. You’re trying to do everything you can to get your business off the ground. You want to be available to your clients 24/7. The result is that you forget to take time for yourself, and you burn out. Be sure to put some leisure time and family time into your busy schedule. Define your work time vs. non-work time and stick to it. Turn off notifications and resist the urge to check email during your off hours. Forgetting to Do Your Marketing Once your business gets off the ground, you’ll get enough work to fill your schedule. This is great, but it leads many new freelancers to forget an important task – marketing. Your marketing takes time to build. When the work dries up and you need to get new clients fast, your marketing won’t be in place and you’ll have to start from scratch. Since it takes time to work up your marketing, start at the beginning and devote a set amount of time each day to building those streams, even when you’re up to your ears in work. Avoiding long-term planning This is your business. Like any business owner, you need to think ahead into the future. Where will you be a month from now, a year from now, or ten years from now? Even when you get busy, don’t forget to devote some time to strategy and long-term planning. You need to know where you’re going so you can grow. About The Author Pat Simes is a Business Strategist, blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality.
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 The shift from working for others to freelancing full-time can be scary. When you make that leap, you’re taking your fate into your own hands, sink or swim. But there are some things you can do to make the leap less dramatic and ensure that your lift off is smooth and as risk-free as possible. Start by Freelancing on the Side The best way to launch your freelancing career risk-free is to start by freelancing on the side. Keep your day job and start building your career in evenings and on weekends. As your client list and income grows, you can quit when the time is right. Besides helping to reduce the risk, this strategy also gives you experience and knowledge gradually. You can master your trade by learning little by little. By the time you’re a full-time freelancer, you will have it down pat. Put Aside a Reserve Fund Another way to reduce the risk is to set aside some funds in advance. If it works better for you to quit your regular job and leap into freelancing, this fund will give you a cushion during the initial phase when you’re not earning. Before you get started, put aside about 3 months’ worth of income from your regular job. This will keep you covered long enough to start earning. You’ll have plenty of time to spare. Keep Costs Low and Avoid Debt Another way to reduce the risks of jumping into a freelance career is to keep your start-up costs low and avoid going into debt. For your freelancer website, choose a cheap hosting plan and upgrade after your business grows. Once you have established a regular client base, you can start investing more in your business. Start Building Your Network Long before you start freelancing full time, you should start building a professional network. The best work comes through your network and referrals, not from job sites or even your website. Plus, there are many people who can help you in various ways. Even while you’re still working your regular job and your site isn’t even off the ground yet, introduce yourself to people and tell them about the freelance services you offer. Become a Freelancer for Your Current Employer If you have the opportunity to do so, you can start by becoming a freelance worker or consultant for your present employer. See if there are opportunities where you can stay employed with your current company, but with a more flexible schedule. Plan Your Leap Whatever strategy you choose for starting your freelance business, set a deadline for earning a full-time income. Set the time you’ll quit your day job and officially become a freelancer. This helps to keep you on track and keep it from just being a dream. It also helps with planning the details. About The Author Pat Simes is a Business Strategist, blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality.  Do you want to start a freelance business and work from home? The first step is to decide what kind of skill or service you are uniquely qualified to offer. If you are having a difficult time figuring out what to do, here are 5 freelance business ideas to inspire you and get you brainstorming. Web Content Writing If you like to write, you can create content for the web. Every single website you see needs written material, not to mention social media posts, blog posts, press releases, ad copy, product descriptions, and all the other text you see everywhere online. Content writing is one of the most time-consuming tasks for internet-based businesses. Even if an entrepreneur can write their own material, it’s often one of the first tasks they outsource as their business grows. If you can specialize in certain topics and frame yourself as an expert in them, you can earn more and stand out in the market. Graphic Design For the artistically inclined, graphic design is a great freelance path. Most online businesses can’t create quality graphics even if they want to, so this is a task that is often outsourced. You can design everything from images for content marketing to logos and brand design elements. Like content writing, you can boost business by specializing. You can specialize in types of work like branding, designing visual content, or product packaging. You can also get more work by mastering a variety of different tools, apps, and software for creating images and designs. Web Development and Programming Your programming and coding skills can be used to build your clients’ websites and apps. There will always be demand for these skills. It’s one of the most in-demand in the world because everyone with an online presence needs it. Different areas you can work in include building code into graphic interfaces on the front-end or working on the back end writing script and building databases. You can do everything from the initial planning of site architecture to working on the details of a software program’s functions. Teaching and Tutoring In the days before the internet, a tutor had to spend a great deal of time traveling to and from students’ homes. Skype, Zoom, and Facebook now allow you to impart your knowledge to your students from anywhere around the world. You can offer lessons in school subjects like math, foreign languages, or business skills to people who need it. You just need an area of expertise that’s in demand and some basic teaching skills. Virtual Assistant A virtual assistant is a professional who can perform a variety of tasks for business owners or individuals. You might be scheduling appointments, handling phone calls, managing remote staff, and performing a variety of work tasks for your clients. You can offer a bundle of services that include these tasks, but also include content writing or graphic design to make yourself even more valuable to your clients. If there’s any task at all you can do remotely for clients, you can build a viable freelance business. The first step is to decide what service you’re going to offer. About The Author Pat Simes is a Business Strategist, blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality. Here’s How to Make Sure Do you have dreams of ditching your day job and starting a freelancing career? If you have a skill you can offer online, you can make a living working at home, setting your own hours, and living by your own rules. But before you get started, you need to make sure your idea is a sound one. Get Your Mindset Right There’s a certain mindset you need to have if you want to be a freelancer. You’re not just a worker, you’re also a business owner. Like any CEO, you need to handle strategic planning, branding, scheduling, and everything else your business needs. You also need to make your business grow. Are you ready to handle all these tasks on your own? Do you feel energized when you think about managing your freelance business? This is the mindset you need to have to be a successful freelancer. Is There a Market for What You Do? You have a service to offer, but are people paying money for that service? One of the most important things to test first before you launch your business is the market. Is there an audience for your services? Look around at freelancers offering the service you want to offer. Follow them on social media. Join groups where people who offer this service are talking. You can learn a great deal by listening to their conversations and also learn important things like the going rate, tips and tricks to land more clients, or how to handle difficult clients. Do You Have the Discipline? Working on your own as a freelancer means freedom. That’s one of the main reasons people do it. But it also means you need to have the discipline and motivation to do it yourself without needing to be nudged by a boss or co-workers. A good way to test this is to do a few small jobs before you launch your freelance career. Find a gig on a freelancer website or through your connections. This will give you some experience managing your time and meeting deadlines. Discipline is a muscle you can grow. A good way to build up this skill is to transition gradually from your regular job to freelancing, gradually taking on more work. Can Your Finances Handle It? There’s a bit of financial risk involved in starting your own freelance business. There’s a good chance you won’t earn much at first, and it will probably take some time before you’re earning what you earn now. There are two ways to handle this. One is to start doing some freelance work on the side while you keep your regular job. Once you have enough income through the services you offer, you can quit. Another approach is to save money and make the leap. Save about 2-3 months of pay to tide you over until you start to earn enough through your freelance business. It’s fine if you don’t have everything you need right now to start your business. As long as you’re willing to learn a few new skills and cultivate the right mindset, you can make it as a freelancer. About The Author Pat Simes is a Business Strategist, blogger and Founder of Innovative Business Solutions and Innovate Academy. She currently resides in the Midwest and is committed to inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to transform their vision to reality. |
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