Freelancing is one such option that allows you to work on your terms and earn money. # **What is Freelancing?** Freelancing is a contract-based service in which you don’t work for a company but give skill-based services to various clients and companies. 1. You are self-employed. 2. Your business model is service driven. 3. You are a solopreneur. 4. You charge on the basis of the project or number of hours or per day. 5. You can provide both short and long term services. 6. You will have to choose a freelancing work that not only excites you or matches your skill-sets but also has a demand in the market. # **Steps to Start a Freelance Business** 7. ==**Define your goals:**== Not only in freelancing, but you must have clarity of goals in every big decision so that you can measure in how much time, you make clients and do projects. You must have an idea about both short-term and long-term goals. 8. ==**Find a profitable niche:**== Find a service that suits you, has a market and is profitable. - In freelancing, more focus is on the quality and not money so ensure to give quality work. - Try new things and tell clients about them and show them your work. This will help you in expansion. You can add new clients so can limit yourself to a few clients and give them your service. 9. ==**Identify target clients:**== Find niche of your freelancing and also who needs the freelancing services in that particular niche. - You can do this through research, online websites or network. - You may not be able to work with every client maybe due to not getting sufficient payment, etc. - Therefore, you will have to find a perfect fit to work with clients. You can find your clients by the following three ways: 10. ==**Target business for your services:**== Look for the businesses that are interested in your services. 11. ==**Businesses who can afford you:**== Look for the businesses that can give you the right value/price for your work. 12. ==**Company’s** **decision-maker:**== Know the decision-maker of the company. 13. ==**Your growth:**== Understand how you can grow with the company. 14. ==**Future business:**== Know about how much business can you get in the future from the company. 15. ==**Benefit to you:**== Know if the client is added to your portfolio, what benefit you will get. 16. ==**Set strategic price for services:**== You will have to charge the amount for your work as per the value you are giving and not what your competitor is charging. - At times, you might have to work at a lower price but look for other advantages like you will be working with a new company, you will learn a new type of work. - Also, your skills and experience is getting better, and therefore, you can show some flexibility. 17.  ==**Build high-quality portfolio website:**== Make a website to display your projects as it makes a good impression on the clients you are targeting. To make a good website, these 6 things are important: - Display your work - Highlight your services - Mention your contact information and personality insights - Highlight relevant skills, education, experience, achievements - Testimonials of previous clients to increase the trust factor - Update your website with new projects and work of your clients 18. ==**Learn how to pitch yourself:**== - Irrespective of the fact that how good you are at your work, but you will have to market your strengths. - Always keep your sales pitch ready and communicate it well. - Prefer a perfect elevator pitch to send on email or for a face to face meeting. - The pitch should convey your value to the clients and he also gets an impression that you do your homework properly. 19. ==**Don’t mix day job priorities with freelance business:**== - ==**Don’t violate contract norms:**== If you are working with a company and have a contract with it that says you can’t work as a freelancer, do not breach the contract. - ==**Freelancing in office hours:**== Do not do your freelancing work during office hours rather do it on a holiday. # Rules of freelancing 20. ==**Sign contract before working:**== Whenever you sign a freelance project, make a proper contract, and do not start working without it. 21. ==**Decide payment structure:**== Decide a payment structure so that the payments don’t get delayed. 22. ==**Business increasing opportunities-** **Existing clients:**== As a freelance, you must understand that your business opportunities will only increase with the existing clients as it takes time to find and convince new clients. 23. ==**Compromise with the price (if required):**== If you have fixed a rate for your services, don’t stick to it and work even if you are getting a lesser amount. # **Ideas for freelancing** There are more than 100 ideas for freelancing. Let’s discuss a few of them: 24. ==**Writing:**== There are also various options in writing like: - Blog writer - E-book writer - Fiction writer - Web content writer - Copy Writer - Translator - Proofreader - Press Release writer - Academic writer - Resume and cover letter writer - Product description writer 25. ==**Designing:**== - Photoshop editor - Website designer - Photo editor - Photo retouching - Graphic/poster designer - T-shirt designer - Infographic designer - CAD designer - Vector designer - Carton artist - Banner designer - Sketch artist - Flyer designer - Broacher designer 26. ==**Consulting:**== - Legal consultant - SEO consultant - Health advisor - Parenting advisor - Fitness advisor - Career advisor 27. ==**Video production:**== - Shoot testimonials for social media pages - Shoot stop motion videos - Video animator - 3B model video 28. ==**Audio production:**== - Audio editor - Audio translator - Music production - Recording podcasts 29.  ==**Marketing:**== - Presentation designer - Online advertising advisor - Content editor and manager for social media - E-mail marketing designer - E-mail outreach - Experts for traffic generation - PR submission - Market research - Branding service - Review products - Freelance as per choice: Cooking videos, makeup influencer, photography, etc. # **Benefits of freelancing** 30. ==**Freedom:**== - You don’t need to travel to work. - You can work comfortably in your PJs. - You can freelance from any location like your home, coffee shop, etc. - You don’t have to deal with colleagues. - You don’t have to put up with corporate rules. - You make your own decisions and live your life on your own terms. 31. ==**Flexibility:**== - Your work-life balance is maintained. - You can take a break whenever you want. - You don’t have to work for fixed hours. - You can choose your own projects. - You can change your direction anytime like working for a corporate client, entertainment, client, etc. 32. ==**Financial independence:**== - You get the flexibility to manage your earnings. - You can reward yourself anytime by going on a holiday with family, adventurous trip, etc. as you do not have to wait to get your leaves approved. # **Websites for Freelancing** 33. ==**For general freelancing work:**== - FlexJobs - SolidGigs - Fiverr - Upwork - CloudPeeps - [Indeed.com](http://indeed.com/) - College Recruiter - [Freelancer.com](http://freelancer.com/) - Guru - ServiceScape - Craiglist 34. ==**For writers:**== - Contena - BloggingPro - Morning Coffee Newsletter - Freelance Writing Gigs - [journalismJobs.com](http://journalismjobs.com/) - [freelancewriting.com](http://freelancewriting.com/) - [allindiewriter.com](http://allindiewriter.com/) 35. ==**For designing:**== - 99desings.com - Behance - [Trible.com](http://trible.com/) - [Angellist.com](http://angellist.com/) - ArtWanted - DesignCrowd 36. ==**For photography:**== - Craigslist - The creative loft - Photography jobs finder - Photography jobs online - Freelance photographer jobs 37. ==**For marketing:**== - Peopleperhour.com - [Remotive.com](http://remotive.com/) - [Aquent.com](http://aquent.com/) 38. ==**For customer service:**== - We work remotely - Virtual vocations - Support driven - Through your networks # **Tips to be a successful freelancer** 39. ==**Write monthly newsletter:**== Write regarding the type of work you are doing and everything happening in the industry and sent it to your network. 40. ==**Share work samples with clients:**== Even you can share the samples with them once in 6 months but they must know that you are working and are updated. 41. **==Connect with freelance agencies:**== List with these companies to find a relevant connection. 42. ==**Work insights on LinkedIn and website:**== Update on your LinkedIn about your work and also add the link of your LinkedIn and twitter on your personal profile. 43. ==**Ask for testimonials:**== Ask your current clients or ex-bosses to write testimonials about you as helps in building trusts of the new clients. 44. ==**Develop new skills and tools:**== Research about new skills and tools and use them in your work. Also, give experts opinions to them to form the impression that you know a lot about upcoming technologies. 45. ==**Always use ‘we’:**== While making any deal, use the word ‘we’ to give the impression that a team is working with you. 46. ==**Show bundled price:**== This is to show that apart from you a lot of other people too would be working hard on your project. 47. ==**Call yourself a consultant:**== Do so just to make an impression. 48. ==**Don’t lower your rates:**== Unless you see a tangible advantage with working with the client, don’t lower your rates. 49. ==**Offer 2-3 service packages:**== Always give options so that the company can choose one as per the convenience. 50. ==**Ask for feedback:**== Do this so that the client feels that you are serious about your job and wishes to improve it. 51. ==**Build friendly relations with clients:**== It makes it easier for you to work. 52. ==**Invest time-based on actual and potential revenue:**== Divide your time amongst clients based on the actual and potential revenue. 53. ==**Under promise and over deliver:**== Promise less and deliver more to meet the expectations of the clients. 54. ==**Define a minimum acceptable rate:**== Think about it and do not work below it. 55. ==**Start with a higher price:**== When you sit for negotiation, start at a higher price. 56. ==**Be available for calls:**== Give them a clear message that they can call you anytime.