What is Freelancing?

Freelancing is a contract-based job where an individual works for themselves as opposed to a business. Even though they accept contract work from businesses and organizations, freelancers are ultimately self-employed.

Freelancers are in charge of a variety of tasks that are not the responsibility of traditional workers, including scheduling their own work hours, keeping account of the time spent on various projects, billing clients, and paying their own employment and company taxes. The businesses that hire freelancers refer to them as “contractors” rather than “employees.”

Jobs that allow you to work from home are typically part of freelancing. But don’t mistake working as a freelancer for having a job that allows you to work from home.

Working from home isn’t a guarantee when you freelance. Depending on the nature of the job and the client’s requirements, you could also need to work at the client’s office. While freelancing doesn’t have a contract, a work-from-home job does, and that employer pays you a wage.

Benefits of Freelancing

Choose your Clients

The option to pick and select who they deal with as clients is unique to freelancers. They can work with a variety of clients or just a few carefully chosen clientele. The two most popular methods for freelancers to discover clients are networking (56%) and job sites like FlexJobs (47%), according to a survey by FlexJobs of more than 1,000 independent contractors.

Exposure

While many occupations provide variety, working as a freelancer allows you to work on a wide range of projects and themes. Working inside one organization might not give you experience in other markets or professions. In a regular full-time job that might not necessarily offer ongoing learning and development, you can feel more stationary.

One approach to expanding one’s horizons is to freelance. This variety can make a setting less repetitive and monotonous. As you work on a wider range of project kinds as a freelancer, you’ll have a lot more opportunities for development.

Flexible Working Hours

In particular, having the freedom to choose your own hours can be appealing. If you have children, you may decide to work during their school hours and after they have gone to bed. It’s entirely up to you if you decide to work on a Saturday instead of Wednesday because you were busy. In general, you have total control over when and how you finish the work for your clients as long as the deadlines established are met.

Location Flexibility

As a freelancer, you may have the freedom to live wherever you choose and even travel while working because you aren’t tied to a specific employer or boss. Even though you might need to be close to your clients if you work as a freelancer, you can get clients everywhere.

Since a lot of freelance work is done digitally, you can work completely remotely, have clients all over the world, and live and travel as you like while doing it.

Control Your Own Earnings

There is no need to request a raise from your boss if you are a freelancer. You choose the prices. You get to decide how much labour you accept as well. Rates and workload, however, are somewhat influenced by market factors. Asking for outrageous pay will inevitably result in a smaller pool of potential customers.

However, when they work more and develop a solid reputation, many independent contractors discover that they can gradually increase their prices.

Freelancing is an appealing career option. It handles practically all of the issues that a typical service-class human might encounter. Americans work an average of 47 hours every week, according to Upwork. Average weekly hours worked by independent contractors are 11 fewer than those of full-time employees. This equates to 23 complete days or roughly 550 hours per year.

Traditional full-time employees type on a keyboard for approximately an additional full month every year (or wherever they work). All this along with advantages like freedom to work from anywhere at a time of your choice, being your own boss, keeping all the profits, and a lower cost of operating surely attracts a lot of people to take freelancing as a career.

Regular employment assures us of a vocation that pays at the appointed hour. You receive a schedule to follow. Additionally, this employment offers assured advantages like insurance, retirement benefits, a provident fund, raises in pay for excellence, and salary increases.

You give up any guarantees when you choose to freelance. You can’t be certain that you’ll have repeat customers. There is no assurance that you will be able to maintain this standard of living until retirement, and there is also no assurance that your income will ever rise.

Best Online Freelancing Platforms

Fiverr

Leading online marketplace Fiverr is a platform where independent contractors may post and market their digital skills to clients worldwide. Numerous jobs are available in a variety of fields, including programming, digital marketing, lifestyle, graphics design, and more. You may earn money on Fiverr doing what you love.

It’s important to note that Fiverr incorporates payments directly within the site, so you won’t need to bother about billing your customers or reminding them to pay via Paypal. The funds are transferred to your account once you finish the buyer’s order.

Upwork

The platform offers a wide range of categories, including accountancy, web design, and software development. There are several ways for clients and freelancers to get in touch; clients can either post a job and engage talent or purchase a predetermined service from the project catalogue. In a similar way, independent contractors can use the job board to advertise their services.

With Upwork’s sliding scale, your remuneration decreases as you put in more hours of work. As you receive more money, the commission price gradually decreases, starting at 20% for the initial bill of $500.

Flexjobs

Flexjobs focuses on flexible and remote employment options, including freelancing, part-time, and full-time positions. There are numerous major categories, ranging from instruction and training to writing and media occupations.

Every job posted on the website is verified as valid by Flexjobs. All job listings are verified and screened, and phony businesses and frauds are excluded. This freelance website doesn’t have any adverts on its page, unlike other online job boards.

Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is another freelance website where professionals and businesses from all over the world cooperate on various projects. The huge variety of knowledge makes it simple for clients to locate any form of expert.

Freelance employment can take on a variety of forms, from creative tasks like logo and graphic design to marketing tasks like SEO and copywriting. One of the top freelance websites to look for chances is Freelancer due to the large range of specialties. Even freelancing work in foreign languages including Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and others is available.

Things to Note When Entering Freelancing

You are Responsible for Everything

When you work as a freelancer, you are in business for yourself. You are in charge of marketing your business, finding clients, handling client relationships, billing/collection, and paying taxes. Numerous choices will need to be made.

This includes how you’ll track and accept payments (using Quickbooks, PayPal, checks, etc.); which software you’ll need to buy (Adobe Suite, Microsoft Office, subscription platforms, etc.); and what marketing materials you’ll require (such as business cards, a website, and even a logo).

Work can be Sporadic

Projects can begin and then get shelved. Clients may end a contract early. You may finish a project and find it difficult to find more work. Be prepared to deal with all that. You may be swarmed in work at one point, and not find work over another period. That’s the nature of freelancing.

No Benefits

In contrast to employees, who typically qualify for benefits, independent contractors are much less likely to do so. Freelancers are often responsible for locating and purchasing their own insurance because they are self-employed.

Tips to Create a Winning Profile on the Websites -Your Way to $1000

A great profile causes customers to pause and take another look. You want a profile like that. Your profile on a freelance hiring website serves as both your storefront and business card. Clients who have never hired you before rely solely on your profile to decide whether or not to do so.

Have a Clear and Concise Title

Your title should be direct and concise. We advise restricting it to one line to avoid becoming overwhelmed by technical terms or extraneous material. After all, you’ll have a chance to describe yourself in-depth and creatively in the profile itself. Make sure to include your title, years of experience, and specialty.

Use a Striking Photo

Use a captivating cover photo and a tidy, professional-looking profile picture. A headshot of you with your face-centered and well-lit should be your profile photo. Leave selfies out of it when your future job is on the line. Making good first impressions depends in large part on having a professional photo.

The no-smile requirement for passport photos is optional. In essence, you’re aiming to win over customers, therefore dress warmly and hospitably.

Share Your Experience

Apart from worth, consumers are curious about your background and professional experience. Be willing to list your credentials, technical talents, and the number of years of experience in the sector in your freelance profile.

Work experience that is unrelated to your topic of study should not be listed. Leave out, for instance, the time you spent as a hotel receptionist during your senior year if you are a logo designer.

Show potential clients that you have the skills, assurance, and enthusiasm necessary to handle their assignments. If you satisfy all of their criteria, they’ll put you on the shortlist, putting you that much nearer to getting the job!

Link Your Portfolio

Most freelance platforms allow you to link to an online portfolio. Take full advantage of this, so you can show the client what you can do, as opposed to just telling them. In this case, your work speaks for itself. Adding a portfolio is a great tool to convert all potential clients that land on your profile.

You can create portfolios using WordPress or Wix, without having to code anything from scratch. Read this article to create your own website for free. After creating, if you have the means, upgrade to premium to enjoy all the perks that come with a website. It also improves your chances of landing a client as it’s seen as professional.

Be Specific

Be more detailed than general. You might be concerned that describing your services in-depth will frighten away potential customers who are searching for different niche expertise, but the opposite is really true.

Clients will have more faith in your capacity to execute jobs as long as they fit within the scope of your original profile description the more explicit you are.

Speak Your Clients’ Language

As you put together your profile, write for your target client—speak their language. Call out their pain points and address how you can help fix them. Remember, a little empathy from the start goes a long way.

Avoid Using “We”

Too many freelancers fall into the trap of using “we” when they don’t genuinely function as a team. When discussing your own accomplishments, referring to “we” lessens their effect and gives the impression that you are uncertain and uneasy. Additionally, your potential customers want to hire a freelancer, not a business.

Creating Your First Gig

We have an extensive article on how to create your first gig with Fiverr. Thankfully this can apply to all freelancing websites. Click here to read the full article.

Setting Your Prices as a Freelancer

You should conduct some research prior to deciding how much to charge. Ask other independent contractors what they charge for comparable tasks. You may also look out for average prices for your industry on websites like Glassdoor, the Freelancer’s Union, and HelloBonsai Freelancer Rates’ Explorer. A few things to keep in mind while determining how much to charge are:

• Geographic location: The same work carried out in Ghana is priced lower than if it were done in the U.S.
• Years of experience
• Industry subset
• Qualifications
• The complexity of the project

You must include payment processing expenses when determining your rate. The client may be charged by some platforms, such as Upwork and Fiverr, for the cost of payment processing. However, if you choose to receive payments via PayPal, for instance, you will be required to pay 2.9 percent plus $0.30 for each transaction.

Payment processing fees are levied by Wave and Due, among other payment platforms. Each time may not seem like much, but over time, it adds up. Therefore, include the cost of processing payments in your price quotes.

You can charge hourly or fixed rates. Choose which type will give you your money’s worth. Asking yourself the following questions can help you determine which pricing strategy is ideal for you;

• Will this job likely only take a few minutes? If so, a fixed rate is preferable. Some activities can be completed in less than half an hour but are worth much more than your hourly pay multiplied by two.
• Is the client’s request for your services unclear? Because the client constantly changing their mind, charging by the hour prevents you from successfully working for free in this situation.
• Are you unclear about the project’s duration? An hourly rate is much simpler and easier to compute if you don’t know how to figure out a fixed fee.

Landing Your First Gig as a Freelancer

• Browse newly posted opportunities on freelance platforms and other job sites to actively look for jobs.
• Review and update your profile based on the tips given above.
• Make a portfolio that demonstrates your skills, even if it includes work produced for imaginary clients.
• Don’t undervalue your worth.
• Be patient; getting a response from a client may take weeks, so don’t lose hope too quickly.
• Don’t make it out to have more experience than you actually do; if your portfolio is still small, explain why to the client and emphasize your strengths, drive for success, and motivation to succeed.

Extra Tips to Make $1000 monthly as a Freelancer

Here are some extra tips that will get you there in no time;

• Keep your gigs straightforward, but give extremely specific instructions on what you want from the customer, what the gig entails, and how much it will cost.

• To get a sense of how other experts are managing and organizing their gigs, look at other engagements that fall into the same category as the ones you want to do. This is an excellent place to start.
• On Fiverr, your gig will be up against thousands of other gigs, making it difficult for customers to find you. Your chances of selling more rise when you apply SEO strategies like wording that is simple to understand and relevant keywords.

Best of luck getting into freelancing! You’ve got this!