Are you considering becoming one among the just about 60 million freelancers within the US? Do you’re feeling ready to quit your job and switch what’s now perhaps a side gig right into a full time freelance profession?
Before you make this tough but potentially very rewarding decision, consider a number of the pros and cons of freelancing.
On the plus side, full time freelance work makes you your individual boss – you’ll be able to work flexible hours and select your individual clients. You possibly can easily find low-cost flights and take your work with you anywhere you please.
Nonetheless, as a freelancer, you will even be working on your individual. There shall be nobody to pick up the slack whenever you aren’t feeling very productive or whenever you need to take a break. And when you will definitely be the boss, you will even be the one who needs to meet the demands of a number of different clients.
In the event you still feel that becoming a freelancer full-time is the way in which to go, listed below are the seven steps you will want to take and the questions you need to be asking yourself before you make that leap.
What to Consider Before Going Full Time Freelance
Freelancing full-time is quite a bit tougher than you could initially think.
Once you’ve got established a solopreneurship and have a few long-term clients under your belt, it does get easier. But before that happens, here’s what you would like to consider before going full time freelance.
Where Will I Be Searching for Work?
The very first thing to consider before you grow to be a full time freelancer is where you shall be in search of work. There are many freelance jobs sites you’ll be able to utilize, but before you begin registering accounts on all of them, do a little analysis.
Depending on the services you shall be offering, you could give you the chance to find clients through a specialized job board. 99designs, for instance, is an incredible option for designers, while ProBlogger has a job board that’s specifically tailored to writers. You can even join for SolidGigs which is able to send you the highest job listings specifically picked for you directly to your inbox.
Consider these three key aspects:
- the rates others along with your skill set are offering
- the number of comparable freelancers on the platform
- the rates the platform itself will charge you
Once you’ve got all this information, you’ll be able to single out a few projects that appear best fitted to you. Don’t try to cover more, as you’ll find yourself spending an excessive amount of time in search of work and never enough on perfecting your pitch.
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Can I Sell My Own Skills?
To grow to be a successful full time freelancer, you would like to be superb at two things:
- performing a certain service – i.e., having a skill set you’ll be able to turn into an income
- having the ability to sell that very same skill set
Most freelancers never even stop to take into consideration their sales and marketing skills before they begin in search of clients. That is once they discover they’re quite bad at singing their very own praises or that they’re terrible at negotiating.
Take a while to truthfully take stock of your individual traits. How likely are you to persuade someone you might be one of the best person for the job? Do you perhaps need to brush up in your communication skills? Do you would like to learn more about writing the right pitch before you go into full time freelance work?
Don’t be afraid to postpone your plans for a short time if it means you’ll give you the chance to hit the bottom running.
How Much Money Do I Have Saved up?
Whenever you first start to freelance full-time, you’ll probably not give you the chance to replenish your entire workday with actual work. You will want to spend a number of time finding clients and negotiating contracts, so your earnings are likely to be lower than you desire to.
It’s vital to consider your funds before you quit your day job. Will you give you the chance to uphold your current lifestyle over the course of those initial full-time freelancing months when your income won’t be what you hope it to be?
Ideally, you wish to have some money saved up for this purpose — a solid 3-6 months value you’ll be able to live to tell the tale must be a good cushion to make it easier to start.
It is best to also face the proven fact that you could need to cut down on a few of your expenses. You don’t necessarily need to cut all of the fun out of your life, but some changes could be so as. For instance, it could possibly be something easy like one less takeout coffee a day.
How Will It Impact My Lifestyle?
Going full time freelance will even impact your lifestyle. Unless you’ve already been working from home on your individual, there shall be some changes to adjust to.
First, there’s the loneliness and sense of isolation that may include freelancing. There shall be no colleagues you’ll be able to chat with about your day, and nobody else will understand the work you might be doing. You’ll definitely need to be sure that you discover someone you’ll be able to talk to, whether that’s a friend or a fellow freelancer.
Secondly, note that although your schedule shall be flexible, that doesn’t mean that you would be able to exit every night, have a break in the course of day by day, or that you just won’t have to work late into the night on a weekend.
Try to establish your individual working hours and schedule your personal life around them. In the event you keep giving in to every non-work-related impulse, you could find yourself not hitting your goals.
Nonetheless, don’t forget that you just do need to take a break and that you would be able to’t work 14 hours day by day, regardless of how vital or exciting the work is. You will discover a workable balance over time, but at first, you may need to remind yourself either that breaks are required or that you would be able to’t keep taking an hour’s break every hour.
How Much Money Can I Earn?
Finally, there’s the crucial consideration of your income when going full time freelance. Certain skills can earn you a hefty paycheck, while other jobs won’t be nearly as lucrative.
Whenever you first start out, your prices will probably be a bit lower. You’ll, nonetheless, need to keep steadily raising them until you hit that level of experience and confidence where clients shall be coming to you.
So as to (*7*)earn extra money as a freelancer, you’ll have to keep working in your networking, pitching, and core industry skills, so plan for a rise in earnings every year.
Be certain that the cash you expect to earn in a worst-case scenario (and the cash you’ve got put aside to your first months of full-time freelancing) is enough to get you thru the day and allows you to maintain your current lifestyle. Alternatively, be sure that you’re ready to make any of the changes that a decrease in income will demand.
Remember: when you are too wired concerning the money, you won’t give you the chance to be as productive or as effective as you desire to to. So, be sure that that part checks out before you go full-time.
7 Steps to Go Full Time Freelance
Listed here are the steps you would like to take to grow to be a full time freelancer:
1. Define Your Services
First, you will want to define the services you offer as precisely as possible. Don’t just say you offer content writing services, for instance. Define the niches you shall be writing in, the varieties of clients you ideally want to work with, and the competencies and skills you might be bringing on board.
Take a have a look at what other freelancers are offering on the platform you wish to use, and check out to emulate their vocabulary for outlining services. It’s what clients shall be used to.
2. Consider Your Prices
How much you charge to your services matters quite a bit, but keep in mind that it won’t be a dealbreaker. There’ll at all times be clients who think that you just are either too expensive or too low-cost for his or her needs.
The one who needs to be glad with these figures is you. In the event you feel you usually are not earning enough, you won’t be glad along with your full time freelance profession. Be certain you permit room for growth and that you just judge your skills and knowledge fairly.
3. Learn All In regards to the Law
Becoming a full time freelancer also means you would like to handle your individual retirement and medical insurance. Your local laws will determine how much taxes you would like to pay and what your total expenses per thirty days shall be.
Get to know as much concerning the legal and financial elements of full-time freelancing and be sure that you comply with all of the regulations. In the event you don’t, it could find yourself costing you greater than you’ve bargained for.
4. Put It All on Paper
Write yourself a transient marketing strategy. Cover your projected incomes, your monthly or weekly expenses, and the important thing points of your small business:
- How are you in search of clients?
- What does your pitch appear like?
- What are your working hours?
- Where do you’re employed from?
- What kind of apparatus do you would like?
- What are your goals and targets for every month or quarter?
- How will you attract clients?
Having all of this written down will make it easier to get more done in those first crucial months, whenever you don’t yet have a set routine.
5. Put Together a Portfolio
To attain freelance gigs, you’ll need to put together a portfolio of your previous work. Consider it as your freelancing CV.
You should utilize a platform like Dribble or Behance, create your small business website, or put together a flyer. Do whatever you’re feeling will work to your goal clients. Be certain you might be honest about your achievements and highlight your core competencies. Last but not least, describe how your work has helped each previous client or employer achieve their goals.
6. Tap into Your Network
So as to propel your full time freelance profession as quickly as possible, don’t forget to let all your networks know what you might be doing. Family and friends (even those that may not quite understand what you do) have their very own networks they will recommend you to.
Don’t just update your LinkedIn status, but quite reach out to old clients or colleagues as well. You never know who could be looking to work with someone such as you.
7. Learn When to Say No
The last step you would like to soak up launching your full time freelance profession is learning when to say no.
You shouldn’t work with all the clients that come your way. Sometimes you won’t give you the chance to agree on a rate, and at other times they shall be asking you to work on a project you aren’t actually thinking about.
Don’t be afraid to refuse a project that you already know you don’t want to work on. It could appear to be you would like to grab each opportunity that arises, but don’t fret – others are only across the corner. So, don’t lock yourself into work you don’t even like, as it may well prevent you from applying for a tremendous project in a few weeks’ time.
5 Questions to Discover if You’re Ready to go Full Time Freelance
Freelancing remains to be very much value it in 2022. But before you grow to be a full time freelancer, ask yourself these five questions to ensure freelancing is the precise profession move for you.
1. What Skills Do I Have?
So as to construct your freelance profession, you will want a particular set of skills, as not every little thing you might be good at will be sold as a contract service. Most freelance jobs are online ones, so when you are a plumber, for instance, you will want to start a business.
Analyze your core competencies and every other, softer skills you could have. They’ll make it easier to determine the sorts of jobs you wish to work on.
Be honest about your knowledge. In the event you were good at english grammar in highschool, it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to now grow to be a contract tutor.
2. Can I Hold Myself Accountable?
Certainly one of the most important challenges of freelancing is that there isn’t any one to hold you accountable to your work aside from your client. But before the client sees any of your work, you would like to actually get it done. And there isn’t any one to make you rise up and do it.
In the event you are the type of one that prefers to procrastinate and do a rush job on the eleventh hour, you could find freelancing too difficult. So as to succeed, you will want to develop (or improve) your organizational and time management skills. If these are your weakest suits, perhaps now will not be one of the best time to go full time freelance.
In the event you are able to hold yourself accountable and understand whenever you need to push yourself and when to cut yourself a little bit of slack, freelancing is an incredible option.
3. Am I Ready to Work Alone?
The opposite major challenge freelancers face is the loneliness that comes with the job. There may be most frequently nobody to talk to, and you’ll be able to rely only on yourself to get a job done.
In the event you thrive off teamwork and like to work in a big group of individuals, freelancing full-time could also be too hard in your mental health. However, when you like to work alone and also you’d give you the chance to maintain the type of social life that keeps you grounded, you might be ready to go full time.
4. Am I Ready to Work Longer Hours When Mandatory?
There shall be times whenever you need to work for much longer hours than you’ll at a 9-to-5 job. There will even probably be weeks whenever you barely have time to deal with anything aside from work.
In the event you are the type of one that prefers to have a set schedule, you’ll be able to still excel at freelancing. You possibly can arrange any type of timetable that works well for you. Nonetheless, when you want to give you the chance to predict when each workday shall be over and in case your lifestyle doesn’t support unexpected challenges and longer hours, you could find it a challenge to sustain with freelance work.
5. Do I Love What I Do?
The perfect and most successful freelancers are those who truly love their work. They aren’t just whiling away the hours until they will go home. They’re passionate and prepared to work hard on most days.
In the event you don’t really, genuinely love the work you’ll do as a full time freelancer, you could want to stick to being an worker. Freelancing entails labor and a few tough times, and if there isn’t any spark to make it easier to get through it, you won’t enjoy your chosen profession.
Wrapping It Up
Becoming a full time freelancer will be an incredibly liberating and empowering decision. To set yourself up for fulfillment over the long run, be sure that to consider these seven steps and five questions before you make that call. Do your research, get to know the freelance job market, and begin constructing a business you shall be happy with.
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