How to become a successful freelancer

Becoming a freelancer can be liberating — and also a little terrifying. Where do you even begin? What processes and structures do you need to have in place? How do you find clients?

It’s fairly easy to get started as a freelancer. But it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and motivation to survive to be a successful freelancer. This is why most new freelancers give up on their dreams of working from home after a few months.

Allow me to share with you the tips on being a successful freelancer.

Tips to be successful Freelancer

1. Identify your niche

Ask yourself. “What am I best at in my industry? Your answer to that question will be your Niche. It will help you brand yourself, find clients, and work, most importantly, focus your time spent perfecting the right skills to maximize return on your investment as a freelancer.

2. Learn the right skills

Identify which skills are required of freelancers in your niche and create a plan to develop them outside your day job. Develop the skills that you have, get some practice by taking on projects with your friends and network to exercise your skills.

3. Build an attractive portfolio.

If you have the experience, make sure you showcase it! Here are some tips on how to create a portfolio.

• Be thoughtful about what you include.

• Select only your strongest pieces.

• Showcase your most unique and creative work

• Decide on how many pieces to include

• Go high-resolution

• Stay current

4. Make a Contract Before You Start on Any Project

Getting a client is a freelancer’s dream. To be a successful freelancer you need to have a signed contract before you start to work.

Having a contract means you can make sure of how many hours you work, how much is the pay, is it weekly or monthly.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Say No

I have witnessed almost all of my friends in their early stages of freelancing, they mutually both gone through a trauma and that is of not saying a NO to someone.

They accept orders because they want to earn more in less span of time but what they confront is the late delivery of work to the clients with less quality. This affects your reputation, credibility, and most importantly the relationship with your customer.

So, try to attain some project management skills and despite accepting the offers and orders deliberately, sometimes try to say NO to the client if you think that you won’t be able to obtain the deliverables on time.

As a Freelancer, accepting a job without thinking does not make sense yes you will never lose the project but you lose relationships.

6. Always Be Transparent to Your Clients

As a freelancer, Transparency is a key way of creating trust because it helps eliminate any suspicions or anxieties your Client might have about the value of what you're offering. By laying out the truth, you'll prove that you aren't trying to hide any flaws or defects.

7. Keep Track of Your Work

What you received, what you delivered, what return you get as the result of that delivery?

All this has to be noted somewhere so that you can keep a track record of your work. This would help you to be a successful freelancer to maintain the account and the balance sheet.

So if you are willing to be a successful freelancer you shall make a habit of keeping a record of all of your work.

In order to be taken seriously as a Successful freelancer, you need to earn the trust of your client. This means you communicate well, keep your promises, do your job within the agreed time scale, and maintain high-quality standards. Here are the tips on how to create client trust.

• Give your clients peace of mind.

• Take time to learn their needs

• Always fulfill your promises

• Be honest about what you can offer them

To know more about how to become successful freelancers Start now in your Freelancing Journey in FVA Filipino Virtual assistant academy.

We hope that this article will help you to become a successful freelancer.

What are you waiting for? Enroll now in FVA.