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Technology is responsible for a
lot of changes in our lives and the most important change of all is how we make
money for sustaining ourselves and our families. With the increase in internet
penetration and cheaper hardware costs, access to freelancing opportunities has
become easier and we have seen a rise in people opting to work from home and providing products/services for a wider audience. For latest stats on
freelancing, see here and here.
I run a community for women who
are connected to the tech industry and quite often we find our members asking
questions about starting a freelancing career. We have already done a couple of
webinars on this topic, but I thought it would be a good idea to create a blog-post that can help people in setting things up for starting their journey as a
freelancer and a solopreneur.
Before moving to the step by step guide, I
want to give you some context to this blog-post, I started my freelancing career
in February 2007 and left it in December 2009 after I graduated from University
and was expected to get a stable job. I spent 5 years in the tech industry on
different positions and then in July 2014, I again left my job to become a
solopreneur. It has been a little over three years now and this blog-post
contains the route I have taken to create a sustainable business and do a lot
of passion projects. Usually, the basics stay the same but the details can
differ from person to person and as there are no silver bullets for having a
fulfilling career, working tirelessly is the only way to achieve your goals.
Let's start setting up the shop!
Let's start setting up the shop!
Step 1: Find areas of
interest/expertise
This is the first and the
foremost step, you need to find your areas of expertise/interest. The kind of
work that excites you and you have some experience with it would be the best
choice. Run a search online and see what kind of skills are in demand and if
you possess those skills, in some cases, you will have to learn a new skill
and/or tool, or take a class to improve yourself, don’t shy away from learning,
because that’s the only way a freelancer can stay relevant.
Step 2: Make Lists (a lot of
them!)
This step is about taking an inventory
of all the things that can help you become successful in your career. List down
your skills, the kind of projects you are into, industries/business areas of
your interest, things that you need to learn to improve yourself (e.g.,
productivity, networking, etc.), strengths and weakness and key people in your
rolodex who can be significant in your growth.
Step 3: Get on a freelancing
platform (optional)
There are plenty of freelancing
platforms out there and we have seen massive success stories coming out of
these platforms. I have personally worked on upwork and I am a big fan but
there is a very cut throat competition for projects and it may take you a
couple of week in creating a kickass profile and some good proposals. Upwork
publishes content to help newbies get on the platform and their customer
services staff is helpful too. You can also try fiverr, freelancer and people per hour for scoring projects. There are separate platforms available for
specific kinds of skills, like Toptal and Freelance Writing Gigs. I
would recommend you to explore at least two of these platforms and see what
suits you and your business goals.
Step 4: Polish your Social Media
Presence
This step is crucial for you to
be known as a professional and someone who can be a great addition to any
project/team. Most of us use social media for news/entertainment, staying in touch
with friends and family, and/or for ranting/venting (especially twitter), but
now you need to shift the focus from all of the above and make it an aid for
your business. Few rules that I follow for my social media profiles are:
- Make sure that the bio/about sections of your profiles are up-to-date.
- Use your full name and keep your profiles public (if possible), it will make you searchable.
- No religious/political discussions.
- No personal pictures/check-ins/details.
- Actively use Facebook groups for participating in discussion with like minded people (same rule applies for LinkedIn).
- Create, curate and share relevant content with your audience.
- Use twitter for connecting with people, take part in twitter chats and form connections.
Step 5: Create a Portfolio
It truly depends on the kind of
work you do, but having a portfolio can increase your odds of scoring better
clients. If you are a coder, have a GitHub repo, if you are a designer/illustrator,
behance can work for you, if you are a writer, have your own blog/Facebook page
and keep your publications up-to-date.
In case, your work is like mine (Strategizing, Business Analysis, Management, Testing, etc.) and with NDAs, do spend
some time in creating some work samples, documents, visual aid, etc., that you
can showcase while bidding for a project.
Step 6: Create
SOPs for your business
I have created
some Standard Operating Procedures for my business which include protocols for
onboarding a client, managing communication, cost/time estimation, setting up
deadlines and billing. I have also created a set of templates that I use for my
work, for example, proposals, project charters, etc. For communication, I
prefer to keep it all documented which means it’s either email or a
collaboration tool (like Asana). Use an e-invoicing solution to automate your
invoices and if not, create an invoice template along with an invoicing record
sheet. It is highly advisable to spend some time on sorting out these details
as they will save you from a lot of headache and potential loss of
client/money.
Step 7: Sort out the payment
method
You need to have at least two
payment methods to make sure that your clients can pay you without hassle. PayPal
doesn’t work in Pakistan and if you are using a freelancing platform, they have
their own embedded payment methods. For your other clients, Electronic Funds
Transfer can work and if not, you can easily get a Skrill and/or
Payoneer account. I would also recommend you to Escrow your payments to make
sure that you get paid for the work you have done.
Step 8: Create a rate card for
hourly work or estimation technique for fixed price projects
Costing is tricky and you will
see a lot of people struggling with it. Rather than quoting on the fly, create
a rate card/bundles for the projects that are redundant and simple to execute.
For complex projects, set an hourly rate for different services that you provide.
You can run a search online to see the hourly rate range for different services
and even check with your local freelancing community. Once you have set your
rate, don’t deviate from it too much because that will going to affect your
reputation and clients will negotiate on cheaper rates rather than better
quality/scope/value added services.
Step 9: Create
your sales funnel
You have done
most of the setting up work, now is the time to get cracking. If you are working
on a freelancing platform, they have a bidding mechanism but if you want to
generate business outside the freelancing platforms, you need a sales funnel. You
will have to establish yourself as an expert in the field so that people know
who to talk to when they are in trouble with a specific kind of task/project.
There can be multiple
ways that you can have better acquisition of your prospects:
- The best and most effective of all is to write blogposts, experience reports, white papers, answers on Quora, etc.
- Start podcasting, which doesn’t require a lot of equipment and can help you in reaching to your potential customers.
- Creating an online course is also a very effective way of reaching out to the right kind of audience.
- Email marketing via your website.
- Host a webinar, even a targeted Facebook Live session can help.
- Participate in online discussions (Targeted Facebook groups are a gold mine of connections)
- And last but not the least, network with the right kind of people and be helpful.
Step 10: Optimize
your work procedures and be productive
I can’t stress
enough on being productive when it comes to running a solo show. Set a work
time table, have a proper work station (table and chair), a stable internet
connection (have a backup if you are in Pakistan), a note taking tool (Evernote,
Google Keep, etc.), a collaboration tool (Asana, Trello, Slack, etc.), cloud
storage (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, etc.) and noise cancelling earbuds. You
will need all of the above to be able to focus on your work and without focus,
there isn’t much chance of getting success.
Step 11: Be
reliable
Reliability is
a great and winning characteristic for any solopreneur, establish yourself as a
reliable resource and earn the trust of both your colleagues and clients. This
trait will help you in developing long term relationships with your clients and
will turn into repeated business. Make sure that you communicate early and
often when you are working on a project. Also, your words and deeds should
always be aligned.
Step 12: Be a
lifelong learner
For a
freelancer, learning is not only important but necessary to keep the business afloat.
Every now and then, you will have to take up work which will be fairly new to
you and you will be required to learn a new skill to deliver it successfully.
Learning will add up to your skill set and will help you win better and more
work. Take an online class, listen to a podcast, attend a lecture or a
conference, and add up to your skillset. Learning will help you grow both
personally and professionally and you will be able to make better and more
informed decisions.
I know that it’s
a long list and it will require both patience and perseverance in getting your
first gig and completing it successfully. It is a tough but rewarding route
nonetheless and I assure you that once you get a hang of working remotely and on your own, you
wouldn’t want to go back to a 9-5 job.
Do you have a
question or a project to discuss? Let’s talk!
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