Freelancing is a work where you need to work with many vendors at a time. Most of the time the work will be time-bounded because the vendor needs to get it complete within the planned time-span. Freelancing is a kind of self-employment hence can be called either a job or business. Freelancing needs to interact with many people who are potentially your employers. They need to get some work done from you and you are getting paid for it. There is a good advantage in freelancing is that the payment terms are fixed and immediate in many scenarios. Hardly any payment will get hold for a longer duration. But there may be fluctuation in rates of different vendors.
Fields, professions, and industries where freelancing occurs mainly are music, writing, acting, computer programming, web design, graphic design, translating, illustrating, video production, etc. The freelancers need not do any registration for taking up work because they are automatically granted ownership of the copyright for their work.
Why Freelance Business?
The freelance concept came to India from the US. In the US around 54 million people have already moved their careers from traditional to freelance business. This is just because they have seen the good returns on the work and they get precarious free time for themselves. In, a country like US where there is a 5 day week if people are turning to freelancing, then just think, in India some might have 7 days a week working. The recent rise in the start of freelance business in every field is an indication that people may get lesser money but they desire leisure time for themselves.
In India, people want to start freelancing in the field they like, once they sense that it can work this way. Already there is a rise in the number of freelancers in the writing field. People with useful skills are gaining more support from this field. Not only they get acknowledged but also appreciated along with the payments.
Advantages of Freelancing Business
There are many advantages if one wants to start freelancing as a business.
- No need to leave the current job
- No need for office space
- No need to recruit and pay employees
- No need for business-related travel, or very rare need
- No need for big presentations to grow business
- Fewer taxes
- No health-related risk and so on…
In your life, if you need to be more stable with less risk, then you can opt for a freelancing business. You can start as a side business and can grow into a full-time business runner by proper planning. You need to identify your needs and your goal then only you can layout the plan and start working on it. Here we can see some steps on how to plan your freelancing business
Define Your Goals
For one to start something new, it is essential to understand the motive behind doing it. You just cannot get up and start without any chalked out plan. Setting your clear and measurable goals is very important to decide the path you have to follow. You can progress only if you have clarity on where freelance wants to take you. Usually, it is a good plan to earn 50% of your salary amount in freelancing as a short-term goal. This will give you a push to put a little bit of hard efforts to start a freelance business.
Identify a Profitable Liking
You must work on the new skill development related to your freelance business. This is necessary because then you will move with the changes in the relevant freelancing field and will not feel left out of knowledge. For this, you can find out a thing which interests you more and is relevant to your field too. Another hurdle is competition. In your field, there will be many others who will be ready to work at lower returns. Your skills in the specific area will help you to stand out in your work so that you don’t have to compromise on your payouts.
Identify the Potential Clients
Getting the right clients for your business is equally important. During your initial period, you work with as many clients as possible. This is to build your business and your reputation. It is a good thing that you may have many clients in your kitty. However, the day would come when different clients would need work to be done within the same timelines. This situation is tricky as you have to communicate to one client that the timeline cannot be achieved. Then there is a risk of that client withdrawing his work from you. To avoid this you can start choosing the most beneficial clients for you. This is not an easy task as you may lose some work but on long terms see to it that the clients chosen by you give good work and payouts to you.
Set Prices For Your Work Smartly
While setting your hourly pricing when you start freelancing remember to price yourself for delivering the valued work and not based on your competitor’s rate. The freelance work from people offers different options for clients but the client also looks for value and not only the numbers. This is the reason you have to work hard in putting value in your work. Every different field in freelancing wants work but the work with great value will have more payout. Also, it is the assurance of getting repeated work to you.
Build a High-value website
At the staring of your freelance businesss, you must make a high-value website to introduce yourself to your potential clients. The website must contain all the valued information about your work. It is possible that in your growing period also you have chances to get new clients from this website. The website also needs to be updated as you carry on your work. You can upload your best article as a sample, or post testimonials you received. Make your ranking visible on the website. Highlight your relevant skills, education, and achievements on the website.
Present Examples About Your Work
You can guide the aspirants about how to freelance. This can be seen as generating your competitors but over a period of time, it will benefit you. Apart from designing plans and goals in freelancing in your leisure time, you can post new content, images, or videos that may attract your potential clients. There is also another way to showcase your values and skills. You can publish a very good detailed post on guidance on freelancing career.
Choosing the First Client
It is very important to start a freelance business in the right manner. Choosing the right first client will help you to build your portfolio strongly. Good payout and positive, strong testimonial from your first client will lead you to more established good clients. The client selection will have to consider in your plans and goals in freelancing. As your business is going to be built on such clients you need to select the right ones.
Work Towards the Target With Strategic Planning
- SMART Goals: While you are at the start of freelance business you must set SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound). The goals must be clear and not superficial. There is no use in making some targets which are not possible to attain.
- Focus on your Values: Every individual possesses a unique value. Identify your unique value and work towards enhancing those skills. Once you start doing this, your focus will shift to the projects which will give satisfaction as well as well deserved money. So no need to hang on with clients not suitable for you in your growth.
- Line up your Goals: wisely chose the priority of the goals you chalked down. No harm even if some of your goals consist to teach how to freelance or counseling for work profession and student. That is a great kind of goal. The best number of goals can be between two to five. Once some of them are accomplished you can replace them with new ones.
- Draw a line between Goals and Objectives: Never interchange these two words since they have a lot in common but differ in purposes. For example, a goal can be “to set a new project by month-end” whereas the objective can be “get more new clients to support the project”.
- Set short-term and long-term Goals: To achieve a big goal in your life you must set a target of short-term goals like “How much I need to earn after two years?” or “Number of projects I want to complete in one year”. This will help you to choose the right path for your business progress.
- Thoughts: If you want success and money in the freelancing business you must set goals and objectives. Track your progress with frequent reviews. Decide on the right track to fulfill your dreams.
Wrapping Up
Your aim to start a freelance business may be anything but the benefits of it differ from person to person. This is because everyone has his or her quality and the value of that quality will be different in the market. However’ the best benefit of freelance business is time freedom and good payouts. Since there is no money investment needed one can do the freelancing on his or her terms.
