Top Tips for Starting Your Freelance Career

Discover everything you need to know to start and thrive as a freelancer, including tips, resources, and essential steps for success.

Working as a freelancer offers many advantages, especially leadership and flexibility.

• Leadership because you are in charge of your own ship. For better or worse, some of us find it difficult to work for someone else’s dream. It consumes us inside to do it and not be able to have control over our decisions. So freelancing is a way to free yourself and take responsibility for your own professional career.
• Flexibility, because you control your time when you are a freelancer. You can choose the hours you want to work at any given time and the projects you want to work on, and it is usually common to be able to work from home, teleworking. This is the ideal photo, the one we all have before launching into this activity. The reality is that you usually work a bit more than just as an employee.

As long as you dedicate your time to projects you are passionate about and manage to charge the daily rate you set for yourself, you’re good to go.

What is a freelancer?

Here’s a clear definition of the word freelance:

A freelancer is a self-employed worker who works for himself or herself and whose main activity is to provide services to third parties in exchange for financial compensation.

In common words, a freelancer is someone who “has no boss,” is at the head of his own company, and offers services or products to third parties.

How does the freelancer differ from the lifelong freelancer?

The term freelance is often used for technological professions (designers/programmers, etc.) and the digital world (community/copywriter/project manager, etc.).

In general, freelancers are well-educated people, with higher degrees and often with Masters. In addition, a freelancer is very clear that he himself is their greatest professional asset, so he naturally bets on continuous training.

And this differentiates them from the lifelong freelancer who works in the service sector: from waiter to plumber, from the tour guide to the person who takes care of children or the elderly.

These professionals do share the desire to lead their professional lives, but many, due to lack of preparation, are self-employed because they cannot aspire to a job as an employee.

From the state’s point of view, both profiles, freelancer and self-employed, are identical. The tax and administrative treatment are the same.

What are the main benefits of freelancing?

The main benefits of freelancing are as follows:

• Flexible hours: this is especially the case for freelancers who work remotely, from home or a coworking space. They work with clear dates and objectives, and so they have the freedom to organize their lives as they wish, as long as they are able to deliver to their clients what they have promised them on the agreed date.
• Work-life balance: it is in fact one of the reasons to bet on being a freelancer. Be closer to your family and spend more quality time with your loved ones. The challenge is to clearly separate the professional and personal spheres. It’s not always easy with young children.
• Geographical freedom: that’s right. No matter where you are, if you’ve taken your computer with you and have a good internet connection, you can work.
• Less downtime and expenses: you save yourself the transport time, which is so tiring in working as an employee. And the expenses associated with transportation and lunch at noon.
• More income: that’s right, it’s the freelancer’s risk premium, in a way. They earn more than an employee with equal skills. Companies pay extra because they gain by not having to pay social contributions and by being able to get rid of these professionals more easily, in case they are going through a bad time.
• Diversity of clients and projects: this is another of the great reasons to switch to Discover more clients, more projects. Not to be immersed in a gray and monotonous routine. If your work is important to your fulfillment and you are curious by nature, the freelance world is made for you.
• Freedom of relationships — that’s right. You choose who you work with. Both your clients and your freelance collaborators, who join you to complete your service offering, when one of your clients asks you for a related service that you do not provide directly. It is for me one of the most satisfying aspects of being a freelancer.

Examples of freelance work

Here are 15 examples of very common freelance jobs in Spain today:

1. Strategic/Technical Consultant
2. Executive Coach
3. SEO Consultant
4. Media Buyer Facebook Ads
5. Trafficker de Google Ads / YouTube
6. Sales Closer
7. Content Writer
8. Community Manager
9. Graphic Designer
10. Programmer
11. Illustrator
12. Translator
13. Video Producer
14. Virtual Assistant
15. Project Manager

And if we focus on professions that are easily adaptable to the digital world focused on people:

1. Personal Trainer
2. Nutritionist
3. Therapist
4. Physiotherapist
5. Wedding Planner
6. Shopping Planner
7. Health Coach
8. Relationship Coach (Date Coach)
9. Feng Shui
10. Yoga/Meditation

Practically any job you can think of can be considered, under some circumstances, “freelance work.”

Why is freelancing an option for the future?

There are several reasons for this. But the truth is that freelance work has a great future.

• The world is becoming more and more digitalized and requires more digital profiles.
• Companies are increasingly working remotely and thus can hire the best talent, wherever they are.
• It is more convenient for companies to work with a freelancer because, in short, if you compare them with an employee, it is cheaper (they do not pay social contributions) and it is more flexible. If all goes well, a company can hire many freelancers at once and fire them without compensation when this peak of overactivity has been resolved.
• People are asking to work remotely, and freelancing is an effective way to get a job from home.
• People are increasingly asking to lead their personal career, and again, being a freelancer is a response to these aspirations.
• As you can see, both the environment (the digitalization of the labor market), companies, and people who make freelance work have a great future.

NOTE: Here are the best home-based ventures

By 2030, freelance work will be the majority in countries such as the US. Although it is true that we are lagging behind more advanced countries such as the US, the UK, or Northern Europe, 80% of the job offers available in Spain are digital and freelance.

So I say it loud and clear: freelancing is a profession of the future.

How do I start working as a freelancer?

1. The opportunity of a first customer

Many freelancers are born out of an opportunity. A client that offers them the possibility of freelance work at the perfect time.

And many accept, without further strategic reflection, as one more stage in their professional career.

The truth is that if you do a survey of freelancers about their job satisfaction, 3 out of 4 answer that they would not return to work as an employee or as a joke. There must be a reason…

2. Marketplaces for freelancers

If you want to start as a freelancer with the “easiest” place, that place is a marketplace like:

Upwork, the world reference, in English and Freelancer/Nubelo

To give you an idea, these websites connect companies from anywhere in the world that are looking for a freelancer for a temporary or long-term job.

These are sites that usually work well to start with for the following reasons:

• Companies have the need to outsource the work to a freelancer. They have a problem, and you, with your work, can solve it.
• You don’t waste time in a tireless search for new customers.
• Marketplaces act as intermediaries and assure you that they pay you. You save yourself the headache of chasing the business owner.

If you are going to start here, I will give you some recommendations. :

The secret to reaching many customers in a marketplace is to accumulate many hours of work done with a rating of at least 4 stars out of 5. Both factors reinforce your credibility and will make you stand out in the searches made by customers. Do a lot of short and easy projects at first. No matter what you’re going to get paid, for 4 to 6 weeks, you should accumulate a lot of microprojects to get unbeatable social proof.

Attract new customers in the marketplace; continue to work with them outside of the marketplace. Let’s face it, these sites are going to force you to work at a barely profitable hourly rate because you’re going to compete, just 1 click away, like many other freelancers. It is acceptable as an investment to attract a new customer, but once you have earned the trust of this customer, you should negotiate 1 to 1 with your rate and your payment method, dispensing with the Marketplace.

While I think these sites are suitable for novice freelancers looking to learn their work and fine-tune their art with lots of projects, my recommendation is not to get stuck on these marketplaces.

Why?

Because you’re going to hit the ceiling quickly. You will be super busy, on a plan, 60 hours a week, and you will surely earn less than €3,000/month.

Does it look good?

Because believe me, this time will come working as a freelancer is very demanding. And Franck, is there no way to continue growing in your praxis as a freelancer?

Of course there is.

It is about raising your rate/hour and/or your rate/day.

How?

Ceased to be just another one, replaceable.

And passing for being different, scarce in the market.

How is this miracle achieved in the life of a freelancer?

3. Developing your personal brand

Yep, it’s the only way to work less and get paid more. Creating a personal brand and positioning yourself in your market as a technician recognized by their peers or an opinion leader.

To do this, you can create a blog, work from home, and earn money online.

And it is the step that many freelancers do not finish taking.

For convenience, because, in short, they are happy with their current situation and they do not want to work anymore at this time.

These moments turn into years without you noticing.

And in no way, these freelancers who were once super attractive in the market are in a phase of obsolescence.

And they will have to go back to working more and earning less.

It is key, if you really want to live as a freelancer and have a great professional career, that you continue to question yourself and try to improve yourself, not only on a technical level.

Because this, more or less, you already do.

No, I challenge you to develop your soft skills:

• Written communication
• Sale
• Leadership
• Public Speaking

And in working and taking care of your work routines, to increase your productivity in your day-to-day work and optimize your energy levels 365 days a year.

This is the real challenge to work as a freelancer and live an epic life, both with your clients and with your family.

If you are part of these freelancers who want to have a very real impact on their universe, I have prepared a free training in which I explain to you, step by step, how to design and highlight your personal brand so that you can start selecting your clients and raising your rates.

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