To be a successful freelancer it’s very important to know about the basics of the freelancing business. The first step towards success starts when you know what is freelancing business or freelancer.
The second thing freelancer needs to do to become successful in freelancing that he/she has clear goals, plans, the process of implementation is written in an excel sheet or in mind. These are those works freelancers will do each day for 1 year (e. g. 2 years, 6 months) to become successful. Because they can’t be successful by reading and visualizing success, they need a plan and courage after.
The third most important method to follow for freelancers that they work on creating multiple income sources or looking for more clients or multiple freelancing platforms or practicing & learning more than one skill. It’s really important that they do not depend on a single stream of income, promotion, freelancing platforms.
And the fourth important method is that they are learning every detail, update and new versions of their skills.
The fifth thing is that freelancer has a saving and investment habit.
The sixth thing is a habit to get up early and planning for the day.
The seventh method is spiritual power and confidence.
These 7 methods can help to become a successful freelancer within 1 or 2 years.
The meaning of success here is when a freelancer has multiple income streams when the freelancer does not depend on 1 or 2 clients when he/she does not depend on works/projects and clients for one freelancing platform. In other words, a successful freelancer means when he/she is not too dependable on one source of incoming. Whether incoming is income, clients, promotions, or skills.
These are my personal views and experiences. Your views and motion path can be different but the goal is one that we all want to become successful freelancers. I shared on this website my various experiences related to freelancing and I am thankful to new and experienced freelancers who want to learn more from me and they want a true guide.
Friends I am not rich like Bill Gates, not as creative as Steve Jobs was or any other business leader. But I am living my life and doing business in my way whether it’s not on business books or in schools. I am working on more than 5 income streams currently (I will share later), and love to keep doing this.
So, I just want to help freelancers, I want them to be successful. And if you follow me or if you implement 20% part of my experiences in your career (also by using your own ideas) I will guarantee you will be successful. And I am proud, happy, and thankful to say that many freelancers implemented and are successful. Not by what I told them to do but what their mind told them to do after me. I am just playing my role here to explore the creativity in your brain.
So, now let’s understand and I will explain the above 7 methods that will help you to become a successful freelancer one by one with examples.
7 methods that will help you to become a successful freelancer
1. Know about Freelancing? What it is? & what do you want?
You can’t be successful in any field until you don’t know the basics. You must know about the freelancing industry. You must know what and how you’re going to get the benefits of working as a freelancer. It’s pure white business but needs very smart thinkers and honest people. It required seriousness and commitment. It’s all about business and in the right way.
When will you understand what is this? How can I do it? How can I help others to get benefits from me? How you’re going to get money by helping others with the use of your skills. When you understand these questions sooner or later then you will definitely become a successful freelancer.
So, what is freelancing? The first thing you should understand today. I will try and share it with you on the basis of my understanding and experiences.
Freelancing: An independent entrepreneur working not for one company or client as a permanent worker or on a fixed monthly salary or 9 to 5 but providing services for multiple companies and clients anytime from anywhere. He/she is not a permanent employee of the company. He/she is just working for a particular time at any time of the day or when a client needs their time. The duration of work can be project-based (one hour, one day, one year, and till the client is in the business) and it depends on the nature of work and quality provided by the freelancer. Payments can be hourly, weekly, monthly, and project-based.
So, all these processes and functions are called freelancing. The worker is known as a freelancer. A freelancer is the opposite of a government or private company employee. A freelancer is also a contractor for a project. If the client wants a website then the freelancer provides it in the set time and with prior discussed demands.
Conclusion: Where you’ll find freelance work and clients? – On freelancing sites, personal websites, offline and social media. Clients are posting projects and jobs on freelancing sites such as upwork.com, freelancer.in, guru.com, etc. If clients are visits your personal website from Google after searching keywords such as “website designer in Shimla”.
You can visit the link to learn more about this: Ways to promote yourself as a freelancer especially profile
Offline when you’re talking to people about your services. On social media when you’re promoting your services from a personal website or when you’re engaging people on your pages or boards then there are chances that you will get the client from one of them in your network.
Note:
- Freelancing is not fraudulent work and is a black method. It is real work and clients pay real money to real freelancers by direct bank transfer, Payoneer, and by bitcoins, etc. money transfer services. But if you’re working on Upwork there are facilities where you can transfer your earned money to your bank directly from the Upwork website.
- Every freelancing site has its own policies and function system. If you don’t like you can quit but you can’t fight.
- Your own website or personal website is the most important source to get clients directly from Google.
- Freelancing does not mean that you’re working on Upwork or Freelancer or any other freelancing site. Freelancing can be anywhere offline and online or on any platform even you can get clients from Linked in or Facebook. It depends on a freelancer where he/she is promoting its services and profile.
Etc.
dISCOVER: How to start your own SEO agency business: Guide for Beginners
To know more you can also read other freelancers’ blogs on freelancing.
So, this kind of basics knowledge will be helpful for the freelancer to predict an online career in the future. To become a successful freelancer, you should know about freelancing, its updates, trend, future, etc. You can grow in the market if you have knowledge about your services, products, and also about trends in the market. That’s the way I think the first step to becoming a successful freelancer. I am not suggesting here that you can learn this all in one day. Just daily little.
You can use Google news for this and search for “Freelancing”. You will get something. And also you can search for documentaries on YouTube or also read other blogs related to freelancing business and freelancers. It’s all about learning and implementation. And follow those people who are real and their suggestion is working and helping you.
Related: Online courses to explore digital marketing business opportunities
2. Do Goal Setting, Planning, and Execution
Our aim in life is to achieve all small goals, dreams, and desires. Nowadays people do things intentionally there is something going in the backend and we can only see the front end. It’s similar in our society. No one is doing anything without thinking or without expectation. You’re learning this article and your goal is to get the tips to become a successful freelancer.
I think you understand this now you need to set goals and then plan to achieve those goals. After that to achieve goals you have to execute a plan with courage, determination, and the power of hard work.
I will try to teach you this in an example below about how to get goals, plans, and execution to become successful freelancers:
- Set goals: How much you want to earn in the next few months or how many clients you need etc.
Income Goal – 100,000 in bank account within 6 months.
Required Clients – 5-10
Etc.
So, like this, you can set goals and also set goals according to your capacity and desires. You can learn more about this here: 10 Benefits of setting goals in life & 10 Personal Development Goals That Will Make You Successful
- Plans now create plans to achieve goals like this:
Services I will provide – Website Designing & Development and related.
Marketing or Freelancing websites I will use Upwork, freelance, guru, personal website, offline.
Price/Cost of Time –$5 per hour.
- Execution processes now create the process to execute this plan because without the execution of plans it’s not easy to achieve your goals. E.g.
4 am to 5 am – Apply for projects on upwork.com, freelance.in
5 am to 7 am – Working on a project or creating samples or practicing skills.
7 am to 8 am – Yoga & Meditation, exercise.
Offline: Networking with people and marketing.
Website: Writing articles or creating a personal website or doing SEO of own personal website.
7 am to 9 pm – Working for clients or learning about freelancing or improving skills (technical, communication (English), personal development)
Etc.
The day-to-day implementation process can be different for every freelancer. But you should include the following things in your execution process such as:
- Keep applying on projects & offline marketing of your services (mouth to mouth)
- Improving and working on your technical and communication skills.
- Working on samples to show. (Personal website, graphic designing samples, website themes or template PSD )
So, like above when you set goals based on desire and demand. When you work on your plans and execute them with confidence, courage, and hard work. When you’re honest with yourself and committed to achieving whatever your goals then no one on this earth can stop you to achieve your financial, social, or personal goals. Only you need a desire to become a great designer or writer or coder and rich. And for that, you have to dream big and think differently.
Explore: Top 3 Marketing strategies to get regular web design clients
3. Create Multiple Income Streams
The multiple income stream idea is well known in the market. Warren Buffett said that never depend on a single income. Make an investment to create a second source.
It’s really important for a freelancer to become successful financially that they create new sources of income when they have no work from clients or they are free.
For example, if you have 4-5 hours free after working for 2 clients then invest those hours to create another income source. Such as applying for new work on freelancing sites, creating a blogging website, starting a YouTube channel, offline coaching, and marketing. This is just simple that invest your free time to get more from your talent financially.
To become successful in freelancing following are the great ways you can think about:
- Multiple clients
- Multiple income sources (online clients, offline clients, offline home-based business, blog (AdSense + affiliate marketing)
- Multiple platforms to promote skills and profile. Such as upwork.com, freelance.in, guru.com, personal website, social media, mouth to mouth offline marketing.
- Multiple skills – Website designing, coding, SEO, marketing.
Etc.
I think to become a successful freelancer we all have to invest our free time to create multiple income sources, skills, etc. that help us to handle the tough situation in the freelancing business. When we have 2-3 clients paying regularly then we are financially secure. And if after working for 2-3 clients you have time then invest that time to learn more advanced skills in your field. It’s all about the multiplication of skills.
Learn more:
20 Powerful habits for a successful Content Writing Career
Start a successful blog in 2022: Essential things to remember
How to grow your YouTube channel in 2022
4. Get Market Knowledge and collect every small detail about your Freelancing Business
To become successful in any field it’s important to know what is happening in the market. Freelancer needs to keep getting knowledge about their skills, the freelancing market, new freelancing platform, new source of income for a freelancer, current trend, services prices, network building with clients, and creating a new source for promotion and marketing.
For example, if you’re a website designer then you need to keep getting new knowledge about the website designing business. Inventing and creating new solutions to help clients and projects, skills promotion, and marketing platforms.
If you’re investing your time in learning daily about freelancing, working skills, and marketing skills then it will help you to boost your confidence and confidence drive you to the necessary hard work. And the combination of hard work and confidence will make you a successful freelancer.
Learn more:
Best blogging practices: Get more loyal readers to your blog
Ways to promote yourself as a freelancer especially profile
5. Saving & Investment habits
It’s really important for a freelancer to save 20-30% part of their income. Saving habits help to become a successful freelancer. To succeed you’ll have to do to be stingy, don’t worry what others say if you don’t do what they do normally. Never copy other people, especially when investing your hard-earned money. Invest wisely and invest in products that will give your money in return or something else. If you’re working on the computer and you need a laptop then invest in the laptop not buying a mobile phone because the laptop is more beneficial than a mobile, especially for freelancers.
My simple suggestion is that save 20-30% of your freelance income and invest a balanced amount in your personal development and on the family.
6. Get up early and plan your day
Getting up early is one of the top’s most valuable and profitable habits not for freelancers but for every living human. I repeat this suggestion often in my personal development & freelancing articles. If you want to become a successful freelancer then you have to get up early in the morning around 4 am. No matter if it’s hot or cold days but you have to and I think you’re agreeing on this. Time is most valuable for freelancers. There are many benefits to getting up early for freelancers such as:
- Great ideas come to mind in the morning because of peace of mind in an environment that will help both clients and freelancers.
- Freelancers can create a to-do list for the day and it will help to plan the day and complete the entire important tasks successfully and happily.
- More time than any other average human being and can be invested in learning new skills, practicing on existing skills, investing time in another income stream, and applying for new jobs early in the morning because of fewer competitions on freelancing sites.
- Freelancers can do exercise, yoga & meditation and it will help freelancers to maintain a healthy body and mind. That leads to prosperity and success in life.
- Getting up early also impacts others such as neighbors and family members. And when society or India is healthy then we can be a great nation.
Related: First 5 works I do after waking up early in the Morning
Related: Top 7 benefits of Waking up Early in the Morning
7. Learn to believe in yourself, take the blessing of your parents, and thank God for everything.
If you involve the above 6 things in your life and career then it will create your luck. It will create confidence in you. Increased confidence and desire to become successful help you to accomplish your goals.
And take the blessing of parents. Parents are our real gods and gurus. Don’t ignore their advice. Do not do anything that hurts them arrived. Always involve parents when you take big or small decisions. Never never never ignore parents for the sake of fake people or in the hope of social reputation.
Worship God. Pray to God to give a good mind and body. And thanks to God for giving me such an opportunity to live on this earth. Before starting to work remember god and close your eyes for 1 – 2 minutes. Keep doing this and see the results. Give all the credits of past and current successes to god, then parents, after both then you.
Whatever you’re today, you’re because of God, your parents, and because of this environment. Please take care of all these.
That’s all that I think can be helpful to become successful in freelancing. I am also trying and following all the above 7 things in my career and life so far. I am not perfect in all the above things but I am doing these all and I know what I am getting and I know what I will.
So, friends to become successful in life we all have to do small things. The professional goal of our life is to achieve small goals. So try to accomplish small goals one by one and just believe in yourself, believe in clients, believe in freelancing platforms, and follow good suggestions. I will give you a guarantee that if you follow the above guidelines you can be a great freelancer within 6 months. So, get up and take your first success step right now.