Freelancing is purely a smart business, it is important that you keep improving your freelancing skills and keep adding to your knowledge. To be successful in freelancing it is important that you remain updated with the latest developments and keep learning more about the freelancing business.
Learning about freelancing will be beneficial as it will enhance your analytical and learning abilities. It will also generate good business and working ideas and ethics in your mind. You will be able to convert your opportunities into achievements.
Continuously learning about your field will make you an accomplished freelancer who is confident, creative, and hardworking because regular practice of improving your skills will increase your self-belief. Your perspective and approach become optimistic and you learn how to solve problems with good speed. Then you can convert the difficulties appearing in the form of terms and conditions into opportunities to excel in your craft.
The confidence that you gain in your work will motivate and inspire you to work even harder. All of this becomes a reality when you view things from a learner’s approach and give your 100% to everything that you decide to do in freelancing.
Now we will learn in detail about how to improve your skills for freelancing business:-
1. Designate time for learning and practicing freelancing skills
You will have to assign a fixed time for learning and practicing your trade so that you can keep improving your skills regularly. Since you are a freelancer with no fixed office timings you can do this in the morning, evening or night time whichever is most suitable for you. Give 2 to 3 hours for learning and practicing every day and get better in areas that need improvement one by one.
2. Decide what skills you want to learn and improve to become a successful freelancer
In my opinion, you should learn and practice more about those things first which you feel you are weak and need more improvement. For example, if you are having difficulty with English writing and communication skills then decide that you will set aside time for improving these and then follow through with it on a priority basis. An example of what you’re learning/improving/practicing list may look like:-
i) Communication skills (English speaking and writing) – 1 hour
Related: Creative tips to learn the English language without any paid course.
ii) Designing and PHP/Python Programming- 1 hour
iii) Marketing skills- 1 hour
When you make such a list you can prioritize the tasks according to the importance and need for improvement in areas that you find lacking or weak for freelancing. Say you are facing problems in understanding the job description properly and writing the Job proposal/Cover letter.
While speaking with freelance clients you are unable to understand correctly. This can be a communication barrier between you and the client which makes convincing him difficult.
In such a case improving your communication skills freelancing business is of utmost importance so it should go on the top of your learning list. Give this task priority over other things because these skills are necessary to write a good Job proposal, which will finally decide whether you get the project or not. You may be technically excellent with a solid command in your field, but if you are not able to get your point across to the client by proper representation of freelancing skills then it is of no use. Your talents will remain unseen because of a communication hurdle. So address your weakness one by one and turn them into strengths.
Related: How to communicate with freelancing business clients effectively
3. Where to learn, how to learn, and from whom
As important as it is to decide what to learn and when to learn, it is also important to know where and how to learn and from whom. Of course, you can learn from anywhere but I would suggest that you use the power of the Internet for this. It is an affordable and almost limitless resource of learning. There are thousands of talented people from every field who are teaching people for free.
If these are not enough there are paid online courses also that give you certifications if you want a comprehensive learning resource. Some of the most popular websites are Udemy, Coursera and Simplilearn etc. where you can enroll in a course and get access to advanced tools and resources for learning. But if don’t want to spend money on these courses you can always learn by watching YouTube videos and reading blogs written by experts and this will be enough to give your skills new energy and strength.
You can know the proper way to learn and execute from the person or platform that is teaching. For example, if you want to improve your English writing and speaking skills then you can Google the term “Free English writing classes” or you can visit YouTube and search for the same thing. You can select any source from the search results and then bookmark it before moving to the next result. This way you can keep learning about that topic until you have a good understanding and a collection of important bookmarks for future reference.
You may find it interesting that there are courses available for freelancing as well and resources that tell you how to be a successful freelancer. Besides this topic also there is a wealth of knowledge out there, you just need to look for it.
4. Repeat and Execute work ethics
Once you start learning and improving something then be consistent with it and execute it regularly. At the start, you may find it difficult, for example when you are trying to learn or improve a tough subject or skill, it is not easy at first. But when you keep doing it for 6-7 days consistently, your confidence and interest will increase more and more.
5. Learn from other Freelancers & Clients
As I have mentioned earlier and you may already be aware of, you can learn from anyone who has knowledge about that subject. You can use quora and ask questions regarding freelancing. But take care that you adopt only the positive of the person and not his faults. There are hundreds of people around us that inspire us and share resources to help us to learn, so keep an open mind and be ready to absorb knowledge from all sources. I would like to explain this in the following manner:-
- Learn from other freelancers:- Go through the profiles of other freelancers on the freelancing websites and see how they have chosen their profile titles, how they have represented their skills and experiences and how are they trying to convince clients to hire them. You can analyze why a freelancer is getting more clients. You can use such information to improve the way in which you represent yourself.
- Learn from freelance clients: – This is very crucial to learn. Try to understand how a client has posted a job, how he has mentioned particular things point by point. How he has set the price for finishing individual tasks and the entire project. Also, try to get an idea about the client’s personality by observing the way he talks. This way you can learn through the interactions with all your clients, regardless of whether they hire you or not.
- Learn from your mistakes and that of others:-Someone has correctly said that if you keep learning from your mistakes it will take a lifetime or more time than that. So keep learning not just from your own mistakes but also from the mistakes made by others. Never waste a good mistake, learn from it. Know what that other person did wrong and what was the result. Avoid making the same mistakes when you come across a similar situation. Let’s say that you have sent 10 job proposals in the last 10 days but you have not landed a single project. Look for the reasons why this is happening. Analyze the job proposals that you have sent and find what mistakes you have made in them due to which the clients are declining your proposals. For example, some of the common mistakes that you may have made are:-
- Spellings and other grammar mistakes. Proofread the proposal at least twice before sending it.
- You might have written more than what you can accomplish and used an overconfident or overly smart tone.
- You might have described yourself and your solution in an unclear manner.
- You might have applied for the project too late etc.
In this way when we throw some light on our mistakes we will realize that destiny or luck is not responsible for our failures, we ourselves are. So try to learn from your mistakes and use the power of the internet to rectify your mistakes.
6. Avoid Arrogance
If you present yourself as someone who is arrogant and a know-it-all in front of teachers and other learned people, you will become unimportant and unlinked. If you think you are very knowledgeable and don’t need to learn anything more then you will not be able to progress in your career or life.
So if you want to increase your knowledge and improve your skills you will have to remain humble and courteous with an open mind for learning. Try to understand it this way; when a glass is already full it is not possible to fill it any further. Keep some space for adding more to it and the same goes for our minds. If we think we know everything and keep our minds full, we won’t be able to add more knowledge to it. Accept the fact that there is always something that can be learned.
No one except God is perfect in this world. You can also say that everyone has some faults and everyone makes mistakes because we are human. But people learn from them and improve themselves, their skills and knowledge. There are people who impart knowledge about specific subjects. Don’t hesitate in learning from them if it can benefit you in any way. Don’t let your ego come between your opportunities to learn and get better. When we go to learn somewhere, we should pay attention to the teacher and nothing else.
So never think you are perfect and know about everything. Be humble and accept that you still have a lot to learn and get more knowledge. Here I would like to share with you some interesting thoughts related to this:-
- Some people get wealthier as compared to others because they still consider themselves poor. You must have seen that a person who already has a lot of wealth is still working day and night to earn even more. His hunger for earning more money does not decrease. Do you know why that is so? It is because he thinks and feels that he is still not as wealthy as he would like to be, he is not convinced that he has become wealthy. Now what can we do about it friends, it is God’s plan and the mystery behind the way he works that even the most learned men haven’t understood fully.
- Another thing is that if we and those people think that they are very wealthy or that their family has a lot of money and they don’t need to work anymore, do you think they will be interested in making efforts? You must have read somewhere, that there is no point in offering someone food when his stomach is already full. It is only good and beneficial if we offer this food to a hungry or needy person. So, my friends, I want you to ignite that hunger for learning within yourself. Be thirsty for more knowledge and view every new thing from a perspective of learning. If you are trying to become a freelancer then take this as a learning experience.
Any person doing any kind of work never loses, he either wins or he learns from it. The end result or fruits of our labor are not in our hands all the time. When we plant a sapling it is not a guarantee that it will bear fruit, but we still have high hopes which is why we water it every day, protect it from animals and keep doing this for many years because we have faith that one day it will bear fruit. In the same vein, have faith in yourself and keep doing whatever work you are doing today because it will surely give you fruits tomorrow.