If you have just recently decided to take the plunge into the exciting, wild, crazy, and ridiculously lucrative world of freelancing, then welcome aboard!
It’s going to be a ride that you’ll never forget!
Of course, everyone dives into this career path with the greatest of expectations as well as a pocket full of dreams, hopes, and fears – but few of them ever jump in with both feet having covered all of the bases.
These people inevitably end up floundering around for a while, grabbing a bit of work here and there and just generally trying to make it up as they go along. And there’s nothing wrong with that – for a bunch of people, that’s the thrill of the game and the whole reason that they got into freelancing in the first place.
But for others, a little bit of foundational information, gives them a big boost right out of the gate, and allows them to quickly start making the kind of lucrative income they’ve always wanted with complete and total freedom.
That’s who this quick guide has been prepared for.
Shall we get to it?
You have a lot more to offer than you realize
The heaviest anchor that freelancers find holding them down (new freelancers and experienced veterans alike) is the belief that they do not really have anything of extreme value to offer.
Freelancing (by its very nature) is a bit of a lonely career field, in that you’ll never have a team of coworkers rooting you on, no boss motivating you at every corner, and no one to keep track of your score – except for you, of course.
It won’t take long (a couple of rejection letters are usually enough to do it) until you start to doubt whether or not you made the right choice, but that kind of mentality is going to sink your ship faster than anything else.
Remember that you always have something of value to offer, and that there is always going to be someone out there looking for you to come along to help them out of the sticky situation they’ve found themselves in.
You’re going to do great!
Start charging right off the bat
Secondly, you need to prepare a sales contract template long before you ever get your hands on your first client.
For starters, this is going to give you a bit of extra motivation and a purpose to get out there to land your very first “white whale” – a paying customer that gives you money for the goods, services, or deliverables that you bring to the table.
Secondly, you’ll be able to use this template from here on out so that you can speed up the proposal and production process in the future, giving you a real edge when you are swimming in potential clients and don’t have time to crank these out from scratch.
It’s also a good idea to start charging for your work right off the bat, with absolutely zero hesitation. Pro bono work is never respected, and because of the reach of the Internet there’s no advantage to “getting your name out there”. So again, start charging right off the bat.
Protect yourself with contracts and agreements (but also your work)
Finally, you are definitely going to want to protect yourself, your business, and your abilities with any and all contracts or agreements that your lawyer recommends you have under your belt – but always remember that your work, your results, and you yourself are always going to be your very best protection from sticky situations moving forward.
Manage expectations, provide impeccable results, and deliver real and consistent value, and you won’t have any headaches or hassles going forward.
