CAREER IN THE FREELANCE WORLD

Goalsetting

Just as building a house requires a blueprint, building a career in the freelance world must be carefully crafted and mastered. First, and one of the most vital steps, is setting your goals. You should set specific, realistic and time-bound goals before making any further steps. 

For instance, you may set the number of projects you wish to handle in a month or the amount of money you wish to earn in six months. Goal setting disciplines you to have a direction so that you don't seem to be shooting in the dark when working.

Research

Think of freelancing as your days in school. Assignments are first given by teachers before giving you time-consuming projects. As a freelancer, you must do your assignment and research in the market about the field you wish to jump in. You may turn to newspapers, websites and even to other freelancers for tips and ideas. This is also a good way to know how much other freelancers are charging their clients. 

Part of researching in the market is joining both local and online organizations. This helps you build your network and meet new people who may be of help to you in your freelance career. Also, you never know how many clients you can seal deals with just by spreading the word that you perform the kind of job you love doing.

Execute

This is then the perfect time for you to set your plans to work. Make sure to read your goals each and every day to serve as your motivation to persevere in performing your tasks. 

Portfolio preparation. One of the most important steps in the execution part is creating your portfolio. A sample of your works becomes the best gauge for clients to be sure that you do have the talent and skills to accomplish projects. First, you may go as far as making projects for free or for low payments just to earn that much coveted portfolio. 

Then again, you can create your own portfolio without accepting projects from other people. This is your chance to turn your creative juices to work by using your talent on the specific type of work in your field which you love doing. This means that if you are a writer, you can simply get an article of your choice and rewrite it in your way. The same can be done if you plan to become a freelance graphic designer. You can get some designs online and create your own after using them as inspiration. 

A website also serves as a good venue for clients to view your portfolio. This is especially true if you are a freelance writer or a photographer. In the case of other freelancers like accountants or home inspectors, the next guideline should help you fish those great projects you wish to work on. 

Freelancer as a salesperson. You may be as talented as Leonardo Da Vinci, but nobody would care enough to hire you unless you catch their attention in the first place. This simply means that more often than not, before having the chance to show prospective clients your portfolio, your first audition to land a good project is through a cover letter. Your cover letter would require you to express in words what you are capable of doing. In a nutshell, it is a venue to sell yourself so that clients would consider viewing what you can show them. Some of the freelancing sites where you can sell your services to a very large base of clients are rentacoder, scriptlance, and getafreelancer.

Evaluate

After executing the steps above, it is now time to evaluate your work. You should be able to determine whether the steps you've been making for your freelance career are working. In case they aren't, needless to say you have to modify some steps and experiment some more. You should be able to create the style which works best for you in the freelance world.

Other points to remember

To quit or not to quit. You don't want to be like most freelancers who plunged into the freelancing pool thinking that they can earn money right after jumping in. Like swimming in a pool, you have to test the waters first before diving and leaving land. In freelance writing, it is best to live in this world part-time first and decide later if you think it is best to leave the world of employment.

Feeding piggy. It is a common knowledge in the freelancers' world that some clients give late payments. Thus, it is always best to have some extra money in your bank account.