Freelancing is a dream for many, deciding on your own time, being your own boss, getting to work with many interesting brands. At the same time, it may be hard to start from an empty sheet when entering this area. Gigway put together a step by step guide of how you define your own freelancer business and put it into reality.
1. Define your goals
Once you’ve caught the idea of starting your own freelance business, you might ask yourself why you got this idea. Now, ask yourself: Why are you doing this? What do you actually want out of your business? Maybe it is to pursue your passion – maybe you want some extra experience whilst working on your full time job – maybe you want to decide your own time schedule. Once you’ve fully understood your reasons for this change, you’ll see clearly where you’re heading with your business. As with every business – the sky is the limit, and you’re setting the goals.
2. Understand your financials
As a freelancer, you are basically an entrepreneur with full responsibility of a legal organization. This comes with new financial questions to take in mind. Freelancing may come with higher risk and unstable income, if the amount of work you perform vary during the months. This means, you need to be more careful and not count on having a stable income. There are tools for helping you, like Gigway’s financial dashboard where you can count your income and gather all information about taxes and administration. Try it here.
3. Find your niche
Nobody succeeds copying others. There are millions of freelancers out there, which is the number one reason to put a second though on what your actual direction is. To stand out, you need to find your golden points, and learn to present these suitably. Always follow a red thread, and don’t make yourself good at everything, otherwise clients would not understand what area you are the best resource to help them.
4. Identify your clients
Now, once you have the basics set up, you may want to get going with projects. However, this may be a little bit tough with yet no clients or projects to start. Identify the clients who would need your services in your niche. Remember that the clients you help, also build your portfolio as a freelancer – and define your niche and freelancer identity as the time goes by. If you choose to work with only fashion brands, your identity will go towards fashion within your area of work. Simple as that!
5. Market yourself
Now to be able to gain some results from freelancing, you really need to put yourself out there. This is not a game where you get it all handed to you – you need to fight your way through. As the competition is big, this may not be an easy one if you’re new in the field. Be sure to decide on a marketing plan, asking yourself the questions: In which channels do you want to be seen? Should you build a web site or a portfolio? What is your tone of voice – how do you want the clients to view You? Can you get help from freelancing companies to highlight you? You can build your portfolio on Gigway for free and publish it online. You can also check Oskar’s tips on how to use email marketing as a freelancer.
Once you’ve got the bigger picture – you’re ready to go. With Gigway you can perform freelancer work with or without your own company; either you invoice through it, or get employed by Gigway for the given project you get matched with. If you don’t have your own company, you can easily invoice through a self-employment company such as Cool Company.