adminLook around. There is always a disparity between the amount of money which people make, in different disciplines and all around the globe- and while doing the same thing, or while pursuing the same or a similar career path.
While some would attribute this to luck, or to hard work maybe, in freelancing, there are a couple of rules to follow to ensure that you are one of those who’d earn the big bucks.
Except you’re being untrue to yourself, of course, this is something you’ve always dreamt of.
Let’s help you actualize that dream with the following points:
1. Strategic Messaging
In your freelance career, if you’re just beginning, you would soon discover that you need to look good to your clients, and not only be good at what you do. For instance, you can be excellent in carrying out jobs, but how would I know how good you are if your resume isn’t attractive or if it doesn’t set you apart?
Having created an attractive online portfolio, the next thing which you ought to do is to utilize any opportunity to send messages about your portfolio to prospective clients. For instance, you can come up with the idea of sending a link to your online portfolio as a mail to prospective clients. As a matter of fact, for some, this simple gesture shows them that you take your job seriously and that you are ready to prove your efficiency. As well, quite a number would appreciate the opportunity to know whom they would be working with, see your previous jobs and so on.
This is likely to go on to create a bond of trust between yourself and these clients, eventually resulting in you having loyal clients, and we all know that loyal clients are a good source of consistent income, as well as referrals. If that isn’t a way to make good money, well I don’t know what is!
2. Stop Under-Valuing Yourself
I personally think freelancers should take a course in entrepreneurship, so as to get a true insight into how much they are really worth. With only a few exceptions, a freelancer is more likely to underprice his or her work than to overprice it, especially when just starting out. One of the key bridges a freelancer has to cross is one of knowing how to price his or her work at how much it is truly worth. How many of us have ever underpriced our work? The answer is probably all of us. Rule number one in freelancing is this: Never start quoting your prices at the lowest possible price. As a freelancer, I understand that glimmer of hope that appears at the sight of a possible new gig, and the consequent desire to launch out and take anything that’s offered, no matter how small, for hours of work, slugging it out on a back-breaking job.
Eventually, when you look back, you are very likely to discover that it wasn’t worth it. If only you had the nerve to name a price which you truly deserve, you probably would have gotten it, or an amount that’s not so far off from your requested price. But the key question is this, how much is your time worth? How much do you truly deserve? In effect, how much are your expertise and skill worth?
You would have to sit down and answer these questions honestly so as to get a true picture of how much you really consider yourself to be worth. I once heard that a character trait which is applauded at a lower level is completely discouraged the higher up you go. One such trait is undervaluing you, which is quite okay at the beginners’ level, but which wouldn’t help you on your quest to climb higher.
3. Become Business-Savvy
I keep talking about having business skills as a freelancer because it really is very easy to forget that you need to have money to run this business and that indeed- it is a business and you’ve got to make money from it if you want to stay afloat! So what am I implying? Learn some basic business skills; they would be useful in making your brand known as one of the serious freelance brands out there. As well, having a business model which you follow also increases the level of trust which you’d get from your clients, as they can really say that you know what you’re doing and where you’re headed.
You earn their respect because they know that even if you work from home, you aren’t just an individual who’s lazing around in pajamas throughout the day, waiting for the phone to ring or to get a new mail. They know that you are the one they want to work with, and once you can gain someone’s respect, getting their money shouldn’t prove difficult!
admin
