BrainTaza Team
In this article, you will learn about freelancing for begginners. Additionally, you will learn about important factors of client relationship in freelancing. Freelancing strategies to become full time freelancers and win jobs with no delay.
What Is Freelancing?
Freelancing is an individual’s business activity, especially for an individual, to earn money. A regular employee can do this activity. It’s an activity that helps the company to focus on primary business goals. in some cases, company employees work with freelancers for personal work. in other cases, companies do not directly work with freelancing but their employees take the help of freelancers to grow.
Job and Freelancing
Freelancing with a job is an increasingly popular option for those who want to add extra income to their regular income. It allows them to work on projects of their choice, while still having the security and confidence that comes with being a regular employee.
Freelancers can also find a balance between their full-time job and freelancing, as they can often do it during the weekends or after work hours. Compared to working as a full-time freelancer, freelancing with a job allows beginners to gain industry experience without taking too much risk.
It also allows them to build up their portfolio and gain more confidence before fully committing themselves to freelancing. Freelancing is a great way to make money while still having the freedom to work on projects of your choice.
For those already working in a company, freelancing can provide an extra source of income and help to balance out the long hours spent at the office. It can also give regular employees more confidence by allowing them to take on projects that they might not have considered before.
Freelancing for beginners?
For beginners, freelancing can be a great way to get started in their careers as it allows them to gain experience and build up their portfolio without having to commit to a full-time job. It also allows them the freedom of setting their own hours, so they don’t have to worry about taking time off for family or other commitments on weekends or evenings compared with a regular job.
You can start freelancing if you are already working as a regular employee for an organization or a company. People can start freelancing to earn extra money or test new skills outside their comfort zone. You can start freelancing if you are already working as a regular employee for an organization or a company.
Picking up freelancing is not new for a regular employee of an organization. As a regular employee of an organization, you must be a very busy person to find, pick, and complete any project as a freelancer.
Long projects could create more work-life balance problems, leading to health issues. It is one of the best practices to work on a small project with growing potential and believe in the skills. It’s a good idea to start working on small projects to gain some confidence.
You can pick the best categories or skills that can lend you a project or work in the beginning. Picking up hourly jobs on weekends can be helpful to kick start. Getting a job on the weekend is always a good choice as compared to weekdays.
To spend 5-10 hours a week is not a bad idea to earn confidence as a beginner on the platform.
Long-Term Planning? – Freelancing With a Job?
If you want to work on big projects it’s still okay in some cases. Picking up long projects is not that difficult when you have skills you have work. You can pick longer projects if you are an expert & have time management skills.
In other words, you should pick good growth in comparison to growth. You must consider a long project and disclose to the client that you are working as a regular employee for an organization. It is best practice to build a relationship for the long term. You are always suggested to work according to your requirement and need.
Full-Time Planning? – Full-Time Freelancing?
If you are planning to move to full-time freelancing. In other words, you want to leave a regular job to work full-time as a freelancer. Please ask the client about the project first. It is not a good idea to move or shift to a freelancing platform only with one client in your pocket.
You should take at least 2 to 3 long projects if you are planning to leave a regular job. The projects should be with fewer risks, fees must be protected with an agreement and advance protection. You need to focus on scalable growth planning in the future.
In other words, working with a client has a clear picture of future planning. Keep a checklist of future and potential leads with a positive mindset. Always remember that Freelancing does not affect your savings or earnings. You are freelancing because of less stress and stable earnings. It does not mean working unprofessionally and unorganized way.
Moonlighting vs Freelancing
Moonlighting is working for competitors with similar projects or the same clients. Freelancing is completely different from moonlighting if you compare. There is no legal obligation in Freelancing to work for projects similar to in-house clients.
You are not using company resources to work or to attract clients. You are only working on your skills & developing relationships with similar project owners.
What Is Project Management?
Project management is a process of managing projects for clients. This includes efficiently completing the project at less cost. This could be done by finding new talent & building opportunities. Project managing with freelancers in remote locations is getting popular.
Who Is the Project Manager?
A project manager is a skillful person managing projects for clients. A manager with an expert in project management can work as a project manager. Managing time, money & resources are the primary tasks of project managers. In other words, saving time, money, and resources for the company in a good relationship.
This can make you the first choice for a project management service. Producing results within budget and time is the major task of the project manager. A project manager can handle one type of project or similar projects which can be more than 1 or different types of projects. You can count a project manager as a professional freelancer.
BDM vs Project Manager
The business development manager’s job is to talk to clients and discuss budgets. In some cases, this is a very broad term used for profiles under management. This could be anything related to tough business jobs, especially sales.
Some other work including presentation & managing reports can be added to its daily work. A project manager handles complete projects compared to BDM for the company. A project manager is more skillful than a BDM to handle a project.
BDM can not work on a project without guidance or help from others. As a BDM you need to take the help of a senior or another team member to work on a project. BDM only knows how to crack a deal with clients and ready them to work with the organization. As a project manager, your resources are limited and you are the only person responsible for the completion of work. It’s important to complete and take outside help, especially from freelancers for completing projects.
Over Pricing vs Low Pricing
What happens when you are trying to submit a proposal to a new client? You will see the project work-wise or price-wise. If you are good at the skill you will surely look to earn more. On the other hand, do you know if the client wants to give you that price?
You should check if the client is capable of paying the price of the job. Pricing is a big issue in Freelancing. It is better to be clear with the proposal about what problem you can solve. The pricing should be from the client side.
Let the client roll the dice for pricing. You should always save yourself from overpricing the project. You can also go for less pricing if the client is good. If you have clear instructions and you have a solution in mind. Always go for less pricing for building good relationships with clients. Ask for future planning with a positive mindset and solve the issue with a good gesture.
Upwork
Upwork connects entrepreneurs, companies, and business owners to the world of freelancers. One of the best platforms in the world for freelancing. Upwork provides a unique experience for companies and agencies to other competitors. This is a pool of professionals with experience people for growing companies.
Profile Management
You should have an excellent profile to make your skills clear for the project. The experience on the other hand makes things easy to get a job on freelancing platforms. You can check and inspire other profiles on different platforms. Create the right profile instead of creating a unique or different profile.
Do not add experience that is not relevant or undescriptive in nature. There are lot of work you might have done while working in the organizations. The work sometimes can be unsupportive and you could not be able to provide a reference for each work done. The experience should be clear and to the point in regard to previous work. 95% of the conversations start from the previous work and the problem you have solved.
Past Experience
You should always be ready to discuss the projects on past experience and previous work. Don’t hesitate to discuss the problem you have already solved. You should always educate the client about the problem they have and the solution you can provide.
This is the guarantee token if the client agreed to discuss the problem in the correct manner. You only need to provide the solution that you are going to work on. There might be 1-2 fewer or more things that can be added or removed from the solution process in order to justify the work in a correct manner.
The proposal should always be solution-centric. You can break this into 2 parts:
To The Point Solution
The Problem
This is important to learn the problem first in order to provide the correct solution. If the problem is not addressable or the problem is not familiar you can skip to propose. Do not waste time and money to ask the right problem.
This type of job never finds a correct freelancer to hire. We can not blame the client because of unclear instructions or unfamiliar problems. After all the client is not here to check the skills of the freelancer the client really wants a solution and it can be the case that not familiar with the issue.
The Solution
Once you understand the problem you can start proposing the solution step-wise one by one. Do not try to hesitate to write less in words but to the point solution. The solution might be adaptive in nature but it must be accepted by the client on the given resources.
Less Pessimistic
Always discuss the bad points of the solution based on past experience. Never hesitate to discuss the outcome of the solution that can impact the product & service. Also, remember recommendations & suggestions should be optimistic in nature.
Open to Negotiation
Always open to negotiating with positivity in mind. Do not include this in the proposal that you are open to negotiate. That does not make any good sense for the project. It might be the case that you can be considered a novice or unskilled focusing less on projects and more on budget. This also put you in doubt case or it might create opportunities for similar freelancers.
Focus on Skills
You should focus on the skills that you have and explore them. This makes Upwork a skill-based platform for freelancers. Working on periarticular skill please avoid bidding on the projects. It will impact your confidence and willpower in the early stage of your career. Freelancing is challenging less and risk-free work while working on hourly jobs as compared to fix jobs.
Integrity
This is very important to know you are working with unfamiliar clients on familiar projects. There is no risk from the client and freelancer sides regarding payment & work. What is more important is to provide the best solution to clients and build trust on the platform.
The skills will be enhanced while working on repeating projects on another side you will always be the priority to the clients for work. I feel sometimes skills, experience & communication are just part of the process but real project winning is in client relationship management which is highly expectable.
This is not a very easy task to make the client feel comfortable about the outcome on a given timeline and prices. One thing is very sure about freelancing; it is natural, not made up like sales.
Communication
Soft skill wins more projects than skills & experience. It does not reflect the knowledge & education of freelancers. The client understands it could be more challenging in the future if optin’. As all parts related to freelancing sales, operation, and delivery will be looked after by one person it is of utmost priority to maintain consistent communication between clients and freelancers.
Sales
There are two main things followed in part one is proposals done by freelancers on jobs recommended by the platform and the other is freelancer hunting by the client where most of the clients work directly work with freelancers for convenience on skills, experience, and previous work done.
Operation
The operation part starts right after picking jobs for the freelancers and implementing the one-by-one solution on the project. The execution is in the middle of sales and delivery where you understand the real business is done. You strictly work on the timeline and try to deliver before the deadline. The best thing about the operation part is to achieve success without delay.
Delivery
This is the last and final stage where you deliver the project to the client and ask for a re-check of work done by you. There might be or not some part of the work which can be done more efficiently which could lead the project to a newer level.
If everything is delivered according to the requirement then you can ask for the release of payment and feedback. Freelancers can start and give a boost to its career in less than a week. The art of doing yourself does not help all the time. However, You can hire 2 to 3 freelancers for you to win the first project.
It can be done by hiring a profile manager and sales manager who will define your work and make a beautiful profile on another hand the sales manager will work on proposals to win the first project for you.
Profile Manager
Profile Manager will help you to create a beautiful and meaningful profile in order to attract more clients. The best part of this is that you need a profile manager only for one time. The changes that will take effect on the profile will surely make a positive impact on career growth.
This could be challenging but not difficult to find the best freelancer as a profile manager who creates an attractive profile in order to win more projects. This will help in the future and set a problem-solving attitude for you on the platform.
You can take a help from platform expert who has done profiling for similar profiles. Do not try to hire a professional who works for different profiles as it will not help you to create a competitive profile.