Freelancing has always seemed so… free. I mean, you’re free to work when you want, where you want, and how you want, and all while making plenty of money doing it.
But is that the case? Can freelancers make a living? Or do they just wing it post to post in the hopes that they can keep paying the rent and buying groceries without having to ask their parents for help?
In this post, we’ll take a hard look at whether or not freelancers can make ends meet.
Then we’ll dive into how they do it: by being dedicated to their work (really nothing else will cut it), finding clients who value them as much as they deserve (hint: don’t be afraid to charge what your skills are worth), and making long-term plans for where their careers will go (because short-term goals aren’t enough). So read on and get ready to hustle!
| Takeaways |
|---|
| 1. Freelancing can be a viable option for paying your bills, but it requires careful planning, financial management, and consistent effort. |
| 2. Building a diverse client base and establishing long-term relationships can help ensure a steady stream of income as a freelancer. |
| 3. Developing specialized skills or niches can increase your earning potential and set you apart from the competition. |
| 4. Effective budgeting and saving strategies are crucial to manage irregular income and handle fluctuations in freelance earnings. |
| 5. It’s essential to stay proactive in marketing yourself, continuously improving your skills, and adapting to the changing demands of the freelancing market. |
Why Freelancing?
Freelancing is an excellent way to earn a living.
- You get the freedom to choose your schedule and work from home.
- It’s easy to set up as a freelancer: all it takes is some market research, creating a portfolio or website, and signing up for services that match buyers with sellers (like Upwork).
- You have the liberty to work with people who share similar interests and passions as you do.
- Plus, you can work on projects that you’re passionate about and even enjoy working with people you like.
Freelancing can be a great way to make money. After all, you get to choose your hours, and you don’t have to answer to an office manager. Plus, if you’re good at what you do, there’s plenty of work out there in the world. But how do we get started?.
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Find A Niche And Stick With It
Online freelancers need to know their niche inside and out before they start. If there’s one thing that I wish I’d known before starting as a freelance writer, it’s that having a specialty would make all the difference.
It was only after I figured out what kinds of projects I wanted to work on most often (and which clients were best suited for those projects) that I started getting consistent work from clients who could offer me enough money per project to keep me afloat financially while still giving me room for growth on other fronts like taking time off or moving into another field altogether!
Dedicate Yourself To Freelancing And Be Serious About It
To make freelancing work for you, it’s important to be professional. If you’re not a professional, then don’t expect clients to treat you like one. A client will judge your abilities and commitment by how much time and effort you put into your job.
Be dedicated to the craft of writing so that people will take notice of your talents! You need this dedication because it will keep driving you forward until your freelance business becomes successful or at least profitable enough for you not to worry about paying bills anymore.
Being committed means sticking with what’s working instead of jumping around from one thing after another without seeing any results from all those efforts made toward getting things done right the first time around or at least doing them well enough so someone else might hire someone else like me instead. Ha ha…
Know Your Services
Before you start freelancing, it’s vital to know your services. This means knowing what you can do and what you can’t do. It also means knowing the difference between your skills, interests, and hobbies.
You need to understand what kind of services or products you are good at providing so that when it comes time for clients to hire someone like you they will think of you first!
But these requirements don’t just stop there; making money as a freelancer also requires having an established reputation that is built on trust both with clients and colleagues in the industry where they work as well as among their peers who may be interested in hiring them too!
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Improve Your Skills First
To be successful you need to constantly improve your skills.
- Be willing to learn new things. There is always something new that can be learned, whether it’s a new program or technique, or a different way of doing something you already know how to do.
Online courses are a great way of improving your skills and also allow you to meet other freelancers with similar interests as yourself. You’ll also find sites like Udemy which offer lifetime access for one low price – so try it out!
- Try new things. Don’t be afraid of trying something different now and again just because it doesn’t seem like your thing at first glance – this could lead down an exciting path into an area that you may never have considered previously!
And remember: if it’s not working out, don’t panic! Just try again tomorrow until something clicks 🙂
Know the Expectations, Prioritize, And Stay Organized
Know the Expectations and Prioritize; Before you go into freelancing, make sure you understand what your client expects from you. Make a list of things you need to accomplish for each project so that you can prioritize them. If a client wants something done in a couple of days but it’s not urgent, do it last or put it off until later.
Stay Organized; Staying organized will help achieve all other tips listed here as well as make sure that everything is in place when the client needs it. Create folders on your computer and label them appropriately with names or numbers that correspond with their identification number (PIN).
You could also use tags on these folders if they have an associated color scheme already set up within your organization system, which makes things much easier because then all files are constantly visible at once instead of having separate tabs open separately throughout the day.”
Learn To Manage Your Time Well
Managing your time is the key to a successful freelance business. Time management is very important in freelancing because it helps you to manage your work and priorities. To learn how to manage your time better, do the following:
- Plan your day: Plan out what you want to accomplish during the day before starting it. This will help you set clear goals for yourself so that nothing slips through the cracks during working hours.
Planning also allows for flexibility in case something unexpected comes up during a busy weekday or weekend day.
- Set a timer: If certain tasks take longer than others (like writing articles), set aside some time each week specifically for those tasks or use an online calendar like Google Calendar or Calendar (which syncs with Apple/macOS).
Setting aside specific times throughout the week means no matter how busy things get at work and trust me, they will get busy you’ll always be able to finish what needs finishing when needed!
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Establish A Routine And Stick To It
A routine is an important part of your daily life, whether you’re working from home or in an office. You need to establish it and stick to it if you want to have a productive day.
Here are some tips for establishing and sticking with a routine:
- Get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation can make your mind foggy and slow your productivity down. It also makes it more difficult for you to concentrate on work because the lack of sleep affects your mood as well as how quickly information is processed by the brain.
A good rule of thumb is that adults should aim for seven-and-a-half hours of sleep each night (though everybody’s different). If that’s not possible due to family obligations or other commitments, try shooting for six hours every night instead—but never go below six!
- Eat healthy meals throughout the day rather than gorging yourself at lunchtime then starving yourself until dinner time rolls around again (and this goes double if you work from home).
Eating healthy food helps keep energy levels up throughout the day so that even after several hours without food (or coffee), you won’t feel like taking a nap just yet!
Plus eating healthy snacks between meals will help prevent sugar crashes later on down the road when blood sugar levels drop too low during periods where there isn’t much activity taking place like sitting behind computer screens all day long.”
Set Your Rates And Stick To Them
The first step is to set your rates. Your current skills, experience, and the market will all factor in to what you can charge. For example, if you’re a freelance writer with several years of experience under your belt who specializes in long-form content marketing pieces, there’s a good chance that you could command $100 per 1,000 words of copy.
However, don’t get too caught up in trying to figure out how much others are charging for similar work you should be setting your rates based on what value you offer to clients.
For example: if someone is offering roughly the same service but at half the cost as yourself (which may happen more often than not), don’t lower yourself just because they’re doing it first.
You need to stick with the price that works best for both parties even if this means not taking on any gigs at all until demand increases enough that people start paying higher wages again
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Don’t Undersell Yourself And Avoid Compromise In Quality Of Work
You know the old saying: “You get what you pay for”. Well, it’s not just about money here. You also have to be willing to pay the price of quality.
Think about it this way: if you cut corners on your work and do a bad job, no one will hire you again! They might even blacklist you from their network so others will know not to use your services either!
It’s worth taking some time at first to find out how much clients are prepared to pay so that everyone is happy with their service arrangement down the road – both parties need to feel like they’re getting good value
And this will take some negotiation (or at least research) but once there’s an agreement in place then everyone needs to stick with it because nobody wants their reputation damaged by someone else who didn’t deliver upfront.
Don’t Make Excuses, Just Get Started!
As a freelancer, you are your boss and set your hours. There is no one telling you what to do when to do it, and how much to charge. You can work from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
In other words…it’s a great lifestyle! But before we get into the nitty-gritty details of how I make my living as a full-time freelance writer, let me just say that this isn’t for everyone.
Some people may not be able to handle being their boss or setting their own rules for their working hours or charging whatever they want for their services or even working from home (or on the beach). If any of those sounds like something that would prevent you from succeeding at freelancing then don’t read on!
But if not I think perhaps my story might interest you because I have been both a successful and unsuccessful freelance writer (and everything in between) over the past 20 years – including making more than six figures per year at one point in time
As well as struggling financially during some dark times where I was barely scraping by each month trying desperately not only to pay my bills but also to afford groceries!
Practice Patience While In The Waiting Game For New Projects And Work Requests
I know it’s difficult, but try to be patient with yourself while you’re waiting for new projects and work requests. The key is to not jump the gun too quickly and make mistakes that could hurt your reputation in the long run.
Besides being patient with yourself, you should also be patient with others:
- Be patient with your clients
- Be patient with your project managers (if applicable)
- Be patient with your client’s clients (if applicable)
You should also be especially careful about jumping into any potential opportunities without fully understanding all of the details first.
Build A Network Of Talented People To Partner With (And Vice Versa), But Do Not Compete With Other Freelancers
The famous quote by the famous man, “It takes a village to raise a child” is true in this case as well. The more freelancers you have in your network, the better it is for all of you. Because if one person stumbles on something, then others can learn from it and avoid making mistakes themselves.
Once you start working with people who are better than you at something (or simply just different), your work will become much easier overall because everyone benefits from each other’s expertise and experience.
In your quest for success as a freelance writer or content marketer, remember that sometimes it’s not about how much money we make but how well we cooperate with our fellow freelancers!
Make Plans For The Future
Stretch Goals Are Important. Write Down Long-Term Goals as Well as Short-Term Goals as You Go Along. Keep Track of These Daily.
This is a big one, and it’s what we call “goal setting” in business school. If you have no idea where you want to go with your freelancing, then all the tricks in the world won’t help you get there any faster.
That being said, while it may seem like a bit of work at first, goal setting is pretty simple: just make some plans for your future and then write them down in detail!
Even if those plans are just short term or even daily goals (like writing 500 words per day), having them written down will make things easier later on when things get tough
But will help keep you focused on what needs to be done rather than getting distracted by other stuff (like social media) which can easily derail even the most determined freelancer from achieving their goals if left unchecked over time.
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Final Thoughts
Freelancing is not for the faint of heart. But if you are serious about it and willing to put in the hard work, then freelancing can be a rewarding experience. Freelancing is a brave new world and we would love to see you there!
Further Reading
Here are some additional resources for further reading on freelancing and billing clients:
How to Bill Clients as a Freelancer: This comprehensive guide provides valuable insights and tips on how to effectively bill your clients as a freelancer, ensuring timely and accurate payments.
Freelancing Invoicing: How to Get Paid: Learn the essential invoicing techniques and strategies to ensure you get paid promptly as a freelancer. This resource covers various invoicing aspects, including templates and best practices.
Get Paid as a Freelancer or Consultant: Discover practical tips and advice on how to get paid for your freelance or consulting work. This resource covers payment methods, negotiation strategies, and dealing with common payment issues.
People Also Ask
What Is A Freelancer?
Freelancers are self-employed people who work for different companies and organizations, such as advertising agencies and publishing houses. Freelancers can be either full-time or part-time workers. Some freelancers have their businesses and others work for companies in which they have stakes in the business.
What Are The Benefits Of Being A Freelancer?
Freelancing is the best way to make money online. You can work from anywhere and at any time, you can choose what you want to work on and who you want to work with, and you don’t have to deal with office politics or long hours. If you’re looking for something more flexible than a full-time job, freelancing is a great option!
How Do I Know If I’m Ready To Be A Freelancer?
You should be able to answer the following questions with a confident “yes”:
- Do you have a good work ethic?
- Are you reliable?
- Can you meet deadlines?
- Are you willing to work hard?
- Do you have the time and energy to handle all the responsibilities of working for yourself?
How Do I Pay My Bills With Freelance Work?
It’s simple. You’ll need to set up a separate account for your freelance income and make sure that all of your bills are paid from that account. That way, when you get paid by a client, the money will go straight into your dedicated account and won’t be mixed up with your finances.
How Long Does It Take To Get Paid?
That depends on the client and how long it takes for them to issue payment. Some clients pay instantly, but others are slower about issuing payments-especially if they’re international clients or if they’re not used to paying freelancers.
It’s important to keep this in mind when accepting new jobs so you know what kind of time frame you’re working with.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.