I’m well on my way to earning over $100,000 a year as a freelancer. I’ve been working hard for the past two years, and the results are starting to pay off. But this isn’t without its challenges; there’s a lot of work involved in making your business successful.
The most important thing you need to do is lay down some strong foundations that will support you throughout your career as an entrepreneur or self-employed person so your business can thrive even when times get tough. Here’s how I’m laying my foundation:
| Takeaways |
|---|
| 1. Setting Clear Goals: Establish specific and achievable financial targets to work towards building a successful six-figure freelance business. |
| 2. Diversifying Income Streams: Explore multiple revenue sources within your niche to increase your overall earnings and reduce reliance on a single client or platform. |
| 3. Marketing and Branding: Invest time and effort in promoting your freelance services through effective marketing strategies and building a strong personal brand. |
| 4. Building a Strong Portfolio: Showcase your best work in a well-organized portfolio to demonstrate your expertise and attract high-paying clients. |
| 5. Networking and Collaboration: Engage in networking activities and collaborations to expand your professional network and access new opportunities in the freelance industry. |
| 6. Continuous Skill Development: Stay updated with industry trends and enhance your skills regularly to stay competitive and provide top-notch services. |
| 7. Client Relationship Management: Focus on delivering exceptional client experiences, building long-term relationships, and securing repeat business through excellent communication and service. |
| 8. Financial Planning and Budgeting: Manage your finances prudently by creating a budget, tracking expenses, and setting aside funds for taxes and savings. |
| 9. Managing Time Effectively: Implement time management techniques to balance project deadlines, personal life, and professional growth efficiently. |
| 10. Overcoming Challenges: Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and learning, and maintain perseverance and determination throughout the journey to six-figure success. |
Building A Business Takes Time And Effort, So Lay The Groundwork For The Future You Want
Building a business takes time and effort, so lay the groundwork for the future you want. Set goals, be patient, be persistent, and be focused on reaching those goals. Organize yourself so that all of your efforts are in line with one another to help you succeed in reaching your desired outcome.
Discipline yourself by keeping track of how much time you spend working on different tasks each day or week and don’t let it get out of control!
Don’t let common freelancing mistakes keep you from reaching your financial goals. Learn from the best practices in our guide on 10 Freelancing Mistakes That Are Keeping You Broke and pave the way for a successful freelance business.
Focus On Building Your Client Base
As the saying goes, “quality over quantity”. This is especially true when it comes to building your freelance business. When you focus on building a client base of people who will pay more for your services, refer you to other clients, and help you grow (unlike those who don’t value what you do), then it’s much easier for your business to flourish in the long-term.
Work Hard To Build Long-Term Relationships With Clients
As you build up your client roster and take on more projects, it’s important to stay in touch with your clients. Don’t let them become a distant memory nurture those relationships and keep them happy.
Ask For Referrals: Need More Work? Ask For Referrals!
Ask for testimonials: If you’re doing good work, let your happy clients know about it by getting testimonials and ask if they’d be willing to share those testimonials with others (including on LinkedIn).
Ask for reviews: Another way to let people know how great you are is by encouraging positive reviews from satisfied customers who can then become prospects themselves (for instance, they might refer their friends or colleagues).
Deliver Consistently Good Work
In order to do this, you must keep a list of your clients’ needs and understand what they want and what they don’t want. What are some things that have been done well in their past projects? What do their customers like?
How can you incorporate similar elements into the work that you provide for them? It’s also important to learn how to deliver great work consistently by being flexible and adapting to change when necessary.
Finally, learn how to say no when a client asks something unreasonable or would otherwise be detrimental to your business if agreed upon.
The future of work is evolving rapidly, and it’s essential to stay ahead of the curve. Discover how you can adapt and thrive in this changing landscape by reading our article on How the Future of Work is Changing and How to Get a Piece of It.
Put Time And Energy Into Marketing Yourself And Your Business
Marketing yourself and your business is a long-term process. It’s not something that you can expect to see immediate results from, but if you are willing to put in the work, it will pay off over time.
Marketing is a numbers game: the more people who know about you and your business, the greater your chances of success. For people to find out about what you do and where they can hire or buy from you, they need to be aware of it first – that’s where marketing comes in!
It’s also an important way of building up your brand as an expert in your field; without having this foundation laid out properly before starting (which takes time), then all subsequent steps towards success become harder because there isn’t enough momentum behind them yet (or at least not enough).
If someone knows about me through my blog posts on topics like copywriting tips then maybe later down the line when I want another client who needs copy written up quickly or cheaply by someone who knows what they’re doing then maybe they’ll think “oh yeah!
That person sounds good” instead of just picking anyone off Craigslist at random with no prior experience whatsoever so why bother even trying?
Effective time management is the key to juggling multiple freelance projects seamlessly. Dive into our practical tips and tricks in the post on Time Management Tips for Freelancers to boost your productivity and success as a freelancer.
Make Yourself Available To Answer Questions From Clients
This is a key point. You want to make sure your clients can get in touch with you when they need help, but you also want them to be able to trust that the answers they receive will be accurate and professional.
A client may contact you because of an issue with the work that has been done so far, or because they have a question about how something works and want clarification on it before proceeding further (or maybe even asking for guidance). Whatever the reason might be, it’s important that when this happens:
Your priority should be addressing their concerns as soon as possible; not only does this show professionalism and respect for your client’s time but also shows confidence in yourself (if someone needs help from someone else then surely there must be some measure of value in what said person has already accomplished).
This can also help build a good rapport between both parties which will go towards increasing loyalty later down the road if necessary services become available through one another again sometime down the road (and chances are extremely high that they probably will). So don’t just blow off emails/phone calls without at least responding right away!
Remember That Every Penny You Spend Is Your Money, And You Should Budget Accordingly
The first step to saving money is to create a budget. This can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. You can use a free spreadsheet program like Excel or Google Sheets and get started right away by following these steps:
Write Down All Of Your Expenses And Income Sources For The Past Three Months (Or However Long You Have Data)
Look at how much time you spent on each task in those three months, and then assign an hourly rate to each task based on your experience level.
You will want to make sure not only that you are being paid fairly for the work you do, but also that the hours listed are realistic – if something takes up more than 40 hours per week, consider making multiple entries with different hourly rates (ie: one entry labeled “Writing” with an hourly rate of $20/hour; another entry labeled “Marketing” with an hourly rate of $10/hour).
Add up all of your monthly costs like rent/mortgage payments and utilities; then divide by 12 so that they total out as an annual figure. Enter this amount into your spreadsheet as well.
Take Care Of Your Health, Because Without It There’s Nothing You’ll Be Able To Do In The Long Run
You will have to work hard, but it’s not impossible.
Don’t overlook the importance of a healthy mind and body. When you’re starting, it can be easy to put yourself last on your list of priorities. But if you don’t take care of yourself first, everything else won’t fall into place as easily.
Take breaks and get enough sleep every night (at least seven hours). Exercise regularly even if that means just walking around your neighborhood or riding your bike down an empty street once a day and eating lots of vegetables and fruits so that you’re getting all the nutrients your body needs.
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Maintain A Strong Relationship With Your Spouse Or Significant Other To Be Able To Build A Life Together
Now that you’ve got your head together, it’s time to think about how to maintain a strong relationship with your spouse or significant other.
For any business owner, this is one of the most important things to have in place: if you don’t have someone who understands what it means to work hard (and also where all those extra hours are going), then it can be very difficult for you to build a life together.
There are many ways to build a strong relationship with your spouse or significant other. You could have regular date nights, share responsibilities around the house and with the kids, and go on vacation together every once in a while…the list goes on!
The main thing is just making sure that both parties know what they’re getting into when starting as a freelancer team and make sure everyone feels comfortable with their roles before taking off down this road.
Find Ways To Keep Growing As A Freelancer If You Want To Attract High-Quality Clients Who Will Pay More For Your Expertise And Skill Level
As I mentioned before, I’ve made a lot of mistakes while building my freelance business. Sometimes you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes. That doesn’t mean you should make a habit of failing, though at least not all the time.
Instead, embrace the idea that failure is part of the learning process and don’t be afraid to try new things, ask for help when you need it and make mistakes along the way as long as they don’t cost anyone else anything but time and energy (and sometimes those are worth losing).
With this in mind, there are several ways to build up your freelance business over time:
- Learn from past jobs so that each one builds upon what came before it (this might take some time)
- Look at yourself honestly and figure out where there’s room for improvement or growth in terms of skill level or expertise (this could happen at any point)
- Don’t be afraid to ask for what your work is truly worth if someone doesn’t want to pay enough money for it (you can always say no!)
Be Open-Minded About How You Can Improve Things In The Future By Learning From The Past
This is an important mindset to have when you’re learning and growing as a freelancer. As long as you are open-minded about how you can improve things in the future by learning from the past, then your career will only get better over time.
Now that we’ve covered some of my mistakes and successes, let’s look at some ways that I could have done things differently so that I could achieve more success sooner!
Don’t expect overnight success; enjoy each small victory along the way and celebrate them!“`
Don’t expect overnight success; enjoy each small victory along the way and celebrate them! The more you celebrate, the more motivated you will be to keep going. One of my favorite ways to celebrate is by having a cup of coffee or tea with friends at my favorite cafe. I love drinking a hot drink as we talk about our businesses, share stories, and offer support.
It’s also important that you keep up your positive attitude when things don’t go according to plan because there will always be setbacks! New clients aren’t always easy to find right away; there may be times when they take longer than expected or they don’t turn out like we thought they would.
However, these are all opportunities for learning how we can improve ourselves to become better freelancers and entrepreneurs down the road which means not giving up on yourself!
You are not alone in this journey either many others have had similar experiences but overcame them through hard work and perseverance so don’t feel discouraged if something doesn’t work out right away because there’s always another opportunity waiting around the corner 🙂
Are you considering a career in technical writing? Explore the possibilities and demands of this profession in our comprehensive article on Is Technical Writing the Career for You?, and find out if it aligns with your skills and aspirations.
Conclusion
This is all about laying the groundwork for a business that can continue to grow and expand. I know from experience how easy it is to get stuck in the day-to-day grind of trying to keep things running smoothly, but it’s important not to lose sight of the bigger picture.
That’s where these tips come in handy; they will help you not only stay focused on your goals but also make progress towards achieving them every day.
So don’t forget about what you’ve learned here when the going gets tough or life throws some curveballs your way… because there are always going to be challenges ahead! And remember, if we can do this then so can you – because everyone starts somewhere.”
Further Reading
How to Make Six Figures with Your Freelance Business: Learn actionable tips and strategies to boost your freelance income and achieve six-figure success.
Freelance Writing: A Three-Year Plan for Success: Discover a step-by-step plan to grow your freelance writing career steadily over three years.
How I Grew My Freelance Business from 0 to Six Figures: Gain insights from a freelancer who went from zero to six figures, and get inspired to achieve your financial goals.
FAQs
What are the key factors for making six figures with a freelance business?
To make six figures with a freelance business, focus on honing your skills, delivering exceptional quality work, building a strong client base, and continuously marketing your services to attract higher-paying opportunities.
How can I create a three-year plan for my freelance writing career?
Start by setting clear goals, identifying your niche, and creating a portfolio showcasing your best work. Then, develop a marketing strategy, network with potential clients, and continuously improve your writing skills to grow your freelance writing business over three years.
What strategies can I use to grow my freelance business from scratch?
Growing your freelance business from zero to six figures requires persistence and dedication. Consider diversifying your services, seeking long-term clients, optimizing your online presence, and leveraging referrals to expand your client base and income.
How can I increase my earning potential as a freelancer?
To increase your earning potential as a freelancer, consider raising your rates based on your expertise and experience. Additionally, take on more challenging and high-paying projects, improve your time management, and continuously update your skills to stay competitive in the market.
What are some common challenges in building a six-figure freelance business?
Some common challenges in building a six-figure freelance business include fierce competition, fluctuating income, and managing client expectations. It’s crucial to stay adaptable, maintain a strong work ethic, and consistently deliver value to overcome these obstacles and achieve success.
How Do I Get Clients?
You need to create a website that showcases your expertise in a way that makes people want to hire you. You also need to get on social media and start building relationships with people who could potentially hire you down the road. It takes time, but eventually, it will pay off!
What Type Of Tools Do I Need For My Business?
You don’t need anything fancy! The best tools you can use are Google Docs or an Evernote account for keeping track of your calendar and notes about projects/clients/etc., as well as Dropbox for sharing files with clients/colleagues when needed (and storing backups too!).
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.
