Freelancing
What Is Freelancing: Become a Freelancer and Find Work
Quickly learn about becoming a freelancer and how to find gigs online.
Freelancing is the term used for professionals who are self-employed and work on a project-by-project basis.
Freelancers are experts in digital skills, and job roles like writers, designers, and programmers are a few to name.
I’m a freelance writer. My job is to create SEO content and advertisement copy for businesses. Those are my digital skills. And because they’re digital, I get to work from anywhere I want to be.
This is similar to remote work. While almost everything between the two remains the same, the only difference is the lack of job security and work benefits for freelancers.
Becoming a Freelancer
One of the greatest benefits of freelancing is that it doesn’t require you to have specific qualifications and it can be started with minimal setup.
All you need is good skills in your area of expertise and a place to showcase your talent such as a website or portfolio.
I’m a college drop out. But with my writing skills, I’m easily making a living working only 6–8 hours a day.
If you already have a skill, like writing or designing, create a portfolio showcasing your past work and start searching for clients.
In case you don’t already have a skill and you’re interested in becoming a freelancer, learn a skill, do sample projects, create a portfolio, and get to work.
Online course sites like Udemy and Coursera provide the opportunity to effortlessly learn skills you love. They have a lot of free courses you can start with, or you can just head to YouTube and start learning.
Finding Freelance Work
Honestly, finding freelance work is a daunting prospect, especially if you are just starting out.
It took me over 2 months to find my first writing gig on Upwork. Fortunately, that was the beginning of great things in my career.
Networking
One way to get started is by networking and reaching out to people in your field. Reach out to any contacts you have and ask for recommendations or referrals.
LinkedIn is a great place to start for networking. You can create a LinkedIn profile and connect with like-minded people there.
Cold Outreach
Another way is to find people that need help with the skill you’re offering.
For example, a YouTuber with poor video editing skills might require a professional to edit their videos.
If you find someone like that, reach out to them and let them know you can help for a fixed price or on an hourly wage.
Freelancing Platforms
Finally, you can also use a middleman or a broker service like Upwork or Fiverr.
These are two of the leading freelancing platforms and they help clients and freelancers find each other.
Please note that such freelancing platforms usually charge a fee when you work through them. For example, Upwork charges a commission of 5 to 20% of the money a freelancer earns.
Benefits of Freelancing
We’ve gone through the core of this article. But before you take the leap, I’d like to quickly point out the benefits and risks of freelancing.
Let’s start with the benefits:
- Ability to work on your own terms. You don’t have to answer to a boss or be tied down to a single job.
- You have complete control over your working hours, so you can fit it around other commitments such as childcare or studying.
- Because you’re helping people with your digital skills, you’ll have the opportunity to work entirely remotely almost all of the time.
- Freelancing can open up potential opportunities for career advancement. Many successful freelancers have gone on to launch their own businesses and take on bigger projects.
Risks of Freelancing
Honestly, I might’ve sugarcoated the concept of freelancing a bit. As an aspiring freelancer, you must know its risks:
- Freelancing usually means not having a steady income for many people. It’s important to always have work lined up so that you don’t run out of money during slow times.
- Be aware of the fact that there would be periods when no one is hiring and you won’t be able to find any work. An example would be the holiday seasons (Christmas, New Year, etc).
- You don’t have the security of a regular job, so you’ll need to be prepared for the possibility that your income could fluctuate depending on the projects available at any given time.
- Freelancing won’t get you many of the benefits like paid vacation, health insurance, travel allowance, etc.
Wrapping Up
That covers everything I wanted you to know.
I’m speaking from experience. So if you ever want to follow someone’s path, it better be mine.
Because there are a lot of people pretending to be successful. Please just ignore all that noise.
If you’ve got any questions, please let me know as a response. I’ll make sure to help you in some way.
Thanks for reading :)
And there’s a lot more coming ;)
Originally published at https://www.hustlehunny.com on December 4, 2022.
