If you don’t want to work a 9-to-5 but you still want to bring in the big bucks, it may be time to look into working as a freelancer. Freelancers provide their services to multiple clients and are self-employed.
That means that you’re your own boss and get to make decisions about your business as well as how you do the work you do.
Whether you want to be a freelance marketer, writer, artist, or another kind of professional, this may be the career for you if you want to make your own schedule and be in control of your business.
Ready to get started? We’ve put together this helpful article to go over what freelancing is, why you should become a freelancer, how to make money freelancing, and other facts to help you get started.
What is freelancing?
Freelancing is a kind of work that people do when they want to work for themselves. Freelancers are their own bosses instead of working for a company.
Freelancers can take on contract work for major companies or small businesses. They could also run their own stores or businesses.
The underlying theme is that the individual is not reporting to a boss. Instead, they work with their own clients and are responsible for their own work and how it is carried out.
Some of the jobs freelancers may do include:
- Contract work, where they’ll remain self-employed throughout the job.
- Contract-to-hire work, which means that the individual will be self-employed until the company decides if it wants to hire them.
- Contract consultancy is when someone is hired to consult on specific issues for a temporary time period.
Why become a freelancer?
Freelancing is an amazing career for people who want to travel, have more free time in their days, or have better flexibility in the time they spend on work.
Freelancers decide how much to charge for their time. They decide which projects to take on and can refuse to take on more work when they feel it will require too much effort or that the payoff isn’t enough.
Working remotely is often a perk of being a freelancer, too, though not all freelancers work remotely.
What is the most profitable freelance job?
Almost any freelance job can be profitable, though not all are. The most profitable jobs in freelancing tend to be the following roles:
- Web designer
- Web developer
- Teacher
- Virtual assistant
- Writer
- Social media specialist
- Editor
- Accountants
- Financial consultants
Though these fields have many people working freelance roles earning good money, they aren’t the only fields in which you can be successful.
You’ll need to find your own niche and develop your brand to start bringing in an income yourself.
How to make money freelancing
There are several things you can do to start making money while freelancing. The following are four steps you can take to help figure out what you want to do as a freelancer and how to make money freelancing within your preferred niche.
Find your niche
The first thing you have to do if you want to make money as a freelancer is to find your niche.
A niche refers to your specific area of expertise. For example, one person might be a legal writer, and another might focus on editing novels.
Each role covers a specific industry or part of the industry, helping the individual find work that they want to do and know they can do successfully.
While some people feel that a niche can be limiting, a niche can also be helpful in guiding your new career.
For example, if you are a writer, explaining that you focus on medical content will have medical providers reaching out to you and will limit other inquiries with clients who may not pay as much or have work you want to do.
Set your goals
The next thing to do to help yourself as a new freelancer is to set your goals for your job. Do you want to make this a new, full-time career? Are you interested in working only a few hours a day?
How much do you expect to have as your salary?
You need to set goals now, so you can have a plan for moving forward. For instance, if you want to be earning $3,000 a month and know that you’ll need to do at least three projects in your niche to be paid $3,000, you’d also know more about how many clients you’d need and what you have to do to promote your brand.
Define your rates
Along with your goals, you will need to define your rates. While you can offer people different rates for your services, it’s better if you have a rate card.
You will also need to make time to research your role’s average rates, so you can tell if you are charging a fee that is in line with other professionals in your field and niche.
As an example, a writer who wants to earn a minimum of $0.10 per word should have a rate card starting at that rate. Clients should know up front that the $0.10 is a minimum fee.
That same writer could also include other options, like hourly pay options, one-off project costs, consulting fees, and other costs the client may need to pay.
Doing this ahead of time will help you be sure that you understand exactly how much you want to earn and how much work you’ll need to do to reach your income goals.
Keep in mind that you will need to pay taxes out of your earnings (most freelancers save around 25 to 30% of their earnings for taxes annually in the United States), so you should charge rates that reflect that obligation.
Learn how to make a great pitch
It’s helpful if you know how to pitch your services to a business before you reach out and ask to work together.
A good pitch is more than just telling someone what you have to offer and letting them make the decision. You need to have a hook that gets them to reach out to you and take your services for a test drive.
Do research on your field, focus on discussing the benefits of your services, and be sure that the outreach you do is personalized.
For example, if you’ll be reaching out to parents to discuss your freelance photography business, you’ll want to make a marketing pitch discussing how important your photos are for family memories they can look back on.
Keep in mind who you’re speaking to and what services you can offer that are unique and helpful to them.
Find regular, repeat customers
Another thing that you need to do once you’re sure about what you’re offering and how much you want to charge is to go out and find clients. Finding clients is easier when you have a strong online presence.
Some things you can do to find new, repeat, and long-term clients include:
- Creating a website that goes over your services and helps you gain online traffic. By doing this, more people will find out about you and see what you have to offer. You can refer people to your website by putting it on your business card or by sharing it online, too.
- Updating your social media to include business pages. Keep your business pages active, and make sure you update them regularly. Reply to all comments and invite people to keep interacting with you.
- Promote the work you’re doing. Whether you post about your work on your personal blog, share your new business on social media, or pass out physical business cards, you need to do at least some marketing to make sure you let people know that you’re open for business. Don’t assume people know what you do: Tell them.
- Follow important, relevant accounts in your niche. Interact with the companies you want to work with. Talk to other freelancers and follow them online. Doing this helps you build up a network, and you may be able to find more work that way.
These are a few of the different things you can do to get started freelancing. There will be some time spent on trial and error, but if you continue to narrow down your focus, build up your online presence, make solid pitches, and look for work, your business will start to take off.
Wrap Up
Making money as a freelancer is possible for almost anyone in almost any field. If you define your niche, think about your audience, and start putting in the legwork, you can build up a strong freelance business, too.
Want to know more about getting started? Take a look at “9 of the Best Freelance Websites for Jobs” to find resources to get to work.
