Most people who's longing for success online starts out with great ambition but it's often common that most of the freelancers have a misleading idea of what freelancing is all about and they see things with dollar signs in their eyes due to all the amazing success stories they've heard. Fortunately I will list 5 of the most common, in my opinion, mistakes new freelancers make.
They do not think things through properly.
Anyone can become a freelancer, it's super-easy to become one but harder to stay as one. You cannot predict your income and due to the fact that your income probably will change from one month to the next. Some savings to use when you first start out would be great as you still have bills to pay and might end up with nothing the first period of your freelancer career.They sell themselves too low.
I understand the reasoning for providing things for extremely low, especially when you're first starting out as you would need to build reputation and credibility. However, it's always easier to lower your costs than increase the price for your services so you should really consider being a bit more expensive but provide excellent quality instead. Once you've gained recurring customers it's easy to putting your services on sale and offer people discounts to attract new clients and to make more sales.They spend all their income.
As new freelancers starts to make money they use their income on things they want. New clothes or a new cell phone and other things they want or need in life. I understand the feeling of finally be able to buy that special cell phone you've been longing for. However, it's a difference on revenue and profit. Revenue is the money you earn and profit is the money you keep. Spend only your profits.They don't get their first clients.
New freelancers creates their services or products and wait for sales. They wait for the money and that won't happen. Money doesn't come flying into your pockets. You need to market yourself. Advertise. Build relations and build reputation. When you've done that, the orders will come.They don't treat their freelancing career as a real business.
Being a freelancer means that you are the boss. You are your own boss and that comes with responsibility. Treat your freelancing career as a real business because it is one. At least, it can be, but that depends on yourself and many new freelancers doesn't take enough responsibility.
Feel Free To Check This Too: Life As a Freelancer: The Myths And Realities.
Freelancers also don't appreciate that the money comes in lumps, but expenses are regular and ongoing. All Freelancers should create a reserve fund for emergency expenses before they do anything else - otherwise they might not make it through a crisis.
I really like this post,
I recently quit my job, and I do my own projects I publish books, Write on here and have my own store. I feel like people are scared to call what they are doing a "business' but they need to! What they have IS A BUSINESS.
So I agree with you on everything. To be self employed you really do have to make a lot of sacrifices. But working for yourself brings a massive amount of fulfillment.
Not a freelancer yet, unless steemit.com counts, but the writeup gives me something to think about. Upvoted and following.
Thank you, I appreciate your kindness :)
Hey @hitmeasap I was just wondering how you put the " feel free to follow me " on the bottom ?
thanks for the article keep up the good work.
Hey @ian.wash, it's very simple.
In your case it would be like this:
<.center>[Feel Free To Follow Me].(https://steemit.com/@ian.wash)<./center>
Just delete the dots "." :)
Awesome thanks for the help. You're a great help to the little guy on steemit wether your featuring people in your post (my sun set pic) or just taking the time to explain something . It's much appreciated.
I'm still having trouble with that. Sorry to bug you. It's just coming up like this
[feel free to follow me]
(https://steemit.com/@ian.wash). But looks just like that with a shadowed box around it .
https://steemit.com/photography/@ian.wash/the-wild-wild-west
I'll leave it for you to look at to see what I'm doing wrong . It doesn't look awesome like yours does. Any how hope I'm not bugging to much
Hello @ian.wash, sorry for a bit late response.
You have spaces between [ and the text ] delete the spaces. This is how it should look: [Feel Free To Follow](https://steemit.com/@ian.wash
And directly after your username you'll put up one of these ]
If you want the text to be bold you'll use ** on both sides of the text. Just make sure you don't have spaces between anything. :)
So basically:
[Feel Free To Follow Me].(https://steemit.com/@ian.wash)<./center>
but you'll delete the dots and have no spaces between :)
Agree! my wife and I are both freelancers and some our friends are. Some of this mistake were made by myself, some by my friends. it is always hard when all responsibility is laying on yourself and you yourself manage your time, and freedom that you get corrupts a little)
Yeah, freelancing can be difficult. But as long as it's fun and covers the bills, I won't stop! :)
of course ))))
The view of how you see things is great, I wonder when I will write like you.Good for you!
Thank you very much, I appreciate your kind words and I will take those last words from you as a compliment. :)
I've been a freelancer for the better part of 15 years. I completely agree that many freelancers undervalue themselves.
What most people fail to realize is that freelancers don't carry the same amount of expenses to an employer that an employee does- typically a freelancer (depending on industry of course) they'll carry their own insurance and be exempt from the expenses that employers typically have to pay for their employees- like workers compensation insurance.
This alone means that a freelancer should be charging rates above what an employee would make.
Marketing is hugely important, and as a freelancer, you have to be able to provide value past what an employer would get from hiring someone full time. It's up to you to determine what that is that sets you apart, and then bank on that to secure yourself contracts with potential clients.