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What are the Makings of a Successful Freelancer?

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Blake Davies
What are the Makings of a Successful Freelancer?

In the previous century, people believed that the path to success lay in getting a 9 to 5 entry job and then steadily climbing through file and rank until you reach the top. Today, however, this hierarchical system is no longer the only choice for those with great work habits and unyielding ambition. These days, you can achieve all of this and more by simply working on your own, most commonly from your own home.

Still, being a freelancer is far from easy since all the responsibility for your career falls on you. You see, here there are no career tracking, average income or expected growth since they are all up to you. This leaves us with a different kind of problem. How can you tell if you are doing well at your job when there is no one there to evaluate you? The answer to this is quite simple – you do it on your own. Here are few markings of a successful freelancer that will help you out with this task.

1.      How Many People Have You Contacted?

The first thing that every successful freelancer does when they head out on their own is starting to look for work. During your first weeks as a freelancer, you will have no reputation-sheet, no list of recommendation and your online brand will be in its infancy. Because of this, you will be forced to actively look for employment. In a case where there is someone who can vouch for you (university friend, ex-coworker or a former boss) they need to be the first ones you are about to contact.

2.      Networking

Next, you need to start reaching out to people in the same line of work and reach out to them. Now, some may believe that this means familiarizing with competitors, but in the world of freelance, not everything is so black-and-white. Imagine a scenario where a more experienced freelancer is faced with an unexpected increase in workload. They will be forced to either flat-out refuse more work or temporarily redirect their clients towards you (sometimes for a moderate fee). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which of these two options benefits all three parties (them, you and the client).

3.      Social Network Identity

Another thing you will have to do right away is find your place on the social media. While most people already have a Facebook, Twitter and Google+ account, these aren’t necessarily optimized for what you are getting into. Sure, your lavish Las Vegas photo may be great for your social life, but may not leave much of an impression on your future employer. Next, you need to make sure your LinkedIn profile is fully updated and regularly tended to. Finally, it wouldn’t hurt if you were to visit sites such as Quora and Reddit since this too might help you get noticed.

4.      Website

After all of this is set and done, you need to think about making your own website. Sure, you can close a deal over Facebook chat, but just having a website makes you look significantly more professional. This, however, is a double-edged sword, since not only do you need to make a website, but it also needs to live up to some standards. We are talking about adequate design, mobile optimization and a series of other requirements. One of the ways in which you could deal with this lies in getting in touch with a freelance website developer (in case you aren’t one yourself). In this way, you get your website optimized while at the same time making a contact you might need again in the future.

5.      Competition Research

Finally, you need to keep in mind that in today’s world, regardless of the niche you choose, you will have a lot of potential competitors. While from a logistical point of view this may not be a good thing, it definitely has some advantages. The more competitors you have, the larger corpus it is you will be able to study from. In this way, you can notice some of the mistakes that they make and avoid them, while “borrowing” some of the better ideas they may have. For this, however, you will have to learn how to properly research your competition.

In Conclusion

The best thing about the above-mentioned five tips is that they are applicable to any industry you decide to engage into. Sure, every business niche has its own set of industry-specific requirements you will have to adhere to, but as far as the freelancing goes, the above-listed five should be your basic postulates. Once you have successfully dealt with them you will be ready to take on any challenge that might come afterward head on.

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Blake Davies
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