How to Start Freelancing in 2024: A Fruitful Guideline for Newcomers
If you’re here, it means you’ve decided to start your career in freelancing. Awesome. Let’s start with my personal experience. Because I have 8 years of freelancing experience in my career. I have faced failure and gradually become successful in this field. In my opinion, freelancing is the best earning platform for those who love freedom. Here in this article, I will not discuss why freelancing. If you are interested in learning more, you can find articles on it on my website.
After doing 4 years of corporate office work, I can only say one thing: in freelancing, you will become your boss. You can make decisions, give orders, and choose.
So let’s start how to start successfully in this career.
Concept of this Post:
In the early days when I started freelancing, I made some wrong decisions. That’s suffered me a lot. By making lots of mistakes, I am here now. So with my experience, I want those who have decided to start freelancing to be guided properly. Because now I know how to start it safely and securely. And that’s all I will discuss in this post.
You have to clearly understand what is freelancing:
Let me clarify what freelancing is. You see any person who is currently working in a corporate office from 9 to 5. You will notice their lifestyle. They are leading a robotic life. I am giving you a clearer explanation: they work from 9 to 5, then come home, go to sleep, and the next day again to the office, doing the same work repeatedly, year after year. There is no productivity there. No freedom, no creativity, just the fear of losing the job and pressure from senior personnel and bosses. But freelancing is the opposite of this scenario. You will find any project, communicate directly with buyers, make plans yourself, and set a schedule as per your flexibility. So in a word, you are the one who is in control. You are the boss. Isn’t it cool? Yes, this is the beauty of freelancing, and that’s why people like you and me are gradually moving toward this field.
There are many fields to start with:
But you have to choose. The most common and famous fields are writing, design, programming, etc. But which field you have to choose is a crucial part. But don’t worry, I am here to help you regarding this, and this blog is focused on this.
So, let’s start your career:
Be more focused because this part is more important. You have decided to start a career here, so at first, you have to choose in which field you are going to start work. For this, you have two ways:
- Start with your existing skills.
- Start by consuming one skill and then start.
Here, many will give you many opinions, but what I did, I want to share. Maybe it will help you. But I also want to say that at this point, I made a mistake, and that is, when I decided to start a career here, I searched among my known society who are already established in this field. And believe me, that was my big mistake. Many people showed me many paths, and because of this, I got confused and almost destroyed my desire. But after some months, I made a decision, and that was most effective for me. I made two lists. In my first list, I wrote down the skills that I already have, and in the other, I listed down all the trendy topics that were ruling this vast industry.
But you will be surprised to hear that I found no skills that were on the trendy list. Then I decided to choose one in which I have a little experience and that is also trendy. Then I found Web Development. As a CSE graduate, I had a little experience in it, and I already knew that this is one of the trendy topics. So I made myself fully focused on this topic. But the next step was difficult for me, and maybe it will also be a difficult step for you. As I did not have much experience in my chosen topic, I started thinking about how to be fully skilled in it. I prepared a to-do list for this. Here it is:
- I made a list of what exactly I wanted to learn.
- I divided them into parts and wrapped them within a sharp timeframe.
Believe me, I did not have enough funds to start a course. So I decided to learn from free resources. I spent almost two or three days on the Internet to find out about free courses. I found some:
These two helped me a lot. But the scenario may be different for you, but I am sure if you search properly, you also will find some free resources on the internet. Then for the next two months, I just learned and practiced with these free resources. But here, one thing I must say is that in this stage, don’t let your mind get unfocused. Just stay connected with your desire. Stay motivated with yourself. Command your mind with this: “I can do this”. Just learn. This must require time, and for this, I can remember I sacrificed many things. I almost stopped wasting time by watching movies and stopped doing friends aimless chatting. Just after two months, I found myself a learned person, and I started feeling confident. If you strictly follow my advice, then you also will find yourself here with a confident mind. I was now a little bit more confident and skilled and decided to jump into the freelancing marketplace. In this position, I took another decision besides starting hunting jobs in the marketplace. I decided to start a paid course on what I already skilled with free resources. This was the most effective step or decision in my freelancing career.
So what do you understand? It’s nothing but give yourself time and be focused. Just keep in mind this: “If others can do it, why not me?”
Setting up Foundation:
Don’t come to this step until you are skilled in your desired field. Here skilled means a minimum skill, I want to say. I started this step when I had done learning with my free resources. So what to do:
Set up all your social media: Social media can also be your job-hunting marketplace. So now update all your social platforms as per your skills. Share all the skills that you have with your friends. Social media platforms are the best place to spread your skills to people.
Build up a personal portfolio website: This is a little costly, to be honest. But believe me, this is important because sometimes when people contact you or you contact buyers, they frequently ask for this. So please, it’s my recommendation that anyhow build up a personal website. Design it simply, just focus on what you can do. By the way, never add anything extra that is beyond your skills. If you do it, you will suffer a lot.
Create a profile on a marketplace: There are many platforms for freelancers, like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, and many more. Create a profile on these platforms carefully. Keep in mind not to add anything extra. Later on my website, I will share some strategies for every platform. But for now, keep yourself active on these platforms. Being online increases the possibility of getting jobs. When you create a profile on these platforms, you have to set your rates. Initially, as a newcomer, it’s advisable to keep your rates a little lower. This will help you attract clients as you build your reputation.
Conclusion:
At the end, remember one thing. Nothing is easy in this world, but nothing is impossible either. Stay focused. Another important thing, you will always encounter people who give you negative thoughts, demotivating you. Strictly avoid them. Tell your mind at that time, “Let’s show them what I can do, it’s my showtime“.
One more thing, in this career, you can never stop learning. However long you want to go with this career, you must keep learning because things are changing rapidly nowadays.