HOW TO FREELANCE

OFFICIAL REGISTRATION TO FREELANCE

Actual freelancing begins at the moment you start to earn from your craft. And that's when you have to officially register as self-employed individual, which will state that you are operating legally from now on. Registration is done through an official government agency known as Tax Authority or Revenue Service - the same agency that collects taxes.

Depending on your country a registration process will vary and require different steps and costs.

USA – learn more from IRS (International Revenue Service)
UK – HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs)
Russia – ФНС (Федеральная Налоговая Служба)
Lithuania – VMI (Valstybinė Mokesčių Inspekcija)

If you are from a different country than mentioned above, find your required Revenue Service in Wikipedia article under the same title “Revenue Service”.

“How to Freelance” is a very generic and broad topic, which incorporates many steps of freelancing. Like any business, freelancing has got its structure and steps, which if followed correctly will provide obvious results. And like any skill, freelancing can be learned, so don’t be discouraged.

I am also planning to dive deeper and breakdown each step even further, so let me know which topic you are most interested in by filling in the poll at the bottom of this page. Let us now quickly review each step for you to become a freelancer.

CHOOSE YOUR FREELANCE NICHE

Before you start freelancing, you have to know what is it that you want to do as a freelancer. There are many methods and helpful questionnaires available online, but the most popular method is known as Ikigai concept, which stands for “a reason for being”. It helps you to find your true inner calling towards your purpose in life.

STRATEGIC FREELANCE PLANNING

Starting as a freelancer can be a bit confusing and discouraging, only because we don’t know what is it that awaits of us - we are afraid of the unknown and unexpected. What if I tell you that there is a way for you to know the answers before you even take your first step. That you can have a plan, which is specifically constructed and designed for you, according to your current financial situation. A plan that will show you how you will succeed even before succeeding. A plan, which reveals how many projects you have to do, at what price range, and within which timeframe, in order for you to reach your desired target income.

With such plan you will have a clear picture of your journey and assurance to make a first step towards your freelance career. You will find all answers in my free course titled “Financial Strategy & Deconstruction”. Here you will decide how much you want to earn and we will set out a strategy to achieve that number. It shows you your path to follow.

FREELANCE CONTRACTS & SECURITY

When a client decides to hire you and strikes a deal, that is the time to prepare and sign a contract. This part is very important, as you want to secure your payment and be protected in case any legal issue or dispute occurs.

A contract sets terms and clear expectations between the two parties, such as working relationship, payment specifics, delivery requirements, timeframe and milestones, intellectual property, and much more. Most importantly, it secures an advanced payment.

Once the contract is signed and the advanced payment is received, you can start working on a project and follow what you agreed upon.

If you want to learn more about the legal part of freelancing and specifics of contracts, I am planning to release a course specifically about this topic. It will also include a set of contract templates for you to use on your project. If you are interested, fill in the poll below by ticking this course and be notified once the course is available. Meanwhile, unfortunately, I can only suggest you to search for freelance contracts online.

POSITIONING YOURSELF AS A FREELANCER

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

Before we go on and reach our potential clients, we need to form an offer and description of our services, hence communicating our clear message and forming our concise image, which we want our target audience to perceive us by. We need to clarify what is it that we do, what we stand for, what our values and strengths are, etc. So, even before you begin to position and brand yourself you have to breakdown and understand yourself, otherwise you would not be able to communicate your message clearly to others.

Keep it brief and straight to the point, as at this day and age our attention span is very short, and whoever visits your profile or website will not spend too much time guessing answers, especially when you are compared to other competitors in the market.

Once you know how to present yourself in a couple sentences, you will always carry it with you. It is a perfect tool to use during your sales pitch in case you meet a potential client in an elevator, or during a sales call. We will also use it as a perfect introduction in social network platforms, our official website, marketing tools, and any other form of advertising.

PORTFOLIO

We also have to showcase a quality of our work. Portfolio can take many shapes depending on your chosen niche: a video demo reel for a video editor; collection of photos or still images for a designer; blog posts for a copywriter; results of analytics for a marketer; and so on.

If you are just starting out, you will have to build your portfolio from scratch, even if it means not to be hired. Your portfolio has to contain a highly professional work, a work that later you would love to be hired for and get paid for, a work that reflects the direction you are heading to. So, if your dream is to animate a Disney-like character, then learn the techniques and make your own project if need be, that is the only way you can get hired to do what you really love. Develop your skill and build your knowledge until you get there.

When you get hired, don’t include every accomplished project in your portfolio, only choose those, which bring you closer to your dream job. Exclude anything that looks amateur or has got different field of skill, so if your dream is to design UI/UX, don’t include projects of logos that you have done on the side only for financial reasons. It is even better to reject other skill-having projects, as otherwise there is a good chance that you will eventually end up exchanging your passion for money - let’s strive and get both instead. So, while you are building your portfolio, think quality, not quantity.

"PACKAGING"

Now we know how to present ourselves in a couple sentences and we have our portfolio ready. The next step is to put it all together and make it convenient for our client to review.

You can use self-promotion social network and community platforms, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube, Vimeo, Dribbble, Behance, ArtStation, DeviantArt, etc. Each platform has got its own client reach, therefore use as many as you can, but use the ones which are suitable to your niche and contain your target client.

If you want to go for a professional look, then create a personal website using such platforms like Wix, Squarespace, Wordpress, Carbonmade, About.me, etc. As opposed to social network platforms, here you have more control and less restrictions, and you can feature additional information about yourself, like: testimonials, reviews, your availability, logos of companies that you worked with, certificates, etc.

And your client needs to know who you are as a person. So, present yourself well by putting a good looking and trustworthy photo, and highlighting yourself as a hardworking and reliable person that you are. We want our client to like, and trust us.

SELLING & NEGOTIATING AS A FREELANCER

Once you find your potential client or he contacts you, you need to sell your services. So share your unique value proposition, listen to him, learn about his needs and provide solution to his problem. Most importantly, be a human being who is willing to help. Give him a reason to work with you.

If a client shows an interest, the conversation will eventually lean towards the price evaluation. You don’t have to express an exact number yet, instead, share your price bracketing - a rough range of how much a project might cost according to your experience and rough evaluation (if you have to, get enough information about the project requirements, client's expectations, deadlines, and whatnot). By expressing your budget range, you allow both of you to know, beforehand, if you can collaborate further, hence not wasting each other’s time if it doesn’t suit either of the side, budget wise.

If your provided price range suits the client’s budget, we will come back to him with a precise evaluation later, it will be highlighted in our proposal and contract.

To get the precise price of a project multiply the number of hours or days that will take you to accomplish the job by an hourly or daily rate. If you still don’t know your true hourly rate, your price bracketing, and how to calculate your average project price, watch my free course “Financial Strategy & Deconstruction”.

FREELANCE PRICING

Before you find your potential client, we have to know our hourly and daily rates, as well as an average price per project. Your price has to earn your desired profit and at the same time cover your expenses and taxes. If you want to learn how to find your true hourly rate and average project price, watch my free course titled “Financial Strategy & Deconstruction”.

When you get even more experience and build your strong portfolio, you can start using a value-based pricing method – you charge based on the value of results that you provide to your client. So if your accomplished project will let your client make $100,000, you could take 3% of it. But you need to have a good negotiation skills and knowledge of marketing and business before you could handle such deals.

MARKETING YOUR FREELANCE SERVICES

Once you are ready to present yourself and your work, you can start looking for potential clients, or let them find you instead. First, we have to create a picture of our ideal client whom we want to reach: who is he, and how does he look like, - is it an agency, a company, or an individual? Also think about the age, gender, income, etc. The clearer is the picture the precise is your target – only by knowing what we are looking for, we can know where and whom to reach.

The simplest way to reach your client is a direct contact: knock on the door, phone call, email, etc. But before you do, make a research about the company and the main person you are going to contact, as during your conversation you want to be knowledgeable about your client.

There are more ways you can use to find a client and promote yourself, such as:

Checking with your friends and colleagues;
Providing a free valuable information about your expertise in a form of a tutorial, an e-book, or a blog;
Leaving your promo card or sticker at the coffee shop;
Visiting and participating in events;
Being active on forums and replying to people questions;
Social media marketing;
Collaborations;
etc.

And target such places and platforms which have visitors who match your client profile, so if you are leaving your promo card at the coffee shop, choose the coffee shop that is close to where your client is located at.

You can also reach your client by advertising, but it costs and requires some knowledge. Even though you pay for advertising, if all set well, you should have a return on ad spend and cover your expenses. There are many methods and tools for advertising, such as:

Contextual advertising like Google Ads
Social media advertising
Posts on an influencer’s account
Advertisement websites
etc.

Choose methods and platforms that are most relevant to your niche and service, and which are mostly visited by your potential clients. After a couple successful projects, clients will reference you and the ball will start rolling. Connection after connection you will build your client base.

FURTHER FREELANCE GROWTH & MANAGEMENT

The final step of them all is for you to monitor, improve and grow your freelance business. Use your knowledge and strategy plan from the “Financial Strategy & Deconstruction” course and reach your desired target revenue from your perfect scenario column. Once you earn enough, you can start to hire and delegate personnel to take over an administrative work, like accounting or marketing, allowing you to concentrate more on your craft and service.

Eventually, you might reach your limit by getting more offers than you can handle, and that is the moment to decide if you want to grow further by establishing an agency or a company.

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A FREELANCER

Whenever a client is paying you for your services you have to provide him an invoice to sign. An invoice works as a proof of payment, it also holds: contact details of both parties, an information about your provided services, payment terms, and so on.

You also need to keep your expense invoices outside the project, whenever you buy something related to your freelance business, like a new camera for your photography services, business cards for self-promotion or advertising on Google Ads. All business expenses allow you to reduce your tax amount during the income declaration later.

Apart from invoices you should also keep the records of your income and expenses in the form of a journal. It can be an excel file or a tangible notebook, doesn’t matter, as long as you track your finances.

You are also responsible to declare your income and expenses, and pay taxes during the specific timeframe, which varies in each country. Furthermore, different countries might have additional requirements and different steps of procedure for a declaration process. To learn more check with your local Revenue Service.

THANK YOU

These are the chronological steps of freelancing, which are rough, but they provide a great starting point. I am planning to dive deeper and breakdown each step even further, so let me know which topic you are most interested in by filling in the poll below. And if you have a specific question on your chosen topic that you want an answer for – leave a comment just below the poll. Thank you and good luck, freelancer.