how to become a freelancer

How to Become a Freelancer? Get Started with Quick Tips

If you’re no more interested to do a full-time job or want to spend more time at home, then freelancing is the answer. Freelancing means working independently on a time-bound project of work. It does not require you to be an employee of any organization. The next question that pops up is How to do freelancing or How to Become a Freelancer.

Before we talk about how to be a Freelancer, let’s highlight the pros and cons of working as a Freelancer.

PROs of being a Freelancer

Flexibility

Being a freelancer, you have all the flexibility when it comes to time schedules or places of work. You are free to work from home or from any other place. Moreover, you need not follow a specific time schedule as you have the liberty to work during any time of the day. The only requirement is to meet the deadlines of the deliverables.

Comfortable

The biggest advantage of being a freelancer is comfort. You enjoy all the comforts of working in your style and as per your availability. Also, you don’t need to travel to work which saves a lot of time.

Personal Aspirations

Working as a freelancer allows you to pursue your passion and fulfill personal aspirations which could be other than what you’re engaged in as a freelancer.

Defined Deliverables

Unlike a full-time job, freelancing has the advantage of having defined deliverables. In a full-time job, there’s a range of responsibilities that one needs to fulfill. Being a freelancer, you can focus on a specific task that is time-bound.

CONs of being a Freelancer

Lack of exposure

Working as a freelancer has its own limitations. First to mention is being less exposed to the outside world. If you work as a freelancer working from home, then you’re almost cut from the outside world associated learnings.

Professionalism

An individual learns “what is professionalism” when he or she joins an organization and works with a team. He or she learns how to respond to situations, communicate skillfully, and develop a broader vision that adds to the work ethics and overall productivity. However, a freelancer would not experience all that takes to build professionalism as a trait.

No routine

There could be no routine to your day when you work as a freelancer as you need not be following a time shift for work. This could lead to being lazy and less productive.

Less money

This is a proven fact that you get to earn less when freelancing.  A full-time employee earns significantly more than a freelancer with the same skill set. This is because in a full-time job, time involvement, level of commitment and assigned responsibilities are higher.

After reading the pros and cons of being a Freelancer, you can decide if it suits you.

If you are looking for freelancing opportunities, find list of freelance jobs from home here.

Now let’s elaborate on How to Become a Freelancer 

Master a skill

You can think about being a freelancer only when you have expertise in a particular subject and have mastered the skills required to deliver successful projects. For example, in case you want to be a freelance designer, then you should be having expertise in this domain and know the nuances of delivering high-quality work.

Certifications

For expanding your knowledge and adding credibility to your work profile you need to have a range of certifications obtained on completion of courses, be it offline or online. When people look for freelancers, certifications mentioned on the freelancers’ profiles become an important criterion of selection.

Build Contacts 

For having your plate full, you need to build a lot of contacts. These contacts can be built by joining relevant forums, communities, and chains of discussions on popular online platforms. When you engage with and add value to a specific group of people from your work domain then it proves helpful in building contacts that fetch your projects.

Published projects 

You need to be having a certain number of projects or pieces of work published online. When companies or individuals reach out to you, they ask for a sample of work done as the first thing before deciding to go with you or not.

Profiling

Your profile or resume should be strong in terms of showcasing your areas of expertise, projects undertaken, if any, certifications and academic background.

Online presence

Building contacts is the effort that you put to get work opportunities. Along with it, you should register yourself on best platforms for freelancers, like Upwork and Freelancer. This way you would be getting inbound requests, you just need to filter them.

Testimonials

In order to start your career as a freelancer, you need to have some testimonials from people whom you have worked with before. It could be testimonials from people who worked with you in an internship or full-time job.

Freelance opportunities are available in almost all fields. Most popular are:

Content writing

Every business needs to promote itself online and for that content forms the backbone. Businesses that do not have in house resources to fulfill content requirements go for outsourcing. There’s a huge demand for content writers on platforms that work as a bridge between freelancers and companies/ individuals.

Design and editing 

Designing is another stream that is in great demand when it comes to freelance opportunities. Designing graphics, website pages, video editing are some of the skills that companies are looking for in large numbers.

SEO

Search engine optimization is the big thing that businesses want to adopt; who don’t want to build free traffic. Here keyword ranking, content marketing, link buildings are the projects that the company looks to outsource.

Web development

If you are an expert in programming then there would be ample freelance opportunities for you out there. Online businesses need to build new features and functionalities to meet the customers’ requirements and also to have an edge over the close competition.

Translation

Companies that cater to a larger geographical audience need to have the content around their offerings in different languages. Operating in one country restricts them to have in house resources that can develop content in different languages. Therefore, hiring translators becomes essential.

Find a complete list of Freelance jobs in India here 

Check out a complete list of Freelance Job Vacancies in Pune

Get complete information regarding freelance job Vacancies in Hyderabad.

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