Career Advice : Freelancing

Freelancing today has become a very popular choice among young graduates for both part time as well as full time career option. Freelancing simply means to find work on your own and reap the full benefits of completing that work. All you do comes to you and there is no boss or company to share the profits of your hard work. Freelancing when done with proper planning and persistence can be much rewarding than the normal 9-6 job in the long run, many successful freelancers even end up starting their own company! So the question which must be arising in your mind must be how to start off as a freelancer? Well thats why this guide is prepared, follow the guidelines below to start off as a freelancer:


Starting Off
Starting to work as a freelancer is the hardest part. First you need to identify the skills that you have or the services that you can provide to your clients. Here is a list of most popular freelancing areas :

• Making Websites and Softwares.
• Web Designing.
• Writing.
• Data Entry Work.
• Marketing.
• Search engine Optimization.
• Education and Tutoring, etc.

Make a list of the skills that you have and select those in which you are good. You will need to polish your skills before taking any projects from the clients because a bad initial reputation will hurt your freelancing career greatly.

Finding your clients
Now a days to get clients you don't even need to get out of your home. All you need is computer and an internet connection. There are a lot of freelancing websites which allow people to hire freelancers, and freelancers to get clients. In most cases the websites act as a mediator between the two parties. All you need is to create an account on them, list your skill sets and start finding projects. There is a bidding system on these websites, meaning that you will have to bid on the projects, lower bids have more chance of getting projects but it depends on reputation of the freelancer as well. Here is a list of some freelancing web portals that are very popular.

• Freelancer
• Guru
• ELance
• oDesk
• Scriptlance

Freelancing through internet is mostly done for products and services which can be deleivered by the means of internet, like information technology products and services.

You must also not neglect your local market. Look for freelancing work in the local newspaper classifieds, or use your professional network for that. If you are still in college then you can offer to make some software or website for your college for free if required.

You should charge less in the begining or even you can work for free, this will help you create your professional profile, and if your work is good then this will help in getting more clients and building references.

Marketing Yourself
Marketing yourself is very important, if no one knows you then you don't exist, its simple as that. You can market yourself by creating a professional portfolio, either follow some online guide for that or better to ask someone experienced in this. You can also follow these guidelines to do that:

• Set up your website with your accomplishments, projects delivered and refereces of clients on that.
• Create your business cards with your name, phone number and website address on that. Give those cards to anyone you think will be helpful in getting clients.
• Set up social media profiles on facebook, twitter etc.
• Create a blog and update it frequently to get noticed by search engines.

Benefits of Freelancing:
Freelancing has benefits which attract many people in doing it. They are:

• Be your own boss.
• Freedom to choose your work.
• Work when you want, with you want.
• Sleep and wake up when you want.
• Spend more time with family.
• You may not even need a degree.

Freelancing has also some drawbacks as with every good thing in this world:

• There may not be regular income.
• Spending more time in finding work than doing it.
• No regular job benefits like pension, paid leaves etc.
• Difficult time management.

Legal Issues
In different countries there are different legal issues while working as a freelancer. Most of them are financial issus like tax payment. Be sure to get the required knowlede about all the legal issues if you continue to work as a freelancer and recieving payments. You may also need to sign legal contracts with clients, taking money from escrow etc, so always be attentive to them.

This is just an overview of freelancing, you can look online for help in specific freelancing areas to gain more knowledge about it.