How To Start Freelancing (Complete Beginner’s Guide)
Thinking about getting started in freelancing but don’t know where to start?
Then this guide is for you.
I created this as an ultimate guide on how to start freelancing for beginners.
Whether you want to start freelancing as a writer, web designer, or developer,
this guide will help you start your journey in 10 simple steps.
Before you move any further, I need to clarify a few things.
Freelancing is a lot more complicated than you might think. Some people
believe anyone with a laptop and an internet connection can earn money online.
But, it’s not true.
It requires developing skills, practicing, learning, and dedication to make it as a freelancer.
Continue reading only if you’re willing to work hard to achieve your goal of becoming a
freelancer and finding financial freedom.
Also, be sure to read the recommended links in each section to learn more about the topics.
Now, let’s dive in.
Step 1: Get the Right Equipment
You make terrible choices and decisions when you’re desperate. And that’s exactly why I
always advise not to start freelancing to earn money quickly.
Freelancing is not a get rich quick scheme. It requires a lot of hard work. In fact, it took me
around 4 years to earn a steady income as a freelancer. But, thankfully, today you have more
opportunities than I had back then. You can read my story for more details.
I often receive questions from freelancers asking if there is work they can do using just a
smartphone. The quick answer is there are none. At least not ones that are worth doing.
Smartphone apps are limited in features. You need a computer to run software that are
required for doing the work properly and delivering great results.
So, before you go ahead and think about working online, go get yourself a laptop or even
an old computer would do the trick.
Also, make sure to read the article suggestions below before going any further.
Step 2: Find A Marketable Skill
The next, and the most important, step is to find a skill you can offer as a service.
This can be something as simple as transcribing a podcast or something advanced like
developing a mobile app. Whatever it is, the key to winning in freelancing is to find a skill
that you’re good at and has enough demand in the marketplace.
For example, if you’re good at drawing illustrations or designing product packaging,
go to a freelance marketplace like UpWork or Freelancer and check to see if there are jobs
for that type of work.
If there are enough job listings on those sites for the skill you’re good at, then you’ve hit gold.
Step 3: Polish Up Your Skills
Once you find a marketable skill, you should make sure you can offer it as a service.
Simply put, you need to be really good at what you do to be able to get paid for it.
For example, let’s say you want to be a freelance writer for health and wellness blogs.
This category has good demand. You also have experience writing about it in school or college.
However, that doesn’t mean you can write blog posts for online audiences. Blogs and online
publications use very different writing styles and formatting for articles. Mainly to attract
general audiences.
So now you need to learn how to write blog posts for online audiences. Learn how to use
WordPress. How to make graphics for articles. And more.
It’s the same for every other freelancing skill out there. You can’t just jump right in without
even trying to learn the basics. You must polish up your skills first.
Read books, subscribe to YouTube channels, and blogs related to your skill and industry.
Also, taking online courses is the most effective way to properly learn and polish up a skill.
Check the links below for recommendations.
Deloping a skill from scratch takes time. So be patient and keep learning and practicing.
It could take weeks, months, or years. Just keep at it.
I recommend getting a subscription to an online learning platform like Skillshare. Cancel your
Netflix subscription or save your coffee money if you have to. When you have access to a
learning platform, it’s much easier to try and learn new skills.
Step 4: Build Your Reputation
Being able to prove your skills and work will determine whether you’ll be a successful freelancer
or not.
It doesn’t matter if you have a college degree or years of experience. If you can’t prove to clients
that you’re skilled at what you do, they will never hire you.
If you’re a writer, you should have articles published on popular blogs. If you’re a graphic
designer, you should be able to point to a brand and say you designed their logo. If you’re a
web designer, you need to be able to send a link to a website you’ve designed.
In short, get some of your work out there. Do some free work at first if you have to. Reach out
to blogs that accept guest posts. Do some concept design work. Whatever it is, work on building your reputation.
Step 5: Create A Portfolio
When you start building your reputation, be sure to also create a portfolio to bring all your
published/live work into one place.
A portfolio can be a website or a webpage where you showcase all your work.
For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you can create a portfolio page on a site like
Behance to show off all your designs. That way, when you’re reaching out to a client, you
can simply give them the link to your portfolio to check out your skills.
Make sure to only include your best work in the portfolio.
Writers can use sites like Medium or WordPress to develop blogs. Designers and artists
can use Behance to create portfolios.
Step 6: Try Freelancing Part-Time
Freelancing is not everyone’s cup of tea. The process of marketing yourself, selling your
services, and dealing with clients can be overwhelming.
If you’re not sure whether freelancing is the right career path for you, just try doing it part-time.
Spend a couple of hours every day working on smaller freelance gigs. And learn the ways
of freelancing.
When you feel ready to tackle bigger projects, then you can decide whether you should
freelance full-time or leave your day job.
Step 7: Find The Right Freelance Platform
This step plays a crucial part in how easily you’ll land jobs and the quality of the clients you’ll
be able to work with.
A mistake most beginning freelancers make is search for the most popular freelance
marketplace and join to get started. Like UpWork or Freelancer.com.
These sites are already filled with millions of freelancers from around the world. And due
to the competition, they engage in bidding wars to win jobs. They will constantly lower their
prices in order to land the job. And it will get you nowhere.
So the best approach, and the approach that worked wonders for me, is to pick a marketplace
that’s fairly new and join it. It’ll have fewer freelancers so you’ll have low competition. And it
will increase your chances of landing jobs.
Step 8: Charge The Right Price
Figuring out the right price for your services can be challenging. Because if you ask for the
wrong price, clients will never even consider hiring you.
In the beginning, the best way to figure out the right price is to go look at popular freelance
marketplaces and see what other freelancers in your niche or industry are charging.
Since you’re new, it’s not fair to charge those same prices as experienced freelancers.
Instead, you should try to figure out a middle-ground where you can offer a competitive price
than those experienced freelancers without making yourself seem cheap.
Step 9: Send Your First Proposal
Writing a proposal to a client needs to be done in a careful manner.
It’s not like writing a regular email or writing a social media post. You need to put serious
thought into it and figure out how to persuade your client to give you the job instead of all the
other freelancers.
There are some tips and hacks you can use to your advantage when writing a winning proposal.
I can’t go into all the details here, so please check out the links below for more info on the topic.
Step 10: Deliver Beyond Expectations
Once you land a job, the next step is to make sure that you deliver the project just as the
client has asked.
Or, in this case, I want you to overdeliver the job by going above and beyond the client’s
expectations.
I’ll give you an example. In the early days of my freelancing career, I used to get jobs for writing
blog articles with a fixed word count like 1000 words. What I did was write the article to be
about 1100-1200 and also include a unique header image for the blog post when delivering it.
Without charging extra for it.
The clients were always happy with my work. And gave 5-star ratings.
So find a way to do work that goes beyond expectations. And learn to stand out from the crowd.
That’s the only way to build a lasting career as a freelancer.
What’s Next?
You are now ready to tackle the world of freelancing. With a lot of dedication and hard work,
you’ll be able to create a profitable and prosperous career as a freelancer. That’s a guarantee.
If you want to learn more about freelancing and insights into some of the blueprints that I use
to land high paying clients, please check out my book Freelance Like A Pro.
FAQs About Freelancing
These frequently asked questions about freelancing will help you further understand how the
industry works.
Q: Is Freelancing A Career?
Yes! Freelancing can be considered as a career. But, it depends on what kind of work you
choose to do. For example, if you’re doing data entry work, it can’t be considered a career.
At least not a good one. However, if you were to choose something like copywriting, you can
use it as a career to become a marketer and even be in charge of marketing teams on startups.
Q: Which Field Is Best In Freelancing?
There are many fields in freelancing that allows you to earn higher rates and generate profitable
incomes. But, there is no specific industry or a job that you can all as “the best”. You shouldn’t
choose a career because it earns the highest amount of money. Choose the ones that you’re
good at.
Q: What Kind Of Freelance Work Can I Do?
The freelancing market is quite big. There are hundreds of specializations out there ranging
from logo designers to product copywriters, and more. You can do any type of work. If you
have a skillset, you can turn it into a service and offer it for a price. Whether it’s online or offline.
That’s freelancing!
Q: How Can I Start Freelance With No Experience?
The great thing about freelancing is that it doesn’t have any requirements. You don’t need a
fancy college degree or years of experience on a job to get started as a freelancer. All you need
is a marketable skill and dedication to work harder and better than everyone else.
Q: What Are Freelancing Websites?
Freelancing websites are like marketplaces where you can find clients and land jobs. You can
join a freelancing website, like UpWork or PeoplePerHour, to create a profile and apply for jobs
posted by clients. These sites often have a lot of competition and charge high platform fees.
While they are good for beginners I often encourage freelancers to avoid such marketplaces.
Q: Which Skills Are In Demand For Freelancing?
Finding the right skill with a good demand is crucial to finding freelancing success. Every year,
new trends take over the world of freelancing so the demand for the skills differs from time to
time. Some years there’s high demand for coding skills while some years there’s a demand for
video editors. You can read this article to learn more about finding skills with high demand.
Q: Is Freelancing Better Than A Job?
Much like any other day job, freelancing also has benefits and downsides. It definitely has many
perks compared to the usual office job. So yes, freelancing can be better than a regular job.
But that will mostly depend on your personality type.
Q: What Are The Pros And Cons Of Freelancing?
One of the best things about being a freelancer is that you can be your own boss. It’s like
running a business. You can look for clients, find work, and do work at your own pace. But it can
also be quite tiring. Especially if you’re used to doing things that you’re told to do. Like at an
office job. More about it here.
Q: Do Freelancers Get Paid?
Yes! Unless you get scammed by a scam artist. Freelancers always get paid. There’s a myth to
this topic that clients don’t pay or avoid payment on time. But it’s not true. If you know how to
find good clients, you’ll always get paid on time.
Q: How Freelancers Find Work?
Freelancers can find work using various methods. And you’ll be happy to know that you don’t
always have to use marketplaces like Upwork and Freelancer.com. Instead, you can use job
boards, communities, and even email outreach to find jobs. I covered more on this topic in a
chapter above.
Q: Why Freelancing Is Hard?
Freelancing is not easy. You need to work hard and be determined to succeed as a freelancer.
More importantly, it takes time to gain experience and develop skills. A good way to make this
process easier is to find a coach and improve your skills by taking courses and reading books.
Q: Where To Learn Freelancing?
Unfortunately, there’s no special place you can go to learn freelancing. It’s something you must
learn by doing. Taking online courses and reading books will help, but in the end it will depend
on your dedication and the ability to learn from your failures to be a great freelancer.
Q: What Are Easy Freelance Jobs?
Data entry gigs, transcription jobs, translation jobs are all easy gigs you can do as a freelancer.
But, keep in mind that “easy come, easy go”. Those easy jobs won’t last long. If you want to
build a career as a freelancer, you’ll need to work hard at improving your skills.
Q: What Is Local Freelancing?
You don’t always have to signup for a freelance marketplace online to find work as a freelancer.
You can also do work for local businesses. Whether it’s designing a website for a local shop or
designing a logo, it still counts as freelancing. There are many job boards you can use to find
local freelance jobs. Or you can go old-school and cold-call to ask for jobs.
Q: How To Freelance On Fiverr?
Fiverr is one of the most popular freelance marketplaces in the world. There are millions of
freelancers on Fiverr who offers different types of services as gigs at prices starting at $5.
It’s very easy to get started on Fiverr but sicne the platform is highly saturated it’s very different
to get orders from clients. If often advice freelancers to avoid such platforms.
Q: How To Freelance Write For Money?
There are many ways you can earn money as a freelance writer. You can write for online blogs,
magazines, write essays, white papers, and more. It’s up to you to find a niche that you’re good
at and offer your services. Check out job boards like Problogger Jobs to find great writing jobs.