If you’ve opened this article, it is obvious that you’re interested in how to become a freelancer. You are willing to grow yourself in the ecommerce platform.
By this time you might have also made a list of your preferred niches to become a freelancer. You've been looking for options to kick start your life as a freelancer and probably a mentor to help you take the first step in your career from nothing to becoming a 5-Star Seller on Fiverr , Upwork etc.
Certified Skills has a set of mentors for you who are eligible to offer interesting insights to earn money. Our team is trained to help, guide and push start your career with our largest ecommerce platform.
So to start with, you are going to sit at home with a cup of coffee on your comfy couch and your laptop goes ting and boom the ball is in your court. Your notifications are flooded with buyers' requests right after you just signed up as a seller while slacking on your couch and slurping the coffee.
Well let me break this to you. “THIS IS A MISCONCEPTION” . It will never be this easy because this is not a nest of golden eggs. Freelancing is a platform where you have a high scope to grow and make dollars but to begin with it takes a lot of effort and patience to get clients. Once you start getting buyers/clients then you have to work your fingers to the bone.
The motto of breaking this to you is to eradicate the misconception of an easy money job. Freelancing requires your quality time and innovativeness plus your intellect. In the end it is all worth it because it is good money. It is definitely not your 9-5 cubicle or anything cushy. You have the liberty to organize your working hours yourself, make your own schedule and work accordingly.
Let’s jump to the 5 step guide that will help you become a successful freelancer which I am going to share with you in this blog.
- Find Your Niche
- Work On Your Personal Brand
- Write a plan of action
- Create Contacts
- Get yourself a mentor and a real client
Find Your Niche:
They say it is often better to be the master of one trade than a jack of all. To begin your journey as a freelancer, the first step is to find your niche. This can leave a positive impact and play as an advantage for your career. This is often the best way to take your ecommerce business to the next level.
Finding your niche can help you get your hand on more projects and earn consistent clients. It’ll boost your income, and ultimately make you satisfied with your earnings as well the input which will be productive. Although discovering your niche can be difficult.
You need to try out many options and then come to a conclusion of what works for you. When considering niche ideas, think about the following:
- Who are your ideal clients?
- Why do you want to work for them?
- How will you help them?
This can help you narrow down your options. Once you have listed down all the possibilities of your niche, you can explore and find what you can ace:
- Try out a lot of options
- Study the market
- Follow your passion
- Become an expert
- Advertise your expertise
You need a niche that can be profitable and viable for you in the long run.
Work On Your Personal Brand:
You might wonder why you need to make a personal brand. Or what does your personal brand have to do with anything? “I am an experienced [xyz profession], not a social networker – Can’t I just make an ad and post it online or buy a spot in the newspaper, stick it on the trees, or maybe leave under windshield-wipers in the parking lot?”
The reason is that as a freelancer, you need to sell yourself as a brand irrespective of whether you’re a web developer, a user experience designer, a writer or a marketer.
How to build your personal brand? Get yourself on LinkedIn and make your profile. This should have your experience, relevant job records, your skills, your certificates if any that prove your skills academically.
Do the same on Facebook. Join relevant groups related to your field. You can start asking questions here, lots of questions, as well as answering a few as well according to your understanding. This will give you an extra edge and recognition.
Do the same on Twitter and on Meetup as well as Quora. Quora is a fact-filled platform.
Write a plan of action:
Planning can never ever go wrong. Never undervalue the time taken for designing a plan. Proper planning helps you prevent poor performance hence it is safe to say that planning is the foundation to the dollar tree.
Planning involves the steps that you want to take to move forward in your field, your personal business plans that you are looking forward to working on, your financial requirements, financial and career goals. All this planning eventually turns into work.
If you plan to achieve 100% only then you’ll be able to achieve 70% or 80%.
You can use a few questions as an excuse to grow your networking or reaching out to experts in Certified Skills to ask for advice:
- What should I charge?
- Where do I find the best clients?
- Is it difficult to close a deal?
- Should I template my pitches or create new ones every time?
This creates an opportunity to learn, improve and upskill yourself. You will need all of this planning and executing and the power of networking with professionals of your field. So basically it is a two bird in one stone situation. You network and gain contacts as well as find buyers.
Create Contacts:
Contact everyone you know who is somehow related to freelancing or has an exposure to digital platforms. You will find many contacts in freelancing other than your personal contacts and once you do, agree to do any project right away, I’ll tell you why.
Take on projects straight away was for three reasons:
- Experience
- Contacts
- References
The more experience, contacts and references means more chances to make money when you start working as a freelancer.
And when anyone asks you to do a job for them that they can’t pay you for in the very initial stage of your career, recall the three golden words:
- Experience
- Contacts
- References
Before proceeding any further with any doubts, just remember the wise words of freelance expert Jon Norris,
“Building a network and finding work are two sides of the same coin.”
Get yourself a mentor and a real client:
Being a freelancer you’ve got to abide by four words to stay on the treadmill of freelancing which are, “Don’t burn any bridges”. Do not give up or let go of any contacts because in this field, every contact counts. Your current employer is your strongest link to your first job as a freelancer.
If you want to actually grow yourself into this field, find a mentor. Certified Skills houses the most experienced mentors of all the digital platforms who with their expertise and knowledge of ecommerce can help you become a freelancer. These mentors are influencers who will connect the dots for you and will also get you a client. You will gain first-hand experience, make long term contacts, and a lot of references.
Having a boss/mentor who knows about the ins and outs and dos and don'ts of your field, this is the best way to start your journey along will a hell lot of networking that will help along. The mentor will have an impact on transition and will also lead you to your first official client.
You’re ready to freelance!
With the 5-step guide above, you’re ready to move forward into the gig economy with the understanding of what this platform has to offer. You need to remember that being a freelancer also means being your own boss. And this is a bumpy ride, as in entrepreneur or freelancer you will be managing your own brand and hence it’ll lead to many ups and downs. But at the end of the day the capital and value generated for your work pays for all your hard work. It is all worth it once you get the ball rolling and accept your first few clients.