How to Start a Successful Career as a Freelancer

HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL CAREER AS A FREELANCER GET EXPERIENCE STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR PORTY Offer your services to friends and family RESUME PORTFOLIO Use your relevant school projects in your portfolio when you first start out If you need to build these up you may have to get some unpaid or low paid experience under your belt before you take on paid gigs Contact a local non-profit and see if they need any help Find out if there are any special certifications or titles held by professionals in your field Practice, practice, practice. Never stop honing your craft! PRICE YOURSELF WISELY Once you've got some experience and built up a solid portfolio, you'll be ready to start finding paid gigs. While there's no shortage of work available on the Internet, a lot of it is extremely low paying. Unless you're still building a portfolio or you're just freelancing for fun, don't work for pennies WATCH THE CLOCK Take jobs you feel confident about and that you can complete in a reasonable amount of time. Inste ad of taking on huge projects set yourself apart by: VALUE YOUR TIME Decide how much you are worth per hour BE FLEXIBLE Delivering a unique, high quality product Specializing in a particular niche. Get creative with it! Price according to your client's needs Offering lightning fast turnaround DO SOME RESEARCH time Get a good idea of what is reasonable and fair COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CLIENT GET Your clients are your greatest resource. It is essential to form good, long standing relationships with them: THE WORD OUT Keep them in the loop with frequent updates on the progress of the work Don't keep your burgeoning freelance career a secret. Tell your friends and family- anyone who will listen. The more people who know you're freelancing, the better! Having those first few references will help you start building your reputation. Never underestimate the Be amenable to editing your work (within reason) to keep them smilling Respond to emails and phone calls promptly Send them a draft power of word of mouth. to look over before delivering the final product ASK FOR FEEDBACK Positive feedback and great references are what's going to set you apart and even start raising your prices. Testimonials from happy clients will also show future clients you've got what it takes. Feedback is even better when you can show it off. Be sure to ask if it's okay to publish your client's name and testimonial DO GOOD WORK. DELIVER ON TIME. STAY PRODUCTIVE BUILD YOUR REPUTATION. REAP THE REWARDS GOOD LUCK! LUCK!