It is mine, yours and everyone’s dream to wake up, relax at home and start working all while deciding your own hours, decide what exactly you are going to focus your career on and even decide on how big your pay will be. This idea of being your own boss has been a trend for many years before the Internet even existed, but now with the help of the Internet, it is easier than ever.
However, while it seems so easy and profitable, why doesn’t everyone work from home? Well, the working hours might be easy to handle, but the whole process of building your career can be a bit complicated and hard. This is why so many people avoid freelancing because they are afraid they won’t succeed in building their own portfolio and won’t find any job.
In other words, to be a freelancer is to create your name as a business. You will have to do your own marketing, you will have to communicate with your customers and you are the one who will have to do all of the work.
Another thing to note is that the paycheck is not always consistent. Some days you will be working turbo 8 hours a day while other days you won’t be able to find any clients to supply you with assignments. Although with the right marketing strategy and with the right clients you can ensure that you will always have work in the future.
So, if you still think that you can handle freelancing even after all of these obstacles, here are some tips to help you build your career.
Understand yourself and your skills
Before you finally decide to quit your job, so you can start working on your skills and working from home, you should first understand what you are capable of and with what kind of audience you can work with.
How good are you at your expertise? Are you talented or did you work hard enough to achieve that level of skill? Whether it is graphic design, writing skills, video editing or whatever else, you have to understand how good you are at it. If you yourself cannot realize the benefits of your skillset then how will you convince your clients to hire you?
When you first start building your career you will have to focus the portfolio on your expertise, but it doesn’t hurt to mention the little bit of experience you have here and there. Now that you have mentioned your experience in other areas you will also have to work on improving those particular skills.
A lot of people who start freelancing are often very disappointing because of the belief they would start working for crazy amounts of money in just a few days. That simply is not possible. No matter how good you are, no matter the niche you are in, you will have to start marketing yourself and your portfolio so people can find out about you. You need to help your clients understand what you can offer to them otherwise why should they believe about the expertise you are boasting?
Create a plan
Before you start freelancing, you will need to set a few goals that you need to achieve before quitting your full-time job. The first thing you will have to focus on is whether you can generate enough revenue to support yourself. Think about all the benefits you are getting from your full-time and whether the money you will be making on your own will be enough to cover everything you need.
You should keep in mind that it is not only about whether you are making enough money, but how much time will it take you to make that kind of money. If you have been doing 40+ hours a week on your full-time for your paycheck and you need 50+ hours just to reach that same amount if you freelance from home, that isn’t exactly the best possible option. While 50 hours a week are not impossible, the point is to reduce your work time while keeping the same paycheck, not the other way around.
So, if you want to get more out of your freelancing, you will have to alter your already made plan and find other clients that either pays more by the hour or find easier projects to handle. You could also recruit a co-worker or a friend to help you organize all of your clients or even freelance beside you. You could check out Freelancejobopenings.com about all the possible types of jobs you could find online.
Talk with your employer before you quit
The biggest mistake lots of people do before they start their freelancing career is that they immediately quit their jobs. The reality is that freelancing is not always the safest option, especially if you already have a job. You need to invest a lot in both yourself and your career if you want to reach the same level of pay you are getting at your regular job.
This is why we recommend to everyone who is planning to start freelancing that they shouldn’t quit their current jobs. First, start building your profile and doing smaller assignments from temporary clients and then start building yourself towards bigger clients and those that are willing to offer you some kind of a contract.
Once you have finally built yourself and have succeeded in making a constant revenue purely from your freelancing, then it is time to consider whether you should quit or not. Talk to your boss or your manager about their thoughts on this situation. Will they be willing to offer you a better job position? Did they not have any plans to promote you in the future? If they do not really care whether you leave or not, they probably did not have any special plans for your future which means that leaving is the best option.
Create a schedule
While the idea of working on your projects whenever you want seems like such a great way to live your life, a schedule will always help you finish your assignments on time.
