It is completely understandable if you feel tempted to leave your 9 to 5 schedule and do freelancing instead, but you may as well consider if you’re making the right choice before you take the plunge.
To make things clearer, freelancing was meant to suit most people, but not exactly all of them. It will require much more responsibility and financial planning in order to make sure you bills will be covered on time, and that’s only one aspect of the problem.
Image source: Roberto Rizzo
If you’re careful with it, however, you’ll probably come to the conclusion that you’ve made the most flexible, practical, and easy going decision there is in your industry.
Being successful in freelance design and earning from it is no easy feat, in particular for those who’re just hitting off with their careers. Therefore, we invite you to give these tips a look, and push your freelance efforts towards some serious revenue.
Promote yourself with a website/blog
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Without it, you’re lost. Prospective clients won’t be able to locate you or to check your work in order to see whether they should hire you or not. Therefore, you must think of your online presence on time.
The easiest way to start is to create a blog, and to update it with design tips as often as you can. It is also the best way to make use of powerful content marketing, and to showcase your expertise in design which helps you stay out of the crowd.
As a final result, you will have a cool online brand to be proud of-one that can generate more commissions than you ever thought you’d have. Remember to focus on your specializations and the strongest skills you posses.
Take care of SEO
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Your website can be one of the greatest ever to be seen on the internet, but without Google giving a hand, you’ll be lost.
Google will provide you a secure place in the mess of websites and people browsing for them, and you should do your best to get one which appears high in the search results related to your business.
Choose the appropriate target audience
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You’ve finally managed to get rid of your cranky boss who never seemed pleased to release your salary, so why would you orientate your work towards equally cranky clients who have issues paying for your work?
Think of your ideal audience in advance, and try to answer the following questions:
- Who would pay for your services?
- Are your prices really suitable to the paying capacity of the audience you’re targeting?
Choose a niche, and focus on it
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Even if you believe in your abilities to satisfy multiple needs of different clients, a powerful online presence will require you to focus on something. Dealing with a single niche per time is a smart strategy to obtain expertise in it, meaning that you can develop interesting and complete solutions for your clients.
Sourcing out prospects is another benefit on focusing on a single niche, especially when you’ve devoted some time to research companies that would require your services. Try to introduce your work to as many of them as you can-it won’t mean that they will hire you 100%, but at least they will know who you are.
Build a network and get referred
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Beginners can literally use every opportunity to present their work, so get involved in as many events and communities as you possibly can. It can be the big wedding of your close friend, or a medical conference held by your cousin-to you, it will be a chance to promote your skills! It is one of the most successful tactics for attracting attention, and intriguing people who will eventually need the same services.
Long story short, networking is all about giving people an idea to look for you when they need a web designer. Therefore, try to be recommended and referred as much as possible.
Deserve to be referred
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Most freelancers earn because of being referred, so think of every job as the one that is going to bring referrals. The better you perform, the more recommended you’re going to be, so do your best and prove that you’re a reliable employee.
Reliability is the most appreciated characteristic in the freelancing world, because there is no brand behind you to guarantee that a client’s problem will be permanently solved. It is what distinguishes you from many talented designers out there, who could maybe do the job better, but they have responsibility issues.
Take over redesigning tasks
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It is a good way to begin. Take a popular website and redesign it and they changes you’ve made will be more than enough to show what you can do.
There are few reasons why you should take over redesigning assignments: to start with, you’ll prove that you’re flexible enough to work with a client multiple times, and to flex your chops to whatever mess somebody has created. Secondly, you’re expressing a personal initiative to improve somebody’s business, regardless of whether you’re doing only small transformation, or a complete makeover of their style.
Keep your style consistent
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Use your online presence to learn new stuff, and make the most of networking to improve your ideas. Upgrade your work with bits and pieces of innovation, but only such that are consistent and related to your style.
Whatever you do, make sure to inform as many people out there about it. At the end of the day, that’s why internet is actually there: to let you post and spread ideas, improve drafts, complete work in progress and benefit from feedback to generate new leads.
Explore potential clients and join their social media groups
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Regardless of whether we admit it or not, we all spend a ridiculous amount of time on social media, which is another distinctive advantage for web designers to promote their work. Social networks help you connect with people who could be interested in your work, and postpone at least for a while to need to create a professional website.
The biggest benefit of social networks is that they empower communication in only few minutes, and that sometimes, all it takes is a single post to be hired. Your task is to be helpful, and to appear right where people with available projects hang out and wait for you.
Participate in forums
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Participation in forums is essential, but only as long as you carry yourself in the appropriate way. Choose the discussions smartly, and try not to impose too much, or to spam with information than brings exactly nothing to that conversation. Each comment is supposed to solve a problem, have that in mind!
Most importantly, don’t advertise yourself in a discussion. Try to locate forms which have special advertising sections, such as webmaster and web development ones.
Highlight your presence on freelancing websites
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There are multiple freelancing websites where you can register and create a portfolio you’re your skills. Such profiles are a cheap (most of the time free!) and easy way to reach out to clients, and to get hired even without a personal blog/website.
Another benefit of being registered on these websites is that you get to build a team with colleagues who have different skills, and to take over projects which seem too complicated to be solved by accomplished by a single person. You never know: it may be the dream-team you always wanted to have, ideally one where you can learn a lot of new stuff to help you pursue better opportunities!
Take a look at local listings
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Most local businesses consider newspapers to be a mean for promotion, which is a smart strategy knowing how reputable and classified the content of those newspapers usually is.
It is because small businesses cannot afford to pay crazy amounts for advertising or to hire someone to promote them, so they find the traditional way to be the most affordable one.
You can either use the same strategy to let people familiarize with your business, or look at it as your chance to grow: you can offer local businesses to design a small website for them, something practical and useful that doesn’t cost too much at the same time!
Share experience with other freelancers 
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Look at them as your colleagues rather than your competitors. Start by introducing yourself, and let them know that they can count on you for advice or in case they can’t manage to handle excessive workload. The best ways to make connections are to participate in webinars and real-time conferences, or to research the industry peers and to offer your services.
How can you locate them? This shouldn’t be of any concern, because there are professional organizations, networks, and communities all around you (the AIGA designer community, the Freelancers Union, etc). Think as well of people you know that are doing freelancing, such as past coworkers, schoolmates, etc.
Follow listings and job boards
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The first thing you will notice on job boards (and which will motivate you) is that web designers are actually wanted! There will be a variety of design vacancies every day, as long as you know where and how to look for them.
For instance, type ‘web design jobs’ on Google and the engine will generate all the results available for that search. Basically, half of your job is already done.
Look for an innovative way to land clients
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Unless you’ve discovered the perfect source for clients that will never stop generating revenue, it is time to be creative and to diversify. This is useful for every freelancer, because he/she will eventually run across the need to change the workflow, or to look for a task that will generate more profit.
Most probably, a single source per week won’t do the job, especially if you’re relying only on referrals. Your business won’t take that long to stagnate, so have few alternatives in mind.
Be dedicated to your work
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Yes-it is a part-time, often not regulated type of job, but that doesn’t make it a hobby. Stay devoted to it and reliable, and accept only projects where you can actually accomplish what you’ve been asked to do. In fact, overcome yourself, and provide more than the client expects.
Freelancing is a world where you create the rules, so don’t be your own lazy boss. Don’t let distractions stop you from meeting your deadline, and work as if there was someone to review the work before you deliver it. Finally, don’t take over too many projects at a time, because you won’t be able to accomplish any of them properly.
Sell value instead of skills
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There is a very common tendency among freelancers to try and impose themselves at any cost, not being sure of what they’re actually capable of doing, and asking clients to pay way less than what they’re actually worth.
When selling, think of your services as the most you can do, not what you’re required to do. Sell the passion and dedication you invest in every project and that will be enough to understand what you’re actually worth of. Your role is not just to use a batch of common tools to design a visually appealing project, but to deliver a creative and unique product.
The usual excuse is that you really need the job, so together with underestimating the price of your effort, you’re risking to make unrealistic promises and to struggle to make a client happy even when that’s practically unfeasible. The truth is: all of these are mental barriers you’re imposing, just because you lack self-confidence, and that’s unfortunately the shortest way to stay behind your competitors.
Keep reputation impeccable by staying organized
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Once you’re known and you start receiving orders, you’re on the right path to secure some stable income. However, receiving assignments is not even half as important as dealing with them properly, so try to stay organized and to deliver work in a timely fashion.
Don’t jump on every offer if you’re not sure you can deal with it, and accept nothing when you’re already dealing with an excessive workload. Overall, keep an impeccable and outstanding portfolio, and clients will appreciate this enough to wait for you to deal with their projects.
The fastest way to damage your good reputation is not to deliver work on time, especially once you’ve started earning significantly from your freelancing business.
In the freelance world, reputation is the only thing clients can rely on to entrust you a job, so be responsible and reply to them even when you can’t accept the offer. Once again-try to deliver the best possible quality, and don’t compromise on it!
Let success ‘speak’ on your behalf
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You’ve done your job properly, and that will often be enough to promote your services, rather than yourself going around and spreading the word on how brilliant you are. In fact, the ones to contribute the most to your personal brand recognition and reputation are satisfied clients who’re going to recommend you.
There is nothing wrong with asking a satisfied client to write a quick review of the working process, and to post it to your online portfolio or a social network he’s using. The more people that do this, the more buzz your work will create around, and that’s exactly what every freelancer needs.
Maintaining clients is the core of your work
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You’ve earned nothing if a client paid you and left-you need to learn how to keep them on board. Clients usually have multiple similar projects, and you have to remind them of your work so that they won’t assign them to somebody else in future.
Therefore, being a freelancer requires a certain expertise in managing clients, and the best way to do that is to keep them satisfied by delivering quality content on time.
Finally, try to balance properly between value and price, because once clients can confirm that your work deserves attention and provides measurable results, they will be more willing to compromise on the price.
For instance, offer to assist them or to make corrections for free once the job is done, provide good feedback for them as employers, or do whatever necessary to turn working with you into a pleasant experience. Small signs of politeness won’t cost you too much, but to them it will mean that they are receiving more than what they paid for.
Be professional and kind at the same time, and try to personalize your communication with them to show that you really understand what they want you to do.
The ball is in your field now…
To be completely honest, web design is one of the industries where internets’ ecosystem offers most opportunities.
You’re basically running a small business without extraordinary expenses, and the only serious investment you have to make is interest and passion into delivering excellent work, discovering ideal clients, and eventually stepping outside what you deem to be your comfort zone.
This one, the same as other beginnings, can be challenging, but once you’ve landed on ‘safe ground’ and met your ideal clients, you won’t regret for a dingle second that you tried so hard to accomplish your dreams.
