Reviewed & Fact-checkedDo you want to be a freelancer? This is not a surprise, since more and more people moving toward this trendy and rewarding career choice.
Starting from the ability to work from any place with an internet connection, to the extremely high salaries successful freelancers get, why wouldn’t you be interested to pursue this opportunity?
Still, being successful is not something everyone achieves. In order to build a reputation in the freelancing world, you need to know the tricks and tips. Fortunately, there are 6 things that all effective freelancers have in common, regardless of the industry they work in.
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1. Communication Skills
Being able to communicate with the clients is key to building a successful career as a freelancer. Freelancers are their own bosses, but in order to build a strong web of relationships with various clients, they need to become masters of communication.
If you want to be a great freelancer, the first thing you need is good communication skills. These skills will serve you to land new clients, discuss the work in detail, as well as secure ongoing work.
If you look uninterested or insufficiently communicative, clients are highly unlikely to continue sending you work.
‘If you are bad in communication with your clients, you won’t be able to find a solution to the conflicts and problems that occur along the way. And believe me, there will be some barriers with your regular clients.
Whether it is your fault, their fault, or just ‘something that happened by mistake’, this can be detrimental to your relationship if you do not know how to handle it.” – says Irene Smith, freelance writer.
2. Self-Discipline
You simply cannot stay on track without self-discipline. One of the biggest benefits of freelancing is the ability to work from home and in most cases, set your own hours for work.
However, if you lack organization, this can be the worst thing about freelancing for you.
When working, you will find that having no one to stand over you and control your activities makes it harder to get things done in time.
You will have to fight off distractions by yourself, make sure you meet the deadline, and there will be no boss judging your behavior when you stray from your schedule.
As great as this can be, it can completely ruin your freelance career if you do not learn self-discipline.
3. Responsibility
Regardless of how qualified or experienced you are, you will eventually make a mistake. You can easily miss a requirement when fighting a tight deadline, or set a deadline you cannot meet because you underestimated a task’s complexity.
When something goes wrong, you must be prepared to accept responsibility. Being your own boss means that you have to fix your mistakes to keep your career running. Therefore, do not be ashamed to apologize and make timely changes as soon as possible.
4. Strong Work Ethic
The career of an effective freelancer can be destroyed within one day, and all it takes is one mistake. Surely, every freelancer will make mistakes, but if you build a bad reputation with a client, this can reflect poorly on your freelancing career.
When you decide to become a freelancer, you are on your own. There is no one to push you to succeed more on a professional level, and no one will give you a higher rate if you do not strive for more on your own.
In order to become, and stay successful, set some realistic, yet ambitious goals. Then, do your best to actually achieve this, and never settle for what you have achieved. Always strive for more success, more knowledge, and of course, more money.
5. Persistence
There will be low times in your freelancing career. Finding regular clients is tough in this business, since there will be thousands of people offering the same services you do.
At some point, you may not have any clients or work, which means that you will have a desperately non-productive period.
Every job has its own ups and downs, but the downs in freelancing can be very concerning. Having a boss ensures a regular salary and productivity, while being your own boss means that everything you do will rest on your shoulders.
Therefore, if something bad happens, or you are just experiencing a decrease in work, you are the one who needs to handle this.
Since you decided to be your own boss, you must learn to stand tall through the rough patches. Put in the long hours to make the workflow again. Ask for bigger projects, send more pitches, – do whatever clients need.
6. Reliability
Your clients will expect full dedication and 100% reliability from you. Follow through on every promise you make, and make sure you never miss a deadline.
In most cases, a single missed deadline equals a lost client, and the more you do this, the worse your reputation on the freelance market will become.
Freelancing is different to everyone who tries to follow this career path. However, these six characteristics are common among all successful freelancers in the world. Make sure to follow them and say yes to success!
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