Last Updated on Jan 30, 2020 by James W
For people who are new to the freelance game, it can be both exciting and intimidating. Not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from isn’t the life for everyone. For others it’s an exciting journey and a chance to bet on themselves to make it in the world of business.
These 5 tips will help you to navigate the first few months of freelancing and will hopefully help you to be successful in business.
Be Great at Time Management
When you are working for someone else, it can be easy to lose 10-20 minutes here or there. As soon as you are working for yourself any time spent procrastinating or messing around essentially leaves you out of pocket.
Being great at time management is one of the most important skills you can possess as a freelancer.
That being said, it is important to take regular breaks to ensure that you are working at your best. Taking 5-10 minutes to refresh your brain every hour or so will make you much more productive than if you were to work straight through. Factor this in when you are planning your days.
Watch Your Finances
It’s very easy when you are starting out to spend on items that you don’t really need. Yes, it’s great to have a pretty office, but it’s more important to buy the essentials and spend your time making money before spending it.
Having an environment that is conducive to work is important though, and investing in proper lighting and a good workspace set up like an ergonomic chair and desk will be beneficial in the long run. If you are having a particularly bad month, and savings are running low, you can always look for short-term no credit check payday loans to get you through until your invoices are paid.
Keep Marketing Your Business
Even if you are full to the brim with clients and can’t take any more on currently, then you should continue to market your business and keep your name out there. You never know what might happen and if you lose a couple of clients, having some in the pipeline could save the day.
Marketing your business doesn’t have to take a lot of your time, it just needs to be effective. Regularly updating a blog or social media lets people know that you are still active and attending networking events once a month will help you to generate new leads.
Have a Plan in Place
One of the best things that you can do when you are starting out is to have a plan in place. This will give you an idea of what you want to earn, how many clients you will need, what to charge and how many hours to work per week.
A plan will also give you goals to work towards and may even contain ideas for how you can grow your business by employing people our outsourcing work to generate more revenue.
Either way, a plan will help to give you a clear focus even when you are neck deep in work.
