Are you aware of freelancing? What it means, what career prospects it holds? If you are new to freelance writing or are anything like I was when I started off my career, you are willing to know more about it. You want to invest in your business carefully that’s why you are here- reading this post, isn’t it? But, do you know from where you should start?
There is a lot of information available on the internet, and it’s easy to get stunned. So, let’s clear your confusion.
Here, is a quick guide for you to access the six most used tips to begin a career in freelancing:
1.Have a public website or portfolio
The first thing that you need to mark your presence is by having a beautiful collection. When you market yourself as a freelancer, it is necessary to have a public portfolio that outlines your work, the services that you provide and which displays your past work well. To create a public impact you can do different things such as: make your public profile; i.e., Linkedin profile attractive by adding few links or documents in it.
You can even make your website where you can show your freelance work samples in a better way. Many people take tension about the web designing part. Here, you don’t need to think a lot about it as you can find numerous design templates on the Internet.
It isn’t necessary to purchase a domain name as many website builders permit you to use a free personalized extension of their URL. It’s the first step when you decide to go for freelancing.
2. Have a track of your accounting system
Different clients have different procedures and have their deadlines to submit invoices. Over here, you need to be careful and find an easy way out to track the amount you earn from them. It doesn’t matter if you are going for software or keeping a record on excels spreadsheet. What is important is how you document each project and how you ensure your financial bends in a row.
3. Track your progress with Project management software
When you’re managing multiple customers with various projects and deadlines, it’s sure that you will need a system to help keep you organized. To have a good start, you can have a handwritten or digital master calendar. But, if you want to put an impact, go for good project management software that will help you to keep track and monitor your progress. By doing this, your clients will know what to expect from you.
They are considered best as they provide some solutions offering essential to-do lists. Task grouping functionality is there for you. Other software lets you set reminders, modify organization methods and even enables you to track the time spent on each project.
4. Have a permanent backup solution
Running a business without having a proper data backup solution indicates that you are taking the risk of losing important as well as sensitive information. Cloud storage isn’t always perfect to recover the file that you lost accidentally. Thus, always keep some additional permanent backup solution for all data. It is essential to have as you have to deal with important clients. For example, You can try out CrashPlan, Carbonite, etc.
5. Try out video conferencing software
Freelancing doesn’t involve much of visiting the place to place. Though, exchange of email and phone calls are considered the standard method of communication, video conferencing software is the best thing to try out. Build a professional relationship, conduct face-to-face meetings with the help of this software as visiting each of your clients isn’t possible for you.
Try going for software that has chat options so that you can connect with your customers at any place.
6. Cloud-based document management
No matter what industry you are working in, you have to deal with a lot of records as a freelancer. Freelancing involves contracts, legal agreements, invoices and tax forms as well which need a secure, easily reachable place to live and to manage the client’s valuable documents.
By selecting, a cloud-based system you can access your files anytime, anywhere. To start with, you can try out Dropbox and Google Drive as they are free and are okay to go in initial stages. But, when you start gathering more customers, a more specific solution with improved abilities may prove fruitful for you.
So, try this career path once as it permits you to build expertise and take on new and exciting work for numerous businesses.