Freelancing for Beginners

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Blog: A guide to freelancing. How to get self-employed and sell your skills on your demands.

Freelancing For Beginners. How & Where To Start?

“Freelancing” a term widely used by professionals of different sectors often might keep the newbies wondering as to ‘What is this freelancing?’ ‘Can anybody do it?’ ‘Can I do it?’

The answer to this is YES, anyone and everyone can do freelancing in their respective fields or something they have knowledge about.

Let us get into the depth of Freelancing for beginners.

What is freelancing?

Providing a particular service to someone in return for money based on the intensity of work. It is a kind of contract, in which after providing the necessary service, the need for the freelancer to continue to work for that person or organization is entirely up to him/her. One can also call it their ‘side hustle’.

You could be working for an MNC, but also be a UI/UX freelancer, designing websites for other companies or you could be a professor but also teach in coaching classes, imparting knowledge to other students.

You could also be working for multiple freelancing jobs instead of working for a single mainstream job.

Process of freelancing

There are specific websites for freelancers such as freelancer.com, Fiverr, etc. In such websites, the organization or a person who is in need of a freelancer puts up a post regarding the work which needs to be done. After the post is put up, the freelancers using those websites start bidding regarding how much time will they require to complete the task and how much money they want to be paid for the completion of the work. The organization picks the person they find most convenient and offers the freelancer the job.

Requirements to become a freelancer

Any and every job requires a basic skillset, so does freelancing.

Skill: A freelancer should have a set of skills. It can either be web development, app development, photography, video editing, etc, something that a person or organization in need of a particular work to be done can hire a freelancer to do the work.

Before acquiring a skill, find out which skill is most in-demand in the market. Do not utilize time in skills that are in demand as that would be a huge waste of time. The freelancer should acquire a skill in which they have lost interest so that the work won’t be boring.

Art of selling: The freelancer should be able to sell his/her service in order for the organization or recruiter to be able to recognize his past work as well as his ability to provide quality service. The freelancer should be aware of the price in the market regarding the skill that the freelancer has. The freelancer should be smart as to when to reduce the price for the service he provides and also when to charge more than the market price.
Time Management: Multiple projects call out for multiple deadlines and thus time management is a very crucial element here. A disciplined mind would help one to meet all deadlines efficiently.

If the freelancer is a beginner, he/she might have a problem in getting work since organizations and recruiters prefer people with experience to work for them. In such a case, the best way to create your portfolio is to provide service for free at the start so that the freelancer gets an experience, as well as the quality of work provided, will be out in the open and people will get to know about the freelancer.

Websites to apply for freelancing

Remember to update and maintain the profile well so that recruiters acknowledge it.

At the start, there is going to be a lot of rejection. So getting demotivated is the worst thing that a freelancer can do. A freelancer has to spend his/her time making themselves better in their skill and find ways in which they can sell their service.

How to start your brand and how to acquire more clients:

Start giving free value: Sharing knowledge on social platforms such as Quora, Linked In, etc. not only builds trust in the viewer but also makes the outer world know about the knowledge the freelancer has in that particular field.