Are you planning to start freelancing this year? This could be the right decision, considering that opportunities and offers for freelance work continue to increase.
This increase occurred in line with increasingly intensive digital transformation in all sectors. As a result, many types of work can now be completed anytime and anywhere. These conditions have made several companies start to open up many opportunities for freelancer positions. Some popular positions include content writer, software developer, social media specialist, web developer, graphic designer, and so on.
Even though it seems promising, competition in the freelance world is sometimes not as easy as imagined. Because, there are tens of millions of people in the country who are also pursuing this type of career. Therefore, before actually diving into the world of freelancing, there are several things you need to prepare. For more details, see the following review.
Determine the services you offer
The freelance world is basically a land of unlimited work. You can offer one or more services to clients by adjusting the skills and experience you have so far.
Apart from that, you can also do a little research on freelance work trends that are currently popular. If you don't have skills or experience in this field, you can develop them by taking classes or courses either in person or online.
Having expertise or experience will be a plus point in the eyes of clients.
Find Clients by Expanding Your Network
After determining the freelance services you offer, it's time to think about how to get clients. In this case, there are three ways you can do it, namely:
- Search for platforms or sites providing freelance job information, such as Sribulancer, Freelancer Indonesia, Sribu, Fastwork, Flexjobs, and many more.
- Utilize the connections and networks you have, whether from internships, lectures, organizations, and others. Ask them for information if there are vacancies as freelancers. Also make sure, they will recommend you as the right candidate. The key is to continue to build good relationships with everyone wherever you are.
- Promote yourself on social media. Currently creating threads on Twitter and posting on LinkedIn is becoming a trend for job seekers, including freelancers. You can also do this by creating interesting promotional sentences. In this case, story telling skills , namely combining a series of facts in a story, are really needed.
Research About Freelancer Wages
The next step is to determine the amount of wages for your services or services. Do market price research for the type of industry you choose in detail. For example, if you plan to become a freelance content writer, then pay attention to the salary range for each type of writing, such as in-depth, features , analysis, listicles and so on.
Meanwhile, for clients they will usually look at several variables in offering wages, such as experience, type of industry, project duration, project quantity, complexity, urgency, and others.
Create an Attractive Portfolio
Creating an attractive portfolio is an important factor in achieving success as a freelancer . A portfolio plays a role in showing your skills and achievements from previous projects. You must highlight your best work and how they contribute to the client's profits. For example, if you are a freelance videographer, then also attach the number of viewers and positive comments from your video work.
To create an attractive portfolio, you can use design applications, such as Adobe Portfolio, Behance, Morpholio, Canva, and so on. This application provides various templates for various types of work.
Continue to Develop Skills
As a freelancer, you are required to produce the best products for your clients. Therefore, it is very important for you to consistently improve your skills, adapt to change, and expand your knowledge. In short, you can't afford to be out of date.
To meet these demands, currently there are many free and paid online learning platforms, such as Coursera, Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, and many more. Apart from that, if you intend to focus on freelancing in the creative field, jasa.id can be the right platform to help you develop your skills.
So, how far have you prepared yourself to enter the world of freelancing? Make sure you have fulfilled the five steps above, OK? Because as the saying goes, "sometimes we fail not because we don't have potential, but because we lack preparation."