How to Become a Successful Freelancer: Part Two

So, you want to quit your day job and start on the road to freelancing? Wait. Before you do there are some steps you must follow. First and foremost, If you haven’t done this – Then you need too set money aside in a savings or checking account, be sure it’s enough to follow through for a few months, if not up to 6 months, maybe even a year. Because, what if you quit and your freelancing gets you less than what you made at work? that’s not good. So be prepared, at least keep your job, but cut the hours in half; then as you progress more into freelancing, go on ahead and quit.

So, step 1, save up your money! Step 2 you need to be sure either your spouse or family know about what you are about too. Not only will quitting your job hurt you, but also your family, your life style, everything you have now you may not have in the future.

Step 3, start putting together your business plan. If you don’t have a business plan than be assured to fall through the cracks and sizzle beneath the earth. Number one, you need to establish a company name and profile – also consider creating a business profile at a website such as yellowbook.com or merchantcircle.com. Be sure to get registered with the BBB(Better Business Bureau). You might also want to consider creating an on-line portfolio of what you do, what services you offer as well as creating a blog where you can talk more about the work you do on a daily basis. When readers find your blog, read who you are, then they might be interested in having you do work for them.

That though, is NOT easy and can takes months. Anyway, there’s your first three steps to follow before you even consider quitting your job.

1. Save up your money
2. Talk to your family about your decision
3. Create your business plan

Now, let’s pretend you’ve done all that and you’ve actually done some work for a few clients. Let’s say you have one client that needs work done on her front yard and the other client is from a fairly large local company that needs your assistance with some web design. What you want to do here is, Manage your money. You do this by keeping tabs on the hour, by the day and the week of any work you do for the client. Be sure to have a calculator handy or use an on-line software that helps you management payments, refunds and taxes. Some good software for that might be Quicken Business.

Just because you make good money freelancing, doesn’t mean your rich and doesn’t mean you get to keep all of that money. Most of it, if done right, will go towards enhancing your business by better equipment or software.  Settings some aside in case your client really needs a refund and then establishing the rest to paying your bills or saving your money. Honestly, what you do with your money is your choice, but how you manage it while you are working for your clients is what matters. Because, once they are satisfied they will most likely tell others which can be potential clients for the future. Be prepared for losing money! -when you freelance, you really are gambling; It’s not like getting paid by the hour and knowing you have a pay check coming!

So, let’s say you’ve done the first three steps and learned how to manage your money – but now it’s time to give the actual customer service. First off, in the freelance world clients are expecting you to deliver up. They want to create something unique, tasteful and to their liking. They want you to do all of this without them having to answer your questionnaire on how they want it done. That may not seem right, but it is.

From my experience and knowing other web designers and photographers – the client just sits back and relaxes with a cup of lemonade watching what you do and even if they don’t like it, they might not even come out and say it. So, it’s your duty as the freelance designer to ask any questions, concerns or problems – then let the clients decide from there.

A good example would be back in May 2009, I took Easter/Birthday pictures of a little boy. His mom tried very hard to be engaged and help out with anything, but the father, he wanted nothing to do with it. I was wrong on my part to try to include him and I was also wrong for not assuming they liked my work. Yes, I said NOT! Anytime I asked them how the picture looked, their response was, “it looks good”. That put me down, I wanted honest feedback, I wanted to see a smile on their face and hear them say, “yes, that looks great, it’s much better than the rest!”.  The photo shoot lasted well over an hour, with at the end, the child being cranky, the father angry and the mother desperately reassuring me that they liked the photos.

It wasn’t till I got home and was able to view the images and do the necessary color corrections or experiments that i actually saw I had done a good job and what the parents had done is rely fully on my experience and creativity, after all as the father said, “We just need some photos of him”.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that there needs to be communication. Do not force the client to talk about something they don’t want too. If they do not respond, don’t get offended, like I said above, some people just don’t know how to express their feelings about this type of work. Just give it your go, keep a smile on your face, enjoy what you’re doing and go with it. If you are Satisfied, then I guarantee they will be more than Happy with what you did. Now, that’s communication.

In part 3, I will talk about Where you should do your business, Getting work, balancing life and work as well as what to do when you feel like you want to do more than freelancing.