It’s a question I’ve been asked so many times since I started. I hadn’t appreciated how many people were looking for something beyond employment, had a side-hustle they wanted to turn into a full-time job, or really wanted to zone in on a niche by working for themselves. Starting out freelancing is the ultimate Venn diagram – what do you love doing, what makes money and what does the world need – whatever suits in the middle is your freelancing goldmine.
With the huge caveat that this is only drawn from my personal experience (with the addition of a few books/articles/podcasts/chats with freelancer friends) here’s my spiel in concise form:
1 – Work Out Why
First up, put the work in to understand why you’re mulling the idea over and establish if these are realistic goals for what you’re trying to achieve. Heads up – passive income, limitless earning and working from Bali while technically possible aren’t most freelancers’ reality. However, if you want more time off for school holidays, to grow a business from your passions and meet some incredible people, it might be for you.
2 – Find Your Thing
It’s easy to fall into the trap of labels and titles you’ve had in employment. This isn’t about establishing that “job x” was your favourite, this is about working about what activities (from anywhere in your life) put you in your happy place, in the zone, where time flies by. What is it about doing those that you love, and why? What have you got here that you can sell?
3 – Test It
Find as many ways as possible to test your ideas – volunteer in the area, write/publish free content, offer trial sessions, free samples, whatever suits your business, but put your idea into practice. Test that it works as a viable offering, and that it keeps you as engaged and enthusiastic as you’d originally hoped.
4 – Develop Your Offer
You don’t have to have this completely fully formed, branded and Insta-level lovely. Nor do you have to be worried about occupying a completely unique space. But you do have to establish your audience, your price and your initial “package” – whether that’s products or services. There are loads of ways of doing this, and inevitably you’ll be on a steep learning curve. The critical thing is to be aware of what a learning journey you’re on and be humble and curious along the way – some things will be brilliant, some will fail spectacularly – learn from both.
5 – Establish Your Safety Net
There’s no denying freelancing feels far less stable than employment. So one crucial thing is establishing a financial safety net to ensure that when you make the leap, you’ve got the backup of knowing your essentials are covered if work isn’t easy to come by.
6 – Sort the Essentials
And no, I’m not talking about developing your branding, launching a website, getting headshots and nailing a cracking elevator pitch, there’s time for all that later. You may be starting a business where some of this is actually necessary to launch to be fair, but my point is, work out what the bare essentials to get started are and pay for those and nothing more (a laptop, office 365 and insurance were mine).
7 – Just Start
It’s easy to get caught up strategizing, professional-ising and honing your offer but its not what pays the bills. My advice would be to get securing clients as soon as possible, build your experience and your testimonials as that’s what your survival depends on.
8 – Network Relentlessly
There are all kinds of phenomenal people in the world, just waiting to be found. Dust off your LinkedIn, join a Chamber of Commerce, give your local co-working space a go, sign up to networks and connect with as many people (meaningfully) as you can – you never know what you’ll learn and where connections lead.
9 – Keep Learning
You can’t afford to stay still in the freelance world. Source all the CPD you can – whether it’s from the amazing array of free content that’s out there in the world, paid for CPD or shadowing and learning from others, just keep prioritising your own development.
10 – Be Brave
There will be spectacular highs and probably spectacular lows. Hang in there and be brave. Use your passion to drive your business and always be open to feedback, development and new opportunities.