How To Start Freelancing In 2023 (Complete Beginner’s Guide)
This is the ultimate guide on how to start freelancing for beginners.
It doesn't matter if you want to freelance as a writer, web designer, or developer, this guide will show you how to start your journey in 10 easy steps.
This is a beginner's guide to freelancing where I explain the basic steps to help you get started. I'm giving you the right direction, but you have to take action.
I can't promise you success, but if you're ready to work hard and learn new skills, you will eventually succeed as a freelancer.
Make sure to read the links I suggest in each section to learn more about each step. It's crucial to getting the most out of this guide.
Is Freelancing Right For You?
Let's get started.
Before we begin, I want you to pause and reflect on the journey ahead.
Freelancing is not as simple as you may think. Some people think anyone with a laptop and an internet connection can make money online. But, that's not the case.
It requires developing skills, practicing, learning, and dedication to succeed as a freelancer. It takes time to develop skills, practice, and find jobs.
It could take a few weeks or even a couple of months for you to land your first job. So you will have to be patient.
If you need to make money fast, to pay bills or pay a loan or something like that, I would suggest you get a temporary job. And while you're at that job, work on your freelance skills on the side. Once you have a client or two, you can safely quit your temp job.
Keep reading only if you're ready to work hard to achieve your goal of becoming a freelancer and finding financial freedom.
Step 1: Get The Right Equipment
You don't make good choices and decisions when you're desperate. And that's exactly why I always recommend not to start freelancing to make money fast.
Freelancing is not a quick way to get rich. It requires a lot of hard work. In fact, it took me around 4 years to earn a stable income as a freelancer. But, luckily, today you have more opportunities than I had back then.
I often get questions from freelancers asking if there is work they can do using just a smartphone. The short answer is there are none. At least not ones that are worth doing.
Smartphone apps are limited in features. You need a computer to run software that are needed for doing the work properly and delivering great results.
So, before you go ahead and think about working online, go get yourself a laptop or even an old computer would work.
Also, make sure to read the article suggestions below before going any further.
Step 2: Find A Marketable Skill
Step 3: Polish Up Your Skills
For instance, suppose you want to write for health and wellness blogs as a freelancer. This is a popular niche. You also have some background in writing about it from your education.
But that doesn't mean you can craft blog posts for online readers. Online writing has different styles and formats than academic writing. It aims to appeal to a broader audience.
So you have to learn how to write for the web. How to use WordPress. How to create graphics for your posts. And so on.
This applies to any other freelance skill you want to pursue. You can't just start without learning the fundamentals. You have to improve your skills first.
Read books, follow YouTube channels and blogs related to your skill and industry.
Also, taking online courses is a great way to learn and enhance a skill properly. See the links below for some suggestions.
Learning a skill from scratch takes time. So be patient and keep learning and practicing. It could take weeks, months, or years. Just don't give up.
I suggest getting a subscription to an online learning platform like Skillshare. Cut down on your Netflix or coffee expenses if you need to. When you have access to a learning platform, it's much easier to explore and learn new skills.
Step 4: Build Your Reputation
Your skills and work are what make you a successful freelancer.
It doesn't matter if you have a college degree or years of experience. If you can't show clients that you're good at what you do, they will never hire you.
If you're a writer, you should have articles on popular blogs. If you're a graphic designer, you should have a portfolio of logos you've designed for brands. If you're a web designer, you need to have a website that showcases your work.
In short, put some of your work out there. Do some work for free at first if you need to. Contact blogs that accept guest posts. Do some mockup design work. Whatever it is, work on building your reputation.
Step 5: Create A Portfolio
A portfolio is a website or a webpage where you display all your work.
A portfolio is important to build your reputation and show your published/live work in one place.
For example, if you're a graphic designer, you can use a site like Behance to create a portfolio page with all your designs. That way, when you contact a client, you can just give them the link to your portfolio to see your skills.
Make sure to only showcase your best work in the portfolio.
Writers can use sites like Medium or WordPress to create blogs. Designers and artists can use Behance to make portfolios.
Step 6: Try Freelancing Part-Time
Freelancing is not for everyone. It can be challenging to market yourself, sell your services, and work with clients.
If you're not sure if freelancing is the right career choice for you, just try doing it part-time.
Work on smaller freelance gigs for a few hours every day. And learn the ropes of freelancing.
When you feel confident to take on bigger projects, then you can decide whether you should freelance full-time or quit your day job.
Step 7: Find The Right Freelance Platform
This step is very important for how easily you'll get jobs and the quality of the clients you'll work with.
A common mistake that many new freelancers make is to look for the most popular freelance marketplace and join it. Like UpWork or Freelancer.com.
These sites are already crowded with millions of freelancers from around the world. And because of the competition, they get into bidding wars to win jobs. They will keep lowering their prices to get the job. And it will not help you.
So the best strategy, and the strategy that worked well for me, is to choose a marketplace that's fairly new and join it. It'll have fewer freelancers so you'll have less competition. And it will improve your chances of getting jobs.
Step 8: Charge The Right Price
Setting the right price for your services can be difficult. Because if you ask for the wrong price, clients will not even think about hiring you.
In the beginning, the best way to set the right price is to look at popular freelance marketplaces and see what other freelancers in your niche or industry are charging.
Since you're new, it's not fair to charge the same prices as experienced freelancers.
Instead, you should try to find a balance where you can offer a better price than those experienced freelancers without making yourself look cheap.
Step 9: Send Your First Proposal
Writing a proposal to a client requires careful attention.
It's not like writing a casual email or a social media post. You need to think seriously about it and figure out how to convince your client to hire you instead of all the other freelancers.
There are some tips and tricks you can use to write a winning proposal. I can't cover all the details here, so please check out the links below for more info on the topic.
Step 10: Deliver Beyond Expectations
Once you get a job, the next step is to make sure that you deliver the project as the client wants.
Or, in this case, I want you to overdeliver the job by exceeding the client's expectations.
I'll give you an example. When I started freelancing, I used to write blog articles with a fixed word count like 1000 words. What I did was write the article to be about 1100-1200 and also add a unique header image for the blog post when delivering it. Without asking for extra money.
The clients were always happy with my work. And gave 5-star ratings.
So find a way to do work that goes beyond expectations. And learn to stand out from the crowd. That's the only way to build a lasting career as a freelancer.
What’s Next?
You are now ready to take on the world of freelancing. With a lot of commitment and hard work, you'll be able to create a profitable and successful career as a freelancer. That's a promise.
If you want to learn more about freelancing and insights into some of the strategies that I use to land high paying clients,
Learning a new skill takes time but there's no better time to start than right now!
Today, you can learn anything online. I actually learned to write, design, and build websites by just watching online courses.
You can use YouTube to learn anything. But I highly recommend that you invest in a good online learning platform to learn your first set of skills.
Skillshare is one of the best platforms you can use to learn new skills. It has thousands of classes on various topics. And you can access them all for a single price when you subscribe.
I've used it to learn a new skill every month for a whole year. And I'm renewing it to learn more the next year.
FAQs About Freelancing
These frequently asked questions about freelancing will help you learn more about how the industry works.
Q: Is Freelancing A Career?
Yes! Freelancing can be a career. But, it depends on what kind of work you do. For example, if you're doing data entry work, it's not a good career choice. But, if you're doing something like copywriting, you can use it as a career to become a marketer and even lead marketing teams on startups.
Q: Which Field Is Best In Freelancing?
There are many fields in freelancing that allow you to earn higher rates and generate profitable incomes. But, there is no specific industry or a job that you can call "the best". You shouldn't choose a career because it makes the most money. Choose the ones that you're good at.
Q: What Kind Of Freelance Work Can I Do?
The freelancing market is quite large. There are hundreds of specializations out there ranging from logo designers to product copywriters, and more. You can do any type of work. If you have a skillset, you can offer it as a service and charge a price. Whether it's online or offline. That's freelancing!
Q: How Can I Start Freelance With No Experience?
The great thing about freelancing is that it doesn't have any requirements. You don't need a fancy college degree or years of experience on a job to start as a freelancer. All you need is a marketable skill and dedication to work harder and better than everyone else.
Q: What Are Freelancing Websites?
Freelancing websites are like marketplaces where you can find clients and get jobs. You can join a freelancing website, like UpWork or PeoplePerHour, to create a profile and apply for jobs posted by clients. These sites often have a lot of competition and charge high platform fees. While they are good for beginners I often advise freelancers to avoid such marketplaces.
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Q: Which Skills Are In Demand For Freelancing?
Finding the right skill with a good demand is essential to finding freelancing success. Every year, new trends change the world of freelancing so the demand for the skills varies from time to time. Some years there’s high demand for coding skills while some years there’s a demand for video editors. You can read this article to learn more about finding skills with high demand.
Q: Is Freelancing Better Than A Job?
Much like any other day job, freelancing also has advantages and disadvantages. It definitely has many benefits compared to the usual office job. So yes, freelancing can be better than a regular job. But that will mostly depend on your personality type.
Q: What Are The Pros And Cons Of Freelancing?
One of the best things about being a freelancer is that you can be your own boss. It’s like running a business. You can look for clients, find work, and do work at your own pace. But it can also be quite exhausting. Especially if you’re used to doing things that you’re told to do. Like at an office job. More about it here.
Q: Do Freelancers Get Paid?
Yes! Unless you get scammed by a scam artist. Freelancers always get paid. There’s a myth to this topic that clients don’t pay or delay payment on time. But it’s not true. If you know how to find good clients, you’ll always get paid on time.
Q: How Freelancers Find Work?
Freelancers can find work using various methods. And you’ll be happy to know that you don’t always have to use marketplaces like Upwork and Freelancer.com. Instead, you can use job boards, communities, and even email outreach to find jobs. I covered more on this topic in a chapter above.
Q: Why Freelancing Is Hard?
Freelancing is not easy. You need to work hard and be determined to succeed as a freelancer. More importantly, it takes time to gain experience and develop skills. A good way to make this process easier is to find a coach and improve your skills by taking courses and reading books.
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Q: Where To Learn Freelancing?
Unfortunately, there’s no special place you can go to learn freelancing. It’s something you must learn by doing. Taking online courses and reading books will help, but in the end it will depend on your dedication and the ability to learn from your failures to be a great freelancer.
Q: What Are Easy Freelance Jobs?
Data entry gigs, transcription jobs, translation jobs are all easy gigs you can do as a freelancer. But, keep in mind that “easy come, easy go”. Those easy jobs won’t last long. If you want to build a career as a freelancer, you’ll need to work hard at improving your skills.
Q: What Is Local Freelancing?
You don’t always have to sign up for a freelance marketplace online to find work as a freelancer. You can also do work for local businesses. Whether it’s designing a website for a local shop or designing a logo, it still counts as freelancing. There are many job boards you can use to find local freelance jobs. Or you can go old-school and cold-call to ask for jobs.
Q: How To Freelance On Fiverr?
Fiverr is one of the most popular freelance marketplaces in the world. There are millions of freelancers on Fiverr who offer different types of services as gigs at prices starting at $5. It’s very easy to start on Fiverr but since the platform is highly saturated it’s very hard to get orders from clients. I often advise freelancers to avoid such platforms.
Q: How To Freelance Write For Money?
There are many ways you can make money as a freelance writer. You can write for online blogs, magazines, write essays, white papers, and more. It’s up to you to find a niche that you’re good at and offer your services. Check out job boards like Problogger Jobs to find great writing jobs.
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