Starting out as a freelancer can be both exciting and overwhelming. It’s common for new freelancers to focus too much on specific niches, skills, and services. This happens because many beginners lack business knowledge or fail to approach freelancing with a business mindset. They tend to emphasize skills that appeal to them due to ease, comfort, popularity in the niche, influencer hype, and other reasons. This approach, while understandable, can lead to frustration and missed opportunities.
The truth is, freelancing isn’t just about doing what you love; it’s about understanding the market, identifying profitable skills, and thinking like a business owner. In fact, a study found that 60% of freelancers admitted their biggest mistake was charging too low for their services when they started. By shifting your focus from personal preferences to market needs, you can position yourself for long-term success and truly thrive in the competitive world of freelancing.
The Right Understanding And Approach
Freelancing is business and should be treated as such to succeed. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme (although such experiences abound) or an escape from hard work. Given the above, freelancers must:
- See themselves as service merchants.
- Unemotionally evaluate the market to understand how to add value to it.
- Focus on skills and services that are profitable in the market, not just based on emotions.
This analytical approach will guide new freelancers toward two profitable paths:
- Market research
- Sales and marketing
Market research helps freelancers understand which skills are in demand, who needs them, where to find potential clients, and how to connect with them. Intelligent freelancers make informed decisions through market research, positioning themselves to find more clients, close more deals, charge higher rates, expand their business, and earn good figures
As a freelancer with a sales and marketing mindset, it becomes normal to work hard to acquire clients. They will create better and more appealing offers. Magnetize quality clients. Win more cash in their pockets.
What You Actually Need
Now, let’s run the checks again. What valuable soft skills have you developed as a freelancer?
We have:
- Writing
- Video creation & editing
- Programming, blockchain, data science, DevOps, and other tech skills.
- Design skills (graphics, UI/UX, animation, etc.)
- Paid advertising
- Virtual assistance and management skills
- Branding, marketing, sales, and campaign skills
Many more.
The goal is to put these skills to practical use, generate income, attract good clients, and establish a presence and influence in the marketplace. Basically, the online marketplace.
Then for a head start, you need a robust sales and marketing routine for effective results. This routine will take care of both outbound and inbound strategies. Or maybe you want to focus on outbound alone as you begin. When you reach out to potential customers through various channels, it’s called outbound marketing. When customers come to you because you’ve attracted them through creating content and using SEO, it’s called inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing is often seen as very appealing for new businesses and start-ups, and it is indeed effective for building a brand. However, for aggressive freelancers, it may not be best to rely solely on inbound methods at the beginning. It’s because if you are looking for an effective way that’s guaranteed to generate leads, outbound is the solution. Common outbound methods for freelancers include the following:
- Direct job application e.g LinkedIn
- Seminar, webinar, and podcast series
- Cold mailing
- Pitches and proposals
- Cold calling
- Social media DMs
How do I Create an Effective Routine?
There are several ways to learn how to begin the client-hunting routine. You could get a coach. Enter a challenge. Paid training sessions. Learn from others. Get courses. I recommend getting the FCM course.
Let’s take a look at an example of what a good routine looks like. This system was created by Joshua Boswell, who emphasized the unmatched synergy between the two methods of marketing and finding clients/customers. The outbound strategy, known as the System of 20, focuses on depth over breadth. Instead of reaching out to 300 potential clients at once, the idea is to contact 15 of them multiple times. The tools for this practice include email, and LinkedIn. Here’s the breakdown:
- Day 1: Contact five prospects.
- Day 2: Contact another five.
- Day 3: Contact the remaining five, and also follow up with the initial group.
- Day 4: Contact the last of the 20 and continue following up with the previous contacts in a similar pattern. A CRM system can help you schedule follow-ups for every connection you make.
The inbound strategy, the content calendar, aims to establish you as an expert in your niche, reaching a broader audience and gaining more visibility. The key is to create a content schedule so that you have a piece of content ready to go every day, week, or month. This lets you plan articles, videos, blog posts, or other content ahead of time, ensuring a consistent publishing schedule.
From the example above, freelancers can create similar routines for other mediums such as Fiver, Upwork, Twitter, etc.
Bottom Line
Freelancing is a rapidly growing field, with thousands of new freelancers joining every day. However, over 75% of them struggle because they don’t adopt the right approach from the start. It’s easy to get caught up in following your passions, likes, and dislikes, but the key to success lies elsewhere.
The first step for new freelancers should be to identify the needs in the market. Focus on developing profitable skills that align with these needs and think about how you can best serve your clients. Adopting a sales mindset with a robust routine to follow is crucial.
Those who grasp this concept will see significant results over time. So, take a step back, assess the market, and align your skills with what clients are looking for. Your future self will thank you for it.
