Hearing good stories on how a Freelancer earns a lot of money being at home and the benefits enjoyed many get the desire of becoming one. Freelancer’s life might seem to be luxurious as (he) does work as a passion in his own leisure time and (she) could manage the family and need not depend on any other individual for income and support. This might not be the same for rest of the world. There are various views one might have working as a freelancer.
Being in a good day job already and looking to earn more money or joining the path of a freelancer due to comparisons with your colleagues might not help. You must be strongly driven by yourself. You must have the desire to succeed, willingness to learn and adapt to this life.
Expectations should be set based on how far you can coordinate with the job. Taking many tasks in the initial stages might not work as effective as you may think. The ability to take work comes with experience.
At the early stages one might be tempted to take more projects and learn more, but making it as a practice to work on it every day takes time. Freelancing might sound interesting but it has its own cons. You must be patient and learn slowly to get better results.
Ways to survive
A key criterion to succeed and compete in the freelancing world is starting to work.
Taking a simple scenario:
A lady who has a day job and desire to work as a Freelancer has received a considerable amount of work from a client, and she’s been given a deadline. Having taken the work with lot of enthusiasm, the will to improve and thriving to provide a quality job, all of a sudden gets personal problems and her boss at work wants her to extend and finish a project. Her deadline for the freelancing work is getting close and she hasn’t started with it, as she knew it wasn’t a big task and had the overconfidence of completing it. She’s now stuck between the jobs.
To avoid this kind of situations, one must start working from Day 1 and slowly show progress on it. Make sure you push yourself to do the work before you get diverted. Make sure freelancing is one among your top priorities in day to day activities. However when i mention this, i will not mean to project people being Workaholic but to give importance and spare some quality time.
Treat it as your own business
Focus on the goal to finish what you have started with. As you have the liberty and the flexibility to work by yourself don’t give a chance to misuse it. Stay in the right path. You need make your mind that the job given to you is entirely dependent on you, so never let it loose.
Think ahead before you build the job. Spend some time to think how a business owner would react to situations when a new project comes in and the methods he would construct to implement it. You need to make sure your signature is created by itself in the way that you present it. You can do this by making use of the latest trends in your work. Feel energetic and motivated this can help you to survive
Lack of experience
Experience comes along with the work we do. None can be perfect at the very beginning. You must have the patience and overcome the fear of failure. The least feedback you might get from your first client might be to re-do your work again and again. But don’t lose hope.
Like how John Keats mentioned,
Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced–even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.
You must have the confidence to cope up from the stones thrown and you will be molded as a better person.
Keep a practice of learning while you work. While you work on a specific task don’t just find out what it is and implement try to learn the related things as well and this will be reflected in your growth.
Client relationship:
A freelancer generally quit when pressured by client and the way they are handled. Don’t let your emotions overrule you. Always remember to maintain professionalism. Keep your work and speech to the point. Sharing your personal life events may bring many other hidden problems.
Some clients might be harsh and some might be friendly. Make sure you can balance both the kinds of people. Be affirmative, keep the client informed on the progress of work every few days once, but this again depends on how your client wants you to be.
Have in mind the client will never know what you are working on and what he’s going to receive from you. Its certain that you must respond to your client as soon as possible, if the work is not complete sent a receipt of the mail received.
Avoid fear
One among the demotivating factors of quitting early is developing fear. This might be because you have just graduated and took the work or just beginning life as a freelancer.
Know that there are many students who are successful taking their part time jobs working as a contributor. It won’t be picture perfect but slowly you could see greenness at barren days.
You must have the courage to handle, face it more and more to get used to it. Do one thing each day which fears you to build yourself to face the world.
A French poet once wrote,
“Come to the edge, He said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, He said.
They came. He pushed them,
And they flew . . .”
Drive yourself to the work you have we never done to explore the possibilities.
Having in mind these ground rules, let’s survive and face the Freelancing world.
