Making the switch over to freelance life can be both exciting and daunting. You get all the benefits of choosing your working hours, projects, and clients, but it comes at a cost: you aren’t guaranteed a steady income, and you’re responsible for all your own accounting and marketing.
Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? There are over 64 million freelancers in the US who would say yes! If the freelance life is calling your name, here are 5 key things to know before you take the leap.
1. Know what you have to offer
Before diving into freelance work, you should have a clear idea of what service(s) you’d like to offer. To prepare for a freelance career, you should ask yourself two very important questions:
What are my skills?
If you’re considering freelance work, you need to believe that your skills are worth paying for, and you should be ready to prove that to any potential clients. One great way to do this is to create a simple website that can serve as an online portfolio.
Of course, you should also keep your limitations in mind. Nobody is good at everything, and you should never take on projects where you’ll be out of your depth. Depending on the task, doing so can range from ill-advised to life-threatening — for example, if you end up mistranslating safety instructions.
How will my work embody my values?
One of the best things about being a freelancer is you don’t have to do anything that’s misaligned with your personal values. If you are against zoos, you don’t have to design a zoo’s website; if you hate smoking, you don’t have to freelance for a tobacco company.
It’s easy to come up with things you disagree with, but you should also reflect on the values that are important to you. Do you want to go above and beyond to be environmentally sustainable? Are you passionate about giving a voice to female business owners?
Once you know who you are and what you have to offer, you can figure out your unique selling point (USP) — the thing that makes you stand out from the crowd. This will be a combination of both your skills and values and should be consistently reflected across all your interactions with clients, as well as on social media.
Knowing your USP before launching your freelance career puts you in the best possible position to build your brand and make a name for yourself from day one.
2. Know your target clients
Before you implement any marketing tactics to create your original brand, you should first get a thorough understanding of your target clients.
At the very least, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Who is seeking the services I offer?
- What are their goals?
- What challenges do they face?
- Why should they choose to work with me?
- How can I reach them?
That final question is particularly important; in that vein, try to identify some specific leads and reach out to them directly. You also want potential clients to be able to find you. Ascertain where your ideal clients are most likely to search for your services, whether that’s Google, LinkedIn, Upwork, or more specialized marketplaces — like Reedsy for all things publishing, or Translators Café for language services.
It’s best to get inside the minds of your target clients before you go freelance — not least because you might realize your ideal clients don’t necessarily exist! If that’s the case, don’t give up; you simply need to research another use for your skills and values.
3. Know your finances
Determining what rates to charge can be a daunting task. They’ll vary based on external factors, like your cost of living. A freelancer in Budapest doesn’t need to charge as much as a freelancer in New York City, for example, in order to maintain the same quality of life.
Before you begin thinking about rates, you need to know your finances inside out. Consider:
- Your yearly outgoings — both personal and business-related;
- The self-employed tax rates in your country; and
- How much you want to save each year.
Add those values together to get the minimum yearly revenue you should be aiming for. Divide that number by 52 — or 52 minus any weeks you intend to take off — and you’ll have your weekly earnings goal.
You also need to know how many billable hours you expect to work each week. This will be less than the total number of hours you put in, as (unfortunately) nobody is going to pay you for any marketing or accounting you have to do; you only get paid for the hours you spend actually working on a project. A realistic expectation for a new freelancer is to spend about 60% of your working hours on billable tasks. You can start tracking your time in a more granular fashion to see if this is an accurate estimate.
Divide your weekly earnings goal by the expected number of billable hours to determine your minimum hourly rate. Of course, if you are working in a field that charges a per-word rate, you’ll want to know how many words you can complete per hour, and divide the hourly rate by that. You need to know your minimum hourly rate before you switch over to freelance life.
Never agree to lower your hourly rate below this minimum. If it’s too expensive for a client, you can tell them how you worked out this rate and suggest changing the scope of the project to reduce the number of hours it will take — or simply end the conversation and find a different client who appreciates the value of your work.
Knowing your rates before switching over to freelance life means you can earn a decent living right away. You shouldn’t need to have the awkward conversation about raising your rates in the first year of business — unless you are swamped by so many requests that you can afford to start charging more!
4. Know your support network
You might see the lack of colleagues as one advantage of the freelance life, but it can be a double-edged sword — sometimes you may want a second opinion on a specific question, or a coworker you can lean on for support.
The easiest way to grow your professional network is to join an association, such as the American Translators Association or the UK’s Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading. Joining a professional association grants you access to various training materials and connects you with other freelancers whom you can ask for advice or share experiences with.
Freelancing can get lonely, so take advantage of coworking spaces if you find that being around other people helps you feel more positive and productive.
Finally, tell your family and friends about your planned career change, so that they can check in with you — they might even help to promote your business on social media.
5. Know your motivation
The final thing you should know before switching over to freelance life is arguably the most important: why are you making the jump? Freelancing can be tough, especially in the beginning. Even with the best support network, you’re only likely to succeed if you know what it’s all for.
Whether you want to spend more time with your kids, work in your dream industry, or just want a better work-life balance, make sure your motivation is crystal-clear in your mind — it’ll keep you determined even on the bad days.
Once you’ve reflected on each of these 5 ideas, you’ll be ready to make the switch to freelance life. Congratulations, and good luck.
Featured Image by FreePik
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