How to start freelancing: 5 tips for getting ready to make the leap
Getting ready to take the plunge into freelancing? Ever wish you could talk to someone who’s been through it? Here’s what I learned my first year freelancing, and 5 things I did that helped me get a grip, get a move on, and get my first $100k along the way.
I’ve just come to the end of my first year as a freelancer, and holy crap—talk about a roller coaster.
The last twelve months have been some of the best of my adult life. They’ve also been some of the most challenging, dark, and confusing. If you’re a human living on Earth in 2020, you probably resonate with that.
But even in the face of a global pandemic and some very hellish personal situations, my first year freelancing turned out to be the most lucrative year ever, at least by the numbers. I took a step back to see what it looked like, and here it is:
Invoices Sent: 60
Total Clients: 25
Avg. Hours/Month: 70
Hours Spent on Marketing: 170
Total Income: $101,362 USD
Hold. the. phone.
I never thought it would happen, but I did it. $100k USD in my first year. I set that as a lofty goal for myself—too ashamed to mention the number to anyone but my business advisor (see tip #4).
But even more than the income, I’m proud of the work-life balance I achieved with those numbers:
It averages to about $1,690 per invoice, or $4,054 per client. Room for improvement, because I want more high-paying clients, but that will be my focus for the next 12 months.
Even better, I worked an average of 18 hours per week, more than 50% less time than when I was working in agencyland.
Reducing my hours so significantly, plus being my own boss and maintaining a good salary, gave me the power and freedom to live the life I’d always dreamed of.
Life without office politics or infuriating clients…
Enough money to keep me from panicking too often….
The freedom to work from literally anywhere… Oh wait. No, not that one.
Because like everyone on Earth, 2020 had very different plans for me.
In fact, if I use a different data set, I can measure my first year as a freelancer with very different numbers:
Relationships Ended: 1
Traumatic Life Experiences: 2
Life Plans Waylaid by a Pandemic: 80%
Digital Nomad Lifestyle: On hold indefinitely
That’s the thing about becoming a freelancer. Your working life and your personal life begin to blur, more than ever before. Your business is like your shadow, or your daemon—it’s not all of you, but it’s a big, unextractable part of you.
What happens in your personal life impacts your business. And what happens in your business impacts your personal life. There’s no escaping this.
But there are ways to manage the potential pain and fear that comes with freelancing. And there are certainly ways to maximize your income while minimizing the time you spend staring at your laptop.
I’m going to show you some of the strategies I developed that worked wonders.
This article covers the “prepare to launch” phase—the months leading up to the day you start freelancing. My goal is to help you prepare your mind, your wallet, and your time for what’s to come.
I know it feels like you’re standing on the edge of a cliff. Follow these tips, and I promise you’ll find the leap down isn’t so far after all.
Tip #1: Find Your Freelancer Friends
Anxiety’s worst enemy is information. And there’s a whole lot of anxiety that comes with diving into freelancing, so gathering information about what’s to come is your best strategy.
There are so many wonderful blogs, ebooks, and videos you can use to gather information (you’re doing it right now, aren’t you?). But there’s one excellent resource you can’t find via Google: Freelancer friends.
I was lucky when I started; thanks to my agency job, I already knew a lot of very talented and experienced freelancers. As soon as I started prodding them for information, I quickly discovered three themes:
- All of them had been scared shitless when they started.
- All of them were happy they’d made the leap.
- All of them were very excited to talk to me.
I reckon #3 has to do with the fact that many freelancers spend their hours alone at their computer, so any chance for human contact is welcome. Whatever the reason, there are so many freelancers out there who are more than happy to share their wisdom and experiences with you.
In fact, I’ve found the freelance community to be one of the most welcoming and friendly places—which is saying something, seeing that most of the communication is done through social media.
If you don’t know many freelancers now, don’t fret. There are many online groups, websites, and blogs out there, with interesting and illuminating conversations happening every day.
Here’s where and how to find them:
Write Minds
I’m so lucky I found Write Minds. This is by far my favorite community for freelance writers—though only suited for people who are taking the freelance life seriously. This big Slack-powered community has daily discussions on everything from self-marketing to brand building to dealing with ridiculous clients. Everyone involved is a freelance writer of some sort, but their backgrounds and experiences are so varied that you get tons of unique perspectives and tips. So worth it.
Facebook Groups
I don’t use Facebook for much, but when it comes to building my freelance community, the social media platform has been a godsend. There are so many active groups on Facebook, all you need to do is start searching for topics that interest you. Limit your search to groups, and look for words like “freelance” and “remote work” and “bloggers”. If you have a specialty (like photography) or a niche (like SaaS copywriting), look for those terms too.
I’m a HUGE fan of LinkedIn, something I never thought I’d say. In fact, one of my most popular posts on my blog is about how writers can use LinkedIn to build their profile and make connections. As far as social platforms go, it’s one of the best places to meet other freelancers who are spinning out vital tips for free. You’ll also find groups on LinkedIn, but I don’t use them much. I find the best bet is to start posting useful insights or questions you have, and watch the new connections roll in. (You can follow me on LinkedIn here.)
The other big platform I use to connect with other freelancers: Twitter. I can thank Twitter for giving me connections to people who were instrumental in helping me get started. Once again, use the search function to look for hashtags like #freelancer #amwriting #seo or whatever your focus is. Look for conversations happening in real-time that you can join in, or start tapping on people’s profiles and engaging with them directly (and respectfully).
It might be intimidating at first, and it’s fine to watch from the sidelines for a while. But once you find a conversation or individual who you think is interesting, reach out to them. Introduce yourself, let them know what you like about them, and ask some questions. Odds are, they’ll be happy to help.
Tip #2: Work when and where you can
I am not one of those people who answers the question, “What would you do with a billion dollars?” with an answer like, “I would continue to work because I love what I do.” Not for me.
I have a long-term goal to work less.
I enjoy work, but I don’t enjoy working 8 hours a day. I definitely don’t enjoy working overtime. Unfortunately, I do enjoy having a comfortable income, so this was a difficult (read: impossible) goal to reconcile when I was working full-time and thinking about going freelance.
What I did find out, though, is that setting a long-term goal of “less than 8 hours a day” required a short-term sprint of really fucking hard work.
For over a year, my daily schedule looked like this:
5am: Wake up and go to gym/eat quick breakfast
6am: Come home and work on freelancing
8:30am – 5:30pm: Attend my day job at a digital marketing agency
6pm – 8pm: Come home and work for two more hours on freelancing
8pm – 10pm: Free time
10pm – 11pm: Prepare freelance work I want to do in the morning
11pm: Sleep for six hours and do it again
Weekends would usually involve at least three or four hours of working on freelance stuff each day.
I won’t lie—this wasn’t the most fun time of my life. I was exhausted a lot of the time, and fortunately had friends and a partner who were very good at helping me schedule in appropriate amounts of free time and self care.
The upshot: It was a lot easier to do those extra hours, because the work was so energizing. I was watching myself build what could be the future I’d always dreamed of, and so waking up early to be a step closer to that goal didn’t feel like a terrible sacrifice.
The result? By the time I finally quit my job, I already had a website set up, a business name registered, and my first few clients submitting their payments.
Bonus Tip: Here’s a somewhat unethical piece of advice: If you have a day job that leaves you with some free time, use it to build up your freelancing gig. I built my website while getting paid by a different job. I haven’t regretted it for one second. With Covid and so many people working from home, it should be easier than ever to squeeze in some sneaky work on your side business while you’re on the clock at your day job. Just don’t get caught!
Tip #3: Make a plan to squirrel away some money
“What if I don’t make any money??”
That’s one of the biggest fears I had as a freelancer, and I hate to say it, but it’s actually worth worrying about.
When you start out, you’ll be growing your client base and won’t be raking in the big bucks (unless you get really lucky). This means you’ll likely have to swallow at least a few months where you aren’t making as much as you had been at your last job. For me, this happened during my third and fourth month freelancing.
Before you commit to a life of freelancing, squirrel away as much money as you can. This is easier said than done, especially if you currently live paycheck to paycheck.
There are a few strategies I used to save money for myself:
- Sold some of my belongings
- Moved to a cheaper home with lower rent
- Didn’t touch my work bonus (just put it right into savings)
- Cooked more, ate out less
If these aren’t possible strategies for you, perhaps you can take on a few freelancing gigs in your spare time. You’ll need to research your state/country laws to see how much you can earn without being designated as a sole proprietor/LLC, but usually, you can have a small stream of side income with no problem. As a bonus, this builds your experience and can give you a foundation for a portfolio.
Tip #4: Call in a business advisor (for free?)
Try this. Open up a new tab, go to Google, and type in:
“free business advice” + [your city/town/state]
What do you see? I did this twice as I was starting up my business—first in Australia, then when I moved back to the US. Both times, I was emailing a business coach within 30 minutes.
My first coach, Kylie Burke, is one of my own personal heroes. I met her while living in Sydney through the awesome Creative + Business group. Thanks to the New South Wales state government, I was entitled to four free sessions with Kylie through the undersung Business Connect program.
I came to Kylie’s sunny office about four months before I went totally freelance. In our first session, she interviewed me about everything going on not just with my businesses, but also with my personal dreams and goals.
Then, like a white-board magician, she neatly drew up everything I’d told her in colored markers. We made a plan for some homework, and I left feeling like someone had lifted an enormous weight off my shoulders.
After I’d gone through four sessions with Kylie, I decided it was well worth it to pay for ongoing quarterly sessions. In fact, I began to see Kylie’s services almost like a form of business therapy—a way to help me manage my anxiety about my freelance career and equip myself with the tools I needed to succeed.
Over the course of our sessions, Kylie helped me:
- Go through the legal business setup process
- Cope with leaving my day job
- Find an affordable tax accountant
- Sort out my bank accounts
- Design and brand my business
- Refine my revenue streams and services
- Tackle my imposter syndrome
- Celebrate my wins, big and small
- Decide where I should invest my time
- Carve out time for creative writing
- Deal with personal issues that interfered with work
I want to be clear, I’m not saying Kylie did these things for me. Instead, she helped me untangle the issues myself, and then together we identified strategies to overcome any obstacle. It was magic.
If you’re worried that you’re too small for a business advisor, or that it will be out of your price range, think again. Business advisors work with freelancers and startups all the time, and if you can’t find one that’s free through your local government, you can probably find something that’s low-cost or subsidized.
Tip #5: Gather the “brand essentials”
You’re getting close now. Can you sense it? The days of freelance are really there, just in front of you. You have newfound confidence, thanks to your recent freelance friends and a savvy business advisor.
So now what? Well, before you can go to market, you need to get your brand essentials set up.
I’m a huge advocate for having a brand strategy, and I could write a whole post about that topic. (Watch this space.)
But for now, you need to get at least the basics set down, so you can start hunting for clients as soon as your launch day arrives.
Here’s what I would recommend:
Business name: Your first decision is a big one: What are you going to call your business? First, consider whether you want to operate under your own name or a business name. Under your own name, you’ll be able to closely align your personal profile with your business profile. If you’d rather present yourself as a larger business, or just don’t want your name on your business, then start brainstorming names. Google them thoroughly to see what associations may already be out there, and be sure to check the name on your local government’s business registry. (These are usually online and public-facing.) If it’s already registered to someone, you’ll need to come up with something else or a variation that isn’t taken.
Logo: Logos are right up there with business names when it comes to things that make a business feel real. But beyond that, a logo will be a massive help when it comes to defining your brand later on, even if you end up changing it. For now, put together something that looks nice enough; you can agonize over this later, when you get into building a solid business plan and profile. I paid a freelancer I knew to make my logo, and it was worth every penny. There are some affordable options for logo design on sites like Fiver.
Brand Colors/Fonts: While you’re at it, ask your designer to help you choose a color palette and fonts. You’ll need them for the next big step…
Website: If you plan on doing most of your trading online, your website will be a cornerstone for your business. But like your logo, you don’t need to have a perfect website before you can start doing business. You will be adjusting your website for the rest of eternity, so don’t feel like everything you do now is set in stone. I do recommend at least doing the bulk of it yourself, if you can. It will be a lot more cost-effective if you are able to run maintenance on your own website in the future. There are plenty of free and affordable WordPress/web design courses out there if you’re new to this.
Personally, I used WordPress and Elementor to build my site, designed 90% of it myself, and then enlisted the help of a developer who tweaked it to my liking. out there.
For starters, your website should have:
- A homepage that introduces your business
- Contact forms throughout the site
- Descriptions of your services
- Information about you and your background
- A portfolio (links to your writing, for example)
Remember, you are not doing your website to absolute perfection right now. For my first year, I spent hours building my website, and I’m nowhere near done with it.
But if you get it set up at least minimally before you start hunting for clients, you’ll thank yourself later.
Note: Do NOT let your website, and its lack of perfection, slow you down too much. You can keep moving toward your freelance goal, even if you only have a single homepage or nothing at all.
I’m going to wrap things up there. The next article in this series will go a step further, talking about what I’m happy I did in the first days, weeks, and months of my freelancing career.
I’ll cover strategies for finding your first clients, what tools you need to manage your time, and how to track your money easily so you can start growing your empire.
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