Working as a freelancer or running a freelance business is an excellent idea about the kinds of times we are going through this year. The entire world is going through a pandemic and many people are being laid off from their jobs. Many companies have shut down or have run out of financial resources, leaving no choice for them but to downsize their human capital.
In these circumstances, it is less costly for businesses to hire freelancers to do the jobs for them, and also more convenient for individuals to start and run a freelancing business. This is really a good time for starting your own freelance business. A freelance business is not just a means to earn passive income, but a way to start small by working actively and having the potential to end up running a well-established company, eventually.
Besides being able to maintain a stream of income for yourself during the lockdown, starting a freelance business has many other benefits as well. Let’s discuss the most common ones here. But before that, let’s define what exactly a freelancing business is.
What is a Freelance Business?
Running a freelancing business means working, and having a source of income from one or more clients, from the comfort of your home, and with your own designated working hours. People usually start a freelance business by focusing on a specific skill that they possess and offering it to companies that are looking to hire remote workers at flexible job timings. Such skills include graphic design, photography, video-editing and video-making, content writing, website development, web designing, app development, preparing presentations and business plans, and many more.
Once you get more clients, you can register a company and officially start running a freelance business. You can continue to promote your skills and services on the freelance websites that you began working at, but also build your own space and presence on the internet. This helps you become more discoverable to more organizations that are looking to hire individuals with the skills that you have.
In certain ways, running a freelance business is fun. But then it has its drawbacks as well, especially if you are not good at managing your time and balancing the work that you are doing for multiple clients at the same time.
7 Key Benefits of a Freelance Business
Here are 7 key benefits of running a freelancing business.
1. You Can Work at Flexible Timings
The first difference between a freelance business and any other ordinary business is that, as a freelancer, you get to work from the comfort of your house. This means you can pretty much choose and decide on the timings that you want to set as your working hours.
You still do not have 100% flexibility in your work timings though, because you get deadlines from clients and have work to finish within a timeframe. But you are not bound to be at your desk at any specified hour or minute, unless you have an online meeting with your colleagues or a video conference with your boss.
Although this is a benefit of having a freelance business, it can sometimes work against you. Getting too much flexibility can often make you lazy, as your working hours actually affect your timings for everything else that you do during the day. If, for instance, you decide to work at 12 noon every day, your sleep timings might get screwed up. You might start waking up very late every morning, thinking that you are enjoying the time flexibility. But you would actually make your body weak and reducing your mental capacity to work. Some individuals use work schedule apps to get their timings back to normal in this kind of situation.
2. The Potential For Growth is Limitless
Freelancers often start small, but if they are sincere with their work and can satisfy their first few clients, their potential to grow and expand is huge. You can start with one or two small clients, and even offer them as many revisions on your work as they require, and end up getting five more clients based on the positive review that those first two clients leave for you.
Whether you run a freelance business through freelancing platforms, or have some other means to get in touch with potential clients, reviews from your past clients will always be valuable to grow your business.
3. You Get Exposure of Working With Clients From Different Parts of the World
In a freelance business, you are not bound to your location to promote your services. You market yourself in the global market and can work for anybody who will hire remote workers. Therefore, it is an excellent opportunity for you to get the exposure and experience of working with clients from different countries of the world.
If you are skilled in the high-demand sectors, such as app and web development, digital marketing, making explainer videos, or even simply recording voice overs, you can make use of your talent by exploring the demand for these skills in different cultures and locations.
If you know how to start a freelance business and how to market your skills in the global market, you actually have the potential to get from zero to a hundred clients in your very first year. When you are not restricted in terms of your location, your ground for identifying opportunities is vast.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
4. You Get More Vested in the Digital World
Having at least some digital marketing skills is a basic requirement to survive in any kind of business these days. When somebody hears your company or brand name, the first they do if they are interested is search for it over the internet. That’s why it’s important for every business to have an existence on the internet. This is even more important if you are running a freelance business because starting a freelance business means relying solely on the internet to market yourself and get clients.
Not only that, you also need to know how to monetize your online space. This means you really need to be vested in the digital world and the digital means of marketing your skills.
5. You Can Use the Freelancing Platforms as Marketing Media For Your Business
Once your freelance business grows, and if you choose to rent a commercial space and hire staff to work for you, you can continue to use the freelancing platforms that you have been using to deliver your services to your clients as marketing platforms to further grow your business.
6. You Get Access to Other Freelancers to Sublet Part of Your Work
As part of your experience of working as a freelancer, you also get exposure and build contacts with other freelancers. When your micro business grows and your financial resources allow, you can start subletting part of your work to other freelancers.
In other words, while running a freelancing business, you can sometimes switch places and become the client instead of the freelancer.
7. You Get to Master the Skills That You Offer
In a freelance business, you get plenty of time and opportunity to further polish the skills that you are good at. As you work for different clients and get their feedback, you begin to identify the areas that need improvement. With time, you can become even better skilled or multi-skilled, which can help you further grow your business.
5 Steps You Need to Take For Starting a Freelance Business
If you are curious about how to start a freelance business, here are 5 simple steps that you need to follow.
1. Join the Popular Freelancing Platforms
There are several of these that are popular these days, including Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr. All you need to do is create a profile, mention your skills, and then send proposals for projects that you feel are relevant to your skills.
2. Build a Skills Portfolio
You need to identify the skills that you have and can deliver. Anybody who hires you would need to know exactly what you can do and what you cannot do.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
3. Develop a Personal or Portfolio Website
This is big. If you are really serious about starting a freelance business, you need to have a portfolio website that’s dedicated completely for showcasing your skills and services. It is easy to build a website if you use our platform. Sign up for a free account with us, and the rest of the process is quite self-explanatory.
Image taken from Strikingly
4. Create Social Media Handles
The role of social media cannot be ignored in starting and promoting any kind of business these days. A good way to go about it is to create social media pages to represent your freelance business, and integrate them with your portfolio website.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
5. Promote Yourself and Your Skills
The last step is to promote your freelance business through your website, the social media channels, on the freelancing platforms you are using, and just through networking as well. You can also start a blog and promote your skills by writing about your skills and industry trends.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
A freelance business is a great opportunity to build a stream of income that has the potential to grow in the long run. We at Strikingly know many of our users who started small just a couple of years ago, and are making tons of money by running a freelancing business today. They started promoting their skills through a basic website that they built on our platform. It only takes a bit of courage to go through the tough times in the beginning. If you follow the steps described above, and have patience and persistence, you have a great chance to grow big by the time this pandemic ends.
