Perhaps, you might have read or heard somebody saying, “If you don’t have a goal, you won’t have a destination”. No one else could have said it better than John Maxwell when he emphasized the importance of being intentional or deliberate in our actions in order to accomplish a certain task. The same principle applies to start your career as a freelancer. For this reason, it is important that you have to determine your goals by thinking of the answers to the following questions:

• Why do you want to be a freelancer?
• What type of service(s) will you provide?
• Who are your possible clients?
• Where will you source your clients?
• When will you start?
• How will you sustain your lifestyle? (during and after transition)

Providing the answers to these questions after an honest assessment of your skills, motivation, and commitment will greatly help in giving you a clear direction by having a one-track mind in determining your goals.

Questions You Need To Ask Yourself

Freelancing offers a lot of opportunity and flexibility that could work for you based on the goals that you have set to accomplish. While it is true that you can find a lot of ways to earn as a freelancer, your means of income is directly proportional to the value that you can offer to your possible client(s) based on your talents, skills, and experience. In line with this thought, it is important that you consider the Hedgehog principle in finding your niche by answering the following questions:  

• What is it that you are passionate about? 
• What is or are the things that you are exceptionally good at?
• Will the things that you are exceptionally good at and passionate about economically work to sustain your lifestyle?

Assessing yourself in the areas that strike a perfect balance between the things that economically work to maintain your lifestyle while you do the things that you love and are extremely good at, will greatly help you in finding your niche.

Helpful Tips

• Make a list of the things that you are extremely skilled or good
• Mark the things on your list that you love to do or enjoy the most
• On a scale of 1-10 where 10 is the highest, indicate which one earns the most

Your personal brand needs to be established, if you want to attract more clients.  You can do this by:

• Creating your presence online and on social media. This is very important since most people these days are on these channels.
• Having your own personal style. When people think of you, they would immediately associate you with a certain style.
• Let your own personality shine through. Being unique or quirky definitely has its advantages. You need to stand out from competition.

In conjunction with the previous step of creating a brand for yourself, creating an excellent portfolio website serves as a marketing tool to advertise yourself. Your website should communicate the value that you can offer to your possible clients based on the skills that you are good at. In creating your portfolio website to get your client’s “buy-in” your portfolio should include:

• Add contact information and details about yourself (who you are, what you do, the services you offer).
• Highlight your strengths, educational background, skills, and achievements.
• Include a testimonial section from your clients or former colleagues and manager(s) in case you are starting out as a freelancer without existing clients.
• Add a section for visitors and would be client’s to get updated samples of your work (ie. blogs, video, website, SEO, graphic design, photos, and other creative display of your skills)

Click here to learn, “How to Create a Website for Your Business”

Know Your Worth

People don’t mind paying a premium for the value and satisfaction they get in return for a product or a service. Likewise, clients do not mind paying the right amount in exchange for the value of your services and the benefit it brings to their business. Make sure to communicate how much you would charge for the type of service you provide on your portfolio website.

Some Important Things You Need To Do

• Conduct research regarding the trends and industry practices in your niche.
• Use online apps to check freelance rates
• Consult a professional for the rate of your service
• Know your competitors and the rate they charge
• Set competitive rates based on your industry standards.
• Offer prices based on an hourly rate, daily rate, or on a project basis.

Remember, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Knowing the value and the worth of your effort, creativity, and skill to have the confidence in stating your rate depends on a lot of factors.  It is for this reason that experienced freelancers have more confidence to charge more for their service as opposed to a greenhorn, even when the latter is capable of producing the same work and deliver the same results.

Sustainability

Being a freelancer does not guarantee a steady flow of income and there is no way to predict or control volatility. While the idea of getting as many clients as you can is good, you have to be mindful of the brand that you are creating for yourself. Choosing your first few clients should be viewed at the perspective of building your portfolio and should be financially sustainable to support your lifestyle. See to it that you maintain a standard of excellence in the service that you provide to your clients by looking into the following: 

• Make sure that you do not sacrifice quality over quantity
• Carry out your business with unquestionable integrity
• Make sure that your work reflects the standard of excellence you intend to have and be perceived by your client(s)
• Work on projects that would make a good addition to your portfolio.

Clients As Brand Ambassadors

Your satisfied clients could be your brand ambassadors who will help to sustain your business through referrals and require more of your services. It is also a possibility that your existing client, could, in turn, be a future business partner. In fact, the task that you do for your client serves as an addition to your portfolio website, which in turn will bring in more clients that are perfectly matched to your expertise in line with your niche.

Creating a brand for yourself by choosing the projects you intend to include in your portfolio and selecting your clients wisely helps to grow your brand. Make an effort to mention individuals, brands, and companies by plugging them in creating your content to set a higher possibility of getting your brand at the forefront and be noticed by your target clients. Though the results won’t be immediate, utilizing SEO techniques to drive traffic to your website will surely set your brand to rank higher on the search engine results page and establish yourself as an authority in your niche. You may also lead a potential client by sending a cold email to pitch in your brand and services.

IN SUMMARY:

Here are the  seven(7) simple steps on “How to Start Freelancing in Las Vegas”:

• Determine Your Goals
• Find Your Niche
• Create a Brand for Yourself
• Create an Excellent Portfolio Website
• Set the Rate for Your Service
• Choose Your Clients Wisely
• Plug Potential Clients in Creating Your Content