How to become a successful freelancer

Most recently, I visited a mini-conference of the local spill, where I reflected on the topic of freelancing, from the point of view of a web designer. I even prepared a presentation for this action (in Ukrainian). Here I will also try to describe what I wanted to convey to the listeners of the Coffee Design Code.

Because Habr's audience is quite advanced in this matter, then I will miss the introduction on who freelancers are and go straight to their goals.

Goals freelancer

Those who go for free bread want to achieve (with some rounding) four global goals:

• The ability to earn more;
• Lack of leadership;
• Free schedule;
• Freedom to choose a workplace.

Ability to earn more

A fixed rate, although it gives some confidence in a stable flow of finance, but freelancing promises us potentially unlimited financial opportunities.

But, in order to start “mowing the loot,” we need, first of all, to think about such questions:

• Where to get customers?
• How to form an adequate price?
• How to get money from customers?
• How to work less and earn more?

Where to get customers?

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While you were working for the “big” uncle, your task was only the high-quality performance of your work. You were given tasks - you diligently (and maybe not very) performed them. But going into freelancing you need to do it all yourself.

So what needs to be done so as not to stick ads on the pillars of the “$ 100 site” ads?

First of all, it is normal to arrange a portfolio! "Meet on clothes ..." - this is the case. Without it, it will be very difficult for you to find a client and defend your price. And if you have no work at all, then do it for invented projects. The main thing is to show your abilities and skills.

Portfolio can be both a separate site and decorated on freelance exchanges (www.free-lance.ru, www.free-lancers.net, www.weblancer.net, etc.). Knowledge of English gives you access to Western exchanges and, accordingly, customers.

The more “roots” you launch into the network, the greater the likelihood that potential customers will pay attention to you. In this, you need more light on all sorts of design forums, blogs and conferences. Simply put, you need to "shine" in the design community .

One of the ways to attract attention is to maintain a thematic blog (which I am doing now). In addition to sharing experience and just a fan, you can make a bunch of useful contacts, not only potential customers, but also potential partners for work. Over time, when there will be more work than you can do yourself, these contacts will come in handy.

Though you are a freelancer - a person who is constantly on the Internet - and offline communication does not need to be deleted from your life. In this, make yourself normal business cards . This is, firstly, simply more solid, and secondly, it will enable customers not to lose contact with you. Well, if you are developing a corporate style, it makes sense to show off and make a non-standard business card.

Doing your work, try not just to do it efficiently, but also so that the client is satisfied with the cooperation with you. Prepare pleasant “ buns and gingerbread ”, which will set you apart from others and create a positive impression of professional work. A satisfied customer will recommend you to his friends and partners, or he will contact you with new projects.

How to form an adequate price?

This question is very important for you to be competitive in the market, and at the same time, you have enough for a comfortable life. There are two possible options:

The perfect price. It is calculated on how much you would like to receive income per month. Estimate how many days per month you plan to work. How many hours a day ... Simple calculations will give the price per hour of work. You will only have to correctly estimate the time you spend on this or that work.

The real price. Because If your needs may slightly exceed your capabilities (you want Lexus, and in Photoshop you just learned how to work), then you can go some other way. We are looking for people of your specialty on the freelance market, with works of your level. We look at what price they ask for and set themselves the same.

There is such a situation when you are interested in some kind of new topic, and there is no work in the portfolio. You can do a couple of projects for free. In this case, the client knows what is going on, and you learn from a real project.

To take or not to take a prepayment?

My position is to take. But at first, your freelancing career, no one will pay in advance. Especially if there are very few works in the portfolio.

And you need to take an advance payment for this reason:

• it shows the client’s willingness to work with you and his solvency;
• it disciplines you. By taking the money in advance, you take the responsibility to do the work on time;
• There are projects that are delayed for a couple of months through no fault of yours. Prepay makes it possible not to sit on the beans while work is in progress.

Do not interfere with money to get to you

Very often, the client is a busy person, and in order to meet you in person or go to some rare branch of the bank, he needs to allocate special time for this. And instead of receiving payment on the same day, you can wait several days until he has free time. Therefore, provide the client with as many payment options as possible for your labor: cash, money transfers, card accounts (most common banks), Yandex.Money, webmoney, etc.

How to work less and earn more?

First you just need to sleep and relax . When you work for days, then quickly burn out. The quality of your work and people close to you suffers from constant fatigue. And as a result, you earn more and earn less.

Invest in yourself. Those. spend your time and earned money not only on beer and nishtyachki :), but also on the fact that in the long term will bring you more income.

• Self-study;
• Attending master classes and thematic conferences;
• Comfortable workplace (so that the toolkit does not distract you from work, but helps);
• ...

In order to work most efficiently, determine your most productive period of the day . Minimize the influence of demotivators at this time: turn off twitter and facebook (this is hard, but possible), check email less often (if something urgent, they will call you back), postpone reading your favorite rss feeds for free time, and so on.

For me personally, registration by a private entrepreneur gave only positive results. First, I work legally. Secondly, customers give away their money more easily when the contract is signed between the parties. And trust gives you access to more interesting projects.

Keep statistics of your income. As a rule, professional stagnation is clearly reflected in income. This indicator will give you an understanding of whether you are progressing.

Since we want to work less and spend free time with your favorite hobby, then value your time and be reinsured - make backup copies of working files regularly. I learned from bitter experience when photoshop disfigured the source file due to incorrect closure and I had to start work over again.

Lack of leadership

We have talked about how to earn more money, now let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of other goals that we would like to achieve.

The lack of leadership, at first glance, has only advantages; no one stands above the soul ... you do what you want. But if you are in principle a poorly organized person, then more to kick x ... than to work.

While you were working for a “big” uncle, he took the search for new projects and risks for not paying for work. Now - it goes on your shoulders.

Free schedule

The ability to work whenever you want is definitely an advantage of freelancing. But here it is important that the border work / rest is not blurred. After all, we want to work at home, not live at work.

Personally, the separation of the work space from the home helps somehow keep this line. Those. a simple transfer of a computer to another room makes it possible not to be distracted by it when I rest. I noticed that after such a livehack I began to sit less at the computer. Ideally, I want to move the work environment to another room altogether.

It is also important to understand what hours you work and when you relax. I simply wrote my work schedule on a piece of paper and try to stick to it. Over time, this should develop into a habit.

Freedom to choose a workplace

You will appreciate the ability to work at home when it is −10 ° C outside and you don’t need to go to the office. And working in the open air is generally a great thing. You choose the tools with which you are comfortable to work.

However, there is another side of the coin - how not cool, and you are constantly at work. All spending on the arrangement of the workplace you pull on yourself. But basically a virtual social circle can lead to the fact that you stop going out of the house.

What's next? What are the prospects?

With work experience you will have more projects than you can do yourself, but you just don't want to lose them. At this point you will need contacts that you have gathered from various sources. Thus, you can assemble a team and provide a greater range of services .

Over time, you will increasingly begin to transfer work to others, while you yourself will be engaged in art directorship. You can open your own studio . It is logical, because I’m personally a forty-year-old designer who makes projects himself (as he did at the beginning of his career) with his professionalism.

Sharing the experience is an interesting thing. And when such an experience is a wagon and a small truck, then master classes and conferences can be held. As you can see, the prospects are not small.

Summing up ...

... all of the above. Freelance provides ample opportunities for self-realization, but also has several disadvantages. A poorly organized person is more likely to stumble in a routine and low-budget projects.

I hope that my thoughts on the topic will help someone to accept the "freelance" or at least understand the nuances.

You can be a successful freelancer. What do you want!

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UPD. Habrapzovypol imploid added a topic with useful tips:

1. It is very important to add a photo to a profile - this really increases the chance to receive an order many times over. Look at the top freelancers on the exchanges - almost everyone has a photo.
2. I look for only long-term orders and try not to be scattered on several customers. The customer must be chosen as seriously as he chooses the performer. Especially at the beginning, because bad reviews can spoil the reputation at first.
3. When there are no reviews and the portfolio is empty, you can set the price lower, but tell the customer that this is a special demo price so that he can actually see your level. After a couple of months, you can raise to a normal level and it is much easier than to immediately receive an order for such a price without a portfolio. I started from $ 10 / hour in a couple of months I raised it to $ 15 / hour, and after half a year of work it was already $ 20 / hour and all this with the same customer.
4. Without a portfolio, you can offer to make a test task and select customers who themselves offer a test task.
5. Each customer has his own price plug and he will not hire someone higher or lower than this fork (otherwise all orders would be taken by cheap Indians). And an experienced customer is looking for a person closer to the top of his fork, but with the highest quality for this price. So at the cost of dumping is completely pointless, you need to focus on quality.
6. Stability of results, continuous availability and communication are often more important than the actual level of programming.

From myself I would add that the speed of responses to customer inquiries has a very positive effect on loyalty to you.

_{This article is also available in the Ukrainian translation .}