How to start Freelancing

Sometimes I get questions from young or aspiring entrepreneurs who are seeking guidance on how to get started so I'm sharing some of the best tips I've come up with over the years.

Please note that there's a lot more involved in starting a legal business versus being a freelancer.

Thoughts

I started freelancing after my first startup failed and it taught me everything I wished I knew previously about networking, pricing and serving customers.

Choosing a Customer/Market

It is tempting to offer your product/services to everyone however that is a recipe for disaster. Cold outreach can indeed work but it's the most difficult and high-friction method of reaching customers.

Instead, focus on customers in an industry that you can easily navigate - this makes it easier for you to understand their problems, get in touch with new customers and grow your business.

Your target customer/market must have the budget to pay you to solve problems that are negatively affecting their lives/operations

Service or product?

Whether or not you choose to offer a service or a product will depend on the relationship that you want to build with your customer. However you should choose to offer one or the other - at least initially.

When offering a service, the customer is buying access to your expertise, and your time to deliver a customized solution specific to their needs. However, when you sell a product, the customer is buying a pre-packaged solution that you may then customize to their needs.

If you understand your customer, you'll know which one to offer. Start with one.

What to charge?

What you charge will depend on what how much profit you want to make on what you are selling to your customer.

If you're selling a service, you'll need to figure out an hourly rate.

If you're selling a product, you'll need to know your cost of materials & ongoing maintenance (if you're offering such).

Regardless, you will want to charge at a rate that allows you to not only cover your costs but also make a profit. For services, a good starting point is $50 USD an hour. You can also check the labour rates for wages in your country/state but be sure to account for taxes.

How to sell?

Sales is all about helping your customer solve a problem. Many struggle with sales because they do not understand what problems their customers need to have solved. As a result, many don't know how to offer a solution that the customer is willing to pay for.

Build a sales pitch that speaks directly to common issues your target customer faces. Make it simple to remember and repeatable so that it can spread via word-of-mouth.

Self Promotion

You should be unapologetic about promoting your self and your work. If you won't talk about what you do, why should anyone else?

Ask your customers to share their positive experiences working with you as well.

Hiring

After figuring out the above, you may eventually realize that you need help satisfying the growing customer demand.

Before you hire, you should automate and optimize your processes of promoting, selling and delivering products/services to your customer.

If that isn't enough, then you may consider sub-contracting some of your work to others. It's important to note that hiring others involves management overheads both in terms of cost and time. Hence, you'll need to adjust your prices accordingly.

Summary

It's pretty common to start a business nowadays and in my opinion, freelancing is one of the lowest-risk and highly flexible methods of getting started learning the basics. I wish you all the best in your journey!