Freelancing is something that may be tough for some people. If we avoid some mistakes, we can save ourselves from some grief.
In this article, we’ll look at some advice to follow as freelancers.
Overestimating What You can do Well in a day or Week
It’s better to underbook than overbook yourself so you won’t be too stressed.
It’s hard to do a good job if you’re in a rush.
Leaving Holes in a Contract
Make sure you think of all the points to protect yourself and your client and all the expectations from both sides are met.
Not Calculating Your Rate
You have to calculate your rate in order for your work to be profitable.
Compromising Work-Life Balance
Everyone needs to take a break once in a while.
Working too hard will leave you stressed and unhappy.
It’s hard to do a good job in this situation.
Venturing Too Far From Your Niches
Better stick to what you’re good at so you can do a good job.
Make sure you can actually do a good job before you accept a project.
Trust Your Gut When You Choose What Project to Accept
Your gut feeling is usually accurate when choosing what to pick.
Getting Too Emotional About Business Relationships
Business relationships should stay as such.
Never get too emotional about business relationships and make yourself miserable.
Not Tracking Your Time
Time tracking is needed for accurate billing, project time estimation, and managing productivity.
Not Taking Care of Yourself
Never skip meals, take breaks often, don’t sit on your chair all day, and enjoy the sunshine once in a while.
Selling Yourself Too Hard
Being genuine helps with getting sales than focusing only on sales.
Being too sales-y will be noticed by your prospect and that won’t leave a good impression.
Trying to Sell to High-Quality Clients With the Same Methods That Works for Low-Quality Clients
High-quality and low-quality clients are different.
So they should be targeted differently.
Sales and marketing strategies should be different for both.
Not Giving Samples Much Thought
You should retain rights to your sample work whenever possible.
This way, you can refer to them whenever you want since you’re in control of them.
Not Asking for Help
Asking for help will help you solve problems much faster.
It’s also better to work with a support network that can help you get through the problems you face.
Not Having an Onboarding Checklist
Having a checklist will make sure you won’t forget what you have to do to onboard clients.
Forgetting to Celebrate Small Wins
Celebrating small wins is a great way to keep yourself positive and become more successful.
Conclusion
If we follow the advice above, we can all be successful freelancers.