Whatever your branch, dear freelancer, you must live with your job. Therefore, you must profit from the checking account at the end of the month. To succeed in this, if you have just launched yourself, you must make yourself known within the sphere, the one in which you want to operate, and let it be known that a new professional has arrived in the country, full of skills and at the same time eager to bring value to the interior of the environment. Before starting, I advise you to write down the phrase “bring value” because we will review it in the key points of the next lines.
Forget The Word CV
For you, it no longer exists: you are a freelancer. You, possibly, must request a curriculum vitae from a candidate who wants to collaborate with you. If a company or a client likes your references, prepare a nice presentation where you show everything you know and can do.
You Are Not Looking For Potential Customers. They Are The Ones Who Have To Look For You
This aspect must be seen calmly because if you are a novice in some way, you have to sow and then reap. Attach your beautiful presentation to an email and, before sending it, make a phone call to that prospective customer who interests you so much, possibly telling him in the right way where he is wrong. This move will raise a lot of attention towards you. A separate discussion, however, if you are a neo-freelance but your name is already known in the world, despite being part of a team: now you have to communicate that you are a freelancer, that you no longer have employee chains, and you can work with everyone.
Build Your Team
Do you specialize in something, right? Now, to offer a complete package to potential customers, you need collaborators, so come down from the pear tree and offer those guys a coffee, exchange a few words and in the meantime, tell them your idea: finding a common meeting point is easier than you believe because we all have and will always need new job opportunities, new projects.
Get Found Online
Create your niche blog, share your articles on all relevant social channels and communities, and participate in discussions bringing value and proving that your experience is valid. Potential customers are everywhere! Also, remember, however, that beyond the web, there are people like you. Therefore, meeting them at events can generate further interest in you and new collaborations.
Humility And Education
Your opinion will always be welcome if seasoned with a healthy calmness and good education. If you don’t know something, say it right away. Scrambling for mirrors or wanting to appear as an expert will always make you lose points. It also avoids aggression like the plague because it leads to nothing. Positive criticism instead brings value and generates interest. Never give judgments, especially if you don’t know all the sources. This generally dislikes first web skin.
Only Promise What You Can Keep
Don’t be enticed by the god of money by taking projects or clients that you won’t be able to manage due to the workforce, short time or little experience in the field. You will immediately burn all your chances because negative word of mouth runs faster than good news.
Don’t Sell Off Your Professionalism
The whole world is a country, but Italy is a champion of devaluation. Selling your work for a handful of views or Euros is not worth it: thank the loving bidder and, in the meantime, add more value to the projects you already have in your pocket. Entering this mechanism will trigger a growing fear in you of not being able to acquire more assignments, and you will make it easy for anyone to manipulate you! If you have come to be freelance, it means that you were and are aware of your abilities. Accepting underpaid projects will not only make you work against your will, but it will also devalue your brand.
Behind A Brand, There Is A Person
Freelance = Brand
You are inevitably a brand, but the secret is to always think as a person, indeed, as an entrepreneur. If your brand shines, it means that behind it, there is a good communicator and a man who knows how to do his job. If your brand doesn’t take off, it means that you are doing something wrong or that you are probably better at executing than directing. This must not give rise to a feeling of frustration. On the contrary, remember that you always need someone who knows how to carry out orders: large companies do not carry them out by managers but by the arms of the workers who carry out the directives (not always) of their superiors.
