How to make money freelancing
The trends of our time are remote work, in a free schedule, in the digital sphere. As a result, almost daily social networks are full of advice, advertising of webinars and courses on how to make money on freelancing. Preferably a lot. I would like to quickly be somewhere in Bali in the winter.
In fact, everything is not so simple: there are dozens of pitfalls. Imagine an absolutely ordinary heroine of our time.
Masha graduated from the university, got her first job, and within a year she realized that she did not like the 5/2 schedule, low salary and short vacations. After a couple of days of googling, she stumbles upon a webinar from a self-employed marketer living in Thailand. Thinking, “why am I worse?" Masha decides to go freelance.
How to make money freelancing without experience?
So, Masha has absolutely no experience, so she will have to go through five stages of becoming a specialist. The first and most difficult is survival. First of all, a newly minted freelancer goes to the exchanges, takes on all the projects and usually does the most boring and primitive work. This is, for example, layout of sites according to a template, description of goods on marketplaces or transcription of audio recordings.
Masha fights with competitors, there are about 20 of them for each task, monitors ads and spends evenings fulfilling orders. Sometimes there are well-paid projects, but most often a person does a lot for little. Masha dreams of raising her rating on the stock exchange and increasing the number of positive reviews.
Masha quit her job because she lives with her parents and can afford low wages for a while. If she, say, rented an apartment, everything would look different. For example, after an 8-hour working day, she would fulfill orders received on freelance. Therefore, sooner or later, she would start to get tired. Most people end here: they cannot withstand high loads and instability.
Imagine that Masha was lucky – she learned a lot in a year at an official job and was able to bypass the survival stage, which usually lasts about six months. For a while, she took on all the tasks, and then she chose her field and created a good portfolio.
The next stage is formation. Masha realized that most of all she liked working with texts and decided to become a copywriter. Here, usually, those who have not quit yet quit and start earning almost their salary in a month. Fate, however, prepares new surprises for the copywriter: division into sub-niches, competitors with a good image, depression from feeling worthless and inexperienced.
This goes on for about a year. If Masha chooses an even narrower focus, sets ambitious goals, upgrades her skills and takes on big projects, even if for free, she will go further. There will be more orders, and the salary will rise to that which was at a permanent job. This is usually where most freelancers stop.
How to earn more?
Cross the stage of growth, and for this, make a plan. Masha, for example, set aside money and studied at the courses. Consequently, more “expensive” clients came to her, and the portfolio was enriched with texts that are not ashamed to be read. She realized that you can get 5 times more than before, and was able to go on vacation.
However, she doesn’t know how to attract new clients and doesn’t even always handle slightly more complex orders. At the same time, I don’t feel like working for meager money, and it’s still tight with new projects. Masha does not know how to talk about what she gives to the company so that she is paid. She begins to study further: she goes deeper into marketing, complex tasks, looking for her audience and gaining skills.
If in this mode she withstands a year, Masha becomes recognizable and her salary grows. Everything is starting to stabilize. She is not the same as before: now she knows everything about e-mail newsletters, selling articles and filling landing pages. Firstly, Masha chooses clients and boldly names the prices for the work. Secondly, she maintains her own blog and, at least in narrow circles, is widely known. She can delegate tasks and get more rest. Then stagnation begins: incomes do not change, wintering is tired, tasks have become routine.
It seems to Masha that she has reached the ceiling, and she is thinking about either opening her own agency or starting a course. Thus, it takes about 5 years to grow to a cool freelance specialist. On the other hand, a beginner will be able to earn at least 20-30 thousand freelancing in a year or two.