Flexible Working: Starting Your Fresh Freelance Career
If you’ve made the decision to go freelance, congratulations! The rewards can be great; there’s flexible working opportunities, your location may not matter, and you can begin to charge clients what you feel your work is really worth.
There are many contributing factors to why so many are choosing to be a freelancer, and the majority are positive. These reasons should give you enough motivation to keep up the hard work so that you can build momentum and have a fruitful freelance career.
However, there can also be some challenges and hiccups (as with any new venture). Therefore, it’s worth making sure you have a detailed plan of action that will see you into the fresh new year and ensure you’ve covered all bases for success.
Take the quiet time over the festive period to plan and implement things to ensure you’re as prepared for your new start as possible. The following are some ideas and inspiration for new freelancers who want to ensure that their career gets off to a successful and promising start in 2024.
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Take Control Of Your Finances
One of the main challenges that a freelancer may face is ensuring that they have a steady and regular income. Understanding your money, when you need to pay taxes, and where you need to invest, can feel overwhelming, especially if numbers and accounting has never been your strong point. Therefore, it’s crucial to contact and invest in professional help with your finances.
An accountant who works with freelancers will help you ensure that everything is being paid on time and you’re earning enough (hopefully more) to sustain your lifestyle. Don’t delay in researching and hiring someone to help take care of your income and outgoings; it’s crucial to your future success.
Seek further studies where necessary
As a freelancer, you’re running yourself as a business so it’s important to be aware of what you need in order to make yourself successful. It might be worth looking into an online BBA degree or something similar that might help enable you to expand and develop your skills to achieve more in this line of work.
Start Building Relationships
Whether you already have somewhere in mind to go and work for a set period of time or you have a list of active clients that are already sending you work, it’s crucial that you strengthen current relationships and begin building new ones.
Networking, co-working, and contacting those you know you can provide work for is always best done before you need to. Having an open line of communication will ensure that you have consistent opportunities for work, and if you do go through a quiet period (as many do), you have a large list of contacts who can help you find work or fill in the gaps.
Make Changes When Necessary
You’re just starting out in this new venture, so it’s worth remembering that you’re bound to face challenges, and sometimes, you’ll mess up. That’s okay, as long as you learn from them, and are quick to make any changes necessary.
Being open and embracing change will also ensure that you’re able to hone your processes and keep up with an ever-changing and competitive freelance market. Therefore, invest in the new technology that’s available to you, work somewhere different if your environment feels stifling, and look for new clients if you’re not thriving and doing your best work for someone. Now, get going; you’ve got this!
