How many of these will you write? =|

Samuel:

Reading this post took me back many years (I’ve been freelancing since 1993). I especially like that you are aware of number five — letting clients go. Some freelancers take the same mindset into freelancing that they had in the corporate world, ie, “I have to put up with this to pay my bills.”

You hit the nail on the head when you said, “Chances are, one of the reasons you first considered becoming a freelancer was so you could create an environment with less stress and a happier workday.”

If you’ve been brave enough to step out on your own, trust that and gently let go of clients who may add to your bottom line financially, but cause you stress. End the relationship professionally (eg, finish the project if you’ve committed to it), but by all means, end it.

Excellent post. With this kind of insight, you should have no problem making a success of freelancing over the long haul.

Continued success.

Sincerely,
Yuwanda

As someone getting ready to cut the cord myself, this is great stuff to read. I think the point about staying good with current clients is the most important takeaway for me.

Great article. I’m also staring over the edge of that freelance cliff. Reading posts like this make it seem more and more do-able. Thanks!

Thank you! I like how you make freelance seem possible. Too many authors out there make it seem like the holy grail: wonderful but all together unattainable. Thanks for offering the alternative view.

Great article, I think that structure is something I most definately need to work on!

Can’t stress #2 enough: you’re not a web designer/developer/photographer/graphics artist/painter/whatever. You’re a business owner. The services your business offers might include web design/development/photography/graphics creation/painting/whatever, but if you focus on being a business owner first, you have the best chance of succeeding where others will fail.

What will you do today to ensure you earn your salary next week or next month?

Good point, reflects much of my experience.
However, I strongly disagree with your #7 (business card and website):

As a freelancer, you sell your competence, and your professionalism. You need to communicate that with a professional business card. If it looks cheap or unprofessional, most people correlate that with your skills. If you say “oh, I don’t have a business card yet”, it’s obvious you are a greenhorn and have no experience. Even if you get the business, it’s likely you get it at a lower rate.

The same applies for your webpage. I think it is not necessary to have tons of pages, two or three will do. As a freelancer, you will get little new business directly from your web site, but you get a lot of bsuiness frompeopel who hear about you, and then go to your website. make sure that you don’t spoil the positive image…

PS.: Especially if you are a web-designer, I consider an excellent webpage a must.

Your #4 is my #1 this year. Part of my ’structure’ is to touch current and ‘inactive’ clients on a regular basis. If I wrote content for a new client website, I suggest a press release to announce the site. If it’s a new business, I suggest a press release and an article. If I can plug the idea of a blog…blah blah blah….you all know how it works, but it’s amazing how many (or few) of us take this and make it real.

My switch will hit one year on March 24th. There’s no turning back.

I’ve been freelancing full time now for ten years, and never had business cards, never advertised or cold canvased, never picked up work from job boards and never had a professional web design portfolio site. But still manage to survive comfortably with a constant flow of work.

It´s a great article. Very cool tips.

There´s just one thing I “can´t understand”…it is not having business cards. When you go to business meeting, and the client gives you his/her card (normally), what do u give him? it´s important because if the client doesn´t work with you this time, he will have your personal info for any future project that may come…

2. Business Skills Are More Important Than Freelancing Skills: Very important point if not the most important one from my perspective. And it’s somehow one of the most challenging ones. Even the ugliest grocery stores can create revenue if they have keyclients who like the owner ..

2.1 One needs to carefully and constantly grow the business network and develop good and solid relations with clients whenever possible. At least that’s my deal. If you’re a little bit introverted the whole “business socialising”-thing is very challenging (I can tell). But life’s no chocolate cake, ain’t it.

thank you very much for the article. its made me less of a wuss for when I make my moves. i hate taxes, also, but being organized with the proper forms and such is so worth it.

To the point of business cards and websites — I’m not arguing that people don’t need them. In fact, I would expect any subcontractor I work with to have them. But at the same time, you would be amazed to find out how many freelancers there are that are making very good money never having either.

Realistically speaking, many freelancers have a few loyal clients that provide 5-7 projects yearly that each pay a few grand. They’re aid well and are happy with their work and have had no shortage of it. So unless they need to find replacement clients or want to expand their business, they don’t need business cards.

What you don’t need is different for everyone. I was using a more extreme example to show that it can be surprising to find out what you can do without and still make a good living. Plus, I like being a contrarian whenever possible

Great list. I’ve had similar experiences. Especially the business skill part is so true. However, most of the lessons assume you already have a client. Being a skilled negotiator and getting paid what you’re worth isn’t really important if you don’t have anyone to negotiate with. Your number one priority is actually finding clients.

Coming from a 40-hour corporate world, you’re probably used to doing your “stuff” only (designing/programming etc). Someone else is doing the marketing/sales and your boss serves you new projects on a silver platter. Well, as a freelance, the marketing is now up to you.

If you think that business cards and a portfolio website is everything you need in order to get the phone ringing, you’ll probably soon be out of business. You’re most likely great at what you do, since you’ve decided to freelance, but the world doesn’t know that (unless you already have a good network). Marketing is crucial. You have to know who your customers are and how you are going to reach them, and how to sell yourself. You can’t rely on them stumbling over your portfolio site and being amazed by what they see. Or perhaps it’s just my site that sucks

So, you have to spend a lot of time finding new clients, perhaps 12 hours a week filling the pipe with new customers. You can’t sit there and iterate on your own website and wait for the phone to ring. That way you will end up with a great website which you can admire from back at your old job…

excellent list. I’m a newly switched freelancer (about 2 months now). I agree with (or will agree with) just about everything here… although my first step was setting up my new portfolio site. By the way - I found this article link from your main site: wakeuplater.com. Great stuff - keep it up!