A freelance business consultant shares with you 7 tips to be followed by a successful freelancer. Freelancing comes with many benefits, but it also comes with its own set of pitfalls. While freelancing, there are certain things you can do to ensure that your freelancing career goes as smoothly as possible and that you don’t end up struggling along the way. 

How do you become a successful freelancer? 

No, it’s not just about talent; you need to follow some simple guidelines to be able to work from home and make enough money to live your life comfortably and travel around the world while doing what you love most – being creative. If you are thinking about becoming a freelancer but are afraid of what the future might hold, Freelancing is becoming an increasingly popular source of income among young professionals, and why not? It offers the freedom to work on your terms and earn as much money as you want when you want. However, freelancing comes with its own set of challenges, one of which is how to manage your time to get the most out of your income stream. 

This article explores these 7 tips and explains how they can help any freelancer succeed in their business venture.

1) Self Motivated:

The most important quality of all is self-motivation. Self-motivation is not something you can develop—it’s just part of who you are. As a freelancer, it doesn’t matter how well you work with clients or how quickly you complete projects, without self-motivation your freelance career will fail. 

It’s an important trait in any field, but particularly in freelancing. You’re not just responsible for your success, you’re also solely responsible for getting it. You have to take initiative, keep up with clients and manage deadlines. This may mean spending some extra time at work—even on days you aren’t taking home paychecks—just making sure everything is up-to-date. In other words, if you want to succeed as a freelancer, you have to be self-motivated.

2) Create Your Hours:

Part of freelancing means you can set your hours. It’s an opportunity for you to create boundaries that meet your schedule and lifestyle, whether it’s early birds vs. night owls or working from home vs. going into an office. But even though you have more flexibility than in a traditional job, setting your hours doesn’t mean working whenever and wherever you want.

I work 9-5. You probably do, too. We joke about putting in 9-5 hours, but that’s not much of a joke for freelancers. My freelance clients expect me to be available from 9 am until 5 pm, Eastern time. I can respond to their emails and calls any time during those hours—sometimes before my day even starts and sometimes after it ends—but regardless of when I choose to work, I need to be available for client communications during those hours. That means if I want (or need) to take care of family business or other personal matters at other times of day—on evenings or weekends, for example—I have more flexibility than someone who works an 8-to-5 job would have.

3) Stay Focused On Your Goals:

Want to be successful as a freelancer? Then don’t lose sight of your goals. The easiest way to do that is to write them down—all of them, both short- and long-term. You must have to keep these in mind if you are working on individual projects and considering new opportunities.

Most freelancers, in their quest for success, lose focus on what’s important. Whether it’s making money or pursuing passion projects, it’s easy to get sidetracked when you don’t have an employer looking over your shoulder. So if you’re serious about being successful and don’t want your path towards success derailed, you need to learn how to stay focused on what matters most. If that means regularly revisiting your goals and re-establishing them as priorities, then so be it. Your career should always come first—there is no such thing as just one more page before I go home.

4) Build Up Your Portfolio:

Before you can get your first client, it’s important to have a strong portfolio of past work. This is where your education, previous jobs, and any freelance gigs you may have worked on come into play. If you’re new to freelancing, building up a portfolio can be tough. Luckily there are ways for creatives like web designers, photographers, and developers to build their portfolios without actually having clients.

If you’re new to freelancing, it’s important to start building up your portfolio from day one. This will not only help you avoid cash-flow problems in those critical early months but will also give you something tangible for clients and potential clients to review. Showing me your work is one of the most common requests from people interested in hiring you for an ongoing project. The longer and more diverse your portfolio, the better off you’ll be as a freelancer.

5) Set Goals And Deadlines:

The best way to ensure you stay productive is to set goals and create deadlines for yourself. This will allow you to organize your time so that there’s no wasted effort and will help you prioritize what’s most important. You’ll feel accomplished when you meet each goal, giving your confidence a boost and motivating you further. Plus, knowing when each project is due means it’s easy for clients and colleagues to reach out with questions or feedback—which makes collaboration easier than ever!

As important as it is to have a good work ethic, successful freelancers know that setting goals and deadlines for themselves is an important part of being productive. Don’t forget that you’re also accountable to your clients and employers, though; they expect work from you and thus need you to stay on schedule. This means you need to find a good balance between being ambitious with your goals, but also realistic with your expectations of yourself—you don’t want to procrastinate or chill out in any list of accomplishments! Also remember: high achievers set their deadlines, which means that while employer deadlines are important, they aren’t where your focus should be 100% of the time.

6) Market Yourself Well And Stay Active:

Marketing yourself well is an important component of freelancing. When clients seek freelancers out, they generally have an idea of what they want and are looking for someone who fits that profile. If you’re not visible online and don’t share your portfolio and resume with as many people as possible, likely, you won’t be hired.

There are numerous freelance websites (including Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Freelancer, and Fiverr) that allow you to sign up and market yourself as a freelancer. Stay active on those sites, accept projects when they come your way, and never be afraid to negotiate rates. When starting as a freelancer I spent about 3-4 hours per day marketing myself. It was well worth it but hard work. However, once I reached $3k per month in revenue I only had to spend about 20 minutes each day marketing myself for new business opportunities. By doing so I’ve been able to maintain my income at around $6k/month from freelancing full-time for over 6 months.

7) Get Organized:

Whether you’re just starting or you’ve been freelancing for years, success starts with organization. Whether it’s your company files, invoices, or workload management, these seven tips can help turn things around and get you back on track. 1. Create a spreadsheet of all past and present clients, along with their contact information. Also, note down any deadlines they have given you and when they expect payment from you. This will come in handy when accounting for your time at tax time.

Set up a good workflow. Successful freelancers know how important it is to have an organized and efficient work environment. Find an organizational system that works for you and stick with it; no matter how high your workload becomes, or how many projects you’re juggling at once, if you can keep on top of things, you’ll be able to turn out great work consistently. In fact, not being able to keep on top of things might even mean that your business isn’t ready for growth yet—if it weren’t easy enough already, there’s always another excuse!