Wisdom on How to Be a Freelancer

Ever wondered what it's like to work as a freelancer? Do you dream of setting your own schedule and working wherever you choose? Today the Tech Talent South org hosted a great panel around this topic, "How To Be A Freelancer", where local techies discussed their journey in deciding to work for themselves, their greatest challenges, tips for getting started, and what it takes to be successful. Here is some of the wisdom shared to support your journey!

• One key to success in freelance model is secure many different clients so you have a variety of projects to support your revenue stream while you also keep learning new skills and apply value in many areas...
• Recommend LLC to cover liability so your personal assets and keep your personal assets protected. Get a separate bank account all different from your personal endeavors. You can always add DBA "Doing Business As" later to cover your various offerings. Different tax benefits to different structures like S-Corp, C-Corp, Sole Proprietor etc Keep your business credit cards to your business name only and all separate from your personal name. Keep liability separate.
• Freelance is about doing what you love, giving services around what you are really good at, and work with multiple companies via various projects for many clients to drive business forward.
• The more you do the better you get. Practice makes perfect. Do as many projects as you can in the beginning to build momentum and a solid base of work and then you can "pick and choose" projects/clients moving forward.
• Get yourself out there and do what you love and try new things. See what people like and what sticks with the market. Business will then flow from there as you do more things that people value and pay for....
• You can do freelance as a tool to learn new things, meet more people, drive incremental revenue, do what you love, and utilize freelancing as a tool to drive new career opportunities.
• People pay for the risk you can help them manage and how you can add significant more value. It takes time to build up your rates by delivering well on projects, showing a good portfolio of work, and growing your rates overtime based on experience and success. Create value by doing things people can't do well or don't want to do that you have expertise and proven success in!
• Some tools that can help you as freelancer: Zoom for external video/audio communications, Slack for internal communications, utilize HubSpot for outbound messaging.
• Having an assistant is key as you grow to help you be accountable, keep on top of things, and give you new perspectives to ensure business keeps moving forward effectively & efficiently. Leverage your strengths and know your weakness so you can surround yourself with people who cover your weak spots. (Assistant can help you offload tasks for $15 an hour so you can focus that time on the big revenue activities).
• Have to have a customer relationship management system (CRM)to keep track of clients and relationships along with the business details around it.
• Set boundaries. Define your bandwidth and optimize your time and output because your work can become overwhelming and take over your life. Be careful to not burnout. Sustainability is key, keep a good work life balance blend!
• Some advice points: 
  • Never settle! Always keep pushing yourself to build up. Upward and onward.
  • Find a mentor that you can meet with or have a call with to keep learning from like a professor or former colleague. Have a mentor that can help you figure things out to keep talking and learning. 
  • Always give people value. If peoples lives are getting better because of what you can offer them in feedback, ideas, or services then the better you will be. Add value, sales will follow. 
  • Be nice to assistants. The assistant today is the executive of tomorrow. 
  • Build your brand identity now as it adds up and compounds overtime so post valuable content pieces to show your expertise and value.
  • Be careful of scope creep. Set clear expectations of what will be done and not done for proper work definition to keep everything on track and prevent potential relationship issues from any misunderstandings.
    
• Some quotes to remember:
  • *"You can't edit a blank page" so write your idea and concept down to give it life.
    *"Don't live for the weekend" so do what you enjoy during the week to keep healthy and happy.
    *Success is a journey. You only fail if you give up. Pivot or change if need be, but keep rocking forward"
    

Thank you Tech Talent South for putting on this nice event, the speakers Rob Jordan, Danielle Brycz, Beverly Tan, Sunny Su, and HQ Raleigh for hosting!