If you’re interested in choosing freelancing as a career, you must be wondering how to get freelance work without having any work experience.
Landing your first freelance job can be difficult and tedious. People were not aware of the lucrative lifestyle of freelancers for a short time, and content mills also ruled. Now people are not only aware but also shifting towards freelance marketplaces.
Each of them wants to make a living as a freelancer and enjoy freedom. But how can you get your first freelance job?
In this blog post, I will explain all the steps you can follow to get freelance jobs as a beginner.
Qualification For Freelance Jobs
Only two primary qualifications are essential to get you your first freelance job and help you throughout your freelance career. Those qualifications are education and experience.
Freelancing allows you to expand on these qualifications with the passage of time and according to your growth. Having an education is essential; that doesn’t mean that you must hold a Master’s degree in English to become a freelance writer.
You can enroll yourself in a few online courses to get enough education about what you are doing to provide your clients with the best possible results.
The level of education greatly depends on the type of freelancing services you’re offering. For example, a programmer will need more education than a writer.
Setting Up Your Online Presence
To get freelance jobs as a beginner, you need to have an online presence. For this, you should have a website and create accounts on one or two social media platforms.
Don’t waste so much money and time on your website on making it unique. Make it something where clients can get to know about you and see your work.
Choose those social media channels where you can find the most active-on freelance jobs related to the services you’re offering. This will help you create connections with potential clients easily.
Be A Specialist Rather Than A Generalist
You might have heard to be a generalist in terms of getting a lot of clients, but it doesn’t always work. In freelancing, you need to be a specialist.
Put yourself in the shoe of the person who is outsourcing things to freelancers and look for someone to do a specific job.
For example, you need someone to redesign the UI of your app using specific software. You go to any freelancing platform and search for terms like “UI design” and “Specific Software.” The website will show you freelancers having expertise in that specific task. You’ll assign the job to the one who can do exactly what you want.
You need to niche down your services. So that you can easily find your clients, and your client will also find you.
Build Your Freelance Portfolio
A portfolio plays a vital role in landing your first freelance job. It let your client know that you can do the required work. Your portfolio needs to be dependent on the type of freelance work. It should include all of the best examples of the work you’ve done so far.
You should continuously update your portfolio as you get more work under your belt.
If you don’t have client work, then create some. If you are a freelance writer, you can write articles on any topic and publish them on medium. Same for graphic designers, they can create a few designs to showcase their work and include them in your portfolio.
Freelancers who aren’t doing creative things, such as software developers, virtual assistants, can include screenshots of their work. It will do wonders if you include case studies of how you have helped clients.
Learn How To Use Job Sites
Job sites can be a lifesaver for fresh and new freelancers to get a freelancing job. There are three ways to find freelance jobs on websites: you directly contact a potential client to offer your services, the client himself reaches to you to request your services, and the third and most unpredictable way is that you use a job board to find open listings.
As I said above, using a job board to find a freelance job is not beneficial. It is full of scams. Studies have found that there are 60,70 scams for every remote job listing.
Let’s discuss how to use job boards to get more work and multiply your income.
Highlight Your Value
You should know that your client only cares about what you can do for them. So, outline precisely how you’re going to help your client in your pitch.
Whether you’re going to create ads that generate them more revenue, increase their website traffic, or write an article to increase the number of social shares, show them how you can give them a great ROI in return for the money they spend on you.
Show Your Work
In the traditional job market, you need to provide a resume and cover letter when searching for a job. But in freelancing, this isn’t required so much.
Clients will ask you the samples of your work or some other validation type that you are capable and expert of what you’re doing.
Customize Your Approach
Applying for freelance gigs is indeed time-consuming, and so is freelancing. You have to draft each application to the potential client.
Sending a generic, run-of-the-mill pitch to every single job listing can be much more comfortable, but that is not going to get you very far. So, spend some time crafting your emails and pitch; believe me, it will bear fruits.
Follow Up
You can’t expect clients to be knocking down your door by just sending a wave of initial emails. Create a backend funnel for your emails and keep your emails organized. There are several email add-ons available that can do this task for you.
Understand Your Chosen Industry
know you must be excited and eager to kick start your freelance career. But before that, you must understand the potential of your industry.
You’ll need to know about the competition level, and do even companies hire freelancers to do specific tasks, or they prefer employee roles? The average rate of pay, and much more.
Understanding all these questions will help you guide who to contact.
Final Thoughts
Everyone has got to start somewhere. The steps mentioned above are legit and practical. By following them, we can make sure that you’ll get your first freelance job. Work on building your portfolio, highlighting your best work, and never forget to follow up on the emails you’ve sent.
Freelancing allows you to get paid for your passion in your life. Hopefully, this post will help you get a freelance job as a beginner.
