Any tips on freelancing?

I’ve recently been made redundant and, in a mad panic, I agreed to do some freelance testing for a friend of a friend.

I’ve never done any freelancing before so are there any obvious pitfalls that I should be aware of? At any level, really!

Thank you! xoxoxo

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May I recommend reading “The Secrets of Consulting” by Jerry Weinberg?

Joe

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I did a little of this some time ago. It was all done through upwork, a company I’d trust if I was going to do more.

In terms of pitfalls, biggest one to my mind if you’re UK-based is the taxman! Be very aware of the obligations there … I forget most of what I learned back when I did a bit of freelancing, but there’s stuff like registering as a sole trader and submitting accounts (for which you’ll likely need an accountant so bear those fees in mind as well when setting your rates).

I really enjoyed certain aspects of freelancing, but to me getting work was a bit of a challenge … on upwork there are a lot of very low priced competition in parts of the world where the cost of living is so much less than here. It really takes time to build your business/reputation. However, as you’re doing work for a friend of a friend, you may not be so bothered with that right now, but down the line it may be more a consideration … I’d say I had like a 95% rejection rate for my pitches. When you’re working for yourself, that’s tough … and all you can do is keep smiling and go after the next job!

Good luck, relly hope it works out. Freelancing is on my radar to consider again in the future as it has many, many upsides as well :slight_smile: Long lunch anyone :stuck_out_tongue: Golfing all afternoon sound interesting :sunglasses:

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I did some freelancing on Upwork a while ago, but I gave it up since it was hard to do it right along with a fulltime job, I did manage to become top rated for a while, and also here are a few tips on writing good proposals when you’re bidding for jobs:

Another way to get jobs there is to get invited by the clients, to do that you will need to build up some reputation and have good keywords in your profile as well (you can think about it in SEO terms). Maybe you can invite some existing client, or ask a friend, to hire you for a few small jobs on the platform, so you can get some work history and written feedback which will be visible for future clients - which will make you appear more credible and trustworthy.