Freelancing is now a valid career option, and plenty of people are ditching their regular jobs for this.
If you have thought of switching your career and becoming a freelancer, it is not impossible.
However, freelance aspirants can make some mistakes in the beginning. If you plan to start freelancing, you need to avoid these mistakes.
We have listed the most common mistakes below to help you pursue freelancing in a better way:
1. Anticipating work
There might be plenty of people looking for a writer online, but they won’t search for you. You need to have a good profile before people approach you.
New freelancers need to communicate and find work online.
Even if you are not new to writing or designing, you are new to freelancing. You have to make people aware of what you’ve done to be noticeable.
Till then, you need to look out for clients and not the other way round.
2. Accepting any project
Even if you are starting out and want to make a good profile on freelancing websites, know your worth.
It is good to stick to an average amount payable to new freelancers, rather than accepting a meager pay.
Note that building a good profile needs good reviews. You might not give your best when you allow yourself to get low pay.
3. Trusting anybody online
Working with clients all across the globe through freelancing websites can be rewarding. However, just like many internet scams, you can come across cheaters too.
You have to be careful about who you can rely on when you work online.
There are hundreds of people making ten email IDs every day. They then set up accounts on freelancing websites, hire people, get their work done, and delete their account without paying.
If you come across such incidents in your initial struggle, you might want to give up on freelancing altogether.
4. Losing contacts with clients
Freelancers don’t always get a source of regular work. The projects they get can be frequent, but it is never definite.
A big client might hire you to write ten blog posts and return with thirty more in the following month. You need to make sure that you keep in touch with clients who might have work to offer in the future.
Don’t just keep your contacts limited to one project – you never know when they’d need you again.
5. Forgetting your taxes
If you think that jumping from an employee to a freelancer might save you from paying taxes, you are wrong.
Just as you are supposed to pay taxes as an employee, as a freelancer, you fall under the self-employed category.
You too are liable to pay taxes, and they might need quarterly payments.
Read: 5 Bookkeeping Tips for Being Successfully Self-Employed
6. Focusing on quantity over quality
Freelancers want to focus on getting a definite amount of work, which draws attention to the number and not quality. However, you need to make an impression on your clients, builds good contacts, have a high profile, and so on.
For catering to all these aspects, you can’t just think about quantity but also the quality of your work.
Better the quality, better the reviews. This, in turn, draws in more work and builds a reputation.
It is not tough or unimaginable to quit a regular 9 to 5 job and become a freelancer. More and more people accept the luxury of working from home or traveling while working.
Such professions are bringing a new dimension in the online work-sphere, and it is ever evolving.
Take a chance and try your luck as a freelancer. Just make sure you avoid the common mistakes!
About The Author
Arpita Arya is the Co-founder of LinkOceans.com. She has been in the digital marketing industry for the past three years and contributed her expertise to various brands over the web. She has gained great experience and skill set in content marketing and improving website’s traffic through cross-promotion.