When the walls of the office seem to get too narrow, so many people feel the need to escape. Has it happened to you too? Do you dream of setting your alarm to the time you prefer, not receiving orders from your superiors and creating your base of operations anywhere in the world as a freelancer?
If you woke up one morning with these desires, you are probably developing the right mindset to start a freelance career. Seen from the outside, it may seem like a revolution full of positives, but the pitfalls that are not often seen from the outside cannot be forgotten.
If you are wondering how to become a freelancer, we will respond by telling you that you need a lot of organization. Working independently means discipline, paying taxes requires savings, not staying in bed in the morning requires a lot of willpower.
In addition to this, there are some strategies that few refer to when looking for a way on how to become freelance. And to think that it is these details that make the difference! The initial set-up is essential to determine the success of the new profession you intend to undertake.
Let’s find out how to become a freelancer and what are the six mistakes to avoid. With a few tricks you can avoid most of the mistakes you make at the beginning of a new freelance career …
1. Start without a little savings
Having a savings fund to draw on is important at any time in life. When you want to make new purchases for the home, when you plan to expand your family or when you fear being out of work.
A sum of money aside can be very useful for dealing with an emergency period and is equally important when deciding to start a freelance business.
In the event that you have to rent a room and buy furniture, it is quite obvious to prepare a fund from which to draw.
But if your freelance business has no apparent cost?
In any case it is essential to start with a small reserve , because a computer could always break or you could have few customers in the opening phase and you would find yourself paying taxes without being able to count on an immediate profit.
2. Don’t give proper weight to the experience
It is difficult to keep a free mind at bay, which wants to create without external constraints. However, if you are looking for the best strategy on how to become a freelancer, you need to convince yourself to be patient.
A very common mistake is to immediately start a freelance career without knowing exactly what to do and without experience.
Trying to work as an employee is a useful formative step to understand the dynamics of a job, find out if it actually reflects one’s vocation and, why not, start from that to get ideas on how to do it better.
Once the ideas are clear, you can start with the independent profession.
3. Do not define your goals
Another mistake that young people often make along the way on how to become a freelancer is to not set clear goals.
How much do I want to earn? How many hours do I want to work? What kind of customers do I want to look for?
There are so many questions to ask yourself to start your career.
But it is not enough to define the objectives during the initial phase, it is necessary to establish a cyclical control to keep the progress monitored.
At this stage, it is very important to be flexible. If a strategy does not work, a goal is too demanding at that time or some project has gone wrong, you need to be ready to change.
To help you set goals, we recommend creating a business plan for your project. Here you can write down everything you set yourself, how, when and how much to keep the situation under control.
4. Do not enter into a contract with customers
When working on a project for someone, which requires time and skills, it is essential to stipulate a contract between the parties.
A non-negligible aspect is to protect oneself from an economic point of view, avoiding a job that could not be paid by the end customer.
However, the contract is not just for this!
It is essential to write down what both parties can do so that false expectations or unexpected surprises are not created.
5. Do not keep track of income and expenses
Among the strategies on how to become a freelancer one cannot overlook the aspect of earnings and expenses.
How to figure out if the business is yielding, as it should?
You must carefully record all entries and exits, in a way that is not so different from the good saving habits that each of us should follow in everyday life.
Organize your payments and evaluate if, once all the duties are fulfilled, you have something left to put aside.
If not, let’s move on to the next advice.
6. Don’t give proper value to your work
Especially in the initial phase, you may be tempted to accept all the jobs that are proposed to you in order to prove yourself to be able to do as freelancer.
There is nothing wrong with this, but remember that it is primarily a job.
You provide your skills and, above all, your time to create a final product that you have to pay for what it’s worth.
It is unthinkable to work on a project for several days and get a fee that would not allow you to pay even a pizza.
As a freelance, remember that not only do you have to bear the daily expenses to live, but also you have to pay taxes to the State, the pension contributions, the accountant and you need to make money to do it.
Without fear, it indicates the compensation that you feel best for your work; if it is quality someone will sooner or later notice it.
These are indications on how to become freelance that can help you in the initial and nebulous phase, when you still don’t know how to move.
Being masters of your time, your work and your earnings is a wonderful aspect of life, so it is important to start off immediately to avoid making a disaster a wonderful adventure.
