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Tips for successfully freelancing from home

Posted: 29th June 2020 08:33

With the global crisis stopping brick and mortar offices from opening, more people than ever have started working from home. For freelancers, this is nothing new; many of us have been working at home for years. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the tips and tricks we have learned through our years of freelancing from home. If you are just beginning your journey as a stay at home or digital nomad freelancer, here are the tips we wish we knew from the beginning. Some of them may be simple, like setting work hours and staying motivated. Some might be an eye-opener for you, like the 5 best ways to send money to Europe from the U.S. - P.S. Our favorite way is through Exiap.

Find a support group

For people starting out, this is our number one tip, find a support network. There are thousands of groups of likeminded individuals on the internet or even in your home town. By getting involved in these groups, you avoid the biggest problem for home workers; isolation. Often these individuals have already been through what you are going through and will be able to support and encourage you. You also get the added benefit of seeing where your success might get you, and later on, down the line, you will be able to help out other newcomers who are in the position you are in now.

Give up your time for research

Too many freelancers we see entering the market have no idea what their worth is. They do not know how much they should charge per hour or per day and often just make it up as they go along. When you are dealing with multiple clients, this can get confusing for you and can wind up seriously harming your reputation if these companies speak to each other.

Another issue is under-pricing; in a bid to get work in, lots of freelancers end up lowering their charges to get customers in. Unfortunately, it always seems to be when you have just dropped your prices, that a lot of work comes in. This means you will end up spending a lot of time working for less than you should.
Figure out your rates and stick to them.

Budget before Proposal

Anyone who has been freelancing for a decent period of time will have run into this issue. Somebody approaches you asking for lots of work and your heart jumps; you spend hours of your time preparing a great proposal and plan for them, and then they do not reply for two weeks. When they finally do get in touch, they tell you that your quote is double what they intended to spend.

Make sure you find out your client’s budget before devoting too much time - there are a lot of time wasters out there.
 
These simple tips are worth their weight in gold. If you follow them from day one of your freelancing career, you will do a lot better off than the majority of new freelancers. Good luck!