I know you’ve been wondering all along how you are going to start freelancing with no experience, that is why you have landed in this article and I promise to feed your curiosity if you will exercise patience and read it to the end.
There is a saying that goes “Experience is the best teacher”, this means that for one to become a professional in a chosen field of endeavor he must have been in it for a while.
Now experience cannot come if there are no mistakes made, because it is in making mistakes that one will discover how best he would have done a particular task, and the next time he embarks on the same task, success is going to be very certain.
And continuing to do the same thing over and over again is going to make you become a professional in it. As a professional, therefore, you will always find yourself in the position to help others to learn how best to do the same thing.
So having been in the freelance business for over 5 years now, I think I am in a better position to help you learn how to start freelancing even though you don’t have any experience.
But before I show you how to start freelancing with no experience, let us first get to see who a freelancer really is.
Who is a freelancer?
A freelancer is a professional or an expert who is hired to render his services on contract terms or basis.
Freelancers are usually self-employed and a good number of them often render their services from the comfort of their homes and these kinds are referred to as remote freelancers.
What is needed to be a freelancer?
To be a freelancer, you must possess the skills that will help you to render the required service in your area of expertise or freelance job.
Below are the basic skills that cut across all the freelancing jobs that are in demand now:
- Industry knowledge.
- Negotiation.
- Creativity.
- Communication.
- Project management.
- Time management.
- Problem solving.
- Marketing.
- Empathy.
You can read the article below to get an explanation of all the freelancing skills mentioned above.
Basic Skills Needed For Freelancing.
How to start freelancing with no experience.
To start freelancing with no experience you need to acquire the industry knowledge that will help you understand the basic steps you must take in order to become successful as a freelancer.
Below are the steps listed and explained in full detail:
- Acquire industry knowledge.
- Choose your freelancing jobs.
- Develop your freelancing skills.
- Set your goals.
- Purchase your freelancing equipment.
- Utilize freelancing tools.
- Determine your pricing.
- Join freelancing sites.
- Build your own portfolio website.
- Network with other freelancers.
- Promote your freelancing business.
1. Acquire industry knowledge.
The reason why so many people fail to succeed in life is that they carry out a series of trials and give up when they are unable to withstand the mistakes that came from those trials.
While those who succeed in life are those who were able to correct their various mistakes until they finally achieved success.
Therefore, if you want to succeed in life you must learn from the latter.
In freelancing, there are lots of freelancers who have had years of experience in the industry and are willing to use those experiences as the basics for teaching beginner freelancers how to become successful in the industry. And you must seek these kinds of to learn and acquire the industry knowledge that will help you to become a successful freelancer.
Below are some of the ways you can learn about freelancing:
- Reading blog posts.
- Watching YouTube tutorials.
- Enrolling in online courses and webinars.
- Joining online freelance forums and communities.
- Networking with established freelancers.
You can reach out to the freelancers who are providing the above content by using the contact forms on their blogs, sending them emails, and DMs as well as calling them on their phone numbers.
2. Choose your freelancing jobs.
As a freelancer, you need to be an expert or professional in a particular field because the worst that would happen to a freelancer is taking on a project or service he will end up being able to deliver.
That’s if there is any way you are going to manipulate a client into giving you the said job.
But if you are walking in the corridor of getting a freelancing job, you will realize that no client will ever hand you a project or task without accessing the portfolio of previous works you’ve been able to execute and deliver appropriately.
So while there are lots of freelancing jobs in demand now, you must ensure you choose the ones you have expertise. You can choose a variety of them based on how knowledge or the level of your experience in the field.
For example, I freelance in fields like web design, photography, videography, social media management, graphics design, digital marketing, etc.
3. Develop your freelancing skills.
As a freelancer, you need to possess the basic skills that will endear you to your work and clients.
And it is worth noting that most of the freelancing skills are being updated continuously and for that reason, you must always learn how to adjust to what’s trending at the moment.
For instance, freelance writers used to struggle a lot to bond with ideas that will help them come up with topics, titles as well as the body of their work. But today, a freelancer can use AI tools to do the aforementioned tasks.
So you must work on developing the freelancing skills that align with your freelance job and always be ready to adjust accordingly to the changes in time.
4. Set your goals.
Starting your freelance journey by acquiring industry knowledge will help you to understand how other freelancers were able to make it in the industry.
But that doesn’t mean you should aim at following in any of their footsteps, instead, you must sum up their own experience and carve out your own unique mode of entry and performance in the industry.
5. Purchase your freelancing equipment.
I believe you know the equipment that will enable you to deliver any freelance projects or tasks you are given in your chosen freelance job.
For example, if you are a web designer like myself you will need a computer or laptop with an internet connection as well as a payment method that will allow you to buy domain and hosting for your clients.
But there are other freelance jobs that will require much more freelance equipment. For instance, as a freelance videographer like myself, you will need a camera, tripod stands, video lights, a microphone, a computer, editing software, etc.
And as you can see, freelance videography will require much capital to invest in freelance equipment.
So therefore, to start freelancing with no experience make sure you are able to figure out and purchase the necessary equipment you will need to become successful.
6. Utilize freelancing tools.
There are lots of freelancing tools that will help you to deliver your freelance projects with ease.
For example, a graphic designer will immediately design a logo or flyer by using a tool like CanvaPro as compared to the time he will spend making a design from scratch using software like Corel Draw.
So figure out the freelancing tools that align with your job and utilize the ones that will help you get your projects done with ease.
7. Determine your pricing.
Knowing how much you are going to charge for your freelance services is very crucial because you may lose some jobs if you charge beyond or below the average of what other freelancers in your same field are charging.
So the best way to determine your pricing is to go to freelance job boards like Fiverr.com to see what other freelancers in your chosen field are charging and use their price range to set up your own pricing.
8. Join freelancing sites.
Freelancing sites like freelance.com, fiverr.com, upwork.com, etc will enable you to create an account, showcase your work and advertise your freelance job in front of potential clients who are already on the platform.
There are also freelancing sites that focus on a particular niche example 99designs is mainly for freelancers, Bloggingpro is mainly for bloggers, and Cloud Peeps is mainly for web designers.
So try and join as many of them as you can to establish your online presence as a freelancer.
9. Build your own portfolio website.
Joining a freelancing site will make the owners of the site take a percentage cut from the money you are making, but if you build your own portfolio website and utilize several traffic sources to get potential clients visiting it you are going to maintain your income profit.
Moreover, building your own portfolio website will help you to showcase your previous works so that clients can preview them to ascertain you are the best bet for their freelance projects.
10. Network with other freelancers.
Networking with other freelancers will help you to be relevant and get the needed motivation for your freelance job.
You can connect with these freelancers by using the contact forms, emails, or phone numbers on their personal blogs to reach out to them.
You can also find them on freelance forums, social media platforms, etc.
11. Promote your freelancing business.
To start freelancing with no experience and get jobs you really need to utilize several advertising mediums to send the word out there about your freelancing business.
Below are some of the effective ways you can promote your freelancing business:
- Add a blog to your portfolio website: Do keyword research to discover the queries you are going to create articles around. The main purpose of doing this is to have organic traffic coming to your blog and once you achieve that you can use the analytic tools to promote your freelancing business to your visitors.
- Use paid adverts: Google ads are expensive but very effective because Google is going to display your freelance business on millions of websites that are signed up for their AdSense program. Social media ads like Facebook and Instagram are cheaper and will allow you to reach those who are using the platform.
