How to Start Freelancing With No Experience

Earning through freelancing is a talked-about topic nowadays. There is nobody unaware of freelancing. Everybody wants to make some extra cash via freelancing.

Freelancing is such a workplace that gives us freedom as you can work anytime as per your wish. You don’t have to fear that you might get late for office.

But when a beginner learns about earning by freelancing, a lot of questions come across his or her mind. Such as-

How much can I earn through freelancing? I’m just a fresher or a newly graduated, can I also be employed through freelancing? Can I run my family through freelancing? Can I do a part-time job as a freelancer?

The answer is-

YES.

But the main question is: How can you start your freelancing career?

Let me tell you my freelancing story. I always wanted to do such a job that gives me complete freedom and a day found about freelancing. When I started freelancing, I didn’t know anything. I faced a lot of problems as I didn’t know about the bellow steps. I got cheated and not getting any project. But I didn’t lose hope and kept bidding. Now, slowly these steps are paying off.

That’s why I want all new freelancers to follow these steps, as I don’t want anyone to face those problems that I had. That beneficial steps are —

Just start

So, the first step is: just start. After hearing this, you will be-like wow! What an amazing step, as we didn’t know about this. But before assumpting something, hear me out at first.

If you are a beginner, then you don’t have to be a master of a particular technology. Let’s take an example if you’ve basic knowledge about web development and you’ve studied HTML, CSS, and JAVASCRIPT.

If you’re wondering whether you’re not perfect or mastered enough to that language or a particular technology. Then I’m gonna tell you one thing: if you are gonna run behind perfection at the very beginner level, then you’ll never be able to start freelancing. You’ll always be under-confident, unsure, and unprepared.

That’s why I always say just start with whatever knowledge you have, and then you can build the top of it.

Some best freelancing website you can start through are-

1. Upwork.
2. Freelancer.
3. Guru.
4. Fiverr.

Improve your communication skill

The second important step is to improve your communication skill. Because it’s your communication skill that builds quick rapport with the customer that makes the client award frequent projects. So it’s very important to improve your communication skill.

The most important one is — don’t request your clients to hire you. Be professional and offer them to hire you.

But there are many other skills like you should have a good command of the English language. Do not speak too hurriedly with your client as the client may not be able to decipher what you are trying to say that may annoy him. You have to listen to them carefully and then answer.

You have to control your emotions, like getting overwhelmed and annoyed.

Build a professional profile

It is your profile that will introduce you to clients. Creating a professional profile helps you to get in the eyes of the clients.

If your profile is unprofessional, then the client will take you as an unprofessional employee and will not want to hire or give you a project as your profile represent you in freelancing websites.

To give a professional look to your profile, choose a photo with a neutral background, write a description of your skills and how you can serve your clients. It has to be error-free in grammar and spelling.

Get social

Yes! You heard it right. The fourth step is getting social. Because when you are a beginner, no clients will know about you. And getting social will help you to get connected with the whole world, and thus you can promote your freelancer profile.

You can create an Instagram page, a Facebook page, a Twitter page, or you can create a small blog or website if you want. But I highly recommend it as it gives you a professional look and will help you reach the entire world.

We can acquire much knowledge from social media only when we take it positively. If we use social media negatively, then it does nothing but wastes our valuable time. You might get your next project or freelance order right from the social media platform.

Set a neutral price

Your price rate has to be neutral, not too high or too low, as it is professional.

You must know the perfect price for a project. If you bid on a project for a high price client will reject you. On the other hand, if the price is too low, then the client will take you as unprofessional. They will think — if you don’t know the perfect price, then you must not have good knowledge of the project also.

Don’t be jack with only one technology

If you are starting your freelancing career, then you have to keep learning. Because technology keeps changing.

If you are a college or IT student and haven’t got into the corporate world, so don’t have a lot of experience, I would suggest trying different technologies rather than sticking to only one particular technology.

Suppose you want to be a master of PHP and want to develop websites through PHP and have decided to stick with PHP, then I suggest you don’t. Because you know technologies keep changing and a lot of things become outdated, and new technologies keep on coming. So if PHP got outdated, what you’ll do? That’s why start your freelancing with PHP but don’t get stuck with it. Keep on learning. As a result, it won’t matter to us In any way if the technology got outdated.

Conclusion

Last but not least. You may find difficulties for the very first time. But there are plenty of stories of such persons who achieved success after a long period of their joining freelancing. It may take some time for you also to get established, but you will if you never stop trying. So my advice is never to lose hope and keep trying. One day you’ll find success. It may happen later, but surely.

I've originally published this article on Medium. You can read it from here-

I hope this article helped you.