My Cousin Recently Asked Me How to Get Started Freelancing, Here Was My Response
My cousin recently messaged me asking for help with her Upwork profile. She wanted to give freelancing a shot after working in customer service and the food industry for 10+ years.
I have spoken before about how much I dislike these Freelancer sites because I find them exploitative. In my experience, the best way to get started as a freelancer is by tapping into your local community. Below, I go into depth about the actions I would take if I wanted to get started as a freelancer (and was my actual response to her as well.) Hope it helps!
Tbh, I don’t recommend Upwork or any of those freelance sites. The reason is that you’ll be competing with people who have been on the site for ages and have tons of reviews, etc., or people who live in India and can afford to charge nothing.
I think it’s better to start with your inner network first.
First, though you’ll have to establish a product or service
I recommend reading 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris and 100 Side Hustles. Between the two you should be able to come up with an offering. If you’re still unsure, ask your loved ones what they think you’re good at.
Once you have an offering, you’ll need an online portfolio, this will depend on your offering. Could be as simple as an Instagram or website or Facebook page. You’ll need to put a few case studies on there which means you’ll need to work for free or cheap in the beginning. For example, if your offering is designing meal plans for busy moms, you’ll need to offer your services to 3 or so moms for free or very cheap, in exchange for feedback and reviews.
Reviews are VERY important!! Best is to register as a business on Google Business. And then you can send the Google link to your clients and ask for a review.
Once you have a few case studies/online portfolio ad reviews, you can start marketing. I would start marketing to groups you already belong to. Like if you go to a particular yoga studio you can ask to leave some flyers there. You can also offer to co-host events to further establish your credibility.
There are other Bootstrappy ways you can promote your biz but TBH the things that work for me are
1. Google reviews, cannot stress this enough.
2. Website where I update at least twice a month with industry-related blog posts.
3. Light LinkedIn posting (1-2 times a week)
I’ve never had to spend money on advertising or promoting myself. People find me organically through Google searches and/or word of mouth. But that takes time to build…content marketing is not an instant gratification method haha there are other ways to grow faster though (ex. such as hosting community events, and having an ad budget)
The last thing I will say is to use ChatGPT to help you write content for your site or promo materials. No need to reinvent the wheel ❤️
Anything else you’d like to know about getting started freelancing and/or bootstrapping a business? Get in touch!
Here's the Easiest Way to Obtain Clients Organically
If you don’t already know, my core mission is to help Conscious Business Owners overcome their limiting beliefs and inherent imposter syndrome so that they can share their gifts with the world. In my humble opinion, there are WAY too many folks out there hawking goods and services that are impacting the environment in negative ways, taking advantage of people’s fears and insecurities, or blatantly spreading toxicity. And I am just not OK with that.
What do all these folks have in common? AUDACITY.
Personally, I think conscientious folks need to become a bit more audacious and put themselves out there. Unfortunately, the more conscious you are, the smaller you stay.
ENOUGH ALREADY!!
The world NEEDS you. Think of all the people you will never help if you stay small. Don’t put yourself out there to fan your own ego, put yourself out there to help others overcome their own struggles. Your good or service has the potential to make someone’s life a little easier as they navigate the tumultuous storm of life. How beautiful is that?!
And now for my advice….
Get yourself set up on Google Reviews and then kindly ask past clients to leave you a review. I know, it sounds scary. But it will help you tremendously when it comes to obtaining new clients organically even if you don’t have a proper website or ample social media following.
To counteract any skepticism you might have, I am now going to be frank with you. I get about one new client inquiry per week contacting me about a particular service I provide. How do they find me? via Google search. Sure my website helps boost SEO because I blog frequently which causes Google to rank my site higher, but they also find me because I am set up with Google reviews and have quite the ranking (5 stars).
If you don’t already have Google Reviews, stop what you are doing immediately and set it up. Right now. DO IT! Here’s how…https://support.google.com/business/answer/3474122?hl=en