Freelancing is great to get into; be your own boss, choose your own hours, pick your clients, and the range of benefits goes on and on. But it can be hard to get into freelancing to begin with, and even harder to maintain enough forward momentum to make it a full-time gig.
Plenty of people have accomplished full-time hours with freelance work, which is a great way to earn on your own terms. Today we’ll cover some freelancer tips you can use to improve or kickstart your freelance career in 2022. Today we’ll Ek88.com cover some freelancer tips you can use to improve or kickstart your freelance career in 2022
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Sort Out Your Tax
Staying on top of your taxes is a big part of being a successful freelancer. If you are UK based, you’ll have your personal tax-free allowance every year of £12,570 – so if you are earning below that threshold, you won’t need to pay tax.
However, that doesn’t mean you can push tax to the back of your mind and ignore it. You’ll still need to keep receipts of service and track what comes in and what goes out. You’ll still need to file your tax return, even if your earnings fall below the £12,570 threshold. All this is useful for tax deductions and other tax purposes.
If you are new to freelancing and tax returns, it may be best to outsource this to experienced tax experts – such as Tax Kings – to keep your focus on bringing in business and doing what you do best.
Outsourcing your tax needs is also a great way to save money on your taxes in the long run, as tax experts will be able to help you declare revenue under the correct tax codes and educate you about deductions you can apply for.
Certainly worth the time and funding!
Consult A Lawyer
Contracts are a vital part of freelancing. They provide you with protection against unfair treatment, and a basis for making civil claims should an agreement not be fulfilled in full.
Without a contract of terms in place, it will be difficult to make a small claims court case against a non-paying client, for example.
Contract law can be a tricky minefield, and the wording of every clause is hugely important. Like tax, outsourcing this to a lawyer will help you produce and work with airtight contracts.
Sign Up For All The Freelancing Sites
Freelancing sites act as a marketplace to scout for new clients, land new businesses, and grow your network. While you should try to sign up for as many as possible, only target the high-traffic sites as these attract the deepest pockets.
Try:
- People Per Hour
- Guru
- Freelancer
- Fiverr
- Upwork
These websites are invaluable to new freelancers just dipping their toes in the water to test the viability of selling their services on independent marketplaces.
When you start on these sites, you’ll need to set a low rate to compete and build a solid reputation for yourself. After you’ve built this reputation, you can start to increase prices and attract higher-paying clients.
It can be a bit of a grind, but it will be worth it if you put in the effort.
Scout For Clients On ‘Business Oriented’ Social Networks
Freelancing websites aren’t the be-all and end-all of finding business. Quite the opposite. They are a great way to build a portfolio of work and find stable work, but websites such as Reddit, LinkedIn, and even Facebook can all generate valuable leads.
Depending on your services, Reddit forums such as ‘/forhire’ and ‘/hireme’ can be good places to advertise your services.
Optimising your LinkedIn profile is another great way to attract cold leads to your profile. LinkedIn is also great to use as a makeshift website to showcase your past projects, publications, and work history. These are all great tools to use to help you win new business.
Even Facebook groups are useful for networking opportunities. Try joining a few networking groups that exist to serve this purpose.
Set Dedicated Work Hours
Choosing your own hours is great, but it can often be tempting to overwork if you have too much business. Alternatively, you can underwork and not develop your books as much as you should.
Setting dedicated work hours and sticking to them religiously is a good way to keep a healthy work-life balance. It is also vital that you communicate this to your clients.
It may also be worth setting dedicated work hours based on your highest-paying clients. For example, if you serve US-based companies and live in the UK, you may best adapt to US working hours.
To Summarise
Freelancing can be an incredibly rewarding experience, and it can teach you a lot about yourself and help you develop new skills.
However, it isn’t an easy path to tread. Hopefully, these tips will help you get started in freelancing or help you scale freelancing into a full-time career!
