Nazmul Islam

Thinking of starting a freelancing business? Learn how to build your freelancing career step by step

The popularity of freelancing is increasing in our country as well as all over the world. According to a report published by PayPal in early 2016, the average annual income of freelancers in India is around Rs 20 lakh and 23 percent of the freelancers participating in their survey have an annual income of Rs 40 to 45 lakh. It is estimated that by 2025, the market size of Indian freelancers will be between 2,000 billion to 3,000 billion.

The biggest advantage of freelancing is that you are your own boss here. You decide for yourself who you will work with or how much you will work with. There is no duty from 10 am to 5 pm, there is no rush to the office every day, no overtime work to satisfy the boss.

But while seemingly simple and quite tempting, freelancing, like the other five businesses, has its own challenges, as well as uncertainties. However, the above statistics show that once the business is up and running, it is possible to easily earn more than many other full-time jobs in freelancing, sitting at home.

How to start working as a new freelancer, or how to move your business forward successfully? Here is a complete guide. Learn how to build your freelancing career step by step.

1. Identify your skill areas:

The first step in starting a freelancing career is to properly identify the areas of your skills. Your skills are your capital in this business, so having the right skills and training is the primary condition for success. The areas where freelancers are most in-demand are-

• Graphic designing
• Web development
• App development
• Content Writing
• Translation
• Virtual Assistance
• Data entry
• Accounting and finance support
• Writing press releases and scripts
• Video editing

If you have skills in more than one of these areas, then work on all those types of projects. However, do not do everything at once, you can choose two or three fields.

2. Understand the market: 

It is possible to earn income only if you have the ability to meet the market demand. So after identifying the field or areas of skill, you need to understand if you are solving any problem with that skill, i.e. whether there is a suitable market for your skill. Whether companies hire freelancers based on these skills. No matter how skilled you are at a subject, you will never succeed if there is no demand in the market. As a result, your overall business plan will depend on the market.

3. Take freelancing training if necessary:

After identifying your areas of expertise, try looking at different projects based on those skills to see if your skills and experience are sufficient to complete those projects, if you think you need to learn more freelancing work then take training.

You can do any course online or take freelancing training from an established institute. Degrees and diplomas from reputed institutes increase the burden of biodata and facilitate freelancing work.

You can also hone your skills by buying freelancing learning books, watching various videos on platforms like YouTube or UDME.

4. Create a portfolio:

A smart and informative portfolio is very important in any freelancing business. On the one hand, there will be details about your educational qualifications, training, etc., as well as your work experience and samples. This portfolio needs to be updated regularly, adding a list of new notable experiences.

Nowadays it is possible to create websites for free and easily on different platforms like Weeks, Weebly, etc. However, you may not have enough material to start your own website at the very beginning, in which case you can think of creating a website after gaining some experience.

5. Determine the value of your service:

 The decision of how much you will pay for your service is entirely yours, but it must be realistic. Decide how much you will value your service based on a good idea of ​​what the market value is.

It is true that you cannot put too much value in the beginning, as experience and skills increase, the value of the service should not be taken for granted. On the one hand, as you are deprived of a fair price, the overall market value also decreases.

6. Register in the online marketplace:

An easy and effective way to start working as a freelancer is to create a profile in the online marketplace. These freelancing marketplaces act as a bridge between freelancers and clients. The client posts with the details of his needs, or by contacting the freelancer directly.

In many cases, it does not cost any money to open a freelancing account or create a freelancing profile on these websites. These platforms deduct a portion of the remuneration when they get the job. In most cases, all the money is transacted through this platform, so there is a guarantee of getting money at the end of the work.

However, since these platforms deduct a portion of the fee, one should not rely solely on these websites on a long-term basis.