As you might expect, I
spoke about freelance jobs in Nigeria. However, I wanted to concentrate on what it meant for a
freelancer. What is it like to be a freelancer. Why are freelancers so
successful and why aren't others?
Definition of freelancing
Legally, being a freelancer is just being a gun
for hire. This legal distinction means that you are paid as an independent
contractor and have no rights or obligations to your clients. You also own your
business.
This article doesn't discuss what it means legally
to freelance, but what it means to succeed as a freelancer.
What are the top freelancers in common?
I did a survey a few months ago of the thousands
of subscribers to my newsletter for freelancers.
My goal was to find commonalities among these
people. What makes them different?
I spent over 12 hours interviewing customers and
readers, many of whom were sourced from my freelance success stories database.
These three attitudes stood out:
They considered
themselves business owners and lived the life of an entrepreneur.
They viewed what they did as a product and not a
service to be sold to the highest bidder.
They are relentlessly focused on growing.
Below, I have provided advice and a deep dive into
each mindset to help you both adopt and act on these common traits of
successful freelancers.
1. The Role Switch
Many freelancers choose to make the legal
transition. They can swap between one boss and multiple employers. Anyone who
has had to manage multiple jobs will tell you the truth: Burnout. Clients end
up competing for your time. This is not how the best freelancers think.
They see themselves as facilitators of equal value
exchange. Money goes in, business value is out. It is not possible to have a
less-than-perfect relationship with a vendor and a client. Instead, both are
businesses engaged in a B2B transaction.
They aren't interviewing for projects, but they help determine if it makes sense to collaborate. Instead of trying to navigate a few sales meetings by hand, they are in control of the structure and purpose of these meetings. Instead of just sending out a proposal and hoping for the best, successful freelancers anchor prices and write assumptions-less proposals. They charge what they are worth.
2. The Product Switch
Freelancers freelancing sites in
Nigeria who are
successful realize that their clients don't want their skills multiplied by a
number of hours. Their clients are more interested in outcomes than solutions.
They want to pay a price and receive a solution that solves their problem. We
don't all have a productized service. Our time is ultimately sold. However,
that doesn't mean that we can't still sell an outcome. You have never been paid
before for a website.
Freelancers who are successful know that they
don't get hired to make stuff. They are being paid to create something for
their clients. Although it sounds obvious, many freelancers ignore this basic
truth or worse, they overlook it when pitching clients.
Freelancers who are most successful know that they
are not being hired because of their time or because the client cares about
what they produce. This is how they get online freelance jobs
in Nigeria.
Instead of focusing on
the end result, these freelancers work closely with clients to decide the best
path (that is, the project that needs to be completed) in order to get from
here to there.
They are completely focused on showing the client
what is at stake when they pitch clients. They ensure that their proposals are
clear and concise.
They don't bill. They prefer fixed-rate projects,
or at most weekly billing. They use value-based pricing to establish their fees
and anchor their costs against the financial benefits of a project.
You can find out more about the product switch in
my course, Double your Freelancing Rate. This is the complete blueprint to help
you make all of these sales and proposal modifications.
3. The Growth Switch
One of the top traits shared by successful
freelancers, is their commitment to growth. Growth is not just for the sake of
growth. I refer to a deliberate focus on growing the business.
Freelancers don't view selling as a temporary
thing. It is not something that happens when work stops. The root problem is
the world of full-time work.
Imagine what it is like to have a salaried,
full-time job. You're set. You will be paid every two weeks, just like
clockwork. When you are unhappy or find out that your job is being eliminated,
you can start looking for other jobs. You are not actively marketing yourself.
You must view sales
and marketing as a full-time job if you are a freelancer. If you are looking to
do nothing but your craft, it is best to work as an employee. Sales is not a
phase. It's an ongoing process that's part of your business. Sales isn't something
that should be considered a nuisance. It's alignment. It is about balancing the
client's needs with your capabilities. It's not about ripping off someone's
livelihood. Rather, it's about delivering something that will have tangible
business value to them and help them grow their business.
The most successful freelancers work ON their
business and not IN it. They plan time to work on high-ticket growth items,
such as their website, managing marketing campaigns and networking. They
reserve time for this work. They won't allow client meetings to take over the
time they have dedicated to the long-term success and growth of the company.
The most successful freelancers stay in the game
for the long-term. They don't look for immediate wins when they network. They
are building an audience and looking for ways to provide value at scale to that
audience. They know that relationships are more important than everything and
that the best clients come to them through their network and direct referrals,
not via job boards or freelance marketplaces such as Upwork. See freelance websites to get
more freelance jobs in Nigeria.
Are you a freelancer who is able to succeed? Of course you can. You can do it. We often feel that we need someone else to tell us "yes Brennan, you are now a legitimate freelance consultant." When in reality, it is we who can decide.
