The Keys to Fruitful Freelancing

The gig economy is going strong. Forbes reported in August 2018 that 36% of U.S. workers, approximately 57 million people, participate in the gig economy, and for 29% of workers, gig work serves as their primary employment. While a lot of these folks drive for Uber or Lyft, or sell physical products on marketplaces like Amazon and Ebay, many offer freelancing services.

In recent years, companies with a platform business model have experienced explosive growth. Companies like Uber, Lyft, Amazon, Airbnb, and Alibaba connect buyers and sellers and take a share of the profits. Freelancing platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr are not as big but are as well known in the freelancing space. They are a low-barrier way to begin a freelancing career, however they are not without costs.

The hidden (and not so hidden) costs of freelance marketplace platforms

When you enroll in a freelance marketplace like Upwork, there are usually no up-front costs. However, like any platform business, the freelance marketplace takes their cut of your pay. You may encounter optional services you are encouraged to pay for, like “pro” privileges to see how much others are bidding for the same job. It is easy to rationalize away these costs. I mean, you may have not found the gig without the platform’s matchmaker services. Just a few winning higher bids for jobs could pay for the “pro” bid info. Platforms do help with escrow services and time tracking to help you get paid for your work. They reduce some of the administrative load, which is a help to new freelancers.

The downside of these platforms is that your freelance work can very easily be commoditized. You can be drawn into accepting very low pay, even way below minimum wage, for some jobs. You can be competing with those in foreign markets, those for whom making $20 U.S. dollars a day would be huge. Do you have to accept ridiculously low wages? No. However, seeing these gigs scroll by can make even the stoutest-hearted freelancer feel discouraged and demoralized. (I mean, seriously? $50 to write a Master’s Thesis? $5 for a 350 word article?) Another drawback is that if you find a great client who wants to work with for future projects, the platform will continue to take a cut for years.

By boosting your skills you can be platform independent

You have strong skills that you are purveying via platforms. That’s a given. You know how to write, or code, design websites, and/or capably deliver any one or several of a vast number of marketplace services. But you need additional business skills to find your own clients, negotiate and close agreements, and manage and grow your freelance business. Even if you continue to find clients via platforms, these skills will still help you. 

The four pillars of Fruitful Freelancing

To thrive as a freelancer, you need to have skills beyond your core offerings. For techies, a popular paradigm is “hard skills” vs “soft skills.” You can be the most brilliant of programmers or software engineers, but if you can’t speak up in a meeting, connect with colleagues, and sell your point of view to committee members, your career will falter. Freelancers may already have good communications skills. However, you need other basic business skills to be the boss of your own freelance business. Here are the Fruitful Freelancing pillars:

Marketing and Sales

Even freelance marketers often have trouble marketing their own services. It’s hard to toot your own horn. For a fruitful freelance career, you have to present yourself and your skills professionally and persuasively. You have to find leads, market and sell to them, close the deal, and repeat the process.

Management and Tech

Making sure the money is coming in less the money going out for business expenses is at a sufficient level to support your lifestyle doesn’t happen by accident. Learning to set business goals, track revenue and expenses, and manage the technology that supports your business cultivates your success.

Entrepreneurial Mindset

When you work for yourself, you are that person who must see opportunities and have a vision for the future. You have to hustle when you don’t feel like it, and put in the extra hours to finish the client work. You have to decide whether or when to hire an assistant.  

Personal Growth

Growing your own business is rewarding but demanding. You need to be fearless yet humble, hopeful yet realistic. You have to have a “growth mindset” and also be honest to yourself about what you can accomplish. Balancing your own needs and the needs of others in your life is always a challenge, but even more so when the buck stops with you.

Build your juicy freelancing empire. Fruitful Freelancing is here to help.

Learning these skills doesn’t happen overnight, nor are you ever really done. Building and growing your business is a journey. In many ways it is like growing a garden or an orchard. You have to cultivate fertile ground, plant seeds, care for them until they bear fruit and seeds, and plant those new seeds. The cycle continues. Finding resources and a community helps smooth the way. Fruitful Freelancing offers both.