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The Hard Facts You Want To Know About Freelancing
Starting freelance writing: Learn how to pitch ideas
Learn how to form a good pitch. You are in charge of finding your work, meaning stepping out of your comfort zone, and sending lots of cold emails.
If you want to write for a publication, you'll want to pitch ideas that the editor will like. If you're going to write website copy, you'll have to pitch your services and write how the company will benefit by hiring you.
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Key Ideas
Your Future Career Remuneration
Look at the bottom end of the average salaries of the career you are interested in and ask yourself whether you'd be able to survive on that if you got one of those jobs.
Similarly, lo...
Brush Up Your Skills
- Research What's In Demand. Your first stop should be the boards and company websites that post the jobs you're interested in.
- Beef Up Your Resume. Don't neglect the experience you already bring to the table. Soft skills you may have learned (management skills, organizational skills, etc) may be a huge benefit, so don't write them off completely.
- Go Back to School to pick up those new languages, skills, and techniques required to be competitive in your chosen field.
- Build Your Network. Get acquainted not just with the people you want to emulate, but other people who are doing what you do now.
Get Some Experience
- Use Your Skills for Personal or Pet Projects.
- Intern or Volunteer.
- Freelance or Start a Side Gig.
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Key Ideas
Using the right vocabulary
When switching from being an employee to a freelancer, you should pay particular attention to the way you express yourself, the words you choose.
For instance, integrating words such a...
Name your business right
A very important step when starting to work as a freelancer is to actually call your business as what is: a ‘freelance business’.
These kind of words encourage your clients to perceive you as being trustworthy while giving you a better feeling of ownership.
Avoid using ‘ I need..’
Whenever we hear the ‘I need…’ words, we all tend to get a bit irritated by this way of being requested to provide something that always seems of the most utter importance.
On the other hand, there are expressions which could easily replace the ‘ I need…’ while giving the other person the impression that everything is under control.
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Key Ideas
Identify What You Love to Do
If you weren’t dealing with your job every day, what would you be doing instead? Any activities you can dream of can be turned into a money-making venture.
If you’re still not s...
Do It For Free
Before charging people money, do what you love for free for quite a while.
Doing the work without worrying about turning your passion into a business right away will help you hone your skills and build your confidence.
Combine Passion With Skills
Figure out how to create your own success tool kit /secret sauce made up of all the different skills and experiences that only you have. This is what will make you stand out and keep your service unique.
Maybe you’re thinking about a career in photography. Maybe you also have writing skills, and you could start a blog to promote and build excitement around your photos.