What is Freelancing ~ milan7

What is Freelancing

This is the complete beginner guide to freelancing. I have made hundreds of thousands of dollars as a freelancer, worked with 40 plus clients, and if I had to start from scratch today this is the exact checklist I would follow to do just that. All right here's our table of contents of what we're going to cover today:

Levels of Freelancing

Level 1 - We're just going to focus on earning that first dollar and we have three tasks under Level One.

Level 2 - We're going to talk about earning your first $100 how to do that. There are two tasks to do this.

Level 3 - We're going to talk about how to earn your first $1,000 and we have two tasks here as well.

If you pass all three levels we'll talk about our bonus level which is earning your first $10,000 as a freelancer.

So this is our little game of freelancing we're here at Level One and we're going to advance via our first task.

Let's start the level.

The first task of Level 1 is we have to choose your character.

Choose Your Character

So there are three components to choosing your character:

1. We have to pick your superpower.

2. We have to pick how much you want to charge.

3. We want to pick your target clients your target bosses.

Basically, one of the biggest things I learned about freelancing is freelancing is just about solving problems and solving problems is exactly how you make money. So it's a really good mindset to keep forefront when you are diving into the freelancing journey is what kind of problems am I going to be solving and that's exactly what we're going to talk about when it comes to your superpower what problem are you going to solve? Here are some very common problems that business owners have: not making as much money as they want, not growing on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn the way they want, not having enough time in their day, being overwhelmed by technology, not knowing how to write good copy equals not knowing how to make sales, not knowing how to grow an email list, not being able to design things to look nice.

99% of coo problems tend to fall into three big buckets: time, money, and energy they do not have enough of it or they want more of it. So use that to orientate yourself as you begin to dive into what problem exactly am I solving. Another question to ask yourself is do you already have experience? If yes, use it that's easy good for you. If no, then you're just like me when I started freelancing I had absolutely no relevant work experience but that's fine just solve for the problem I don't have enough time to do everything almost every single business owner has this problem so just solve there that problem. If you don't have experience you can take things off their plate, give them their time back, you can essentially just be an assistant to start and help with any small bits and pieces that they throw your way. That is actually also the best way to gain experience as a freelancer and learn how things work behind the scenes. If you work behind a seven-figure business as an assistant, you are going to understand very quickly exactly how that machine turns and over time then you'll be able to use that experience to promote yourself, ask for rate raises that is like the lowest risk way to learn.

Another extremely important question to answer as a freelancer to earn money is what is your competitive advantage? And if you're like me I don't have a competitive advantage I challenge that because back in 2016 I didn't think I had competitive advantages but looking back now I definitely did. For example, I had a lot of time. Again, business owners do not have time to do everything. I had time I could sell them. I am very type A and very detail-oriented so I could help them with a lot of granular things and double-checking things. I was really great at Googling do not underestimate your ability to figure things out because most business owners again again don't have time and they don't have time to be Googling a bunch of things and figuring out how everything in their business works. I was a huge people pleaser which meant I was always over-delivering huge value. And of course the best competitive advantage of all I was very cheap my prices were extremely cheap as a freelancer. Do not underestimate that competitive advantage. So if that looks like your list of competitive advantages now that's awesome that's all you need to start and to give you a little bit of aspirational stuff you can achieve this is my list of competitive advantages now I have six plus years of experience with project team ops management for digital businesses. I'm really great at systems and processes, hiring, project planning, ops because I offered those little soft skill competitive advantages learned a lot then gained the experience and now have this right. I have really strong soft skills, clients love working with me I love working with them that was so cheesy and I've helped clients properly scale from six figures to seven figures in a way that doesn't make them want to burn down their business which is very hard to do. Certainly! Here is the text with the extra spaces removed:

And I also started a course business of my own and it grows six figures in its first year. Again, I'm still very type A, very detail-oriented, still great at Googling, still a people pleaser. Here are some quick tips: do not start out too specialized. I see that sometimes when freelancers start out they’re like niche, niche, niche. When you try working with a lot of people, you learn very quickly because you're getting that data of who you like, who you don’t like, and who you ultimately want to be supporting long term in your freelance business. So give yourself permission to try absolutely everything, and if you're still not sure like I don't know what niche to start with, just pick an assistant role that's a little bit specialized, like for example I want to be a TikTok assistant, YouTube assistant. And if you're still really struggling with it, I will link a video below where I share the top 10 best niches and four of the worst niches of freelancing this year so you can just pick one from that list because I picked relatively easy niches for you to get started with. I will also link a few other videos that may be helpful in helping you figure out what exact skill or niche you want to start off with offering.

All right, now the second thing we want to get clear on for your character is who is that target client, who is that person you want to serve. So here what we want to ask ourselves is who has this problem that I've chosen to solve? Right, so the problem of not having enough time. Basically, every single scaling business owner has this huge problem; they don't have enough energy. Probably scaling business owner who has started hiring and is managing a team of like five plus people and is exhausted by having no processes, no systems, everything lives in their head, and it's exhausting to go to work every day. That's a humongous problem. The problem of not growing on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn the way that they want; probably any business prioritizing organic traffic strategies such as those platforms. So really have a think about that problem I’ve picked, who has that problem. Get clear on that because that is how you're going to be able to sell yourself to them to make money. Another question that might be fun to ask is who are you curious about or interested in helping? I would ask yourself like what type of content do I already watch and consume? All of the people running those forms of content are small business owners that you could help: bloggers, YouTubers, TikTokers, podcasters—they all have workflows, they all have things that you can probably assist them with. Also think about what are your hobbies because there are people running small businesses in those realms as well. If you're really into health, there are fitness content creators. If you're really into video games, you could help streamers. If you're really into vegan desserts and you can't say no to a piece of vegan carrot cake, then check out vegan food bloggers—they need help, they pump out a lot of content that you can for sure be helping them with.

All right, now here's a little checklist of things to keep in mind: very, very important make sure that your target client one has the money to pay you. Okay, two is taking their business relatively seriously. Beginner business owners are fine, but they have to be committed to some level. You have to see some commitment. It's also really important that the target client isn’t too big or isn’t too small. Too big, I mean they have millions of followers on Instagram that's probably not where we want to start out with. We want to start out with smaller fish that's more realistic to catch versus go for like a whale on day one, right? And also isn’t too small. By isn’t too small, I mean it looks like they're just getting started and they're in that phase of business ownership where they're doing everything themselves because they have no money to spare. We don’t want that person.

Now we want to create our tagline. This will just help us know what the heck we're doing. So this is the formula I use: I help [blank] do [blank] so they can [blank]. Okay, so for example, my thing is I help small business owners with project, team, and operations management so they can get more of their free time back while still scaling their business revenue. It's important here to use language that your target client would be using so they get what you do ASAP. Do not try to like corporate fluff your I help statement; just make sure you use something where if somebody heard it, like your target person heard it, they’d be like bam, I want to talk to you, I need to know more. What exactly are we doing here?

How to Earn Money through Freelancing

Awesome. All right, now let's talk about getting paid and how much exactly to charge. Now the first thing I need to share here is unfortunately if you're just getting started as a freelancer, especially if you have no experience, you are extremely risky of a hire for a business owner to make, which means your mindset going into this is not how much money can I charge. It needs to be how can I make it as easy as possible for this client to give me a chance, aka how can I reduce the risk for them to say yes to me as much as possible. And one of the easiest ways to reduce risk for a business owner is to be cheaper, which is why I have this piece of advice for beginner freelancers: if you have no experience, just start low because again you are not marrying this rate, right? Just because you start at $15 an hour does not mean you're going to stay at $15 an hour even for a year. Right? Because my biggest advice is you start low so you get those first few clients who give you the trust, and then you slowly increase your pricing. You’ll increase your pricing 5 to 10% with each additional client. This is not like corporate; you're not going to be stuck with this rate for one or two years. Okay, so just start low, get your foot in the door, get the right clients in, incentivize them to say yes to you, and then we will grow. Another really good mentality to have is a paid internship mentality.

You know so many people are willing to do completely unpaid internships, but they're not willing to take on a low hourly rate with a temporary client and just treat it as if they're paying you to learn. That's essentially what those first few freelance clients are doing; they are paying you to learn. So focus on the learning part because I swear that is what's going to make you big bucks. Focus on the learning because that is what's going to make you big bucks in the long run. Don't stay short game—look at the long game. And a huge warning here: do not get stuck on pricing. I see this all the time; freelancers are like, "Oh no, I don't know what to charge, I don't know what to charge." Just pick a random number and just try to sign one client with that one price point. You're not announcing to everyone, "I am $15 an hour and I'm going to be $15 an hour forever." No, you're just going to try that pricing with one client; that's it. You do not have to marry this rate again. So just don’t take it too seriously; it’s not that deep, right? Let’s just do it with one client and then we’ll increase from there.

All right, we’re moving on to task two. Now that we have our character, our second task is to collect your gear. Your portfolio is the only real gear you need as a freelancer, so make it a really strong one. Notice I didn’t say you need a website, you need a logo, you need your full branding kit, you need whatever 15 colors picked out for your brand theme. You don’t need any of that, okay? Those are fake hurdles that you’re creating for yourself. All you need is a really, really strong portfolio. A portfolio is how you show clients, "Hey, I know what I’m doing; look at times when I have done this for other people."

Okay, and if you’re asking, “But I haven’t done things for other people,” that’s okay. Those are called ghost projects—those are projects that you do as a sample and you put in your portfolio even if you didn’t do them for other people. And you’re not lying; you’re not saying, "I’ve worked with clients before and this is what I’ve done." You’re just saying, "Here’s an example of what I could do for you." Clients don’t care if it’s a good sample; they don’t care if you did it for a real person or not. Quality over quantity in portfolios all the way. So all it really takes is just one really great project. So really dedicate some time to making a really great project and make sure that it’s really the most relevant sample you could give to the person that you have picked to target.

And of course, I have a video that breaks down exactly how to build a portfolio in Notion. I will link it below as well, and the template is free as well, so don’t worry—I’ve got you going. So ideally, you would make two to three samples of different things, showcasing different skills within the realm of what you want to offer. But again, if you can just make one really great one, that’s fine too.

Examples:

So here are some examples: If you want to be a TikTok assistant, then make two to three sample edits for a TikToker. Another sample is you could come up with 10 to 20 really cool content ideas for your target person. Right? And a secret little trick here: what I would do is if you’ve already identified somebody that you’re like, “I would love to work with them. They’re not too big, they’re not too small, they have the money, they are scaling, I can totally solve the problem that they are having,” then go take a piece of their content and cut their piece of content up into TikTok videos. And then you can pitch them with it, like, "Hey, I had some time, I’d love to work with you. I did some samples for you; here they are. Do you like them?"

If you want to be a YouTube assistant, you can do some research and draft up like two to three video pitches for your favorite YouTuber, with ideas that you think they should really do. Like come up with some title ideas, come up with some thumbnail ideas, and that would be a super cool portfolio item, right? You could also write a script sample of like a cool video. It doesn’t even have to be a full script; it can just be like 500 words so someone can get a taste of your tone of voice and how you write, and if you’re a good writer, and that can go in your portfolio as well. Done.

So do not get stuck on the portfolio. I know it seems daunting, but really just focus on making one really great sample. Use the free Notion template that I mentioned, and you’ll be well on your way.

All right, now task three: We’re going to officially go and try to land your first gig as a freelancer. Your only focus here is just that $1. Okay, just that $1. I don’t want you to think and overwhelm yourself with, "I have to make $100,000, I want to be a six-figure earner." You’re just trying to make $1. You can convince someone to give you $1; I believe in you.

All right, and remember your unique selling proposition, remember your competitive advantages. Now your only goal here is to get out there at least 20 to 30 times. Okay? I want you to get that repetition in of getting out there. So your checklist: Join a freelancing platform of your choice like Contra, Upwork, Fiverr. I want you to send at least 5 to 10 proposals. Then I want you to watch my cold pitching series and send your first five to 10 cold pitches. Then I want you to tell five to 10 people in your network—whoever can be family, friends, acquaintances, anybody that has a small business. You could go downstairs to your local cafe and tell them about it. Just pick 5 to 10 people that could potentially use your help. Other options here: you could pitch via email, via a voice message, via a short video on LinkedIn, via X (Twitter), whatever you want.

And I know this seems super overwhelming and super intimidating, but I promise if you take it one at a time, you will be able to do it. If you need help with freelancing platforms, I will link my relevant freelance platform videos below. If you need help with cold pitching, I will link my cold pitching series below. If you need help with what to do and how to land clients in communities like Facebook groups or Discord, I will link that video below as well. And also, I will link my video on how to handle getting rejected as a freelancer because you might need that. I’ll just be totally honest; I don’t want to set you up with the wrong expectations. You will probably be rejected a lot. I have been rejected every which way a billion times. It is normal. Once you do that, it’s time to unlock a reward because, duh, what’s the point of doing anything?

If we don't get little rewards and treats, so your treat is you can go get your favorite drink at your favorite local cafe. That’s a huge pat on the back. Don’t worry; more rewards are coming, and bigger rewards are coming once you start earning the bigger bucks.

Now it’s on to level two. Congrats, we’re leveling up—I love it! All right, level two is all about earning your first $100, so let’s talk about that. Your first task is to do all of your weekly quests. What are your weekly quests? Your only focus here is to make $100—your first $100. Here’s your daily/weekly checklist: It kind of depends on what you have going on. If you’re super busy, then make this a weekly checklist. If you’re not super busy and you want to get going freelancing ASAP, then make this a daily quest that you try to achieve every single day. All right, so every single day, send five proposals on the freelancing platform of your choice, send five really good cold pitches, tell five people in your network what you’re doing. Other options here: you could also throw in some cold pitching via email, voice message, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or whatever your choice is. The point here is just to get out there as often as you can and make contact with as many people as you can. The biggest issue that I see, the biggest roadblock that I see that keeps freelancers from actually becoming freelancers and getting paid properly, is that they come up with all these other fake tasks that they have to do to avoid trying to get out there and just talk to the people that could potentially use their help.

And again, if you did level one properly, then you will know exactly what problem you are solving. You know exactly some types of people that you might want to reach out to and talk to, and you will know what your competitive advantage is. That’s all you need to convince somebody to give you money. And here’s some real talk: freelancing—there’s no magic solution, there’s no magic shortcut to making $100,000 as a freelancer. You do this checklist over and over again until you have a steady base of clients, and then you won’t have to do this list anymore. I did this list less and less the longer my freelance career went on because as I started getting those clients, especially good clients, those are just long-term clients. Right? Like if you get one long-term client that pays you $1,000 to $2,000 a month, you’re set. Imagine I told you for every 100 times you get out there, you will land three mind-blowing, ideal, amazing clients that will be with you for years. That is the kind of conversion rate we’re talking about when you’re just getting started.

Let’s move on to task two. Task two is to get good. Just like if you play a video game, you have to get good; you have to get the practice in. I’ve played hundreds of hours of World of Warcraft, and I’m still now just trying to get good. So how will you create the best character ever? If you think of yourself as a separate video game character, how are you going to upgrade the shiz out of this character? What skills will you add on? What upgrades can you buy for them? What mentors will you learn from? Because remember how in level one we talked about how freelancing is solving problems and solving problems is how you make money. Here’s something for my level two people that I didn’t say in level one; I think you’re ready for it now: When you solve small problems, you make small money. When you solve big problems as a freelancer, that is how you make big money. So as much as possible, you want to focus on how you can upgrade your character to solve bigger problems for your target people.

So examples of how I did this: I noticed a lot of my clients did not have project management tools, and everything in their business was chaotic and nothing was getting done. So I watched a bunch of free YouTube videos on project management tools like ClickUp and Asana, and then I offered clients to help them set them up and solve a huge headache—a huge problem in their business that nothing was streamlined and the tasks were not finishing. I also paid for skills training, strategy workshops, so I could offer more strategic value to my clients, and I also followed a lot of experts in funnel strategy and online courses so that I could offer up-to-date value add to clients to be like, “Hey, I noticed that this is something that a lot of people are doing this year—let’s try this, let’s try that.” So think about how you can upgrade your character, and part of that is also just being on the lookout, the scanning of what’s going wrong in your client’s business. Why are they not making more money? What are they getting stuck at? What is a huge problem? Why are things not getting done? Why is everybody unhappy? Why is everything on fire? See those things and then be like, “How can I solve that problem?” And if you solve that, you plug that hole.

And a little side note tidbit here: The most underrated thing as a freelancer is soft skills. I hate that it’s called soft skills because they are the coolest, raddest skills you could possibly ever have and offer as a freelancer. Hard skills may get you hired, but soft skills are what retains your clients and gets them to refer you out to everyone that they know and be obsessed with you and love you. So here are some soft skills that I would keep in mind: Overdeliver everything, underpromise, overdeliver always. You want people to be like, “Oh my gosh, I got so much more than what I paid for when I hired you. She’s absolutely amazing.” Be client-centric, right? Don’t just be, “What’s in it for me? How do I make the most money? What would be great for me? What would work for me?” No. And that’s also low-key why I think empathy is one of the biggest competitive advantages. So if you’re empathetic, use that. Be a crystal-clear communicator; set clear expectations. This is one of those things—it’s so oversaid but still underdone. Be hella organized and detail-oriented. Be a good figure-outer, which means when you run into something you don’t know, you’re not up to running up to the client, “I can’t, I couldn’t figure it out.” You figure it out. “I couldn’t decide.” You decide.

This is my typing. No ban. We’re going to Google what is RO, what is a sign-up, what is ClickUp. Watch a video, figure it out. That’s what we’re doing. Also, be proactive. Be proactive. Wow, she’s so good at talking.

All right, level two. It’s time to earn your rewards. So unlock them. First, you’re going to get one per from my CI. I’m going to insert it here if you achieved it. Your other reward is a piece of your favorite type of cake. It can be whatever cake you want—just pick a piece of cake and get it once you finish level two and the tasks there because I’m really proud of you.

All right, let’s dive straight into level three. Level three is all about earning your first $1,000. Oh my gosh, so exciting! So again, you’re going to really notice the trend here: I’m always going to be talking about how you upgrade your character. Because I didn’t tell this to level one and level two people, but I’m going to tell you now because you’re here in level three. Remember how we talked about solving small problems and making small money? Solving big problems makes big money. Well, here’s the final evolution: if you solve even bigger, even more painful problems, the money will rain from the sky.

So the way to solve bigger problems to make that mad money is to upskill and get more advanced skills training. Solve bigger problems, you generate bigger value. The more the client hates a problem, the bigger the problem it is, the harder it is to learn to fix that problem. The bigger the problem is, the more tied to a business’s income and goals and the freedom of a business owner it is. So once you solve those problems and you’re increasing your value add, that’s when you increase your rate. Then you will do this on a cycle: you will continue pitching and outreach, maybe a little less depending on how many clients you have now, and adjust that pitching schedule to focus again on more and more premium platforms. Because smaller clients, they tend to be in free communities and stuff like that. Premium clients, the ones that are paying the big bucks, chances are they’re in paid communities.

So if you think about the ideal six- to seven-figure business owner, chances are they don’t have time to be in a free Facebook group digging for a bunch of answers, looking through posts. Chances are they’re in higher-paid masterminds. And make sure that as you’re going through, you’re going to trade out your bad clients for better ones. You’re going to create and maintain your boundaries like your life depends on it. Do not roll your eyes when I say the word boundaries; you need them if you want to make great money for a long time as a freelancer. Always be looking for opportunities to add more value and solve more problems. I will say this over and over until I’m blue in the face: that is how you make good money as a freelancer. So make sure that’s part of your daily routine to always be scanning for those things and then just keep increasing the amount of money you charge. If you do this on a cycle, you will be at six figures before you even know it.

Now, the second task here is to build your guild. Find your peeps—Facebook groups, Discord communities, YouTube channels, hey, Instagram accounts—and create referral partners out of those leads. If you’re a copywriter, make friends with a graphic designer, designer, and refer each other. When a client needs a new site build, you’re a business manager; make friends with an online course strategist or an online course builder and refer each other whenever a new client wants an online course built.

So, level three—let’s talk rewards. What are they? One, one giant congrats from me via comment. If you’ve made $1,000, tell me below. I will give you the biggest congrats ever because that is such a huge win for both you and me. That is so awesome. And you have to go play laser tag or book a spa day. Those are your two options; you can pick which one, but you have to do one of them. I give you permission to watch Netflix for 2 hours during the middle of the workday if you complete level three because that is what you’ve won. That was like the biggest win for me once I started making great money as a freelancer. I would watch like an hour of Netflix during the day and be like, “This is what I worked so hard for.” I know you’ve won the game. The ASMR clap.

Now, here’s the bonus level: if you want to earn your first $10,000 as a freelancer, then I’m going to link this video where I talk about my biggest lessons learned getting to $10K a month as a freelancer. I hope to see you over there, and as always, thank you so, so much.