Hey Bro! Are you new to freelancing? Here I am sharing 20 Frequently Asked Questions. This question is most often asked by any new Freelancers. While I was new in Freelancing I also went through these problems. So I thought all the new freelancers would also be facing the same problems in their Freelancing careers. These Top 20 Tips for New Freelancers help you to handle your clients, handle payments, find new clients, and much more.
Think of me like your Bro. My motive is to communicate effectively so that you don’t go with professional keywords. My content is too easy even a newbie can understand it easily.
The Questions are in the form of communication between You and Me, Where you are Asking Question,s and Me Replying to the Questions.
You: Why do you hate freelancing sites soo much?
Me: Bro the 1st thing you have to understand is all the clients who come to these freelancing sites like Fiverr or Upwork need such
people who can work for cheap at very low prices 2nd thing is, that
freelancing websites, for which you are working your A*s off, at such
low prices, that takes away like directly 20% of your revenue from
whatever your revenue is. 3rd and the most important thing is if you
are on a freelance website then you are totally dependent on that site
now if that website, due to any reason, now if that website, due to
any reason, refuses you, due to a violation of the terms. they can
directly banned you for life, and your business will come to in short,
you don’t have any control over your business.
You: Bro, how much time it could take to crack 1st client via
freelancing?
Me: Answer: Bro, it totally depends on the reach out, right how many
people you are reaching out to, and which country are you targeting?
how many reach-outs you are doing daily is your offer correct it
depends on all these parameters, and how much time it could take you.
You: Bro I don’t know English, how should I do freelancing?
Me: Answer: Bro if you want to do freelancing who said English is
compulsory? Target Indian audience talk in Hindi client needs a person
who will help him in his business he doesn’t need a person who knows
to consider you knew English but you cannot help the client then what’s
the use of knowing English? The client is interested in knowing if you
can help him in his business he’s not interested if you can speak
English.
You: Bro, how to find 1st client?
Me: Bro, 1st you have to find a niche in which you have to work
in the future for eg, web development video edition, graphic designing, FB
ads, google ads, etc then you have to create a portfolio to9 reach
out to clients now this portfolio should be such as the clients you
want to reach out next is to go into LinkedIn and FB groups in that,
find people in the niche you selected and start DM-ING them how
you can help them. and send a good message and try making a connection
with them as soon as you make the connection, you have to share about
your business and eventually get them on a call where you’ll tell them
exactly about your services and then you have to convert him
You: That’s it?
Me: Yes but mind you, this process will take time. this is not
a get-rich-quick scheme ok? So the more you send msgs and the more you
reach out the more it will help you.
You: Bro, I have a friend who’s into the job, but he wants to switch to freelance full-time.
Me: Has he worked as a Freelancer before?
You: No but he’s saying he’s ready to quit the job and do full-time freelance
Me: See bro, 1st make him understand, to not do this. Quitting the
job directly and starting freelancing is a very high risk. ok? Coz he
doesn’t know yet how he’ll do freelancing as it’s his 1st time. then
tell him, see Don’t quit the job, start freelancing along with
the job whatever time you get, 1hr 2hr, you do the freelance after
that, as your revenue in freelance surpasses your job income, and you
feel confident, that yes I am ready to switch, only switch then.
else, don’t take the risk of directly quitting your job and switching
to freelance.
You: They are asking for my rates.
Me: Do you know what they need and what is the project about?
You: Noooo!
Me: Then tell them that I can’t give you a rate unless I
understand the project properly so let’s get on a call, then understand
exactly what they need, on the call that how you can help them and
what value you can bring to their business then tell them your rates
You: They want one more revision
Me: Before starting the project, how many revisions did you
discussed?
You: We didn’t
Me: Ohh wow!!
1st of all we won’t repeat this mistake, right?
2nd let them know that we actually provide only 2-3 revisions with our
projects but yes, I’ll do this revision but if you’ll need more
revisions then you’ll have to pay some extra charges
I want to get paid on time!
Ans. See, Before taking the work always discuss everything with
the client clearly about payments ok? Like, how much advance will he
pay and when will he pay the rest amount? And after how much% of work
completion will he pay, each and everything!
Client: Can we get the project files? with the final draft that
you’ll send
Answer A: Sure! no problem? if you think you might need to tweek
something, down the road or need my support anytime just let me know
Answer B: this wasn’t in the original scope of work that we discussed
so it will cost a bit extra should I send you a quote?
Question: Bro, they want to know that can they get this project bit
early than the deate decided in the contract?
Answer: See you have 2 options here 1st is, to tell them, that yes, we
can do it early, but with a small fee. this is called a rush fee.
2nd is that tell them, that the deadline that we decided, is taking
into consideration, the amount of quality that we can provide you so if
you want this early, then there will be a compromise in the quality of
work are you ok with that? ask them
Question: But why these 2 options?
Answer: See, 1st option is for such clients, who know you well. and
you know them well. and you know that they can pay for their time
right. If they respect their time, then they will pay extra to get it
sooner 2nd options for cheap clients if you have some clients who
dont want to pay extra then you can answer them as, see, if you are ok
with the quality loss, then we are ok to do it to which they may not
agree.
You: Bro, how can I get more work?
Me: Ask for referrals from current clients and ask about previous
clients if they need any help with their business.
You: And how should I do this?
Me: underpromise and overdeliver if you can actually do this
work in 1 day, then tell them, it would take 4 days
You: Why so?
Me: Hmm, just to be safe you should always have a buffer time so
that, if any problem comes in your business about anything then you
have time period to cope things up right. And consider if nothing bad
happens and you give them the project early, then he would be happy,
right? As you said 4 days and you give in 1 so being happy he’ll get
you more work in the future that’s how you get more work.
You: This client is not ready to tell his budget he’s asking me
to tell my rates
Me: What do you usually charge for4 such a project?
You: Around $100
Me: Then tell them that see, we usually charge between, $200 &
$400, So what budget do you have in mind? Now there can be two things
here, 1st is, he can say thank you but sorry your rates are high then
we thought and 2nd is, ok, let’s finalize and start the work if he says
1st and, then you have to say that I totally understand that your
budget is less but if you can share your budget with me I can
understand that and let you know if I can work on that price or not,
And I couldn’t do it, I’ll refer you to a person who can get your work
done, in your budget now he’ll 100% share his budget with you, and if
you can work at that price, convert him. by doing this, you’ll build a
a good relationship with the client and you’ll get to know his budget too.
You: Bro, they want to know if they can get this project early
then the decided time.
Me: Tell them, yes we can give, but with a small fee
You: how can I do that?| have time and I can do this project
early
Me: See bro, you should always have a buffer time between
projects because, if any emergency comes around as someone falls
ill, your editor or you whatever the reason is you should have some
extra time so that you don’t cross the deadline hence you should always
give a buffer time other than that you can also tell him that the
the deadline which we have decided, that is given talking into
consideration of the quality that we will provide so if we provide this
project early, then we have to compromise on the quality and we won’t
recommend that
You: Bro this client saying that “I’ll pay you after you do the
work”
Me: No No NO bro, don’t do that
Bro, I have a few people in my connection who did the same and
still, they haven’t got paid form the client
You: How can it be bro, he’s assuring that he’ll pay
Me: Listen to me, tell them, that see we only take prepayments
but for you, we can do an exception that I’ll take 50% advance and 50%
after the 1st draft
You: And what if he doesn’t agree?
Me: Then simply make a contract with them and take their sign
on it now you can make contracts from a website named PandaDoc and you
can use a website named sign now to take signatures but make sure you
mention some things in the contract like what is the scope of work duration
of work payment structure and conditions if he doesn’t do payments on
the time mentioned else if you don’t deliver it on time these all clauses
should also be mentioned
Me: What happened to the work that I emailed you yesterday
You: Bro, I am already maxed out with work I don’t think i can
take one more project
Me: Outsource it.
You: I don’t even have time to manage the subcontractor
Me: Then refer them to the client I take 10% as your commission
You: so, they won’t get the 100% amount?
Me: I mean to see if they want they can add the 10% that they are
taking from you they’ll add that in the client’s amount and charge him
high right? And I think 100% of nothing is better than 90% of
something, right?
You: Bro everyone wants to see my portfolio but to create that
portfolio, first we should have clients!
Me: Bro portfolio is not a resume you can create a portfolio
anytime you can even create it this weekend what you have to do is
take any imaginary client and work for him else one more thing you can
do is, find some popular campaigns and redesign them in your way and
show it in your style, tight.
for eg, if you are a video editor, so what you can do is find any
YouTuber that you think you can improve the video quality so do it and
use it as a portfolio
You: Ok bro, let me go, I got a lot to do now I am trying to find
clients for so long
You: Bro how can I create a good portfolio?
Me: There are a few ways that you can do it the 1st one is on
google drive is a very basic method to upload all your projects and send
the link 2nd there is a youtube playlist again you can upload the
video on the youtube playlist and send the link next is, that you can have
a portfolio website so you can manage everything properly and when
you’ll send the website link to the client would look very
professional and the 4th is that you can also use contra
You: I am aware of 1st3, but, what is contra?
Me: Contra is a website where you can just add your portfolio and
enter some details about the portfolio they’ll create a very good
portfolio page for you also contra has a lot of traffic so you can also
get clients from there also you can manage your contracts and payments
so you don’t face any issues with payments so do check it out
You: Bro this client is asking for a discount he’s saying he’ll
give me more projects also will refer me to others.
Me: See, only give discounts to retainer clients
You: What?
Me: See, if he is really going to give you work then tell them
that she let’s make a 6 months contract and by the end of the contract
if you provide me with some referrals then I’ll give you a discount on
the price we decide now that discount depends on you, you can give
a discount from 10% to 20% if they are referring a good client
Me: What happened to that payment?
You: They haven’t paid yet
Me: You sent them all the final files?
You: Yeah…
Me: Oh sh*t
You: I am scared to ask for pre-payment from this client what if he
denies and finds someone else?
Me: First of all bro understand that you are not an
employee who is going to the boss and begging him for holidays, And
he’ll just kick you away without giving any. you are a person who is
going to help that client to scale his/her business. Like, you are
going to help him in his growth. Own that feeling man!! and even if
he denies you, don’t worry there is no limit for clients but you have
to set some rules and boundaries in your business so that you can run
your business effectively and scale it to the next level