1456: 7 Simple Steps to Start Freelancing Now by Hanna True of Mapped Out Money on Freelancer Advice

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Work Daily. 7 Simple Steps to Start Freelancing Now by Hanna True of MappedOutMoney.com.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: If you're looking to increase your income, it's easy to get lost down a rabbit hole of passive income, survey taking websites, blogging, real estate investing, and the list goes on and on.

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_00]: But if you need efficient, side-income or eventually full-time income fast, Freelancing may be exactly what you've been searching for.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Step 1. Identify who you want to work with.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: It's important to think about who or what companies you'd like to work with, as well as what type of impact you want to make.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_00]: What problem in the world do you feel most passionate about solving?

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_00]: What type of work interests you because of the impact it will make on real people's lives?

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure the Freelance work you pursue is something that excites you, because if you're already working 40-plus hours at a mediocre job,

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_00]: it'll be difficult to find the additional time and energy to pour into Freelance work you're not passionate about.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: So start by making a massive list of people or companies, ideally 50-plus in your industry of interest that you'd be thrilled to work with.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Step 2. Clarify the structure of your ideal day and week.

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Next you need to think about the type of Freelance gigs you're willing and able to tackle. Here are some points to consider.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to be part-time or full-time?

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to work on a project basis for lots of clients or do you want to work long-term for the same one to two clients?

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: How many clients do you want at a time? How much money per month do you need?

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_00]: How flexible does your schedule need to be? How often do you want to travel for work?

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: How important is a flexible location?

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Step 3. Identify the skills people are paying for.

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Now spend some time researching on Google, looking at job boards and signing up for the email lists of people or companies you'd like to work for.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_00]: You'd be surprised how many companies blast their email lists saying,

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, we're hiring for X, Y, and Z. So this is a great place to start.

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: It's also a good idea to check your company's website. If you scroll down to the bottom of the home screen, you'll likely find a careers section.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Bottom line? You've got to do the research.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Look for specific job titles or job descriptions your target companies are hiring for or have hired for in the past.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Add what you find in a column beside your list of target people and companies.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Step 4. Identify your greatest strengths.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So far, you should have a page with two columns on it. The first column contains your list of target people or companies

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and the second column contains what they're hiring for. Now you're going to add a third column to write down all your strengths

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_00]: but you need to dive a little deeper than just writing down what you're good at. Think about the underlying skills that make you good at that particular thing.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: For example, maybe you're really good at Excel. Your underlying strengths are probably things like analytical thinking and being able to work through

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_00]: and explain complex processes from step A to step B and so on.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And those strengths transfer to a ton of different things that stretch far beyond Excel.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: If you only write down your surface level strengths, they may not seem to fit with the skills your target companies are hiring.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00]: But if you break it down just a little bit further, you'll likely find you have skills that can be fine tuned to match your target companies needs.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And remember, you can always learn and develop new skills with the internet and a little bit of hard work.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_00]: You can take an underlying strength and apply it toward a specific skill set to get good enough for someone to pay you to do that work.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: If you're at a loss trying to think of your strengths, strength's finder 2.0 is a super helpful resource which I've linked in this post.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: This book will help you figure out what your strengths are and map those to the skills people are paying for.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Step 5. Create your portfolio.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_00]: You need to create a portfolio or resume to prove your competence. For most people this means creating a website to showcase your work or projects you've completed.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know how to build a website, don't worry. You can get simple drag and drop builders like Squarespace.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: If you're doing something that's hard to showcase like customer support, you'll probably want to use your linked in profile as your portfolio.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you fill out the description area and tagline under your name and explain why you're a great asset.

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Step 6. Land your first gig.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You're finally ready to start pitching yourself to get paid for the work you've been preparing to do.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: This is where the real grind starts, but if you've gone through all the steps leading up to this point then it's just a numbers game from here on out.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: If you pitch enough people in the right way eventually somebody will hire you.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Four main ways to find gigs.

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_00]: One. Pitching.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: This is where you literally put in the legwork to reach out and ask people to hire you.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: But you have to make sure you bring the other person value. You cannot just spam them with messages asking to get hired.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Think through the context of what's going on in their business and how you can provide a massive amount of value to them.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: An invest time formulating individualized emails that highlight your value to that specific company.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Two. Through a pre-made platform for freelancers. This includes sites like Upwork and Fiverr.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Next never use these so we can't vouch for either of them, but a lot of freelancers do use these platforms to get started.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Three. Word of mouth.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the best and hardest way to find freelance work.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: No matter how you begin finding gigs your ultimate goal should be to reach the point where you have plenty of work just through Word of mouth.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Four. Work for free.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: The best clients and the best work will always come through Word of mouth.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: If you do excellent free work for somebody in your target industry they'll always be willing to give you a great recommendation and testimonial.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And guess what? That leads to more gigs that actually pay.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: We're not saying work for free forever. We're saying strategically identify a few people you can provide value to and ask if you can do a project for them for free.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And assuming your work knocks their socks off, ask if they'd be willing to write you a testimonial in return.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Step 7. Optimize and repeat.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: As you get more and more gigs you can really hone the specific skills you're most passionate about.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: And best of all you can increase your rates as you continue to niche down.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: So keep working on your strengths, honing your skill set, building your portfolio and meeting new people who can refer you to others down the road.

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_00]: And before you know it, you're likely to have more freelance work than you can handle.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listen to the post titled 7 Simple Steps to Start freelancing now by Hannah True of mappedoutmoney.com.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: This show is sponsored by Better Help. We're all marveled at how quickly kids learn and that sense of wonderment they have well doing it.

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[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That's BetterHelp.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: H-E-L-P dot com slash work daily.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: And thanks to Hannah and Nick of Mapped Out Money for this post, it was one that was definitely relevant to me because in addition to hosting this show, I am a voice actor which is like really any kind of acting.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_00]: It's definitely a freelance gig so I had to go through all these steps and I'm still going through it every day trying to keep new jobs coming through the door.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So a little more about Nick and Hannah, they both run MappedOutMoney.com together.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Hannah was able to transition out of her job as a physical therapist to join Nick and now she handles all their graphic design needs, content editing, and acts as his right hand woman.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_00]: They work together in a 27-foot air stream with four pets at their sides and they just love it.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Nick is a great guy. We got to meet him at the personal finance conference Fincon a few times actually and it was always a pleasure to talk to him.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00]: You can come by MappedOutMoney.com to show Hannah and Nick your support. I'm sure that would mean a lot to them.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: But I think that does it for today. I thank you as always for being a subscriber. Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you back here tomorrow or your optimal life awaits.