StepByStep Blog

«
»

What To Expect In The First Year of Freelancing

The first year can be a roller coaster, so itís important to know what to expect:

  • It may take a while to sort out your rates, but the sooner you nail them down, the easier (and more profitable) your freelance life will become.
  • Not all jobs are worth taking. You may be tempted to take on anything and everything at first, but itís important to know when to say no. Rather than working for next-to-nothing, better to use your time to cultivate good paying jobs.
  • Working from home can be difficult. Youíll need to be disciplined enough to resist distractions. Set regular office hours and donít get distracted by housekeeping tasks and other diversions that can wait till the work is done.
  • Most new work comes from word of mouth. A happy customer is a walking advertisement.
  • Stay organized. Keep your office neat, so you donít waste time looking for misplaced items or forgetting to return calls.
  • Balance your work and personal time ñ itís the key to success and happiness. Work hard, but take time to recharge your batteries.
  • Itís normal in the first year to go from dry spell to deluge, feast to famine. Things will level out in the long run.

More Great Wisdom

Indy Web Shop: Lessons Learned After 2 Months & 1 Year
Cameron Moll:?10 things learned in 180 days &?10 more things in 360 days

Of course if you want a kick butt start, be sure to check out the StepByStep Guide to Starting A Freelance Business

Tags: , , , ,

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 7:09 pm and is filed under Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.

Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).