Read this article if you are not sure if you can make money as a freelancer. We'll discuss three things you need to have in order to have a chance at being a successful freelancer.
Wondering if you have what it takes to be a freelancer? Well, you are not alone. There are many people unsure about starting their own freelancing business. It all comes down to the skills and experience you have. Also, it's in the approach you take. In the following paragraph's we'll discuss what's needed for you to make freelancing very profitable and have some fun at it.
First, the reason freelancers do well is because businesses are willing to pay you for your abilities. In this constant ever crumbling economy, freelancing is becoming more competitive. That’s because more people are getting into this field of work from all the major job losses we read about.
So you need a skill set that companies want to pay for. Otherwise you'll find yourself not working most of the time. For example, I am a freelance programmer. It's in my best interests to see what technologies companies want. This way I can expand my skill set in the right areas and be marketable to future prospects. You'll need to show that you're a fit for the projects you are going for.
Next you'll find that one great thing about freelancing is that you work completely on your own. You are the boss. You'll set your own priorities and prioritize your own responsibilities. However, you'll have to push yourself to complete the work you are contracted for because you're ultimately responsible. You won't have a manager to push you.
If you want to be in this business you'll need organizational skills you'll have to perfect. Especially, if you work from home. I have been told many times how easy it is to work from home from those to don’t work from home. Don't believe the hype. It's a challenge at first. You'll be juggling a lot of things if you are working on a few projects at a time.
Finally, you will need to be at your best and keep raising the bar on your skills. For example, if you're a programmer you don't want to be just proficient at your language you want to be great at it. This is because freelancers are expected to get the job done by their clients.
While you'll need to make efforts with many aspects of your freelance business, getting work and providing your best service is most important. If you're still deciding on becoming a freelancer, you'll see a link in my resource box for free report that goes over freelancing in more detail. You may find the report useful.
Not sure if freelancing is right for you or not? Get my free report at http://www.beinbusiness.net and get the facts about freelancing and how it can bring you a nice income without a lot of hassle.
All too often we bandy around the words freelancer, consultant, and entrepreneur as if they are interchangeable, although they are not. Sometimes our clients are confused. Often we are, too. When we aren’t clear about how we offer our products and services, it makes it difficult for potential clients to know whether or not to hire us. This article describes the differences between freelancer, consultant, and entrepreneur.
Remember the poor little bird in P. D. Eastman's much beloved children's book Are You My Mother? The one who hatches from his egg while his mother is out scratching around for food and can't figure out who he is? By the middle of the story, this confused hatchling is in the midst of a full-blown identity crisis, wandering around asking everyone, "Are you my mother?"
That's how it is in the business world. We bandy around the words freelancer, consultant, and entrepreneur as if they are interchangeable, although they are not. Sometimes our clients are confused. Often we are, too. When we aren't clear about how we offer our products and services, it makes it difficult for potential clients to know whether or not to hire us.
What's the difference?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: a freelancer is "a person who acts independently without being affiliated with or organized by an organization; who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer." A consultant, on the other hand, is "one who gives professional advice or services as an expert." In a completely different category is the entrepreneur who "organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise."
Freelance vs. Consultant
Technically, there isn't much of a difference between being a consultant and being a freelancer. Both are independent contractors working for multiple clients. They are their own bosses. The main difference between the two is that one gives professional or expert advice and the other offers a deliverable.
Freelancers
Freelancers offer a deliverable--something concrete and tangible. Deliverables can include writing an article for a newspaper or magazine, designing a web site for a client, or painting a commissioned artwork for a building opening. Freelancers get in, do the job, and get out. Often enjoying a variety of assignments while working from home, they earn their living by contracting for work on a project-by-project basis. At the end of the year, they have plenty of 1099s to show for it.
Fields where freelancing is especially common include journalism, writing, copywriting, computer programming, software development, graphic design, film production, landscaping, architecture, translation, fine art, music, and acting.
Consultants
Consultants give professional or expert advice, generally to management. They may come in and evaluate how a company can streamline their production efforts or render a professional opinion on an accounting audit. They give their advice and opinion so that others can make informed decisions, select the best course of action, or accurately forecast an outcome.
Consultants, like freelancers, enjoy a wide variety of projects and earn their living by contracting for projects on a project-by-project basis. Unlike freelancers, most of their work is done outside of the home. At the end of the year, in addition to 1099s, they may also have some W2s to show for their work.
Fields where consultants are especially common include financial planning, strategic planning, marketing, research, training, business planning, business review, computing, integration of new technology, medicine, psychology, and law. Entrepreneur vs. Freelancer and Consultant
Freelancers and Consultants
Freelancers and consultants sell themselves. Though they may have a few employees working for them, their focus is on getting a job done rather than running a business. What drives freelancers and consultants is the pleasure and satisfaction of working for themselves, setting their own hours, and deciding what projects they will or won't take on. They don't like to take too much risk.
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, sell their business. They focus on building something big, lasting, and profitable. They enjoy taking calculated risks and manifest their vision in the form of a business. For them, it's all about making it big and leaving behind a legacy.
Some famous entrepreneurs include: Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Hugh Hefner, Michael Dell, Mary Kay Ash, Debbi Fields, and Anita Roddick (founder of The Body Shop).
Freelancers and Consultants as Business Owners
Freelancers and consultants may decide to start up a small freelance or consultant business, although they have no interest in overseeing or operating a large company. They like putting themselves out there--just not too much. Freelancers and consultants are their product or service. Without themselves, their business is not sustainable.
Entrepreneurs as Business Owners
Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are all about their business. Though they may start out small with only a few employees, it is just a matter of time before their small business expands. The very nature of an entrepreneur is to take risks, think big, and grow. Often, venture capitalists and other investors are involved. An entrepreneur's business is sustainable and can survive after they are gone.
Conclusion
Knowing the distinctions between the three very different categories is just the beginning. At the end of the day, it's all up to you to determine how you label yourself. Whether you're a freelancer, consultant, or entrepreneur, it's up to you to decide for yourself the kind of success you want.
Small Business Start Up Coach provides value, inspiration and direction to entrepreneurial women starting up and launching small businesses. Accidental Pren-her™ providing a place for pren-hers to share stories, build community, and embrace their inner Samurai. Welcome!
As a freelancer you work without the assistance of a company tech support team. You have to be your own computer guru. This means that the responsibility for backing up files is entirely yours. And you should take the job seriously because your livelihood is in the balance.
Have you ever been in a position whereby all your work did a disappearing act, and no matter how much you tried, you couldn’t get it back? This is what happens to all freelancers at one point of time or the other. Be it an article that you’ve worked on for two weeks and is now ready for submission, or a file containing pertinent research for your project; losing it can lead to a lot of frustration and ire at yourself for not having created a backup copy.
The best way to learn this lesson is by experience. No matter how many times you’ve been told horror stories of this happening, you never quite grasp the lesson until you’ve learnt it yourself. It’s true. Months of research for my thesis went down the drain.
There are many reasons as to how your data could disappear. Harmful computer viruses head the list. Some viruses affect only Word and Images and render all documents unreadable. Deleting files by accident is no longer a cause for worry, since one can retrieve them from the Recycle Bin.
Methods of performing data backup include:
Creating a system restore point
Creating a system restore point regularly ensures that your data is safe. Even though a virus wipes out your documents, you can get them back by restoring your system to the last restore point. Hence, you’re safe, as is your work.
Backing up on external memory
There are many various types of external memory that can be used to back up your data. Flash disks, CDs, Hard Drives, are all samples of these. An external memory disk is one piece of equipment that every freelancer must invest in.
Backing up your data not only ensures that you do not have to do double work at no extra charge if your data is somehow erased, but it also helps to keep your good reputation and rating with your clients. When your data disappears, there’s no way you’ll be able to make your deadlines, and you might as well kiss that particular client goodbye, lucrative though his projects may be.
There has been a huge amount written about the benefits of working from home.
Individuals run small businesses from home. Large corporations even set up home offices for many of their employees.
Right now most freelancers work from a home office. Some may invest in modest office space, but most of the freelancers I know work from their homes.
It's good to have such a short commute time in the morning!
But what if you want more?
With smaller, more powerful laptops, improved internet connectivity worldwide and a host of cellular and web services to choose from...we're no longer confined to working from home. Now we can work from almost anywhere.
This opens up a host of new possibilities in our lives.
We can travel the world, and still keep working
We can live almost anywhere, out in the country or even in a different country
We can travel to visit clients, attend seminars or pitch for new business in other cities without losing touch with our current work and customers
The list goes on and on.
Our only limitation is our fondness for old work habits
As freelancers we are literally free to work from most parts of the world.
So why don't we all strike camp and explore the world?
There are many practical reasons, including the needs of other members of our families and communities.
But be careful when you list the reasons why you absolutely can't work from anywhere other than your home or office.
How many of those reasons are absolutely unchangeable, and how many have you listed simply because old habits die hard?
Is it truly impossible for you to work for a while from a rented house in Southern Italy?
Is it absolutely out of the question for you to rent a cottage in the country for a month or so?
And is that dream you had about moving to Mexico or Panama really and truly impossible?
With any one of these options, you can plug your laptop in and keep working. And nobody need even know where you are!
Some more modest ambitions
Even if you don't want to use mobile technologies to make dramatic shifts in your life, you can still get out from behind your desk from time to time.
You can work from the park, from the beach, from a local coffee shop....from an airport, on a plane, from a city you are visiting. The possibilities are endless.
As a freelancer, you are free
That's what we are, we're FREElancers. And now we have access to technologies that allow us to unplug and work from just about anywhere.
Isn't there an opportunity here to make our lives a little more interesting and adventurous?
Nick Usborne is a freelance copywriter, author and speaker. For more articles and resources on making money as a freelance writer, visit his site, http://www.FreelanceWritingSuccess.com.
Working as a freelancer on the Internet is one of the most popular ways of making money from home. Before you could work online as a freelancer, you had to hunt for projects hours and hours a day, so the business was challenging and less attractive. Today, however, you are always just a couple of clicks away from wining your first freelancing project and developing that work at home business you were always thinking about. Here are the most popular categories of freelance jobs:
Ghostwriting - The Internet relies on written text to provide visitors with information. This is the reason why search engines such as Google, MSN or Yahoo place a lot of value on original content. Freelance commercial writing is often a good trade both fro the freelancer and the customer, usually a web master who wants to add more content to an existing website or create content to build a new website. Freelance writing is greatly appreciated because it allows webmasters to get content for smaller prices than if they went and ordered copy from a local writer. As a freelancer, you should try and offer competitive prices and make sure that your writing quality and informational value of the articles are high at all times. Freelance writing money will come your way, but as with any business remember that you need to build a good reputation first. You can start your online money making venture by joining a freelance writing web site – some are free while others require you to pay for their services. It is not uncommon for a freelancer to build a list of 5-6 customers that offer repeated work, and this is one of the most successful Internet money making opportunities. Get more tips on successful copywriting and ghostwriting on Web2earn.comGraphic design - For many people all across the US and other countries, freelance graphic design is the number one choice when it comes to making money on the Internet. The need for graphic designers is on an ascending trend, since more and more resources and time are invested into advertising and creating web design. One of the most appreciated features of freelance graphic design, however, is not the multitude of projects you can win, but the fact that this type of online job allows you to set your own schedule and have a flexible work program. There are many cases of designers that are overwhelmed with orders from their clients and they create a freelance graphic design company. This sort of business can bring anywhere from a few hundred dollars a month, to tens of thousands of dollars (although, in the later case, this mostly refers to companies not individuals).
Coding and programming - Whether you are a professional coder or someone skilled in creating scripts and programs, you will probably find online programming jobs to be a good alternative money making opportunity. The need for freelance programmers is on an ascending trend, mostly because both the Internet and the related software industry are developing at a fast pace. A good online programming job will often determine programmers to quit their day job and start their own online business. While no one can predict exactly how much you can make by freelancing, it is certain that the potential of the online programming market is huge. Let's take a rather recent example – pixel advertising. Once the famous Million Dollar Home Page campaign got popular, thousands upon thousands of investors were looking for pixel ad scripts. This was concretized as a creation of plenty of online programming job opportunities, and many programmers made a lot of money developing such scripts.
Website design - Together with content writing and graphic design, freelance web design is a hugely popular field in which you can use your skills to earn money online, working from home. Although there is a lot of competition in the world of freelance web designers, there are also thousands upon thousands of new clients requesting website or web improvements on a daily basis. The nicest thing about freelance web design is that it allows you to earn considerable amounts of money while creating your own schedule – find out more on Web2earn.com. As with most freelancing jobs, web design is highly appreciated by a wide variety of people, from work at home moms and dads who want to spend more time with their family to students who find freelance web design to be the perfect answer for their financial problems.
, you'll see a link in my resource box for free report that goes over freelancing in more detail. You may find the report useful. 
