3 Things You Might Forget When Pursuing A Freelance Career

Freelancing seems to be a popular career choice in this day and age. Certainly, more and more people are quitting their jobs or moving away from the traditional style of working in favour of some freelance work instead. It can be very advantageous, and there’s always the huge benefit of being able to work for yourself without answering to any managers or bosses above you. 

Having said that, many people get so caught up in the idea of freelance work being all about themselves that they forget some key elements of being a freelancer. Here are three of the most forgotten things when undertaking a freelance career.

Qualifications/licensing

Ironically, many people go down the freelance route as they believe it means they don’t need any qualifications to work. While this is technically true in some cases, you will still benefit from having qualifications as clients are less likely to choose a freelancer without them. Similarly, in some industries, you will need specific qualifications or licenses to do your job. Let’s say you want to be a freelance construction contractor, you can see on the Kallibr website that various licenses are needed for things like scaffolding or using the equipment. Want to be an accountant? You have to have the proper qualifications or you can’t legally act as one. Don’t assume that, just because there are no job requirements, you won’t need qualifications or licenses. 

Marketing

So many freelancers forget about marketing themselves when they start this career move. You assume that the clients will find you, and there are websites where you can register and put yourself up for work. However, you need to treat your career as you would a business. You want to find work, so you need to market yourself. Create a marketing strategy that gets your name out there for more people to see, increasing the number of potential clients that come your way. 

Rates

Finally, you can’t afford to forget about rates – literally! The biggest mistake is to set your freelance rates too low. Again, lots of new freelancers do this as a way of undercutting everyone else. You look at the prices of other freelancers offering your services and think that you can do the same for a lot less. While this might be true, you could be underselling yourself so much, meaning you miss out on a lot of money. Instead, a good rule of thumb is to find the average rate for your industry and then put yours at around the same level, maybe a bit lower to start with. Similarly, don’t forget to raise your rates when your career starts taking off. The more in-demand your services become, the higher rates you can charge. 

Don’t forget about these three things if you’re thinking about changing careers and going down the freelance route. You will still need qualifications in some instances, even if you aren’t applying for any jobs. You also need to market yourself and set the right rates, helping you get the most out of your career.