Towards Becoming A Successful Freelancer

What does success mean to you as a freelancer? How exactly do you measure success and what ways do you intend to achieve success as a freelancer?

Success they say comes to only those who are always prepared to meet opportunities. It is not possible for anyone to achieve success in their chosen career unless they first understand what success in that career entails. After having that understanding, you should then learn how to become successful in your career.

What then is freelance success?

A successful freelancer is one who is able to land gigs comfortably, carry out the assigned duties satisfactorily. A successful freelancer is one who is able to always make the client happy. A successful freelancer is one who makes clients get satisfied with the outcome of jobs done. A successful freelancer is one who is always up for recommendation because of the good jobs they return every time. Now success in freelancing is not that you make millions at the expense of your client's satisfaction. You can only be said to be successful as a freelancer when your clients are always satisfied wholly with the jobs you do for them. You do not carry out your job half heartedly and absentmindedly and expect a good result. Whenever you return a poorly done job, the client will never be happy with you and when the client is unhappy, then you have failed as a freelancer.

As a freelancer, you must know that you are a brand and a good brand is one that leaves people satisfied after use. If your outcome is usually poor, you'd be tagged a bad brand and nobody will want to patronize you. You must always be on top of your game and never forget that your success is tied to the client's happiness and satisfaction. Remember that even if you are motivated by money, you can't make any reasonable financial success when your clients aren't satisfied. An unsatisfied client will never come back and the same client will give bad feedback about you thereby blocking other clients from considering you. Now, how are you going to make the money you're after? You can see that your success is directly proportional to the satisfaction of your clients. Whatever financial success you intend to achieve with freelancing, do not overlook the satisfaction of your clients. A happy and satisfied client will even be willing to offer more pay whereas an unsatisfied client runs away and prevents other clients from coming to you.

Therefore, you should first understand that a freelancer can only be successful when his or her clients are happy and satisfied with the job done. When this happens, the money will flow. Again, you have to actually learn how to become this successful freelancer; a freelancer that makes the clients happy. I will give you some tips on how to become a successful freelancer and some of them will be quite unconventional.

As a reminder, you already know what becoming a successful freelancer means and now, we'd have to treat the question of "how?" I can assure you that the answer will be fully captured in this article and you can be rest assured that this will be a smooth ride and will be absolutely worth it.

You ask, how do I become a successful freelancer? The answer comes below!

1.Understand whether you can comfortably work from home.

This will look quite ridiculous until you find yourself in a position where you become tired of having to sit your ass down at home all day working. I once had a conversation with a young lady who told me plainly that she doesn't like working from home no matter the amount of money involved. She even went ahead to tell me categorically that she doesn't take those who work from home seriously. For her, you can only be said to be working when you go out every morning and return in the evening. I was dumbstruck but I realized that indeed, there are people like that. There are people who can't imagine themselves staying back at home everyday working irrespective of the amount they are going to be paid. Now, imagine forcing the lady I had this conversation with into freelance. How do you expect her to cope? You cannot be a successful freelancer if you are like this lady. Freelancers are experts who enjoy working from the comfort of their homes. As much as it might sound really strange to you, but the truth remains that there are people who detest the comfort that comes with working from home. They are already used to the hustle and bustle lifestyle. If you are in this category, then you should forget about freelance. Freelancing can only be properly done when you enjoy working from the comfort of your home. If you are the kind of person who loves going out every other time, then you'd struggle as a freelancer. This is because freelancing involves a lot of mental and intellectual activities and this requires you to always be in a relaxed state. Whenever you overwork yourself through extreme going out, you'd end up becoming mentally unstable to carry out your freelance jobs. The resultant effect is that you'd end up delivering jobs that are haphazard, disjointed and unsatisfactory. The client will definitely be unhappy with you and this marks the beginning of your downfall as a freelancer. Therefore, if you must become a successful freelancer, then you should be one person who enjoys working from home. If you don't, maybe you can learn since freelancing is after all a continuous learning process.

2. Find out what you are good at

A freelancer will fail repeatedly when he or she decides to do everything at the same time. You must know exactly what you love doing and improve on it. This will become your niche. A niche is that particular area of skill a freelancer offers. If you are good with writing, then you should concentrate on being a content writer, creator, editor and proofreader. The worst mistake you'd make is trying to fit into every available skill just because you want to make a lot of money. Don't get caught in such a web of greed and confusion. Look for that particular field you are best at and keep improving. Stay in your own lane and become a sought-after name. This is one way to become a successful freelancer. Most times when you force yourself to engage in skills you know little to nothing about, you'd end up being frustrated in the process of doing the work and your client will never be satisfied with the outcome no matter how hard you try. Learn a particular skill or group of interrelated skills and stick to them. That's the way to success as a freelancer.

3. Learn how to enjoy yourself while working

If anyone has ever told you that working from home is easy, then they lied to you. Working from home appears very easy and fun in the beginning. But with time, you'd begin to struggle with boredom, monotony and fatigue. Some days you'd just feel like running away from everything. Now this is one thing you must have at the back of your mind- working from home is not easy. You have to create your own happiness and fun while working from home. As a freelancer, you must learn how to remain healthy and happy while sitting back at home to work. You should be able to come up with fun games and other side attractions that you can take your mind to sometimes while working. When you get to your saturation point, drop whatever you're doing and catch some fun. That's the way to go. Sometimes, you can decide to go for a stroll to cool off and other times, you may have to play games or engage someone in a voice call or video call. You should know what works better for you and always apply it whenever you become tired, bored and stressed while working from home as a freelancer. That way, you'd always be refreshed to carry on with your work afterwards all geared towards becoming a successful freelancer.

4. Timely job delivery

When you are unable to deliver your jobs on time, you put yourself through a lot of mental and emotional stress and this will affect the outcome of your job. A job done in a relaxed and calm state will always be miles better than one done in a hurry. Timeliness is a factor every freelancer must take into cognizance. When you are able to do your job at the right time, you will end up doing better and delivering quality results. But when you waste time, you'd become frustrated in a bid to deliver as and when due. In that state of frustration, you're bound to make a lot of mistakes and that means you'll deliver a poorly done job leaving your client unhappy, unimpressed and dissatisfied. That will simply mean failure for you as a freelancer. If you are to become a successful freelancer, always be time conscious and deliver your jobs on time to ensure they are error-free and top-notch thereby leaving your client happy and satisfied.

5. Be happy and contented while aiming for more

Always bear it in mind that nobody became successful overnight. I know how desperate you want to achieve success as a freelancer but you must never try to cut corners. You must first find happiness with where you are and what you have achieved right now as a freelancer. Be content before aiming for more. An unhappy, dissatisfied and covetous person cannot make a good freelancer. With a greedy and unsettled mind, you can never be able to deliver quality jobs. I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't aim for more. No! The reality is that you must learn to find happiness in your job as a freelancer, enjoy and relish your experiences and be content with what you have been able to achieve. After which you can then aim for more with a happy and contented heart. That way you'd keep delivering quality jobs while pursuing bigger returns. That's the way to go!

We have come to the end of this article and I must congratulate you for taking time to go through this. You really made a great decision and I'm convinced you'd become a better freelancer after now. What you have just read is like a treasure. You must never overlook this and ensure to implement them. I'm sure you found this article helpful, please do well to leave a comment using the comment box below. Do have a great, fulfilling and successful freelance career! You can always get better and better everyday as a freelancer.

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