HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL FREELANCER: A COMPLETE GUIDE

Driven by freedom along with the nifty amount of money, freelancing career is getting attractive day by day. The skilled workers get suitable orders and the business can choose efficient professionals. For the last five years, the total freelancers grew by 45%. New online marketplaces are emerging, and hundreds of remote workers are signing up every day to the top freelance websites.

The online marketplace balances the employer employee's demand and supply that goes beyond the local boundary. If a company requires high-skilled freelancers within budget, it may not possible in the country but the online marketplace will provide the professional with one click.

However, becoming successful in the freelancing arena is getting tougher, too, because of competitive supply. Also, with the help of various skill development courses offered by online platforms, it is now easy to acquire specific proficiency within a short time. Still, there are few phases you need to complete to be the top expert and win the bid from hundreds.

If you are serious about freelancing and want to earn self-employed income, then our top 4 steps about how to become a successful freelancer as a guideline.

 Select your Topic

 Most beginners fail to build their freelancing career because they start bidding all kinds of projects—no matter they have full or semi-skills about the tasks. As a result, even though some of them win a few bids, they cannot succeed in the long run. The rule of thumb is you need to choose a specific niche on which you have expertise. A designer cannot be an efficient developer. Nowadays, in the competitive job market, the contractors seek highly professionals, not some savvy workers. You need to prepare yourself before entering the online job market.

After choosing your niche, if you want to add skills for providing the professional service, then you can buy a few online courses. There are many online websites in Bangladesh offering courses specially designed for freelancers to develop skills, Amader Academy is one of the best. It has different courses that will help you to boost your proficiency.

Finalize your Service Offering

 Once you have chosen on what niche you will be providing service and added extra hours of knowledge into your portfolio, now it is time to break down on the targeted service. Each category on any marketplace has also multiple subcategories. So it is not possible to be an expert on all of them. In the future, you will get there but first, choose a specific service.If you can get 5-start ratings on your first few jobs, the platform will treat you as an expert. Also, you will get more clients. Because of the expertise on definite service, many freelancers do not have to search or bid on the projects anymore—the present clients offer more jobs.

 Classify your Ideal Client

 Before start bidding on the projects, you need to get a clear picture of what type of clients—individual contractors, small firms, or big companies— you will serve because different kinds of contractors have diverse preferences. An individual contractor may not need your service after completing one; on the other hand, a big company will want to keep you for its next project.

However, if you are a beginner and have newly developed skills, we recommend starting with a single client and short-term project. Once you complete a few jobs, you can start bidding on mid-level offers. Slowly, after completing some mid-budget jobs, you will be able to apply to the big projects. Of course, do not apply to the company jobs if you do not have the skills and experience; a simple mistake can lead to many negative feed-back.

Build your Portfolio

A portfolio, showcase for your previous projects and experiences, is essential to show the potential clients about your expertise. Nowadays, the company wants professionals to lower the risk, and your portfolio will define who you are and what you can capable of.Besides, online job marketplaces tend to highlight their best freelancers. And the size of your portfolios along with a good number of positive reviews, including higher ratings will define whether the job site will emphasize your profile or not.Within the profile, you can add and create your portfolio, a major crowdsourcing marketplace lets the freelancers show project-wise portfolio. Besides, outside of the marketplace, you can create your portfolio on popular job recruitment social networks such as LinkedIn.LinkedIn is an excellent source of portfolio builder; it also helps you to get hired by top agencies and organisations. So why not create your profile as well as professional portfolio and link back from the marketplace website?

Moreover, testimonials, nowadays, are essential factors to build up trust and reliability. If possible, ask for testimonials from the clients you have completed the projects. Along with the ratings, positive feedbacks will build credibility on you and more contractors will find you because of the testimonials.

Add more Skills

 Many freelancers stuck in the beginner level—bidding and completing the same type of jobs— because they do not want to level up their skills. If you want to bid on a big-budget job, you also need a higher ability. So while continuing the current bidding, try to add more skills that will help to get high profile jobs.In Amader Academy, you will find many mid-levels to top-levels skill development courses. The industry experts have made those online courses. Browse your preferred category and enroll ASAP; often, the courses have a big discount.Ultimately, having skills is the primary basis for becoming a successful freelancer and there are many ways to sharpen your skills. Check the requirements of big jobs and find the relevant courses—online as well as live—from Amader Academy.

The more freelancing marketplaces surface online, the more competitive they get because hundreds of people are applying for jobs every day. Among these many skilled freelancers, becoming the successful ones, and grabbing the top positions are tough. However, if you follow the above steps and prepare yourself with having a few extra skills in your sleeve, you will definitely climb to the top within a short time.