35% of the U.S. workforce are freelancers, which is a 4 million increase in the number of freelancers since 2014. Isn’t that crazy?? Moreover, they contributed nearly $1 trillion in freelancing income to the economy, which is nearly 5% of the U.S. GDP. Mind-blowing right? Freelancing is growing day by day and especially in these times when everyone is at their home, people are understanding the awesomeness of it. With people realizing that work can also be done at home, I believe soon many businesses will partially if not completely will shift to remote working. That’s because there are a lot of upsides to it. Negligible infrastructure cost, no commuting cost, less wastage of time, the comfort of home, and a lot more. But when many people are discovering it, there are some freelance myth floating around which need to be addressed.
In this post, we’ll be addressing some freelance myths. That’s so that you can have a better understanding of what freelancing actually is and how you can best leverage it. You should not misunderstand the following points if you are thinking of starting to freelance. Some of these points are myths that even many experienced freelancers believe.
Let’s discuss what these myths are and thanks to Ran Segall for his amazing post we are referencing to.
Freelance Myth Debunked
Myth 1: Freelance is risky
Ran says that if built correctly with a diverse client base, freelance is safer than a day job. In that way, no one client can completely eradicate your income. One more thing to note here is that even in your day job, it is not that safe. You don’t know when you might get laid off because of reasons out of your control. You can even take this pandemic as an example. No one could control their fate. Freelancers are one of the least affected by this.
A good way of ensuring you are safe and get clients regularly is to build your personal brand. You can do that in a lot of ways. Build a following and clients will line up to work with you and you won’t have to search for freelance jobs, but jobs will find you. Check out Neil Patel’s guide to personal branding here: “Personal Branding: How to Go from Zero to Hero in No Time”. He is also a very good example of personal branding and how he built his personal brand.
Myth 2: Good work will attract clients
While good work is important, it takes a lot of time to build consistent word-of-mouth. Yes, you need to market yourself otherwise your awesome skills will be unknown to the world. Try social media, there are so many you can market yourself on and build a following. All social medias are different and one might work better than the other for people working in different industries. Try them out and find what works best for you. You’ll be surprised to know how much work you can find just by marketing yourself and putting your work out there.
Myth 3: I’ll spend my days only doing work I love
When you’re a freelancer, most of the times you’re your own boss. Well kinda when it comes to where you want to work and how you want to work. But it also needs lot of discipline. And you’ll have to do things you might not be fond of, like marketing, sales, connecting, etc. Consider them part of your growth and they are for your benefit only.
Myth 4: No one pays high prices where I live
This is a very common freelance myth. Believe it or not, no matter which industry you are working in or where you’re working, there is always a premium market for you with higher pay. Yes, but it is your job to find those big clients and how you can be useful for them. And if your work is good and if you can really be useful for them, consider yourself hired. Also, make sure you’re working with the right clients. Know your worth and don’t price your work less than it deserves.
Have a look at this amazing video by Chris Do from The Futur on how to price your creativity:
Myth 5: Successful freelancers don’t have a niche
This is crucial. Knowing your niche is very very important and makes it much easier to reach out to your potential client and serve them better. This also helps you understand who you are actually serving, which makes it easier for you to target and find work.
Don’t mistake luck for a good business strategy. Don’t aim at everything, niche down and find who you’re serving.
Freelance can be awesome
Everything you do has pros and cons. And now, better than ever before, we know that even the most secured job might not be the best idea. Whereas freelancing can open up a lot of opportunities for you. Give it a shot and do let us know what you think of it.
Are you a freelancer? What freelance myth did you find?
Do share with your friend who might find this post helpful. Thank you!!
Source for the statistics in the article (Upwork/Freelancers Union)