Last couple of years were really hard for everyone.

You’re almost out of college with a degree in hand. Or are a professional who faced a salary cut or worse, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The times are gloomy for everyone. But there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud, too. 

Remote work and freelancing became a feasible way for companies and professionals to get work done amid pandemic. 

47% of hiring managers are more likely to hire freelancers and independent professionals after the COVID-19 pandemic 

You must be living under a rock if you don’t know what freelancing is. If you’re one of them, freelancing allows you to work from anywhere with clients without a formal employment contract. 

Global Freelancing Statistics 

• Freelancers represent about 35% of the global workforce (Source)
• Freelancers earn over $1 billion on Upwork yearly. (Source) 
• 75% of freelancers say that they wouldn’t choose a full-time job or other work over their freelancing job. (Source) 

Clearly, freelancing is a booming area even when many businesses are struggling to lockdowns and pandemic all over the world. 

But how to start freelancing as a beginner? 

Let’s begin with the basics of freelancing and see how you can begin and earn money through freelancing. 

What do you need to start freelancing? 

1. Marketable Skill 
2. Growth Mindset 
3. Medium to Approach Prospective Clients 

Finding your ‘Marketable Skill’ 

Everyone’s an expert– Russel Brunson

While you may not believe me now, but trust me, you are good at something or the other. Maybe, it is the thing you do for a living or your hobby. But you are. 

To be a successful freelancer and earn money out of it, you just need to find a ‘marketable skill’. 

A marketable skill is something for which there is high demand in the market, like copywriting, web development or social media management. 

Popular Marketable Skills 

• Copywriting
• Funnel Building 
• Graphic Designing
• Blogging 
• Web Development 
• UI/UX Design
• eCommerce Management 
• Social Media Management 

Source: Don’t Do it Yourself

Successful freelancers dive deep into their skill pool and create a product-market fit for growing their earnings. 

If you have passed as an engineer and know to code, you can start with app development. If you have an eye for design and know photoshop, you can begin as a designer and so on. 

The thing is, you can be anything as long as you are ready to give the market something of value. That way you’ll be able to serve clients and earn money through freelancing. 

Building a Growth Mindset 

Okay, let’s say you have found your marketable skill. Well, congratulations, first. 

Now that you know what you can offer to the world, you need a growth mindset. By growth mindset I mean to say that you’ll have to start thinking in a unique way. 

Every action you do on daily basis should help you grow as a professional. 

So, whether you’re learning a new skill, building your portfolio, reading that informational blog or working on marketing, you are somehow growing. 

This growth mindset is really essential if you want to earn money as a freelancer. Freelancers generally forget to create goals for themselves when they have lots of clients, creating feast and famine cycles.  

If you are serious about your growth (financially or professionally), you’ll work on improving your proposals and pitches, finding new platforms to market and taking calculated risks to grow your freelancing career. 

Not many freelancing gurus will tell you this, but trust me – your motivation will fade away, your dedication to earn money would fail you and you will start feeling tired if you don’t have a goal in mind and tie it to your growth. 

Approaching Clients: Mediums & Ways to Market Your Skill 

If your skill is a car, growth mindset- the fuel, then the marketing is the path or the map that’ll take you to your destination, i.e. success. When you don’t know the road to your destination, you can’t do much. 

That’s where marketing your skills come in. There are endless approaches to marketing your freelancing business. You can build a website to strengthen your personal brand and attract leads inbound or use platforms to strengthen your outbound strategy. 

While there’s no right or wrong way, here are some platforms you can use to start attracting eyeballs towards you: 

Platforms to Start Your Freelancing Journey 

• Upwork 
• Fiverr
• Peopleperhour
• Toptal 
• LinkedIn 
• Any other social media platform where your clients are. 

Inbound or outbound, a marketing approach and strategy is crucial for your growth. Whatever, you choose, make sure that the approach should in line with your skill and personality. 

Don’t Wait for Tomorrow. Get Going Today  

Take this blog as a roadmap for freelancing as a beginner. Now, that you know the three simple things you need, you can fit in different aspects in the plan and start building your freelancing business. 

Remember, freelancing is not a get rich quick scheme, but just like a business where you have to manage everything on your own. If you’re true to yourself, you will succeed. And if you need step by step tips to begin freelancing, here is a detailed blog on how to begin as a freelance writer. The steps are more or less the same for other streams, too.

Stop thinking. Start doing. All the best!