After the impact that the last few years have had on individuals, businesses and economies around the world, more professionals have been turning to freelance opportunities as a means of boosting their earning potential. For some, this was the first time they had ever considered working for themselves. Now, however, many are flocking to freelancing to not only consider a new style of work-life, but also to help improve on their own skills, and expand on their own job prospects.
The good news is there’s a future in freelancing for almost everybody, and as a result, people are finally earning what they deserve in an increasingly lucrative market. It’s up to clients and companies to make it worth your while as a freelancer and not the other way around, making freelancing the perfect approach to comfortably navigating a career change. Simply put, with the right information at your disposal, there’s no reason that you can’t use freelancing to help successfully navigate through your next career change.
Want a little more guidance? Feel free to take advantage of a guide to freelancing in Australia that we’ve put together below just for professionals seeking to expand on their professional horizons.
Head To Social Media
Like all professional roles, freelancing positions are best sought out by growing your personal network. With this in mind, the best way to ensure you maintain access to any and all professional opportunities that may be aligned with your career goals, is to flesh out your LinkedIn profile as a freelancer.
Social media marketing platforms like LinkedIn and even Twitter, have proven time and time again to be the best methods for connecting you with other companies and potential employers in your industry. Not only will you be able to keep prospective employers and fellow connections in the loop with your professional output, but you can also keep a copy of your resume up-to-date and totally accessible to showcase your skill sets and back-up your presented capabilities.
You should also feel encouraged to strike up conversations with other professionals both within and outside of your industry niche. Even if you’re looking to take on a different career pathway and may find yourself creating connections outside of your ideal sector, gaining experience with communication and even pitching ideas is only going to make you a more capable and self-assured professional.
Build A Portfolio (& Send It Out!)
No matter which industry you’re looking to enter, you’re going to need to demonstrate your skills and capabilities. For those in creative, design, or tech fields, this may be possible without having any actual clients yet, as you can develop your own work samples. But for everyone else, what’s the best way to build your portfolio in the beginning?
Once again, social media can be a powerful tool for you here. Many businesses and potential clients tweet job openings on Twitter. You just need to get savvy about what the popular hashtags and other vocabulary is used within that industry, and then respond to any job postings you find accordingly. This could mean putting together a digital portfolio that can be sent via a web link alongside your resume.
Job sites and forums are also good options here too. Using certain gig platforms can be a highly effective way to build up your client base. That being said, if you’re not advertising yourself as boasting the right skill sets, it can be difficult to set yourself apart from the crowd.
It can also be tough to know if you should pay for premium versions of work platform services, as many are based on reviews and ratings. The big players are platforms like Fiverr, Freelancer, and Upwork each of which comes with its own pros and cons, and there’s nothing to say you can’t be on all of them if you really want to cast a wide net.
You Are The Brand
In addition to showcasing your skills and work availability, it’s important to remember that you are the brand, so beyond building a client base, you need to ensure that you maintain a somewhat active and relevant online presence.
This is also a good time to think about niching and how to do it well in the freelance space. While niching isn’t a necessity, there are many reasons why it works in the favour of almost everybody who takes the time and effort to do so.
What exactly is ‘niching’? As you may imagine, niching is the practice of presenting yourself as a master within a particular craft or offering. For example, if you’re a content writer who’s hoping to accrue professional opportunities to work in consumer tech, establishing yourself as the go-to writer for tech product descriptions and copy is likely to yield a greater number of opportunities within this niche.
Money Talks
We all know that time is money, but it can be tricky to know just how much you should be making in your freelance role. Putting the right pricing structure in place for your offered skills and services is imperative to ensuring that you are paid what you’re worth.
Similarly, freelancers are also expected to handle their own tax commitments independently. Tax and the financial implications of being self-employed may seem like a drawback to freelance employment, but if you know what you’re entitled to claim and how to file ahead of tax season, you may end up with more than you think.
There’s also a range of accounting and management tools to help you keep your business running smoothly, so you can focus on what’s really important; growing your new freelance career.
The Time For A Successful Career Change Is Now!
With many people feeling unappreciated and often undervalued in their traditional working environments, freelancing has well and truly provided working professionals with a liferaft as well as guidance towards bigger and better things. When new opportunities are not much more than a few clicks away, what’s stopping you from taking the leap? With all the developments in industry over the past few years, there has truly never been a more perfect time for a career change. And by taking the plunge and using freelancing to your advantage, you can ensure that your own career change is nothing short of a success.
