The trends of our time are remote work, in free time, in the digital sphere. As a result, social media almost daily is full of advice, webinar advertising and courses on how to how to make money freelancing. Preferably a lot. I would like to quickly be somewhere in Bali in winter.
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In fact, not everything is so simple: there are dozens of traps. Imagine an absolutely common heroine of our time.
Masha graduated from university, got her first job, and within a year she realized she didn't like the 5/2 schedule, low pay, and short vacations. After searching Google for a few days, she stumbles upon a webinar from a self-employed marketer who lives in Thailand. Thinking, “why am I worse?” Masha decides to become a freelancer.
How to make money as a freelancer with no experience?
So Masha has absolutely no experience, so she will have to go through five steps to become an expert. The first and most difficult is survival. First of all, a freshly graduated freelancer goes to scholarships, takes on all the projects, and usually does the most boring and primitive work. This is, for example, layout of websites according to a template, description of goods in markets or transcription of audio recordings.
Masha fights with competitors, there are about 20 of them for each task, monitors advertisements and spends nights taking orders. Sometimes there are well-paying projects, but most of the time one person does a lot for a little. Masha dreams of increasing her ranking on the stock exchange and increasing the number of positive reviews.
Masha quit her job because she lives with her parents and can pay low wages for a while. If she, say, rented an apartment, everything would be different. For example, after an 8-hour workday, she would fill incoming orders as a freelancer. Therefore, sooner or later, she would start to get tired. Most people end up here: they can't stand high loads and instability.
Imagine that Masha got lucky – she learned a lot in a year at an official job and managed to get around the survival stage, which usually lasts about six months. For a while, she took on all the tasks, then chose her field and created a good portfolio.
The next step is training. Masha realized that, above all, she liked working with texts and decided to become a copywriter. Here, usually, those who haven't given up yet, give up and start earning almost their salary in a month. Fate, however, prepares new surprises for the writer: division into sub-niches, competitors with good image, depression for feeling useless and inexperienced.
This continues for about a year. If Masha chooses an even narrower focus, sets ambitious goals, hone her skills, and takes on big projects, even for free, she will go further. There will be more orders, and the salary will go up to what it was in a permanent job. This is usually where most freelancers stop.
How to earn more?
Go through the growth phase and make a plan for that. Masha, for example, set aside money and studied in the courses. Consequently, more “expensive” clients came to her, and the portfolio was enriched with texts that are not ashamed to be read. She realized that you can get 5 times more than before and was able to go on vacation.
However, she doesn't know how to attract new customers and doesn't always fulfill slightly more complex orders. At the same time, I don't want to work for little money, and I'm still tight with new projects. Masha can't talk about what she gives the company to get paid. She begins to study more: she delves into marketing, complex tasks, finding her audience and gaining skills.
If she lasts a year in this mode, Masha becomes recognizable and her salary grows. Everything is starting to settle down. She's not the same as before: now she knows all about email newsletters, selling articles and filling out landing pages. First, Masha chooses clients and boldly names the prices of the work. Second, she maintains her own blog and, at least in narrow circles, is widely known. She can delegate tasks and get more rest. Then the stagnation begins: yields don't change, winter is tired, chores have become routine.
It seems to Masha that she has hit the roof and is thinking about opening her own agency or starting a course. So, it takes about 5 years to become a freelance legal expert. On the other hand, a beginner could earn at least 20-30k freelancers in a year or two.
That is all! Develop financial thinking with Ilya Sitnov. Subscribe to our newsletter here and on Yandex.Zen so you don't miss out on useful materials.
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