Freelancing Do’s and Don’ts that you Must Know

It is immensely important the you should know the realities of the freelancing world before you plan to opt it as a business It’s a business where your good work will never be encouraged but you one single mistake can take away your contract-and-your potential clients miles away from you. As a freelancer myself, working with many clients recently, I realized that freelancing is certainly not what it seems to be. Although, Freelancing has been the best rated method after blogging according to the universal rankings, you must understand that it’s NOT related to entrepreneurship through any mean. Being a freelancer demands certain things from you and the response you give to these requirements then calculates your earning. While getting paid for one apparent task, you need to put in everything, done by different departments in an organization, alone. How about Knowing the do’s and Don’ts in your freelancing career and keeping yourself focused, both pleasing the client as well as making your life easier too?

After researching and actually experiencing the realities of the freelancing world and studying the expectations of the clients, here we present you the most common issues along with the most authentic Do’s and Don’ts that will definitely help you out in rephrasing the nature of job as a freelancer for you.

Planning to Start a contract?

When you get registered to the freelancing sites, you get notified. You chose to bid with a proposal when the right contracts clicks to you. It’s important to understand the actual domain you are planning to work for. The description given by the client is always 20% of the real story. Go through the terms and conditions mentioned in the job description, calculate orally, mentally, discuss it with a senior (if have any) and then analyze yourself whether it would be comfortable for you to work with the snap shot you are just having. The enthusiasm for the new contract always tells you an affirmative feeling. True that. But you need to keep feelings a side at the very first site because a wrong judgment here, will take you nowhere!

Things you SHOULD DO:

Although keeping all the following things in mind every time might sound unrealistic, yet, they are the key to success.

1) Be Honest to yourself in judging your capabilities

2) Contact your Client Confidently

3) Show him humbly that you deserve to have this contract

4) Verify your Nature of Job if Client contacts you

5) Tell Your Limitations straightforwardly

6) Make sure about payment structure.

7) Be simple

8) Ensure client about the best quality of work would be provided from your side.

Things you SHOULD NOT DO:

The first step of anything is the most crucial one. If you agree with this point, then always try to play a safe game when interacting with your clients for the first time. This goes out not for Freelancing only but for other interviews in the real world too. Your clients judge you more for the things you SHOULD NOT do rather than judging for your capabilities. Here is a basic list of things you need avoid to be accurate with your freelancing career:

1) Never self boost about your abilities

2) Don’t be over confident- you are an employee not an employer!

3) Never say yes to the things that are out of your range

4) Never agree for more work once the client describes your job nature

5) Don’t tell your weaknesses

6) Don’t give an emotional touch to your proposal

7) Don’t lose hope if the contract doesn’t comes to you.

Time of Delivery

Why to restrict it to freelancers only, time is an important factor that every person should consider the most. It’s the key of door that opens up the way to success. Coming back to Freelancing, a major point of clause, that arouse even in my freelancing career, despite being a regular worker is the time management. Your client expects you to work like a robot or an angel and deliver his work on the stated time. Professional enough! Then you should and should not do the following things as well.

Things You SHOULD DO:

1) Make a schedule of your daily activities

2) Follow the schedule too

3) Take limited work on daily basis, keeping a track of your other possible activities.

4) Work on Durations, not on days.

5) Set your clocks 1 hour ahead.

6) Deliver work 1 hour before.

7) Ask your client to tell you about the work at least 3 hours before.

Things You SHOULD NOT DO:

1) Never accept work on 11^th hour to place a good impression. Remember you are not a permanent employee

2) Never misjudge the minimum time you need to do a work

3) Never sacrifice your sleeping hours to meet up the target

4) Never give false impression to the client when the real situations are too bad.

Is Your Work= Required Product?

The clients are too busy to explain you what they want. In fact, they just tell. The final product that comes out after your endless hard works, are often a victim of severe criticism by the client. It happened with me once, client never tell about the lacking, there is no room to improve visible in the employee. In severe cases, the evil clients might stop your payments too. How to get rid of such conditions?

Things You SHOULD DO:

1) Ask the client again and again(not bringing him to the verge of irritation)

2) Give a sample piece of work if possible

3) Tell him about your vision

4) Wait for the client feedback on your sample.

5) Be ready to accept criticism

Things You SHOULD NOT DO:

1) Don’t give a false impression that you have understood the instructions, if you haven’t.

2) Don’t Guess things on your own

3) Don’t make it too complicated for the client.

4) Don’t come under pressure

Maintaining your financial assets

Freelancers must have a good know how about management at least. We all work for money; therefore one should know how to manage it too. As a freelancer you earn for the work you do for your clients. Most of the clients are foreigners and the only way to contact them is through emails. Being a major clause of working for someone you don’t know often creates a sense of insecurity. To ensure you get paid for the work you do, here are some tips that you need to follow,

Things You SHOULD DO:

1) Always decide the method of payment with the client

2) Confirm the period in which payments are expected

3) Ask for some advance payments that will keep both the parties committed.

4) Wait for the payment agreement to be fulfilled before working again for the same client

Things You SHOULD NOT DO:

1) Never trust your client

2) Never deliver complete work to the client without getting paid for the 50% of the total contract.

3) Do not misjudge the worth of your task.

Working as a freelancer is an interesting job, where your boss changes periodically, giving you a new experience and a new hope to explore your capabilities.However, you should learn the basic principles of freelancing before coming in to this field so that you may protect yourself from all the possible  frauds. More to come on Freelancing this Week, keep your fingers crossed.

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Blessings,