Welcome to Introduction to Freelancing.  I’m Garland Coulson. “Captain Time” and we’re going to talk a little bit about freelancing –  what it is and how it can help you.

So what is freelancing?

If this is your first introduction to freelancing, freelancing is really just providing services to companies on an as-needed basis rather than being hired full-time or part-time and being regularly in the employer’s office.

Most freelancers are self-employed they – usually work from their own home although some of them can go in from time to time into the client’s office. Most freelancers work with more than one client.

There’s a ton of different services that can be done by freelancers. This includes:

• writing
• copywriting
• web design
• graphic design
• data entry
• video editing
• search engine optimization
• digital marketing
• programming
• creating content
• virtual assistants
• Internet research

So there are hundreds of different services that can be done this way.

The benefits of freelancing for part-timers include:

• earning a little bit of extra income on top of your normal job
• gaining experience – Working as a part-time freelancer is a great way to get some experience in an area where you’re not really getting good experience at your existing work
• building a portfolio for your future so that in future if you decide to go full-time you’ve got a portfolio of work that can you can show potential new clients

For full-time freelancers, the benefits include:

• being your own boss
• setting your own pricing
• earning from more than one client
• becoming a digital nomad and working from around the world  – or do a lot of travel while you’re working or look for countries where it’s very inexpensive to live and that way you can keep more of your income

One of the key things, when you’re freelancing, is you need to learn how to market yourself.  With normal work, you got hired once and know you get paid for your work. Your work is given to you and you get your paycheck.

As a freelancer, you only get paid when you actually have clients and you complete work. You need to continually be marketing yourself.  I market myself and about thirty percent of my week is spent on marketing.

You also want to prepare for slow times. It is good to have a bit of a cushion in case you’re between clients for a bit. Also, nobody’s going to be deducting tax and sending it to the government for you so you need to set aside these funds yourself. So figure out what tax bracket you’re likely to be in and take that percentage right off every bit of income that comes in and drop it into a separate savings account so you’ve got it for the end of the year.  And you will need to take care of your own medical and other benefits you might want to have to make sure you’re setting aside money for that as well.

So how you get started with freelancing?

1. What Skill? Figure out what skill or service could you offer that people would pay for. Are you a graphic designer, programmer, writer? Work on that and make sure you’ve got that skill honed so you are really good at it.
2. Build a Portfolio: The next step is to build a portfolio. If you’ve been doing this for a while you can use your client projects but if you don’t have any clients. mock up some examples. If you’re a copywriter who’s never written for a client, do some example write-ups. Write some example press releases, some example landing pages for websites or some example sales letters.
3. Finding Projects: Once you’ve decided on your skill and you’ve got your portfolio in place you can start finding projects. You can do this by:
   • In person networking
   • Online networking through places like LinkedIn
   • Freelance sites – You can register on freelance sites online to get your portfolio out there and  start bidding on projects
   • Facebook pages and Forums – You can connect with people online via Facebook or forums. Make sure of course at any Facebook page or forum that you’re following the rules in the group about advertising
   • Create your own web site
   • Join an agency: You can join an agency that already has clients looking for somebody with your skills

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Introduction to Freelancing video. If you’d like for us to continue creating videos like this please subscribe to this channel and hit like and that will encourage me to create more freelancing videos. I am currently putting together a freelancer mentorship program so send me a contact through either the comments on YouTube here or through this website if you would like to find out more about my mentorship program for freelancers. Thanks so much for listening.