Becoming a freelancer is a huge step in deciding you want to be an independent operator running your income from clients or outside sources. This can be a hectic task, filled with many trials and errors to learn how to be the most efficient freelancer possible.
According to The Advisor Coach, to become a successful financial advisor is a want that many others may have, but you’ve decided you’re going to step away from the companies that handle it and do it yourself. That’s great, and a great mindset to have! But you could always use some tips or advice to help you achieve your goal of being a freelance financial advisor.
Here are six tips from professional freelancers who once started without knowing what to do or how to be a freelancer.
Have A Back-Up Fund
One of the most important things to have when becoming a freelancer is to have a backup fund. This may be a bit of advice that is overlooked, or may even seem like a no-brainer, but it is highly suggested by many professionals to save up money if you seek to become a freelancer.
Having an emergency fund prepared when becoming a freelancer is because when you start you may not have a lot of clients at first, so you may not be generating enough income to pay your bills. Or on the other hand, you may have a lot of clients at first, but then suddenly lose them all or get no work for a couple of months!
Suddenly all that cash flow you had is now gone. And without a backup fund to support your bills, your bank account is going to go to the negative. So be safe, have a savings account ready.
Freelancing Is A Career Change
It’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into when you sign up for freelancing. Freelancing is a job, just like any other or just like if you were to work at a financial advising company. You’ll be required to commit to this career, meet deadlines, and be a professional at what you’re doing to get more clients or work.
With that in mind, you must understand that choosing to freelance is a change in your career. You are the only one who can promote yourself, find your work, and force yourself to earn money. You’ll have no boss to oversee you.
So it’s important to take into account that you aren’t just finding a side gig when you want to be a freelancer, but that this is a new career path in general, that you must push yourself along if you want to see improvement.
Manage Your Time
A big mistake of many freelancers would be that they do not manage their time correctly. Time is one variable that everyone is limited on, as everyone only has 24 hours a day, and you can’t buy more time. So managing your time is important.
Think about it this way, if you have five clients that all need advice in a week, you could easily do one a day. But once you get popular, you may have 50 clients that need assistance in a week. That’s 10 clients a day if you have a five-day work week, or roughly 7 clients a day if you work seven days a week.
You’ll also be your boss, meaning you are the one who runs everything. You must have time to find the clients, help each client, make sure each gets the help they need and make sure you get paid. It’s a lot to manage, and you must keep track of how much time you can afford to do each thing.
Create A Website
You may be thinking, “How will I find clients, or get people to find me and contact me once I’m popular?” Of course, you can find clients looking for assistance through online forums or job boards, but one of the most helpful ways for clients to find you would be through a website.
A website can be a great tool for many reasons, for one, they can showcase the work that you’ve done and testimonials from other clients to rate your performance. This will give potential clients the ability to see what you can do and how you can assist them, plus how great your service is!
Don’t Quit Your Day Job (yet)
Yes, you’re going to be making money through freelancing, and yes you’ll be excited to be your boss making your own money all by yourself. And, when you’re just starting, or even a little experienced making decent money, you may get the urge and idea that you can quit your normal day job to pursue freelancing fully. Pro-tip: Don’t. At least not yet.
Freelancing can earn you a lot of money but offers minimal security unless you have a constant client base, and that stands for all styles of freelancing, from financial advisors to writers, even freelance coders. Everyone is looking for someone who can do great work at a good price. Meaning you could be replaceable too.
The idea here is you don’t want to leave your day job until you are more secure knowing you’ll have gigs for quite some time. Also, you’d want to save up a lot of money (more than just an emergency fund) so that if anything happens, and you lose work for a few months, you’ll be covered.
Build Experience And A Network
A great tip is to build as much experience as you can in the field you are pursuing. If you want to be a financial advisor, start reading books about finance and how to advise people. Start learning how to communicate and network.
That’s also a good one as well, learning to network can find you great clients through friends or friends of friends. Your network is your reach, so expanding your network, in turn, expands your reach and how many people or how far you can reach.
Experience and a network are great things to build that will assist you in achieving a more successful freelancing career. The experience allows you to perform well and show how great you are, while the network allows you to gather more potential clients earning you more work.
Being A Successful Freelancer
Freelancing is a dream for many people in the world, but for far fewer does the dream become a reality. Many are stopped by not planning correctly, quitting their job too early, not having the proper experience or network to find work, or even by not watching their time.
To be a successful financial advisor, and to freelance yourself off as one are two different things, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a successful freelance financial advisor. These are some great tips given by professionals, if you follow them you will have a greater chance of seeing your dream become a reality.
