10 Tips to Apply to land a Freelance Assignment

The freelance life, some dream it, others dread it. The truth – as so often – must lie between these 2 feelings. If being a freelancer represents a newfound freedom to manage their schedule, their opportunities and their professional development, the fact remains that all freelancers keep this worry in the back of their heads of not getting enough assignments to live comfortably. of its activity.

If you have the skills required to exercise your professional activity, there is no reason why you should not be able to multiply the missions . However, keep in mind that you will probably not be the only self-employed person offering your services. To be part of the clan of freelancers who get jobs without spending several hours canvassing clients, and errors like [pii_email_aef67573025b785e8ee2] here are the actions to put in place now …

1. Take care of your professional profile:

A freelancer who is not visible on the Internet will have much more difficulty getting a job. The development of e-commerce affects both the sale of products and the sale of services. Many potential customers will seek additional information about your skills and your service offering directly from Google before contacting you.

In order not to be left behind by this already well underway transition to digital, you must increase your presence on the main sites that connect freelancers and clients .

On this point, take care to detail your profile and in particular your professional skills. Indeed, an incomplete and sloppy profile can again be prejudicial to you by suggesting that you do not go to the end of your work.

2. Specialize in a field

Many freelancers may mistakenly believe that offering a multitude of expertise and skills will help them get more clients. However, this false good idea can on the contrary be detrimental to you in obtaining regular and long-term missions.

A freelancer who specializes in a specific field often offers expert service . A freelancer who does a little bit of everything while hoping to accumulate clients will not be taken so seriously by potential clients.

In addition, if you display a multitude of skills on your professional profile, clients may get lost and prefer to contact another freelancer. You can obviously offer a range of services linked to each other and try to remove their errors [pii_email_4bd3f6cbbb12ef19daea], but we do not recommend that you present yourself as a real Swiss Army Knife who masters several skills on the surface, but who is not really specialized in a particular field.

3. Improve your SEO on freelance platforms

SEO on the Internet has become a real issue for several years, as the exponential development of websites leaves little room for amateurism.

To stand out from the competition, you must therefore integrate a natural referencing strategy for your various professional profiles on social networks and freelance platforms such as FreelanceRepublik , but also on your website if you have one.

4. Network

The network as a self-employed worker is all the more important than under the status of employee. Why ? Because you won’t be able to rely on a supervisor to find clients.

You yourself will have to canvass and convince your customers. To do this, you should not limit yourself to soliciting prospects. By multiplying the relationships with other freelancers and professionals in your sector of activity , you increase the chances that these professionals will offer you a mission or a collaboration.

5. Highlight your professional experiences

In the freelance world, your professional experiences count as much or more than your diplomas or other certificates.

Therefore, if you already have professional experience in your industry, do not hesitate to highlight it to your potential clients. They will thus be able to confirm their choice to call on your services by being able to assess your level of expertise .

6. Set your rates in advance

One of the stages that is always delicate for any self-employed person wishing to land a mission is to present their rates to their potential clients. Indeed, talking about price or sending a quote often conditions the acceptance or renunciation of a potential customer to use your services.

To be transparent with your potential customers, it is strongly recommended that you set your prices in advance . When it comes time to talk about the budget, you will thus have a certain assurance in front of your client to present your prices and enhance your service like [pii_email_123dd92c65546aac4234].

7. Prepare for your interviews

As a self-employed worker, you may need to do more interviews. A tailor-made service requires in particular gaining the customer’s confidence and understanding all their expectations in detail. For this, one or more interviews are often essential.

Whether you are shy or you master oral, you must in any case prepare for your interviews and anticipate the questions of your potential clients. Thus, you will not leave your customers unanswered and you will gain credibility with them. This will make it easier for you to get a job.

8. Say goodbye to impostor syndrome

This dreaded impostor syndrome is needed more often than we think with freelancers. As a reminder, the impostor syndrome represents a state of mind which plunges the freelancer into deep uncertainty concerning his real legitimacy to exercise his professional activity and to be paid for it.

Very often, this impostor syndrome is by no means justified. Therefore, if you face this state of mind, don’t let the situation get worse and get your confidence back. If your clients feel that you do not have confidence in your abilities and expertise to meet their expectations, you will have a much harder time getting assignments and getting paid at the fair value for your service.

9. Master the negotiation

You will have to develop your commercial fiber in order to retain your customers and convince new customers to use your services. For this, it is sometimes useful to agree to a negotiation on your rates.

It is not a question here of slashing prices, but of accepting a certain margin of negotiation in order to finish convincing a client to use your services. To do this, anticipate the price reductions that you are prepared to agree upstream, in order to keep control over the negotiation phase.

10. Offer your services to intermediaries

Many companies and especially communication agencies need freelance services. Web designer, graphic designer, web editor… these profiles are sought after by communication agencies to meet the needs of their clients. This is just one example among many.

In this case, it will be the agency that will take care of canvassing its clients and that will subcontract certain services to self-employed workers.

Referenced within an agency or any other body serving as an intermediary, a freelance may be regularly offered several missions .

Once your first missions have been successfully completed, you will quickly see that your inbound marketing and networking work will be enough to land many other missions like [pii_email_4dd09cddea0cd66b5592] without prospecting.