The Right Mindset for Freelance Success

Tips Work from Home Professionals Can Use to Earn Trust & Make Money

Sep 3, 2009 Salma Jafri

Freelancing success is often dependent on the right attitude and approach. Find out the key success factors for earning trust and making money while working from home.

Freelancing is like any other job, right? Wrong. It’s not a job. That's the first and most common misconception. Freelancing is actually akin to running a business. A work from home business, that is. Freelancers need to think of themselves as entrepreneurs and approach their business in the same manner as a businessperson would.

The top way in which a work from home provider can be successful is to earn a client’s trust and act professionally at all times. Here are five ways in which self-employed consultants can get into the right mindset for business success.

Business Owners Should Factor In Costs of Doing Business

Just like capital expenditure is needed to start a business, similarly some amount of investment is needed to build a credible freelance business. The kinds of costs and their value will depend on where the work is being pitched and what kinds of projects are being done (e.g. hourly versus fixed fee).

The costs of doing business include, but are not limited to website development and design, logo design, advertising and promotions, social media marketing, financial bookkeeping, client invoicing, making phone calls, and time spent drafting proposals, maintaining goodwill, keeping up with correspondence, and general project management tasks.

Entrepreneurs Must Market Themselves With Effective Proposals

Take a “you” approach rather than an “I” approach to proposal writing. No one wants to read a lengthy discourse about why a particular company was founded or why they think they’re so good. Touting one’s horn is NOT the way to go in a proposal. Instead talk about the client, their problems and their business.

Talk about yourself only in context of solving a client’s problem and showing them why you’re the best fit for their job and (briefly) why you’re qualified to do the job. If they’re interested, a client will ask for more information and that is the point where the professional businessperson refers them to a portfolio, website, or any other credibility-building place containing information about qualifications, samples and experience level.

Home-Based Providers Must Not Make Tall Claims to Get the Job

There’s a fine line between confidence and over-confidence. Ensure that a description of abilities, education and experience is not an exaggeration in any form. Similarly do not undersell. The trick is to keep a balance between being confident in one’s abilities to do the work and having the goods to prove it. This is where a portfolio comes in handy. When starting out, build up a free portfolio of work that can be pitched to prospective clients to showcase ability and experience in the field.

Self-Employed People Must Indulge in Self-Promotion

To be an effective entrepreneur means knowing how to effectively market a service – one’s own! Do not spam anyone with links to business or personal sites and don’t shove a promotion down anyone’s throat either. It is wise to put forth an article or a blog post (with links to one’s site) that is relevant to a discussion already taking place, and that is one of the most effective ways to market and self-promote!

Freelancers Must Act Professionally At All Times

When communicating with clients present the most professional image possible, even when services are being declined and/or rejected. How a freelancer acts when the chips are down is often a determinant for how well they’ll tackle the ups and downs of running a business and keeping clients happy. Make sure that all communication sounds like its coming from an expert in the field and not an amateur. Never use harsh tones and always give the benefit of doubt to the other guy.

The minute a home-based provider starts thinking about freelancing in the same vein as running a business, that’s when their gears switch into the right mindset. Once the right mindset is adopted, it is possible to make a great living being self-employed. Just be sure to avoid the common fallacies and misconceptions discussed in Freelance Writing Myths Debunked and More Freelance Writing Myths Debunked and be on the way to work-at-home success!

The copyright of the article The Right Mindset for Freelance Success in Self-Employment is owned by Salma Jafri. Permission to republish The Right Mindset for Freelance Success in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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