What does it mean to be a freelancer today and what jobs can help you become one?

Freelance is an independent contractor who performs any one-time or medium-term work on behalf of the client: programming, copywriting, design, translations, photo and video shooting… the possibilities are really numerous. There are also many advantages to becoming a freelance contractor.

In this article, we will see together what is a freelancer? And what you need to know to become a freelancer in the long term?

To become a freelancer: where to start?

In order to find freelance assignments and attract earnings on the Internet or in the traditional way, you will have to :

• have stable and constant access to the Internet
• maintain your skills and acquire new ones regularly
• carry out a business watch in order to stay on top
• gain visibility by making yourself known or by finding partners
• start with small projects and gradually expand the circle of clients,
• get positive feedback from them
• increase the cost of your services as you become more competent

Having been a freelancer myself for years, and still being one, I wanted to share my experience through a CPF eligible training course: Becoming a sole trader step by step.

You will learn to take stock of your skills, identify those that can make you a good freelancer, test your market, find clients and finally think like an entrepreneur.

Here is a video presentation of this training to become a Freelance:

 

Use your skills to become a freelancer

In order to understand what kind of work you can do on your own, you must first analyze your potential, your skills, your desires and your abilities, what you can learn or improve.

To facilitate such an analysis, we offer some advice from career experts:

• You should note all occupations in which you have worked, even those in which you have little experience.
• Write down all your skills and abilities. This can be stress resistance, non-conflict, ability to work for two days without sleep, or in the presence of noise, to be able to concentrate, etc. In this way, a list of what you are good at will appear, and it will also be clear what should be improved or taught.
• You should review the market of occupations and choose the most relevant and sought after ones today. You can find updated information in Facebook groups, job search sites or freelance forums.
• Finally, note your wishes in terms of working conditions and remuneration.

Once all this is gathered in an Excel table, for example, you will be able to see more clearly and identify the opportunity or opportunities to be seized.

How to find clients as a freelancer?

To become a freelancer and stay one, you will have to find clients. Having conducted a survey via made-in-entreprise.fr with many people who want to become freelancers, I could see that this step is the one that most prevents future entrepreneurs from trying the adventure of entrepreneurship.

To be sure to find prospects, there is no miracle solution. In fact, you have to multiply the acquisition channels in order not to depend on a single one.

Platforms dedicated to freelancers

You can start freelancing on proven platforms that can offer you great visibility. In fact, there are many sites like Malt or freelancer.com that can help you highlight your skills and services.

The prescribers

You will have to find people or companies who can recommend your services or need them. In order for these partners to play the referral game, you will have to be able to interest them by offering them a percentage of your sales made through them.

Gain visibility

For this you have many possibilities like creating a website and make it go up in Google, develop your social networks, advertise on the web …

This solution allows you to gain autonomy but requires some financial and time investments.

Below in the article, we will describe the most common and modern methods to earn money as a Freelancer.

The most popular jobs to do as a freelancer

Here are some ideas to help you think about freelancing.

Editor

Writers write articles for websites, landing pages, social networks, emails, product cards, etc. Clients are most often online stores, SEO studios, online media publishers and corporate blogs. For a copywriter, it is important to be extraordinary, creative, skilled in marketing, sales and able to conduct business correspondence. Also, sometimes for SEO article writing, the client may ask the writer to analyze the keywords for the article writing.

Translator

This type of Internet earning is used by people who know at least one foreign language. Customers most often order translations of business documents, articles or presentations. Also, they may ask to translate subtitles for movies or videos or orally via Skype.

Trainer

Do you have teaching experience? To become a freelance tutor, you need professional knowledge (teaching degree) in the field you plan to study. Modern online platforms for tutors offer the possibility to teach online, find new students and realize your talents. Both beginners and experienced professionals can find clients on these platforms.

Video editing

You need to start this kind of work with very small orders, because it is quite difficult and requires the skills of a video editor and partly a director. In the beginning, you can help bloggers to adjust the stories on social networks. Later, with the acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills, you can cooperate with bloggers on YouTube, with advertising or film studios.

In the initial stage, you can easily learn the techniques of photo editing with music. And then, as you develop, move on to more complex editing tricks.

Become an E-merchant

Dreaming of starting an online business? Selling products online is one of the most common sources of income today. The items for sale can be completely different, ranging from new things, things that have already been used, or even your own.

Photo editing

Specialists in this field are hired by people who need to edit a lot of photos over a period of time. These people include photographers, bloggers, designers, etc. What do you need for photo editing? To work with such specifics, you need to be familiar with Photoshop and Lightroom programs, which can be used to retouch, adjust the colors and white tone of photos.

Photographer

You love photography and want to make it your job? It is an activity that lends itself very well to freelancing. Indeed, whether it is for portraits, for professional events or for private events such as weddings or baptisms, photography is very much in demand.

Graphic / web designer

The graphic designer creates designs for the web or for the printing world. To do this, you need to know how to use and master tools such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator. Your clients may be web or global communication agencies, small and medium-sized companies or individuals.

Webmaster

As a webmaster, you will have to create websites for your clients. You will have to learn how to create websites with tools like WordPress but also how to reference them efficiently on Google. Indeed, the freelance webmaster must have a 360° vision of the whole web business and thus be complete.

Web referrer

This SEO or natural referencing professional aims to help companies gain positions on search engines and thus gain visibility. It is a freelance highly sought after by all types of companies.

Webmaster

Here is a job that is quite simple to do as a freelancer. Indeed, if you have the necessary skills to be a webmarketer, you have everything in your hands to find customers. Indeed, the role of this type of freelance is to help companies to gain visibility on the web.

Community manager

This job is very much in demand as a freelancer. It consists in managing the presence of clients on social networks. You will have to master all aspects of the social networks you will feed in order to gain subscribers and interactions to your clients.

Secretary

Being a freelance secretary is becoming more and more democratic. You will be able to offer your services to training organizations or even to building contractors who often lack time for all the administrative tasks.

Infopreneur

Here is a new profession that it is possible to practice as a freelancer. The infopreneur sells on the web what are called infoproducts which are in fact mini-trainings, white papers or any other type of information. The infopreneur is often alone and is therefore an entrepreneur or freelancer of the web.

Computer maintenance

You master computer networks or computer maintenance and you want to become a freelancer? Know that it should not be very complex for you. Indeed, whether you are addressing individuals or companies, computers take such a place in our lives that there is a lot of work in this field.

Journalist

Becoming a freelance journalist can also be a good way to become a sole trader. The journalist is often alone and offers his services to different companies or media.

Trader

Becoming an independent trader can be a solution to start your own business. Be careful though, because it is a financial consulting profession, which is not trivial and must be well regulated.

Becoming a freelancer allows specialists to control their workload, choose the most interesting projects and clients. It is also an opportunity to earn more than employees who perform the same tasks and have less freedom.

It is also possible, under certain conditions, to try out freelancing while remaining on a permanent contract, for example. This is a good way to keep a certain security and not to take too many risks.