Is This the Year You Start Your Freelance Business?

There are countless sites and apps dedicated to putting potential freelancers in contact with potential clients. So if you haven’t already started freelancing, you may be thinking that 2022 will be your year.

Is This the Year You Start Your Freelance Business?

The main thing you need to be a successful freelancer isn’t a fancy website or a big social media following. It’s a marketable skill.

Audit your skill set

There are two questions you need to answer at this point: What skills do you have? And are there people willing to pay for them?

Some of the online gurus will tell you that that pretty much anything can be monetized. I disagree. Some skills just aren’t marketable, either because people don’t need them, or because the market is already saturated.

Look at how those skills can be monetized

There are people out there willing to pay you to write emails, do picture research, check facts, or create social media posts. It’s just a case of finding the right niche, that matches your interests and skill set.

Just waiting to hook you up with potential clients. You no longer have to approach people directly asking for work (although that’s still a perfectly valid way to go about it).

Choose a platform

There are also industry-specific sites such as Scripted for freelance writers and 99 Designs for designers. Be sure to read the terms and conditions of each site carefully, to see if it suits you and your aims as a freelancer.

Some sites are free. Some are paid. Some offer both a free and paid option. Those that require payment usually ask for a very modest monthly subscription fee, and you can, of course, cancel your subscription if you find you’re not getting work from that particular platform.