Increase Your Income (Part 4): Selling Services or Freelancing

Now we’re at my favorite part – selling services.

Selling services or freelancing is probably my super #1 all-time favorite way to make money. It must be, if I’ve been doing it for 8 years. And I’ve never, ever been tempted to attempt formal employment. That’s how much I love it.

Why am I mentioning this? Why should you care that I’ve always been a freelancer? Well, it just means that I’ve got my game face on, I won’t hold anything back, and I’ll be throwing everything I’ve got to make sure that you’ll have an actionable, realistic, and tactical guide – something I never had when I started out.

Ready? Here we go…

Deanna Troi providing psychiatric services to Charlie Brown

What is freelancing?

Freelancing is selling your skills or expertise to clients who need them. Unlike employees, freelancers are not committed to any single company or client. They don’t have a long-term contract, and often don’t have the benefits that come with full-time employment (such as medical benefits, paid leaves, and social security). They can also choose the projects they work on, as well as set their own rates and work hours. This is why starting a freelancing career, even if it’s part-time, can be very exciting.

Some common freelancing careers:

• Data Entry
• Writing and Editing. This includes article writing, web content writing, copywriting, technical writing, proofreading, and blogging for hire.
• Web Development. Programming, developing websites, creating website themes, creating online apps.
• Design. Graphics, logos, website, software interface design.
• Internet Marketing. SEO Copywriting, SEM, PPC, Linkbuilding, Email Marketing
• Virtual assistance
• Teaching. Includes tutoring, coaching, and mentoring.
• Consultancy
• Solo accountants, lawyers, etc.

Pros and Cons of Freelancing

Here are the top 4 things I love about freelancing:

• Everyone has a marketable skill. That includes you. No matter how seemingly mababaw it is, you have a skill that you can sell.
• Almost no ceiling to what you can earn. Because you can set your own rates and work your own hours, you’re only limited by the highest price your customers are willing to bear and the number of hours you can work – and we often underestimate how much it is. The highest I was able to earn in my freelance writing career is around Php 78,000 in one month, and I didn’t have to work at it full-time.
• Autonomy. You can work anywhere, any way, and anytime you want. You can choose your projects and clients. No one will tell you how to do your job.
• Work = income. Unlike selling products or investing, freelancing is a less risky way to make more money. As long as you work, you get paid, and you don’t even have to put any money down to start freelancing.

Still, freelancing has more than its fair share of challenges:

• You are responsible. “With great power comes great responsibility.” Sure, you can work on anything anywhere in any way you want – but you’re 100% responsible for your output. You’re also 100% responsible for your health insurance, social security, retirement funds, and coffee.
• Finding paying clients can be difficult. This is especially true when you’re starting out. You’re gonna have to learn how to sell, negotiate, and network.
• It’s hard to tell which of your skills and talents can be used to build a profitable freelance career. As mentioned earlier, everyone has a marketable skill, but among your hundreds of skills, which one will be The One?
• It can get lonely. Even if you have dozens of friends, you’ll find that very few – or none – of them will be available for a spontaneous lunch on Thursdays. And even if you do meet your friends regularly, there are still few freelancers here in the Philippines that you’ll often find your friends and family giving you strange looks when you talk about work. Plus, if you freelance full-time, you don’t have the same amount of human interaction as you would if you worked in a company office.

How do you know if freelancing is right for you?

I’m going to go against what most people say and tell you what I believe to be the truth:

Freelancing is not for everybody!

Sure, I mentioned earlier that everyone has a marketable skill, but just because you have a skill you can sell it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be a happy freelancer who earns a bucket of money everyday. Freelancing is for people who are (or are working towards becoming):

• Independent.They take their own initiative. Don’t need a boss babysitting them and telling them what to do.
• Driven. Freelancers have to do whatever it takes to land clients and make sure they are satisfied, even if it’s a bit out of their comfort zone. Freelancers should MAKE time to do the work rather than just finding snatches of free time.
• Great listeners. Contrary to popular belief, consultants aren’t people who just come into your life or your business and tell you what you’re doing wrong. You don’t have to be an extrovert or talkative to become a successful freelancer. BUT you need to be a good listener. Listening helps you become a better negotiator, you can identify your clients’ needs more easily. It’s a relationship-focused line of work, and when it comes to relationships, listening is key.
• Love learning. You will be learning about a variety of clients, industries, etc. You’ll need to make a strong effort to improve your skills over time as your clients’ needs become more sophisticated (and more profitable).

Learn how to freelance

Freelancing is a subject that I’d love to delve into – especially when it comes to making more money on the side. Because of this, I thought it would be a good idea to create deeper, more tactical content for the readers who want to know how to start freelancing – even if they don’t know which of their skills they could monetize.

So if you want to learn how to do this, you can join the Pinoy500 private list. This is different from the “Frugal Pinoy Insider List”, which many of you already subscribe to. The Pinoy500 list is exclusively for Filipinos who want to freelance. Click here if you’re interested.

Photo by Flickr user jdhancock