Do you have what it takes to become a Freelancing Winner?

Are you wanting to become a freelancer? The truth is, freelancing is not as easy as you may think.

By 2028, it is estimated that more than 90 million Americans, one out of every two workers, will be freelancers. This optimistic growth estimate reflects a large and growing market with opportunities abounding across industries, companies and professions. It assumes the continuing growth of networked organizations and outsourced work enabled by a growing suite of effective, efficient technologies and the ability to do work anytime anywhere.

Are you a good fit for Freelancing? Do you have the grit to be successful freelancing? Do you have the very few capabilities and skills that will separate you from the 90 million person pack of aspiring freelancers and make you a winner?

FIT
Are you proactive, a self-starter? Are you willing to sell yourself and your work to clients? Are you an effective communicator? After you’ve sold yourself and your work to get the job, you need to be willing to have a series of hard conversations: negotiating pricing, terms, the work process, the final work product, breaking up with a bad client when necessary, etc.

All interpersonal conflict and communication now has to be handled by you—there’s no boss, colleague or subordinate to take care of the dirty work for you.

Are you well organized and disciplined? You are a one-man band as a freelancer. It’s up to you to keep track of your income and expenses, to reply to client communications, to deliver deadlines, to keep your files in order, your workload organized and your work process streamlined.

No boss is supervising you, no colleagues are there to help you and you don’t have an assistant. Therefore, self discipline and impeccable organization are required.

GRIT
Do you have the grit it takes to be a freelancer?

Do you have the intestinal fortitude to handle repeated rejection? The hard truth is that you and your work will be rejected by prospective clients more often than accepted.

Do you have the commitment to excellence to deliver, and ideally, guarantee the work that you do? Are you prepared to deliver work output that time and again, consistently and reliably, delivers significant value added to the client? Are you prepared to deliver superior service to the client?

Are you persistent in the pursuit of the right clients and the right work that fit with what you do best? Are you persistent in delivering a work product, quality, value and service experience that is consistently high quality?

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BECOME A WINNING FREELANCER?

Playing to Win Strategy: Freelancing is the ultimate focused niche strategy. You alone are the brand. Your brand is your personal promise. When promises made are consistently kept, or ideally over delivered, then you are building a differentiated, unique brand and a superior, winning freelancing business.

Carefully choose your niche: What industry or company do you want to work with? What function or specialty? What very specific unique benefit, product or service will you bring to the client that delivers significantly more value, revenue or profit, and significantly reduced cash or costs?

Leading to Win Leadership: How will you stand out to the client? How will you be more engaging? How will your work product be more compelling? How will you enable your client to be more successful? How will you empower a more constructive, productive and lasting relationship between you and the client?

The surest way to winning in freelancing is client loyalty and repeat business.

It saves a lot of searching and prospecting for clients on the front end and allows a freelancer to focus on what she/he does best: deliver uniquely superior, value added work.

How will you and the client execute in partnership for the benefit of the client’s company, customers, employees and share owners, and for the benefit of your freelancing business and career?

Winning leadership and strategy is as (and often more) important to freelancers than it is to large public companies, small private companies and nonprofit organizations.