When you’re a freelance professional, you feel more keenly than ever the need to receive regular, consistent payments. After all, let’s be honest, you wouldn’t continue freelancing if there was no money coming in the bank at all. Passion deserves a reward. And working in your passion wouldn’t feel like a dream if you weren’t being compensated for doing what you love, now would it?
One of the biggest problems freelancers encounter in their freelance careers is getting paid. You’ve got to worry about getting paid on time, having enough clients to ensure you’re paid reasonably each month to cover your expenses, and perhaps the biggest question of all: how much do you charge?
How To Make Money Online As A Freelancer
To help you successfully deliver your freelance services with peace of mind this year, here are some tips so you can make more money as a freelancer, get paid on time, and most importantly, be paid what you’re worth as a professional.
1. Research The Market
When deciding on how much to charge, it’s essential to research what other freelancers in your field, with your level of expertise and years of experience, are charging. Sometimes geographical location can play a factor in pricing, so you should bear that in mind. You can use salary comparison websites as well as a perusal through freelance platforms such as UpWork and Fiverr, to help you get a rough idea of what pay to aim for. Not only will this help you decide what to charge, but your market research can prove useful in helping you decide what pricing model you’re going to use.
2. Decide On A Pricing Model
Pricing models vary from being paid by the project, paid by the hour, or paid a retention rate. You can also charge based on a pre-established package. Some freelancers use one pricing model throughout their business; others, especially if they offer a myriad of services, use a combination of different pricing approaches. It honestly is up to you to determine what pricing strategy works best for your business and the clients you serve.
3. Freelance A High-Income Skill
A high-income skill is a skill that is in high demand and is extremely lucrative. As an example, skills such as data analysis, AI (artificial intelligence), digital marketing, and software application development fall into this category. If you decide to create a freelance business out of a niche within one of these high-income skills, you’re more likely to experience demand for your services and get paying clients. However, with increased demand comes increased competition, so the money will not come easy. Rather, you’d need to strike a balance and find creative ways to demonstrate how your service is unique, and understand what your USP (unique selling proposition) is.
4. Automate Payments
To make it easier to get paid reliably, use automated payment platforms that handle the transactions and record them in a dashboard for you. PayPal is one great option for freelancers, for example, as you can create invoices, or take payments over the phone, and the invoices you send come with automated email reminders just in case the client forgets.
5. Focus On B2B Clients
Another clever trick to ensure you make more money as a freelancer and get paid reliably is to have corporate clients instead of individual customers. When you focus your business model on working with companies and small businesses instead of individual people, you’ll get paid more since these companies have larger dedicated budgets. They likely already have the systems and policies in place to work with freelancers so you have higher chances of success here.
Through following these five simple steps, you can get paid consistently and make money as a freelancer, enabling you to have a thriving and sustainable freelance career while doing what you love.