15 Oct 09 Are You Planning to Quit Freelancing?

There are many people who have joined the freelancing bandwagon, but didn’t feel like belonging here, thus they quit freelancing and take some other work. It sounds simple and common place, but what if I say that not all quitters are alike, and not all quitters are losers? Some of them are winners too.

We can classify quitters in two categories. The first categories consist of those who lost the freelancing battle and failed to make any mark, hence he is leaving the field all in blood and tears. There is a second group that consists of people who are quitting their freelance jobs because they have stepped up to provide consultancy services or to manage group of freelancer.

The people falling in latter group have done the right thing, but there is something seriously wrong with the freelancers who belong to the former group. These are the people whom I will call quitters because they are leaving or have left freelancing because they could not make this work.

Freelancing is not easy, and whoever told you that this is the easy way to make money then the person was DEAD WRONG! Freelancing is difficult because unlike your 9-5 job, you are your own manager, own worker, and own support person. This is not a corporate job where you are supposed to do just one thing. Here, you have to see forest when your client shows you tree.

Worried?

Do not lose hope. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. In this case, the light will be the tips I am sharing here, which if applied properly, may convert some of the quitters into winners.

How to avoid being a quitter

• Find out the reason why you are not getting enough clients. For this you need to ask the following questions:
  • Are you not competent enough?
  • Is your skill set not saleable?
  • Do you have problem in managing time and work?
  • Are you in the wrong field?
  • Is your rate too high?
  • Don’t you have good samples to show?
  • Does not your sample speaks of your ability and justify your rate?
  • Does your proposal letter include a strong call to action?
  • Is your profile worth reading?

• Now the next step is to pin-point the exact reason, and to do that, you will have to adopt methodologies used market research agencies.
  • First, Identify all the problem areas
  • Now, take one problem element at a time, and work on it. Keep rest of the problem elements constant.
  • Measure the result.
  • If the result is close to what you had expected then change another variable (problem element), and keep rest of them constant, otherwise, rework on the first variable.
  • Measure the result
  • Repeat the process and fix all the problem elements.

• Upgrade your skills
• Learn time management
• Be patient

Always remember, freelancing is not like a regular job where you have someone to tell you what is wrong and what is right. It is also not a fix-time job, which also means that you can take leave whenever you want. Be patient with this career, rewards at the end are worth the wait.

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