If you have been looking to become a freelancer but just haven’t managed to get your foot through the door, this article is for you. We’ll be discussing how to become a freelancer in 30 days. And, no, you don’t need any previous experience for this, although having some would be good too.
Either way, you’ll be fine, as long as you follow the instructions of this article closely.
So, get your notebook out, and let’s get started.
How To Start Freelancing In 30 Days
Before we start, we wanted to explain something vital to your success. Freelancing is a type of career, and practicing for a career takes time. While the entry-barrier for freelancing is low, it’s still essential that you keep the promises you make to customers.
Otherwise, you’ll be getting a bad reputation, which will damage you in the long term. Just like with so many other things, patience is the key. If it’s been 30 days and you haven’t yet gotten your first customer, you should not give up if freelancing is something you actually want to do.
The best things in life aren’t meant to be easy.
Despite this, we will give you a guideline of how you can become a freelancer in 30 days without experience as it is possible if you follow the right strategies. There will be a lot of work involved, for example, by charging low prices initially, but that’s how you’ll get your foot in the door.
1. Choose a Skill
Before you can start freelancing, you need to choose one skill that you specialize in.
If you already have one, then that’s ideal, and you can freelance it. However, if you don’t, then you’ll need to practice it first. Don’t worry; this article discusses that later on as well.
Here’s a list of skills that you might have some interest in:
- Graphic design
- Video editing
- Freelance copy & content writing
- Email marketing
- Social media management
- Advertising
- Web design & development
- SEO
Of course, there are endless others as well. The list above contains skills that we know are easy to sell, so we’d suggest picking one of those. Arguably the most beginner-friendly skills on that list are graphic design, video editing, freelance writing, and social media management.
Web design is another, but it’s also a little more technical than those mentioned above.
The rest can get very technical, which is why it’s likely not suited for most beginners. That being said, if you really like the look of one, then it might be right for you. Plus, you might be a technically skilled person so it may suit you.
2. Learn & Practice
Once you have chosen your skill, it’s time to learn it. Knowing how to provide the service is a must and it only comes from learning and practice.
Let’s start with learning, as that’s the obvious first step.
Some resources that you can use include our blog, other blogs, and YouTube channels.
You’ll want to learn about:
- The strategies used by other specialists
- Why customers need this service, and what their goals are
- The mistakes to avoid when providing the service
Of course, you won’t be able to learn all of these things in 30 days. However, you should be able to understand the basics after a couple of days of intense learning.
And, once you have done so, you can start practicing it using the methods outlined below.
Practicing The Skill
We don’t suggest you go looking for customers first, but instead, practice the skill for yourself. There are endless ways to do this, and it allows you to gain some priceless real-life experience.
Here are some examples of how you could practice the skill first:
Graphic Design – Start by creating your own graphics, such as your logo and social media images. This way you can gain some experience, and have some work that you show to future customers. We’ll also discuss some further ways you can get experience later on.
Social Media Management – If you want to freelance social media management, you can gain experience by running your own accounts. You can create themed pages, run them and start to grow them. This will give you experience in things such as formatting and will also show you what works well.
Video Editing – Start editing your own videos. If you don’t have any, just download some and use those. If you do think you’ll look to publish the edited videos at some point, you may also want to consider using non-copyright videos.
Freelance Copywriting – If you’re looking to become a copywriter, you’re usually going to be focusing on pushing the reader towards a certain goal. More often than not, that will be a sale. So, you could start practicing by writing your own sales page.
Freelance Content/Blog Writing – If you’re looking to become a freelance content writer, you can gain experience by running your own blog or website. There are endless options out there that will let you set up a blog without any technical knowledge, and then you can start writing to gain experience. We’ll also show you how you can show off your work later on in this article.
Once you start to realize what’s working, you can start to move on getting set up and finding clients. However, we suggest that you do not rush this part. Of course, you can’t learn it all in 30 days anyway, but the goal is to learn one part of the skill that will let you provide a simple service to your customers.
3. Get Set Up
Once you have practiced your skill, you’ll want to get set up. This will include your social media pages and your Legiit account.
In case you did somehow stumble upon this article randomly, Legiit is a freelancing marketplace where thousands of freelancers sell their services. You’ll have a profile, service pages, a way to process payments, and most importantly, you can benefit from the community that can find your service through our platform.
We also have a range of opportunities you can participate in, making it easier for you to get the initial sales.
Your social media accounts will also help you get more customers, as you can reach out to others and network using them.
Social Media
Many freelancers like to set up as many social media profiles as possible. Others like to focus on one or two platforms where their target audience is hanging around. Both strategies can work well, so it’s really up to you.
However, when you’re just starting out and constantly learning, it may be easier to focus on just one or two platform(s).
Whatever option you’ll choose, you’ll want to make sure that you set up a nice profile:
- It should tell people what you do
- Visually, it should look nice and grab attention
- It should show you and your personality (i.e., you need images)
Need help creating your social media banners? Check out: Custom Covers And Banners For Your Pages And Channels
Legiit
As already mentioned, you will need a Legiit account. This will help your service get seen by more people, and it will give you all the technical things, such as a service page that allows you to process payments.
It’s easy to sign up, and once you have signed up, you can activate your seller’s account in the settings. From there, you can use the menu to head over to services and create one.
Important: Don’t lie or pretend that you have years of experience. That will just make your customer’s expectations sky-high and probably lead to them not being satisfied. Use the fact that you’re a beginner to your advantage and say that you might charge a lot more for this service in the future. And, most importantly ensure that you can actually provide what you are promising.
Sign Up For a Free Legiit Account Here
4. Find Customers
Once you’re set up and ready to go, it’s time to find some customers. Legiit offers some opportunities within the Facebook group to help you get in front of people. We’ll cover those in a moment, but we also recommend promoting yourself off the platform a little too.
This can be with a blog, your social media channels that you set up, or even ads. Once you have completed the previous step, we suggest going out there and getting all the attention you can get. Below, we explained how you can do exactly that.
Facebook Group
There are two main opportunities that will get your service in front of more people. One being Legiit Facebook Group, where you can share your service with over 7,000 members in our Facebook group. The other is our weekly round-up, where your service can get sent out to our entire email list.
If you would like to read more about those, you can check out our article on how to get more orders on Legiit.
Remove the Risk for the Customer & Show Off Your Skills
When you’re just starting, many people won’t want to trust you with their money. You can overcome this by offering your service for free or at a huge discount. This way, the customer does not have to trust you, and you can potentially use the result you provided as an example.
Or, if they are satisfied with your work, they will likely give you a review, testimonial, or even a public endorsement. If the person you provided the service to is an influencer, even better… You’re likely going to have some sales rolling in soon.
Plus, if you’re a writer, you can even write for the Legiit blog to gain exposure.
Bonus Tip: If you have a service that your target customer is likely going to need frequently, or even on a recurring basis, this strategy is even more effective. The reason being that if they like the free offer, they’ll return for more.
So try to target someone who is likely going to appreciate the service. And if possible, make an offer that they are likely going to purchase again/recurringly.
Methods For Getting Clients
We all know there are endless ways you can get clients. And, it really comes down to what works best for you.
If you would like to get some ideas, you can check out our blog post: How To Get Freelance Clients.
Final Thoughts
That’s it. We hope you have enjoyed this article on how to become a freelancer in 30 days. We want to remind you, though, that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Some people take less than 30 days to get their first customers, and others take a lot longer.
But, if it’s something that you want to do, you shouldn’t care about how long it takes as the quote below states.
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale
Read More on Freelancing
As a freelancing marketplace, we have a lot of inside information around the freelancing topic that we can share. And, we do, right here on our blog. Take a look at some of our recent articles below.
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