If you’re looking to switch away from a traditional career in favour of a better work/life balance and a chance to earn more money, you may be wondering how to start a freelancing career. But can you start freelancing with no experience?
It’s often a perceived obstacle to giving it a go, but you can easily overcome the lack of experience barrier by taking the proper steps and preparing yourself for success.
If I can do it, then there’s no question you can too.
With that in mind, here’s what you’ll need to do to start freelancing with no experience.
Find Your Niche and Develop Your Skills
You can’t freelance if you don’t have any in-demand skills. The good news is that literally hundreds of niches and sectors require freelance help. The freelance workforce is expected to grow by up to 10 million over the next few years, meaning freelancing might soon become the new normal.
Therefore, all you have to do is find a niche or sector that best suits your skills and experience and that’s it!
If you’re unsure where to start, think about what you’re already good at – whether that’s writing, design, social media, web development, sales, or something else entirely. Once you’ve pinpointed your niche, start honing your skills so that you can offer a high-quality service to clients.
Invest in the Right Tools and Resources
There’s no need to break the bank when you’re just starting out, but there are certain tools and resources you will need to invest in if you want to start freelancing successfully.
To start with, you’ll need a laptop and a good internet connection – without these, you won’t be able to do much work! You should also think about investing in relevant software, such as design or editing programmes, and any other tools you might need for your chosen niche.
In addition, it’s worth signing up to a few niche-relevant online platforms and forums. This will help you to keep on top of the latest industry news and trends, as well as giving you a place to find new clients and projects.
Get Some Experience Under Your Belt
Although you may not have any formal freelancing experience, chances are you’ve undertaken some freelance-style work in the past – even if you didn’t realise it at the time.
Start by making a list of all the times you’ve worked on a project independently, managed your own time or completed tasks remotely. This could include anything from writing a blog post for a friend’s website to managing a social media campaign for your local business.
Once you’ve got that together, leverage it into winning unpaid clients. By doing work for free, it shouldn’t be a hard sell to people requiring your services. While working for nothing can seem like a big ask, it will give you the portfolio and experience needed to start charging for your services.
Build an Impressive Portfolio
If you want to start freelancing with no experience, you need to have a strong portfolio that showcases your skills and demonstrates your ability to produce high-quality work.
Start by putting together your best pieces of work, whether that’s from the unpaid work you’ve been doing to gain experience or from other projects you’ve undertaken in the past. Once you’ve got a selection of solid pieces, start creating an online portfolio that you can show to prospective clients.
If you don’t have many examples to showcase yet, consider creating some sample pieces to add to your portfolio. This will show potential clients your skills and give them an idea of what you can do.
Build Your Online Presence
You can be the best at what you do on a freelance basis, but that means nothing if no one knows you exist. Thus, it’s vital that you work hard on creating and expanding your online presence.
First, start by setting up a website that showcases your work and tells visitors what you do. Then, sign up to social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram and start building a following.
Lastly, sign up to one or multiple freelance platforms, such as Fiverr. Not only are they super easy to set up, but they also allow you to start bidding on projects and winning clients almost immediately – regardless of your experience level.
I managed to make $1500 in less than 90 days on the platform, with zero experience in writing blog posts for clients (I came from a social media agency background).
Continue to Invest in Yourself
If you want to start freelancing with no experience, you must continue to invest in yourself and your business. This means setting some money aside each month to cover the costs of running your business, such as web hosting, marketing, and advertising.
It also means investing in your education and professional development. This could involve taking an online course, attending workshops, or even hiring a mentor to help you hone your skills.
By investing in yourself, you’ll be able to offer a higher quality service to clients, which will lead to more work and better-paid projects.
Start Developing and Nurturing Your Professional Network
As a freelancer, your professional network is everything. These are the people who will gain you new clients through word of mouth referrals, help you to grow your business by leveraging existing relationships, and provide you with advice and support when things get tough.
Thus, it’s important to start networking as soon as possible. This could involve attending industry events, connecting with other freelancers online, or simply reaching out to people you know who might need your services.
The sooner you start networking, the sooner you’ll start seeing results. And, as your network grows, so too will your business.
Stay Positive and Persevere
The final – and arguably most important – step to take when starting out as a freelancer with no experience is to stay positive and persevere through the tough times.
There will be times when it feels like you’re never going to get your first client or like you’re never going to make enough money to support yourself. Trust me; I’ve been there. But if you stay positive and keep working hard, eventually, things will start to fall into place.
And remember, everyone has to start somewhere – even the most successful freelancers started out with no experience. So if they can do it, there’s no reason you can’t either.