How to Take Your Freelance Career to New Heights in 2019: Your Step-by-Step Guide

Here is your step-to-step guide on how to take your side hustle and freelance career to new heights in 2019, without losing your job

In the past, we’ve listed different businesses that you can hustle part-time without losing your day job—because who wouldn’t want multiple sources of income? I always say “yes” when it comes to making more money, especially if it lets me monetize my passion.

So if the previous advice on how to get paid tutoring, or how to turn your yogi passion into a paid profession, didn’t quite speak to you, here’s another side hustle you can try on for size: freelancing.

Freelance writing is a fantastic way to turn your talent into a trade. You can explore a breadth of topics writing for clients across a number of industries, or your can hone your focus and target one niche audience that you care the most about. The best part of it all? You can do it from home in your pajamas!

If you have a way with words and are looking for a way to fluff up your bank account in 2019, here are the steps to take your freelance career to new heights.

1. Set Yourself up for Success
   Before you can get your freelance career off the ground, you need to make sure you have the right tools on the trade in your arsenal. Put these items at the top of your shopping list to set yourself up for success:

• Blue light glasses—You’re going to be spending some serious time in front of a screen as you type away at your keyboard. If you want to protect your eyes and maintain your quality of sleep, then blue light glasses are essential.
• Writing assistant—Grammarly is one of many online writing assistants that checks your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. If you want to be a successful freelancer, you need to make sure your copy is proofread and error-free before delivering!
• Client tracker—As you start to work with more and more clients, it’ll become increasingly difficult to keep track of projects and deadlines. Never let a detail slip through the cracks again with services like com that help you plan, organize, and track your work all in one space.
• Productivity manager—The distraction to peek at your social media, clean dishes left in the sink, or just zone out, starting at the window will be very, very real as you work from home and hit a writer’s block. That’s why you need a productivity manager like Cold Turkey that blocks your favorite time-wasting websites, applications, and games to keep you on track. Take that, Zuckerberg!

Trustworthy technology—If your computer is on its last leg, you’ll be in a world of hurt if it crashes and you lose all of your client’s work. Likewise, dinosaur-era PCs take forever to load and run applications like Microsoft Word, so if you want speed and security, consider upgrading your computer. Debating a Chromebook vs laptop? Consider your needs in terms of storage and versatility.

Build Your Business
Now that you’ve set yourself up for success, it’s time to start building your business. Sure, you can take the easy route and create a freelance profile on sites like Upwork and Fiverr, but if you really want to stand out as a professional freelancer versus an amateur author, you need to create your own website using Wix or WordPress.If you don’t know how to build a website, you should consider hiring someone to do it for you. Most of the time, your site will be your client’s first impression of your work—make it count! Be sure to add your portfolio of published work, identify your skill sets, and provide rave reviews from your satisfied clients.

READ MORE: 3 Tips To Streamline Your Small Business

Advertise Your Services

It’s unlikely that clients are going to just fall into your lap. You’ll need to proactively seek out business opportunities either by searching for people in need of freelance writers, asking for referrals, sending cold emails, or by advertising your services through word of mouth.

Once you get the ball rolling, your freelance career might become so successful that you can quit your day job to pursue writing full time. Now you know the steps to get started; the rest is up to you!

Source: Sponsored Post

Image: Supplied