Top 3 New Year’s Resolutions for Freelancers

You are your own boss. If you are a freelancer! You understand that many things are under your control. Sure, your clients may dictate what you have to do, but for the most part, you get to decide how you deliver the work. And of course, you can always handpick your clients and only work for those you enjoy working with. Here are three resolutions that you can take your freelancing to the next level.

1. Build your personal brand.

As a freelancer, you may be working solo. Perhaps you never considered opening your own business. But have you ever considered yourself as a brand? Well, when you market your services—say for example web programming, content writing, graphic designing—you actually market yourself first.

If potential clients believe in you and trust that you are an exceptional freelancer who takes his or her work seriously, how can they not hire you? That’s why entrepreneur extraordinaire Gary Vaynerchuk, the renowned author of the book, “Crush It,” exhorts everyone to build a personal brand. Read his book and build your own brand. This New Year is the best time to get started.

2. Raise your rates.

If you are indeed serious about your freelancing career or business, then surely you are doing everything in your power to deliver the best value to your client. You spend hours studying, learning new skills and honing your craft. SO why not spend time on learning how you can charge premium prices without feeling guilty. Online entrepreneur Ramit Sethi has some great material about this on his blogs.

Before you offer your services to clients, understand their real needs. And when you believe you can offer them the best solution to their problems do not hesitate to communicate it. If you had done your homework researching the clients’ problems and potential solutions you can offer, you will have no qualms asking for higher rates.

3. Productize your service.

If you are a freelancer, you very well know that you are still trading time for money. Although there are many advantages to it like owning your own time, not reporting to a boss, commanding higher rates, etc. Basically, it is a leveraged way to earn money. But if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.

If you want to earn even while you sleep, then you will need something to offer clients aside from your time. Products can be sold 24/7 in platforms such as Amazon or Shopify. If you can find a way to productize your service, then you can have a passive income on top of your freelancing gigs. Pat Flynn sheds some light about this in his at Smart Passive Income blog. With his help, get ready to scale your services this New Year!

After reading these three tips, you have no excuse not to make your 2017 even more exciting and successful than your 2016! At Offcloud, we can’t wait to see you become more successful. That’s why we have created tools to make your freelancing business more efficient!

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