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Home-Based Business Opportunity #1: Freelancing
By the time we’ve reached 50, most of us have been through the wringer several times in life, so we have plenty of experience we can share with other people about what to do, how to act, and how to run a business. If you’ve worked for others over your lifetime, surely you’ve run across a boss or two who just didn’t get it when it came to running a business or who couldn’t keep repeat customers—let alone loyal employees. You also know tons about customer service and business operations and best practices, in part from having observed the mistakes others made. So, how about parlaying that experience, or portions of it, into a business all your own? Now you can be your own boss and have fun doing it.
In fact, it doesn’t matter if you’ve spent many years in one type of business or if you’ve been involved in several businesses and careers over your life. You can always find a way to create a home-based business as a freelancer based upon those experiences.
Then again, maybe you don’t want to revisit any of those former jobs or professions. Instead, you have a hobby that you would love to develop into an expert-level gig and make money with your expertise. So, go ahead, build a business around it, and enjoy doing what you love most. You’ve got a whole new life ahead of you!
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You can work as a freelancer in many different fields. The following list should give you some ideas:
•Accountant
•Architect
•Attorney
•Blogger
•Computer programmer
•Contractor
•Copywriter
•Desktop publisher
•Editor
•Graphic designer
•Illustrator
•Journalist
•Linguist
•Magazine article writer
•Photographer
•Project manager
•Researcher
•Social networker
•Statistician
•Videographer
•Web designer
•Web marketer
IS THIS FOR ME?
It’s pretty easy to hang out your shingle as a freelancer. But don’t just jump right in without thinking a few things through. Before you actually start freelancing, you need to attend to a few planning issues. First, plan out what you want to do, then create a marketing plan and a business plan, set goals, arrange your financial setup with a bank for the money you’ll make as a freelancer, and determine what tools you’ll need to accomplish all of those steps.
Even if you do jump in and get rolling with clients right away, the business side of your business must be tended to fairly quickly, including creating nuts-and-bolts items such as the first invoice or written agreement. At the very least, start with the basics of your business and a solid marketing plan; you will be developing these more fully over time. Look for more information about developing business and marketing plans in chapters 10 and 12 of this book, and check out my 2010 book, The Marketing Plan Handbook from Entrepreneur Press, for even more details.
As a freelancer and your own boss, you are totally responsible for your business—its success or failure—and for your self-motivation to that end. If you have enough operational structure set up in advance, it’s easier to create goals and motivate yourself on a daily basis because your foundation is already set. So start building your foundation by first determining what you want to do. Knowing what kind of business you want to run can help you determine what steps to take next to build on that foundation.
DECIDING WHAT BUSINESS YOU WANT
So now you know you want to freelance, but you’re not sure exactly what it is you want to do. Start first by making a list (or go through your résumé) of what jobs you have held, and what responsibilities you have had, and think about whether you might want to offer your services on a freelance basis to former bosses or if you just want to start out fresh looking for new clients. Generally, it’s easier to start by working with former bosses who know you and who respect the work you’ve done in the past. They, in turn, can pass you on to some of their associates or clients, or perhaps provide referrals to other people who might be interested in your services. This is word-of-mouth marketing and public relations at its best and cheapest.
WORD TO THE WISE
Don’t burn your bridges with former bosses, even ones you didn’t particularly enjoy working with. You may have hated working for them at the office, but they might be much easier to deal with if you are a freelance consultant instead of their employee. Who knows? One of your least-favorite bosses just might turn out to be your golden ticket to fast-track freelancing.
Back to that list you made of jobs you’ve held: There may be a job or two on the list that you really enjoyed but don’t feel you could perform well as a freelancer; however, perhaps some small aspect of even those jobs could be developed as an outsource opportunity for you. Let’s consider two small ideas.
PROJECT SUMMARIES
Let’s say you spent years as a market researcher and analyst for a large company. Now, you could use that experience to write project summaries. You could set up an arrangement with your former employer—or a new client—so that they send their data to you with a summary of the desired project and pay you to write a report, summary, or analysis based on the information. Not only could you write reports, but you could also create tables, spreadsheets with pivot tables and analysis, graphs, and whatever else you need to show your interpretation of the data. Just be sure that any analysis and macros you create for such projects have been double- or even triple-checked and tested thoroughly. Numbers and statistics must be accurate.
All information pertaining to that client is confidential, and you can never show it to anyone else unless it’s years later and the company has closed down. Even then, think twice about it. If you want to present a sample of your work, you can re-create a presentation with a fictional product and revised data throughout the report. Remove company logos and names, of course, and make the examples all your own.
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