Transcripts
1. INTRODUCTION: Hello everybody and welcome to this freelance online
business class. Today, I will be showing you
how you can actually start your own freelance business
independently of your goals. Be that economic freedom
to increase your earnings, to be more free
geographically speaking, let's say and become
a digital nomad. Like myself, we will be covering all these aspects and much more. So. First of all,
congratulations for being interested in improving
your economic situation, your finances, your freedom, and yet being interested in
actually getting better. So introduction and
agenda for the class, we will start by explaining
why actually freelancing is a super cool opportunity that the Internet especially
has given all of us. And why there is plenty
of room for everyone at many more freelancers
to come into the market and offer
your services. Just like you. How
to set goals to actually start your
freelance business effectively from day one. Then we will talk about the classic comparison that I hear many people talk about. And I will give
my opinion of it. Off freelance versus
digital marketing agency. Sure, you've heard the term
digital marketing agency. It's very nowadays,
it's very famous, especially in YouTube
and other platforms. So yeah, I will give my take on which one is better,
which one is worse? The potential and the pros
and cons of each one. So you can actually
decide which one fits situation
right now the best, then I will give the best
freelance platforms. In my opinion. Some of them are known, some of them are
actually not very known. But I will explain why I think they're also really
good opportunity as the expected growth
that I see on these platforms is really high. So if you can actually position yourself in these
platforms early, before they become
very mainstream, it I will actually be
super good for you. Then 20 ideas that you can actually start doing right now. And freelancing to offer any
customer around the world. These 28 years, very broad, will not be specific to graphic design or two
advertisement or whatever. It's actually ideas that
can fit many of you. So stay tuned for that. Then I will explain how
to actually get there. Because if it were that easy, then everybody would be
doing it right away. Isn't it true? So
actually, how to start, what customers value and how to actually get there together. I mean, getting to a point where it actually seems more
like a business and it can actually be perfectly become your main stream of income and substitute any
actually full-time work. Because I've done this for
myself and I see this every week with people that
I have that they actually quit their jobs, some of them to actually
become full-time freelancers. Then I will give some tips
and tricks I've learned over the years that actually can
skyrocket your business. Some of them are maybe not a 100% compliant with the policies of certain freelance platforms. But I'm just going
to give them out there and it's up to you if
you want to use them or not. I'm just actually going to
show you what people do. So you actually know
and that you are in good advantage in terms
of information and how, how this world works, and then how to actually
use the business. Because right now you may
think this is not a business, is just doing some
freelance work and getting us an extra income
for a side hustle. But actually this is one of the side hustles
that can easily, easily, easily turn
into a business. And it's actually great because we will be
talking about how you can actually outsource when
the workload becomes so high for you that you can't actually take it
all for yourself. So welcome to this class. I'm super happy to have you. And again, congratulations
because this is going to make an
impact in your future. So thank you.
2. TEACHER FOR TODAY: Okay, so as I'm going to
be your teacher for today, I thought I might as well give a brief introduction of
who I am, what I like. And just so you can
actually get to know more teacher because yeah, I understand that
you don't know me. So who am I? I am so here I am from Spain and I currently live
here in Madrid. I am a full-time freelancer. I'm also an e-commerce sellers, So I sell products online and I will actually be doing more
classes about them. I'm also an investor, is, I think investing is key to
reaching financial freedom. And I also have other
courses talking about that. I'm a personal finance nerd. And I also teach about finances, e-commerce, and freelancing
or side hustle businesses. Or I'm seeking in the long term, is actually economic freedom. And this is why I got into
freelancing to begin with. And since I was a teenager, basically almost a kid, I was interested in side hustles and how
to make money online, how to increase my
earnings, et cetera. So I've tried many, many things. And this one is one of them
that has passed the test of time and that actually is
really going well for me. So that's why I'm actually
teaching it because I know from first-hand it works. And I see every day. And my aspiration is to actually become a truly free
digital nomad. If you don't know what
a digital nomad is, it's basically a person that can work anywhere in the world. You just need a computer
and an internet connection. Because if you run an online
business, for example, the freelancing Christmas,
I will be teaching today, which is the best side,
hustle, you can start. You can be truly free. By truly free, I mean, actually having a
really high stream of income thanks to freelancing. Because as we will discuss, freelancing does not generate the same income every month, obviously, because it depends on your work and the projects
you managed to close. So I will consider myself truly free or when I have a
really high standard, which in which the
really low months, let's say, are
still really high. So I can consider
my actual myself free and I can go live
around the world, travel, travel around
the wall while I do my freelance and my
e-commerce things. So yeah, let's, let's get
into this journey together. I'm going to teach
you how you can actually start this right now. So thank you.
3. WHAT IS FREELANCING: Okay, So a question
I get asked very often is why freelancing
and if it's worth it. So as I said, I've tried many, many things. I've tried many
online businesses, also physical businesses
that are not online. Even digital marketing agencies, as I will explain briefly. And actually, freelancing
has been one of the best, if not the best things. I have started online. It has greatly
increased my freedom. It has been a massive increase
to my income every month. And the more I do it, the more clients I
get because it's like a snowball effect where
you get more reviews, more clients, clients
recommend each other. So one company recommends it to another
company, et cetera. And it's really a flywheel that I guarantee
in a few months, in less than a year, you can actually be overloaded
by the work you have, which may sound like a problem, but it's actually not
because that's the moment in which freelancing by yourselves starts turning into a business. And you need to outsource, you need to hire employees, etc. But don't worry, we will be
covering all these aspects later on in the class
and it's going to be a natural progress. Why freelancing? Well, companies require
specialized section. Companies do not want employees which are the
best at everything. They want someone who's the best at something in particular. But sometimes companies just need the certain
tasks to be done. They actually don't need a full-time employee
to be with them. So it's a really good option for companies to hire a freelancer. For example, let's say you run advertising campaigns or you run social media pages
for companies. They may not want
someone full-time in the house with them doing that as they might only
need it for one month. They don't need it than they need it for three
months, et cetera. So freelancing is something that is going to
continue being here. It's going to actually grow, in my opinion,
because as I said, companies want specialization. Online businesses
are everyday more dominant in compared to physical brick-and-mortar
businesses. So freelancing is something
that is going to be demanded. It's definitely worth it
for you because you can actually also choose
how much time you want to invest in it. It can be a small side hustle for you making a bit of money, or it can actually be a
full-time work if you desire to, to actually turn it into
that or even grow into a proper business with 2345
employees or even more. So we're going to be
discussing all of this. It's definitely worth it. Trust me, it's take
with me is one of the best businesses you
can start right now. And you should be proud of
yourself for actually being interested in starting this type of business and we're
going to do it together. So stay posted.
4. AGENCY VS FREELANCING: Okay, So a question I get asked a lot and I see there's a
lot of debate around it, is if it's better
to do freelancing or to actually start a
digital marketing agency. They are similar
because freelancers can offer what agencies
offer and vice versa. It's actually almost the
same type of offering. The only difference is that a digital marketing agency will need to have their
own website, et cetera. And it's more targeted towards being a company with
several employees, etc. And instead, freelancers
tend to advertisers. So on freelancing platforms
that already exist, and they typically start
as one only person. So there are several things to actually take into account. I want you to actually
think previously, you set your goals. So you're aware of
your own situation because this is going to actually affect the
decision you make. It might be actually
better for you to start a digital
marketing agency. So the first aspect of having to account is
traffic and expulsion. So freelancing can
be started free, basically for free because
you're going to leverage the traffic that all these freelancing platforms
that we will talk. We will mention
afterwards like fiber, Upwork, Freelancer.com,
where Canada, etc. These massive companies
have thousands of users or companies getting into their websites and
searching for freelancers. It might be a graphic designer, it might be a, an advertising
expert, whatever it is. You're just going
to have to list yourself on these platforms. And you're going to be
able to benefit from the free traffic and exposure
these companies bring. These companies will
always charge you a fee based on your
services you offer. It's rarely a monthly fee
or it's actually more. They take a commission out of your work in exchange for all the traffic
they bring, right? They spent millions on advertising just to bring
companies into the website. And you can benefit from the
free traffic and exposure. In contrast, if you start a
digital marketing agency, the, the way to actually do it is to
create your own website. And the problem, I
don't know if you've actually created a website, but if you have, I can guarantee it's really not easy to get traffic
into your website. Most of the times you're going
to have to run Google ads, Facebook ads, etc, to get
traffic into your website. And actually, it's
also harder to convince clients to buy from you because
they don't know you. It's just a random website. It's just one more
digital marketing agency Out of the many other agencies
that exist out there. So in this first aspect,
traffic and exposure, I definitely give it to freelancing than
selling a company. So when you start your
freelancing adventure, you actually start listing your services in one
of these platforms. And I mentioned, it's
going to be almost impossible to actually
sell your company. I know some people actually sell their accounts because
other people are willing to buy freelance accounts because they have reviews
and a track record. But actually, selling a digital
marketing agency is going to be much easier and
it's a proper business, it's a proper company if
you set it up as a company. And this one, I gave it to
digital marketing agency. Then, which one is
the easiest to start? Well, this one I can
tell you right away, I give it to freelancing. Basically because
of the traffic and exposure aspect
that I explained. But also because
you don't need to hire a web developer
to grade your website. You don't need to hire
employees right away. You can just start offering
things you know how to offer. Instead of actually having
to create a website, having to run paid advertising, and trying to bring traffic into your website and convert
them into customers. So the easiest to start is
definitely freelancing, because most of the times
customers will come to you instead of you having
to go to the customers, which is the case with
digital marketing agencies, in which our business owners
tend to write emails, too many prospects leads. So they will go
into, for example, let's say your digital
marketing agency offers advertising
services for dentists. Well, what are
these agencies do? Is they will go and write
hundreds of dentists, dentists clinics
around the area. Stephen and try to sell
them their services. And instead, if you're
a freelance platform that has already a huge traffic, companies will
actually come to you and requests for quotes. Start speaking to you and have them explain how
you can actually help them. So it's easier to start
a freelance business. Which one is cheaper? Definitely also
freelancing because yeah, you basically don't have to run paid advertising
if you don't want to. Although you can, and we
will be talking about this. You actually can run paid advertising if you
are freelancing and it's really way to actually
start and also scale and grow your business. And you add a digital
marketing agency. You will have to
develop a website. So it's already
started with a cost. The scalability. This one is S1, kind of depends on your business because a freelance business
I wish we will discuss, can actually be scaled into a proper business in which you actually need to
hire employees, etc. Once your workload
is really high. And you've got tons of reviews, terms of social proof. Yeah, for many companies
requesting quotes. But also digital marketing
agencies can be really scaled. Because if you're successful in one country and you actually build the brand name and started getting Google
reviews, et cetera. You can expand to
several other countries. If you actually managed to build yourself a name in that
niche you're operating in. But this one, I see it as a drug because it depends
which one is seen, as, seen as more professional. Actually, this one
also depends because really serious
freelance profile with reviews and with a portfolio of work which will be
explaining how to, how to set up, sorry, can be seen as
really professional. Digital marketing
agency for sure, can be seen as
really professional. And there are many
digital marketing agencies which have grown into multi-million
dollar businesses. So they definitely
are a serious thing. And actually, big companies trust these types of agencies. So it's not a clear winner. And hiring employees
can be done, of course, as both. If you're a freelancer, you can actually also outsource work to other
freelancers, for example. Although this might
be bit tricky, because you don't want
sometimes other freelancers to know you are
actually outsourcing your own freelance work
for my freelance platform. Because then they might actually
reject that and say no, I'm going to start my
own freelance platform, freelance business and that same platform and they can
become your competition. However, if you are a
digital marketing agency, you can just approach
them with the truth, Hey, we're looking for
this position for our digital marketing agency and we want to fulfill
this position. Are you interested in this one? I have to give it to a
digital marketing agency. But in general,
in a broad sense, I do recommend for
beginners starting a 100%. As a freelancer, a digital marketing agency
is more costly to start. It's more difficult to get
customers and you're going to invest more money and time
and getting the customers. So I do recommend
starting acid freelancer. And then if you
want in the future, once you get accustomed to this, you can also create a
digital marketing agency. They are complimentary, they
are not mutually exclusive. But yeah, the clear
winner is freelancing, in my opinion and it has worked
tremendously well for me. So I do recommend everyone
to check it out and started. So thank you and welcome
to the next class.
5. SET YOUR FREELANCE GOALS: Okay, so I don't want
to sound cliche, but actually setting your
goals is the best way to begin this freelance
online business journey. Because, yeah,
goals are going to be very different
for each person. Some of you may be still studying in university
or some other degrees. And you may want to get an
additional stream of income. So goals are going to
be different for you. Others might have a full-time
job and wants to start freelancing as a side hustle the evenings and weekends maybe. And maybe others hate
your job and want to actually start with
something to be able to quit it and become free. Others may not have a
job and maybe seeking to expand or actually start
a new stream of income. So actually, being aware of your own situation
is going to be super important because it's
not going to be the same. If you're only going
to be able to invest a couple of hours each day. Or if you're actually
going to be investing seven hours each day. So first thing is to actually
write down your goals, think you want to achieve. Maybe you want to actually
dedicate a few hours each day. So in this case, your
approach would have to be a slightly different in the
sense that if I were you, I would actually
recommend focusing on maybe specific service that you want to add, one to offer. Instead of offering
multiple services that you might not
be able to fill, fill at the beginning, actually focusing
on something that actually growing
that thing brought. In contrast, if you're
actually able to invest six or seven hours a day until your
freelance business. Or as of now, then I
would recommend offering, thinking of many services
that you can actually offer. Don't worry, I'm going to
give you a good inspiration. Because I'm going to
actually tell you 20 services that you
can start right away. These services have plenty
of room for everyone to actually stood,
still, partaken them. They are not saturated at all. And I will actually
show you how you can avoid saturated niches
and how you can actually differentiate
your surfaces slightly to get that
competitive advantage and to get clients to choose
you over other freelancers because you got competition
is bigger everyday. So first step, think
of your goals. Think what you want to achieve. Maybe you already have
several online businesses and you want to actually
add one more. So your goals are going
to be totally different. So be aware of your goals
and think where you want to actually be in six months down the road with this
freelancing journey. I guarantee it's going to help and we're going to work
towards that goal. So stay tuned.
6. 15 FREELANCE IDEAS: Okay guys, so I know every new Freelancer
wants to be told, what can I do, what can I start? So here it goes. Here is what I propose. These are 15, which I
think shifting ideas. One of the best
ideas that I've seen for to start any
freelancer right now. So I'm going to
share them with you. Start this week though, and trying to stay creative. So the ideas I'm going to give can be done
almost by anyone, requires certain
technical skills, which is true, for example,
programming or coding. But others can be
learned even if you have no idea how to do them,
they can be learned. So the first idea is
actually CV texts. And what I mean by this, and I've seen people
do fairly well. Offering this type of
freelance service is basically people will
send in their CV, their curriculum too tight, and you have to improve
it so they want you to check it and
actually improve it, improve the language,
improve how things are explained so they sound more professional or more convincing. Try to market yourself
as an expert CV checker, as a person, as a person who
has checked hundreds of CVs. And this is actually a very
lucrative freelance surface because you will get all
sorts of clients from recent graduate students
that want to land their first job and are
willing to actually invest a significant amount
of money and having their CV checked because they see it as an investment for the future if they
land a great job. Also, professionals
with the 30 years of labor market experience
that I have no problem paying you and they
just want a CV check. They want maybe a second opinion on their CV to avoid
any personal bias. And yeah, this is an
excellent service that anyone can start
offering right now. Doesn't matter where you live. It doesn't matter what
age you will have. So you can start doing this. I promise it's a very good idea. So that's my first idea. Second idea is the classic
social media marketing. And many of you have probably heard about digital marketing, agency, social media
marketing, etc. Thousands of times. And although it may
look as the sector is oversaturated or that everybody is offering social
media marketing. Well, that's true. There are many people offering social media marketing
services, services, sorry. However, there's
also a huge demand, so there's no way enough freelancers offering this compared to the
demand that there is. Think of social
media marketing as anything related to managing
social media accounts. So for example,
let's say you and your free time use
Instagram, you use TikTok, use YouTube, whatever
social media you use, you know how to use
it because you use it for recreational purposes. And that's not very
different from using it for a professional, giving any professional use. So you can offer, for example, Instagram digital
marketing services, which basically
consists of managing a certain brand
Instagram account or uploading certain
posts every day, managing their TikToks,
managing their YouTube channel. This is something that can
be done inside this niche. There are hundreds
of niches because each social media platform
is a niche itself. So YouTube is a niche. Instagram as a nation
particular destination. And inside those social media, there are even more niches. So you can manage posts, you can manage subscribers, you can respond to
comments on YouTube, you can respond to comments
on Instagram questions, respond to Instagram
stories, etc. So there are many brands looking for social
media marketers. And this is something anybody
that uses social media on a recreative level
can actually offer. So that's my second idea. And it's also very lucrative. I've done it myself. And
it's obviously going to, going to exist for the
foreseeable future. The third one is graphic design. And this one is a
bit more technical, so you actually do
need certain skills. Some of you may have
these skills already. Some of you may not
have these skills, and you may need to
acquire these skills. And it's a huge, a huge niche inside
of freelancing. Especially many
people from India and Pakistan are offering
graphic design. Because imagine every
e-commerce brand, brand selling on Amazon, brand selling on Shopify, their own website, blogs. Everybody needs
graphic designers. Graphic designers
designed images. They improve images. They create images from scratch. They do everything. They can adapt because
they have the skills. There are thousands of Nietzsche's insight
graphic design. If you, for example, become good with
Photoshop, let's say, or without a cat or with any
other graphic design tool. You can have great success because there are
hundreds of niches to choose inside this very
broad sector, let's say. There are obviously going
to exist for the future. Graphic design is here to stay. Online. Brands are growing more. The Internet is growing more. More shoppers buy
through the Internet every day and graphic
design is very needed. Then video editing, this has something to do
with graphic design. Although it's not
entirely the same. You might have no clue
about graphic design, but you could watch
some videos or take some courses on
how to edit videos. So for example, YouTubers
that don't have time to be editing older videos
or don't have the skills. Or maybe also online brands. Amazon brands, Shopify. Online stores. Everybody needs video editing, either for products,
for services. Football team, sport teams. Everybody needs video editing. At some point, every company can benefit from a video editor. So it's something that
also has huge demand. If you become a
relatively good at this, you don't need to
be such an expert. In contrast to graphic
design and graphic design, you do need to know
what you're doing. Otherwise, your results
are not going to be good. And customers will see it
and they will not repeat. They will not be
purchased from you. But for video editing,
I have myself, I'm not good at it,
but I've tried to learn a bit from my own
brands, my own projects. I have done some cool
edits with basically watching two or three
Skillshare or YouTube videos. So that's one thing you can do. The fifth one is
actually quite funny, but you can get paid to
apply for jobs for others. So for example, people
that don't have time because they
currently have a job, but they want to switch jobs. Actually hire freelancers to manage hundreds of job
applications per day for them. When they need you to do
is to go on LinkedIn, to go on company pages. They might tell you which sector they are or which
companies they are looking for. And they want you to apply
to as many jobs as possible. They want you to apply
through LinkedIn. They want you to go on
company websites and actually fill in the application forms with which take a lot of time. And that's why they are
not willing to do it, but they are willing
to pay for it. So if you're looking for money, you can get paid
for this very well. So that's the fifth
idea, job applications. The sixth idea is
actually web design. Obviously this requires
some technical knowledge, not necessarily coding,
because you have certain platforms
like WordPress, which don't require coding. Some others do require coating, so you can choose for yourself. So inside web design, there are also
hundreds of niches. One niche would be, for
example, WordPress. Wordpress is a platform
where people can create, create websites without
coding a single line. You don't need to code
at all with WordPress. You can, if you have no
coding experience whatsoever, I guarantee with some videos that you watch on Skillshare, you can learn how
to code on code, sorry, how to create
websites on WordPress. It's a very easy,
everybody can do it, but not everybody has
the time or the will to actually invest and learn how to create a
good-looking website. I promise it's not hard. I've created websites myself. I've, I have 0 knowledge
with coding whatsoever. And they looked pretty good. So that's one thing you can
offer a WordPress site. What design? Or in contrast, if you're, if you have some
coding experience, you can also offer obviously websites where you
have to code a little bit. Each one is a separate niche. Customers looking for
your WordPress website have a different need. Generally they're online
shops and customers with who want a coded website have a different type
of needs as well. So that's one thing. Web design. Seventh is interior design. And although this may seem like a job which cannot
be done online, it may seem like we're a
physical job where you actually have to go two places
to the houses, to departments to actually recommend the owner
how to, how to design. This is something that is being increasingly done
by freelancers. So the people I've
seen working on this, What they do is they obviously sell themselves
as an expert in interior design and also show through images
some interiors. They have designs themselves. And owners will actually come to you because supposedly
you are cheaper than actually an
interior designer who has to come to the apartment and who may live two hours away from that
apartment or even more. And what they will do
is do a video call. They will show you
the apartment. Maybe it's totally
empty apartment. They will show you
the apartment. They will tell you
how many bedrooms, how many beds they want,
many sofas, whatever. And you actually have to pick everything for them and say, show them, actually, show them this bed will go this route. This sofa will go there. This decorations will
go on top of the table. Actually have almost like
a catalog ready for them. The things they need
to purchase and the order or the placement
that you actually recommend. Obviously, you need some
good taste for this. But I think with
some creativity, creativity and adapting
to the client's needs. So maybe he wants
a modern house or in more old-fashioned house. You can actually do
it without being an expert in interior design. So that's C7, five-year eight
idea, classic translations. This is something
anybody can do. You're a native in
a certain language. Might be English, might
be Spanish, like myself. It might be Italian, Portuguese, Chinese
doesn't matter. There are people in need of
natives in your language. There are people who
need translations and they will only
trust a native. They don't want someone who
claims they know Chinese, but they're not Chinese. They want a real local Chinese. So your native and
some language try offering translations to
basically maybe you know, English and Italian
for instance. So you can offer translations between these two languages. And think of it. The
market is huge there. Thousands of English people
or English speakers, whatever it wanted to
translate to Italian, and also Italians wanted
to translate to English. So it's something that
you can do both ways around and get
clients like this. This is some of the most
basic freelance services. It's actually a service that many freelancers start
as their first offering. That's how they get
to know freelancing. I have some friends that go
into freelancing like this. But it's still very effective. And if you actually
find a niche that is not super saturated
inside translations, you can do very well. Number nine, SEO, if you don't
know what SEO main means, it's basically search
engine optimization. Basically. For example, Google
is an engine, right? It wants to return the person who
searches on Google the most accurate results. Same happens with Amazon and with any other search engines. At what search engine optimization tries
to do is actually tries to rank
websites or products. The highest possible. This is something can be learned in under
a month for sure. And it's actually super technical and
specialized knowledge. And obviously the
more technical and specialized your knowledge is, the less competition and the
more price you can ask for. And it's really good
because it's at the same time super technical
and super specific. And not many people
know how to do it. But it can be learned
in under a month. And I can tell you from
my own experience, I've been doing a lot
of SEO freelancing, and I've learned
it all by myself. So it can actually be
done by you. No excuses. Number ten, Instagram posts. So for example, through Canva or Olivia
For heard about Canva. But it's a website where
you can design images and it really quick
and super cool way they look at the
results are awesome. And actually Instagram
posts can be designed through Canvas or
through many other websites. There are many people who actually have an
Instagram account. They're trying to grow. Because when you grow
an Instagram account, you can monetize it obviously. So for example, let's
say somebody is building a football
Instagram account. They want posts. For this Instagram,
Instagram account, or a poetry Instagram
account, they want poems. What actually you need
to do is design and create the Instagram post
that these people need. Normally the freelancers
I've seen doing this, which have been successful. They normally
offer, for example, packages of 50 Instagram post
or a 100 Instagram post. I mean images. These
big, generally big, huge accounts will need bulk
packages of Instagram posts. And the beauty about this
is that many times you can actually sell the same images
to one client, to another. For example. Say, you specialize
in Instagram posts about motivational quotes for you actually write a
close our motivational. There are many Instagram
accounts that are offering motivational quotes are
like business quotes and your action actually sell the same post over
and over again. You create them once. You create quality ones
and sell it forever. Number 12, sorry, that
was a jump copywriter. So copywriting means basically
being an expert writer. When you copyright,
you need to actually use and adapt to the language that a
certain company wants. So for example, some blog owners are in
need of copywriters. They want copyright it or copywriters to write their
product descriptions. And why do they
want copywriters? Because a copywriter is
somebody who can actually, who is an expert in writing, who can transmit emotions, who can explain the
benefits of the product? Who can sell the product to the customer at the
same time as it explains all the important
functions and results. The question is the
customer might have. So you basically to
be good at writing. And especially obviously in
the language you are going to be writing and you need to
be a native preferably. But it's actually a
very demanded by blogs, companies, websites,
social media accounts. Everybody needs copyrighted text is all over the Internet. And many people want
that text to be traded by a professional and
that's where you come in. So that's again number 1213
is video script writing. So what I mean by video
script writing is some people record a video
and they actually wanted, they want a script, they
want to transcribe. So what you need to do is listen the whole video and
actually type in text, everything that is being said
in that video or podcast. This can be applied to
podcasts and two videos. Actually, podcasts are
growing in popularity a lot. And podcast strip writers
are in huge need. And what they do is basically listen to the whole
podcast and write it at the same time as
the podcast is playing, and then enter the
final document with the texts to the client. So that's video strip writing. 14 is kind of related
but different. It's YouTube subtitle writer. So many YouTubers upload videos and the other subtitles that they get automatically
translated from the platform or by
other people are not great. And they want the Rhone
actually subtitles. Or they want to be sure the subtitles are
correct because you might be explaining everything in your channel in English, but you also want to
reach Spanish audience. Let's say you actually want a Spanish subtitle writer to make sure your
subtitles are perfect, they make sense and they convey the message
you are explaining. There are thousands,
hundreds of thousands of YouTube channels and many
people in need of subtitles. So that's a very easy thing
to do as well for anyone. And the last one is
voice over artist. This is something
that I've seen. People be extremely profitable with this freelance service. And it basically
consists of buying a really high-quality microphone and acting as a
voice over artist. So for example, companies
may need some voice-over for a certain advertisement
they did or for a video. Sometimes they will
specify, for example, male English speaker or a female Greek speaker, let's say. And yes, there is need for
absolutely everything. Especially if
you're not English, the niche will be
less competitive. Obviously in English
there's more demand, but also more competition. And you have voiceover artist is something anybody can do. It doesn't matter the age, there will be some brand or some company looking for
exactly your demographics. So you can actually offer this. So these have been my ideas that you can
start actually this week. And remember to stay creative, tried to think of
it out of the box or differentiate yourself
from the competition. But yeah, these are ideas that anybody can start right now. Just think which one
you like the most. I guarantee every
of these there is demand and every
of these there are people willing to pay
their money to you. So yeah, I haven't thought of which one you liked the most. Thank you.
7. BEST FREELANCE PLATFORM: Okay, so now you might be
wondering where to start. I already explained
the best way to start freelancing is by leveraging the
traffic and exposure that freelancing
platforms can bring. Just need, sorry, to create a profile in one of these
freelancing platforms. And yet started growing your profile starts
getting reviews, setting up a portfolio so
that clients can see it, etc. But there are thousands of freelancing
platforms out there. So you might be wondering
which ones are the best. And these ones are the ones I consider the best out of all. And I will explain one by one y. So the first one is fiber. I'm not going to get into detail with this
one because I have another course just talking about fiber here on Skillshare. So you can go watch
it after this class. Because I explained
why it's actually the best option to begin with and how you can actually
grow at really fast. Then we also have Upwork, which is one of the biggest
platforms out there, so it has to be on the list. Freelancer.com is also
a huge competitor of Upwork and fiber because it's really big and many companies are on the scalp for
freelancers there. What I really like about
Freelancer.com is you get a constant e-mails with jobs that you might
be interested in, so you can go and apply. Then we're Canada
is also really big, not as big as the
three top ones, but it's also growing a lot. Then we have mouth, which is one that I included here that
you're not going to see this one on many lists. I can guarantee it because
it's a really small platform. It's actually based in Europe. The other ones are
not based in Europe. This one is based in Europe. It's actually a French company. You're growing superfast
all around Europe. So I would suggest you also
create a profile here, because although now it might
not have as many companies, our clients as the old ones. It is going to
grow a lot because it's amazing and I will
explain briefly why. So yeah, it's a good idea to position yourself beforehand on the platform before it
experiences the growth and competition gets
harder right now, freelancers on the platform
barely have reviews, and the platform does
not have many companies. It's not easy to get freelance
projects over there. But it doesn't hurt to open
your profile and wait for the growth because they are
doing things really well. They are marketing a lot. So it's going to be
one of the biggest in Europe in a few
months or years. Then the last one is torque tau, which stands for top talent. The differentiation that
this freelance platform offers is that you
have to go through a bit harder review process
because they say they only accept the three per cent
top freelancers out there. So it's really nice to also
open a profile there because companies that are searching
for freelancers on top, top are generally looking
for more qualified people. And in turn, they are going
to be willing to pay more. So let's go through these
platforms really quick. Sorry. Okay, so the first one
is Upwork. Upwork. The way it works is you have
a certain amount of tickets, let's say, or vouchers. And for each project you
apply to use spend a, for example, let's
say two tickets and you have a total
of ten tickets. So you can only apply to a certain amount of
projects for free. After that, you're going to
need to buy these tickets, which are used to
apply for projects. This is why Upwork
can be a bit annoying because it's not totally
free to start and it actually is difficult to
get clients at first. It's one of the
most difficult ones to get clients at first. But once you grow it, you can actually really grow business inside
this platform, there are many freelancers
which started by themselves and now they have huge businesses
inside this platform, which basically
runs like an agency inside Upwork with
many employees. Then we have Freelancer.com. It's one of the biggest
ones because there was also one of the first
ones to actually start. And the way they work is
also similar to Upwork. You have to apply to jobs, but it's way cheaper or
basically almost for free. There are some aspects
that you can choose to pay for it if you want to have higher visibility,
but it's not needed. And what I really like about this platform is that you will input what kind of services you are able to offer or which
ones you're interested in. And you will get
constant e-mails with clients or are actually looking for these
type of services. So you can go and apply
to these services. And once you apply, you won't be the only one
applying to this project. Obviously, there are going
to be many freelancers, generally around 40
to 50 freelancers, which are also
interested in this job. So they are at your competition. Then the client will need
to decide who to choose. So I do recommend having these specialized profile and
not being a generalist that can offer thousands of different
things because clients actually want specialization and they want the best
at certain tasks. Then we move on to work. Hannah, were Canada
is also quite big. It's not as big as
the previous one. I mentioned, sorry that it's
in Spanish, but never mind. And the way it works
is basically the same. Well, not the same,
but the concept is the same as Freelancer.com, where Canada doesn't have such a high competition
in comparison to Upwork. So even though they
have less companies, it's also a big platform and
it has less competition. So it can also be
a really good idea to have it on your list. Then we have mild, which is the one I told
you is based in Spain. And they are really doing
things based in France. And they are really
growing a lot. The way it works is
basically you create a profile with a portfolio of previous works you
have done, et cetera. And basically It's
going to be the, the, the company mouth that
will send you alerts every time a customer is looking for something
which you might fit for. Let's say a company. Let's say you're a graphic
designer and your profile on mouth shows you're
a graphic designer. So a customer will, for example, enter mouth and say
they're looking for a graphic designer for some Instagram
designs, for instance. And mouth will automatically
send you alerts. So you can go and actually
directly chat with this customer and also
give them your budget. So it's a platform
that I expect. It's going to experience
a huge growth. They already have 390
thousand freelancers, so it's not a small company, but it's not even half
the size of Upwork, Fiverr and the rest
of competitors. So it's a good
option to position yourself in this platform, which is also a kind of different because
it's based in Europe. And then moving on to Top towel, this platform is actually
saying they hire the three top, top 3%, sorry, of
freelance talent. So generally speaking,
there's going to be a correlation between talent
and obviously the payout. So companies looking
for talent on top towel are going
to be willing to pay more because in theory they
are looking for top talent. So it's not probably going to be companies that are
really tight on a budget, but actually people
are looking for real freelancers that have
many years of experience, etc. But of course, you can also
create an account here and try to get more serious or business
oriented customers, which is obviously great because they have
a bigger budget. Okay, So these have
been the top platforms. I recommend you little by little created a
profile in all of them. But as I mentioned, I have
a class explaining why. The best one to start is fiber, so you can go and
watch it afterwards. Thank you.
8. HOW WE GET THERE: Okay guys, so you might be wondering actually
how to get there. What do you have to do to
be successful basically, as a freelancer or in setting
up a freelance business. And actually summarize
it in three key points, which are having a unique
value proposition, focusing on niche markets
and over-delivering. I'm going to explain each one a little bit so
you can actually understand what three key
factors have allowed me to see success in very little time with
my freelancing career. So the first one is having
a unique proposition, okay? You can't be offering exactly
the same as everybody else. So imagine you go on these
freelancing platforms and you see your graphic
designer, let's say. And you see thousands of freelancers offering
graphic design. For Amazon images, for example, you can't exactly offer the same thing because
you're going to competing face-to-face with people that have hundreds of thousands of reviews that have been
on the platform for more time than you because
you're new to this business. You can't just go in there
and have nothing unique. You need to think what you can offer that
makes you different. It can be, maybe everybody is on the cheap end and
every graphic designer is offering images super cheap. But there may be
not high-quality. So maybe you want to
position yourself as a premium quality
graphic designer. Or it might be any other
thing that you can think of, but you need to have a unique value proposition
that you can backup. The second one is actually
focusing on niche markets. So this is something we've
already talked about, but it's super important. And that's why I want to stress the fact that you actually need to spend days or even
weeks or even months, if needed, doing your
market research. You don't need to go in there. And I exactly know
what you're gonna do. I do recommend actually doing your research and researching what niches inside what
you'd like the most. So I gave you already 15
ideas and you can start right now with no
previous experience. So once you decide which
one you liked the most, I recommend you do the homework
and you actually study which niche markets are available inside your
broader category of your broader niche. And this is actually super
key because of two things. People or companies
want professionals and they want people
specialize in certain things. You can't be a graphic designer specialized in
absolutely everything, offering videos,
designs, and everything. It's better to actually focus
on a specific thing and try to be the best and that thing
in your category basically. And try to accumulate reviews for this particular service. And try to position yourself as the reference in this
sector to try to occupy those first positions and the freelancing
platforms or on Google, if you decide to create
your own website, which I'll be talking
about in the next video. So focus on niche markets. Try to focus on not super
small niche markets, but it's better to actually
go small than coping, especially when you're new. It's not a bad idea to
go into a niche market that doesn't have high demand. Because you're going to
get experience and you're going to get sales easier. Although it may look as if it's going to be harder because
it has low demand. It's actually easier because
you have less competition, then you can actually go, if you chose a niche market
that is too specific, you can go into the next
level to make it a bit broader and reach a
broader audience. And then the third aspect, which has not only allowed
me to have success, but also to accumulate thousands of positive
reviews by customers. Everybody has been happy. Everybody has given me a
four or five-star review, mostly five-stars. This is over-delivering. What I mean by this is always give the customer something
more than what they paid for. Imagine you're a
graphic designer and customer hired you to
make for images for him. Okay. So you're going to do for images because that's
what he paid you. But then apart from
those four images, when the time comes that you
need to deliver this border offers something else
so it can be small, edit on his website, small retouching of
a previous image. So something
obviously you're not going to give five images, or you could actually five
images for the price of four. Although you could, if you're
fast out with making them, this could be over-delivering, given him five images
instead of four. As a surprise, It's something
needs to be a surprise. You don't need to tell the
customer upfront when you're discussing the price for
the order or anything. And you don't need to consider
it as a waste of time. You need to see it as an investment because
you're going to get much positive reviews
by over-delivering. I guarantee that a customer
will be happy and they will return to you even though you're not the
cheapest out there. So trying to think how
you can over-deliver, there's always something
you can do extra for that customer regardless of what services you're offering. Yeah, it has to be
something not super big, but something that customers will appreciate and remember. Okay, so these have been the three key factors
of how to get there. Thank you.
9. PRO TIPS AND TRICKS: Okay, so I'm now going
to give a brief list of tips and tricks
that have allowed me to reach success faster. And also some of them have actually been learning
them on the way. I didn't start by
doing them, obviously, I've learned them on
the way and by doing extensive research regarding all these
freelance platforms that I've already talked
about, including fiber. Of course, this
applies to fiber and to all of the top
freelancing platforms. The first tip is
obviously very basic. And everybody knows it yet where people get very
few people do it. And it's actually to
accumulate reviews fast. When you start as a
freelancer and you're new, you won't have any
reviews because you haven't done any jobs, any orders for customers. So what many freelancers do? You can consider if you
want to do this yourself, is they get family members
or friends to place a fictitious order so they can actually write
a review for them. And I'm telling you
this because you need to know what your
competition is doing. And you need to decide for
yourself if you want to do it. I won't recommend it
or say I'm against it. It's something that many
people do and it actually helps to get those first order. So trying to at least get two or three reviews
of the first week. And then the second
tip is actually having a broad portfolio, Sorry. So let's say you're a graphic
designer or do you can do is go to some pages. I
can't remember the name. Excited because I'm very
graphic designer myself. But if you Google portfolio
for graphic designers, there's, there are multiple
websites because many, many graphic designers
actually have sent them to myself when I want to order in which you can post a portfolio of the
work you've done before. So you can, if you've
done, for example, images or as a hobby or for
yourself or for other brands. You can post them there
in the portfolio. And every time a new
customer comes to you and asks for
examples of your work, you can send them this link
to your portfolio directly. And this doesn't only apply
to graphic designers, it applies to anyone. If you're checking CVs, you can send him a portfolio
of the CVs you've checked. If you're optimizing
websites as well, it applies to anything. Third tip, and this
is very specific to Fiverr platform is
having orders in cubed. So orders and q is the term fiber gifts to whenever you have an order
pending with the client. So let's say a customer
or a client found you, they already paid you, but you didn't deliver
the order yet. You're still working
on this project. So what I recommend you
to do is even after you finished working on
this certain project. So again, let's say, let's put the example of a graphic designer because
it's the easiest one. If you're a graphic designer. And you were asked
to do five images and you're already paid
for those five images. Send them to the
client in the chatbox. Don't deliver the order officially independent
freelancing platform. So don't close the project. The customer will be
happy and he won't care because he already
got what he paid for it, which is five images so you
can send them in the chat. But having orders and q
is something that will tremendously help the algorithm. Notice that people
value you and that people actually queue
up to work with you. It's something that counts a lot for search
engine optimization. It's a trick that all the
most veteran fiber sellers are actually doing and
not even all of them. And I highly recommend
you do this, try it out when you
get your first orders. Fourth tip may sound obvious, but it also counts a lot for search engine
optimization and for where your profile is
going to rank inside the platform and
it's replying fast. Every freelance platform, once freelancers that are actually involved with the work, they don't want
someone who opened the account three years
ago and now forgot it. And yeah, if a client
rights and he won't see it, they won't actually
people involved. And that takes this work
very seriously as it is. So refined fast is
actually a metric that will make you rank
higher on these platforms. And of course, what
I recommend you to do as nowadays everybody a smartphone than load the app for the
freelancing platforms. So don't only have it
on your computer desk, also downloaded on your phone, and you will be able to
reply much faster than many other freelancers
who don't have this app on their phone. And it will start to rank
higher and higher and higher plus the fastest
replying sellers Normally get the sales because clients don't want to
speak with 20 freelancers, the ones who reply the fastest. We'll start the
conversation with them and the customer
will answer it and explain their doubts
and increased tremendously the
chances of getting that client for yourself. Then the fifth step is implementing search
engine optimisation. I've got another class that
goes extensively into that. So I'm not going to go into
depth with this, but yeah, search engine optimization is key if you want your
profile to rank higher. And there are many things
you can do for this, such as including keywords in your titles, descriptions,
including skills, replying fast, as I said, having orders in queue, having multiple images
or even videos, if the platform allows you. These are all things that
will make your profile stand out and will be considered by the algorithm as a better
profile than the rest. Turn it will rank you higher. Then the second to last step is actually being present
in multiple platforms. So of course, when you
start this journey of this business may not have
time to open every platform. It's actually better to
focus on one platform, to try to accumulate
reviews for that platform, try to accumulate orders, customers reviews, it's like a flywheel and grow your
business insight that platform. But once it's grown to a
certain point of maturity, so let's say six
months after starting. So let's say you
started with fiber, then open other accounts and
other freelancing platforms. Just Upwork, Freelancer,
working, et cetera. All of the class forums we already mentioned
in this class. This will do, is
it will diversify your risk of easily in case something happens with
any of these platforms. Because unfortunately
it's very common to get your account
suspended sometimes for banning mean for for certain
rules that you didn't even break on purpose was
accidentally or Yeah, For example, the
customer sends you their e-mail and you can't
do anything about it, but the platform bands
you because yeah, evils cannot be shared between customers and
freelancers are many, many horror stories
that I've heard and I've also been banned for
several platforms myself. So yeah, being present
in several platforms, such as five or six platforms is going to be the best to
diversify your risk, but also to increase your sales. Obviously, you may have
one main platform, which is the one that
works best for you. But then you can get extra
sales in other platforms, which will always be
welcome, of course. Then the last step, and this applies
to when you have reached a certain
level of success. So let's say after a year of freelancing
inside platforms. And I already
explained being inside a freelance platform the best way and cheapest
way to start, because you are going
to benefit from the huge traffic of customers and companies that come
into these platforms. Because these
platforms will make, yeah, we'll spend millions of marketing just to
bring traffic in. The best way to start is
to be at least platforms. But when you draw enough, you can actually consider
having your own website. I don't recommend it
at the beginning. But when you are an experienced or semi
experienced freelancer, opening in a website is amazing. It also diversifies risk even more because now you're in
charge of this website, you can be kicked out. It's not my cutting sixth, freelance or platforms
where you can actually be kicked out of six of them. Theoretically, it's not
likely, but it could happen. Having your own website
will prevent this, and it will also
get your customers. It will also see
more professional. So it's going to serve also as a portfolio and as a brand,
personal brand image. When customers contact you
through these platforms, you can also send
them your own website and you will look
like a professional. So yeah, these have been my
tips and tricks that I've implemented myself and that have worked and I
can back them up. So I hope you can
also implement them. Thank you.
10. SEO FOR FREELANCERS: Okay, everybody, welcome to this new lesson in which
I'm going to be explaining the basic functions and tips
on SEO for freelancers. As I mentioned
during this class, SEO stands for search
engine optimization. And it is the way or the process in which you
are going to become more relevant in the eyes of an
algorithm to be able to rank higher in those
freelance platform. But it also applies to Google and to any search engine really. So obviously you want
to appear as high as possible in terms of the search results
of freelancers. So for example, if you're
selling your services on Fiverr or an Upwork
or Freelancer.com, or in any of the platforms we already mentioned
during this class. You want to appear as
high as possible so that customers will see you first
before your competitors. And actually, there is a process and there are ways in which
you can achieve this, or at least help the
algorithm to show you first, because the algorithm
will always want to return best
results to clients. So the first way and the most effective way
which you should do since day one is optimize your listing
in freelance platforms. By listing, I mean profile or any gig fiber
is called the gig. So what actually you offer
the service you offer. So let's say you offer running Facebook ads for companies. This is your service. You offer Facebook ads. You need to optimize this. You can't just say, I offer Facebook ads, needs to be precise and it
needs to include keywords. So you need to think in
the eyes of a customer, how our customers actually
searching for these services. And also what is Google or these freelance
platforms recommending you? So when you type, for example, Facebook ads in one
of these platforms, if you're searching
as a customer, what does the autocomplete
search bar suggest? It maybe suggests Facebook ads for Shopify or Facebook ads
for Amazon products, etc. You need to actually
play with this and think like an algorithm. Think like a customer. How are you going to appear? So that's the first thing. Second way in which
you can increase your exposure at the same time as you professionalize
your profile. And this is something very
few freelancers actually do. I see very few people, especially on fiber doing this. And it's actually, you must
respond publicly to reviews. So when you offer a
service to a client and you close this order because
it's already completed, they will have the
option to write a review for you,
which by the way, you should always
ask customers to please write a review
for you in a nice way. And I guarantee 80 plus percent of customers will actually
write a review for you. They're happy. Once they write a review. Let's say a customer X says, very happy with the designs. I would definitely recommend you go and you actually publicly reply to this view
because in most of these platforms you can
reply to customer reviews. And here comes the trick. When you reply to the review, don't just write
any random reply. Actually think in
terms of SEO again, so think for keywords, what keywords are very
relevant for you. So you are running Facebook
ads for Instagram accounts. That's one of your keywords. Facebook ads for
Instagram accounts. So try to include included
in the public review. So let's say you're answering. Oh, thank you, John. It was very nice
to work with you. It was a pleasure to run Facebook ads for your
Instagram account. And there goes the phrase, that phrase is going to be right by the
algorithm next time. So every time you have
an opportunity to add keywords to your
profile, do so. This is one secret tip that
very few people actually do and you're not going to see
this trick in many places. Then is actually third one is to choose an
appropriate profiling. This is also a very
few freelancers do because at the beginning, most freelancers are not
sure what they will offer. They're not sure if
they're going to offer digital marketing services or if they're going to
be graphic designers. So I recommend you to
think beforehand and try to choose a profile name that describes
what you do serve. For example, you're
a graphic designer, tries to choose a profile like designs for you, or
perfect designs, or something that includes the word design or that reminds the customer of what you
do because you're going to look more professional,
first of all. And it also helps
SEO once again, the algorithm is going
to read that words. For example, if you
include the word designs, it's going to be read
by the algorithm and it's going to benefit you. Or if you offer digital
marketing services like Facebook ads,
google ads, etc. Try to include
this in your name. So for example, you can say
digital marketer or whatever. You need to think
that by yourself and use your own creativity. But try to choose a profile name that describes what you do, but doesn't close it down and it's not super narrow because it might look weird if
you offer things outside of this super
narrow profile name. So keep it narrow but not
too narrow at the same time. Then, fourth way of improving your SEO and your profile is by constantly updating
your experiences. So as you're a freelancer, you're going to be doing
new projects every day, almost or every week,
or every month. So as you're going to
be doing new things, you need to constantly
update your CV, update your
experience, or update your profile to show customers
or portfolio of work. This needs to be
constantly updated. And this will do two things. It will increase sales
because you will look more as a professional and somebody who has
done lots of things. And it also helps the algorithm because you
have more opportunities to include different keywords
that you may have not used in your title or
your profile limit, etc. Then the fifth tip, which is actually
very unique and not many people know about this actually is applying
LinkedIn SEO. So as I mentioned
during this class, one of the ways in which you
can get new clients and one of the freelance
platforms is LinkedIn, obviously Lincoln, and it's not a 100 per cent of
freelance platform, but it does offer
this functionality, so I recommend you
to explore it. And when you create a
LinkedIn freelance profile, this can be optimized, okay? And the way in which you
should optimize this, this is not going to be a class. In detail how to optimize
LinkedIn profiles. I will do a separate class on how to optimize
LinkedIn profiles. But I can tell you the
most important things which are the basics. And it's including keywords
in your about section, including keywords
in your experiences. So it's very important to detail your experiences on Lincoln and include a lot of keywords or make the titles as
long as possible, use all the characters that
Lincoln allows you to do, to use, write it out completely. And then also the
Skills Lincoln, and also allows you
to input some skills, use that those three things
are the most important. Once again, I will do a
separate class going into depth and explaining
how powerful this is, not only to get jobs
as a freelancer, but also to get hired
from companies, let's say as a normal employee, because companies will
find people through LinkedIn and the profiles which are optimized
will appear first. It's supercritical. Then last but not least, this is not SEO, but don't forget to reach out
yourself to new prospects. So while SEO is all
about passive clients, so you're going to get clients because you did the
work beforehand. You optimize your titles, you optimize your
profile, et cetera. And then clients will come to you because you're optimized for the algorithm and you don't
have to do anything else. However, you shouldn't forget to actually reach out
yourself to new customers. So this is done by going into Facebook groups and
offering your services. This is done by
going into Lincoln and searching for clients that could be interested
in your work. So for example, if you
offer graphic designs, go to local businesses in
your area or somewhere else, and reach out to them,
offer their designs. Explain how you
could improve their, their images or
whatever you offer. So reach out to customers. This is kind of boring. I know. And normally this
statistic is that every 100 clients you reach out, you might close the
deal with two or three, that it's already pretty good. And that's already going to
pay itself for the time you invest it in searching for those a 100 and clients
and writing to them. So do it. It's really good.
It's very efficient. And don't just send
a random message to these clients you find actually
personalize your message. Don't do copy and paste and send the same message
to every customer. Personalize it, customize it, even though it will take
significantly more time, it's going to greatly increase the chances of closing a deal. So if you, for example, detect certain website of a local business has
terrible images. Don't just copy and paste a message you already
wrote beforehand. Actually explain what aspects of the website can be improved and how you will solve the problems. That's what people want to hear. How can you help me directly? What problems are
you going to solve? Why would I pay you? So these have been my tips on basic SEO and I
hope you enjoyed. Thank you.
11. CLASS PROJECT: Okay, So as a class project, what I'm going to ask you
to do is to actually create a profile in any of the platforms I just
showed in the previous video. Doesn't matter in which one, but just create a profile after watching this video
and at least one of them, because it's going to
really help you actually take a step forward and
not forget about this. So yeah, you're
watching this class, so invest, invest
your time wisely. I do recommend at least
create an account. It won't take more
than 15 minutes. And it's really a
step forward in the direction you want to go on. So please create a, a profile story and
upload a picture or a screenshot of your profile to the class project section. And I will review individually,
each and one of them. And I will let you know what things you can
approve or not. And if it looks good, basically, from a customer
client's point of view. Okay. Thank you.
12. HOW TO SCALE THE BUSINESS: Okay guys, and now
the final slide, I'm going to explain how you can actually scale your
freelance business. And you might be thinking, why should I care
of how to scale my freelance business if I
haven't even started it. And actually, the
answer to this is, every time I start
a new business, I tried to think already 3510 years down the
road because you need to set long-term
goals and business to actually work every day
to get closer to them. So you need to know how
actually people are scaling their freelance
businesses to understand, to better understand what
business you're getting into and how it's formed. So the first way in which
you can actually scale the freelance business is obviously hiring
other freelancers. This is a very good
sign if you reach this point because if you have such a high workload or that you can't take all the
work for yourself. You may need to hire
other freelancers and actually do pass
them all your work. So you get work as
a freelance and you pass it to a third person. This third person, this
third freelancer doesn't necessarily need to know that the work you're getting is
really freelance platform. Because otherwise, they might be discouraged to work for you. And they might try to open
a profile themselves on the platform to avoid
you as an intermediary. But yeah, you can, you can sort this out
when the time comes, but it's the first
and easiest way to actually scale your
freelance empire. It might be that you already
have a full-time job, and freelance is only
for the weekends and evenings and it's getting too big that
you don't have time. So higher other freelancers
on the same platform, you're actually working in, that's the easiest
and quickest way. Then the second way,
your freelance business, which actually you should do since already
the first month, second month is add
complimentary services. So the best way to actually get a high
degree of upselling, up-selling means when a
customer comes to buy you sort of thing
and you actually end up selling that thing
plus another thing. You actually got to sales when the customer already wanted, came, coming only for one. So what he should do is add
complimentary services. So for example, if you
are a graphic designer and you offer Instagram design, images, offer something
complimentary. So for example, something
complimentary would be actually posting them or running
their Instagram ads. So when customers come to
you for images and the, you, you let them know that
you also run Instagram ads. They might be interested in
both because maybe they want new images to expand their
brand or Instagram page. And they were also thinking
of running Instagram ads. And it's actually
more comfortable for them because they
do the same thing. I mean, they do two things
with the same person instead of having to find different freelancers
for different stuff. So try to think what
complimentary services you can add and always let the customer know that
they also offer them. And I guarantee the rate of upselling is very
high in freelancing. Third way to scale your freelance business is
actually to run Google ads. You can run Google ads
directly to your profile, for instance, in these
freelancing platforms. So for example, if you are
a CV checker, freelancer, you can actually run Google ads so that every time
somebody types and Google get my CV checked
or how to get CVI check. Your ad pops up and it takes them directly
to your profile, to a freelancer profile
where you're actually offering to do this service. It's a great way. I've
done it and it works. If you don't know how to run, glad it's super simple, you can watch a free class on it and learn it in
under three hours. Fourth way is to
post on LinkedIn. And you can actually
post in two ways. Lincoln is also a
freelancing platform per se, because Lincoln has now recently also implemented a an
area where you can actually explain
what services you offer inside your
profile as a freelancer. So that's one way you
should check it out, how to post on Lincoln
as a freelancer. And the other way is directly posting it for your network. So you can explain,
hey, the network, I'm now offering graphic
design services, so anybody interested contact me and you let your network
note just in case. Then the fifth way is actually considered opening a
digital marketing agency. But as I explained at the
beginning of this class, and the comparison
I did between being a freelancer and having a
digital marketing agency. I see the digital
marketing agency as a bit more
complicated or advanced. Not necessarily better,
just more complicated. So once you reach
a certain level of success with your
freelancing business, you can definitely consider opening a digital
marketing agency. And you are getting some
external traffic and actually building
more of a business. Once you validate your
idea and you have confidence in your own skills
and your hiring skills. So these have been my tips on how to scale your freelance
business. Thank you guys.
13. CONCLUSION: Okay everybody, so
congratulations for reaching this point. It means you're actually
interested in building a real online
business or starting your freelance career
to have more freedom, basically, good and
new stream of income. So it's really good idea. And I do recommend everyone
to start this week. Don't leave it for later, please start this week. And you can contact me
anytime we can keep in touch. I can also provide guidance. So thank you very
much, everybody. And I invite you to
follow me on Skillshare. I will be posting more content, more, more tips, more tricks, and everything that I discover along my way as a freelancer, business owner and investor. So you want to keep up with me? I recommend you follow me. So thank you everybody
and have a great day.
Javi Lopez ✪, Entrepreneur and Finance Nerd
