Going Full-time Freelance? A Checklist…
It’s time to make that dream a reality.
This is for copywriters, designers, or programmers who are making the jump from being an employee to a full-time freelancer.
I’m assuming that:
You have professional-level experience in your craft. For example, if you’re a copywriter, you’ve been working at an agency or a client, getting paid for writing.
You have money saved up since you won’t be getting paid every two weeks.
You likely already have a few freelance clients.
Here’s a checklist to give you the best chance at being a successful full-time freelancer.
Adopt the Freelance Mindset
If you’re going full-time freelance, you have to start thinking like a freelancer. That means behaving like a business person, an owner of a company of one.
Whether or not you incorporate your business (more on incorporating your business here), as a full-time freelancer, you are now also a business.
How do you want to run your business? For example, you’ll want to consider:
How you’ll name your freelance business
How you’ll promote yourself
What type of clients you want
What type of clients you’ll avoid (you’re not for everyone, everyone is not for you)
How you’ll create estimates for your work
How you’ll define terms and conditions for getting paid
How you’ll run the business end (get an accountant, maybe?)
All of this is entirely up to you. Here are some suggestions.
Pick a Name for Your Freelance Business
There are a few options for naming your freelance business.
The easiest and most obvious one is simply your name. So, you could be Robert Smith, Copywriter. There’s nothing wrong with that. Many people work that way for years.
You could make it a bit less personal, so for example, the company could be Smith Words. It’s something to think about, especially if you’re considering hiring employees.
Or take your name out of it, and call it something like Words Worth. (NOTE: These are off-the-top-of-my-head examples. Not to be taken seriously. You know what I mean.)
Why would you choose one over the other? If you already have an extensive network that knows you by your name, you might want to keep going with it.
On the other hand, if you think in the future you want to expand, perhaps with a partner and/or employees, you may want to choose a more corporate name that doesn’t revolve solely around you.
It’s worth taking the time to think about it. Better than changing the name of your business after a few years.
Also, before you finally decide, check for two things: does someone already use that name (which means you can’t or shouldn’t use it), and if it’s not being used, can you get an appropriate URL for yourself?
Promote Your Freelance Business with a Website
Once you’ve settled on a name, get a website for your business. You could do this yourself on one of the easy builder platforms like SquareSpace, Wix, or WordPress, or find someone to build one for you.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Mainly it should include your portfolio, your story, testimonials, and contact information.
Having a site is critical. When you’re promoting yourself, it’s easy to include a link so that potential clients can check you out. Some freelancers with well-optimized sites get a substantial portion of their business from people finding their site through search.
As you get more projects you want to highlight, add them to your portfolio. Take out work that you’re not 100% proud of or is no longer relevant.
What goes into your story? Your previous places of work, notable campaigns/work you did for clients, awards you’ve won, perhaps your education, if you think it helps.
Note: many people have sites for their hobbies and interests. Make your professional site separate from that. Don’t mix up your enthusiasm for Star Wars with your work life.
Promote Yourself on Social Media
Need I say more? For me, Threads, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the best choices. Threads and Twitter for the community and opportunities, LinkedIn because that’s where people expect to find you, and your profile serves as a resume.
If you’re making videos, put them on YouTube and promote them on other platforms.
Facebook and Instagram still work for some, but generally only if you’re paying. Organic reach is extremely low.
Find your community, hang out, make use of the platforms. Stay away from politics and other argumentative spaces.
Decide What Clients You’d Like—Develop a Niche
I see too many freelancers working on seemingly random projects that come their way.
You’ll get some projects like that, especially when you’re starting. If you have the time and inclination, you’ll do them because you need the money.
But as you get established, you’ll find yourself working with a few clients you like. They give you work you enjoy, they’ve got ongoing projects, and they’re easy to work with.
You’ll want to start actively looking for “more clients like that”. The key takeaway is that you have to hunt down the clients you want to develop a niche. Learn about finding new clients based on the clients you already have.
Don’t worry about how you’ll find your niche. In reality, the niche will find you. It will happen organically, trust me.
I wrote about developing your niche, finding high-paying niches, and the difference between horizontal and vertical niches.
Full-time Freelancers Should Avoid These Types of Clients
As you grow your freelance business, you’ll run across clients that are simply not worth your time and energy.
These are ones I call “amateur clients”. How can you spot an amateur client?
They want to know how much a project will cost before it’s properly defined.
Once you give them an estimate, they want to lowball you on the promise of “future work”.
They don’t understand their jobs. They’re hoping for miracles with minimal effort.
They have unreasonable “creative ideas” that they want you to execute.
They don’t respect your terms and conditions. They won’t pay a deposit or agree to progress payments.
They just want to do a free “test project” to see how it works out.
They simply give off bad vibes. You can’t put your finger on it, but you already know. Don’t think twice. Just say no.
You have to learn to read the road signs the first time you talk or meet with a prospect. You might be tempted to take the work (you need the money), hoping everything will turn out well.
Three words of advice: Trust your gut.
If it’s already saying, “no, no, run away, this will turn out to be a disaster”, listen to it.
Some clients are not for you. They’re just trouble. They take up valuable time that you could spend finding clients who are fun to work with and will help you build your business.
I wrote about the hierarchy of clients from best to awful here.
Create Detailed Estimates to Increase Your Billing
Too many freelancers give away a lot of time because they don’t include enough information in their estimates.
For example, if you’re a writer and the project involves any kind of research, do you have research as a line item on your estimate? You should.
The same with meetings. If you know you’ll have a couple of meetings for this project, F2F, Zoom, or phone, make sure you include them. Don’t ever worry about charging for meetings—of course you should. Your clients are getting paid to meet with you. You should get paid too.
The other detail you need to include is rounds of revisions. You have to define this. Otherwise, you’ll be in the land of scope creep.
What started as a simple project now becomes an endless list of revisions, which the client thinks are included. Why would they believe that? Because you didn’t specify otherwise.
Here’s what worked for me when it comes to revisions:
“Includes up to two rounds of revisions. Further revisions will be estimated as necessary.”
I wrote about how to prevent scope creep here.
You’ll find more information on how to increase your billing by writing detailed estimates here.
Collect Deposits—Put It on Your Estimates
Remember that as a business owner, you should be setting the terms for how you operate. That includes not only rounds of revisions but how you get paid.
In short, you should be collecting a deposit before you start a project. Do it right from the outset with new clients, and then simply keep those same terms.
For small projects, say under $500, ask for 100% upfront as a deposit. For larger projects, break it in half. If it’s a $5,000 job, get $2,500 as a deposit and the rest upon completion.
Some freelancers claim they can’t get deposits. Here’s what freelancers said when I asked them how they get deposits.
For more extensive projects, you’ll also want progress billing. Let’s say it’s a $50,000 job that could go on for two months. Get $10,000 as a deposit, the next $10,000 when you complete a key deliverable, the same again for the following deliverable and the remaining $20,000 at completion.
You shouldn’t be working for two months on anything without getting paid along the way. That will be very hard on your cash flow. It’s a reasonable thing to ask, and once you decide on your terms, you should stick to them.
These kinds of terms are things you can discuss with your accountant, which is why you should have one.
Having an Accountant Pays for Itself
As soon as I went from being an employee to working freelance and then starting my agencies, I had an accountant.
An accountant can help you get all relevant tax deductions and ensure you’re paying appropriate taxes on time.
For me, the accountant’s value was also in the soft skills. After starting my first agency, I had questions about how to best pay ourselves (dividends—lower tax rate!) and when to hire staff. A good accountant is someone you can call on to discuss financial matters in your company. Worth it!
How can you find an accountant? Ask around. Ask other freelancers, small agency owners, graphic design associations (that’s where I found my current accountant), or try a search.
Learn more about creating new opportunities for yourself in my book, How to Start a Successful Creative Agency. It’s the essential business guide for freelance graphic designers, copywriters, filmmakers, photographers, and programmers.
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The book is packed with useful information to help creatives start and grow their business.
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This chapter covers essential areas such as Clients vs. Projects, Corporate Clients vs. Small Business Clients, How to Create an Opportunity Document, Benefits of Finding a Niche… and much more.
Questions? On Twitter, I’m @StroteBook. DMs are always open. Find me on Threads as Strotebook too. Ask away.