Going Freelance — 7 Rules for Success in 2024
Photo by Brad Neathery
If you’re freelancing in 2024, you’ll be in a busy market. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of work for everyone.
Freelancing will continue to grow, and that’s good for you. As it continues to become mainstream, companies of all sizes and types will look to freelancers to help them with their marketing and communications requirements.
Here are my 7 rules to help you thrive in your freelance business.
1. Deliver and Promote Your Services at an Expert Level
As a freelancer, you need enough experience in your craft to meet client expectations. Generally, that means focusing on a niche and then communicating your focus to prospects.
For example, maybe you’re a copywriter specializing in long-form content for B2B SaaS companies. Your positioning should be front and center. Ideally, you’ll have a website with a portfolio and testimonials that support your expertise.
You might be tempted by other types of projects that come along. Just be sure you’re not wasting a lot of time on random projects that you really shouldn’t be doing.
Yes, you’ll always want to stretch, but know your limits.
Think carefully about how you communicate your expertise.
2. Focus on Clients Who Need a Lot of Your Expertise
I know this is a highly personal decision, but I’ve always looked for clients who have the potential for many projects that could be right for me.
In other words, I want ongoing clients, not one-off projects.
It’s much easier if you and the client get to know each other over the course of working on many projects together. You become an expert in their business. You’re talking the same language. They know they can count on you.
For me, this meant mainly corporate and government clients. But, you could have the same experience with well-funded startups, not-for-profits, or manufacturers.
When you start freelancing, you’ll likely do many one-off jobs. You’ll do them for the money. But after a time, I think your focus should be on getting clients that give you project after project with no competition.
It becomes easier for you, and you’re spending more time on billable work than hustling for your next job. You can also charge more on each project.
I wrote about the hierarchy of client types here.
3. Don’t Worry About Your Niche Too Soon
Everyone, including me, will tell you to define a niche for yourself. You’ve heard it a hundred times, “The riches are in the niches.”
This leads some new freelancers to fret about choosing a niche.
Don’t worry about it. After a while your niche will start to form organically. As you get new projects, you’ll find yourself working on a few similar jobs. Your name gets passed around through word-of-mouth. You’ll become known and get more clients in that niche.
So, in effect, the niche chooses you. Once it does, think about how you want to express it. You’ll want to define it for yourself and find a way to communicate it.
On Twitter, @miakiraki defined her niche like this:
“Growth-stage startups that already demonstrated product-market fit and understand the long-term implications of content and how it ties to business goals.
Max 50 employees. Can’t and don’t wanna deal with enterprise company politics.”
That’s a nice, tight definition. Work on your version of this.
Here’s more on how to find a high-paying niche.
4. Treat Your Freelance Like a Serious Business
Once you become a full-time freelancer, you’re running a business. You should have rules for how you run it. Your rules could include:
How you deliver your projects. Do you have defined phases? For example, if you’re a graphic designer, do you show the client rough layouts for approval before proceeding to final layout? You should be the one to decide how you work, how you break down and deliver your projects.
Payment structure. Do you get a down payment or full payment before starting a project? On more significant projects, perhaps you want to progress bill. Whatever structure you choose for getting paid, it’s your business, your rules. Don’t let clients change it. Read about how to collect deposits and why you should do it.
Estimates and contracts. I think your estimates should be detailed to show everything you’re providing. But again, it’s up to you. Create templates that work for you, and stick to them. Here’s an estimate template you can use.
Sometimes you’ll find clients wanting you to sign their contracts. Will you? Be careful, they could be very restrictive. You’d be better off having your own contract tied to your estimate that you want the client to sign.
In summary, think about the processes you want to put into place for your business. And, by the way, don’t worry about pushback from clients. They respect working with a partner with processes for their business.
Rules are a good thing. All professionals have them.
5. Get Comfortable with Money Talk
This can be tough for some, but you have to learn to talk about money clearly and unemotionally. In some cases, especially with new clients, you’ll want to have a “money talk” early on, before you spend time writing estimates.
Make sure you and the client see budgets and deliverables the same way. In other words, a $1,000 budget gets a $1,000 deliverable.
Don’t ignore this. Force yourself to get comfortable talking about money. Here’s how to talk money with prospects and clients.
Once you have an ongoing relationship with a client, you’ll both understand what to expect from each other, so it gets easier.
The last point about money—every project estimate must be in writing. Even if you’ve discussed it on the phone or texts or emails, create a formal estimate that the client approves. That will keep your paperwork organized (so important!) and avoid misunderstandings with the client.
6. Learn How to Write Estimates That Protect You
Here are 5 things to include in your estimates:
A detailed job description with limitations on deliverables. Make sure you include everything required for the job. Research? It should be a line item. Providing a rough draft or layout? Include a price. Required meetings? Bill them. I’m a big fan of breaking down estimates by deliverables. If the project is stopped or changes direction (it happens), it’s easier to figure out what they owe you. More thoughts on the benefits of detailed estimates here.
Are you worried that itemized estimates encourage clients to cherry-pick parts of the job? Simply tell them that all phases are required. For example, if a project needs research, you can’t do without it. Clients have to understand that. It’s your company, your rules.
For limitations, you’ll want to prevent scope creep by addressing rounds of revisions in your estimate.
We used, “Includes up to two rounds of revisions. Further revisions will be estimated as necessary.” Let clients know when they’re using up their revisions.
Here’s more on how to prevent scope creep and get paid what you’re worth.
Payment terms. Whether you want a deposit, full payment upfront, or progress payments on larger projects, make it very clear on your estimates how you expect to get paid. With new clients, always get a substantial deposit. And you may as well keep it that way if you keep working together. It’s better for your cash flow.
Schedule. Include some version of a schedule, even if it’s a simple job. It could be one line: To be delivered on (date). For larger projects, where you’ll need approvals for stages before moving to the next ones, you’ll want a more detailed schedule that includes time for client approvals. It’s essential that both you and the client agree on the schedule.
Explicit Client Sign-off. If you’re using a system that allows the client to check a box to approve an estimate, perfect. If not, find a way to get written proof for approval, even if it’s an email back from them. You want it for insurance, in case there’s ever a dispute over what they agreed to.
Contractual Information (if necessary). For some types of projects, you’ll want contractual information, such as performance guarantees for IT jobs. Whatever you need should be part of your estimate so that when the client signs off, they’re also agreeing to the contractual terms.
7. Be 100% Reliable
Meet your deadlines. Deliver what you promised on time.
I can’t over-stress how important this is. Clients count on you. They may be basing further meetings or processes on your deliverable. Don’t embarrass them by missing the deadline. Don’t call at the last minute asking for more time.
Sometimes, you’ll get a client asking for a project on a ridiculous deadline. If you don’t think you can meet that timeline, don’t accept the project.
“I’m sorry, I wouldn’t be able to do this by Tuesday, but if you can move the deadline to Friday, I’ll be happy to work on it for you.” Let the client decide.
Give yourself enough time to do great work.
When it comes to client satisfaction, reliability is at the top of the list.
Here is what clients value most in freelancers. (Hint: it’s reliability.)
Learn more about becoming a successful freelancer in my book, How to Start a Successful Creative Agency. It’s the essential business guide for graphic designers, copywriters, filmmakers, photographers, and programmers.
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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.
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