If you’ve never freelanced before and are transitioning from a regular 9 to 5 salaried role to work for yourself, at first, it can all seem a bit overwhelming.
Not only are you now responsible for everything that goes on in your business, but in the early stages, you will also most likely be the only one performing ALL the tasks needed to keep the business running. In addition to practicing your craft, you’ll be the salesperson, IT, and admin, to name just a few of the hats you’ll be wearing.
Fortunately, there are some things you can set in place in the early stages that will help reduce the overwhelm, assist you in reaching your goals quicker, and set you up for freelance success. But to achieve long-term sustainable freelance success, you first need to do some groundwork.
1. Document and review
Many of the tasks you’ll be performing in the first 6 to 12 months of your freelance business are likely tasks you’ve never done before or are unfamiliar with, so it makes sense to document them. Whether that’s in writing, on a spreadsheet, video recording or some other documentation tool, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to forget a process if you’ve not documented it, especially if it’s an ad hoc task or something that only needs to be done on an annual basis.
Documenting tasks has several benefits. It allows you to better see where processes can be refined. For example, some might be duplicated and may turn out to be superfluous to your needs. It will also help when you come to outsource tasks later on, or if you expand and hire people, you’ll be able to accurately show them the steps that need to be completed.
While documenting tasks and processes isn’t glamorous, it is an important undertaking that will help improve your business admin and reduce overwhelm by providing clarity and acting as the foundation for the processes and systems you can later put in place.
2. Automate and template
As already mentioned, when you work for yourself, you’re responsible for everything that goes on in your business, and often you can wear several hats all in one day. One minute, you’re on a discovery call, and the next, you’re doing a tedious admin chore such as invoicing. That’s why it makes sense to streamline and automate repetitive or time-consuming admin tasks so you can focus on the more profitable activities.
In addition to using automation tools such as free invoicing software, another way to make tasks easier and speed things up is to use templates that you can customize as you go. Templates and automation tools not only save you time (and, therefore, money) but also free up mental bandwidth. You can have templates for your freelance proposals, written agreements and contracts, emails, social media posts and, of course, invoices.
Invoice Ninja is a leading free invoicing software for small business invoicing, online payments (so you can get paid faster), tracking expenses and billable tasks. It also includes attractive, professional invoice template designs you can customize with your logo and brand colors.
Try it for free here.
3. Reiterate and improve
Having good systems and processes will greatly improve not only your efficiency but also what you can deliver for your client, so it’s important to decide what experience you want your client to have.
For example, what does the client onboarding or offboarding experience look like from your client’s perspective? What about communications during your last client project, were there any issues? What about the payment process, were you paid quickly and on time?
You want to make sure you have the right tools for the job.
After your first few clients, you’ll be able to better appreciate what worked and what didn’t and can then improve your systems and processes accordingly. Once a system works well once, for example, a system for client acquisition, you can use it again to get your next client, and so on.
The same goes for having a system for managing a successful project, or a task management tool that helps you manage your time well and optimizes your productivity, or simply a set of processes that delivers your service in the most profitable way.
The great thing about systems for freelancers is that besides having a great service or offer, the more you improve your systems and workflows, the more successful your business will become. So, by taking the time now to document, automate and improve, you are setting yourself up for long-term freelance success.
