Starting a new freelancing business is hard work. For many it can also be a worrying time financially. Whether you’re a fresh graduate or you’re leaving a disliked salaried job, it’s a bit of a jump into the unknown. However, compared to setting up other types of businesses, forging a freelancing career is relatively inexpensive.
Many freelancers work from home, which reduces overhead costs considerably. And as mentioned in our article last week, there are also surprisingly many ways you can develop your freelancing business without spending any money at all.
That said, to truly grow your business and achieve the freelancing dreams you hold, it’s important to invest in its growth. If you’re short on cash at the beginning, then reinvesting a certain percentage of your freelance earnings back into your business is a sensible and intelligent strategy to embrace.
Ways to reinvest your earnings
After you’ve worked with a few clients, you’ll have some money to spend on further developing your freelance business.
So what are some of the intelligent ways you can reinvest your earnings back into your freelancing business?
Here are a few ideas:
Premium tools
Many platforms and apps allow you to access various tools for free. This means you can use the essentials without spending any money. We do the same here at Invoice Ninja. You can design your invoice, add payment gateways, send your invoice, receive payments, monitor whether the invoices have been opened, and more, all for free.
However, there are also premium options, which take your invoicing and financial management to a whole new level. With a small investment you can access further options including branded invoices with a custom domain, proposal creation tools, 3rd party file attachment options, auto late payment fees, multi-company support, multiple user permissions, and more.
When it comes time to really expand your business, or free up even more of your time, then reinvesting your earnings in premium options is recommended.
Professional brand design
Unless you’re a professional graphic designer, then trying to design your own brand image and schemes can be more damaging than effective. Your freelance brand identity is what potential clients see first and it needs to look immediately professional. It’s sometimes better to not have a logo at all, rather than a shoddy one created for free or very cheaply.
One of your priority reinvestments should be on your logo and overall brand design, including your website. Doing so will ensure your brand image matches with your skills and, as a result, will imbue trust in visiting prospects.
Paid advertising
It can be difficult to get people to your website, especially in the first few months of its existence. When you need clients immediately, investing in paid advertising can bring potential rewards, fast.
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a commonly used form of internet advertising. This is where you pay to get your adverts positioned in places your ideal clients are searching. It can be hit and miss but with good copywriting, the adverts can bring targeted prospects to your website – or to a specific landing page.
Copywriting
Speaking of copywriting, this is also an essential component of your marketing, sales, and branding to get right. Great copywriting is writing that actively gets people to carry out a desired action. It’s all about persuasion. You might think it’s something you can do yourself, after all, you might very well be a good writer.
However, copywriting is more about marketing and sales tactics than good writing. An award-winning novelist might be absolutely abysmal at copywriting. If you’re looking to take your freelancing business to the next level and inspire people to take action when they read your website and brochures, then reinvesting some of your earnings to hire a competent copywriter will certainly be worthwhile.
Delegation
Freelancing is hard work, especially in the formative months. You have to market your business, maintain and grow your website, work with new clients, get to grips with new technology, and also monitor and record your finances. And that’s just the work side of things. Managing multiple tasks can be a nightmare.
With only a set number of hours each day, it can be difficult to find the time to get everything done before midnight. That’s why delegating tasks is a sensible option. As a solopreneur, some of your greatest delegation partners include other freelancers, especially Virtual Assistants (VAs).
With some investment, these hard-working professionals can take the admin side of your business and all those time consuming and boring tasks you dislike, off your hands. These tasks will be completed quickly and effectively, allowing you to focus predominantly on billable work.
Ongoing learning
Continued learning is important in any career and freelancing is no different. When you’re working for yourself, you need to constantly discover new information and stay up-to-date with various innovations and developments relating to your work. There’s not only the subject matter pertaining to your client projects but also new strategies and techniques in marketing, sales, technology and more.
Reinvesting some of your earnings into the purchase of courses, books, subscriptions, and tickets to relevant speeches and workshops.
Professional mentoring
Learning is wonderful but it can sometimes lead to paralysis when it comes to making decisions. Information overload is a common problem for freelancers. You can have all the factual knowledge you need but without guidance, it’s all too easy to stagnate. This is where professional mentoring can really help.
Investing in a mentor can take your freelancing business to levels you thought were impossible to reach. The mentor doesn’t do your work for you, of course. What they do is work with you to reveal paths and strategies that can cut worktime in half and ensure you take the right road for your unique goals and personality. They can be invaluable in this sense.
Growing your business by investing your earnings
Reinvesting your earnings to grow your freelancing business is a sure way to success, especially if you’re initially short on cash. As mentioned in our previous article, it’s very easy these days to set up a freelancing career without spending a lot of money. However, to really grow and build the freelancing lifestyle of your dreams, investment will eventually be needed.
The above list is far from exhaustive. As your income increases, you can gradually reinvest your earnings into various channels that will boost the effectiveness of your work and brand. These might include things like a full website design, premium email marketing tools, podcast equipment, a home study/studio refurbishment, among other things.
The key is to reinvest wisely and know which areas of your business will benefit most from some extra funds.
