Many people secretly dream of leaving their current full-time jobs and starting a career as a freelancer. But how to take up this kind of work? How to obtain your first orders?
Numerous travels, working from anywhere on earth, a lot of free time and not inconsiderable earnings – this is an extremely colorful vision of working as a freelancer. However, who is he really? What does his work consist of? A freelancer is a person who works on the basis of a contract of mandate, contract for specific work or invoices independently. Thus, it can be a self-employed person or an individual who does not work under a contract of employment.
Being a freelancer is not a profession in itself. It is a term to describe a way of earning money and a way of working, not a depiction of a specific profession. Working as a freelancer is also not always a job done remotely from home. This is because it depends on the profession one chooses to pursue. So what are some examples of jobs that can be done while being a freelancer?
In the above list, it is easy to see and distinguish between professions performed at home, such as copywriter, programmer, social media specialist, and those performed “in the field”.
The key issue at the beginning of the path of becoming a freelancer is to choose your field. The above-mentioned professions, most often undertaken by freelancers, can be a clue to which industries to look for this type of work. Of course, there are many more professions possible without a classic employment contract. So, first of all, you should think about what your strengths are, in which specialty you already have experience, and most importantly: what you really want to do and what kind of work will give you the most pleasure.
Once we have determined the field in which we want to work, it is important to answer some key questions: do I already have experience in the profession I want to do? Do I have the training and knowledge to perform it? If the answer to these questions is negative – nothing lost! It is then worthwhile to expand your knowledge in the chosen profession through courses (often also free) available on the Internet, by reading blogs and watching videos, for example, on YouTube on the topic.
Once we have our goal specified, we know what profession we want to do and we already have at least the basic knowledge needed to do it – we can move on to looking for our first assignments.
Looking for assignments is one of the most unpleasant parts of working for a freelancer. Especially at the beginning of the journey, you should be prepared to painstakingly send applications/CVs/portfolios to potential principals. But where is the best place to start looking for assignments?
You can start your search for assignments with job posting portals. Although most of the ads present there will be for full-time work, you can find among them assignments ideal for freelancers
On Facebook, there are many groups created specifically to post job advertisements for specific professions. Just type into the search engine: “assignments” or “job ads” and add the profession that interests you. Groups will then be displayed, where you can easily find many job opportunities.
main photo: pexels.com/Donatello Trisolino
