This is the fourth part of this series which goes on discussing the Sins that many freelancers commit resulting in a total disadvantage of their business. This part will deal with the importance of Sales and marketing, and we will see that both Sales and marketing are as equally important as the main objective of any freelance business.

The difference between a successful freelancer and failed one, taking into consideration that they both are equally talented in what they do, is only the understanding and application of sales and marketing. One may be well versed about the importance of it and the other may be in complete oblivion.

Therefore, to get rid of this situation, there is no alternative of studying Sales and Marketing. You have to read about some expert Sales and marketer gurus, also always have to explore new online articles that are coming out each week about Sales and Marketing strategies. You have to understand that Sales and Marketing actually are two different things:

Marketing relates to you announcement of your presence in the field with your product brand and its advantages.
Sales relates to the process of direct customer handling till you sell off your product.

Many Freelancers truly “Hate” the idea of Sales and marketing, but as you can see it can be seriously fatal for their business, and as a freelancer you have to develop this art of Sales and marketing. You have to truly believe that it is not any difficult task that uses various deceptions to sell off even a faulty product. You should remain honest with your service and truly believe that your product is worth selling. May be at the start you will not be perfect, but with time surely you will have the feel.

Remember howsoever good your product may be, without an effective marketing strategy, no one will ever know about it, and without proper sales techniques, you will not be able to convince the customer to buy you product.

With this we end our fourth part of the series. In the next part we will discuss about the importance of proper branding of your product. Just Sign up with our Auto-Feed Manager to deliver the next part to your Inbox automatically.

This is the third part of this series which continues with the Sins that many freelancers commit resulting in a total bankruptcy of their business. This part will deal with the importance of planning ahead. As planning is more or less important in every sphere of our lives, when the situation is in a freelance business environment, failure to properly ‘Plan’ can bring about unwanted consequences.

You may be severely busy with the main tasks, contacting the clients and managing other stuffs. But, you have to remember the big picture and final destination to which your business is progressing. Without a clear objective and a blueprint about how to reach there, the business will eventually fall flat.

Be Careful About Tax Issues

This situation is simple and straightforward to estimate when the income is from 9-5 regular job. However, when it is not, then the calculation of the taxes become difficult and prone to errors. Consequently many freelancers decided to just finish it up somehow and in many cases, later have to face difficulty. Thus, develop a proper plan about the Tax related issues with the local government authority and follow it to keep your business in a proper state.

Be Prepared For The Difficulty

You will have competitor in the business and not all will be likely to follow a business ethics. Thus there may be unpleasant issues initiated by them to hinder your progress. So in that case you have to do your best to fight off the allegations and progress normally. Thus, you need to prepare liability insurance and other insurances to keep your chance a refulgent one inside the court. Little careful planning in these can save you business from an abrupt ending.

Manage Your Work

Without planning, you may miss the big picture of how to handle a sufficiently large project. May be the project has many side-work apart from the main substance. So you need to have people to do those tasks along with you as you go along with the main side. However, if you fail to gauge the project properly, or do not plan ahead of time to arrange your workforce, you going to be definitely have a tough time ahead.

With this we end our third part of the series. In the next part we will discuss about the importance of sales and marketing practices in the world of freelance business. Just Sign up with our Auto-Feed Manager to deliver the next part to your Inbox automatically.

This post is summarized from the FreelanceFolder. Photo by PlanOnline.

Freelancing may be a dream job to many people worldwide. But the fact is, that the failure rate in this business is also quite high. However, the surprising thing is, this high failure rate is not due to the fact that the freelancers are not competent at what they do, but for the lack of discipline and knowledge about the business itself. This article will explain all this misconceptions in a series of seven parts. This first part will focus on the issue of: UNDERESTIMATING THE JOB.

There are many people out there who think or spread the word that freelancers can a six-figure income yearly with just two to three hours of work everyday. Well that is a compete fabrication and it is absolutely impossible with this little amount of work. Even if you are able to earn that much yearly, before that you have to go through a lot of things and have to be clear about certain things such as:

Business Skill

Freelancers has to have some good skills in different business activities such as basic accounting, marketing and sales. You need these skills to manage your earnings, negotiate and handle clients successfully as not all the clients will be same. Also, skills in especially ‘Sales’ is important when you want to promote your work.

Feel free to read up Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. It is a very good book to learn up the cost-effective ways of marketing for your freelance business.

Relation with Client

You have to understand that when one client has been served properly, it is not the end of everything. As this client will come back to you if he later wants another job to be done, but to let that happen, you have to be nice with the client by employing some very basic ‘People Skill’, alongside being professional. This will help you to develop a relationship with client based on reliability and respect; and gradually small clients will become big ones and the big ones will become bigger in no time.

Value of Friendship

Do not hesitant to be good friends of people whom you know, in your workplace (if you are part-time freelancer), your neighbourhood or your relatives. Because you never know when they can become helpful, some of them may become your clients, some of them may be freelancing as well or some of them may bring you contracts. So, always be in good touch with people as it will not only help you in business but also will make your life more enjoyable.

So with this I’ll end the first part of this series, in the next part we will see the second failure - Overestimating Your Abilities. Just Sign up with our Auto-Feed Manager to deliver the next part to your Inbox automatically.

This post is summarized from the FreelanceFolder. Photo by Standord University.

Usually the non-sales persons will consider any kind of sales-person as a manipulative money lecher, who, should be barred from making any progress in his intent. When it comes to ’sale’ services, a freelancer will naturally fell uncomfortable and disinterested.

This article will thus shed light on few myths about sales and why should you be proficient at this aspect of your freelance business.

A Matchmaking Game

To many people, a sale is just a manipulation from seller’s part to sell the product. However, this is not true. What salespersons do is they try to make a match between their services and the need of client. In the end, both of them are benefited from each other. It is the building of a relationship that can be really handy when the client needs some kind of solution.

A Numbers Games

Off course you need to charge the customer a certain amount in exchange of your service. In the end, you also need to generate a certain amount for you business and life. Different business may have different number values, but the basic principle is same for every business. Thus there is nothing abstruse behind a freelancer’s aim to sale his service.

Do Not Neglect

Many freelancers will try to avoid sales activities when they are busy with projects or other things. This is a blunder that may seriously impede your revenue generation. You should conduct sales activities at least one hour per day. Set aside some extra few hours per week to review your sales status and evaluate your sales strategy.

This article is the fourth part of twenty five tips describing how to maximize your freelance work revenue.

16. Team up

It is often a good approach to partner up with other freelancers for a single project or you may partner them for you own need. For example if you are working online, the you may develop a tie with other type of service provider such as designer, SEOs, writer, marketer etc. It is kind of work delegation but in this approach you are directly dealing with someone professional and at the same time, freelancer. So correspondence becomes easier and more effective.

17. Be Professional

Being professional is one of the key factors that needs to be attained to be successful in any attempt. So a professional approach could helps to close a contract.

18. Effective Invoice Management

If you do not send your invoice timely as set before, you will get a delayed payment. So you should use various online and offline tools that let you have a sound invoice management facilities. Also, if you exchange money through online, always use the notable options such as AlertPay or PayPal.