How to Start Freelancing (Part 1)

EP 003 - How To Start Freelancing (Part 1)

Hi, everybody! Welcome to the freelancing marketplace podcast. My name is Grace Locsin. I am the CEO and owner of Surge Digital Agency. It is an FVA Business Consultancy Corporation company. This show is dedicated to freelancers, marketers and business owners and we desire that you're going to get avenues and insights and assistance on how you can also start with freelancing or hire freelancers.

Today, our discussion is going to be dedicated to how to start freelancing. This is our 3rd episode on getting started with freelancing series. We're going to be talking about:

1. How you can get the right equipment.

2. How you can market your skills.

3. How we can polish your skills.

4. How we can build a reputation and

5. Create your portfolio and go from there.

These are very important avenues for you to start freelancing as a beginner even if you don't have any experience previously or if you're a complete newbie

Later during the show, I will be discussing the freelancing Tip of the Week and some key takeaways. So let's get started with How to Start Freelancing. This is the very basic beginner's guide for everybody who may have experience, limited experience or a complete newbie coming into the freelancing world. Think about getting started with freelancing but don't know where to start. What are the setups? And how can I make myself hireable and marketable in the marketplace? This guide is for you on how you can start freelancing as a beginner.

The number 1 tip when it comes to starting your freelancing career is “getting the right equipment.” Of course, you need to be able to have access to a computer and the internet. That's the number one basic requirement when it comes to your freelancing career. Because without access to a computer and internet, you won't be able to give reliable service to your customers. So it's very important that you have the right equipment.

Smartphone apps are limited in features. There are a lot of people who would come to me and ask me Coach Grace or Miss Grace, can I work as a freelancer even if I have no computers? But I have access to the internet. Even if I only have my cell phone? And the answer to that is "no." Yes, you may get training or listen to a podcast or empower yourself with different learnings. But when it comes to giving excellent jobs and providing excellent freelancing, you need to have the right equipment.This means you need a computer to run softwares that is required for doing work properly and delivering great results. That means also having a sustainable internet. It means maybe even have a backup internet. So when your internet app is a little bit challenged, you have a backup internet to sustain quality work. You can also get started with a laptop or an old computer as long as it's running smoothly and you're able to deliver the needs on time before the deadline and with quality and excellence.

Number 2, when it comes to How to Start Freelancing is finding a “marketable skill.” Of course, if you have some skills, but it's not really something that's marketable, it's not something that will pay you big. The next and most important step is to find a skill you can offer as a service. When it comes to being a virtual assistant. It's not only going to clients and applying without a skill that you can deliver. You need to have a skill that you can render when providing freelancing services to any brand or any business owner. Skill is very important for you to be a freelancer.

Now, whatever it may be, the key to winning freelancing is to find a skill that you're good at and has enough demand in the marketplace. So, there should be a balance between really being familiar with the things that you're doing and it needs to also be in demand. Some freelancers are comfortable with data entry or transcription. There are a lot of freelancers who are struggling when it comes to how they can be paid more. They may have skills that they can start with. However, there's no marketability in that certain skill. That's why for number 2, I really specified that it needs to be marketable and it needs to also be in demand when it comes to the client's needs for you to be sustained long term as a freelancer. If you're an expert on that skill, you can demand higher hourly rates or higher salaries. So, a marketable skill is really important in order for you to get started.

How can you go ahead and get marketable skills?

1. You can train yourself. There are a lot of resources that may be in Google or YouTube. You can visit our Surge Digital Agency or FVA Business Consultancy, YouTube channels, Facebook pages, or blogs. There are a lot of other resources when it comes to learning marketable skills.

2. However, if you'd like to leverage your freelancing skills and expertise, you need to be guided when it comes to getting a marketable skill. And it's going to be based on a curriculum.There's somebody to assist you. There are portfolios that you can submit. And it will be work samples later on to clients. Goal and get trained by an agency or by an online freelancing academy. This is the beauty that we're providing when it comes to those who would like to work as a freelancer or a virtual assistant in the Surge Digital Agency because we provide training from scratch to success. And with that training comes portfolios that you're going to create. And a coach or a trainer will provide personalized feedback. And then, you can also learn with your learning groups, with your classmates, with your freelancing FVA family community. Other freelancers might be helping you. It's a beautiful freelancing community. So that's the beauty that you can get when you are into a paid course or a paid academy. Other academies are also providing not just guidance but real opportunities. For example, for Surge Digital Agency, there's even an after-course opportunity waiting for you, like free apprenticeships, in-house hiring. There are also referrals to other hiring agencies. There are also avenues to earn in-depth courses and other courses. Even be a part of the affiliate market. Being a part of the trainers or coaches or becoming a franchisee. There are many avenues where you can go forward. But it starts with a marketable skill.

Now again, the 2 avenues where you can get the skill are:

1. Doing it alone. There are a lot of resources everywhere on the internet. Thank God we're in the information age, and data is really all over the place.

2. Going and enrolling into paid training.

Number 3, you need to “polish up your skills.” Once you find a marketable skill, you should make sure that you can offer it as a service and need to be good at it. So when you're giving your service, you can be paid high as well. You need to learn the basics but work into the process as well. To become an expert, you need to polish it. Don't just start or be stuck with the basics. You need to be able to build your authority and your expertise. It would be best if you keep polishing your skills. It may be with different apprenticeships. It may be with your friend's website or opportunities around you. There might be a friend's page that needs optimization. There might be graphics design needs in one of your friend's businesses. Whatever your chosen skill or your chosen niche is, you need to polish that. You need to become an expert when it comes to that certain freelancing skill. Taking online courses, of course, is an effective avenue to properly learn and polish your skills—developing that skill from scratch.

Taking online courses is one of the most effective ways to learn and polish up the skill properly. Because while you are learning, you're also applying. And you may have other avenues to polish it when it comes to opportunities around you. Developing a skill from scratch to success takes time. So be patient and keep learning. Keep practicing. It may take a few weeks. It could take you weeks, months, or years; just focus on it. And before you know it, you're already an expert. And you're already building authority in that certain expertise. And you will become the go-to person when they need that certain ability, niche, or that certain freelancing skill.

Before I'm going to move forward into steps number 4 and number 5, allow me to share a personal experience because, of course, that's something that I would like to do here in our podcast episodes. I want to make myself available to learn and gain insight to do better in your freelancing journey.

Now when it comes to polishing skills, I don't know if you're familiar with this. If you probably are a part of the freelancing community and network, and have been following me on social media sites, you may have noticed this. The issue is I'm not that confident in being in videos or audios or speaking in large crowds online. I have a few experiences years before when I was still single in front of the crowd because, of course, I have been in the mission field. I'm a teacher by profession, but that's about it. It's like talking to a limited number of people. Probably the biggest number of people in one setting is 500. But it's not something like this. Like anybody can be watching me all over the world. Anybody can be listening right now all over the world. You may be listening from the Philippines, from Pakistan, from the United States, from different continents around the world. Let me know, by the way, where you're at—comment in the comment section or personal message me. Please find me on Facebook or different social media sites. Go, look for Grace Locsin or Julmar Grace Locsin. Get connected with me and let me know how I can help you.

Going back to our story, I don't have any confidence when it comes to talking to a larger crowd, just like this. And it took me years, and when I started probably way back in 2018, 2017, I was just comfortable doing it to a small crowd. I did live coaching sessions with my freelancing course students. And I did not look good. And back then, I was comfortable with that, just a small crowd, maybe 30 people, 50 people, a hundred people, or at worse around 300 people. And it was just a group of people in that GoToWebinar link. So it was very limited. I did not venture into video marketing, podcasting until 2019 because it took me two years to be confident enough to make myself available to a larger crowd like all over the Philippines, all over the world. And in doing that, it did not happen overnight. There's no shortcut to success. And I had to get a lot of confidence built in. I had to get a lot of feedback from my husband because he's a VJ/DJ in the past. I had to learn how to communicate properly. I had to practice in the mirror on how I'm going to talk. I needed to go from one situation to the other. I even needed to have braces and make myself a little bit comfortable when it comes to the video. Because when I started, you can look at the videos that I had in the past. Both of my front teeth were like one seat apart. So I wasn't really that confident because I felt like I looked awful. And I had the accent.

I wasn't that confident in doing videos because I looked ugly to myself. And I felt like I had a thick Bisaya or Filipino accent. So my English was all over the place. But you know what, I just did it, and did it and did it again. And the more I'm doing it; I was polishing it. I'm getting feedback. I looked at the video again and identified what are the things that I need to improve. I need to improve my audio. I need to improve my framing. I need to improve my lights. I need to invest in my video. I need to invest in a nice phone. I need to be clear when it comes to my organization of thoughts. I improved myself over months and years. Maybe because I was really dedicated and committed to polishing up skills. Look where it got me? You might be listening right now. And you may feel like, wow, she's just like this confident woman who's going to take over the world. You don't know that I just came from a small town in Surigao del Sur with this thick curly hair and this dark skin feeling so inferior to myself. And I did not even imagine that I would get here. But here I am. And I'm sharing that with you because I want you to be confident.That wherever you're at right now, you can dream as big of a dream. Go big, as big as the sun, because when you fall, at least you will reach the stars and the moon. So, go and dream big, but don't forget to polish your skills and work yourself in the same process that I did, even if it's not perfect, even if it would look ugly to me. Even if I feel like I'm not good enough, even if I would have different comments from my husband, "do this and do that," "let's improve this." I still went through and polished my skills.

And again, it brought me to where I am now. That I can go ahead and not gain influence or anything but have the opportunity to impact lives through what I'm doing. So, it's all about the impact; it's all about empowering. So think of the ways on how you can also change the world through what you're able to polish a skill. It might be your client. It might be the client's business. It might be your families and your community. As long as you're dedicated and polishing that skill, you are going to reach for your dreams. As long as you're dedicated and committed to polishing up your skill, you're going to reach the stars and realize your dreams.

For our Freelancing Tip of the Week, I would like to invite you to think of high-paying skills to realize time freedom. Yes, Freelancing Tip of the Week. Go for high-paying skills because that's your key in realizing time freedom. Time freedom is again the highest currency right now because it's something money can't buy. You might be the richest person in the world but, if you don't have inner peace and don't own your time, you're still associated or still bound and somehow slave to work. Time freedom is the ability to enjoy life. It may be that you're earning big or earning just average, but you own your time, and you can spend it the best way possible. So with your highest paying skills, you can lower down your weekly limit and still be achieving a high monthly income. So, for example, instead of being paid $3 $4 $5 per hour and you're working 60 hours per week, you can achieve the same amount of salary or income at the end of the month if you are paid $20 per hour. If you are paid at least $10 per hour, and you can lower your weekly hours, your weekly limit is probably just 20 hours per week or 25 hours per week. That way, you can still venture into the beauty of life, spend quality time with your family and pursue the passions in your heart. So, go for high-paying skills and enjoy time freedom.

Going back to our discussion on How to Start Freelancing, step number 4 is "building your reputation." Proving your skills and work will determine whether you're successful as a freelancer or not. It doesn't matter if you have a college degree or years of experience. But if you can't prove to any client in a business, any brand that you are skilled in what you do, nobody will hire you. You probably will jump from one new client to the other because you don't have a reputation. It's always re-starting and starting and starting and starting all over again. It's not going to be long-term. This is why you need to build a reputation. You can do some free work at first. Or you can reach out to blogs that will accept guest posts. If you're a blogger, you can do some concept design for free. Whatever it is that you have chosen as a niche or as a service you're going to render to your clients, get that experience and build that reputation.

And one avenue for you to do that is step number 5, which is "creating a portfolio." When you start building your application, be sure that you're creating a portfolio that will bring all of your published and live work in one place. A portfolio can be a website, and I would highly recommend that you do it on a website or a web page. And it's just all in one link. Maybe it's just going to be www.surge.digital.agency. When people check on that website, all of your showcases, all of who you are, your experiences and certifications, services and the niches and your life work as a freelancer are showcased in that particular website or webpage. When you're reaching out to a client, you can give the link to your portfolio, and they can check out your skills and other information. So make sure that when you have that webpage or website as a basis for your portfolio, it's going to be client-friendly. And it's going to spell one thing, "excellence."

That would be all for this week when it comes to How To Get Started With Freelancing. But guess what, there's a part 2 for this episode, in which we'll be discussing five more steps in getting started with freelancing. So watch out for the second part of How to Start Freelancing. And that will be on episode number 4.

For this week's Key Takeaways, again, there's “no shortcut to success.” But I hope that these 3 avenues will help you become more successful as you start freelancing:

1. Visibility

2. Relevance

3. Consistency

Make sure that you are visible. Everybody's seeing and knowing who you are and the services that you're providing. It also needs to be relevant. You need to be relevant to your marketplace so that you can be on-demand. You need to be relevant to the content that you're providing. You need to be relevant with your partnerships. And number 3, "be consistent." No matter what it takes, don't be posting or doing something this week, and then you disappear completely. And then you stop whatever it is that you're doing when it comes to the things that we mentioned earlier, from steps 1 to 5, all of a sudden. Make sure that you stay consistent, even if it's just an inch a day, as long as you're progressing. So you can focus on progress and not perfection. So, key takeaways this week are "be visible," "be relevant," and be "consistent."

Thank you so much for joining me in this episode number 3 for a freelancing marketplace podcast. Again, in getting started as a freelancer, the first steps 1 to 5 for you to achieve your freelancing career is "getting the right equipment," step 2 is "finding a marketable skill," number 3 "polishing your skills," number 4 "building your reputation," and number 5, "creating a portfolio." We will be discussing how to start freelancing steps 6 to 10 in the next episode. So, go ahead and invite everybody. Go ahead and stay tuned for the final part of the "How to Start freelancing." This is again a series on getting started with freelancing. Allow me to thank you for listening to the first few episodes that we have. Thank you so much for being the first few listeners and making us already rank on a lot of podcast platforms. Go ahead and become a part of this history-making in the freelancing world in the streams. Go ahead and become a part of the history that we are creating here in your freelancing or remote working avenue in this podcast. Please invite your friends, rate us, go ahead and even connect with us. We are on social media at Surge Digital Agency. You can also go ahead and check us via YouTube and Facebook. The tips here are all free, and the guides are also free. You can connect with me personally and follow me via Grace Locsin or facebook.com/julmargracelocsin. I hope to see you guys on our next episode, which is the second part of How to Start Freelancing.

Favorite Quotes:

1. Developing a skill from scratch to success takes time. So be patient and keep learning. Keep practicing. Just focus on it and before you know it, you're already an expert.

2. There's no shortcut to success.

3. Go big, as big as the sun, because when you fall, at least you will reach the stars and the moon. So, go and dream big, but don't forget to polish your skills and work yourself in the same process that I did.

Caption:

Thinking about getting started with freelancing but don't know where to start? How to make yourself hireable? In this episode, I will guide you to start your freelancing journey, even if you're a complete newbie!