8 Key lessons for creative freelancers to succeed

Keep balanced, stay happy.

You’ve researched, joined communities (have you joined Briefy yet?), followed the most successful freelancers and business owners in the industry. But you’re human. You’ll always have much more motivation and positivity at the start of this.

Most freelancers feel their bubble burst after a little while, no matter how prepared they are. But this deflating moment absolutely does not need to happen.

These 8 lessons and daily habits will keep you balanced and on top of your game. Which in this case is, well, life.

1. Set aside time for creativity

Huh? My new job is creative.

Make the conscious effort to set aside time for creativity from the start. Perhaps you are thinking “scheduling creativity? Yeah okay”. Trust me, after some time you will come to relish your ‘creativity hour… or two’.

Ideas will flow without the worry that you’re procrastinating and constantly asking yourself if this is earning you money. You owe yourself this time.

2. You do need a mediator

An appointed HR Manager. A lifestyle organizer. A nosey bystander. Someone to tell you to take it easy before you burn out, to remind you to get up and take a walk… or a run, or to put down that 3rd snack of the morning and have a piece of fruit. Even to insist you book some holidays to make sure you have time to disconnect and recoup.

As well as keeping tabs on your physical and mental health, you’ll need them for other things. Such as the general admin tasks like taking stock (if this applies) and monitoring your professional progress.

You’re well on your way to becoming an experienced business man/woman, project manager, receptionist, delegator as well as building expertise in your own field. This deserves at least a pat on the back once in a while.

3. Incorporate household tasks, don’t schedule time for them

Perhaps part of being a freelancer that seems insignificant. But to maintain a balanced work/home life, aim to do the little things through the day. There’s no need to set aside time for household chores, this just eats up time when you could be working on your business.

Housework can be done absent-mindedly. Unlike your creativity time, which should be disconnected from work and other activities.

It will also give you weekends where you can actually feel as though you have some free time — even if you choose to do a little more work instead.

Don’t let your productivity and mood be affected by mess building up around you.

4. Know your product and market inside out

This is something you should define before making the leap to freelance.

If you’re already in the freelancing world but are not 100% sure you know as much as you should to get some targeted marketing material out there, here’s the basic things you should research and be confident about;

• Your USPs — what makes your product or service better than the others out there? Why should clients choose you? It’s best to have 3 or 4 key points you can refer to when you are asked “why should I choose you?” or when pitching to potential clients.
• Your audience — Who is your audience? In other words, who will actually click “hire”, “buy” or “contact now” on your website?

It’s always great to make them ‘real’. As in, do some user research and come up with the most common personalities that seem to be the ones who will be actively interested in your business.

Give these personalities a name, a background story and note down their characteristics. You can use this to then find where they ‘hang out’ online and the kind of communication/language they would react to.

• Your quick pitch — Simply one sentence or less to sum up what you do, what you offer and how you offer it that seems different to others.

For example, people ask “what you do for a living?”, you say you’re a self employed architectural photographer. That’s great. Then they ask, “so what does that entail?”. Your next line should sound pretty awesome, but not like you’re selling.

So it could be “Realtors and property owners hire me to shoot high end photography of their buildings to show off the structure and space for their own projects”. Or something along those lines.

Be confident from the start when you begin marketing your business and your brand. If you continuously chop and change names, logos, colours and styles, it will be very difficult for people to recognize you.

Creating a short style guide could help you follow a set structure with all your content and designs.

5. Build some skills in marketing

Whether this is following some great blogs or taking a short course or two. Marketing is becoming increasingly crucial for freelancers to compete for clients and with each other.

I would personally recommend the freelancer by Contently — the short and focused articles tackle everything from writer’s block to reviews of new tech. Plus Paul Jarvis’s blog, who just has a way with words and whose personal experience as a freelancer is inspiring.

Not to mention the freelancers union, which is just a great page to keep bookmarked, especially for up to date legal news in the freelancer world.

It isn’t rocket science, but it does take some time to really get to know your audience and to know what works.

It’s a rapidly changing world online, it’s always good to keep up with news and trends in your industry. You can always pick some valuable tactics from leaders in the industry. Rand Fishkin of Moz & Andy Crestodina, author of ‘Content Chemistry’* are great influencers in the world of online content marketing to follow — plus they’re pretty cool.

* a great recommendation for those who just want to know the crucial basics in content creation.

6. Deal with negativity and don’t burn bridges

You may chat with family, go along to networking events and meet up with clients. But at the end of the day you’re working solo. This can get tough at times. So it’s helpful, for sanity and serenity, to have a system for dealing with negative clients or projects that end badly.

So how do you go about regaining your positivity after these events?

Don’t dwell. Your time is better spent on your business. Come up with a system which means you feel that you have made the best out of a bad situation.

Have a set of questions that encourage you to review the entire process and work out where things went wrong, and what you can take away from this experience to help you in future.

Have a structured email or letter you will send to the estranged client — if you’re owed payment, then shortly summarize the work you completed. Keep it positive. No-one will return to a bitter freelancer.

Show you handle these situations calmly and with understanding, they are much more likely to keep a good memory of you as an individual. Even if this means swallowing some pride and being the bigger man or woman. You never know who they know or what could happen in the future.

Don’t burn any bridge, no matter how helpless it seems.

7. Structure each day and feel accomplished

Each morning, make it a habit to jot down 4 or 5 key tasks you want to complete that day. If you have one big task to tackle, break it down. If you’re constantly setting unachievable tasks for yourself, you’ll constantly feel like you failed. Not good.

By breaking down each task it will seem like a doddle. Nowhere near as daunting as it felt at the start. Make them tasks you can complete in 30 minutes or less. Regularly ticking off jobs is a great feeling, help yourself out!

8. Prepare for the worst, and all will be fine

If you’re overly prepared, nothing can phase you. Well okay, perhaps this is exaggerated, but it will make things 100 times easier when downtime rears it’s ugly head.

Preparation for those quiet months when it seems like there’s not one client left in the world who wants your business is crucial. If business is going swimmingly, put aside a few months worth of savings — just so there’s no uncertainty or panic.

Take advantage of this quiet time to focus on marketing. Plan and prepare content for when things take off again — which they will! You’ll be more ready than you’ve ever been, and it’ll feel like your business is rocketing.