Grow your business: the ultimate guide to a thriving freelance career

Starting a freelance career is exciting, but making it grow is even more enjoyable. Plan for the growth you want with this guide.

If you’re thinking about becoming a freelancer and turning your passion into a profession, you’re making the right choice. Not only do over 30% of freelancers make over $75,000 per year, but 77% of full-time freelancers cite having a better work/life balance due to career flexibility.

Still, in order to reach this level of success and satisfaction, you’ll need to grow your business the right way. In this complete freelancing guide, we’re going to talk about the drive, platforms, technologies, and skills that you need to be successful in your freelance career. Read on to learn how to develop yourself both personally and professionally.

Consider your passions and interests

Before you can even begin planning independent work, it’s critical that you decide on the type of career that you want to create. For some people, this is obvious. Someone who has loved to write from a young age may want to be a freelance writer, but if you prefer to take commissions on digital artwork, this is likely a better career path for you.

The main consideration should be what you love to do and what you find fulfilling. If you manage to make it in a field that you are passionate about, you will have a much more rewarding freelance career. Those who are satisfied and passionate about their work also are proven to have higher success and productivity levels, so you will have a much better overall work life.

Hectic: the platform you need

It’s critical that you have the right software to manage your day-to-day operations. Hectic gives you the opportunity to manage your freelance career from a single location so that you can remain organized and on top of all of your tasks.

The platform can provide you with insights on where your business is headed. As a result, you can set goals and figure out whether or not it is realistic to fulfill them. If you judge that they are unrealistic or need to be tweaked for any reason, Hectic makes editing your operations as easy as possible.

You also will be given a list of suggested actions that you need to take ASAP. The software will notify you about proposal follow-ups, outstanding invoices, new messages from potential clients, the success of your marketing campaigns, and more. It also will help you celebrate the goals that you reach so you know how well you are doing in achieving them.

In addition, Hectic can help you to manage communication with your clients. You can begin conversations with clients right on the platform and have them fill out forms asking them how they learned about you, what their budget is, and more. This gives you the flexibility that you need to work with multiple different customers and makes collaborating a rewarding experience for both parties.

Speaking of clients, the client portal offered by Hectic is unmatched. You can send project proposals and immediately turn them into flexible and editable contracts. Your clients can log into your page and track the progress of their order or commission as well. This eliminates the need for frustration, confusion, and excessive contact about the order status.

Before you start to grow an online presence, you will need to create a Hectic account and access the tools that will help you interact online with clients.

Build your website

Once you download the Hectic app, you will need to build a website. This website needs to be linked to your social media pages when you find them since smart businesses will use Hectic as their main platform to grow.

Include information such as your Hectic details so that people can reach out to you as easily as possible. You can also upload work samples and testimonials, reviews, and explainer videos from happy past clients.

This will give potential clients a simple way to access your services and see what you are all about. People are more likely to invest in your business if they feel that they are being given all the information.

Make sure that you also use Hectic’s web development tools to enhance the navigation on your website. Have specific tabs for each area on your website so that people know what they are clicking on. This ensures that your page is more user-friendly and that people won’t get frustrated and bounce.

Additionally, include a powerful lead magnet at the bottom of your webpage to encourage interested parties to enter information. This will give you the information necessary to discover who is looking at your website. You can then tailor your marketing efforts to your biggest audience and reach out to those who have entered their contact information later.

Find clients (and market to them)

Hectic is an amazing tool for finding and reaching out to clients, but you will need to direct people to your Hectic portal from external sources. Fortunately, online marketing is easier than ever. In a world where over 3.8 billion people are active on social media, researching your target audience and connecting with them is only a matter of moments.

Identify your target audience

Social media is one of the many ways that you can identify your target audience, but it is also essential that you figure out who you’re catering to before investing too much in your social media presence.

How can you do this?

The first thing that you should do is think logically about who your target audience might include. If you are an SEO blogger, for example, you likely will want to cater to both small and large businesses that know the importance of their digital footprint. Look into the demographics of these people and see whether they’re primarily men or women, what age group they are in, and which professions are most likely to invest in your blog posts.

If you have nothing else to go off of, set up your profiles as though you are targeting the people that you think are in your demographic. You can always track whether or not you’re marketing to the right people as time goes on. If you have a bit more experience in your chosen field, market to those who are similar to clients you have worked with in the past.

You also will want to set up a website for your business. Having an official page and linking your Hectic profile to it is a great way to direct traffic to your contact information. You can use Google Analytics and related software to track who clicks on your website, which areas/pages they spend the most time on, and who heads over to your Hectic profile after checking the site out.

Use social media

Once you have an idea of your target audience, you can work to create a meaningful social media presence. Set up profiles on multiple platforms and like or follow similar pages (or pages of those you think may be interested in your services). This is a great way to foster connections.

You can use Facebook Ads to target those in certain demographics. This includes age, gender, location, occupation, and even those who like other pages (of your competitors or those you work with). This is an easy way to show your advertisements to those who may be interested and get the word of your freelance business out there.

Additionally, you can use Twitter hashtags to reach more people who may be interested in your services. Pin the most important posts to the top of your profile for easy access. You can’t type more than 280 characters into a Tweet, but you can link to a Hectic profile, official web pages with a lot of information, and media such as graphics and video.

Speaking of visuals, video can really help you to grow your business. 73% of consumers are more likely to invest in a service such as your freelance jobs after seeing a video about it. Make sure that you have satisfied customers explain to a camera why you are the best in your field.

Create relevant project proposals

Project proposals are at the core of every freelancer’s career since they create the first impression of potential clients. These proposals detail what will happen during the freelance project, how it will take place, what the goals are, how you will communicate throughout the process, and more. They also generally contain work samples so the client can decide whether you are a good fit for their needs.

One of the core features of Hectic is that you can create drag-and-drop project proposals. This saves you the hassle of worrying about formatting and instead allows you to focus on your proposal’s actual content. You can also share proposals from Hectic with potential clients and instantly turn them into contracts before signing.

Develop a great reputation

In order to develop the reputation that you want, you will need to learn how you freelance best. Working from home and setting your own hours are delightful prospects, but you need to stay disciplined and motivated to succeed at freelance work. If you do not, you will be unable to grow your business because clients will not learn to trust you over your competitors.

To make your business profitable, you will need a plan. This means setting both long and short-term goals that lead to the accomplishment of a personal vision and mission. These goals should be SMART, meaning that they must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (so that you get things done in a reasonable timeframe).

You also need to have good time management skills. Work-life balance is critical to avoiding burnout, but you need to work reasonably regular hours. Find out when you work best and create an independent work schedule. Stick to it. You will get a lot more done this way.

The space in which you work also matters. Make sure that you put on real clothes to work (not pajamas) and find a quiet space conducive to hard work. A home office with a desk and ergonomic chair will motivate you to get more done than your comfy bed will.

Get feedback and reviews

When you are reliable, get work done, and exceed expectations, clients are more likely to recommend you. However, some of them need an additional nudge to leave feedback on your freelance profile or on social media. You can remind them after completing a job that they clearly love the results of.

This is critical because 90% of consumers look at online reviews of a business (or freelancer) before choosing to hire. Additionally, people are willing to spend 31% more money on a business that has excellent reviews than one that does not.

Since you are a freelancer that sets your own prices, you can offer discounts for the next time someone uses your services in exchange for a review. This both inspires customer loyalty (they’re likely to come back and use the discount) and helps you to sign on new clients. Plus, the customer will get to save a bit of money, so it’s a win-win situation.

Grow your business and freelance career

While there are many ways that you as a freelancer can grow your business, having appropriate digital technology is the first step towards success. Hectic is committed to helping you develop your profile as well as freelance proposals so that you can reach out to the clients who matter.

Sign up for free access to these tools and more today. We can help you manage the day-to-day operations of your freelance business and daily hustle so that you can be as successful as possible. We look forward to helping you succeed soon!