7 Principles to become the most sought after Freelancer
Constant rise of Internet and with it other innovate tools including live Video conferencing and chatting systems, has made telecommuting and virtual collaboration simpler than ever before and this has positively led to a consistent growth in the number of people freelancing or opting for remote work. Almost 36% of US workforce is a part of Freelance economy.
In recent times, IT/Tech industry is among the top industries embracing freelancing. Straightaway, the way of working trend has changed due to rise of many freelancing websites in the digital arena. Howerever, there is an intense competition on these freelance websites. Its not an easy task to get ahead in the Gig economy. As a Freelancer you must maintain a good reputation score to grab projects and stand out from the crowd.
Though Freelancing offers flexibility, freedom, control over your work, setting up your own price, it is not everybody’s cup of tea. It requires immense self-discipline and patience to succeed in the Freelance economy. One other factor to succeed in Freelance marketplace is what I had like to call ‘Referral Quotient’. More often than not, successful freelancers hardly spend any time in getting new projects. That’s because their initial clients are extremely satisfied with their work and mostly refer them to their Friends. Their referral quotient is very high.
So the question arises, what should you do to become the most sought after Professional in the Freelance marketplace.
Below I have mentioned 7 principles which, if followed diligently, will increase your referral quotient without a doubt.
1. Effective Communication: Communication is the most important factor for your success as a Freelancer. Since you are collaborating remotely, it is crucial that you are clear and succinct in your communication. Verbal and written fluency in the language of communication is also a must. You should also actively listen to your clients and ask relevant questions.
2. Availability: You must make an active effort to gain clients trust. You should be obsessed with clients and their projects and make sure that you are always available for clients to provide answers to any queries and to resolve critical issues.
3. Pro-activeness: You should be proactive in keeping the project moving forward. You should plan ahead and anticipate problems or blockers and resolve them on time before it can have a major impact.
4. Insist on High Quality: You should relentlessly set high quality standards and continue to raise the bar. You should drive your team and people around you to deliver high quality products and services for your clients.
5. Deliver Results: You should focus on the key requirements for your clients projects, estimate them with effective feedback from the client and deliver them with right quality and in a timely fashion.
6. Practice Leadership: You should consider every project as your own and act like a leader to drive the project forward. You should invest your time to understand the business aspects of a project and accordingly use a technology to support them. You should constantly provide feedback about the project to clients and other team members.
7. Passion and Expertise: You should be immensely passionate about your work and always strive to keep yourselves up to date with latest trends and technologies. You should go deep and try to become an expert in your field.
If you are a Freelancer or deciding to become one, then make sure that you always stick to these principles and believe me companies will hunt you down to get their job done.
Prolanceer.com is a cost effective, pre-vetted marketplace platform, to hire independent software professionals on a freelance or contract basis