How to Develop a Freelance System That Works for You
Success as a freelancer starts with having the right system for your work.
You have the skills needed to become a successful freelancer.
That’s half the battle.
You still have to figure out how to turn the idea of being a professional freelancer into reality — which means you need to design a freelance system that works for you.
No two people approach work the exact same way. So a system that works perfectly for someone else might not work for you at all.
You need to build your own unique freelance system if you want to succeed. And, once you’re done, you need to stick to that system as best as you can.
Not sure what a freelance system looks like? Follow these eight steps to begin building your freelance system today.
1. Figure out how you like to work
How do you work best?
Building a freelance system starts with determining when you tend to work most productively and efficiently.
Some people like to work first thing in the morning. Some people like to work long into the night hours. Others like to work intermittently throughout the day. There are also those who work whenever they want to work.
There’s no right or wrong approach to when you should work. But before you fill up your plate with projects, you should at least have a ballpark idea of what your ideal work schedule looks like.
You also need to figure out how you should approach your work specifically. Maybe you’re the type of person who likes to tackle one task per client each day. Or maybe you’re the type of person who, like Elon Musk, prefers “batching” — or figuring out how to combine certain tasks in such a way to complete them in less time without compromising on quality.
For example, you may find out that tackling several tasks for Client A on Monday and for Client B on Tuesday is a great approach for you because you get to keep your mind in the same space and therefore work more efficiently each day.
2. Figure out where you like to work
One of the best things about being a freelancer is having the opportunity to choose where you want to work. Sure, there are times when you might land gigs that require you to be on-site. But for the most part, in the age of the remote worker and the gig economy, most clients won’t care where you work — so long as you get your work done well and on time.
So where might you decide to work?
- Home. To save money, eliminate your commute and enjoy convenience, you might decide to work at home like many freelancers do. Though you may be tempted to post up on a couch to do your work, that gets boring quickly — not to mention unhealthy. If you opt to work at home, make sure to set up a comfortable office that’s conducive to your productivity. Remember, clutter causes fatigue. Try to keep your home office as clean and organized as you can to ensure productive workdays each week.
- The coffee shop. If you’re a more social creature, you may find it difficult to spend a lot of time at your house every day. Heading to the neighborhood coffee shop, at least a few times a week, may be just what you need.
- A coworking facility. If you want to work with like-minded freelancers, contractors and startup workers, the nearby coworking facility might be a better choice. While you will likely have to pay a fee to work there, you’ll get to bounce ideas off of other creatives and benefit from having “coworkers” who don’t work for the same company but do work in the same building. You never know when you might land new work opportunities in these increasingly popular environments.
- The road. Since they only need a laptop and the internet to do their work, some freelancers prefer living life as digital nomads — hopping from one spot to the next and working from the road. Are you keen on traveling and seeing the world? You may be suited to this lifestyle.
You’re your own boss. Don’t forget that you can choose any combination of the above, too.
3. Set aside time for prospecting each week
When you’re just starting out as a freelancer, chances are you’ll spend more time looking for work than you will actually working.
As you start to lock clients down, you might be tempted to suspend your prospecting efforts. You’ve got a full workload, after all, so why spend your valuable time searching for potential new clients when you can actually be generating revenue?
The needs of your clients can and will change at any moment. Failure to prospect on a regular basis will eventually translate into extended periods of downtime. Build prospecting into the foundation of your freelance system to avoid these gaps.
4. Learn how to organize your work
Succeeding as a freelancer is much harder when you’re disorganized and therefore more likely to miss a deadline or forget about an assignment altogether.
If you work out of a Gmail inbox, organizing your work can be as simple as creating labels for each client and using your “unread mail” as a to-do list.
If you prefer visualizing your work and your progress on each project, you may find that a freelancer platform like Lancelot and its built-in project management tool helps you stay on top of all of your assignments.
5. Sharpen your time management skills
When you’re your own boss, it’s easy to get distracted and procrastinate.
If you don’t have any time-sensitive assignments — and you don’t have any kids or pets to take care of — you may even find it difficult to get out of bed at a reasonable hour.
Reaching your full potential as a freelancer starts with having exemplary time management skills. For some, time management may only be possible with certain tools. If, for example, you find yourself checking social media several hours each day, you may find RescueTime — an app that restricts access to certain sites for blocks of time — particularly helpful.
Other tricks for managing your time better include:
- Using to-do lists to visualize your work
- Eliminating multi-tasking so you can better focus on the project at hand
- Taking breaks throughout the day so you’re energized to do great work in less time
- Saying no to a request when you’re unable to do it on time
6. Determine an invoicing approach that makes sense
As a freelancer, you don’t have the luxury of relying on a steady paycheck each week or every other week.
For the most part, clients will pay you in a timely fashion. But every now and again, you’ll work with companies that might take a little longer to settle with you.
Unfortunately, you can’t force anyone to send you a check in the mail. What you can do, though, is figure out what invoicing approach makes the most sense for your specific situation — and incorporate that approach into your freelance system.
For example, if you have enough savings to float on, you may be comfortable invoicing all of your clients at the end of the month.
But if money’s an issue, that approach won’t work.
To expedite payments, you can:
- Invoice clients immediately after projects are done to speed up payment at least a bit
- Offer clients payment discounts to encourage them to settle your account earlier — or tack on late payment penalties
- Get your clients to agree to letting you work on retainer, with you getting paid upfront for work you’ve yet to deliver
- Accept as many different payment methods as possible to make it easier for your clients to pay you
7. Decide how to negotiate initial rates — and when raise to them
In a perfect world, you’d be able to set your rates and every company you work with would agree to those rates.
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.
When your workload is low, you may have to accept less than your standard rate just to generate revenue. And while some clients might pay you hourly, others will prefer paying you on a per-project basis. A company might have just closed a successful financing round and be willing to pay you a hefty rate. Another company might be tightening its belt without much wiggle room in the budget.
Suffice it to say there are a ton of variables to consider when you’re negotiating rates with new clients. For example, if you don’t really enjoy most of your work, you may be perfectly fine with accepting a lower rate to do something you love.
Still, one of the main goals of work is to make money. To succeed as a freelancer, you need to become great at negotiating initial agreements — and you also have to have a good sense of when, if ever, it makes sense to ask for a rate increase.
It’s no secret negotiating is tricky business. Consider these tips to see which approach works best for your freelance system:
- Consider who should name the first price. Some folks believe that you should never name the first price. Whoever names the first price sets the baseline for the negotiation. If you go first with $50/hr, for example, your client will come back with a lower price, so the thinking goes. If your client goes first with $50/hr, you can ask for more. You may want to try biting your tongue to see what your client says first.
- You’ll never get what you don’t ask for. You won’t get any clients to agree to pay you $100/hr if you never ask them to consider it.
- Don’t throw out a range of numbers. If you say you’re comfortable with something between $50/hr and $60/hr, you’ll end up with $50/hr.
- Don’t undersell yourself. If you think you’re worth a certain amount and the client isn’t willing to even meet you halfway, ask yourself whether it makes sense to work with that company.
Once you’ve honed your negotiation skills and locked down a few long-term clients at nice rates, it’s time to figure out when and how you should ask for wage increases.
A good rule of thumb is to wait a year to ask for a reasonable bump in pay. Check out this Forbes article to learn more about how to ask for raises as a freelancer.
8. Manage relationships as best as you can
Great freelancers understand the importance of relationships.
Work with someone at Company A, and you never know when that individual will seek you out as a freelancer when they invariably take a job at Company B some time down the road.
What’s more, establish a great relationship with someone, and that person may very well recommend you to their peers at other companies should they need someone with your skill set.
Be friendly, personable and reliable in all of your interactions. Try to get to know your clients on a personal level — even if you only work together virtually. If you want to go the extra mile, get your clients gifts during the holidays or on the anniversary of your first collaboration.
Not only are relationships important in the present moment, they’re critical for your long-term success as a freelancer.
Need some help designing your freelance system? Having a hard time staying organized as a freelancer? Sign up for Lancelot to stay on top of your work and develop a freelance system that helps you succeed.
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