How I Made a Freelancing Side Hustle My Full-Time Gig

freelancing Mar 17, 2023

Today marks three official years since I’ve had a “real job”. Three years since I’ve been employed by a company, on their schedule, making profits for them. Three years of sharing a home office with my partner, and three years of being *totally unprepared* for tax season, even though I definitely know better. There have been many ups and downs, lessons learned, and a ton of personal growth, but before I tell you how I got here, let me rewind real quick… 

I actually got into the world of online business a couple of years before starting Trunorth Creative, when I was introduced to affiliate marketing. At the time, I was working to complete my degree and having been a broke student for several years, I was enticed by the promise of funding a lucrative life of freedom and travel through passive online income. 

Sounds too good to be true, right? Yeah… in that case, it was. I’ll save that story for another day, but *spoiler alert* I didn’t make my initial “investment” back. I did, however, take away a lot of incredibly useful skills from the experience. I learned about content creation, social media marketing strategies, and how to run Facebook Ads. So, I put those skills to use and joined the marketing team at the winery where I was working. I was getting paid and building experience, so it didn't feel like a total waste. 

Later that year, I decided to build a course teaching the fundamentals of social media marketing. It was a complete flop, but I really, truly enjoyed the process of bringing an online course to life and fell in love with Kajabi. So, I took to Fiverr and my own network offering to help people with their own courses! 

It started off quite slowly, but I was able to land my first two clients at the end of 2019. Then Covid hit and the demand for my skill set increased dramatically. Everybody was looking for a way to move their business online, and everyone else had a lot of extra time to learn something while on lockdown. Two months after being laid off, I surpassed my serving income and never looked back. 

 

Getting my first client 

First, I listed out what I actually had the skills to do. Then, I did some research on what other people were charging for these skills. I set up a service offering on Fiverr and created a few different packages based on what first-time course creators would need. Finally, I put it out there to my own network letting everyone know what I was up to!  

I understand that sounds like an oversimplification, but it really doesn’t have to be hard. Pick a problem and solve it! There are so many different things people want to outsource: writing resumes, video editing, copywriting, creating branded PDF workbooks, logos, building websites, Canva templates. If you’re multi-passionate and organized, you might go the route of becoming a virtual assistant. 

The important thing is being specific. Pick one niche to master, and you can continually raise your rates as you raise your skill level and get your clients results. Word of mouth is incredibly powerful – I have stayed fully booked by referrals only for the last two years – so remember that part of being a successful freelancer is not only doing good work, but building good relationships.

 

Where to find clients 

Fiverr and Upwork are great places to start as a freelancer. Depending on what you’re offering, there may be a lot of competition and people charging pretty low rates, so you definitely have to stand out. Put in the effort to make your profile look professional, build a proper portfolio, and get those testimonials. 

There are a lot of Facebook Groups where you can connect with potential employers, too. Be sure to use your own network to talk about what you’re doing, and do some research to figure out where your ideal client is hanging out. Generally speaking, LinkedIn will typically be a good place to connect with professionals and agencies, Facebook has a lot of groups for entrepreneurs and course creators, and Instagram will be good for coaches and creatives.

And of course, you can find clients locally! Perhaps you love social media and want to help a few small brick & mortar businesses grow their accounts. If you want to do real estate photography, reach out to some agents who don’t have great pictures on their listings and offer to help. Be creative, be resourceful, be EXCITED about what you do, and you will attract clients. 

 

What you don’t need 

I often see people spending a lot of effort on things that don’t actually move the needle in their business. One of those things is fancy branding. A logo, sure, but you don’t need to spend hours creating an entire brand guide. Eventually as you and your business grow, then 100% YES you should invest in branding to help you stand out, but if you haven’t gotten your first 3 clients yet, let’s focus on that instead.

What about a website? Again, you don’t need anything fancy and I urge you not to spend too much time here. If you’re just starting off with freelancing, all you really need is a list of services and pricing. You could create a PDF and send that to prospective clients via email, or build a simple landing page using a template through Squarespace, Wix or even Mailerlite which all have pretty intuitive builders that require zero coding. If you have testimonials or a portfolio, you can showcase those as well. The exception here would be if you’re offering website building… then yes, you absolutely should have a website. 

Finally, you do not need a course or certification to be a freelancer. In some cases, it might be helpful. You should always be learning and building your skillset, but you don’t NEED to enroll in somebody’s program to start offering your services. One cool thing about online business is that, generally, people care more about results than credentials. 

 

What you DO need

A business email. Not everyone agrees with this, but I personally believe it adds a TON of credibility to your freelancing business. You can purchase a domain through Namecheap, GoDaddy or Google Domains for less than $20, and then either add webmail through your hosting provider, or sign up for GSuite – if you’re already a Gmail user, I definitely recommend going that route. It’s less than $10/month and it allows you to use all the awesome Google services like Docs and Google Drive. 

A contract. If you’re going through a freelancing platform like Fiverr or Upwork, they actually take care of this part for you. However, if you are taking clients on your own, you should definitely have something in writing outlining what you are providing and what they are agreeing to pay for that service. 

A way to take payment. You can start off with PayPal for Business, or sign up for Stripe. Both are free and allow you to send invoices via email and receive payments, but they do take a percentage fee for each transaction. 

An onboarding process. What are the next steps when someone wants to work with you? Figure out what you need to get from them to get started, and consider using a Google Form to collect that information. You may also want to outline your preferred communication methods, hours of availability, 

A way to track your time. Toggl is free and has a Chrome extension to make it easy. Plus, you can generate time reports to send to your clients. Tracking your time also gives YOU insight on how long things are actually taking, and whether you need to adjust your pricing or workload. 

 

When to go full-time? 

In my situation, being laid off due to Covid absolutely played a factor in my ability to make the leap to full-time. I suddenly had all the time to work on my business and a major demand for my service… but I also made the decision to go all in and make it happen. 

For most freelancers, once you get started it’s going to be a matter of deciding how long to hold on to the safe income. Your job will eventually hold you back from accepting gigs, and at the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide what you feel comfortable with. 

You may say, “When I make at least $2000 consistently for 3 months straight I will quit my job”.  Maybe you want to have a couple months of living expenses saved up first. If you really hate the job, you might be tempted to jump ship and go all-in without much of a safety net. 

That’s the best part of being a freelancer – you get to call the shots. And if you’re considering becoming a freelancer, it’s likely you’re willing to take some risks to get the reward. 

 

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