Freelancing Is Not For The Weak Of Heart
When you decide to start a freelancing side hustle, you start to noticing that it isn’t all that cracked-up to be.
When freelancing, a paradigm shift happens. I can’t help but be reminded of Robert Kiyosaki’s “Cash flow quadrant”.
You’re no longer working at your typical 9 to 5 where you only had to focus on one or two specific tasks to go about your day. Now, as you start your side hustle, you’ve moved from the “E” quadrant to the “S” quadrant. You’ve transitioned form employee to self-employment— hoping to reach the “B” and “I” quadrants, in which, according to Kiyosaki’s own opinion (and mine too) lies true financial freedom. Don’t get me wrong. Being self-employed isn’t a bad thing, but it requires the development of other essential skills needed to make your freelancing business to take off.
These are some of those essential skills you’ll need to develop until you’re able to delegate these tasks to someone else:
Marketing skills:
For your freelancing career, this is a must. Marketing is what’s going to help you get leads for potential clients. You can learn a lot from online courses or a simple search on Google, Medium or YouTube. There you’d be able to find strategies that’ll help you learn effective ways to communicate to your clients your services or products.
Self-motivation:
When freelancing, many will doubt your decision about quitting your job or dedicating extra time on something that, to others, reeks of uncertainty or insecurity. Even a regular job isn’t guaranteed for life. Just look at what the pandemic caused worldwide. Self motivation starts with self discipline. For things to work the way you want it you need to stay focused on your long -term goals. Give yourself credit when you do a good job, pat yourself on the back every time, and don’t feel sorry for yourself. People, and mostly clients, tend to notice that something is off when you don’t project positive vibes. It’s like a self defense mechanism.
Again, self motivation stems from self discipline. You’re gonna deal with a lot of rejection, especially when you’re just starting out. If no one wants to give you a high five, you’re gonna have to do it yourself and consistently work towards you goal.
(By the way, I’m rooting for you. So do your best.)
Interpersonal skills:
Dealing with people is not an easy task, but it’s not impossible either.
When starting a freelancing career, you’ll need to learn how to deal with different personalities. This is paramount for your success. It’s safe to say that some people don’t know what their problems are and still work hard to find a solution to their problems.
This is where you come in: you listen to their concerns (ask questions, you’ll need them), layout the problem and propose solutions.
Again, dealing with people is not easy. You may even find yourself having to fight against “The Karen’s” of the world. But to properly deal with others, you first need to learn how to deal with your inner self. So do some introspection and you’ll find a plethora of virtues that you can show the world.
Negotiation skills:
In his book titled: The 7 habits of highly effective people, Dr. Stephen Covey said: “children are the best negotiators” (if you’d like to review this book and provide a summary, let me know in the comments)
Does this mean you need to practice negotiating with kids? Why not?
Negotiation is like a table full of food in which one side wants to eat everything and leave nothing for the rest (if you’re into eating healthy you’ll know that eating more that what you should will cause problems down the road). Negotiation takes compromise. This means that both you and your potential client need to agree in a solution that benefits both; think Win-Win. They get the veggie pizza, you get the delicious double cheeseburger with extra sauce.
Again, Medium is one of the best places to learn negotiation strategies that benefit both parties. A lot of content from great authors in here, with tons of experience, will help you out.