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How to Shift Your Freelance Work to Real Business

Freelancing offers a lot of freedom and flexibility that a regular employment can’t. You are the one to choose the type of work you do, who you collaborate with, what time of the day you work, the location you work from and the volume of work you take on. Freelancing simply enables you to make choices that suit your individual strengths and needs. Examples of this kind are a travel writer, blogger, graphic designer, interpreter, and much more. Independent contractors can also be classified as freelancers. While you probably look for a suitable freelance job to have an additional income on top of your salary from your regular job, there is a lot of potentials to turn this side extra jobs to a real business.

The question is how are you going to do that? Below are six effective tips to make way for the possible shift of your freelancing work to real-time and legitimate business:

1- Shift your Mindset

Everything should start with the proper mindset. You always be optimistic about everything. Even if you fail sometimes, quitting should not be an option. Remember that if you want to be an entrepreneur, you will have to face a lot of letdowns and roadblocks. And if you want to succeed, you should continuously learn from your mistakes until you get everything right.

Being realistic and an idealist at the same time will definitely help you. You should be an idealist in a sense that you believe that you can turn your freelance job to a real business and at the same time you should be setting realistic, feasible, and attainable goals.

2- Treat it Like a Real Business

If you want to make your sideline a legit business, you should treat it as one from the very fresh start. You can do that by thinking about what you could’ve been doing when you are employed. For instance, you should set your working hours and follow it religiously. It doesn’t mean that since you are your own boss, you can already stay unfruitful all day. That should be true especially if you are still at the initial stage of your business because entrepreneur normally spends more hours when establishing their business. Moreover, having goals and regular targets will help you know if you are still on the right track.

 3- Constantly Set Higher Goals

We stated above that you should set goals. Goal setting is extremely powerful and can have a dramatic impact on your productivity on your job. Setting higher goals can raise your performance to the level of expectation. Higher goals can also encourage you to draw more on your creativity. Being that said, having an improvement when it comes to your goals is also crucial. Indeed, constant monitoring of your improvement is important.

4- Do the Paperwork

This is probably the dreariest part of converting your freelancing to a real business. Since you want a legitimate business, you must register it and that entails a lot of paper works. The law differs depending on the state you are living in, but the Small Business Administration (SBA) can guide you through it. It will give you an idea on how to get the right permit and licenses, how to register your business name, and how can you pay your taxes.

5- Deliver Results

Now that you have everything you need, including the clients. What should be your next step? Deliver what you promised. The best way to get client referrals and to keep your clients away from looking for other freelancer is to be able to fulfill your promises when you just started transacting. Better yet, exceed the expectations of your customers.

The success of your new business all depends on the quality of your work and satisfaction level of your clients.

6- GO FOR IT!

Stop hesitating and go for it! In every business, the first step is always the most difficult step but as you go along the way, you will be familiar with every small detail that has to be done in order to be successful. It will not be easy but it will be definitely worth it!

 

Contributed by: Abby Whitmer finance advocate at www.FirstChoiceFinance.co.nz

Asheer Raza
Asheer Raza
Asheer Raza is a blogger and web entrepreneur. He loves to write on Tech and Business related stuff.

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