Planning to set up a freelance business, the first concern is how to find clients and work that will start paying off in money. While these are some primary objectives, there are other details, big and small, which need to be considered and worked upon before starting a freelance design business. If you are planning to have your business on a long term, you should pay more attention to forming a firm foundation of your business rather than focusing on a client quickly.
In this post today, we will tell you of some important aspects that are required for setting up a freelance business on a permanent basis. Making use of these issues, you will have a lot of you time and effort saved to know exactly what is needed for a long term setting up of business.
Setting Goals and Forming Priorities:
Every freelancer has different sets of goals and expectations from their freelance business. Some take up freelancing to add to their portfolio so they can get a job they are aiming for. Some wants to do a small scale freelancing to gather an extra experience other than their full time businesses while some take up freelancing business with an aim of taking it further into the future and moving towards a higher scale.
These are the goals that determine your scale of business and how will you go about marketing it. If you are starting freelancing just to land on your desired job or to create a portfolio then the long term aspect shouldn’t be your concern. What name you use for your business is one aspect of your priority and the goals you set. If you are aiming for building your name in the design world, then you should work under your own name.
However, if you plan to hire other designers and employees down your road to business or even sell it, then you should use a business name. Any of the steps you take to brand your business or establish it will have an impact on the health of your business in the longer run.
Set Aside Some Savings:
No matter how much experienced or talented you are, there is always an element of risk when you take up setting up your own business. So the best way to reduce that risk and to save yourself from the prospective stress worries and loss, you should keep a little amount set aside to fall back upon in any such case. If there is nothing back there to fall upon, you will be risking the life and prosperity of your business. If you are focused on getting clients the first thing then you might fail to focus on some of the other important requirements of setting up a permanent business.
Building up a Portfolio:
A portfolio site is not only important from marketing point of view but also to give a good first impression to the client. Your portfolio site should be user friendly and is critical to have high quality work present there. May it be any FOC projects, personal or from your previous jobs.
And as portfolio is critical to your business, you should invest time and efforts in building and designing it. If you don’t have a lot to show on your portfolio, find referral, FOC or discounted work.
Registration and Legal Documentation:
To eliminate the element of risk, and depending upon the scale of your business, you should get your business registered. It will provide you with the security of operating your business in a rightful and legal manner. And also, have the necessary legal documents prepared.
Opening a Bank Account and Hiring an Accountant:
Open a separate bank account for the business to keep track of incomes and expenses from your new business solely. If you are starting the business long term, eventually you’ll start with the management of money, to keep a track of incoming and outgoings, and that accounting is not the strongest part of a designer. And even if it is, you should give it over to a professional who will do all this work effectively.
Setting up Policies and Procedures:
Now that you are going to have your business on a permanent basis, you should set up policies and procedure to go about the business. It may help you to avoid any problems that might arise because of random planning.
Continuous Learning and Client Feedback:
The one thing you have to understand is that you will excel in your field if you adopt learning as a continuous process. Open your mind to stuff and take out time to learn new things about your work and apply it.
Also, do remember to ask your client for a feedback after every project or even progressively during the project. It will help you to evaluate yourself more easily.
Establishing Professional Network and Social Networking:
To get success and attract clients, you need to have contacts and contact come from a well developed professional network. And although your networks will develop along with the passing of time but to speed up the process, you can build profiles on the social networking sites available, attend meetings and discussions and interacting with your social circle. Social networking is also a platform to bring traffic to your blog or site etc, can lead to more connections and more marketing.
Focusing on Client Satisfaction:
One of the major aims of your business should be to aim for the client satisfaction. If you are planning to have your business for a long time then you should give importance to client satisfaction as much as you focus on the inflow of money.
Final Thought:
Setting up a freelance business is more than just focusing on the money and getting those first clients. It’s about doing stuff that make sure the health and success of your long term business. These kind of steps include setting goals of your business, setting aside money to fall back upon, building an impressive portfolio site and keep adding to it, focus on client satisfaction and his feedback and last but not the least, establishing professional contacts through social networking.
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great article for freelance business, thanks for tips