15 Mindsets of A Successful Online Freelancer

Online freelancing a method of hiring yourself for your own business. Admit it or not but virtual labor that produces authentic and even tangible outputs is often underrated. Being employed by a renowned business entity is never a sweat of your own. To be a successful online freelancer all you have to do is offer and deliver existing goods and ministrations duly sworn by your employer to provide to the world.

Having to own and run a business, on the other hand, is you being torn into many pieces so each piece will function accordingly to a specific need of the venture.

But being an online freelancer? That’s no different from being a street musician whose capital are his own talents and instruments except that he produces music and a freelancer manufactures by-the-screen products.

They use melodious instruments while the other relies on electronic devices that transmit needed information.

Not to mention several considerations and conditions to prove your worth and attain profitability out of something you truly love (e.g.: deadlines, topics, client’s preference, etc.).

Dealing with clients from all around the world is also a crucial customer service task. Sensitivity to their interests and native values is an essential trait you have to possess to gain their trust. Otherwise, the plight of losing them will be beyond repair.

Truly, online freelancing is a magic one has to continuously practice and enhance in order to make it work.

15 Mindsets of A Successful Online Freelancer

If you are up for the challenge, check out the following mindsets that one must consider in order to be successful in the freelancing industry:

1. Adding Value

Every business, or should we say, every specie’s purpose of existence is adding value in this world. We all want this world to feel our importance by the things we can give and do that will bring lasting benefits for everybody.

Constantly ask yourself what could still this world be possibly missing? Search for slivers of lacking and deprivation then fill in the crevices. Always aim for your personal contributions no matter how big and small they are.

2. Be A Salesperson

To be a successful online freelancer, you have to accept the fact that no matter how talented and skilled you are in almost everything. If you lack marketing abilities, you won’t  be able to send your business anywhere farther. Freelancing will not only required to sell yourself as your own means of producing reliable outputs, but come to think that your clients ask for your assistance for their own products and services to be saleable.

Everything is about selling until the item or service reached the end-user and the cycle is over. Never miss the detail why you are doing what you are doing. Salespeople always explicate why you have to buy their products. Knowing your purpose and the purpose of the output you have to assemble are the souls of your work. Without it, nothing satisfying will come out.

3. Ask, Listen, Act

The thing is, you have to know so many things about anything under the sun but you can’t keep one truth in behind the shadows: you just cannot have and do it all. Clients do obviously need help but they will appreciate if you inquire suggestions and additional information from them. Asking for their own inputs, if there’s any, won’t hurt your output.

Listen to instructions carefully. Attentiveness to clients’ needs and requirements show that you adjust to fit their parameters. Clients come back for more once they feel valued and listened to. Then act based what you have learned from their opinions. Inject combined ideas. You will see how harmony makes up an entire history-maker output.(Adding Value, Be A Salesperson, and Ask, Listen, Act are inspired by Greg Boudonck)

4. Never Doubt Your Strengths

You are the powerful combination of your weaknesses and strengths. To this time, you have already recognized your strengths and are now using them to fuel your aspirations. The last thing you would want to do is invalidating them. Empower and discover more useful positive qualities you have in store.

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A successful freelance business is founded in trust amidst its intangibility. Freelancing is manual channeling of creativity across specialties, states, continents and cultures made possible by prevailing useful technology.

And just because there are numerous talented people out there, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to decipher your own distinction. Acknowledge your uniqueness and you will notice that no one else can do the exact same thing and style that you do.

5. Never Be Too Shy to Charge

The reason why online freelancing is underrated is because you think of it as such. That’s right. You yourself who render time to deliver the service you have promised think it that way as a starter. You’re afraid to raise your price because you have this mentality that you’re doing a bare minimum in the society.

A successful online freelancer needs to learn how to dispose the self-pity attitude in order to start accounting their expenses, bills, and other payables. They will then realize how vital accurate pricing is.

As mentioned earlier, life is more about selling. One needs to understand that Freelancing means that you’re selling your talents online because you buy things that are being sold by somebody for your own needs. (Never Doubt Your Strengths and Never Be Too Shy to Charge are influenced by Choncé Maddox)

6. You Are Your Own Employee

But that doesn’t mean that you will behave like an employee. Confusing, yes, but it’s mainly because you are not bounded by a central company system. You are not going to do the same thing over and over again. You are not prohibited to divert from the process, instead, you must broaden your scope.

Stretch further. Research and innovate. There is no room for phasing out or sticking to an old tradition. Always advance.

7. Give Yourself A Break

An effective freelancer knows no boundaries but knows when to rest. Pressure drives a stressful motivation to get things done. But do not wait for your passion to burn out just because you have exhausted it to its full potential.

Take delight on things that will boost your passion such as reading, spending quality time with people who are source of motivation for you, and going to places that will enable you to think clear of things.(You Are Your Own Employee and Give Yourself a Break are suggested by Brittany Berger’s “6 Ways to Fix Your Mindset as a Freelancer”)

8. Be A Problem-solver

A successful online freelancer is next to being a problem-solver. Most businesses operate and limp through thorough troubleshooting. In this case, weaknesses must be managed and errors must be prevented.

Freelancing is providing solutions to crucial tasks in the first place. Sustainability among solutions is also one characteristic a client is looking for in a freelancer.(Be A Problem-solver is formulated from “Be a Freelance Blogger” by Corey Pemberton)

9. Fear Is the Biggest Phony

Fear in our minds is much worse than what the reality is. Business is gambling. Online freelancing is gambling and you don’t know if someone will even want to gamble with you to get started with it. We are all naturally afraid of the unknown but no one will triumph just by staying afraid.

Opportunities are always waiting out of comfort zone. You garner what you supply. You have to nurture your mind – your primary capital for the success of your freelance business.

As what Dean Rieck, an expert on copywriting, stated: “Perception is reality.” Therefore, whatever you harbor in your mind is what will happen in the outcome. Your thoughts will always be evident in your actions and everything you lay your hands on.

10. Seek Client Feedback

Never let a client slip through your hands without knowing his or her experience from your service. Let all criticisms and praises come follow after the orders are completed. This will open rooms for improvement. Oftentimes we do not see our faults and flaws so asking opinions from second to third person points of view will push breakthroughs in the future.

11. Consistency Is the Key

Nothing beats an earnest keeper of commitment. A freelancer who is consistent in his quality of work, in his fruitful substance, and in his ability to comply with the set deadlines and guidelines is most likely to achieve a reliable reputation in the field of freelancing. Clients refer to their co-clients’ views of a prospect freelancer’s performance. Make sure you are the one they will constantly talk about.

12. Work Like A Pro

Mediocrity is the number 1 spoiler of fun in any aspect of income-generating profession. Always harness your art to the level of irresistibility and profound functionality. Being professional is not being classy and going nuts for formalities.

Being a professional and successful online freelancer is evident by his or her dependability with whatever task is served on the table. (Fear Is the Biggest Phony, Seek Client Feedback, Consistency Is the Key, and Work like a Pro are illustrated by James Clear)

13. Set times to unplug from your work

It’s quite cliché when someone tells you to unplug. But it’s a needed trait that has become vital for your success.
We don’t mean that you completely unplug from the internet or technology but to set the time that work must be completely cast aside.
Especially since it is too easy to fall into the “always on” mentality where you are allowing your business life take some of your personal time.
But we aren’t asking you to ignore every work alerts. Rather, it is about balancing your work and life in order to avoid overworking oneself.

14. Decisiveness

If you want to be a successful online freelancer, take the time to consider if you are capable of discipline where you set your work priorities and how you can best spend your time and resources.
Each day as a freelancer, you are faced with difficult decisions on what you need to work on in order to move you career forward. And you need to execute these options in a timely manner and stick with them.
If you keep changing your mind about what to do next, you need to place more confidence into yourself. You can do this by understanding your style as this can make it easier for you to trust your instincts.

15. Your work is your passion

Freelancing is a difficult career with great rewards but if your work isn’t your passion. There may be times where you will feel unmotivated and will hinder you from providing and submitting your required projects.
So the only time to avoid “working all the time” is to do a freelance job that you love so it doesn’t feel like work.

CONCLUSION

To be honest, there is no fixed pattern to decode freelancing into perfection for everyone who would want to pursue it. Each freelancer breaks his or her own way out to the field. Be it accounting, virtual assisting, advertising, social media handling, blogging, and many more functions the freelancing industry is offering, the only way to synthesize success out of this venture is by carrying out the right mindsets and motivations.