To be valuable, you have to bring value to a client's business.
To bring value to a client's business, you have to do all the things the client needs to get the problem solved, and you also have to do that extra thing.
To be of value to a client, you also have to appear valuable - investing in Personal Branding, positioning (more on this later).
For example, let's take a freelance writer. As they depict writers in the movies, no one thinks a writer is of any value.
Businesses consider writing as a cost, not as a source of revenue.
The lesson: Instead of selling yourself as a skilled 'person for hire', present yourself as a 'solutions bringer'.
Do some Personal Branding, where you talk a lot about a target industry, about what problems it faces and what kind of 'writing-oriented' solutions can help the company/industry deal with the problem, all this helps you being seen as an expert who has some solutions.
- Be seen as a top-notch solutions provider: A proper business (registered company, standardized 'client flow', set procedures) - Personal Branding (Website/Blog, where your best clients, successes and ideas are showcased - Social Media, where you are one of the top resources in your niche) - Networking etc.
- Rename your job, if you can come up with a catchy, non-fluffy name: Smart online writers call themselves content marketers or professional copywriters, for examples.
- Run as a business (also see #1): Businesses also like to deal with other businesses, a registered operations works as as trust signal.
- Specialize in a particular area of your industry: Don't just say you are a web developer, say you specialize in eCommerce websites for sellers of glasses.
- If you want to make money per job, you have to look for higher paying work: You can't tie up all your time doing lots of low-paying grunt-level work. You also need to mention you handle higher-level work in your profile, on your websites etc.
For example, most eCommerce developers can do Magento installation. You pitch your specialty in terms of 'high performance eCommerce system developer, or 'we make extremely fast Magento-based marketplace websites'.
- The ideal freelance portfolio has a mix of small clients, one-off clients, promising clients and most importantly, one or two big clients who bring work on a consistent basis.
Thank you for reading.
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