When it comes to your career, you’re always going to want to make sure that you’re able to get ahead. Sure, it can be fun to find a job that you love and that you’re happy in, for the time being, but that doesn’t always happen.
Because if you find yourself in one role for too long, you may find that you just stagnate, and that’s not always the best thing.
Being bored can be tough. Instead, you what a challenge. And you want to know that you’re doing well. But for that to happen, you need to know that you can progress and move on up into the best possible position. And it’s often for this reason that going freelance can have such an appeal.
When you work in the creative industries, or you’ve always wanted to, working freelance is such a great way to break into that and really take control of your career. And it really doesn’t matter if you have no experience when it comes to writing or running a business. If you have passion, you can make it work.
Because you can fake it ’til you make it a lot in the freelance world. As long as you’re driven and you’re determined to find success, you really can.
This is usually what will help you to make things work. So let’s take a look at some of the things that you can do to get your freelance media empire off of the ground.
01. Know what you’re getting into.
First of all, it’s handy for you to know what this is going to involve. And how you make a freelance business successful (let along an empire). So research.
Spend some time reading blog posts and studies, articles and books, so that you’re able to take this to the level you want.
02. Choose your freelance niche.
Then, you’re going to want to work out exactly what niche you want to go into. Because when it comes to launching your freelance business, it’s important for you to think about what you’re going to write about. And what kind of clients you want to target. And what sort of industries you’re going to be happy to write for. So think about finding a profitable niche that is going to work for you. Use your skills and experience, along with your interests, to choose a niche that will be best for you.
03. Practice on the side.
If you’re a little apprehensive about this, practice. Just start writing. Choose a website and rewrite the copy. Write up a newsletter. Even just start writing copy and content for your own business as a rehearsal. You might want to do some freelance writing for free too, so that you can get a bit of experience before you launch.
04. Choose a name.
Now, you’re going to want to get set up. And to start with, you need to choose a name for your empire (and the domain too). This could be your actual name, or it could be a name that is specifically for the business. Either way, create a shortlist, make your choice, and secure the domain.
05. Get a website.
Then, you’re going to want to actually set your website up. This can be something that you do with a web designer, so that you can totally customize the site, or you can look to use a template and sort of pull it together yourself. Just make sure that you don’t rush this or skimp, so that you’re happy with the kind of finish that you get.
06. Brand your business well.
But at the same time, you need to ensure that you have a very distinctive brand in place and that it can be seen on your website. And across your social channels, and any other collateral that you may have at this stage, and going forward. When you start to build a personal brand for yourself and the business, you will see that all of your marketing efforts are much more effective, because the brand is there to support it all.
07. Launch a blog.
You may also find that having a blog on your website is incredibly helpful too. Here, you can share content that may interest your clients. You can also give out free tips, create content that will get hits for your site, and share case studies too. This is going to be good for not only SEO purposes, but social content too.
08. Pick a social platform.
When it comes to your social media, you need to start this off in a calculated manner. Don’t just start marketing on every single social media platform you’re on. Because you may find it hard to build up any kind of traction. Instead, start with one. Learn to master it. And then move on to the next.
09. Build your email list.
Something that you can definitely start to do early, is build your email list. Because this will always be a valuable asset. Your main aim is to target your ideal clients. But, you may find that you have other freelancers and those interested in freelancing on your list too. Each can be great to market to, because later on down the line, you could create products and services for them all.
10. Connect with your audience.
You will also find that it’s really important for you to be able to connect with your audience too. Because you need to make sure that you’re serving then with what they really need. For this, you could look into crowd testing services to help you. Because no matter what you want to bring out, and what technology you’re going to release to take things to the next level, you need to test it. So make sure that this will allow you to connect further with your audience.
11. Reach out to clients.
From here, you’re then going to want to make sure that you are extremely proactive when it comes to finding clients. You just can’t wait for them to knock on their door. Sure, with your website and blog and social media, clients will find you. But, most of the time, you need to be pitching. So you’re going to want to have a constant rotation of researching, reaching out, pitching, and looking to win more work.
12. Hire some help.
You may also find that you cannot really do this alone. Sure, at first you can – because what other choice do you have? But, as you start to get busier, you may struggle. So look into hiring a virtual assistant that will be able to help you with admin so that you can focus on work more. Or other freelancers that can work with you, so you can continue to drive the business forward.
13. Create products.
Then, you’re also going to want to consider some of the passive income streams that you could apply to your business too. And there can be many. Because if you have products that you can sell as instant downloadable, then you’re able to make money without really doing anything!
This could be in the form of an ebook or a guide, or you could always create something like a course too, to help others and generate extra income.
14. Push your growth.
And then, you just need to make sure that you’re pushing your growth from here. That you’re actively tracking your income, your product sales, and the services that you’re providing, and you’re looking to add more. There will always be add-on services you can sell to your existing clients to make sure you grow at the rate you want.
15. Set future goals.
Finally, you’re then going to want to make sure that you’re putting some future goals in place. Because if this is going to be an empire, and you’re going to build things as big as you can, you need to make sure that you’re always aiming for something bigger. Something that scares you a little. Something that will push you. So this is the point where you need to work out exactly what your future goals will be.
And there you have it. If you know that you want to build your own freelance media empire, you can. You can do anything that you put your mind to. However, you still do have to realize that this is going to take time. Even years. As long as you’re okay with that, then you should find that things are going to work out really well for you. Make sure that you work through each of the points, or the ones that you feel are most relevant to you, and see if you can start making waves right now.
Because as Elon Musk points out, if you’re putting in more work, and you’re putting in more hours than others, then you are going to get results quicker, and sooner than they are. So it’s time to put these points to work and let the empire building begin!
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