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I am working as a freelancer from last 5 year and I would like to share some of my experience which can help the newbies who are going to enter in this niche. I believe sharing is caring and I also believe “People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves.”
I started struggling to find the starting point i.e. what category is going to be best for me. Next part was to get any job on any rate so that I can get five-star feedback on my profile in order to boost my rankings and apply more confidently. The struggle was real and it took me 6 months to get my first job which was also a gift from Allah as I applied for something else and client selected me for something else that he saw on my resume. But my part was I applied on that job like a lottery ticket that you buy and have no control over winning.
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Cutting this short after my first job, I started getting invitations and wheel on the fortune started moving in my favor. Following are my learning with short cases so that anyone who is working as a freelancer or is thinking to start can get the guidance on the problems that can come in the way. Mentioning all this doesn't mean that there are problems in this field as you are going to find problems in all fields but you must have a problem-solving mind in order to get success in what you do.
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Always break the task in milestone and get the payment released as you complete that particular milestone. This way if the client arises a dispute, all of the payment will not be under client control.
You must ask the client to deposit the client the milestone before starting work, this will it will be easy for the website where you have a profile as a freelancer to release the payment after checking if you have completed the task as payment with being on hold with the website not with the client.
Taking advance means that you are serious and always want your client to take the work seriously. I have faced many cases in which the client refused to pay later as I have taken the payment only for website design and development and not for the content.
The quotation is a great way to give a clear picture to the client what you are going to deliver and what the client is going to pay for this service. Anything that is not mentioned in the approved quotation, you can ask the client for additional payment for additional service.
The worst part of this field is no matter how much quality work you deliver in the end client will run away or will refuse the payment of the last month. The client might have multiple excused but you are going to face this loss if you have not taken in advance.
This one is also a great point if you are looking for a response to your proposal. Verifies payment means client is serious and is not beating around the bush but will award to job finally to any freelancer and that can be you.
Websites maintain the history of the client and you can easily find out the payment made by the client, feedback left and received from the project history and how much client has paid so far for what job.
If you deliver quality work, you are trustworthy and you deliver on time, you are going to get more work from the same client plus you can also get referral work from the clients for whom you have worked so far.
I believe I have shared a lot of learnings that have in my mind right now. If you have any question specifically on this topic, feel free to ask me. I would love to help as per my experience and learnings.
