Starting off freelancing is not something you take on lightly or without planning. Firstly, you’ll need to have real confidence in your marketable skills and be aware of how your skills rate with the best in the market. Work out what you will need as a minimum to set up on your own – and start to purchase them so you can offer a range of work to your clients right from the first day. Get use to spending less and save as much as you can. Research your possible clients and others in the market you could adapt your work for. Try to approach them informally and feel out the territory. Put your portfolio together with a range of possibilities and costs. Make sure it’s as good if not better than you competitors in the freelance market. Then give up work and only look forward – otherwise you will not put the effort into the work you need to build up your business.
At the outset you will take on any work at all that will give you a profit – you can’t afford to be picky when establishing yourself and if the work isn’t actually what you do, then it doesn’t matter if it is making you money. When you have a range of clients and bigger projects then you are in a position to choose.
Some freelancers fail because they somehow think it is all going to be easier than working. Forget it. You should start off with a working day just the same as if you were going to work. Most successful freelancers work harder for themselves than they did for an employer – start earlier and finish later and also work weekends where necessary. If you don’t like working hard, don’t freelance.