owlous

Freelancer : A person who is self-employed and hired to work for different companies on particular assignments.

Have been doing freelance/consulting work full time for about a year and a half now. Over the time I have had relatively good success. Freelancing essentially allows me to learn new things, adapt with the latest technological trends and grow my network among the people who would actually need my services.

Recently, I have bumped into people that either were thinking about it or starting out and I have compiled a list of suggestions. Posting them here in the hope that they may be of use to some.

Lesson 1 : Be out of limits, Keep up the cash flow.

1. Cash Flow : Working as an independent contractor, full time, is all about cash flow. Can you find enough work/clients to pay all the bills? Are you so skilled with your services and time management, that you can get yourself into retainer agreements?
2. Getting Clients : If you want to be the one, who actually stays in business then the absolute most important task at hand is getting clients. Why? If you don’t have clients, you don’t have a business.

Lesson 2 : Choosing Skills, Running Hard.

1. Many developers are afraid to commit to a specialty, because they are afraid that they’ll be severely limiting their options and they won’t get to work with all the fun technologies they like.
2. Neither of those things could be further from the truth. The idea here is to stand out by choosing a very narrow focus that you can claim ownership of, so that you can stand out.
3. You may have other skills and abilities, but it is difficult to be perceived as an expert in multiple areas. People like to put you in a box and identify you by a label—good or bad.
4. So, rather than letting other people do it for you, you are going to pick your own label.

Lesson 3 : Attach the Label that Best suits you.

1. The key here is to be very, very specific—at least at first. You can always expand later, but when you are starting out, it is critical that you have a very specific and narrow specialty that will be the label attached to your head. 
2. Think about some area of software development that you think developers have problems with and that you could potentially provide them the best solution they have ever seen for that problem. That’s how you become an expert!
3. And don’t worry if the specialty you want to pick isn’t something you are an expert at right now. If you pick a narrow focus, you’ll be able to become an expert in that area. Trust me.
4. Plus, when you go really deep into an area and become “the expert”, it’s a lot of fun. It’s actually really interesting to be able to dig deep like this. 
5. And remember, over time you can eventually expand your expertise and become more broad—even tackle new expertise. The key is starting off with the biggest advantage you can, which is being the big fish in the small pond. You can also switch your specialty later on if your first idea doesn’t work out. You are not choosing a path for life.

Lesson 4 : Action Plan.

The most important thing is to pick something and get started. Many people get stuck here and don’t move forward or they pick something too broad and they end up never getting traction with their work.

Let’s brainstorm some possible skills for your freelancing career by trying to figure out what would make a good specialty for you.

Note – I have used programming languages as an example. However you are free to choose any skill that best suits you. No one is going to scold you.

1. First, let’s start with areas of expertise you either have or would like to acquire.

• NodeJS.
• WordPress.
• JavaScript.
• PHP.
• React Native.

2. Next, list some of the things that interest you the most or you are most passionate about.

• NodeJS.
• JavaScript.
• React Native.
• Mobile Applications.
• Developing new things.

3. Finally, what is unique about you or your personality that might give an interesting perspective to services offered?

• Making code simple and easier to understand.
• Finding solutions easily and quickly.
• Understanding of computer core processing.

Lesson 5 : Final Stage.

Now, go ahead and read through all the above lessons again. Follow the instructions. Use the ideas above to help you come up with some good possible options. 

You can write down ten ideas from your brainstorming session as below:

1. Building E-commerce Mobile Apps using React Native.
2. Angular + Firebase Development.
3. Combining WooCommerce with React Native to build cross platform apps.
4. Build websites using Sketch to HTML converters. ( Best thing for UI designers)
5. Google Maps manipulation with JavaScript.

What you want to be? : A big fish in a small pond, not a small fish in a big pond.

Now it’s time for the rubber to hit the road.

Your mission for today, if you choose to accept it, is to come up with a skill.

Brainstorm 10 different ideas and pick the best one. Once you’ve picked the best one, reply to this post and send it to me.

If you are having trouble deciding, send me a few ideas and I’ll pick one for you.

Also, one last thing before I close this out: You might be afraid of making a choice right now, but don’t be. Pick something for now, you can always change it later. In fact, you probably will.

But the only way you are going to know if this thing is going to work for you is if you try it.