How Freelance Consultants Can Scale Earnings Without Burning Out
Summary: Are you a freelancer looking to grow your business in a sustainable way? Read some of our tips to do it successfully.
Freelancers are as busy and as profitable as they make themselves. For instance, expert freelancers that have had more experience can make more than novice freelancers for the same job. If you feel like you can be doing more and are looking to scale your business sustainably to avoid burnout, we have some great advice for you.
1. Increase Your Rates
A quick way to scale your business is to either improve or lean on your expertise. If you are good at your job and have any tangible way to prove it whether it be a degree or a certification, leverage that to earn more for the same work. In the same way, you can leverage your previous work to help you charge higher rates. Your time is as valuable as you make it.
For instance, if you are a freelance writer that has a degree in writing or have certifications for specific types of writing then you can showcase your skills to charge a more competitive rate. By increasing your rates you will be in a better position to spend money on other projects and initiatives to better scale your business as well.
We have collected data from freelancers on Upwork and displayed their hourly wage with their experience level, in the table above. Don't be afraid to charge more than the average if you're providing clients with above average work.
2. Narrow Your Niche
If you are having trouble increasing your rates or justifying a rate increase, try to narrow your niche. The product or service you are providing should be narrowed down to a specific group or subject. This helps you narrow down the type of work and research you will need to do for your work and will help the right clients find you. This can also help you find the industry or sector you may want to specialize and receive certifications in. After finding your niche, you will have the ability to grow within the industry or sector.
For example, if you are a freelance writer that caters to everyone this could be very limiting. However, it might be more profitable if you pivot and become a writer who is more focused on an industry that aligns with your interests. If you are interested in the tech industry, then clients who need work in that industry will know where to go. You can go even further and highlight certain sectors like software as a service (saas), semiconductors, and environmental technology. This can help you increase rates.
3. Form a Team
In essence, you are looking to scale your business to make more and take on more work. To avoid burnout you might have to be open to having other people with you. This can help you offer up better deliverables for your clientele. As a result, you will have faster sustainable growth in the long-run. You can set it up as equal team members or have these new hires work under you. Whichever route you decide to take, remember that you have to be able to justify the amount of work you allocate to them and the percentage they will make from the project.
For example, if you are a freelance graphic designer and you are helping with a project or presentation, you can take on more of the project if there is another person working with you. If that person has a different specialization than you, then you can offer to take two parts of the whole project and charge much more.
4. Outsource Your Work to Others
If you are not looking to take on a team, then why not just outsource the work to other capable freelancers that you trust? If clients have very large projects that you find very attractive and can make a solid amount of money from, then you might as well be transparent and tell the clients your plan of outsourcing the work. We also recommend that you are upfront with the other freelancers. Then you can pay them the market rates for the specific work that they are doing.
By doing this you are establishing your credibility as a freelancer and leader with clients as well as increasing your network with other freelancers. This is a great way to scale your business up. Once your part is done, you can work on different projects with other clients as your outsourced work is getting complete.
This also helps you avoid burnout as you aren't taking on more than you can handle at once. It is important to note that you will be responsible for the work that the other freelancers produce. Therefore, you will have to ensure that their work is on par with expectations.
Author byline: Sahmi at ValueChampion
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