How To Make More Money As A Freelancer

how to make more money as a freelancer

One of the best things about being a freelancer is that when inflation hits you can take on more work to make up the difference. Or, you can simply charge more for your services. When you work a regular job, you have to ask for a raise which is usually not forthcoming.

It isn’t easy being a freelancer, and clients can be difficult, however, there are a lot of advantages. If you do decide you need to make more money, there are a lot of ways of going about it. In this article, we will cover a few ways that you can add to your income when you’re working as a freelancer.

Accept Various Payment Types

You’re likely to have clients from all over the world if you are doing work online. This means that you have to make it easy for people to pay you. If there is a payment method that a client prefers and you don’t accept, then they might pass you over for another freelancer that does.

This can be normal payments like accepting credit card payments on a website. The most common way to get paid is by accepting bank transfers or platforms like PayPal since a client can use whatever credit card or bank account they have linked with their account. This avoids the need for a client to have to exchange their currency for yours.

The least amount of resistance you give a client to pay you the lower the chance of nonpayment or losing clients entirely. In fact, you should even accept cryptocurrency as payment as it serves a few purposes.

One is that it is easier for a foreign client to pay you in cryptocurrency as there are no borders for them. There are also fewer fees to pay for you so you save money by accepting cryptocurrency as payment. Lastly, you stand to make even more money from your services as the value of the cryptocurrency can go up if you hold onto it before converting it into fiat money.

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to buy Dogecoin in Canada or whichever crypto they want to pay in. It is easy to set up a digital wallet and accept payment into that. Just be careful and keep an eye on the value of the currency you accept because dips and drops do happen frequently as it is a volatile system.

Streamline Your Workflow

Better productivity equals getting work done in less time. And that means that you can take on new jobs more quickly. The more work you can do in the same amount of time as you were doing less is a sure way to start supercharging your earnings.

This involves creating processes that are like a formula. The first step to do this is to identify tasks that are often repeated. If you have to do the same step for every job, then that is likely a step that can either be automated or done in bulk to use when you need it.

For instance, if you are doing design work, then you can create some templates that can be used across various jobs. This will take seconds when it used to take hours previously.

You should also look into the tasks that are mostly busywork. For instance, your accounting work or sending invoices can all be done by using apps and software these days so it can be done in seconds.

Upsell And Bundle

You can often make more money with the same amount of clients by adding some extras to the job for more money. These are very common as value-added features that ultimately save the client money so it’s a win-win situation for you both. By only asking for slightly more money for something that makes the value of the service or product you are selling is very attractive for a lot of people.

There are a lot of ways to go about doing this as a freelancer but one of the most common is to add on maintenance for a monthly fee. For instance, if you do programming work, you can offer a service call or debug for a monthly fee after a free 30 day period. This gives the client peace of mind and it gives you a steady bit of extra money each month.

Even if you do things like copywriting you can offer extra services for a nominal fee. If you are doing copy for a website, then offer to do their email campaign for a monthly fee with a couple of free months. If you have already proven your value as a freelancer then they will jump at the chance to save money on something they already need.

Get Rid Of Low Paying Jobs

It’s very tempting to just take any job that comes your way, especially if you are between clients. This ends up with you taking on low-paying gigs. It may seem fine, but what happens when you have to turn down a high-paying gig because you already took a low-paying one that doesn’t give you enough time to take it?

Once you decide that you are no longer taking low-paying jobs then you will end up building a clientele of good-paying gigs and you won’t be taking on all comers any longer.

One of the best ways to make sure that you are only getting those high paying clients is to find a niche and work in just that one area. Don’t try to be a jack of all trades. This only dilutes your worth and prevents you from making a name for yourself. Picking a niche will have you become an expert in that area and make a name for yourself. Then, clients will come to you because they want the best in that field.

This should also include focusing on the best ways to be paid and only accepting the one that will pay you best. You can either be paid by the hour, by the project, or by the milestone. Whichever is going to give you the best cash flow is the only one you should accept.

About Brian: Brian Jackson is the founder of Shoestring Branding - a marketing and branding blog for entrepreneurs, with an emphasis on internet-based tools and strategies.