Become a Freelancer Without Jumping All In

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There’s people out there, companies, teams, private individuals looking for solutions, solutions they cannot manufacture, solutions they might not even see. They are willing and able to pay you, pay the freelancer, to bring those solutions to life.

That's freelancing in a nutshell; outsourcing problem solving and creativity. Share on X

Could they sit down, and find the solutions themselves? They could. Could they find someone on their team to take up the challenge? They could. But sometimes it makes more financial sense to hire a freelancer to tackle the project in tandem with the on-going day in and out business operations.

In business time is money. They might have a lot of this resource or very little, but if they spend it smart they gain something much more valuable, time.

Freelancers are givers of creative solutions, abstract or concrete, and givers of time. The time we spent working on a particular project is a time they invest in growing the business, travel, network, or work on other incoming problems.

You have an expertise, skill, talent, a knack. You have the time. You want to get paid for doing the creative work you love (you’re reading this post for that very reason) I’m here to tell you can do it, now, from where you are and with what you have, without having to jump all in. I’m here to tell you how.

How do you dip your toes in the freelancing world?

I don’t want this post to run too long, so let’s cut right to the how.

Recognize yourself as a freelancer, a creative with something to offer in terms of knowledge or skills. This is nothing new, people have made an art of the “side hustle” for centuries. Freelancing is something that adds to your professional life not detracts.

Start brainstorming which interests, talents, and expertise can you turn into services for other people. What can you do that solves someone else’s problem? Can you teach an artistic skill, a second language, a programming code? Are you good with tools or technology? Think about your passions in our outside the work you do “for a living”.

Begin your market research in platforms like Fiverr, Odesk, And Co., Cambas, local or global freelancing communities are popping up all over the place, ready to welcome and offer a platform for freelancers to advertise their offers for free.

Join one or two of these platforms. Do not try to join all of them all at once. Pick one or two that appeal most to you and seem to align with the type of skill you have and gig you would like to work on. Too much too soon might have the opposite effect. Remember the title of this post, you don’t have to jump all in. That not only means not leaving your job, spending unnecessary money printing business card and paying someone loads to make you a website. It means incorporating freelancing into your life seamlessly, a more entrepreneurial perspective.

I hope this brief post inspires you to start dipping those creative toes in the freelancing waters!