More than one-third of the American workforce identifies as independent — freelance, temporary, or contract workers who set their own hours and rates. Independent work offers many advantages over traditional employment, including more autonomy and freedom in determining your schedule.
However, without the stability in a regular paycheck, you must be disciplined in finding work, retaining clients, and self-managing insurance and retirement.
Maximizing your income through independent work requires personal discipline. But for those who can motivate themselves, build credit, and manage a budget, the sky’s the limit when it comes to freelance and contract opportunities.
Hone Your Skills
New skills mean new opportunities to diversify your services. Consider online courses from educators like Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning to help deepen your existing capabilities or add complementary skills. Local workshops and networking groups are also great ways to learn the skills your industry needs.
Alongside your professional skills, improving your financial literacy is also important. Finance skills in debt management and risk management help independent workers navigate new growth opportunities.
Specialize
Competition for work in high-demand industries like marketing, finance, and sales can seem fierce. But once you find your niche, you can specialize and distinguish yourself from many freelancers or contractors in the field.
Examine your skills when choosing a niche. Consider the responsibilities you enjoy the most and the contributions your clients appreciate from you. Look for gaps in the market where fewer workers might solve a specific problem. Test your observations with a few projects for clients to determine if there’s enough demand in the niche you’ve identified.
Feature Reviews
The overwhelming majority of customers read reviews before making a purchase. Positive reviews prove the value of your work, whether you sell products or freelance services. When clients seek reassurance before using your services, displaying reviews can help provide the social proof they need to move forward.
Feature reviews in the places clients visit when considering freelancers. List customer reviews on your website or social media pages when customers visit to learn more about you. You can also add reviews to your email signature, reinforcing your credibility whenever you correspond with a potential new customer.
Request Referrals
Referrals occur when a satisfied client recommends your services to another potential customer. Potential clients are more likely to become new clients when they receive a recommendation from someone they trust.
That said, you can’t request a referral without first impressing your clients and providing top-notch service. Once a client is satisfied with your level of work, reach out and request a referral. Request that clients recommend your services to anyone they know who could benefit from them.
Market Strategically
Unlike established organizations with large marketing budgets, freelancers often advertise with limited resources. Be deliberate with your marketing efforts, only targeting areas where you’ll likely see a return on investment. Here are a few tips for marketing as an independent worker:
- Find your audience: Consider your industry, company size, and current clients to determine how to attract future customers most likely to value your services.
- Attend events: If possible, visit in-person conferences, seminars, and networking events to meet potential clients and partner brands.
- Invest in content marketing: Write blog posts on relevant topics, contribute articles as a guest author, and publish case studies to emphasize your authority in your space.
Strategic marketing also requires ongoing data tracking and analysis. Set regular reminders to review results and identify what works best. Focus your marketing efforts on the strategies that have yielded the most success.
Outsource
If you’re overwhelmed by your current workload, it might be time to consider outsourcing. You can also outsource specialized aspects of a task to an expert who can accomplish them more efficiently, keeping the quality of your work high.
To outsource work, first create a list of tasks to be completed. Consider peer reviews and referrals to find external professionals who can help. Interview each candidate to find the right one for your project. Provide them with detailed instructions for each task, and check in frequently to gauge progress, answer questions, and approve the quality of their work.
Develop a Portfolio
Your portfolio should showcase the full scope of your work. A high-quality portfolio serves as a visual resume, one that speaks to your experience and convinces potential clients to choose you as their service provider.
Every portfolio needs a strong introduction, at least a brief bio that outlines who you are and what you do. Emphasize the best examples of your work with a variety of projects that demonstrate your range. List the services you offer and the skills you rely on to provide them. Add your contact information so future customers know exactly how to reach you.
Manage Taxes Well
Keep detailed records, including all income and business expenses, to make tax management easier as a freelancer. Save receipts and invoices for documentation and separate personal and professional costs.
You must keep your financial activities fully compliant with tax law. This means reporting your income accurately to avoid underpayment penalties and interest. It also means making on-time quarterly or yearly payments and only claiming deductions where you have legitimate business expenses.
Develop Client Relationships
Good business often begins with healthy client relationships. Strong client relationships improve your chances for referrals and create clear channels for communication.
Here are a few tips for developing client relationships:
- Respond quickly when clients reach out.
- Pay attention to a client's unique concerns and tailor your services to address them.
- Accommodate unique client requests whenever possible.
One of the best ways to foster strong client relationships is simply to show gratitude. Let clients know how much you appreciate their business, and use a small gift or thank-you letter to express that appreciation.
Manage Client Expectations
Clear boundaries help clients manage their expectations as you deliver services. For best results, make sure your clients understand the scope, timeline, deliverables, and estimated costs of your agreement.
If misunderstandings do occur, it’s important to balance flexibility and satisfaction. Be explicit about what is and isn’t included in the project scope. If necessary, refer to your contract for the fine details. This firmness helps prevent over-delivery of items that aren’t part of your work agreement.
Be Reliable
Reliability is one of the most essential qualities a freelancer can exhibit. Particularly in remote environments, where independent workers never meet clients in person, reliability helps foster lasting relationships.
No matter your individual services, reliability means delivering work on or before deadlines. It means responding quickly to client communication and providing regular work progress updates. Reliable freelancers deliver high-quality, on-time work that meets or exceeds client expectations.
Use Technology
Technology is a great asset in making freelancers more efficient. Tools like time-tracking software, for example, help you understand and optimize how you spend your work hours. Automation that handles repetitive tasks can minimize human errors and increase your income per hour worked.
Here are a few ways you can use technology effectively as a freelancer:
- Project management tools help organize tasks and track progress.
- Communication tools create easy messaging and file-sharing channels between freelancers, external contributors, and clients.
- Invoicing tools help automatically track expenses, revenue, and tax documentation.
Much like outsourcing, using technology allows you to spend more time on the tasks that matter. Whether it’s file storage or productivity, the right tools help optimize your workflow and improve your output for each customer.
And finally, you need to be savvy in managing the money you earn as an independent worker. That includes sticking to long-standing best practices like being smart about banking and saving part of every paycheck that comes in. These things may seem small, but they’re essential if you want to make the most of your efforts, as well as your earnings.