Posted on June 25, 2008 by Ashleigh

Be professional. Freelancers often assume that they have to be exceptional at what they do in order to get noticed. Whilst being an awesome web designer might make it easier to break into the freelancing world, regardless of your abilty, if you exude professionalism and take pride in your work, people will take notice of you.

It’s not what you can do, but how you do it.

Be confident. As a new freelancer you will have many questions left unanswered. The most prominent unanswered question, and the most important in my opinion, is the simple matter of how much to charge for your work. You can charge a little – or you can charge a lot. In short – charge whatever you want! Whilst charging little might get you a lot of work, it’s likely that you’re worth quite a bit more.

If you are confident in how you lay out the costs of your services to your clients, it’s likely that they’ll pay whatever you ask. Within reason, of course.

Have aspirations. If you’re going to get somewhere in the freelance industry, you’re going to need to have a plan. Whether it’s just some basic goals or a detailed plan of attack, you’re going to get somewhere faster if you have an idea of where you want to be. In my case, I’ve been keeping an eye on Ashley Morgan, a professional blogger and jazz trumpet player. I admit he’s no lord of freelance web design, but the effort he puts into Upstart Blogger and his other projects make me aspire to be better at what I do. Then of course there’s Kwaku, one of my earlier web design heroes.

Remember: Always aspire to be better than you are – even if you’ve already reached and passed your original goal.