When it comes to freelancing and legitimate work from home jobs, you have to look at your work like it's a garden, or more specifically a rose bush. To find jobs and succeed at them you have to possess several skills that are similar to those that you need to employ when taking care of your flowers, veggie gardens or fruit trees. Today, for the Thursday Tip Triad, I am going to break freelancing down for you into three sections from start to finish, planting, nurturing and pruning.
1. Planting. The first thing you have to do with plants, of any type, is prepare the soil and make sure it has the proper nutrients to allow your seeds to grow. In this case, that means that you need to soak up as much information about the work type that you have chosen to pursue, whether it's writing, virtual assistant services or something else all together.
Once you've done that you can start to accumulate clients or jobs, and watch your income grow.
2. Nurturing. Just like a prize winning rose, your clients are going to need some TLC. Make sure that you keep an upbeat attitude, avoid making anything sound like it's their fault (even if it is) and keep open lines of communication with them. Your relationship with a client can grow and blossom over time into something spectacular, but only if you take the time to nurture that relationship.
Remember that a lot of the sites and people you are working for, are running small businesses and are possibly just starting out. As they grow, their needs will grow, and your potential for earning will grow as well.
3. Pruning. Last but not least, is the idea of pruning, you know... trimming off the dead leaves and the weak portions of the plant so that the rest of it can strive and grow. This idea is integral to the successful growth of your skills and your income. While it can be very hard to trim a small flower from your rose bush because you never know if it will be a late bloomer, sometimes you just have to do it.
Pruning has to be done carefully and with an immense amount of caution, but it has to be done. At a certain point, you will accumulate so many clients or jobs with different sites, that you won't be able to handle it all effectively and that's when pruning will become an issue. Assess your options and decide which jobs are the least profitable, most miserable, most time consuming etc and then begin to trim your schedule down. Unless you have no intent of ever working with the site or client again, let them know that you need some time to take care of things, and will get back in touch with them when you can begin working again.
If you take the time to properly plant, nurture and carefully prune your client and job base, you will find a great deal of success in the freelancing and the world of legitimate work from home jobs. While it might seem difficult at first, it does get easier over time, but patience and care are key. Take it one step at a time, and prune as needed, until you feel that you have created the perfect rose bush.
Do you have a suggestion for a Thursday Tip Triad segment or would you like to be a guest blogger for Motivational Monday? Feel free to contact me!
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2 comments:
What kind of freelance writing do you do? How long have you been doing it?
I do a bit of everything, basically whatever my clients need.
I've done SEO and non keyword, blogs and articles, 100 word pieces up to 1000 word pieces... All on a number of different niches.
I just started freelancing back in September of 2009, so I haven't been at it very long - but I'm pleased with my growth and success :)
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