This is the fourth lesson of the freelance guide, in which we will address the most important basic skills that every Freelancer must possess.
Although each field of freelancer needs some special skills, there are a set of basic skills that must be available in Freelancer, which mainly contribute to its success and help it achieve more profits.
In this lesson, we will discuss the most important of these general skills that every FreeLancer must possess and develop, so do not expect here that we will talk about hard skills such as programming, design and writing, but we will talk about soft skills or personal skills that contribute to your success as a Free Lancer… Like the skills of Effective negotiation and communication.
If you are looking for the most important skills required in a freelancer, and you mean functional skills, then you should go back to studying the fiels of freelancer.
During my long journey as founder and manager of many websites, I have dealt with a lot of freelancers, so I will put for you below a set of skills that I think are necessary for your success as a freelancer or as a freelancer, according to practical experience that I tested myself.
9 Essential Skills for Success in Freelancer
The Freelancing market is characterized as an open and competitive marketplace for those who are able to learn and develop their skills and abilities. On the other hand, freelancing has a special nature… as you do not have a manager to guide you in what you have to do, and you are supposed to possess the skills that enable you to manage and develop your business.
1. Self-learning skill
The ability to Self-Learning is one of the most important skills of a Freelancer, as none of us is familiar with all the techniques, all the skills, all the tools, and all the programs, and no one knows what trends or conditions in the labor market will be like after a year or two. How can you compete amid these daily developments in new software and technologies?
It is your ability to Self-Learning that will ensure that you are always in the center of the action. Asking for help is fine, but you won't realize the value of the knowledge or skill you've acquired until you put in a lot of effort.
The freelancer here includes learning from the available articles, videos, and courses, of course, as well as experimenting.
Self-learning starts here from the ability to search and access to information, and to lay hands on good educational materials, through which new knowledge, experiences and ideas can be acquired.
As a freelancer, you must have the ability to deal with search engines, and the ability to use advanced search techniques to access the information and educational materials you want.
In this regard, let me leave you a link to an article in seo7u that will help you a lot in your online search:
Secrets of Google Search (How to Get Exactly What You Want)
It is also important to understand as a freelancer that the self-learning journey will not end as long as you are still working as a freelancer. You must devote daily or weekly time to learning and gaining new experiences and knowledge, as this is the only way that will guarantee you to stay in the competitive freelancer market.
My advice to you, my friend, is to never stop learning, and do not make the learning process a temporary process in your journey as a freelancer. Instead, always develop yourself to carve out a place among the elite of professional freelancers who pay huge fees.
2. English language skill
In the world of online freelancer, English is not an option but an imperative to your success and prosperity. English is the language spoken by about 20% of the planet's population, and it is the primary language in the world of technology and the Internet.
Also, English is the language that represents the common denominator when two people communicate whose first language is not English (for example, when an Indian communicates with a French, they speak English).
In the field of freelancer, you will need the English language to register and deal with freelance platforms, and you will need it to communicate with your clients, and you will need it to learn something new (most of the good educational resources are in English).
You are not required here to be proficient in English, but you have to possess the minimum language that you can deal smoothly with it.
This point may represent an obstacle for many freelancers who do not speak English, but once you start dealing with it, you will find that you can improve by doing a simple daily effort (not exceeding an hour), and with the passage of time and the audacity to practice, you will overcome this obstacle, and become able to deal in English when necessary.
3. Time management skill
One of the advantages of freelancer is the complete freedom of time management. Once you have agreed to complete a task and set time limits to complete this task, here you will be completely free to manage your time and choose the working hours and sessions that you will set to complete the task.
In fact, this is a double-edged sword, as one of the features that I have come across most in my dealings with dozens of freelancers is that most of them share in not meeting deadlines for completing tasks.
Time management is not an easy topic, especially with having complete freedom to deal with it And so you have to be vigilant in dealing with this aspect, you will make money only when you implement the required, and of course you will need time to accomplish what you have to accomplish.
Always remember that your lack of rational time management will result in completing tasks in a much larger time than they deserve, and this in practice means a material loss for you, because this lost time could have been invested in completing other tasks or at the very least investing in learning and developing your experiences.
4. Good communication skill with others
If there is one skill that you must possess in order to become a successful Freelancer, it is the skill of effective communication with others. Communication although it is a very basic skill, and everyone is supposed to have it, but in fact it is completely different.
Most problems between freelancers and business owners arise due to poor communication, or at least they could have been avoided through good and clear communication. On the other hand, the key to solving many of these problems is through starting effective communication based on understanding and empathy and adopting equitable solutions for all.
The ability to communicate well with others is an inevitable skill in the field of freelancer, in fact a large part of your success as a FreeLancer depends on your ability to communicate and form good relationships in your community, and the ability to deal professionally with your clients, which motivates them to deal with you again.
Here are some important points of effective communication that you should adopt:
When communicating with an employer to offer your services, do not lose hope the first time, but try to communicate again, as employers are usually busy, and this is often the reason for not responding.
When starting a communication between you and one of your clients, you must be proactive in communication and not be passive, even if the other party is negative. Be the party that moves the stagnant water.
Understand what the client is telling you, ask, and make sure you understand what he needs, with all the details he wants.
Use appropriate style and words in dealing, and do not be rude or use words that disrespect the client.
5. Negotiation skill
One of the most important skills that any freelancer must have is the skill of negotiation. You must be a skilled negotiator.
You should periodically review the prices of services similar to the service you provide, because this helps you in the negotiation stage with the customer, so that you do not set prices higher than the market rate, so the customer refuses to complete the purchase, and at the same time do not put a price lower than the market prices, thus underestimating your right and effort, Be balanced in your physical demands.
Negotiation skills are also not only related to how to price your work as a freelance, but also related to how to carry out this work, what is the time frame required to carry out the work, and many other details in which you need to be a good negotiator.
Effective professional negotiation is not achieved through a strategy of achieving the highest possible gains with the least possible effort, but also related to customer satisfaction, acquiring him as a customer in the long term, and helping him achieve what he wants from the goals.
Effective negotiation, in short, means reaching compromise solutions that do no harm to any of the parties, and that achieve the interests of all in an equitable manner. This may be difficult in the real world where interests always collide, but by understanding and learning negotiation skills from professionals and practicing their use, you can always achieve better and mutually satisfactory agreements.
Read also:Sweatcoin Pays You To Get Fit
6. The skill of dealing with technology, interfaces, systems and programs
A freelancer on the Internet requires dealing with technology constantly, starting with defining the field of freelancing that you would like to work in, preparing its tools and training in dealing with them, through creating professional accounts on social networking sites, especially LinkedIn, and creating accounts on freelance platforms, to completing A successful sale of your services.
In each of the previous points, you will need to be able to deal with the programs, interfaces, platforms, and advanced settings and options that come in your way.
Of course, there are tools in every field of freelancer, which you have to deal with and professionalize, but there are general tools also that most of those working as freelancers need to deal with, and among these tools, for example, is the Microsoft Office package.
The Microsoft Office package for office tools is the preferred package for many companies and organizations.
And the freelancer must know how to work with Excel tables, Word files, and PowerPoint presentations, all of which are essential skills that a Freelancer needs to get his work done regardless of which package he uses, whether it is Microsoft Office, or directly online such as Google Docs package.
7. Marketing skill
Marketing is one of the very important areas of freelancer, which can be specialized by performing marketing services for others, but marketing in general is an important skill for every Freelancer, whether in the field of design, writing, translation or even voiceover.
If you cannot market yourself as a professional Freelancer capable of performing tasks in your field of specialization, no one will hire you to perform the tasks of his work, and in light of the competitive world of freelancer at the present time, the matter is not choice.
It is an inevitable aspect that you have to deal with to succeed in freelancer
Social networking sites are a great opportunity to build a community in your field, and get new clients constantly. Your customers are already on social networking sites, and you can build specialized pages about the services you provide, attract those interested in these services and get great benefits.
One of the most important advantages of Social Media pages is to communicate with customers, it allows you to get to know the comments of followers, discover their reactions to the services you provide, and gives you an additional advantage is to develop what you offer faster.
Social Media pages also give you the ability to learn about the nature of the market in which you work. You can notice changes in the behavior of consumers and customers so that you can adjust the way of marketing, or change your business strategy to suit the changes that occurred to your target audience, and you can also ask customers directly.
Read also: What is the difference between B2B and B2C in marketing (very important for every marketer)
8. Organizational, accounting and reporting skills
As a manager for yourself, you will need to manage everything related to your work yourself, and this includes organizing the work and coordinating between the tasks required of you and the timetable for the implementation of each of them, and also includes the financial accounting aspect of calculating work costs, setting prices and calculating the net income after setting aside all expenses…etc.
Also, one of the necessary skills for every Freelancer is how to prepare reports properly, and it differentiates between the professionalism of Freelancer and another. It always requires preparing summary reports of what you have done, or a status report on a service that you will perform, and in case your report is good and well designed It will certainly contribute to the rapid acceptance of your application with business owners.
Remember that business owners are always looking for an organized person who is able to demonstrate what he can do, and who is able to report on what he has already done.
Read also: Best English Podcasts (18 Podcasts You Must follow)
9. The skill of dealing with disagreements and solving problems
Customer dissatisfaction with the level of services you provide, or even your dissatisfaction as a Freelancer with how some customers treat you, are all things in the field of Freelancing, as good and calm dealings often do not last long.
Freelancing is like any other work in which disagreements and problems can arise, and this is something you should always keep in mind and even prepare for and accept it when it happens.
You have to be objective and sympathetic to the customer, and try to adopt the customer's point of view and look at the conflict from the angle in which he looks. You avoid offensive statements, whether in your correspondence with the customer or face to face, and you must be a good listener to the customer's point of view without interrupting him as he explains his point of view.
One of the very important points in this aspect is that you have a degree of flexibility, in the world of freelancing there are a lot of changes and modifications in the work, which can cause a conflict between you and the client.
Here flexibility in dealing and patience until completing the task in the way the customer prefers is one of the things that you must always learn and work on.
Here, my friend, our lesson has ended today about the most important basic skills that every freelancer must possess, and now you can move on to the next lesson or any lesson you want through the links below.
Here are the links to all the freelance guide tutorials:
The most important fields of freelancer
How to start your way to freelancing
Basic skills every FreeLancer needs
The most important and best freelance tools
What is a Portfolio and How to Prepare a Professional Portfolio
The most common problems in freelancer
