Recently, many young people have turned to the field of freelancing via the Internet instead of traditional jobs in institutions, due to the flexibility, freedom and independence that freelancing provides.
But if you are a beginner in the field of online work, you may find it difficult to increase the percentage of profits from your new freelance, which is what all freelancers faced at the beginning of their career.
If you have already started your online business for a while, you are definitely wondering how to make the highest return from freelancing, as no one wants to stay at the starting point or beyond.
Which prompted us at seo7u to write this article to show you the ways and directions you can take to achieve the highest possible profit rate from your freelance business.
This article becomes a collection of the most important ideas and ways to help you increase your income by a large percentage, whether you are a beginner in the field of freelancing or you are already an independent employee.
The percentage of your net profit from freelancing online depends on many different factors such as the number of your clients and the type of service you provide to them, in addition to the number of hours you spend working, and many other factors.
As long as the factors controlling the matter are multiple, it is possible to exploit various of these factors to make the required improvements that will return to your profit rate with a noticeable increase.
Therefore, in the following paragraphs, we present the most important ideas and practical ways to manage these factors to get the highest possible percentage of profits from your freelance online business.
1. Increase the number of your customers
Any freelancer, especially at the beginning of his freelance journey, seeks to continuously increase the number of his clients, which, of course, leads to an increase in his net profit.
You can attract more customers by offering some free trial offers for your services, or even offers discounts on the first order for the customer in your service to try it out.
Here are some simple points that will help you increase the number of your customers:
Your friends and acquaintances have told you about your industry, and that you are looking for clients if they are related to a potential client.
Make your social media accounts a way to identify yourself as a professional freelancer in your field.
Search for your potential clients on the Internet and send them emails to introduce you and the above.
Make a professional portfolio for yourself and try to publish it online as often as possible.
Always try to develop your accounts on freelancing platforms.
In this regard, you can also offer monthly, annual or quarterly subscription offers with various plans, which is preferred by many customers, as it allows them to control the cost required of them in exchange for a basic service, but this point does not suit all areas of freelancing.
2. Raise your prices
Contrary to the popular belief that low price attracts customers, experience has shown that many customers trust only high-priced products and services to a certain extent.
Where a small price rise makes them feel that the quality of the product or service increases, and they consider the high price as evidence of the experience and high skill of the service provider.
So you can take advantage of this insight by raising your price a bit, especially if you're offering a lower pricing model early in your career, it's time to raise your prices as your experience grows.
To be able to properly price your work as a freelancer; You can see the prices of your competitors and providers of the same service you offer in different places, so you don't stray too far from the average.
You should also know how to price well based on the prices of the materials you use in your work as well as the prices of your regular equipment maintenance, and you should also calculate the value of the time you spend on work.
One of the most important strategies that can help you complete the step of raising your prices is to inform your customers of the new pricing plan in emails well in advance of the expiration date of your contract with them.
It is preferable to inform them of your wishes to complete the work with them and to contract again at the new prices, while clarifying the possibility of negotiating this price to reach what satisfies both parties.
In this case, you can use a little trick of telling them a price that is higher than the price you actually want, so that after negotiating with the customer you get the price you want and feel that you have lowered the price for them.
3. Increase projects from existing clients
The trust you build in your customers helps you increase the number of projects available to them, so try to understand your customers' needs and future plans, and then offer them to do some of those work that they may need.
In order to get a clearer vision about the goals and plans of your customers, you can ask them after completing your work about their next steps, and then try to adapt your business to provide what they need in the next stages.
In most cases, it is preferable for you to search for clients that you can deal with continuously and extend contracts and services between you, as each client takes time to understand his strategy and the nature of your business. If working with the client for a long time, this saves a lot of wasted time.
And keep in mind that the desire for continuous work is inside the client as well, it is easier for him to contract with a specific freelancer he trusts to complete his projects, rather than searching every time for a new freelancer who does not know the extent of his skills and experience.
4. He gave up working with some clients
At times, you may need to abandon some clients and terminate dealings with them, when you wish to adjust the percentage of your rates or the amount of work required and their rejection of those amendments.
It is natural for you to fear this step and imagine losing clients, but it is okay to get rid of low-paid clients to make room for new clients with higher wages that suit your new stage.
Instead of ending work with them completely, you can modify the agreement between you, such as reducing the number of projects you complete for them while keeping your previous wages.
For example, if you offer a company four ads per month on your platform for, say, $100, you can instead provide only two or three ads for the same value.
Read also: Freelance Guide (All you need to enter this field)
5. Collaborate with other freelancers
You can collaborate with other freelancers in your field to market yourself to increase the number of your clients, or collaborate with freelancers who provide services related to your service.
For example, if you provide a blog and website development service for search engine compatibility (SEO), you can collaborate with a freelance content writer.
Or, for example, if you provide marketing services, write ad content, or make ads on different platforms, you can collaborate with a freelance designer, and so on.
This strategy is beneficial in achieving a large number of client referrals among freelancers, which increases the client base and increases the number of projects requested from you.
Also, creating a community for you of your fellow freelancers in the same field is a useful thing, as many famous freelancers, for example, have a surplus of work that they distribute to their colleagues, or they may recommend you to clients as an alternative in the event that they do not have time for them to complete a job.
6. Offer some additional services
Customers are always attracted to people who do their core business with some features that make it easier for them later on. If you can provide an additional service that gives them some additional capabilities, that will ensure their loyalty to you, and they will refer other customers to you.
For example, if you provide a web site design service, why not provide a logo design service for the site, or any of the services that the site owner needs later.
You can combine this strategy with the previous one; As you cooperate with a freelancer who specializes in this additional service, you are guaranteed to increase your profits and the profits of this helper freelancer.
7. Build a business network under your management
Depending on the strategy of working smart rather than working hard; You can subcontract to freelancers novice or less experienced than you to do the work for you under your supervision.
For example, if you contract with your clients to provide an article for their blog at an article price of $10, why not contract with another freelancer to implement the article at a price of $7, for example, and benefit from the price difference?
This strategy helps you increase the number of projects that you can deliver to your clients, and makes it easier for you to contract with a larger number of clients, and the more freelancers you help, the more clients you will have, and thus your profit.
Sounds tempting, doesn't it?! But be careful in choosing your assistants and constantly reviewing the work they do so that you do not lose your reputation if they do not do the work well.
8. Offer paid counseling in your specialty
Surely you have come across the type of client who wants to know how to complete the work in order to do it for themselves in order to reduce the cost as much as possible.
With these clients, the best service for you and them is to provide paid consultations according to your specialty, if you provide advertising designs, for example, you can advise on choosing colors and the like.
You can also offer something like an e-brochure to become a complete guide to help clients do their own projects by making this guide paid, of course, but at a lower cost than providing the service yourself.
Although this method will not bring in the same amount of profit as providing the service, but it guarantees you a reasonable additional profit, and do not worry about clients leaving for this type, most clients want to get the job done by a professional freelancer like you.
9. Keep specializing
Some believe that if they provide a lot of different services, they will achieve greater chances of success and popularity, but unfortunately this is not true at all. Rather, specializing in a specific and clear service helps you achieve greater success.
This is where your specific specialization helps you to raise your experience and skills faster, and increases the number of your clients and referrals issued by them, as the specialization allows you to delve deeper into your field, which is reflected in the nature of your service provided to the public.
On the other hand, specializing in one field facilitates the process of continuous self-development and getting acquainted with the latest developments in this field, which increases the quality of your services and increases their marketing value.
The idea of specialization also helps you reduce the amount of competition you face in order to get customers, the more you specialize in a specific service, the fewer your competitors.
It is preferable to choose a specialty that you like and within the framework of your actual interest, as this will facilitate your commitment to this specialization and the continuity of development and learning in it.
10. Showcase your skills in professional ways
New clients trust more in freelancers with a professional appearance, this indicates a highly experienced freelancer who has high confidence in his work, which is certainly reflected in the same audience.
One of the most important ways to appear professionally is to pay attention to your LinkedIn account, as the customer often looks at your LinkedIn profile to learn about your experiences, skills and a lot of information about you, so make sure to appear as a professional expert.
Read also: Ways to make money from LinkedIn (6 opportunities waiting for you in 2022)
It is also recommended to create a personal website for you, and on this website review the most prominent projects that you have completed with the most important experiences, certificates, and more.
You can take advantage of the various freelance sites to give this professional appearance to your career, by taking care of your profile information on those sites and including a gallery of your work containing your most important completed projects.
11. Keep marketing for yourself
The online freelancing market is full of competitors, and in order to maintain your place in this vast market, you should pay close attention to the constant marketing of your services and the constant appearance of potential clients.
Continuous marketing increases the number of your customers while also raising the number of referrals from old customers, so it is recommended to allocate time daily or at least weekly and maximum monthly to pay attention to the marketing process of your services.
The Internet provides you with a wide range of tools and platforms that can be used in marketing your services, and Linkedin is one of the most important platforms that connect you with potential customers.
You can also rely on paid marketing campaigns if you need to, and this feature is available in the Google search engine and in various social networking sites.
One of the most important ways of marketing is also to write to your old customers to offer your latest services, or to talk with your friends about your services and your desire to increase the number of customers and involve them in your marketing process.
No one neglects the importance of the network of relationships in marketing operations, which is what you get when you participate in professional groups on different platforms such as Facebook or by attending events and conferences in your field.
12. Keep a set time for work
As an independent worker, time is your real wealth. Either you can organize and use it in a way that helps you accomplish your tasks and increase your projects, or it will be lost from you and thus your business.
Despite the wonderful feeling of freedom from the grip of freelance managers, this freedom may become a ghost that threatens to lose business, due to the ease of subjection to various distractions, and the possibility of postponing tasks due to the absence of the manager and his constant follow-up.
Therefore, as a freelancer, keep a specific time to complete your daily work and do not be subject to any distractions at this time, and stick to this time in getting busy with work, and imagine yourself inside your office in a company.
It is also recommended to turn off social media notifications so that you are not busy responding to them, and set a specific time every few hours to check important email, for example.
And so that you do not get caught up in other tasks such as housework or buying some things, etc., you can also schedule and organize all these tasks so that they do not affect the timing of your work and do not neglect its performance.
To implement these tips, you can rely on some electronic tools, such as programs to close social networking sites for a specific period, or time tracking programs to know the amount of time you spent on each task, and so on.
Here we come to the end of our tips that we gave to answer one of the most important questions of experienced and new freelancers alike, after we reviewed more than 10 effective tips to increase the profit rate from freelancing.
And we recommend at the end of our topic to combine all of these tips, or at least most of them, to get the maximum benefit possible, and that is certainly if you have a question about how to achieve the highest return from freelancing.
These tips and steps have collected the most important factors that directly or indirectly affect your production rate and the amount of your profit, so I have provided solutions to solve all the problems you may encounter.
It also provided the steps that increase the effectiveness of the processes of agreement with customers or increase your focus and time and other important things, and thus these tips ensure that you increase your profits significantly.
