You got into freelancing so you could work when you want, make more money, and control your life.

But, if you haven’t realized it yet, building a career as a freelancer requires you to embrace more than just writing code.

Part of developing your career is branding.

You recognize something magical about big brands like Apple, Mcdonald's, or Shell.

You see a logo and know instantly what it stands for and what it delivers.

These international companies have huge marketing budgets, so they can spend large amounts of money on branding.

You probably also recognize the personal brands of well-known celebrities who are associated with certain types of movies or who promote popular products.

Yet you feel that pinning down your personal brand is hard. It is!

But don’t worry. I’m going to walk you through a simple process for building a personal brand.

By the time you're done reading this article, you’ll know how to build your brand.

Why Building a Personal Brand is Important

As I mentioned in How to Generate Leads as a Freelancer, it can be tough to stand out from the crowd. So you need to showcase your business and make connections with potential clients.

One way to do this is to harness the power and potential of a personal brand.

Many freelancers think branding is hard, complicated, time-consuming, or unpleasant.

It can be, but only if you approach it the wrong way.

Your personal brand is very simple - it’s you.

It’s the picture of you, the essence of how you work, and how you want people to talk about you when they tell others about your work.

• Daniel is a database engineer who does great work in both SQL and PHP.
• Erin is a full-stack web developer who helps small companies create websites ready for Web3.
• Juan teaches people how to build a career as a programmer.

All three of these are examples of a personal brand that connects what they do and what they want others to think about when they think of their brands.

It all starts here by identifying what you do and how you want other people to talk about and think about you and your work. When you know this, everything else becomes easy.

How to Start Building Your Personal Brand

You begin by committing to one essential thing: staying true to yourself.

Your brand can’t be some digital costume you wear to get clients. They’ll see through that in a heartbeat.

It needs to come from who you are.

So, ask yourself three questions:

1. Who am I?

Start by defining yourself as a freelancer with 3 - 4 key words or phrases that you want to define your work, such as:

• Creative
• Easy to work with
• Hardworking
• Reliable

How do you want people to describe what it means to work with you?

2. What do I do?

Then, get specific about what you do (and what you don’t do). For example,

• I design mobile-responsive websites using Java and PHP.
• I write secure apps based on Web3 technology.
• I close security gaps in websites and recover business sites that have been hijacked with ransomware.

These statements don’t say, “I design websites” or “I write apps.” That’s too generic.

Be specific about what you do.

Getting clear about what you do means you’ll attract the right type of clients.

3. What makes me unique?

Finally, it’s easy to chase a persona or identity you’ve seen used successfully by someone else. But don’t do something because you’ve seen it be successful for someone else.

Stay true to who you are (refer to your Who Am I? list):

• Do you love to change your hair color? Embrace that.
• Do you have a defining personality trait that makes you different or special? Promote it.
• Do you have a particular skill or spread of skills that means you can offer something unique? Don’t hide it – use it as a way to differentiate yourself.

For more tips on How to Promote Your Services (and yourself) as a Freelancer, read this.

Define Your Look

This is the hard part, especially for those of us who are not natural designers.

Surprisingly, you want to know the hardest part about defining your look?

Keeping it simple.

The mistake most people make in developing the visuals for a brand is that they develop things that are far too complicated and detailed.

When you work on defining the “look” for your business, follow three principles:

1. Keep everything related to your brand within 2-3 colors.
2. Design a simple and timeless logo.
3. Invest in good photos.

Don’t chase trends, “in colors,” or new and exciting things. Find and embrace something that will look good all the time.

The colors you use, the logo on your emails and letterhead, and the images you use for social media will define your brand and will communicate a lot of subtle things about how it is to work with you.

If it’s simple, clear, and easy, YOU will be associated with these things.

There are a lot of books, blogs, and websites that teach you what colors to choose and how to build a visual brand.

But, for most freelancers, the best piece of advice is simple:

Get help from an expert.

I understand the impulse to save money by trying to do it yourself.

But unless you have some design skills (or want to spend a lot of time learning), you lose far more than you win by trying to do it yourself.

It takes more time, you’ll make more mistakes, and the results won’t be nearly as good as they could be.

Someone who knows the principles of design will make you look better than you will.

Remember the importance of first impressions!

Old, fuzzy, outdated photos of yourself are unprofessional and could stop new clients from working with you.

And, just because your friend claims to design logos doesn’t mean they are good at it.

Instead, take the plunge and invest in a professional photographer, or hop onto 99designs and have someone develop a logo for you.

Get expert advice to figure out how your website should flow.

Find someone who specializes in web design to help you improve the look and feel of your site.

Even though it may cost more upfront, these investments will reward you with a brand that attracts clients and genuinely represents you.

Tell Your Story

Every freelancer needs to be able to talk about their business fluently and comfortably.

But you’d be surprised how hard it is for many freelancers to answer the question, What do you do?

The key is to prepare ahead of time.

Write out (literally) what you’ll say to people and how you’ll describe your freelancing career before they ask the question.

Your answers will come out clearer, they’ll sound polished, and you’ll feel better delivering them when you aren’t making it up on the spot.

There are four “versions” of your story that you’ll need to develop.

1. The tagline/slogan.

• Bringing websites into the web3 era.
• Web development made simple.
• Integrating your website into everything you do.

A good tagline is clear, short, and delivers the essential value of what you do in one simple statement.

Notice what a tagline does not have: details, explanations, or descriptions. Instead, it focuses on the benefits you deliver.

You use a tagline in a website header, on a business card, or to book-end a promotional video in places where you don’t have time or space to get detailed.

2. The elevator pitch

This expands on the tagline by giving just a bit more information and focusing on the service you provide (instead of simply the benefit).

• I help small businesses integrate web3 technology into websites before their competitors.
• As a full-stack developer, I manage and coordinate website design and updates for businesses.
• I help businesses find ways to use their websites to increase sales and cut costs, improving business revenue.

The elevator pitch is great for introductions and introducing yourself at a conference. It gives someone just a bit of detail, but not enough to feel overwhelmed or like you are trying to make a sale with them.

3. A short bio

This is a few sentences or short paragraphs about how you started doing what you do and why you have customers today.

I graduated in 2015 from __ University with a degree in computer engineering. After several years of honing my skills in a corporate setting, I decided to take what I’d learned and help small businesses achieve the same success.

In 2019, I launched my own freelance career, and by 2020, it grew into a full-time career.

Today, I’ve worked with clients in 3 countries, successfully completing more than 45 different website projects covering everything from website redesigns to integrating new functionality into existing websites.

Everything in this description communicates information relevant to someone who is considering hiring you by answering questions about experience, success, and expertise.

If you are giving a presentation at a local chamber of commerce event or a breakout session at a regional conference, a short bio is a great thing to provide to attendees. It’s also great to have ready-to-go for initial client meetings or sales calls because you can give them important, relevant information to establish your credibility.

4. A long bio

The difference between a short and long bio is more than length.

In the longer bio, you can add a bit more personality (though you should keep this simple) and more details about your business.

In the example below, you’ll notice where I added some additional detail.

I graduated in 2015 from __ University with a degree in computer engineering. This degree focused on programming, giving me expertise in SQL, PHP, Python, and Java.

After several years of honing my skills in a corporate setting **leading increasingly large teams at __ and __**, I decided to take what I’d learned and help small businesses achieve the same success._

In 2019, I launched my own freelance career, and by 2020, it grew into a full-time career. Today, I’ve worked with clients in 3 countries, successfully completing more than 45 different website projects covering everything from website redesigns to integrating new functionality into existing websites.

Over the course of this time, my projects have become increasingly complex. Not only have I gained experience in several additional languages and skills, but I’ve also become a Six Sigma Green Belt.

The long bio is great for the “about” page on your website.

By planning ahead (and literally writing out) these four versions of your story, you’ll feel more confident selling your brand to clients and answering any questions they may have about your business.

Following the steps I’ve laid out so far will help you hone and develop your unique brand to represent your freelance business. But successful marketing doesn’t stop with that.

Share Your Work

Building your brand is only good if people see it. Once you’ve established your brand identity, it’s time to share it with the world.

As I emphasize in How to Get Better at Sales, selling and marketing your business requires a long-term mindset. You must actively pursue new connections and opportunities.

When you complete a new project, share it with current and potential clients.

Seek and share client testimonials.

Get active on social media by answering questions, offering your insight on important questions in your field, and building a following.

Interact with people – everywhere.

This could be on social media, tweeting, replying, and re-tweeting your brand and business.

But this could also involve building a blog or speaking at conferences. You could start a podcast or become active at your local Chamber.

And don’t forget to focus on giving back to people in your community.

It’s easy to turn every interaction into a transaction, measuring it by whether or not you’ve gained followers, increased subscribers, or signed a new client.

But, one of the most important elements to developing a real, vibrant, and believable personal brand is to give back to people.

So, be generous with your time, expertise, and knowledge because people will notice.

Examples of developers with a great personal brands

Simon Høiberg

Simon is a great example of a developer who's cultivated his personal brand. Just by looking at his Twitter profile we can easily understand all about his brand.

He makes it very clear from the go what you would expect from him on the platform, what is he working on, his YouTube channel, and his passion to talk about SaaS, tech, and business.

His growth has been exponential everywhere he goes – Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

If you want get inspiration, definitely check him out.

James Q. Quick

Once again, an example of delivering a message directly on his Twitter profile, we have James. Just with a quick look we can tell he is all about content creation for developers, he does public speaking, online teaching, and he runs a podcast.

Ania Kubów

Ania is another great example. She focuses on building games with JavaScript on her YouTube channel and is also a super star here at freeCodeCamp.

Her brand is very clear and distinctive when you look at her social media profiles.

Conclusion

You can build an honest, vibrant, and engaging personal brand, even if marketing isn’t your particular strength.

The keys are simple:

• Define who you are and what makes your business unique
• Invest in a professional to help to design your brand.
• Prepare (in advance) to tell your story.
• Share your personal brand and your work through genuine connections with people.

Follow my advice, and you’ll soon reap the benefits of a successful marketing brand that attracts clients and allows you to pursue the financial and flexible rewards of freelancing.

Before you go, if you want to learn more about web development, how to code, freelancing and making money online as a developer, check out my free newsletter.

Thanks for reading!

I've wasted hours on projects in the past due to a lack of organization, processes, and general good practices. So this time I wanted to sharpen my project management skills in a way that would be replicable for my future self.

My perspective is particularly honed because I've worked for many years as a small business operator. I had to source contract and agency work before getting into web development myself.

The premise of this kind of one-man-shop project management comes from Brett at DesignJoy:

Below are some lessons learned after I implemented this over the course of a few weeks.

1. Organization is key
2. Time restraints are tricky
3. Deliver on time
4. Define the scope
5. Define the process
6. Test, test...and keep testing
7. Polish is important
8. Results matter most
9. Previews are good
10. Let the client lead when possible

Organization is Key

Prior to Trello, I was doing a combination of email, texts, and Google chat. That's fine when you're starting out and have one client at a time. But having one place where all communication about a single project lives saves time and effort.

Clarity on the order of events was incredibly helpful too. I set up lists where different tasks would live:

• Directions, assets, and general information in the first column
• Task queue in second column
• Active work in third column
• Work ready for client review in fourth column
• Approved work in the fifth column

It's a very simple but effective setup that allows for asynchronous communication (I have had zero phone calls so far) and a clearly defined pipeline for requests/work/review.

I grant the client full access to the Trello Board and they're able to rearrange the queue such that the work that needs to happen first gets put at the top.

From there, I grab the top item, and work on one thing at a time in active work. This is valuable for the client to see what I'm working on. And, bonus – it's incredibly helpful for people like me who are easily distracted from one task by wanting to go do another one "real quick".

Time Restraints are Tricky

Hot take: don't set time restraints unless you have to. Often I resist the urge to add a note about timing for delivery. It's common to do this when talking to people, but unless I'm asked for a scope of delivery, I leave this off.

This allows me room to expand on design work, try out different implementations for coding, and not be crunched on non-time sensitive items.

Deadlines are just tricky. A lot of times you have to move them after you set them. And a lot of times they're arbitrary to begin with. I avoid them unless I have no other choice.

That said, if you're not disciplined enough to put in the hours without them...you may need to have a few. 😂

Deliver on Time

It's unlikely that you'll have zero time restraints, though. Otherwise, the project may drift on in perpetuity. And then, caught in its numbing undertow, you'll turn around in 6 months only to realize how little you've progressed and how much anxiety lingers under the surface as a result of a lack of closure.

You don't want this. 🚫

So, when you do have a deadline, deliver before it. Give yourself some room so that you can likely deliver ahead of schedule, and at the very least deliver on time.

Define the Project's Scope

What are we building? What are the guardrails? Is it a marketing page? Is it an ecommerce site? Will it require skills beyond my knowledge? There are many questions like these to answer up front.

Starting out, it's easy to want to say yes to any and everything. And in most cases, go for it! There were a couple things in my last project that I had to research and figure out mid-stream.

But, try insofar as is possible to define the scope up front so that you can structure your project well and have a good idea of what it will take to get from start to finish.

Your client may or may not know their own scope. You will be a very helpful resource for them throughout the process, especially if they are not technically proficient.

Define Your Process

This is where Trello really helped me with some of my natural weak spots. Organizing the board and setting it up to be as simple as possible for both of us really paid off as we worked together.

At the onset, I built a template card with instructions. This both defined the process for me, and gave a reference for my client.

The process of working on tasks throughout the project was extremely straightforward and left little room for confusion. On tasks where explanation was needed, screenshots, notes, and checklists were available to box up issues into containers.

Test, Test, and Test Again

You can never test enough, and there will likely be things that slip through anyway. At least that's been my experience! Always test on mobile devices and not just the Chrome Dev Tools.

I broke some image gallery functionality and didn't realize it until client sent screenshots from his cell phone.

Not ideal! 😅🤦‍♂️

Polish is Important

Get the meta tags and favicon stuff right. Depending on the platform you're developing on, this may be done for you, but just make sure you've taken care of it before launch. It's easy to overlook things like this.

If you're doing these yourself, I found some helpful tools to generate and test them:

• https://metatags.io/
• https://realfavicongenerator.net/
• https://socialcarding.com/
• https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
• https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validatorst

Results Matter Most

I overrode some Bootstrap 5 CSS in my main.css. I tweaked an npm package. Your client doesn't care what you do, or about the perfect best practices. Results matter most.

Don't break stuff, but that aside, you may bend some rules to simplify things if you need to.

Your client wants you to do awesome. Concern yourself with the best way to get them the results they desire.

Previews are Good

Clients are not always technically savvy. Descriptions, screenshots, and so on are often insufficient for them to grasp and approve what you're working on. Be able to send them a working preview build when possible.

I developed this project using GitHub for my codebase and Netlify for deployment. Deploy previews are a built in feature at Netlify, and you can share URLs based on pull/merge request numbers. That way, if there is a working site up and running, the client can preview changes separately.

Let the Client Lead when Possible

Hold your feelings and opinions loosely. This is their project, not yours. It's easy to get that backwards.

But the client is in charge and knows what they want even if they don't know how to get there or even how to describe it.

Part of our job as developers is coaxing that out of them by using the tools we are proficient with. Communication, organization, and teamwork are equally or more important than our technical toolkit.

As a freelancer, we are valuable assets to their business and should be pointing toward serving them well during the course of all our work.

Let them lead when possible.

Make suggestions when asked or when it's necessary.

But be helpful above all.

Empathy 😊 is the name of the game.

Master this and the coding will often be the easy part.

Thanks for Reading 👊

I hope this has been helpful for you!

Come say hey 👋 over on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EamonnCottrell

Neither the author of this article, nor freeCodeCamp, are professionals in these areas. The discussion below is a matter of personal opinion only and you should discuss such matters with a licensed professional.

If you’re thinking about starting up your own development business, then you likely have a lot of questions and concerns. You’re most likely worried about where you will get clients, how you will market yourself, how you will get through the downtimes, and so on.

Unfortunately, many who are new to the freelance world (as well as many who just never bother to pay attention to such things) don’t consider the importance of properly managing their taxes.

This is a big, big, big (big) mistake for quite a few reasons. The impact of not considering your taxes is simple - you’ll wind up working far harder than you need to in order to have any money at the end of the day. In other words, you may end up looking like this:

Developers who focus on keeping more of what they make, by contrast, can look like this:

If you’re reading this article then I’m assuming that you’re not opposed to prosperity and that you would rather look like the latter than the former. If you are opposed to prosperity then…...well…..ok.

I’ve previously written for freeCodeCamp on how freelance developers can manage their taxes. That article was more cursory in nature and didn’t dive into some specifics.

Also, there have been changes to the U.S. tax code since I published it. Given this, I felt it was time to take an in-depth and up-to-date dive into the topic.

One important thing to understand is that this article is related to taxes in the United States only. If you prefer to take in information through video, then I’ve prepared this rant discussion:

If you’re like I am, and you prefer to absorb via reading, then read on.

I’m going to dive into several topics in this article. Below is a roadmap of this discussion. To jump to a particular section, simply click its link.

Table of Contents

1. Why one should be mindful of their taxes (jump to section)

   1. One of your biggest expenses, if not the biggest, is your taxes (jump to section)

   2. Today’s “income inequality” discussion misses the point that opportunity is given to freelancers & small business owners (jump to section)

   3. By being mindful of your taxes, you can greatly improve your financial standing (jump to section)

2. Concepts to understand in order to get your taxes under control (jump to section)

   1. Understanding the differences between revenue and income (jump to section)

   2. How employees and business owners are taxed differently (jump to section)

   3. Understanding the different types of taxes one must pay & graduated brackets (jump to section)

   4. Taxes paid v. taxes paid in during the year (jump to section)

3. How your business structure impacts your tax bill (jump to section)

   1. Understanding the Qualified Business Deduction (jump to section)

   2. Working as an independent contractor (jump to section)

   3. Sole proprietorships (jump to section)

   4. LLC taxation (jump to section)

   5. S Corporation taxation (jump to section)

   6. Picking the right entity for your situation (jump to section)

4. The importance of taking, and maximizing, deductions (jump to section)

   1. Missing an expense amounts to donating money to the government (jump to section)

   2. Expenses that can be deducted (jump to section)

   3. Maximizing retirement plans to save on taxes (jump to section)

5. Making payments during the year as a business owner/freelance developer (jump to section)

6. Where you choose to live impacts your tax bill (jump to section)

7. Closing thoughts (jump to section)

So, let’s get to it!

Why freelance developers and other business owners must be mindful of their taxes

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If you’re thinking of going the freelance route, or have already done so, then I’m assuming that at least part of your motivation was making more money and/or having work flexibility.

Well, if you want either of those things then it is vital that you pay attention to your taxes.

The reasons for this are three-fold. First, as many don’t realize, your taxes are one of your largest expenses and it’s hard to get ahead when your large expenses aren’t under control.

Second, you’re missing a massive financial opportunity that is being presented to you if you ignore this area.

Finally, the numbers don’t lie as to how being mindful of your taxes can improve your financial standing. Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Most people, including business owners, fail to realize that taxes are one of their biggest expenses

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One of the biggest things that people experience stress over is money. This is especially true for freelance workers and small business owners, as they do not have the consistency of a paycheck from an employer.

It goes without saying that one of the most important aspects of good financial health is keeping your expenses low. The big problem comes when you're looking at expenses you can reduce. Your analysis typically does not involve thinking about taxes.

For virtually everyone out there, trying to get ahead by reducing various expenses without thinking of tax reduction is akin to trying to lose weight by ordering a diet soda along with your triple value meal, with extra chicken nuggets, from McDonald’s. It doesn’t work very well.

Let’s look at what I mean.

Suppose, for example, that you live in San Francisco (you’ll see why I’m using S.F. as an example shortly) and you make $110,000 a year working for yourself. Also, assume that this is your only source of income.

Now assume that you haven’t paid any attention to tax reduction (meaning you’re like the majority of freelancers out there).

By the end of the year, you’ll have paid $32,838 in taxes (source: Free Income Tax Calculator), meaning that you only actually kept $77,162 of the money that you worked hard for. The breakdown of this is as follows:

A freelancer in this situation will have paid roughly $2,736 per month in taxes. Now think of how many people you know that get a roommate to save on rent, who look for ways to save a few bucks on things such as their Netflix account or groceries, but make no effort to get their tax bill down. This is why I made the McDonald’s comparison above.

Why did I pick San Francisco and a $110,000 income for my example? Simple...it’s a real-life scenario. A friend came to visit my wife and me a few months ago and she lives in San Francisco. Several comments were made about struggling to “get ahead.”

When I asked her what her two largest expenses were, the first she mentioned was rent. The second was an expense which amounted to $8,000 per year. In other words, she was looking for ways to save money but not even considering one of the biggest, and easiest, savings she could've made.

If you want to truly get ahead, then you need to understand what your largest expenses are. And for most it is their tax bill.

Many who mention “income inequality” miss the point that the tax code provides enormous opportunities for everyday developers or other business owners

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I’m sure the heading to this section is going to lead to a few negative reactions to this article. Consider a few things, however, before dismissing my statement.

First, it is important to recognize a common complaint that today’s tax code “favors the rich.” This is, in fact, not accurate. The tax code does not favor individuals or those with wealth. What it favors is certain activities.

An average person can engage in these activities in the exact same way that someone who is wealthy does. The specifics which I will be getting into later in this article will show why this is the case.

The big thing to remember right now is that the tax code is set up to favor those who start/run businesses and who invest. This means that if you have not structured your “freelance gig” as a business and are not investing, then you are throwing money away.

Someone making $110,000 per year in San Francisco, like the example person above, will pay $32,838 per year in taxes if they do not take advantage of any of the provisions in the tax code which are readily accessible to them.

If, however, they take advantage of opportunities available in the tax code, they can lower their annual tax bill to a little over $15,000. In other words, running your business and making choices in a way that is mindful of tax reduction, can save you $17,838 per year.

The common belief that being mindful about taxes is something that “rich people do” is not accurate. People do not pay attention to their taxes because they are rich – they are rich, in part, because they pay attention to their taxes.

If you are starting a business as a way of growing your income, then it is crucial that you consider this fact.

Being mindful about taxes can greatly improve a freelance developer’s financial standing

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The above discussion is meant to drive home one important point – the fact that being mindful about your taxes, as a freelance developer, is one of the fastest ways to improve your financial standing.

Keeping more of what you earn means more money in your pocket without having to increase your overall income. Conversely, not focusing on your taxes means that you are paying extra money, each time you get paid, to government entities.

This means that you don't have as much money as you could, and you often think you need more customers to have more cash. You then get those customers and pay excess taxes out of each of those customer payments as well.

In other words, you’re trying to get ahead by pushing a boulder up a very steep hill, like this guy:

Good luck with that. Now let’s move on to steps you can take to get your taxes under control. The first part of that process is understanding some different concepts under the U.S. tax code.

Concepts which freelance developers must understand in order to properly manage their taxes

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There are several concepts you need to understand before you can get your tax bill under control. I got into some of these in my previous tax article (linked to in the intro section to this guide).

The things we need to look at are:

• the difference between revenue and income

• how employees and business owners are taxed differently

• the different levels of taxation that exist in the United States

• the concept of graduated tax brackets, and

• the difference between withholding of tax payments and taxes actually paid.

Understanding each of these is important to determining how your choices impact your overall tax bill and help you strategize going forward.

It is important to understand a few core concepts before diving into managing your taxes. I’ll keep it to tax concepts for now, and not get into one of my much, much, much (much) larger rants on the need to learn as much about business as possible.

We’re going over these tax concepts first because, for understandable reasons, most people see their taxes as something that has traditionally been taken out of their paychecks and they’ve never really worried about it. Also, many self-employed people have never taken the time to truly consider their tax structure.

So, let’s look at the differences between revenue and income, how business owners and employees are taxed differently, the different types of taxes you have to pay in the U.S., and the difference between what you pay in each year vs. what you actually pay.

Freelance developers, as well as other business owners, pay taxes on their income, not their revenue

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Calculating your income is simple when you're working as an employee. You receive a salary or an hourly wage and the total amount of that compensation is reported on your W2 at the end of the year.

This is different when you are self-employed. The amount of money that comes into your business’ account during the year is not what you actually earn. This is because your business has expenses which you had to incur to earn that money. What’s left over after your expenses, which is your profit, is what you will consider your income for tax purposes.

Suppose Jane Developer gets paid $5,000 to build a website or application for a local business. She gets sixty percent ($3,000) up front and the rest ($2,000) thirty days later when she completes the project. Jane’s revenue is $5,000 over this period.

Now suppose that she spent $200 on advertising for her development business, $50 on liability insurance, and $50 on business related software subscriptions. Jane’s _profit_or net income is $4,700, broken down as follows:

I’m taking the time to explain this because I have talked to way, way, way too many self-employed people that answer the question of what they made by reciting their revenue number.

These same people then put that number on their taxes as their income. So under the example above, many would report their income as $5,000 and not $4,700. If they are paying taxes of fifteen percent, then these people would be paying $750 in taxes ($5k x 15%) as opposed to the $705 they should have paid ($4.7k x 15%).

Understanding the difference between revenue and income is crucial to not over-reporting your earnings to the IRS and paying taxes on money you didn’t actually make.

How a developer is taxed will depend on whether they are an employee, a “true” freelancer, or a business owner (you want to be a business owner)

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The U.S. tax structure is extremely complicated. This is why an entire industry exists in this country just to help people deal with it. It has also been called “the only law which requires people to pay professionals to ensure that they do not break it.”

How this tax structure will apply to you, as a developer, depends on several things. First, is the difference between how employees and “independent contractors'' are taxed and, second, how businesses are taxed. As for how businesses are taxed, that is further divided into understanding how different types of businesses fall under the system.

I’ll get into specifics, with examples, later in this article. For now, here is a quick overview of how you can expect to be taxed based on your status as an employee, a contractor, a business owner, and so on.

On a side note (and this will show you the types of topics I geek out on), if you’re interested in how the U.S. tax system, and the boondoggle* of an industry that supports it, came to be, then I suggested reading chapter 3 of “Business Adventures” by John Brooks (Link goes to Amazon).

\boondoggle - work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.*

If you are a developer working in a job, then you will receive a salary from your employer. You will pay federal, state, and local taxes on one hundred percent of this salary (a breakdown of each of these tax types is given later in this article).

The federal tax component of your obligation will include your income tax as well as your FICA (Federal Insurance Contribution Act) payments. These FICA payments constitute your contribution to Social Security and Medicare.

Since all of your income is reported on your paycheck, and your employer handles the bookkeeping, reporting your income to the government at the end of the year is straightforward.

Some “freelancers” choose to work as independent contractors. These are people who do not start a formal business and instead receive a 1099 at the end of the year from the people for whom they do work.

These individuals will fill out a “Schedule C” form when completing their taxes. Their income is determined by adding up all money (revenue) received from customers and subtracting out their expenses.

Most independent contractors will pay federal income taxes on the first eighty percent of their profits (more on this below) and they will also pay self-employment taxes (the equivalent of FICA) on their net income. Whether you pay state and local taxes on your profit will depend, in part, where you live.

If you don’t wish to form a formal legal entity to conduct business (more on this in a moment), but you wish to have a legally recognized business name, then you may get a business license and start a sole proprietorship (the licensing/paperwork for this type of structure will vary from locale to locale). This will allow you to operate under a business name, have a business level bank account, and so on.

You will fill out a Schedule C at the end of the year, similar to an independent contractor, and you will have a similar tax structure. From a tax/finance standpoint, being a sole proprietor and an independent contractor are similar.

Another option is to form a formal legal entity through which you will do business. This comes with many benefits (such as liability protection) which are beyond the scope of this article.

Practically speaking, most will form a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and some may choose to elect to have the LLC taxed as an “S Corporation.” This latter option means that you own an LLC but, for tax purposes only, it is considered an S Corporation by the IRS.

If you are operating an LLC, without the S election, then the profits of the business “flow through” to you. In other words, if the business has $100,000 in profits then you will report those profits on your personal tax return as the LLC itself does not pay taxes.

Most developers going this route will pay federal income tax on eighty percent of those profits (again, more on this below) and self-employment tax on all of the profits.

If you are taking the S election, then you must pay yourself a “reasonable salary” as an employee of the company. This salary will be taxed as would the paycheck of any W2 employee. The profits remaining for the S corporation will flow through to your personal tax return.

Most developers would pay federal income tax on eighty percent of these profits and would not be required to pay self-employment tax on them. Whether the owner of an LLC or an S Corp pays state and local taxes will depend on where they live.

If you are working for yourself, then it is important that you speak with tax and/or legal professionals to determine which of these business structures best fits your goals. Each structure comes with its own benefits as well as its own additional expenses and complications.

Developers should understand the different types and brackets of taxes which may apply to them and/or their business

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We just discussed the different types of business structures you may be using in your freelance gig. The next “core concept” to go over is the different levels of tax structure which exist in the United States.

Once we’ve done this, then, a little later in this article, we’ll put the two together and show how different business structures are impacted by these tax tiers.

There are different levels of taxation of which freelance developers should be aware

If you are operating as a self-employed individual then there are three core levels of taxes which you need to be aware of (there are actually others but they are beyond the scope of this discussion).

These taxes are those paid to the federal government, those paid to the state, and those paid to your locality. Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Taxes paid to the federal government are those which most people think of when they refer to “paying taxes.” These taxes, however, consist of two components.

The first is federal income tax. This is a tax, collected by the government, which is based on your income. The higher your income, then the higher the tax.

The second component of federal taxes consist of FICA and Medicare contributions. As mentioned above, this is your contribution to programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

For the 2021 tax year (these calculations change year to year), FICA and Medicare contributions, after oversimplifying it a bit, consist of 6.2 percent of your first $142,800 of income and 1.45 percent of total income. The 6.2 percent contribution goes towards Social Security and the latter goes towards Medicare.

So, in simple terms, someone making $100,000 per year, without proper planning, will pay $7,650 in FICA and Medicare taxes in addition to their federal income tax.

In addition to federal taxes, you may also have to pay taxes to state and local governments. This will vary by locale.

If you're living in City “X”, in the state of “Y”, may have to file a state tax return with Y through state tax authorities while also filing a city return through X’s tax authorities.

Some states, however, do not have state income tax of any type. Others only apply state income tax to certain business activities while others have a state tax which applies to everyone.

The same is true for localities. If you live in an area with several levels of taxation, then you will need to file tax returns for each level of government.

Self-employed developers should have an understanding of tax brackets

Quite a few people hear about “tax brackets” in the U.S. tax code and don’t have a true understanding of how they work.

For example, if someone is told that they’re “going to be in the 32% bracket for this year” then there’s a good chance they’ll take that to mean that their federal income tax will be equal to 32 percent of their income. This is not the case. This is because federal income tax brackets are “graduated.” Let’s look at what this means.

For the 2021 tax year, there are seven different tax brackets for a single filer in the United States. A tax payer’s income will be subject to taxation in each of these brackets.

For example, the first $9,950 you earn, after deductions (deductions are covered later in this article) is subject to a ten percent federal income tax.

Any income between $9,950 and $40,525 is subject to twelve percent federal income tax. This means someone earning $40,525, after deductions, would be taxed as follows:

As shown in this table, someone earning $40,525 after deductions will pay federal income tax totaling $4,664, or roughly 11.5 percent of their income. Such an individual would be referred to as being “in the 12 percent bracket” because that is the highest bracket under which a portion of their income is taxed.

It does not mean, however, that all of their income was taxed at that rate. So when you hear people like me complaining about extremely high tax brackets, we’re really only complaining about the rate at which an upper tier of income is taxed.

For an FYI, below is a breakdown of the IRS 2021 brackets for a single individual^[3].

Source: 2021 Federal Income Tax Rates, Brackets, & Standard Deduction Amounts | IRS.com

This wraps up the section of this article on the types of taxes (federal, state, and local) that many pay as well as an explanation of graduated tax brackets.

The last quick point to cover, before getting into specifics on minimizing your taxes, is to understand the differences between taxes paid and payments sent to the government during the year.

Freelancers need to be aware of the difference between taxes paid and payments made during the year

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I have spoken with many people who have not considered the difference between tax payments they make during the year and the taxes they actually pay for the year.

This is crucial for freelance developers, and anyone who is self-employed, as failing to make proper payments during the year can result in penalties from the IRS.

Let’s take a look at the difference between taxes paid in and actual taxes paid and then we’ll look at how you go about paying your taxes as a freelancer.

If you’ve had a job, then you’re familiar with your employer withholding taxes from your paycheck. These taxes are then sent to the federal government. At the end of the year, when you prepare your tax return, you determine the amount of tax to be paid to the government based on your income. The payments made, through your paycheck withholdings, are then applied to this amount.

If your withholdings exceed the tax to be paid then you receive a refund for the difference. If the taxes to be paid exceed the amount of your withholdings, then you owe the IRS the balance.

Before discussing how you pay your taxes during the year, as a freelance developer, it is important to understand one thing about receiving a “tax refund.”

I know many people who get excited at the end of the year because they will be receiving a refund. These individuals often see this refund as some type of windfall being given to them by the government. What they do not understand is that it is their money! It is simply a refund of the overpayment made toward their taxes. In other words, by paying in too much during the year, they were essentially loaning their money to the government interest free and getting the surplus back at the end.

While I do not like to owe money at the end of the year, it certainly is not good financial management to loan money to anyone interest free. This is why I try to structure my affairs in a way where I either have no balance, or a small one that avoids a penalty, at year end. This way I have more money during the year.

If you are a freelance/self-employed developer then you are not having taxes withheld from your pay during the year if you receive a 1099, if you are a sole proprietor, or if you operate an LLC which has not made the S Corporation election. This is because you are being paid directly by your customers.

If you do not make regular payments to the government during the year, and if you underpay your taxes by a sufficient enough amount, you may be assessed a penalty from the IRS in addition to any taxes you owe.

In order to ensure that you are not hit with a penalty, you need to make quarterly payments to the government using form 1040es. While the form provides a calculator of how much your quarterly payments need to be, in order to avoid a penalty, this does not mean you will still not owe the IRS money at the end of the year. It is crucial that you discuss your estimated payments with a tax professional.

How quarterly tax payments are calculated, and the application of penalties, can become quite a lengthy discussion which goes beyond the scope of this article. My strong suggestion is that you be aware of this issue, ensure that your payments are made, and that you discuss your situation with a tax accountant.

The payment of taxes during the year works differently from self-employed developers who have formed an LLC and have opted to have it taxed as an S corporation. This is because, as explained above, the owner of an S corporation must pay themselves a “reasonable salary.” Any profits in excess of that salary are then distributed to the owners.

The payment of the salary, however, means that the owners of the business are receiving a paycheck from which taxes can be withheld.

Remember that the owner of an S corporation must pay federal income tax on both their wages and their profits. So, while the taxes on the wages will be withheld on your check, you still need to make sure you are paying in enough to cover the taxes on your profits.

In our business, we handle this by having additional federal income tax, in addition to what would already be withheld, taken out of our paycheck. Again, discuss your situation with a tax professional to figure out your best course of action.

Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s take a look at the tax consequences associated with the different business structures available to a freelancer.

How a freelance developer’s business structure will impact their tax liability

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The way in which you structure your business activities is going to impact the extent to which you pay various taxes.

Generally speaking, you will either be working as an independent contractor, who receives a 1099 at the end of the year (typically a bad idea), a “sole proprietor,” as the owner of a Limited Liability Company (known as an “LLC”), or you may choose to be taxed as an S corporation.

There are different levels of complexity that come along with each of these structures, just as there are different benefits with each. To understand how this impacts what you will pay the tax man, let’s dive into how a typical company employee is taxed and then how freelancers can be taxed under each of the business structures I just mentioned.

First, however, we will need to understand the rules surrounding what is known as the “Qualified Business Income” deduction. This is also known as the “QBI” deduction.

The Tax Cut & Jobs Act of 2017 created the Qualified Business Income deduction

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The Qualified Business Income deduction was created under the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. This deduction allows a self-employed individual to avoid federal income tax on the first twenty percent of their business income as long as their total income is below $164,900. Yes…….I know that sounds confusing. Let’s break it down a bit.

If your total income is below $164,900 for 2021, then the first twenty percent of any income which came from “qualified business activities'' will not be subject to federal income tax. To more easily explain how this works, let’s look at how this can apply to two different situations.

Suppose Joe Developer is working as a freelancer and is able to deduct qualified business income. Joe’s entire income is from his freelancing activities and his total profit for 2021 was $150,000. Joe will only pay federal income tax on $120,000 worth of income as he is not taxed on the first twenty percent of his $150k in profits.

Now suppose that Jill Developer has freelancing income of $30,000, a salary of $100,000 from a full-time job, and another $20,000 of profit from rental units she owns. Jill’s total income is also $150,000.

Jill, however, will be taxed on $144,000 of income as only the $30k was related to a “qualified business.” Thus, only the $30,000 is subject to the Qualified Business Income deduction. If Jill’s total income had been over $164,900 then she may not have been able to deduct her QBI at all.

Now let’s look at how the QBI, and other tax related issues, apply to having a job, having a business, and how the form of your business impacts tax obligations.

Developers who work as W2 employees will likely pay a higher amount in taxes than a freelancer

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When someone takes a job working for a company then they will be considered a “W2 employee.” This means that the employer will issue a W2 at the end of the year, to the employee. The employer will withhold federal income taxes and FICA (explained above) from the employee’s paycheck.

One of the biggest downsides of being a W2 employee is that the income that flows from it is the most taxed income someone can earn. This is because they are responsible for federal income tax on all of their income. They are also responsible for Social Security taxes for all of the first $142,800 which they earned for 2021 (this limit adjusts each year). Finally, they are also responsible for Medicare taxes on all of their income.

It’s pretty hard to get ahead in life when someone is automatically taking a slice of everything you make. This is the situation which W2 employees find themselves in. Fortunately, those who go the freelance route have options. Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Freelance developers, who do not form a business, may be able to reduce their tax obligations.

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A freelance developer, who does not form a business, will receive a 1099 at the end of the year. Depending on whether their freelancing activities are continuous and ongoing, they may be able to consider themselves a “sole proprietor,” which is explained below. Sole proprietors are eligible for the Qualified Business Income deduction explained above.

The key to whether someone, who has not formally formed a business, can consider themselves a sole proprietor is whether their activity is continuous and ongoing. Let’s explain this with a few examples.

Suppose Joe Developer has a full-time job but takes a single side project which will take six months to complete and he does not form a business. He is paid $100,000 for this side project and receives a 1099 at the end of the year.

During this time, he takes no other projects, does not attempt to gain other projects, and ceases “freelance” work once his one project is completed.

Most likely, Joe’s activities are not “continuous and ongoing” and were, instead, a one-time activity. Likely, Joe would not be able to call himself a sole proprietor and would have to pay federal income on the entire $100,000 as an independent contractor.

Now suppose Jill Developer took small projects throughout the year and earned $30,000 from her side hustle. She was continuously looking for more work and/or performing work for different customers.

Because Jill’s activity is “continuous” she would likely be able to take the QBI deduction. This means she would only pay federal income tax on $24,000 of the money she earned ($30k-20%).

One thing that is important to remember for both Joe and Jill, is that both independent contractors and sole proprietors must pay “self-employment” tax on all of their business income.

Self-employment tax is the equivalent of FICA/Medicare payments. So, in other words, Jill would pay slightly less federal income tax than a W2 employee due to the QBI deduction and would pay the same level of self-employment tax that a W2 employee would pay in FICA/Medicare taxes. Joe would be at the same level of taxation as a W2 employee in all regards.

As these examples show, if you go the freelance route then you can see tax benefits (mainly the QBI deduction) as long as you are not simply completing a “one off” project but are, instead, engaging in continuous activity.

Forming a formal sole proprietorship can yield tax benefits for freelance developers

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A sole proprietor is someone who is self-employed but does not start a formal business entity, such as an LLC or a corporation. This is an individual who obtains a local business license and registers a trade name (depending on the rules and laws of their particular locale).

Income earned through this business is reported on Schedule “C” of their personal tax return and is eligible for the Qualified Business Deduction. As with an independent contractor, a sole proprietor will pay self-employment tax on all their profit.

One of the benefits for forming a formal business is that it clears up ambiguity regarding whether you can consider yourself a sole proprietor.

In the example above, Joe developer likely could not classify himself as a sole proprietor as he was not engaged in continuous business activity and had not formed a business by obtaining a business license and registering a trade name.

By forming a business, you can more comfortably call yourself a sole proprietor (generally speaking) and ensure that you receive the benefits of the Qualified Business Income deduction.

Acquiring a business license and trade name is often inexpensive in the grand scheme of things. There’s a good chance that it’s worth it to do so.

Freelance programmers have the option of forming an LLC

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Another option for a freelance programmer is to start a Limited Liability Company. This is a company which is considered to be a separate entity from the owner.

There are many benefits which come with forming an LLC. These benefits include quite a few things which are beyond the scope of this article, such as liability protection, the ability to bring in partners with ease.

When you start an LLC, you will form the entity through your given state’s Secretary of State Office. You will also need to check your state’s requirements regarding business licensing and so on.

The LLC will have its own bank account and customers will be billed through the LLC. The owners of the company can withdraw money from the business in the form of “distributions.”

The LLC will, itself, pay no taxes during the year. It will report its revenue and expenses to the IRS via tax form 1065. At the end of each year, the owners of the business will receive a form known as a K-1. The owner will be responsible for any taxes on their respective share of the LLC’s profits.

Freelance developers who operate as an LLC will be able to take the Qualified Business Income deduction explained above. They will also be fully responsible for self-employment on their share of the LLC’s profits. Let’s look at how this works in practice by way of example.

Jill Developer and Joe Programmer start an LLC together and start taking customers. Jill owns sixty percent of the business and Joe owns forty percent. The business earned $100,000 in profit for 2021. Jill’s share of the business’ income is $60,000 (sixty percent) and Joe’s is $40,000 (forty percent).

Since the Qualified Business Income deduction applies, $48,000 ($60k-20%) of Jill’s income will be subject to federal income tax. $32,000 ($40k-20%) of Joe’s income will be subject to federal income tax. Each will be responsible for self-employment tax on their entire share of the company’s profits.

A single individual can also start an LLC – it does not have to take the form of a partnership. For tax purposes, however, a single member LLC is referred to as a “disregarded entity” and the single owner will file a Schedule C as if they were a sole proprietor.

For federal tax purposes, this will have little difference as the tax consequences of being a sole proprietor and an LLC are essentially the same. However, there may be differences in terms of state taxation and it is important to remember that there are non-tax benefits, such as liability protection, which can come from forming a single member LLC.

Self-employed developers can save federal income tax and self-employment tax by taking the “S Corp election”

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Another option for self-employed developers is to form an LLC and opt to be taxed as if it were an “S” Corporation.

Under this scenario, the business is an LLC but, for tax purposes only, is treated by the IRS as if it were an S corporation. This provides the owner with the benefits of owning an LLC but also comes with some additional tax benefits – the main benefit being that the company’s profits are not subject to self-employment taxes.

Let’s look at how an S Corp election achieves this and how you can make the election when you start your business.

When an LLC opts to be taxed as an S Corporation, the owners must pay themselves a “reasonable salary.” This salary comes on a paycheck to the owner and the paycheck is taxed the same as it would be for any other W2 employee.

After that, however, the owner(s) start to receive multiple tax benefits. First, if you're a self-employed developer then the company’s profits would be considered Qualified Business Income, meaning you can take the QBI deduction.

Second, the profits of the company are not subject to self-employment taxes. This means that an S Corporation election can result in multiple benefits.

Suppose Jill Developer wants to go the freelance route. She starts an LLC and opts to be taxed as an S Corporation. Jill determines that a “reasonable salary” for a developer of her skill level is $60,000 per year. The S Corporation pays Jill her $60,000 salary. The Corporation also has profits of $50,000 in excess of the $60,000 salary. This means that Jill has a total income of $110,000 ($60k salary + $50k profit).

However, only $100,000 of this will be subject to federal income tax. The $60k salary is taxable, and because of the twenty percent QBI deduction, only $40k of the profit is subject to federal income tax. Also, the $50k in profit is exempt from self-employment tax.

So, while a sole proprietor or LLC owner would pay self-employment tax on the full $110,000 of income, Jill will only pay self-employment tax on her “reasonable salary.”

Forming an LLC is typically accomplished through the Secretary of State. To be treated as an S Corporation, the LLC will need to complete and send IRS form 2553 to the Internal Revenue Service.

It is important to note that form 2553 can only be sent to the IRS within seventy-five days of the start of your tax year. This means if you just started the LLC, you have seventy-five days from the date of the founding to make the election. Otherwise, you have to wait until the next tax year starts to be treated as an S Corporation.

If you miss this deadline, you will have until seventy-five days after the start of the next tax year to make the election effective for that year.

The benefits of an S Corporation exceed those of a sole proprietorship or LLC. An S Corporation, however, does come with additional burdens and things to consider. It’s important to weigh all the pros and cons when deciding which business entity is right for you.

Developers should pick the business structure which bests fits their situation

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After going through all the options above, it may seem like forming an LLC with S Corporation status is the obvious choice. That is the structure which offers the most possible tax advantages.

It is important to remember, however, that each level of tax savings is also going to come with additional levels of red tape and expense.

On one end, forming a sole proprietorship is straightforward, as getting a business license and trade name are often inexpensive and low cost. On the other end of the spectrum is S Corporation status – this involves paying yourself a “reasonable salary,” which means managing payroll filings and other regulatory hurdles. It’s important that you pick the structure that best fits your situation.

Again, you should discuss any decision as to how you should structure your enterprise needs with a tax professional (which I am not). My personal, non-professional opinion, is that the more you're intending to grow your business the more it makes sense to take your business structure up a notch.

In our company, the taxes we save justify paying for Quickbooks Payroll Service and the time involved in managing payroll. In other words, the benefits outweigh the costs.

If, however, you are only taking a project here and there, then you will need to weigh potential tax savings against the time and expense of a given structure.

At the end of the day, how to structure your business is a personal choice. Understanding how the choices impact your taxes, however, is important to planning your business and trying to get ahead in this world.

Now that we’ve looked at how the structure of your business will impact your tax obligations, let’s look at the importance of taking, and maximizing, your various deductions.

Freelance & self-employed developers must understand the importance of tax deductions & utilize them

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A big part of minimizing your tax obligations is to make sure that you're utilizing all possible deductions.

The extent to which I talk with people, on a regular basis, who aren’t maximizing their deductions is astounding to me personally. These people are leaving large amounts of money on the table while simultaneously complaining about not being able to “get ahead.”

This section of this tax guide is going to be dedicated to discussing the importance of deductions.

First, we’ll look at how not utilizing your deductions amounts to donating money to the government.

Second, we’ll look at various expenses which can be deducted from your taxable income at the end of the year.

Finally, we’ll look at how proper retirement planning can impact your tax bill. Before diving into these topics, however, I believe it is important to explain the concept of a “deduction.”

Many people are familiar with the concept of a tax deduction. Most, however, don’t understand that a deduction is not a dollar-for-dollar credit. Instead, deductions reduce income which, in turn, reduces your tax bill.

Earlier in this guide we looked at how the higher your income is, the more you pay in taxes. If, for example, you are in the twenty-four percent tax bracket for 2021, then the last dollar you earn will result in a twenty-four-cent tax obligation.

We also looked at the fact that freelancers pay taxes on their profits and not on their revenue. This means that if you have one hundred dollars of revenue, and ten dollars of business-related expenses, then you only pay taxes on ninety dollars of income ($100 revenue - $10 expenses).

Putting these concepts together, we see that if you are in the twenty-four percent bracket, then your tax obligation would be $21.60 on that last $90 (24% * $90). So, by deducting $10 in business expenses from $100 in revenue, you save $2.40 in taxes ($24 - $21.60).

In other words, anything you deduct as an expense means a reduction in the income that you must pay taxes on. It is, therefore, important that you understand which business expenses are deductible and that you report them to your accountant/on your tax return.

Developers are essentially donating money to the government if they fail to deduct their business expenses

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I talk to way, way, way, way……way too many small business owners (including developers) who don’t do a good job of making sure they claim all their business expenses as deductions at the end of the year. This amounts to unnecessarily donating money to the federal government.

Think of it like this – if you don’t write off an expense, which was deductible, then you must pay taxes on that money. Let’s look at this by way of example.

Jill Developer brings in $100,000 in revenue in her freelance business. She deducts $20,000 for services which are necessary to her business (AWS, and so on). This brings her taxable income (the amount she will pay taxes on) down to $80,000.

However, as part of her work, she regularly drives to meet with customers. Over the course of the year, she incurs $2,000 worth of work-related mileage on her car. She does not deduct this mileage as an expense (more on this below).

This means that Jill paid $2,000 for her work mileage and paid $440 in unnecessary taxes by not writing it off. This amounts to Jill letting the government keep $440 of her money unnecessarily. Here’s a tip for Jill if she wants to get ahead in life: don’t do that.

It’s common for self-employed individuals to be unsure of what, and what is not, deductible as a business expense. A rule that I live by in our business is to err on the side of assuming that something is deductible and then asking our accountant about it.

If you don’t report an expense to your accountant, then they have no way of knowing the expense even existed. This can result in deductible expenses being missed.

If, instead, you let your accountant know about everything and then let them exclude non-deductible expenses, you ensure that you don’t miss any deductions.

In other words, make sure your accountant knows about all your expenses. This will help to prevent you from donating money to the government.

Common expenses which developers can deduct from their taxes at the end of the year

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The discussion above, hopefully, drives home the point of making sure that you deduct all your business expenses. Unfortunately, many freelancers don’t deduct any of their expenses.

So, let’s devote a bit of this guide to understanding the more common deductions which you should be claiming as well as some of the less obvious/lesser-known ones.

First, there are things which can clearly be classified as business expenses. If you are paying for a service such as AWS, for example, it can be deducted from your revenue as an expense.

If you are renting an office of any sort, or if you pay for a post office box that is solely dedicated to your business, then these expenses will generally be tax deductible.

Likewise, expenses related to an office, such as utilities, are clearly a business expense.

Unfortunately, many developers miss out on some of the lesser known/considered deductions.

The first commonly missed business expense is work-related mileage. For the 2021 tax year, self-employed individuals can deduct up to fifty-six cents per mile for work-related driving. This is meant to cover the cost of gas, depreciation on your car, insurance, and so on.

Examples of “driving for work,” can include driving to meet with a customer, driving for a dinner meeting with a potential client, driving to Best Buy to purchase work-related equipment, and so on.

Work mileage does not include driving from your house to your office (that is your daily commute) and vice versa.

If you are a sole proprietor, then you will deduct the mileage on your Schedule C. Under the Tax Cut & Jobs Act of 2017, however, mileage on a personal vehicle became non-deductible for an LLC owner. But if you have elected for S Corporation treatment of your LLC, it is still possible to claim the mileage deduction.

This is accomplished by having the S Corporation (the company) reimburse the employee (you) at the rate of fifty-six cents per mile for the use of a personal vehicle. This is not taxable to the individual (you) and is deducted from the S Corporation income which flows through to the individual (you).

So, in a nutshell, if you are a sole proprietor then you can deduct your mileage. If you own an LLC with an S Corporation election, you can deduct your mileage by having the company reimburse you for the mileage expense.

A second commonly missed deduction is the use of a personal cell phone. If you have a separate cell phone, that is in the name of the business only, then the cost of it is clearly deductible.

But what if you use your personal phone for work purposes? The answer is that you can write off the portion of your bill that can be apportioned to work. So, if forty percent of your personal cell phone usage is work related, then you can claim this as an expense on your Schedule C if you are a sole proprietor. If you own an LLC or S Corporation then your business can reimburse you for that forty percent. It would be deductible to the business and non-taxable to the individual.

So, sticking with the forty percent example, if your cell bill is $100 per month then you would reduce your taxable income by $480 [12 months * ($100 - $40)]. This is one of the more commonly missed deductions.

Third, work-related equipment purchases are also deductible. Importantly, so are personal purchases with a work purpose. If you buy a laptop, for example, that is solely for use in your freelance business then you can deduct the entire cost of it (you may be required to depreciate it over time – that’s a question for your accountant).

But what about a laptop that is used for both work and personal purposes? Like with a cell phone, you can deduct the portion of it that is “work related.” So, if you pay $1,000 for a laptop and sixty percent of its use is work related, you can deduct $600 from your taxes.

Another commonly missed expense is the one for non-extravagant work travel. This can include airfare, nights in a hotel, and meals for business related travel.

The key point of this deduction is that the travel must be non-extravagant and primarily for work. In other words, if the trip is a vacation in disguise, then you can’t deduct these expenses. If you can meet the standard of “primarily for work,” however, then these expenses became fully deductible under the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act.

The foregoing are just a few examples of deductions which are often missed. Talk with your accountant to see what other opportunities for deduction you may be missing.

Freelance developers can minimize their tax burden by maximizing retirement plans

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One of the big things people in the U.S. are missing out on is the ability to partially fund their retirement through tax savings. Whenever I meet someone who isn’t maxing out their 401(k) through their employer, I just shake my head to be honest.

Fortunately, if you are a developer taking the freelance route (which I assume is why you’re reading this guide), then you’re not going to make that mistake.

To see how you can build wealth, and save money at the same time, let’s look at what you can be doing with an IRA or a SIMPLE (short for “Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees”).

Before looking at an IRA and a SIMPLE, let’s understand how the IRS treats retirement plans in general.

Contributions made to retirement accounts are tax deductible. This means that you will not pay federal income tax on income used to fund these accounts. For 2021, the most an individual could contribute to an IRA was $6,000. The limit on a SIMPLE for that same time was $13,000.

It is important to note that there are low-income limits in terms of being able to take both. If you have a Modified Gross Income of less than $76,000 then you can still contribute to both an IRA and a SIMPLE. You will not be able to reap the full tax benefits, however, if your income is over $66,000. So, let’s take a look at how these work.

An IRA is an “Individual Retirement Account.” As just mentioned, you can contribute up to $6,000 per year for 2021 (this number changes each year).

The amount you contribute to your IRA is deducted from your taxes at the end of the year. You then invest the money in an investment vehicle of your choice. Any gains in that investment, and dividends paid on the investment, are [MBD2] not taxed.

When the person reaches 59 ½ years old, they may then withdraw money from the IRA to live on. Those withdrawals are taxed as “regular income” at the time of withdrawal.

Suggested Reading: Unshakeable by Tony Robbins (Link goes to Amazon)

Let’s look at how an IRA works in practice. Jill Developer has a taxable income of $80,000 in freelance business for 2021, after taking her QBI deduction. Her federal income tax obligation for the year is going to be $13,348 and her top bracket is twenty-two percent. That’s a lot in taxes.

Now suppose Jill had contributed $6,000 to her IRA. This would drop her taxable income to $74,000 and her tax obligation would have been reduced to $12,028 due to her lower taxable income. This means Jill would have saved $1,320 in taxes.

Further, this means that contributing $6,000 to an IRA only cost Jill $4,680 ($6k contributed - $1,320 tax savings). So, at the end of the day, Jill wound up with $6,000 in retirement savings, which will grow tax free, at a cost of only $4,680. What’s even more beautiful is that any individual can contribute to an IRA.

Another option is to create a SIMPLE if you have an LLC that is being taxed as an S Corporation. A SIMPLE is a type of plan which allows employers to contribute to the retirements of their employees. It is like a 401(k) but is for smaller businesses.

As stated above, if you are being taxed as an S Corporation you are both the business owner and an employee of the business. This means that you can create a SIMPLE.

Under this type of plan, the employee (you) could contribute $13,000 to their retirement for the 2021 tax year. The employee can deduct this amount from their taxable income. The company (which you own) can then match contributions of the employee (which is you) for up to three percent of the employee’s salary. This match is deductible from the company’s profits.

Now let’s look at a Simple in action. Remember Jill Developer? Well….she’s back. Jill has started an LLC and has elected to be taxed as an S Corporation. The company pays Jill her “reasonable salary” of $60,000. It also has profits which, after her QBI deduction, give her a total taxable income of $132,000 (salary plus profits). Jill’s federal income tax obligation is $25,701.

Now, let’s suppose that Jill had contributed to a SIMPLE. She could have contributed $13,000 as an individual and the company (which she owns) would contribute $1,800 (three percent of her salary). Once all the numbers are crunched, Jill will have received $14,800 in retirement contributions at a real cost of $11,623, after factoring in tax savings.

The moral of the story for either an IRA or a SIMPLE is that a self-employed developer can partially fund their retirement, and build wealth, through tax savings.

How small business owners and freelance developers can make their tax payments during the year

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Tax withholding is simple when you are a W2 employee. You go to work, you get a paycheck, and your employer withholds any necessary taxes from that paycheck.

When you are working for yourself, however, making your tax payments during the year becomes your responsibility.

Not paying in enough during the year can result in a large bill when you file your tax return. It can also result in a potential penalty. Conversely, paying in too much can mean that you are loaning your money to the government interest free – not a good idea.

Before we get into how self-employed developers can make their tax payments during the year, let’s look at tax withholding as a general concept, and the consequences of paying in too little, or too much, during the course of such a year.

Federal tax payments made during the year (whether through payments you make or withholding from a paycheck) goes to the IRS, and the US government uses that money to fund its current operations (along with money it borrows to finance the deficit – but that’s a different discussion).

At the end of the year, you file a tax return which calculates how much tax you owe for the year, as explained throughout this guide.

If, during the year, you paid in more than the amount shown as required on your tax return, you will receive a “refund” equal to the amount which you overpaid. Conversely, if you paid in less than the amount shown as required on your tax return, then you must pay the balance to the government.

There are consequences for failing to pay in enough tax during the year. If an individual owes more than $1,000 in tax at the end of the year, then they will face a penalty unless their payments during the year amounted to at least ninety percent of the total year’s tax or if the tax they paid during the year was equal to the total tax paid the prior year.

If a penalty is assessed, then interest will apply to that penalty until it is paid. Yes, this seems convoluted. Let’s look at a few examples to see how this works in practice.

Jill Developer earned “x” as a freelancer in 2021. When she completes her tax return, it shows that her total tax obligation for the year was $10,000. Jill only paid $8,500 in tax payments during the year. This means she has a balance of $1,500.

Because this balance is more than $1,000, Jill may owe a penalty. Now Jill must look at her 2020 tax return. If her total 2020 tax obligation is $8,500 or less, she will not owe a penalty. This is due to the fact that her 2021 payments were equal or greater than her total 2020 tax obligation. If her 2020 return shows a tax obligation of more than $8,500 then she will owe a penalty.

Now suppose Jill’s 2021 tax obligation is $20,000. Further, suppose her 2021 tax payments only equal $18,500. Jill has a balance of $1,500. Again, Jill may owe a penalty due to this $1,500 balance. In 2020, Jill’s tax obligation was $30,000. While Jill owes more than $1,000, and has 2021 payments that were less than her 2020 obligation, she will not owe a penalty for 2021. This is due to the fact that her 2021 payments were more than ninety percent of her total tax obligation for the year.

There are potential consequences that come with paying too much in tax payments during the year as well. These consequences are the fact that doing so amounts to loaning money to the government interest free.

In other words, making excess payments during the year, just so you can get money back without any interest, at the end of the year, isn’t exactly the road to financial success.

As you’ve probably gathered from reading this guide, smart tax management is one of the keys to “getting ahead” financially. Loaning money out for free is not smart. It is also pretty common for people, who get excited about having a refund at the end of the year, to be the ones who didn’t manage their taxes correctly and paid too much as a result.

Consider the following example. Joe Developer had a total tax obligation of $15,000 for 2020. This means that Joe did not need to pay more than $15,000 during 2021 in order to avoid a penalty.

Although Joe’s business wasn’t considerably growing in 2021, he still paid in $20,000. Furthermore, Joe did not structure his business as an S Corporation (see the discussion above). So, this means that for 2021, Joe loaned $5,000 to the government interest free. He also paid unnecessary self-employment tax by not taking the S Corporation election.

Joe just doesn’t understand why he can’t get ahead with his finances, but never stops to think that his tax management may be a culprit. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people like Joe out there.

Now that we’ve discussed the problems with paying too little, and too much, tax during the year, let’s discuss how a freelance developer can make their tax payments during the year.

If you are self-employed, there are multiple ways in which you can make your tax payments during the year.

First, if your business is being treated as an S Corporation, then you will receive a paycheck as you are an employee of the business as well as the owner. Taxes will be withheld from these paychecks, as they are with any other employee’s check.

If you are not being taxed as an employee, then you must make estimated tax payments each quarter. Let’s look at each of these in turn.

If you are receiving a paycheck from your business, then the taxes withheld will only be based on the amount of the paycheck. This can leave you with a large tax obligation, at the end of the year, which stems from the business’ profits.

One option for dealing with this is to have additional money held out of each check, on top of what would be held out normally. These extra withholdings can serve to deal with the taxes due on your profits. If you do not wish to have extra money held out of each paycheck, then you can make quarterly estimated tax payments (more on this below).

If you are not receiving a paycheck, then you must make estimated tax payments to the IRS during the year. These estimated payments can be made by sending a check, along with Form 1040-ES, to the IRS. Payments can also be made directly through the IRS website.

How much you should be paying during the year is an issue which I would suggest discussing with a tax professional. Again, paying too little can result in a penalty while paying too much can result in you loaning money to the government interest free.

How to best manage your payments during the year is going to depend on your specific situation and it is strongly suggested that you make your decisions in consultation with a CPA.

Where you choose to live will impact your overall tax bill

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As mentioned earlier, there are several layers of taxation in the U.S. These include various federal taxes (which have been the main focus of this article). But these also include state and local taxes. Such state and local taxes can include taxes paid to the state you live/work in as well as the city you live/work in. These state and local taxes can vary wildly.

Since, as I’ve been repeating over and over, consideration of your taxes is important to your financial wellbeing, it is important to understand that where you choose to live will impact your tax burden.

I’ll spare you a long discussion (as this guide is long enough already), about the various tax structures in different states. The biggest thing to consider is this: some states have no state income tax, some states have an income tax where self-employed people are highly favored, and other states have a high state income tax.

Nevada, for example, is a state in which there is no state income tax on individuals. Ohio has a state income tax, but self-employed individuals enjoy several exemptions. Living in California will result in paying a high state income tax.

Life is about choices, and these include the choice of where you live. If you are choosing to live and work in a place with a high cost of living, and a high tax structure, then getting ahead is going to be highly difficult.

Earlier in this guide I mentioned a friend from San Francisco who didn’t realize that her taxes were her second largest expense. Well, she lives in California where housing prices are sky high, and taxes are sky high. I live in Ohio, where housing is cheaper and state income is largely waived for self-employed persons such as myself. Where you live matters.

Closing Thoughts

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If you’ve been reading this guide, then I’m assuming that you have a desire to save on your tax bill. Being mindful of your taxes is one of the most powerful things you can do when it comes to getting ahead financially.

By starting a business, structuring it appropriately, and being mindful of where you live, you can greatly improve your financial standing.

If you feel like you are struggling financially, then ask yourself these two questions:

1. Are you actively trying to reduce your tax bill?

2. Are you willing to move to a state with a lower cost of living?

Unless you answer “yes” to each of these questions, and then act on them, the first thing to do when it comes to your finances is to have a harsh discussion with the person in the mirror.

Just food for thought.

About Me

I am a front-end developer and the founder of Modern Website Design. I enjoy writing on business-related issues and am passionate about entrepreneurship. To keep up with more of my ramblings, follow me on Twitter.

Many people who want to try freelancing believe that they need to have years of experience to succeed. But this is a common misconception that many freelancers have disproved.

Regardless of your industry, a helpful blueprint can be all you need to fast-track your freelancing success. This article underscores what you need to know to start a freelance web development business.

Being a Freelance Developer and Its Advantages

Getting started as a freelance web designer can be a challenging feat. But if you succeed, you can be in a high-value position in your field.

As a freelancer, you need to be capable of running your own business. This task requires self-discipline, which can be hard work. You need to implement strict and rigid rules for yourself to succeed.

To motivate you, here are several major advantages of becoming a freelance web developer.

1. High Demand for Web Design Services

The most obvious benefit is the high demand for your services. Data from Indeed shows that there are over 60,000 web developer jobs in the US as of this writing.

The high demand for web design services ensures that you always have customers. There are a lot of people willing to pay you for your skills.

2. Shortage of Developers

Another advantage is that there is a massive shortage of developers in the US and worldwide in general. The lack of web designers means that you do not have to compete with too many people in your industry to get paid as a freelancer.

3. You Get to Be Your Own Boss

Freelancing also means that you are your own boss. You have more freedom and more time on your hands than when you work for someone else.

When you run your own business, you do not have to report to anyone. It will be your choice which new clients to accept, how many hours you work, and what your rate is.

4. Attractive Earning Potential

Web designers get paid a decent amount for their services. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average yearly pay for web developers was $77,200 in 2020.

Important Steps to Take to Become a Freelance Developer

This section highlights three crucial steps to help you get your freelance business up and running. After reading, you can start offering your web development services from home with ease.

1. Choose a Niche

It is impossible to be equally good in all areas of web design. Choosing a niche lets you focus your time and effort on narrower tasks.

Having a niche also allows you to become an expert who can address the needs of one group of clients. Doing so is much easier than learning a little bit of everything about different businesses or website styles.

When choosing a specialty, it is not enough to be interested in a particular niche. You must know if there is a demand in this niche for websites. Ask yourself if people are willing to pay for it.

This step is crucial for anyone starting a business regardless of your industry. You first need to know the marketability of your business idea.

What can help you complete this step is researching the market and looking for opportunities.

For example, if you like collecting toys, you can work for online stores selling rare action figures. Your selling point could be knowing how toy collectors think and what they want in a toy figure online shop.

If you were a grade-school teacher, you could help build websites for educators. A website can help them save time, market their teaching services better, and earn more.

If you are an activist, reach out to organizations. Check and see if anyone needs a website to promote their advocacy.

You can research online and visit communities on Facebook, Reddit, or Quora. These platforms are where people from different niche markets often hang out online.

Read their questions, look for their pain points, and determine the kind of product they need. After reading up, you can tailor your web development services to solve their problems.

2. Build a Portfolio

Getting that first project can be one of the most challenging things for many web designers. It can be tough to convince a prospect if you do not have a portfolio. Luckily, there are ways to secure your first gig without any experience.

You need to have a web design portfolio that serves as your website. The site should tell clients what you do and how you can address their needs.

You must include feedback from former clients and several of your past outstanding projects.

To get your first project, you may need to build a couple of websites for free.

In your chosen niche, look for an organization that urgently needs a site and do it for free. In exchange, you ask them to submit a testimonial on how your services helped them.

Looking for a client can be easy since you are offering free work. They will have nothing to lose if they choose to accept your offer.

You can use web development platforms like WordPress to finish your work faster. You need to keep in mind the user experience, accessibility, and conversion rate optimization as you work.

Aside from these three factors, you should also remember to keep your client's needs at the forefront. You should design the website in a way that addresses their specific needs.

Some clients may worry more about conversion than user experience. Some may have other site concerns, like search engine optimization (SEO). Regardless of what they need, you must ensure that your output delivers.

If you do not want to look for a client, you can buy domains and build websites yourself. This step can be a faster yet more expensive way to get your business up and running.

If all clients want to see is your skill, then this can be a good solution. Unfortunately, you will not receive any testimonials if you choose to buy domains.

Once you finish two to three projects, you can begin looking for your first paying client.

3. Search for Clients

Now that you have a portfolio that showcases your skills, you can begin searching for clients.

Social media can be helpful when looking for clients who will pay for your services.

For example, you can market your new business by using Facebook Groups. You can either make a new group or join an existing one.

Facebook groups are made up of people with common interests. Whatever niche your business is in, you can likely find a relevant group on Facebook.

Using social media to market your web design services does not only help you find clients. It also allows you to know your target customers better. It informs you what their problems are and what solutions they want.

Another way to meet clients is by speaking at events. Attending events about web design can be a great way to establish credibility. It can also be an effective way to build a network of contacts.

The downside of this approach is it could be challenging to get invites to events, and it involves a high level of preparation.

If you are not keen on socializing in person, you can look for clients through online job boards. Regularly visiting these sites can help you get more work. Try visiting Smashing Jobs, Mediabistro, Coroflot, or RemoteOK.

You can also try freelance marketplaces. Make sure to create a detailed profile that informs your clients of your specialties and how you can help them.

When creating a profile for freelancing sites, do not forget to include your skills, experience, and portfolio.

Wrapping Up

Becoming a freelance web designer requires a significant investment of your time and effort. But the result is a career that provides you with the freedom, flexibility, and income you want.

So push yourself to learn and increase your skill set to offer the most value to potential clients.

Let's face it, being in business as a web developer can be really hard. Once you start your business, you are no longer just a developer. You are now a business owner, and you have to provide your clients with solutions that handle whatever issues they have.

You also have to deal with stuff like writing client proposals, marketing yourself as a freelance developer, properly taking care of your taxes, and dealing with the ever-growing pool of competition out there for the development work you would like to do.

All that stuff can be stressful to think about, especially when you have bills to pay. That's why I think that if you want to get into freelance web development, you should consider working as an Independent Contractor (IC) first.

In my opinion, working as an IC is one of the best things you can do to give yourself some breathing room while trying to get your freelance web developer business off the ground.

In this blog post, I'll tell you about my experience working as an IC for a Web Design agency. I'll share how it is helping me get my own freelance web development business started the right way.

For this article, I will be discussing how working as an IC can:

1. Give you consistent income
2. Make you a better freelancer
3. Help you improve on your time management skills
4. Allow you to see how another company runs their business

Feel free to click on any of those links above and skip ahead to the part you are most interested in.

Also if you would prefer to listen to this blog post instead of reading it, I created an audio clip of the entire post below. Please check it out if you don't feel like reading.

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Well, now that you know what we are going to be talking about, let’s get started.

Working as an IC Gives You Consistent Income

In my opinion, there are two things that really suck about getting started in freelance web development (or in any business):

1. There are so many approaches you can take to getting started, and you have no idea which one will work best for you

2. At the beginning, you’re not making any revenue yet but you are incurring expenses.

Learning how to navigate the freelance world can often feel like taking an endless walk through a desert with no real destination and no food or water.

Now when I started my freelance development business, I thought, “Hey well, I have really good front-end dev skills and I’ve used WordPress before. And WordPress websites make up a large percentage of the web, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find work.”

And I could not have been more wrong about how it would be. I spent months trying to get my first freelance client. I tried Upwork, I tried asking people in my network, and I even tried cold approaching local businesses that didn’t have a website up.

This is what I felt after my first few months of freelancing, minus the cool jacket

Then one day, I got my first client, which was a pastor of a church that needed a website. That was the sweetest $800 that I ever made. But then once I was done, reality set in. I managed to get one client, but how was I going to get another one?

Now I know this might sound a little dramatic, but the thought of not knowing what to do next made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. And working as an IC helped me breathe again.

Working as an IC helped me:

• Have some extra space to figure out my approach to marketing myself

• Offset the cost of business-related expenses, which in my case meant having money to pay for accounting software, plugins to help me build sites faster, and courses to improve my skillset.

• Pay my bills every month (I didn’t have any other job so this was my main source of income)

You can think of working as an IC as that middle-ground between the financial security of a 9-5 job and the freedom of working for yourself.

And having that security of consistent revenue will help you navigate the highs and lows of learning how to market yourself in a way that works for you.

This is how I felt once I started working as an IC and had the income to work on my business

Working as an IC Will Make You a Better Freelancer

This year, I have had the opportunity to work as a Front-End Developer at Modern Website Design under the guidance of Lead Developer Luke Ciciliano. At Modern Website Design, I got the chance to create many different types of websites for small business clients.

Working on all of the projects that I was given taught me a really important lesson that I believe made me a better freelancer. And that lesson is that you have to be willing to look past your code to produce real results for clients.

A great example of this would be when I was building a website for a client that owned a gymnastics gym. In addition to the website, the client needed to be able to list different events that would be going on at the gym throughout the week and have the ability to edit or delete events whenever they wanted.

When faced with a problem, take a step back and think about what is best for your client

To implement this feature into their website, we had two options:

1. Pay for a plugin that would do exactly what the client needed and customize what it would like with CSS

2. Build a custom plugin for the client that allowed them to create, update, or delete events and list them on the front end of their website.

I’m sure that Luke and I could have put our heads together to create a custom plugin, but we ended up just purchasing a plugin that did what we needed to do.

If we were to build the custom plugin, the client would have had to pay for the cost of developing the plugin on top of the original cost of the website. Creating the plugin would have made us more money but it wouldn't have given the client more value.

It was our job to do what's best for the client so we decided to use one of the many great WordPress plugins that allow people to list events on their website.

So in the end, that decision allowed us to launch the website quickly and give the client what they wanted while staying inside their budget.

This is a great example of how you can look past your code and think about how you can best serve the client. Doing what is best for the client is an important concept to consider when working as a freelancer because when you are finished, that client will be happy with the work you've done for them.

A happy client can then go on and refer business to you for months or years to come.

A happy client will make you happy to when they refer you more work or new clients

Working as an IC gave me a safe space to learn that lesson which improved my ability to provide value to my own clients.

That’s why I think that developers interested in building a freelance business should become an IC as well so that they can have the space to learn valuable lessons like the one I learned.

Being an IC Will Help You Improve Your Time Management Skills

One of the most important parts of working as a freelance web developer is figuring out how to manage your time. Once your business starts to take off, you will be in situations where you will have to manage multiple client projects and other business-related activities at once.

It can be pretty overwhelming to deal with this at first, but once you get the hang of it, you can provide more value to your clients in less time. And this means you can make more money.

In my experience, working as an IC helped me to figure out how I like to approach working on new projects and how much time different types of websites will take to make.

You need to get a handle on how to manage your time to avoid feeling like the guy in this picture

Here’s a great example of when my ability to manage my time was challenged. At the time, I was placed on two different projects and had to have them done by the end of the week.

I wanted to implement some components from Bootstrap into the WordPress theme we were using so I spent some time recreating Bootstrap components with my own CSS (so that I could avoid having to load Bootstrap into the theme).

I spent so much time inspecting the CSS used on the components in Bootstrap’s documentation that by the time I had finished one of the projects, I only had half the time I thought I would need to complete the second one.

From past projects, I knew that normally it takes me about 20 hours to come up with a design, create the website, and optimize it for page load speed.

But this time, I had to finish the second project over the weekend and there was no way I could work 10 hours on both Saturday and Sunday. That situation forced me to be very creative with how I went about finishing the second project.

Sometimes when you really need to make a deadline, you need to get creative to get the job done

To get the second website done, I ended up borrowing a lot of CSS code from the first website to create the basic structure of the design. Then I analyzed the content that was given to me for the second website and looked for patterns.

I noticed that on a few different pages, the content was grouped in a similar way, so I could use the same design on all the similar pages. By taking that approach, I was able to finish the entire website and test it for page load speed in just 8 hours.

I managed to shave a whole 12 hours off of the process! And based on that experience I came up with a basic workflow for future projects.

My approach looks like this:

• Review all content and assets (images, videos, and so on) given for the project
• Look for patterns in the content to see where I can reuse my HTML and CSS code
• Use the Pomodoro technique to time how long it takes me to complete the project
• Save the code used to create certain types of designs or web components so that I can re-use them later for new projects
• If it took longer than expected, analyze what I did differently to see where I can make improvements

Using this basic workflow, I am now much more productive and more confident in my ability to handle multiple projects at once.

And if I manage to finish a project earlier than expected, I can spend the extra time working on marketing to get new clients or on learning a new skill that I can leverage in future projects.

So working as an IC has helped me ease into the mindset of spending my time wisely which has helped me when I was working with my clients.

This is yet another reason why I think working as an IC can be helpful to developers wanting to get into freelance web development.

You Get to See How Another Company Runs Their Business

This point is probably the biggest takeaway for me working as an IC this past year. Depending on what kind of company you end up working for (on contract) you can get a sneak peek at how they deal with a lot of the same problems that you will be dealing with.

In my experience, working at Modern Website Design has given me insight into how to deal with things like:

• getting new clients
• optimizing content for search engine traffic
• managing the relationship with a client when working on a project.

These three things are very important and it would have probably taken me months if not years of trial and error to figure out a good way to approach them.

Working as an IC showed me that a good business is a machine with different tools and processes keeping everything running. It is up to you to keep this system running as you work with clients.

One example of something that I learned about that was a game-changer for me was how to use Google Search Console.

For those of you that don’t know, Google Search Console is a platform made by Google that helps you monitor how a website is performing in Google’s search engine results pages. Understanding how to use Google Search Console can help you position your website or a client’s website on the first page of Google for certain search queries.

Google Search Console is used on pretty much every website that we make at Modern Website Design. And I have personally seen how proper use of it has positioned a client’s website on the first page of a Google search.

Getting on the first page of Google for a relevant search term has helped many of our clients get new customers without spending a single dollar on advertising.

Now I know some of the more experienced developers reading this probably already know about Google Search Console. But for me, this changed the way I saw optimizing a website for Search Engines.

Just knowing about Google Search Console will help me get more attention to my website without having to always rely on running ads on Google or Facebook.

Most businesses using some kind of analytic tool to track their progress, so you should too.

Working as an IC can also allow you to see what you like versus what you don't like about running a business. In my case, I learned that I would like to niche down into the type of client that I provide services to.

Over the past year, we have worked with businesses that serve many different industries. This means that the features that each client needed changed drastically from project to project. Sometimes implementing those features required me to use a plugin that I’ve never used before and usually resulted in hours of digging through documentation.

I realized that in my business, I would rather focus on dealing with one particular type of client instead of providing my services to anyone that needed a developer. That way I can spend less time looking through documentation and finish my freelance projects faster.

Doing this will also make it easier to market myself as a developer because I can just focus on the needs of one type of client only.

So working as an IC can expose you to the different aspects of running a business and can help you decide what direction you would like to take your business in without taking too much risk yourself.

Wrapping it Up

Here's a quick recap about why working as an Independent Contractor (IC) can help you start your freelance dev business:

• You will get a consistent income that will allow you to pay your bills and afford to pay for business expenses as you start your business
• You will become a better freelancer by learning to focus on the needs of the client
• You will learn how to manage your time better and establish a workflow
• You will get to see how another business handles some of the biggest issues you will encounter such as getting new clients and managing the relationship with those clients

I hope this article has made your decision to get into freelance a little easier. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about my experience as an Independent Contractor.

More About Me

I am a Web Developer and the founder of Pierre Web Consulting. I often spend my time writing about my experience with freelancing or about building E-Commerce projects with Shopify and WordPress.

If you want to get in contact with me or keep up with stuff that I post about, follow me on Twitter.

People often ask me:

Should I present myself as a solo freelancer or as an agency?

In this article I will explore this idea with you and hopefully leave you with a clearer sense of direction.

TL;DR: You can do both.

The Benefits of Solo vs Agency Freelancing

Whether you approach freelancing as a solo venture or as an agency, there is no doubt that it has a ton of great perks.

First, there are some general benefits to freelancing that are more objective and approach-agnostic:

Freelancing gives you freedom

Starting with freedom in this list of benefits is simply to get it out the way. It’s the most widely-touted benefit, and is one reason many freelancers give as their reason for getting into freelancing.

In short, you are your own boss and in control of your time.

Freelancing lets you control client interactions

Working for a company as a full-time employee or as a web consultant means that you have very little control over what kind of work you get. In other words, you can’t say no to a client because you’re not actually dealing with the client.

This can result in you working on projects you don't enjoy or like. Sure, you could change jobs or request a specific kind of project if you’re an employee but this has inherent risks and isn't always an option.

Freelancing solves this for the most part. Once you're established, if you like a project, you take it on. If you're bored or uninterested in what a client wants done, you turn their project down. Your financial situation and future aspirations will determine the degree of leeway you have with turning clients down but ultimately the decision is yours.

Having this decision under your control means more than just accepting or rejecting a client. It means being able to zoom out and decide on a direction you see yourself taking in terms of the kind of work you want to be known for as a freelancer.

This has implications for your overall work satisfaction and ability to find profitable avenues of web freelancing income in the form of specific niches.

Freelancing removes the income ceiling

The lack of a salary contract with an employer opens up a whole new world of earnings possibilities.

While billing a client can be a complicated issue, it does allow for you to remove the earnings cap that you had when working a normal job. This is best achieved by charging for the value you add as opposed to billing per hour.

What's the Difference Between Solo and Agency Freelancing?

As for the tasks you'll perform, there's really no difference.

A freelancer and agency can do exactly the same thing.

The main differences, are:

• Solo freelancers generally take on smaller projects.
• Agencies often have a team, so they can take on more projects.
• Agencies can be sold, so that can be something to work towards as a freelancer.

The approach you choose does not change the fact that you will be dealing with clients, designing and building websites, adding features, taking care of client relationships, and managing all the other nuts and bolts required to get a client’s project up and running well.

You can see this by taking a look at the websites of solo freelancers and those of agencies.

If you look at a solo freelancer’s website, you will typically see that it consists of a number of sections which include a skillset, work experience, and a contact form.

The general message that a freelancer is typically trying to give across is one of “This who I am, this is what I’m skilled at, and this is how you can contact me."

Here are two great examples:

Jessica Haines - Freelancer for Coaches & Consultants

Dylan Spencer - Generalist Freelancer

An agency website will show how they are equipped to solve your particular problem in an expert manner.

Agencies are also often focused on a particular niche which is an avenue for real profitability.

Here are two great examples:

PaperStreet - Agency for Law Firms

PlumberSEO - Agency for Plumbers

The whole aura of these kinds of websites are generally more professional than solo freelancer portfolio sites and, as such, they attract a different kind of clientele.

The Natural Progression: Solo to Agency

The start of your freelancing journey can be intimidating and can bring up many uncertainties for those who don’t have the right guidance. One thing that is definitely not uncertain is the question about whether you need a website when you start your freelance journey.

The answer is a resounding “Yes”.

As a solo freelancer, your personal website serves as an online portfolio showing proof of good work that you’ve done. It also allows prospective clients to see if your skills match up with what they require and, if you so choose, it provides a glimpse into who you are as a person.

It’s fair to say that many, if not most, solo freelance sites are in fact just personal portfolio sites.

This is a logical way to start the freelance journey as it gives people a central place to view you in a professional freelance capacity and is the route most take when starting their freelance journey.

As you start landing more and more clients, you may feel the need to get additional help to assist with the workload. This can lead to the opportunity to outsource some of your work and serves as a good time to maybe transition to fashioning your online image as an agency.

Again, the difference here is largely cosmetic but I know that I would feel far more comfortable outsourcing work and using it for client deliverables if I was viewed as an agency.

Another reason to start transitioning to working as an agency once you’re comfortable with the general ins and outs of freelancing, is that you can now easily add additional services to your professional offering without worrying if you’ll actually be able to do the work.

Should You Choose a Solo or an Agency Approach?

People are often too concerned about choosing between building a solo freelancer site or an agency site when they should really just be focused on getting started on one or the other.

As beginner freelancers transition into more experienced operators, it makes sense to transition to an online presence representing that of an agency.

However this may not be the right way to go if you rather want to go the route of building a personal brand.

Personal brands can be powerful if executed correctly so a great portfolio site can be the catalyst for going down this road.

Most freelancers will be better equipped to start off with a personal site and then transition to an agency site as they grow in confidence, team, and capability.

To your freelancing success,

Kyle

As a freelancer, targeting your desired clients requires time and effort, and sometimes money.

While spending money to generate leads can be a good thing, in this article I want to focus on the free lead generation tips to get clients as a freelance developer, all in a quick and easy read.

Let’s get started.

Target Your Desired Customer or Clients

Qualifying your leads is the key to landing the right clients, and lead generation is the best way to target the right clients.

Remember, the wrong leads won't see the value of your service no matter how excellent you walk through your process.

Here's how to niche down to make sure you're focusing on the right clients.

Generate Brand Awareness

The truth is most client leads won't convert into paying clients. One way to help convert more leads is to generate brand awareness.

You need to be top of mind when someone thinks of a freelancer or a niched agency.

To do this, you need to get active on social media and post helpful articles/content for your desired client.

Think about purchases you've made in the last year. Chances are, most of them resulted in being aware of a brand or someone letting you know about it, and very few were a result of direct advertising.

The Best Way to Get Free Leads

As a freelancer, you want to make the most of your skills, and spending too much time on lead generation might distract you from doing so.

Here are a few places to generate client leads:

Check Online Directories & Platforms

Directories and freelancing platforms are an excellent way to generate leads.

Here are a few platforms/directories to consider:

Quora
A great way to generate leads is through Quora. My brother, who is also a freelancer, generates a lot of leads from Quora each month.

All he does is he responds to relevant business questions, and business owners then reach out to him.

It's simple, but sometimes we just overcomplicate things. Do the same as my brother.

Hubstaff Talent
I've hired a few freelancers from this platform. Highly recommend it.

UpWork
UpWork has a bad wrap, but it still works for so many freelancers today, so it's worth trying.

Yelp
It may just be the best web directory that exists today for plenty of great reasons. This is in part because it allows consumers and encourages them to post reviews of local businesses. That means it not only enlists local businesses but is also considered as an online word of mouth service.

Yellow Pages
You can find tons of information such as telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name.

CitySquares
Being on the market for a decade now, this web directory is ideal for city or industry search.

Best of the Web
Helping businesses to get found online almost two decades now, Best of the Web is notable for providing extensive details per listing.

Improve Your Portfolio Landing Page

Improving your portfolio website is a non negotiable.

Here's an outline of an effective portfolio website:

Looking for portfolio website inspiration?

Read this: 13 Freelance Developer Portfolios to Inspire You

Optimize Your Website for SEO

This strategy is helpful in terms of ranking highly on Google. It can offer you excellent results once you apply the keywords you want to rank for.

Targeting the right keywords requires a regular reevaluation of your website, so you have to update your site consistently.

Here's how to apply SEO for web developers.

Create a Blog

Blogging is an excellent way of generating free leads.

Bottom line: create targeted blog articles and pages.

With more quality content, your website will be more searchable, too. Google can easily identify which website offers quality and updated content and this way, you will maintain traffic on your site and more traffic means more leads.

I receive a few leads each month from having targeted blog articles like:

• Why Every [insert niche] Needs a Website
• How [insert niche] Can Get More Clients Online
• SEO for [insert niche]

Leverage Social Media

Be where your ideal client is.

Post what they want to see, and be consistent.

• If your ideal client is in tech, focus on Twitter.
• If your ideal client is in food or beauty, focus on Instagram.
• If your idea client is in a professional industry, focus on LinkedIn.

Send Compelling Emails

Email outreach is arguably one of the most successful lead generation methods today.

There are ways to automate email outreach like with Mailshake, but if you don't have the money, you can go the manual route.

To get emails, you can use a tool like FindThatLead.

Here's an example of an email:

Hi [name],

I just came across your website after searching for X and I noticed Y.

I’d love to discuss a few ways you can improve your website and generate more clients.

We’ve helped other [insert niche] double their online bookings.

Do you have time for a 5 minute call this week?

Regards,

Your name

Now you just have to put in the effort and reach out to potential clients :)

Wrapping Up

In an ideal world, attracting leads and selling your freelance services can be a walk in the park, but in reality, it is simply not that easy. Success in your freelancing career depends a lot on being proactive and putting in the work.

Stepping out of your comfort zone can be scary, but the reward is worth it!

Remember, there is no better time to start your lead generation than now.

I hope this article helps you in starting – or improving – your lead generation process.

Until next time,

Kyle

As someone who offers a service as a freelancer, you have a major say in how you price a website project.

But how do you go about charging for a website project?

Sure, you can bill by the hour, but is there a better way?

In this article, we are going to do an analysis of the different pricing options available to you as a developer to see which option is best for you.

But before we go over the different ways to charge for a website project, let's take a look at the factors that can help you decide how you price your web design services.

Here's a 20-min video if you'd like to get an overview:

What to Consider When Pricing your Website Project

Skills and Experience

The more skills and experience you have, the more clients are willing to pay.

I don't mind paying a few more bucks if I know that this individual or company produces world-class results.

Why settle for something cheap when you can go with a reasonable option because it would be of the best quality?

It might be true that some website projects can be done in a week or two, but it doesn't mean it's of any less value than those that take a month or more.

Remember that clients are paying for your skills and years of experience, not the amount of time the project takes to be built (more on this later).

Type and Complexity of Website

Your pricing depends on the type and complexity of websites you create.

Whether it's a personal blog, an e-commerce website, small or big business website, it requires time and effort.

Complex websites require more work and maintenance to keep them online.

Scope and Size

There are times when a project stretches beyond the initial timeframe required. In those cases, you might want to plan for this outcome or try to avoid such a situation.

Now let's move on to a few advantages and disadvantages to help you make a better informed decision on the pricing strategy you choose.

Hourly-Based Pricing

Hourly-based pricing is the most popular pricing method and the easiest to understand and start with.

I'm going to discuss the disadvantages of using an hourly-based pricing approach before I present its advantages and what I believe is a better method.

Hourly Billing Can be Harmful to Your Client Relationship

Billing by the hour has the potential to be harmful to your client relationship.

Why?

The longer a project takes, the better it is for you and the worse it is for your client.

If your estimates are inaccurate, this causes trust problems that weaken the relationship over time.

This can happen in a variety of ways, but it's amplified when the client doesn't realize how long it'll take to implement a feature or change, leading them to believe you're working slowly on purpose.

Another way this can happen is if the project takes longer than expected, because your client might feel that you're exploiting them. Your client will begin to evaluate the timesheets you supplied them in search of inconsistencies, and trust will be weakened.

Plus, it also produces so many issues.

Even if you can prove X task took 4 hours, they can dispute it and say it should have taken 1 hour.

Hourly Billing Discourages Efficiency and Innovation

You don't get rewarded for finding time-efficient ways to finish a project. If anything, you're getting financially punished.

Some websites can be completed in a few hours or a few days if you know what you're doing. If you're charging by the hour, what incentive do you have to find a way to complete the project in the shortest amount of time?

If you price your projects by the hour, you will, as a more experienced developer, get projects done sooner meaning you earn less per project.

So you think you make up for this by charging more per hour?

Well, this might only serve to scare your future (or even current) clients off to another developer who charges less per hour.

If anything, even if you don't do it intentionally, your work rate and efficiency will not be something you're too concerned about optimizing.

Besides, hourly work normally requires time and screen trackers.

Example:

Imagine you're working on a project that has similarities to a previous project you worked on or maybe there's a plugin or template you can use to cut your time spent on the project by half.

But by doing so, you'd cut down the number of hours you'd spend on your current project.

In this way, you've directly lowered your income because of a better, more efficient way to build a website.

Your Income is Capped

Hourly billing places an artificial limit on your income!

Let me explain.

There are only so many hours you can work in a year.

By providing a price per hour, you're limiting how much you're practically able to earn each year.

If you suddenly decided to increase your hourly rate because you'd like to start earning more as a freelancer, your existing clients will often not understand.

"Why," they ask, "are you suddenly valuing your services so much higher for the same work?"

Even before you explain whatever your reasoning is, you're entering the conversation with them on the back foot – they're feeling an inkling of mistrust.

Potential new clients will simply turn away and look for another freelancer who can offer them the same service at a lower hourly rate.

If you think you can just earn more by working more, ask yourself:

Is that sustainable? If so, do it.

But know that there will come a point where there are simply not more hours in the day to get more work done.

The other thing to consider is what if you're ill for 2 weeks?

What if you want to go on vacation for another 2 weeks of the year?

That's a whole month you just earned $0.

Sure, if you're charging massive hourly rates and you can save and make up for this loss, that's perfectly fine, but for the majority of 'hourly-billers', this can be a major problem.

Now before we on, let's go over some advantages of hourly pricing first so you can still weigh your options.

Being paid hourly is a benefit itself

The hourly wage rate has the advantage of paying an individual for the hours they work. If you work for 8 hours a day, for example, you will be paid for the entire 8 hours, and if you work overtime, you will be paid more and get additional income.

Work and life balance

Since you have a set amount of time to work in a day, you are able to maintain the balance between your work and life activities. Once the working hours are over, you're free to do anything and even jump on another project (if you can still manage your time).

Long-term projects and clients

Rather than short, intermittent employment, hourly rates are better for long-term projects and clientele. Hourly billing also makes it simple to account for project variations and adjustments.

Transitioning from hourly billing to value pricing is tricky (but worth it) and takes time if you're used to an hourly-based approach.

It requires a change in thinking, but, once you realize how ineffective it is to trade your time for money, you will find your profitability increasing.

Value-Based Pricing

The key takeaways about the difference between value-based and hourly-based pricing are these:

• In hourly-based pricing, you sell your time.
• In value-based pricing, you sell results.
• In hourly-based pricing, you ask what they want to be built.
• In value-based pricing, you ask why they want something built.

This makes all the difference and can be a real game-changer if you're switching from hourly-based pricing.

With the focus on results, there are a lot more advantages for you and the client.

When you and your client understand the "why" (the value gained), value-based price will make perfect sense.

Before we get into that, let's look at how value-based pricing works:

1. Find the potential value of a project to a client over a year.
2. Base your price off of those returns.

Example:

Let's say a business sells an average of ten 3D printers at an average of $2,000 each per month ($20k sales per month). Then, after calculating that, I could potentially increase sales by 30% month after month (based on experience or CRO knowledge). This would equal an extra three sales per month (or $6,000).

Even if we work on just 2 extra sales per month, it adds up to an extra $48,000 per year in additional revenue just by the changes and improvements I will be doing.

Therefore, charging $5,000 once-off for the website to potentially increase sales by almost $50,000 in one year is a no-brainer.

Let's look into the advantages of this approach:

Freedom To Make Great Websites

You can focus on creating something great without worrying about going over the client's budget or counting every hour.

This means you're not tied with any hourly work, trying to get over a day being productive when you're not really in the right mind to do the project, but you have to do something productive because your time is being tracked. It's also a common thing these days that your screen is being tracked, too.

Incentivized Learning

Not only does this approach encourage you to find the most optimal solution, but it also incentivizes you to stay up to date with the latest technologies and tools that make your workflow easier and more productive.

No Hidden Costs for the Client

Since you've agreed on the price upfront, you take on all the risk. This means the client will have no financial surprises down the line which helps facilitate trust. In other words, the client experiences less risk. And this often leads to fewer arguments.

Work with Clients That You Enjoy

The nature of value-based pricing means that you will likely be earning significantly more. You can now start working with fewer clients and provide a much better service while earning the same or more than you did while using hourly-based pricing.

Scope Creep Insurance

Once a project has been defined in terms of the business outcomes (for example, increased traffic, more sales) instead of deliverables (like change the font size of the navigation bar items, the password reset form needs ReCAPTCHA) it’s fairly easy to control scope. This is because business needs don’t change that often, and random requests from the client can be judged against the desired outcome.

The crucial factor with value-based pricing is this: It is up to you to make the business see your services as a necessary investment and not a cost.

You need to show them that you are the right person by explaining how both of you benefit from the pricing approach you're taking.

Bring their focus to the importance of results and what value the project will bring them.

Ultimately, this approach takes a lot of trial and error but trust the process and your future self will be thanking you.

By basing your value-based price on the client’s perceived value of the project outcome instead of your estimated labor, you can set your fees significantly higher, deliver more effective results, increase client satisfaction, and more.

Win-win.

Disadvantages of Value-Based Pricing

Well, there's only one, to be honest. That is the difference between you and your client.

It's not easy to communicate this pricing method because the value in your mind might be different from the value your client sees. There are even some instances where your client might feel that they didn't get the right result for the price they paid.

It might be challenging to apply this method at first, but you do get better the more you do it.

Remember:

You want to charge for your head, not your hands.

Smarts, not labor.

Results, not deliverables.

Outcomes, not activities.

Other Pricing Methods

Monthly Retainer

In a monthly retainer arrangement, the client pays you a set monthly price regardless of the quantity of work you complete in a month.

A lot of clients like retainers because they make budgeting easier for them. They know what they will get each month in exchange for a certain payment because the focus is on work and not hours.

Fixed Fee

A fixed-fee pricing strategy establishes a single price for all services. You can also create two or more fixed pricing options for your clients to choose from. There is a specified scope of work you will and will not complete.

Performance-Based Pricing

Performance-based pricing (also known as results-based pricing) is a sort of value-based pricing in which the price is determined by real performance measurements.

So, Which Pricing Method Should You Use?

The method you choose is up to you and, for many people, hourly-based pricing works perfectly fine. But for me, it's value-based pricing.

If you do choose to switch to a value-based approach, remember that this new approach will take some getting used to but it will certainly be worth it in the long run.

Try experimenting on your own and combine a few methods to determine the right pricing for your freelancing services.

I hope you found value from this article.

Until next time,

Kyle

It takes more than a stable internet connection to make a living as a freelancer. In order to make the big bucks, you’ve got to put in your time and know your stuff when it comes to selling your services.

In fact, there are quite a few things that most freelancers don’t even do that could save them a bunch of money. This article covers some of the most efficient ways for you to get started as a freelancer, and how you can hit the ground running right from the beginning.

Is freelancing right for you?

This is the gig economy!

The future of freelancing looks bright – and not just in regards to national workforce growth. The number of self-employed workers has grown steadily over the years, and at a rate higher than employment growth for employees.

It’s estimated that by the end of 2021, 42% of the American workforce will be freelancing.

As someone who has worked both as a freelancer and an in-house professional, I know that things aren’t always as straightforward as they might first appear.

I’ve never known anyone who went from having no clients to lots of clients overnight. It takes time to gain the confidence of potential clients and win their trust.

And if you want to work with big companies or internationally famous people, this process is even harder.

Make sure you want to work for yourself

Firstly, you need to be independent. The nature of freelancing means you’ll be working for yourself. If you’ve never worked in this way before, it can be a tough and isolating experience.

It takes a lot of time and effort to deal with the demands of running your own company, so you need to be an independent worker if you want to succeed.

Whether you’re a web designer, developer, or content creator, you have the opportunity to work on projects that you truly care about. And you'll get both the praise when something goes right, and the blame when it doesn't. Either way, if you’re a freelancer, then every outcome is a direct result of your efforts.

The flip side of being self-employed is that you have no one to rely on but yourself. There’s no one to assign tasks or remind you when they’re not completed.

At the same time, you need to market yourself. But how do you do this and still have the time to work on the actual assignments that you love?

How to Find Freelance Clients

Many new freelancers underestimate how important marketing is to getting hired as a freelancer. To some degree, you can make yourself look more professional and respectable by taking the time to show potential clients how you do business.

It’s not just about drawing up a few mockups, sending them to a client, and waiting for the cash to roll in. Craft, creativity, and promotion are all equally important when it comes to being a successful freelancer.

We could talk all day about the best practices for achieving success as a freelancer—or even the way to use tools like LinkedIn effectively.

But today, I wanted to provide you with specific ways to get more freelance clients, whether you’re just starting out or are looking for new approaches.

Network with other people in your industry

Your potential client pool is probably much easier to access than you think.

Don’t just ask your friends and family for work – this is a good way to burn bridges and to get into the habit of waiting for others to give you work.

Instead, engage with people in your industry and come up with ways you can help each other out. Maybe your colleague from your first job needs some voiceover work done on their podcast. Recommend yourself for the job. And if they say no, offer to record it for free as a special gift for helping you out.

Even if you don't know people in your industry in your city, search for them on LinkedIn and start getting in touch with people in that network—even if it isn't local. Ask them if they know anyone looking for a freelancer or if they have any advice for finding clients. You might even make some new friends!

This offline-to-online connection will put them in a prime position to be your advocates.

If they know of any opportunities, or if they have advice for finding clients in your field, you can bet they’ll pass it on to you, and likely with enthusiasm. And who knows—they might even hire you on the spot for a project once they know that you are freelancing.

Cold calling best practices

Cold calling is still a viable lead generation tactic, second only to social media. For example, during 2019, 69% of buyers report accepting one or more cold calls.

I know, many people will say that the number of organizations that actually do it are few and far between. But what they fail to recognize is that this is where the opportunities are hidden – the ones not being addressed by your competition.

If you plan on using this technique during your sales process, you need to get over your fear of rejection.

All you need is someone to practice with. Then ask them to give you mean criticism, without any tact or sugarcoating, for something you’re seeking from them. It can be a critique on a product idea, a pitch, your blog post, your haircut — whatever.

Remind yourself of the great testimonials you already have and move on to the next call.

Initially, you can think of a cold call like a job interview, making it easier to stay on track with the prospect and avoid going off on a tangent about your business. By prospect, I mean anyone you communicate with who has not requested information from you or your organization.

The only way you can get better at cold calling and closing sales is to keep doing it over and over again.

Writing effective cold emails

Cold emailing is exactly what it sounds like—contacting people you don’t know without any introduction. You’re putting yourself out there by putting your reputation on the line. Cold emailing gives you the ability to connect with anyone, but it can also put you in uncomfortable situations where your messages are not welcome.

Cold emailing has been a controversial undertaking for a very long time. Every now and then, an article comes out about how you shouldn’t be doing it at all.

However, cold emailing is a solid way of leaving your mark in the business world. There is a fine line between spamming people and giving them a good offer that they cannot refuse.

In order to generate the most response from cold emails, there are certain things you need to keep in mind.

Build a connection before selling to your prospect.

Not every recipient will be familiar with what you do or who you do it for, so give them some background information about your company or service.

If you’re writing to them because you want to provide them with some sort of solution, identify what problems they might be facing and explain how you can help.

Do your research.

Especially during the earlier stages, you need to choose your clients carefully. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that something that works for one type of client will work for another.

When it comes to your prospect, you should know as much as possible about them. If you understand who they are and what their interests are, you can strike up a conversation that will give off the impression that you know all there is to know about them. Just don't go overboard.

Introduce yourself as the solution to their problem.

You’ve heard it before: “People don’t buy products, they buy solutions to their problems.” Well, no matter what you’re selling, the prospect is going to ask, “How is this going to help me?”.

You can also try creating a list of their pains and the ways you can solve them if they choose your product or service. Make sure that your product or service is something that will genuinely benefit the customer and that the customer needs.

Collaborate with other agencies or freelancers

As you begin working on your own, you’ll go through growing pains. No one can deny that. But moving towards becoming a freelancer allows you the chance to have control over your time, your projects, and your future.

If you miss working in a team, you can always collaborate with other freelancers or agencies. You need to create a network of freelancers with different skills. While you have your favorite writers, designers, or social media marketers, think about new people who might provide great value for your business and vice versa.

As any professional freelancer or agency knows, the best way to collaborate with other freelancers and agencies is by establishing good relationships.

These ties can help you in furthering your career and in doing your work in the most efficient and productive manner possible. But in order for you to collaborate successfully with other freelancers and agencies, you should take into consideration the following tips:

Learn as much as you can about them.

Working with a collaborator is a great way to get a project done to a high standard, but it’s important that you choose the right person. Asking someone to work with you can be a little daunting, especially if you don’t know them personally at all, so it’s best to have some information about them beforehand.

Use the same collaboration tools.

You might be working in a completely different field and collaborate with someone who is miles away and in an entirely different part of the world.

The technology that we use every day can bridge that distance and make it easier for you to communicate and form the bonds that will define the way you work together. Make sure that you both work with the same tools to maximize efficiency.

Always ask for feedback.

Whether you’re collaborating with an agency or other freelancers, it’s important to continuously give and receive feedback. This should never be seen as criticism or a personal attack. It’s simply feedback on how you worked on the project. The person you worked with may even have ideas on how they would work differently in the future too.

Join popular marketplaces

There are many freelance platforms where you can win projects and make a lot of money.

However, before signing up with any website, you must do some background research on whether or not they are legitimate. By making a comparison of the best freelance marketplaces, you will be able to find a trustworthy platform for freelancers.

Here are the top 3 freelance platforms that are vetted by thousands of people:

Option #1: Upwork

Upwork is an online platform that allows freelancers to publish their skills and employers to search for the right person for the job.

It lists some 3 million freelancers across more than 100 different categories, some of whom will be capable of handling more complicated projects than others.

Its clients also spend at least $5,000 per year.

The users can set out their hourly or daily rate, experience levels, relevant skills and what languages they speak. The employer then selects freelance candidates and can use an instant messaging tool to chat with them directly through Upwork. After a fee is agreed, everyone moves on to Upwork's secure payment system.

Option #2: Fiverr

Fiverr is an online marketplace where you can sell any kind of service for $5. Though they started as a place to find simple tasks, Fiverr has become competitive with freelancer services that charge anywhere from $50 to thousands of dollars for projects.

Option #3: People Per Hour

PeoplePerHour (PPH) is one of the largest freelance marketplaces in the world, with over 2.5 million users and 400,000 freelancers. It brings companies and independent professionals together for projects ranging from graphic design to programming and writing.

No matter which marketplace you choose, make sure it suits your needs and services.

Conclusion

Becoming a freelancer can’t happen without its uncertainties, and there are roadblocks along the way to watch out for.

But don’t let that put you off, because it’s well worth it in the end. Allow yourself to be inspired by other freelancers and learn from their mistakes.

If you can do this, you’ll be well on the path to greater success with your freelancing career.

I have curated a list of 25 sites for remote work. Whether you are looking for part time, full time, or freelance work, these are the best sites to look into.

Here is the complete list. Once you find a website that interests you, click that link and it will jump you down to a more detailed description of that website.

1. Arc
2. We Work Remotely
3. Skip The Drive
4. Power to Fly
5. Remote OK
6. Remotive
7. FlexJobs
8. Dribble
9. AngelList
10. Remote.co
11. JustRemote
12. Virtual Vocations
13. Pangian
14. Working Nomads
15. Jobspresso
16. Outsourcely
17. Landing.Jobs
18. Authentic Jobs
19. Stack Overflow
20. Gun.io
21. Idealist
22. Fiverr
23. Upwork
24. Freelancer
25. freelancermap

Arc

Arc is a site dedicated to remote developer jobs. Arc provides many free resources including a job search by tech stack, a resume guide, salary explorer, virtual events, and interview questions.

You can also browse through Arc's list of Top Remote Companies that are hiring right now.

We Work Remotely

We Work Remotely offers free job postings in frontend, backend, full stack, mobile, design and more. You also have access to their events, forum, and slack group.

Skip The Drive

Skip The Drive offers free job listings in the areas of development, project management, sales and more. This site also offers a list of Micro Job Sites, a Remote Job Savings Calculator, and a Job Application Tracking spreadsheet.

Power to Fly

Power to Fly specializes in connecting candidates from underrepresented backgrounds to potential employers. When you create an account you'll have access to job listings, career events, coaching sessions, mentorship and more.

Remote OK

Remote Ok offers free job listings in development, online teaching, design and more. This site also has a separate page for just freelancers where you can create a profile and have access to thousands of jobs.

Remotive

Remotive offers free job postings in the areas of IT, development, design, QA and more. Remotive also provides career guides, webinars, and paid access to the Remotive community.

FlexJobs

FlexJobs is a subscription site for remote part-time, full time and freelance jobs. If you are skeptical about paying for job postings, then check out their Better Business Bureau rating and reviews.

This is the current pricing list for the FlexJobs subscriptions.

Members have access to their job listings, events, and articles. FlexJobs also offers career coaching, resume reviews, and mock interviews for an additional cost.

Dribble

While Dribble is mainly known as a place for freelance designers to post their work, there is also a section for remote graphic design jobs.

AngelList

AngelList offers software job listings at startup companies. You will need to create an account in order to read the full job descriptions and apply.

Remote.co

Remote.co offers free job postings in the areas of IT, development, design, QA and more. If you upgrade to the premium service, then you have access to more job postings, career coaching, and resume reviews.

JustRemote

JustRemote offers free job postings in the areas of DevOps, development, design and more. They also offer an online resume builder to help you get to the interview stage.

For an added cost, JustRemote has a feature called PowerSearch that provides you with additional job postings that are normally hidden from the general public.

Virtual Vocations

Virtual Vocations is a free service that provides you with remote job listings in development, technical writing, QA, project management and more.

Virtual Vocations also offers a paid subscription service which includes courses, webinars, and career coaching sessions.

Pangian

Pangian offers free remote job listings in the areas of development, IT, sales and more. You will need to create a free account in order to access the job details.

Pangian also offers free career tips and a community forum. For an additional $149.99 (US dollars), you can have access to the one on one resume and CV audit.

Working Nomads

Working Nomads offers free job listings in development, design, DevOps, project management and more.

Jobspresso

Jobspresso offers thousands of free listings in development, design, DevOps, customer service, and more.

Outsourcely

Outsourcely ensures that job candidates are paired with the right company. Create an account and browse through thousands of postings in web development, mobile, design, customer service and more.

Landing.Jobs

Landing.jobs connects independent contractors with remote jobs. Create an account, go through the Landing.jobs evaluation process, and then start applying for remote work.

Authentic Jobs

Authentic jobs offers free listings in web development, mobile, project management, design and more.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is mainly known as a place for tech questions and answers but they also have a jobs section. For remote work, just select the remote options in the search parameters.

Gun.io

Gun.io specializes in connecting developers with software companies. Create an account, apply for jobs, go through interviews and start working.

Idealist

Idealist is a site that posts hundreds of jobs for non-profits and organizations that want to create change in the world. For remote work, make sure to choose that option in the search parameters.

Freelance projects and micro-jobs

Fiverr

Fiverr is site where you can create a list of services and offer them to Fiverr's global audience.

Upwork

Upwork is a place for freelancers to bid on jobs, sell their projects, and connect with recruiters.

Freelancer

Freelancer specializes in connecting clients with freelancers. Freelancers can search through thousands of projects and make bids.

freelancermap

freelancermap specializes in connecting freelancers with clients all around the world. Freelancers can create an account and bid on projects that match their skills and experience.

##

So you're thinking of building your portfolio site as a freelance web developer.

Or maybe you're looking to create an online space where potential employers can get a feel for who you are and what you've done in the past.

Either way, your portfolio site is the perfect place to show your past work and provide a convenient way for potential clients or employers to contact you. Even if you don’t have past work, a great portfolio can help you get that first client.

We're going to take a look at the standard features your portfolio site should include to bring across a clear message. After we've gone over the basics, we're going to delve into some inspirational, beautiful, and a few simply amazing portfolios of freelancers out there.

Include an “About Me” Page on Your Portfolio Site

A portfolio website, and business-website landing pages in general, are the modern-day business card.

Bringing across the information that will make potential clients and employers stick around to find out more about you, in the hope of working with you, is crucial.

That being said, it's considered good practice to include an "About" section on your site. In this section, give a well-revised version of the most important (relevant) information about yourself, your experience, and maybe your approach as well.

Of course, there can be variation, but the most important thing is to try to identify your unique selling points and validators (past work and/or skills) and point them out as clearly as possible.

We'll see in some of the inspirational portfolios below that you can get creative with this while remaining clear in the main message.

Show Proof of Past Work in Your Portfolio

Your portfolio site serves one main purpose: to show credibility and build trust in the minds of your visitors.

There is one sure way of doing so and that is through the clear display of previous projects or work.

This becomes even more relevant and important if your ideal visitor is not technically-savvy and just wants to see proof and quality of previous work.

This is a good place to show a range of work illustrating what you're capable of and that you're able to adapt to the needs of different project scopes.

Keep in mind that clarity is important here. Showing a screenshot of a sample project is not enough, especially if you do not have a huge amount of experience.

What you could do is describe the process for each project: use this space as a way to communicate your thinking and explain certain design or technical choices you made.

If done well, a potential client or employer can understand how and why you do the things you do which will give them a much more informed impression of you and the way you work.

Add Testimonials to Your Portfolio Site

Adding testimonials, if you have them, is probably the best way to provide social proof about your work. These can be quotes from past clients and colleagues. If you've worked with brands, include their names and logos.

Demonstrating how past clients and employers feel about their experience with you can settle the nerves of an anxious visitor and solidify the trustworthy impression you're trying to make with your portfolio site.

Include Your Contact Information

This may seem like an obvious one, but many portfolio sites make it more difficult than it should be to find the most important contact info.

Leave your email address, social media links, or a contact form in an easy-to-find spot on your site.

You need to make the whole experience of visitors interacting with your site as easy as possible, including the process to follow when they've decided they want to get in touch.

10 Awesome Freelancing Portfolios to Inspire You

Stef Ivanov

Freelance UX and UI designer, Stef Ivanov, has worked for more than 100 companies throughout a 13-year career, and there's a great selection of his work on show in his portfolio.

However, that's not why I included him on this list. It wouldn't make sense to include only the most experienced freelancers here. Where's the inspiration in that? Rather, he's been included for the attention-grabbing landing page.

It features a simple block of introductory text which is pretty standard for sites in general.

How the landing page shines is with a beautifully cross-hatched pen-and-ink portrait of Stef with an animated halo of bees buzzing around his head.

Not only does he nail the basics we mentioned above but he's added a little extra touch that shows off a bit of his creative personality and piques visitors' interest.

Erika Senft Miller

When you visit Erika's site, you're met with a very minimalist loading screen.

Something most unusual happens once the page is fully-loaded. You'd have to visit Erika's site to get a real feel for it but let's give a wordy description a go, shall we?

Her website is presented as a lined page that you can move around by dragging with the mouse. As you move the on-screen pointer, you'll notice that the lines making up the page move and bend around the pointer.

When you come to a portfolio item – represented as a slowly morphing, multi-layered 2D orb which itself expands as you mouse over it – the lines around the item also warp.

Once you click on one of these morphing, moving orbs, the project info expands outwards. And the intriguing concept continues. Instead of scrolling down or across, you sort of follows= a meandering path as you see fit.

The way this is presented is highly creative but where it shines is in its ability to draw a visitor in with its unique interaction style.

Erika has presented a fascinating way of exploring her work.

Jessica Haines

Jessica has a great portfolio website!

It's designed with conversions in mind, it is well thought out, the colors are great, it's niched down - it's just superb.

The cool thing about her website that stands out to me is that she clearly showcases her expertise.

Take notes for your portfolio site. I always use her example when chatting to freelance students.

Rey van den Berg

Clarity is key in Rey's portfolio.

Rey seems to have chosen a less creative approach in favour of really nailing the fundamentals of a good-quality portfolio site.

On the landing page, you see some intro text and an illustration of a developer sitting at a laptop. What this landing page does so well is provide a clear description of exactly what he does and provides the crucial information we were talking about earlier.

You do not need to scroll any further if you're looking to contact him via a form or social media and he directs visitors to a section where they can see an elaboration on the services he provides.

Rey has clearly designed his website copy to build trust with the site visitors in a more personal way. There is little technical jargon which is inviting to less tech-savvy visitors while he still includes his tech skills for would-be employers

This site nails the fundamentals by being clear and providing proof-of-work. Rey goes a step further by being personal yet professional in drawing potential clients and employers into his communication approach with "Promises", "Ways You'll Benefit", and "FAQs".

Adam Brooks

A clean design and generous use of whitespace give Adam's site a modern feel that will appeal to most.

The landing page includes a smiling picture of Adam which immediately adds some personality to the site. He is clear with what he does and includes some credibility right off the bat by stating that he has worked with brands all over the world.

After a gentle introduction to what he does, a scroll down the page reveals a two-sentence pitch of his services with contact links. This might be all that some visitors are looking for, especially if they have been referred from elsewhere about Adam's services. He has done well to include a way of contacting him so early in his site.

For those that don't quite grasp that two-sentence pitch, he expands on that a little by explaining his services a bit more – especially useful for more lay visitors.

Following that section, we're met by some sample work as device mockups presented in a manner that is easy-breathing, thanks to the generous whitespace, and minimal which gives off a professional feel.

This site is fantastic at coming across as credible, professional, and, thanks to the sign off at the bottom of the site, approachable.

Geoff House

Geoff wastes absolutely no time in reassuring would-be clients and employers that he can get a job done – he shows past work almost immediately!

You're met with a clear one-liner of what he does and where he is currently working.

Scrolling down reveals several projects that Geoff has worked on in the past.

Clicking on one of these projects is where this portfolio site excels. You'll find a case study of the project where he provides a brief description of it and expands on his role and team within the project.

This manner of presenting past work does wonders in the minds of visitors.
It provides information about the project's rationale, a deeper dive into the project's purpose, and a chance to get an idea for his communication style.

Jennie Lakenan

I love Jennie's website, because it's simple but effective.

She has a great headline, great images, testimonials, clear call-to-actions, and she's niched down.

Way too many freelancers go overboard with animations and fluff - Jennie's portfolio is a good example of keeping it simple and not losing sight of the core focus: getting more clients.

Adhemas Batista

Adhemas has worked on a huge amount of very impression projects but that is not what I like the most about his portfolio site.

He has managed to include all of the fundamentals of a great portfolio on a single view with a ton of whitespace.

His design is minimal but very clever. At the top, you can find social media contact info and an email address. In the top-center, you can read about what Adhemas does, his current work and location, and his availability.

A little lower on the landing page, his display of previous work begins with large, multi-coloured images that have an animated hover effect.

Clicking on one of these past projects takes you to a long case study page which is media-heavy with a ton of whitespace. He has detailed these project "case studies" extensively allowing you to get a real feel for the project and its purpose.

Adhemas' portfolio site is a fantastic example of how lots of whitespace can be used while still packing a ton of useful information on one view.

Flamy

A full-screen loading splash screen gives way to Flamy's unconventional yet eye-catching portfolio design.

Clean minimalism is not the name of the game here with a strong cartoon theme being preferred. Flamy's site goes to show that you can be quirky and fun without forgoing a professional appeal.

When you reach the landing page, you'll see what can only be described as a man with a flame for a head and cards describing the services Flamy offers.

The rest of the site sees clever parallax effects being used to add an interactive element to the site.

This site is undoubtedly fun, although not for everyone. This being said, they do get the fundamentals right and all the quirkiness is executed in a manner that doesn't sacrifice UX or clarity in the offering.

If nothing else, this site will leave a lasting impression in visitors' minds, and sometimes that's all you need to do to get visitors returning to your site and contacting you.

Ivo Mynttinen

Ivo's site is one of almost-Scandinavian minimalism.

It's clean, uses a lot of whitespace with large, clear headings, and gets all the other design fundamentals right such as beautiful visual hierarchy and well-matched text opacity.

His landing page includes a clear path to see past projects, which include lengthy project descriptions, and an intuitive contact button.

Smooth page transitions complement a flawless portfolio site.

Ivo has thought of everything potential clients and employers may be interested in seeing or finding out.

If you want to see what a perfect portfolio site looks like, without unnecessary bells and whistles, this is it.

Sara Michelazzo

If you're into minimalist websites, Sara's portfolio is a good example.

She answers what she does and who she is within a quick glance of viewing her website.

My only critique is there's no contact form, but other than that, it's a clean minimalist example to be inspired from.

Jordan Flaig

Here is a minimal description one of the most minimal site's you'll see.

It answers all the important site visitor questions except for one missing, crucial question - "How do I contact you, Jordan?"

Add a contact section to your unique spin off of this site and you'll have the perfect minimalist modern-day business card on your hands.

Ruben Kuipers

The style of Ruben's portfolio site is one that many developers will probably recognize. It even starts with a "Hi there, I'm Ruben"!

As a developer, you would be able to appreciate the little extras that make us happy like a toggle switch for dark-mode (and corresponding dark-mode profile image), subtle animations, and a section on "Skills & Tools".

What you may not notice is how these extras complement an already brilliant site.
As you land on Ruben's page, you immediately know what he looks like (which increases familiarity), know what he does, know that he is credible (a list of past clients), and have a way to contact him.

He has cleverly included testimonials interlaced with project cards which, together, make a convincing case for "Let's hire this guy!"

Ultimately, this site is a great example of a single page that alleviates all of the visitor's concerns without the page feeling too long or bloated. He manages to show his credibility, technical expertise, and testimonials in a seamless package.

This is a top portfolio and could serve as some real inspiration for your next portfolio build.

Summary

We've had a look at 10 fantastic freelancing portfolio sites that were designed in a multitude of styles and personalities.

If you were to take away one thing from this article, it should be this:

Nail those fundamentals that all portfolio sites should have.

Once you've figured out how you want to present the most important information for the visitors of your site, you can start becoming fancy.

Don't do it the other way or you run the risk of losing potential clients or jobs.

Hopefully, you've found some inspiration to improve upon or build your freelance portfolio site!

I'll leave you with one last portfolio site to play with by Robby Leonardi.

That's it!

Hope you found this article helpful.

See you on Twitter

Kyle

As a freelance developer, knowing how much to charge for a project can often feel like a gamble.

It's easy to wonder "Am I setting my price too high?"

This is normally the first question that comes to mind.

And your brain will probably meet this question with a resounding "Definitely," followed by a swift rethink and subsequent price drop.

Why it's Tempting to Set Your Prices Too Low as a Freelancer

When you're using a platform like Fiverr and can see the prices other developers are proposing, it can be tempting (especially as a newcomer to the platform) to beat them all by offering the lowest price possible.

Surely this is the only way to get a client to accept you, right?

Well, if you've come to this conclusion, let me tell you that you're one of the many, many developers who have thought and then done the exact same thing.

The result, unfortunately, is what's happening today on many of the popular freelancing sites where it's often a race to the bottom with your pricing.

As a freelancer, this is a game you don't want to play.

Once you start doing work for the lowest possible price, you're rushing through work to get as many projects done in as little time as possible (you've probably got mouths to feed, right?). This inevitably results in finished work with a drop in quality.

This also has the potential to negatively impact your reputation which could cost you future projects or, at the very least, prevent you from upping the price of your next project.

This is one of the more compelling reasons for not being the cheapest developer around. But there are several more which we will take a look at one by one in this article.

By the end, I hope you'll be convinced that it would be unwise to compete in a "Race to the Bottom". Instead, I hope to leave you hopeful and equipped with the tools and methods to break out from, or prevent, this "let me just be the cheapest" approach.

Why You Should Stay Away from Being the Cheapest as a Freelancer

Stop the Race to the Bottom

The "Race to the Bottom" refers to the situation when a client is offered services by several freelancers.

Unlike traditional bidding, something quite sad tends to happen – freelancers outbid each other by offering lower and lower prices until a minimum price (one that cannot be lowered) is reached.

This often means a client could pay you only a couple of dollars for work that will take you hours to complete.

Thanks to the global nature of many of the online freelancing platforms, a dollar has vastly different purchasing power depending on the country you're in.

For example, in some parts of the world, a dollar can get you a decent lunch whereas, in other countries, a dollar won't even get you a bottle of water.

New freelancers in places like the EU, USA, and other spots where prices are high don't always take this into account. It's easy to think that they need to set their lowest price to match that of the lowest they see on the freelancing platform. They think that this is the only way for a newbie project proposal to be accepted.

Since the dollar goes a much shorter distance in countries like those in the European Union, a freelancer often finds themselves in the position where they are making a loss on every project they take on.

This is a problem.

Clients View Your Services as a Commodity

When pitching services to a potential client, a freelancer will typically set a price per hour. This approach can lead to a client simply choosing another freelancer who has a lower price per hour.

You see, basing your potential value to a client on an hourly-based price is a disservice to you and, as a matter of fact, to your client.

By seeking to get more work, you might be inclined to drop the price of your hourly rate, prompting other competing freelancers to do the same.

Clients shopping around for a freelancer will do just that – shop around.

The problem here is not just that you are still competing on price by charging hourly, but also that you are not illustrating to the potential client the real value they can gain for their business by working with you.

If you want clients to stop viewing your skillset as just another commodity they can buy at the lowest hourly rate, you need to change your entire pricing approach.

We'll take a look at the solution to this problem later in this article.

Clients Don't Always Go For The Cheapest Option

You may think that by asking for the lowest price, you'll be bombarded by clients who are all eager to hire you for their next exciting project.

But, a word of caution before you decide to do this.

You see, many clients don't go with the cheapest option.

Often people in general will settle somewhere in the middle when offered varying pricing tiers. Chances are, you too have often turned down the cheapest price in favor of something a little pricier on the premise that you're receiving a lot more quality.

W. Poundstone's book, Priceless, illustrates this point with an interesting beer selling experiment.

A group of people were offered 2 kinds of beer: premium beer for $2.50 and cheaper beer for $1.80.

Almost 80% chose the premium beer.

After this initial test, a third beer was added as a cheap option for $1.60 in addition to the previous two.

The test was conducted again and found that 80% of people bought the $1.80 beer while the rest bought the $2.50 beer.

Interestingly, nobody bought the cheapest option…

On the third test, they removed the $1.60 beer and replaced it with a more expensive $3.40 beer. Most people chose the $2.50 beer, a small number opted for the $1.80 beer and around 10% opted for the most expensive $3.40 beer.

This is price anchoring in action and it is your friend when offering multiple pricing .

Remember it the next time you're tempted to set and stick to the cheapest price.

More Work Does Not Always Equal More Money

Setting the cheapest price for your services may very well do what you hoped it would – bring in more clients.

If you're lucky, you may even be turning clients down because you have so many. Well, at this point you should be making boatloads of money, right?

I mean, you literally can't take on any new clients because you already have more than you imagined possible!

If you're charging by the hour and you were offering the cheapest price, there is one thing I can tell you with certainty – you absolutely won't be rolling in dollars.

Why?

You've capped your earnings!

By placing a value on your time and setting that value to the lowest it can be, you've essentially lowered your potential earnings in a year. Even if you were working every hour of the year, you could be making a semi-decent income but you'd be physically wrecked.

Chances are, if you're in the freelancing game, one of the contributing factors to you choosing this lifestyle was that it would give you some semblance of a balanced life.

How will you achieve balance when you have no choice but to take on as many clients as possible and work endless hours just to make ends meet?

By setting the cheapest price, you're capping your earning potential and any hopes you had for a balanced life.

How to Avoid Competing with the Cheapest

Change Your Pricing Approach

If you're still using hourly-billing, now is the time to consider changing that in favour of something that is far more beneficial to you and your clients.

Value-based pricing is where you charge a fee based on the potential return for a business.

It's important to first get into the right mindset before you try to use this approach.

Keep the following in mind when getting used to the idea of using value-based pricing:

• You don't sell hours, you are selling a beneficial solution to a business problem.
• This approach is safer for the client as there are no hidden costs that inevitably crop up in hourly-based approaches (due to time delays, work inefficiency, and so on).
• By charging prices based on value offered, you can work with fewer clients with a focus on quality over quantity. This means you can charge more reasonable prices which, in turn, offers you the opportunity to build your client work around your ideal life and not the other way around.
• This allows you greater freedom as you can focus on building something great as opposed to constantly worrying about going over the client's budget.

I've provided you with the "Why". If you're interested in the "How" of value-based pricing, be sure to give Hourly Billing vs. Value Based Pricing a read.

Write Great Proposals

Clients often have problems with the prices offered by freelancers because they, the clients, don't understand the value or work that is going into the project behind the scenes.

In other words, they won't know the quality service you'll be providing for them unless you explain it to them.

You can change this by writing great proposals.

You send a proposal to an interested client after discussing the potential project. This is where you have the opportunity to position and present yourself as an expert.

In short, you want your proposal to show a keen interest in the business and its goals, provide solutions to how will help the business achieve its goals, and show various ways in which you can do this via pricing tiers.

This leads to the next thing you can do to avoid competing with the cheapest.

Bundle Your Services

Ideally, you want to include three options in your proposal for a client to choose from.

As we saw in the beer example earlier, price anchoring can greatly affect the option which the potential client chooses.

Use this to your advantage.

Include the services that you'll provide in each option. This not only provides a mini-scope but also serves as something for the client to use when justifying the price to themselves (apart from the expert positioning you use elsewhere in the proposal).

Done smartly, bundling your services is a fantastic way to prevent you from competing with the cheapest out there and differentiating yourself from simply being "someone who makes websites".

Bonus Tips

Niche Down

Niching down greatly aids your cause in positioning yourself as an expert.

By niching down, you can build trust in a community, charge a premium fee, and have clients reach out to you.

Over-deliver on projects

Clients that you have done great work for are excellent lead-generators. Doing a good job for them means they're likely to refer you to others. This can lead to clients approaching you to work for them.

How do you ensure you'll get referred?

Provide excellent service and over-deliver.

Summary

Competing to be the cheapest developer out there is a sure-fire path to frustration, work exhaustion, and minimal income.

I hope that by the end of this article you understand the "Why" a bit better and feel better equipped to break out of this "Race to the Bottom" trap.

Thanks for reading!

See you on Twitter

Here's the bottom line: you don't need much to get started as a freelance developer.

The biggest obstacle developers face when they're thinking about getting started is that they tend to overcomplicate things.

Most are intimidated by the sheer number of different paths or skills deemed necessary by various blog posts or "industry experts".

The truth is that you just need to know how to create a website.

Whether that be with WordPress, Webflow, or simply hand-coding a site, it really doesn't matter.

The important part is that you get results with your website – and that is the only factor that will set you apart from other freelancers.

This article could stop right here with “Learn to build a website and get going!”

But I think it's only fair to you, the aspiring freelancer, to provide you with some extra substance that will accelerate the start of your freelancing career.

How to Define your Freelancing Goals

A lack of clear direction can severely hamper any chance you have of making quality progress when you first start out as a freelancer.

This is why it's crucial to define your own goals:

• Do you want to earn a side income by working on websites for friends and acquaintances?
• Do you want to go “full-time freelance” by building a web agency that can upgrade and handle small to medium businesses’ online presences?

The particular end goal you have in mind plays a very important role in deciding where and how you will spend your time at the beginning of your learning and working journey.

For most people who start freelancing, the dream is to go full-time freelance and break free from the shackles of a 9 to 5 job.

Others simply want to supplement their income with a web project every now and then.

Identify your primary goal before moving on to the next stage.

Of course, many people often start off by thinking that they will only be able to do freelancing as a part-time gig only to realize the perks and potential of going full-time. This is completely normal and end goals do change with time.

But at least try to figure out a direction for yourself at the start. The conviction to acquire the skills to achieve your goals will largely come from within. If you haven’t decided on your goal, then you won’t have the conviction to keep going when things inevitably get a little tough.

This leads us to the part where you decide what skills you’ll need to become the most successful in your chosen path.

Choose Which Skills You’ll Need to Start Freelancing

It can be incredibly simple: learn HTML, CSS and a bit of JavaScript.

Or maybe no code at all, and only WebFlow or WordPress (where there are so many high earning freelancers).

The combination of these skills will allow you to build out fully functioning websites that you can sell to clients in any field.

Most clients will simply want a website to “increase online presence” while others may come to you with pleas to help them update their outrageously outdated website.

The crucial point to always keep in the back of your mind is that clients care the most about one thing: The Outcome.

Those magic words are what give you the freedom to explore other options if manually coding sites with HTML, CSS and JS is not your cup of tea.

Of course, it will benefit you greatly to have at least a basic understanding of vanilla code for when you inevitably run into debugging issues with web builders.

Speaking of web builders, this is a perfectly valid approach to creating websites for your clients. In fact, many freelancers prefer using web builders for several reasons:

1. They often have built-in security.
2. Setting up a CMS and hosting is generally a breeze.
3. You can save an incredible amount of time using a web builder's drag-and-drop interface
4. You can easily upgrade a website’s functionality thanks to rich plugin ecosystems.

It’s important to be aware of the tools available, know your reasons for wanting to use them, and become skilled in using those tools.

Decide What Clients You Want

This can be a tricky idea for most people starting out on their freelance journey.

It's fairly easy to get clients, but you want the RIGHT clients.

Due to a lack of confidence or just wanting to get started, newbie freelancers will often accept any and every potential client.

This can lead to some positive outcomes, such as knowing what sort of people you like to work with (something many of you will already know). You'll also gain exposure to different kinds of project requirements which can show gaps in your knowledge – serving as an opportunity to level up.

The riches are in the niches.

What do I mean by that?

By focusing on a niche, say “Lawyers in Cape Town”, you can start building a reputation as the expert web person in that area. This will require more upfront work before you start seeing the benefit and often it can take quite some time to get going.

But the thing with building a quality reputation in a field is this: it takes time but the rewards make it well worth it in the long run.

Eventually, if you’ve been strategic, helpful, and persistent, you will have clients reaching out to you, the Lawyer Website Expert, asking for your help.

Now that you’ve positioned yourself as a specialist in this niche, you’ll be able to charge more for your services allowing you to potentially have more work-life balance, and grow your freelancing business.

Package Your Skills as Services

Potential clients don’t like to see technical words when reviewing what you can offer them. Think about it…

When you’re about to purchase a new drink or snack, what do you think would convince you to buy it more: an explanation of the technical process undergone to achieve the flavour or a description of how great the flavour is?

Think about explaining your services to potential clients in much the same way. Only a very small percentage of clients will understand (and therefore get value from) a description of your services that includes the following:

“Skilled in the JAMstack approach and a big fan of server-side rendering libraries.”

The following description, on the other hand, gives a potential client – regardless of technical know-how – a great idea of what you can offer them:

“I’ll build your website to be fast and beautiful so that your visitors can get the value you’re offering them without any confusion.”

This shift in thinking will allow you to package your skills as services in a way that makes sense to potential clients. And making sense to a client is the first step in any successful project negotiation.

Do yourself a favour and try to reword your skills into services as if you were a potential client of yours. It may show you a lot you can improve on.

Create a Portfolio Site

One of the most overhyped aspects of starting out your journey as a freelancer is the portfolio site.

This can be one of the biggest time sinks ever.

Why?

Well, your client probably doesn’t really care about your custom loading animations or self-designed vector images. Your client also doesn’t care that your site is a progressive web app or that you spent two weeks custom coding an API that speaks to your social profiles, collates the data, and displays it in a cool infographic above the fold.

Your client cares only about one thing: Can this developer help me achieve my goals?

The only way to show the client that you can is by doing three things:

1. Tell them by wording your skills as services
2. Show them by providing evidence of great past work
3. Convince them by providing testimonials from past clients (do free work in exchange for these at the beginning if you need to)

It’s really that simple. The rest is extra fluff.

Strategize Client Discovery

Whereas your portfolio site is an overhyped part of freelancing, the way in which you discover clients is quite the opposite – most people gloss over it. It’s not given the same level of importance but it is where your persistence will be tested and the great rewards will come.

You can discover clients in a multitude of ways:

1. Cold calling
2. Cold emailing
3. Creating or joining Facebook groups in your niche
4. Using your existing social media platforms to source clients
5. Reach out to friends and family who may need a site
6. Walk into the building of a potential client and speak directly to the decision-maker
7. Set up Adwords to drive traffic to your portfolio site

This is certainly not an exhaustive list but it could give you a couple of ideas. One thing is crucial to remember though:

Keep going.

You need to stay persistent in your effort and revise your strategy as you fail and progress.

Eventually, you will find success but this is the point where many budding freelancers give up, so approach it with an iron will and you will find success.

Welcome to the Club

My hope is that you have gained value from this article that you can start using in the real world.

Remember, it’s incredibly easy to start but it can be tough to keep going. This is why it’s so important to have goals in mind to help guide you on your way.

See you on Twitter.

Until next time :)

Kyle

If you offer your services as a freelance developer, you have a major say in how you price your project.

But how do you go about charging for a website project?

"Well, I just bill by the hour and send an invoice every week or month."

...I hear you say.

Well, let me tell you that there are far better options out there.

In this article, we're going to do a little analysis of the different pricing options available to you as a developer to see which one would work better for you.

Which pricing strategy to use often boils down to the particular scenario, your time, your client, and your enjoyment, but there are general approaches here.

What I will do is show you a few advantages and disadvantages of hourly vs value-based pricing so that you can make a more informed decision on the pricing strategy you choose.

Hourly-Based Pricing

Hourly-based billing is the most popular and the easiest to understand and start with.

However, I'm not going to share the advantages of billing by the hour because I believe that there is a better way.

I'm going to discuss the disadvantages of using an hourly-based pricing approach before I show what I believe is a better method.

Hourly Billing is Harmful to Your Client Relationship

Billing by the hour can be quite harmful to your working relationship with your client.

How? Well, put simply, the longer a project takes, the better it is for you and the worse it is for your client.

This creates trust fractures that erode the relationship over time if your estimates are not accurate.

This can happen in several ways. But it is often exaggerated by the client not understanding how long it would take to implement a feature which in turn leads to the client thinking you're working slowly on purpose.

Another way this can happen is if the project was not planned exactly as it will pan out, which happens a lot in development.

If the project starts taking longer than initially planned, you will appear to be taking advantage of your client. Your client will start reviewing the timesheets that you sent their way to find discrepancies and there will be an erosion of trust.

In general, you can not truly partner with your clients if you’re billing by the hour, which means that you can’t do your best work. And this means that your clients aren’t getting all the potential you are putting on offer.

Yes, some freelancers do make it work, but that's a small %.

You also need to consider if you're sick – then what? You don't get paid while you're ill for 2 weeks.

Hourly Billing Discourages Efficiency and Innovation

You don't get rewarded for finding time-efficient ways to finish a project. If anything you're getting financially punished.

If you price your projects by the hour, you will, as a more experienced developer, get projects done sooner, meaning you earn less per project.

So you think you make up for this by charging more per hour?

Well, this might only serve to scare your future (or even current) clients off to another developer who charges less per hour.

Hourly Billing Discourages Efficiency

Certain web projects can indeed take a day or so to finish. If you're charging by the hour, what incentive do you have to find a way to complete the project in the shortest amount of time?

If anything, even if you don't do it intentionally, your work rate and efficiency will not be something you're too concerned about optimizing.

Here's an example to illustrate the point:

Imagine you're working on a project that has similarities to a previous project you worked on. You'd like to reuse parts of a component you had built for that previous project but by doing so, you'd cut down the number of hours you'd spend on your current project.

In this way, you've directly lowered your income because of a component that you built in a reusable way.

Or maybe you're using Tailwind UI or WebFlow and you can create a website in 1 hour – should you only charge your hourly fee?

Your Income is Capped

Hourly billing places an artificial limit on your income!

Let me explain.

There are only so many hours you can work in a year.

By providing a price per hour, you're limiting how much you're practically able to earn each year.

If you suddenly decided to increase your hourly rate because you'd like to start earning more, your clients will most likely not understand.

"Why," they ask, "are you suddenly valuing your services so much higher for the same work?"

Even before you explain whatever your reasoning is, you're entering the conversation with them on the back foot – and that's just your current clients.

Potential clients will simply turn away and look for another freelancer who can offer them the same service at a lower hourly rate.

If you think you can just earn more by working more, ask yourself:

Is that sustainable?

If yes, do it.

But know that there will come a point where there are simply not more hours in the day to get more work done.

There is a ceiling to how much you can work and, as a result, how much you can earn. At the end of the day, both you and the client will benefit from not using an hourly-based pricing approach.

Transitioning from hourly billing to value-based pricing is tricky and takes time if you're used to an hourly-based approach.

It requires a change in thinking, but once you realize how ineffective it is to trade your time for money, you will find your profitability increasing by a lot.

What is Value-Based Pricing?

The key takeaway about the difference between value-based and hourly-based pricing is this:

• In hourly-based pricing, you sell your time.
• In value-based pricing, you sell results.
• In hourly-based pricing, you ask what they want to be built.
• In value-based pricing, you ask why they want something built.

This makes all the difference and can be a real game-changer if you're switching from hourly-based pricing.

With the focus on results, there are suddenly a lot more advantages for you and the client.

When you and your client understand the "why" (the value gained), a higher, value-based price will make perfect sense.

Before we get into that, let's look at how to apply value-based pricing.

1. Find the potential value of a project to a client over a year.
2. Base your price off of those (potential) income returns.

The main thing you need to do is to figure out how much the site is worth to the business.

Here's an example:

A business sells 3D Printers and they want a website.

This is the system I follow:

1. Find out if the business has an existing website
2. Find out what their competitors are doing that they aren't doing
3. See if the business has active AdWords campaigns
4. See how the business ranks on Google (SEO)
5. See if the business has social media profiles
6. Find out how much the average 3D printer costs
7. Find out how many printers the business sells every month

With this information, I'd be able to figure out if I can really make an improvement in the sales of this business and I'd know exactly how much to charge for the project.

So if the business sells an average of ten 3D printers at an average of $2,000 each per month ($20k sales per month) and after calculating that I could potentially increase sales by 30% month after month, it then equals an extra three sales per month (or $6,000).

I then mention this to the prospective client and say even if we work on just 2 extra sales per month, it adds up to an extra $48,000 per year just by the changes and improvements I will be doing.

Therefore, spending $8,000 once-off for the website to potentially increase sales by almost $50,000 in one year is a no-brainer…

Now let's look into the advantages of value-based pricing.

Advantages of Value-based Pricing

Freedom to Make Great Products

You can focus on creating something great without worrying about going over the client's budget or counting every hour. This gives you work freedom and means that how you go about the process is up to you.

Incentivized Learning

Not only does this approach encourage you to find the most optimal solution, but it also incentivizes you to stay up to date with the latest technologies and tools that make your workflow easier and more productive.

No Hidden Costs for the Client

Due to the price being agreed upfront, you take on all the risk. This means the client will have no financial surprises down the line which helps facilitate trust. In other words, the client experiences less risk.

More Clients That You Enjoy

The nature of value-based pricing means that you will likely be earning significantly more. You can now start working with fewer clients and provide much better service to each while earning the same or more than you did while using hourly-based pricing.

Scope Creep Insurance

Once a project has been defined in terms of the business outcomes (for example, increased traffic, more sales) instead of deliverables (like change the font size of the navigation bar items, the password reset form needs ReCAPTCHA) it’s fairly easy to control scope. This is because business needs don’t change that often, and random requests from the client can be judged against the desired outcome.

The crucial factor with value-based pricing is this:

It is up to you to make the business see your services as a necessary investment and not a cost.

You need to explain how you are the right person by explaining how both of you benefit from the pricing approach you're taking.

Bring their focus to the importance of results and what value the project will bring them.

Ultimately, this approach takes a lot of trial and error, but trust the process and your future self will be thanking you.

Base your value-based quote on the client’s perceived value of the project outcome instead of your estimated labor. This allows you to set your fees significantly higher, deliver more effective results, increase client satisfaction, and more.

You want to charge for your head, not your hands. Smarts, not labor. Results, not deliverables. Outcomes, not activities.

So Which Pricing Method Should You Use?

To me, it's clear that value-based pricing is the best way to price your projects.

Of course, the method you choose is up to you and, for many people, hourly-based pricing works perfectly fine.

There are other pricing methods like Fixed Pricing, where you calculate you assumed costs, add a profit to it and provide the client with that pricing, but I generally prefer Value-Based Pricing over this method.

If you do choose to switch to a value-based approach, remember that this new approach will take some getting used to but it will certainly be worth it in the long-run.

I have a helpful eBook talking about pricing and freelancing a lot more if you're interested.

Hope you found this article helpful :)

See you on Twitter.

The image of a person with their laptop sitting on a beach with a Piña Colada by their side has become the poster child of “freelancing”.

The promise of ultimate freedom and working anywhere and anytime you want is just so appealing, causing many to jump in without carefully thinking about it.

The truth is, freelancing is far from easy. Contrary to what most people think, signing up on Upwork and sending tons of applications a day will not do the trick.

I think what makes freelancing harder for some people is a two-pronged issue:

• Some people aren’t built to freelance.
• Some people aren’t fully equipped to freelance.

Let’s talk about these in more detail.

Is freelancing right for you?

Freelancing is not a ticket to an easy life. It comes with perks, but it also has pitfalls.

Some people can handle these well while some can not. How hard freelancing is for you may depend on your personality, working style, and how well you tolerate uncertainty.

These are some of the most difficult parts of being a freelance developer:

Too much work or no work at all

Freelancing is often a life of extremes. There’s rarely “in-between”. Either you’ll be buried in so much work you have no time for anything else, or you’re totally out of projects so you can’t afford a nice meal in a restaurant.

There is no sense of security

Several factors contribute to this. Finding clients is hard, the competition is fierce, and it’s hard to stand out sometimes.

The uncertainty puts freelancers into survival mode. You’re afraid to turn down projects even though you have too many already because you’re afraid of letting opportunities go.

Other times, you’ll worry about rent because you have literally nothing going on.

It’s almost like a never-ending worry about whether you will get a project again or if you’ll have to go back to your 9-to-5 job.

Achieving a work-life balance is hard

It’s the ultimate irony of freelancing. You jump into it thinking that you’ll finally have more free time, but in reality, it gets harder to switch off and take a break.

It might be a Saturday morning and you receive an email from a potential client asking to see your portfolio. Will you pass the chance up? The inability to let things wait stems from the lack of security.

Since you’re working from home (or anywhere), the line between work and life gets blurred and you end up mixing the two. Plus, you don’t have a team to help you.

Suddenly you’re an accountant, administrative staff, networker, scheduler, marketer, salesperson, project manager – and you have to do everything on your own.

Managing yourself is also hard

Freelancers don’t have a boss to keep tabs on them, so getting tasks done on time requires a greater deal of self-control. You’ll never know how tempting a bed is in a cozy rainy afternoon until you have to choose between snuggling up or finishing a task.

And because you have no website access restrictions, that “quick check” of your Instagram feed can quickly turn into a two-hour scrolling and watching cute dog videos. And that new Netflix series seems so interesting…

Some days you’re going to be filled with productivity manna from the skies, but some days you won’t. It’s just a part of freelancing.

Difficult client relationships

Although there are clients who are a dream to work with, some are just a nightmare.

Freelancers often have to deal with objections and clients who never know what they want (“I’ll know what I want when I see it”), demand for unpaid revisions, and always seem to find an excuse to delay your payments. Or worse, some don’t pay at all.

It gets lonely

Never having to deal with office drama ever again is one of the perks of freelancing. But when your tasks are piling up and your stress levels are through the roof, sometimes you can’t help but miss the quick chats with your officemates while you’re making coffee in the pantry. Extroverted people often find the isolation more challenging than introverts.

Taxes

Wait, I have to do taxes?! Yep, freelancers have to file their taxes. Unlike employees who enjoy deducted taxes, freelancers either have to do it themselves or hire an accountant. Either way, taxes are a necessary evil for freelancers and no one likes to do it.

How to succeed as a freelancer

As I said before, another reason why freelancing is so hard for most people is that they aren’t fully equipped.

Although there isn’t a life-hack that can guarantee your success, there are things you can do to start off on the right foot and increase your chances of succeeding.

Set a realistic goal

You have to know what you’re aiming for. These goals, if they’re compelling and important enough for you, will help you overcome obstacles, even the ones we’ve talked about before.

Write down on paper the things that you want to achieve as a freelancer. How much do you want to make? What kind of career do you want to build? What kinds of projects do you want to work on?

Plan a good strategy

“If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.”

It’s the same with freelancing.

If you don’t plan effectively, you’re going in blind, and you’ll bump into obstacles that could easily have been avoided had you seen them ahead.

Your strategy should answer the following questions:

• What services will you offer?
• What is your niche?
• How much will you charge?
• How do you plan on marketing and/or advertising your services?
• How can you build your credibility?

To come up with a good strategy, you have to research. This is where the equipping part comes in. Read books, listen to podcasts, read blogs, watch YouTube videos, and maybe even buy a course if you think you need it.

The key is to find out how successful freelancers did it. What was their strategy? What worked and didn’t work for them? Then incorporate those into your strategy.

A great place to start is my freelancing bundle where I discuss in more detail the steps you can take to build a successful freelance web developing business.

Stay focused and have grit

As you start freelancing, it’s easy to get sidetracked with minor details or lose heart when you get rejected over and over again. But there’s no other way to succeed in freelancing than to keep going.

You have to have grit and self-discipline to achieve your goals. When times get tough, go back to your goals and remind yourself why you even started in the first place.

Learn, and learn some more

I can’t emphasize the importance of learning enough. Not only will it help you create a good strategy, but it will also help you shift your gears if something is not working. If you notice that your marketing strategy isn’t working, learn more tips and techniques from successful freelancers.

Learning new skills can also supplement your income and maybe even present new, more profitable opportunities. Staying on top of your niche and industry will also give you an edge over your competitors.

Constant learning will also give you an attitude of humility because you know that you don’t know everything yet.

Build your business skills

Freelancing is a business. The earlier you embrace that, the better. Running a business may seem overwhelming, but it can be learned.

The good news is business skills aren’t learned by getting a diploma or enrolling in a business course. They're best learned by experience.

As you build your freelancing business, you will hone your business skills, which will in turn make it easier for you to accelerate your growth. You will learn how to market yourself effectively, how to write amazing proposals, how to connect with people, and even how to deal with procrastination and stress.

In other words, if you maintain an attitude of grit and constant learning, you will have a high chance of succeeding.

Build the right kind of revenue

There are two kinds of income that I like most: recurring and passive.

Recurring income is the perfect solution to the feast-and-famine cycle of freelancing. Instead of charging a one-time fee, what if you could charge recurring monthly fees?

This can be done with a bit of strategizing. What kinds of services do your clients need monthly? Which of these services can you provide to them?

Let’s say you are a freelance web developer. Your forte is websites. There are all sorts of website services that people always need, such as maintenance, security, SEO, advertising, and content production.

Once you come up with a list of monthly services that you can offer, create at least three monthly packages.

This way, instead of charging a client a one-time $1,000 fee for a quick WordPress project, you can turn it into a one-time $1,000 fee plus a $300 (or whatever) monthly recurring fee.

Passive income is another kind of income that you need to focus on. It’s any income that you earn without directly trading your time for it.

For web developers, maybe you can sell plugins or creative elements in marketplaces like CodeCanyon. If you love writing, you can start your own blog and eventually earn from affiliate marketing and advertising.

If you're good at what you do, why not create a course and sell it on Gumroad or Udemy?

Having small sources of passive income goes a long way in supplementing your freelancing income.

Wrapping up

Freelancing may be hard, but if you equip yourself with the right knowledge and attitude, success won’t be impossible. There’s always a way to overcome an obstacle if you plan ahead and try hard enough.

I hope you learned something from this article.

You can do it, my freelancing friend!

Much love,

Kyle

Catch you on Twitter