A freelancer is generally a self-employed person who works for different companies on different assignments. He/she is a person who took a great risk to leave a stable job to identify various opportunities that lie ahead. There are approximately 16 million freelancers in India. According to the recent study the number of freelancers has increased by 400% between 2005 to 2015.

What are the common problems faced by a self employed person in India?

You might have come across various people who are doing freelance jobs and are earning decent money but the journey of being self employed is not easy. A lot of hard work is required to deal with various problems of being a freelancer in India. Various problems faced are as follows:

Difficulty in collecting pay cheques

When you are new as a freelancer many clients are bound  to irritate you. The major challenge that a freelancer face is to get the pay cheque from its client. Your payment will get delayed and your client will come up with stupid excuses to postpone your payment. You keep on reminding them but they still come up with reasons to irritate you.

Managing deadlines

As a self employed person you will work on various projects. Each of your client will expect you to finish his/her work on time. When there is so much work to do it becomes difficult to meet deadlines.

Money saving

Freelancing a is job where there is no fixed flow of money. One month you might earn a lot but the next month you might earn nothing. Your expenditure keeps on fluctuating.

Distractions at home offices

 Generally many freelancers work from their home offices. After a certain period of time they start to get distracted by their family members. Such type of distractions can seriously damage your productivity.

Lack of a community

Many self employed people work from their home offices. Working by yourself can become lonely. You lack the basic need to interact with someone.

How to become a successful freelancer in India?

These above mentioned problems are faced by every self employed person in India. So, if you want to become a successful freelancer in India here are some ways which will help you out.

Make your profile

 Everyone needs to make a good profile. You should include your school and university projects in your resume. Work for various companies and NGO’s to gain experience certificates. Pursue a course or a diploma in the field of your interest so that your academic qualification is up to date.

Understand your skills

Before being a freelancer you need to understand your skills. You need to know what you are interested to do and what  you like do. Say if want to be a website designer and you bored with your sales job quit your job and freelance will provide a way for you. In freelance it is important to choose jobs that interests you the most and the jobs in which you think you are better than others.

Create account on trustworthy websites

There are various websites in India which provide various jobs to freelancers. You just need to identify those websites and make an account on them. Here is a list of websites which will your freelancing career a start.

  • Fiverr
  • Topal
  • PeoplePerHour
  • Upwork

Fix your income

 As a self employed person you need to fix your monthly income. You have to understand that how many clients you need so that you are able to a fix decent income per month. After doing high end projects you can increase your rates in the future. You can follow 3 strategies which will help you in determining your hourly rates.

Cost plus pricing

It is a very common method. Calculate your expenses involved and add a certain amount to it to gain profits.

  • Market rate pricing- Explore the rates of other freelancers so as to get an estimate of the hourly rates that you need to charge from your clients.
  • Value driven pricing- Your clients pays according to the quality of your project. Make sure to live up to his/her expectations.

Market your work

Sales and marketing goes hand in hand. You need to market your work so as to gain more clients. If you are good at your work then there is no need to hide it from anyone. You need to create a website that contains your contact information and a highlight column that explain your services to your potential clients. Also, put some samples of your earlier projects.

Feedback

Feedback helps you to improve your work. Whenever you have a satisfied customer make sure to get some feedback from them in the form of  recommendations or testimonials. This will help you to increase your rates.

Gain referrals

One of the best ways to increase your clients is to get referrals. Continuously ask your existing clients to provide you referrals. More the referrals, means more clients means more income.

Know your limit

In freelancing there comes a situation where you might get a lot of job offers. Sounds exciting, right? But such a situation can create problems for a freelancer. Taking all that work and not able to finish it on time can dissatisfy all your clients. Therefore it is very important to know how much work can you do at a time. Fix your clients and make a proper schedule. If you are dissatisfying your clients that means you are compromising on the work quality.

Try coworking

Most of the freelancers work from their home offices. After a certain point of time you start to get annoyed by your family interference. In such  situation you need to find a suitable place to work. Coworking space provides you such a opportunity. Coworking is an innovative style of work which provides a lot of benefits like a positive environment, networking opportunities, cheap rent etc.

Freelancing is the future of work but it is tough to be a freelancer in India. With constant hard work and knowledge of above mentioned techniques you will be able to survive as a freelancer in India.