Three things I wish I'd known when I started freelancing

This week I’ve been thinking about the days when I was new to freelancing and what I’ve learnt since then. I’ll keep my story of how I first started for another day, but there are three things I want to share that I wish I’d known about freelancing when I started out:

1. You don’t need to come up with fancy marketing strategies

I had such a good catch up this week with some fellow trust fundraising freelancers and as usual the topic of marketing and finding new work came up. We all wholeheartedly agreed that the best bit of marketing you can do for yourself to keep new work coming in is actually really simple.

Be good at what you do.

Because when you do a good job, people talk. They come back to you when they need more help. They talk to others in the sector, and when they move on themselves to new jobs, they’ll back to you if they need your help.

2. You’re the boss

This is a big one, and one that I still have to remind myself of regularly. There are so many benefits to freelancing and the biggest one for me is the flexibility. I pick my boys up from school every day, I often walk the dog in the morning before I sit down at my desk and sometimes on a sunny day, I have been known to ‘take time off’ and get some jobs done in the garden. Because I get to choose when I work and who I work for. Do what works for you and don’t feel guilty about it.

3. Spend time on your business, not just in your business

If you’re a freelancer who is usually paid by the day, or even by the hour, it’s easy to fall in to the trap of thinking that all of the time you spend working should be paid client work. As your own boss though there are certain things you’ll need to spend time on in order to keep your business running smoothly – monthly invoicing and bookkeeping, speaking to potential new clients and sending out proposals. These things take time, so it’s important to structure your working time to give you the space to do the things that will keep your business on track – some of the things I do a are a weekly check in on Friday mornings as well as a monthly ‘CEO’ day. If you’d like to hear more about those just drop me an email hello@aliciagrainger.co.uk.