Being a freelancer is a leap of faith, that sometimes rapidly transforms into an incredible success. However, more often than not, being a freelancer is filled with stress and everyday struggle as you try to make it work.

Would you be surprised to know that more than half of all freelancers choose to give up their independent career and go back to a normal day-to-day office job because they can’t handle the pressure of running a small business?

It would be unfair to mock them.

The freelancing life demands, indeed, a lot of work.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an expert in your sector. When you run your own business, you need to have a strong understanding of marketing, branding, and business management.

Freelancers are not just very talented and motivated individuals. They are experts at multitasking to maintain their business! From finishing a project for a client to monitoring your brand online, you need to uncover the secret to freelancing success.

Business acumen to convince buyers and investors

Freelancers are in a difficult position, as they need to be good enough to compete against professional companies about specific skills, but they also have to maintain a professional presence despite running a one-person business. Ultimately, you need to know how to manage a company, which implies either previous experience, or relevant studies – such as masters in business management – or even both. Your customers, and your potential investors will be expecting you to provide the same level of information and managed processes as any other company.

A strong marketing strategy to grow

If you’ve never worked with online marketing before, you can’t maintain a freelancing career without understanding how to make digital marketing work for you. Thankfully, there is a variety of free or low-cost online tools that can provide you with the necessary customer data to create a targeted strategy. For instance, using Google Analytics can help to identify behavioural patterns, such as which social media platform performs work best for you or whether your web visitors are local, national or international users. Knowing who you are trying to sell to makes it easier to design the best messaging to engage with your audience. Additionally, using digital data collecting tools can also give you precious indications about budget management. For instance, if nobody comes through paid advertisement, you know you are wasting money on this strategy.

A brand experience your customers won’t forget

Do you know what successful businesses have in common?. They have created a brand experience. You can learn from the big companies, such as Disney, that a great experience is priceless. Indeed, the decor plays a significant part in setting the mood, however as not all businesses have a physical site, it not always a valid element. However, the interactions with the various members of the staff need to convey the same excitement that the visitor feels. In other words, your behaviour, the way you interact with customers and the way you deal with queries and issues are just as much part of your brand image as your logo or your web design.

Final word

The bottom line is that to succeed as a freelancer; you need to think like a big company. You need the business knowledge, the strategic approach and the engaging experience of giants, with the personal touch that only small companies and independent entrepreneurs can create.