It’s 2013. I’m in Beijing, sitting in my studio apartment on the 16th floor and gazing out of the windows into a smog-filled sky (ah, China). Last week I told my boss I wanted to go part-time to start freelancing.

He agreed. Crap. Now I’m unproductively staring into space with no idea what I’m doing. No clients, no money, no leads. I’m not quite sure what I was thinking.

Fast-forward many years later and I would say i’m a pretty successful freelancer. Have I got the hang of it? Yes. Am I a freelancing “guru”? By no means, but people keep hiring me so I take that as a good sign.

When I look back there's a lot of things I wish I’d known, done or committed to when I first started freelancing. If you’re a beginner freelancer or first-time freelancer looking for advice, here are my 8 best freelancing tips for beginners.

1. Spend 40% of Your Time Working on Your Freelance Business.

Don’t just work in your business, work on it.

If you spend all your time on client work it’s impossible to sustainably grow your freelance business long term. You’re also still functioning as an employee, working for several bosses instead of one, and without perks like healthcare or paid time off.

You need to do more than just your craft.

While you may love what you do - copywriting, designing, photography – as a freelancer you’re now running a business. That means finding new leads, strengthening your business skills (think marketing, sales, negotiation), updating your portfolio and website and building your network. (Read my tips on how to find freelance clients: the best and worst ways in this article.)

You’ll thank yourself later.

40% of your time might seem like a lot. It is a lot. It might seem like you’re leaving money on the table – after all, that’s time you could be using to do paid client work.

Leaving that money on the table today is going to deliver exponential benefits later. It will help you avoid that erratic feast and famine income cycle that’s so common in the freelance industry. Eventually, you’ll be able to spend less time drumming up leads – they’ll come to you thanks to all that marketing, growing your network and market positioning you’ve been doing.

2. Best Freelancing Tips for Beginners: Add 20% Padding to Your Quotations.

My second freelancing tip is to overestimate. However you bill your clients - set rate, hourly rate or day rate, always add 20% padding to your project estimates. This is one of the most powerful tips for successful freelancing…

Why?

Because things always take longer than you expect. You get better at accurately quoting for work as you go along, but you want to avoid going back to the client and asking for more money because you underestimated. Or over-servicing and having to put in extra time during which you’re not making money and can’t take on other projects.

3. Delight Your Clients.

Let’s face it, you probably offer the same services as a lot of other freelancers. Even if you’re at the top of your game with a solid portfolio, the competition is tight with not much separating one freelancer from the next.

Help the client pick you.

While you offer a skill set that other freelancers have, no one is like you. You are unique: That is your unique selling product (USP).

As more freelancers enter the market and things get more competitive, the experience you offer around your services and how you treat clients is your value proposition. It’s what’s going to separate you from the rest.

Surprise and delight your clients with every interaction. Be unforgettable. Be effortless to work with. Show you genuinely want what’s best for the client and you’ll see it pay off. And do not underestimate the skill of being likeable (For tips check out 10 Ways Freelancers Can Leverage Likeability Techniques To Win More Work.) – we all want to work with people we like.

4. You Don’t Have to Work a 9-5, 40-Hour Work Week.

Another tip for beginner freelancers is to design your career around your life, not the other way round.

“Presenteeism” is when you’re at your desk but not really there - you’re distracted, unproductive, not feeling great, you can’t focus on the task. Since school we’ve been on someone else’s schedule. Enter the working world and the Monday to Friday 9-5 (if you’re lucky) work week is drummed into us.

The 40-hour work week is a relic from another time. It’s a schedule that doesn't work for everyone. But the guilt of not sticking to the schedule is one of the hardest things to get away from as a freelancer.

Freelance is Freedom - Embrace It.

Not to get too cliché but your fondest life memories are unlikely to be those sat at your desk, working away. Make freelancing work for you and do those things you always dreamed of.

Maybe you take a long summer off with the kids, implement a 4-day working week, work evenings instead of mornings. Take an annual sabbatical. Design your work life for you. I’m pretty sure no other company is ever going to give you the chance to do that.

5. Learn SEO Fundamentals.

Some of the best freelance advise I can give you is to learn the fundamental aspects of SEO as soon as possible.

Today, nearly all of my leads come from organic search. I don’t spend time chasing new clients, cold emailing or doing outreach. People come to me and that saves me a lot of time.

Put in a little effort to understand the basics of SEO so you can optimise your freelance website and get found by the right people. The same goes for your LinkedIn; optimise your profile with the right keywords. You’ll thank yourself later.

At its most basic, SEO is common sense and empathy - what questions are people looking for answers to? How can you phrase what you write so Google sees that what you’ve written is helpful? My advice is to look at the top performing pages for a search term and imitate how they lay out their pages.

6. Your Self-Esteem is Fundamental to Your Success as a Freelancer.

One of the best freelancing tips for beginners is to manage your mindset.

What freelancers need to know is that two things will help you win the freelance game: 1. having high self-worth and 2. having an abundance mindset. Both can be cultivated.

Your concept of “self” is subjective. It’s based on the thoughts you have of yourself, especially self-limiting beliefs i.e. “I’m not as good a designer as so and so”. “I’m not smart enough to earn as much as her”.

Your thoughts and mind will determine so much of your life destiny, your freelance career included. (Imposter syndrome is one of the most common mindset challenges you might face. Read my tips in The Ultimate Guide to Imposter Syndrome for freelancers.)

Fear and self-doubt are your greatest enemies as a freelancer. You will need to be your own cheerleader. Control that inner dialogue and get away from self-limiting beliefs.

Talk to yourself positively, crank up that self-esteem. Confidence begets confidence, success begets success. The only thing stopping you from being successful is you. Get your head straight. Get the hell out of your own way.

And have the confidence to take risks - if a project scares you, do it. Instead of thinking “What if I mess it up and fail?” Change your thoughts to “What if I succeed? What if this experience changes my career?”

Cultivate an abundance mindset.

One of the biggest things freelancers worry about is not getting enough work. There is more than 100 trillion dollars in the global economy just waiting for you. There is always more work. Always.

If you operate from a scarcity mindset you’re just channelling fear, stress and anxiety. Who is the client going to choose, a freelancer that seems desperate and unhinged or someone that seems relaxed and balanced? Act confident and not only will people believe it but you’ll become it.

Come at things from an abundance mindset, because there is enough room for everyone.

7. It’s OK Not to Niche.

There’s so much pressure from the freelancer community to niche. You can still be a super successful freelancer without niching. As a copywriter, I don't have a niche in any industry or medium. I’m a mini-marketing agency of one.

It works because I can provide add on services for clients. Copywriting and content writing are pretty transferable skills. Clients have commissioned me to do a website then asked, “Can you handle Instagram for us?”. Sure, I’d love to! “We need someone to do a video script, can you help us?” Yep!

I like variety. I like learning about new industries and mediums.

COVID has also exposed some of the risks with niching. For freelancers focusing on the travel industry things didn’t look too hot for a time. Specialise in one social media platform? What if it folds? There’s a danger with putting all your eggs in one basket. Niching can be great, but it’s not the holy grail.

The best thing you can do is be strategically diverse. Get a mix of retainers and project work. Build service offerings but compliment them with products. Don’t just focus on one market - can you offer services in Europe and Asia? Because while Europe’s budgets are shrinking, Asia’s are booming.

8. Don’t Take Shit.

Rounding out the list of freelancing tips for beginners is this little gem: don’t take shit. Some clients are just terrible clients. Some people can’t see your value and will treat you badly. Some projects are terrible to work on or will drive you mental. Most of that says more about the client than it does about you or your work.

But what does say a lot about you is what you will put up with.

Clients won’t respect you until you respect yourself. Set expectations and boundaries right at the beginning. Manage the client. Enforce your terms and stick to them - if they don't pay on time, add late fees. Don’t start the next project until they’ve paid the last. Set clear office hours and don’t be in contact outside of that time.

Most importantly, know when to cut your losses. Sometimes even the best-paying jobs aren’t worth the headache.

So there are the best freelancing tips for beginners or those looking to up their freelance game. What freelancing lessons have been most important for you? What do you wish you’d known earlier?