How to Become a Freelancer? The 5 Steps in 2024

More and more French people want to start a freelance business. A status with many advantages, which allows you to manage your time, to earn more money, but above all to have more freedom.

The problem is that starting your own business is not an easy task. No job security, no paid vacations and all the other benefits of being an employee. Yet, 94% of workers who left their jobs job to become freelancers do not want to become employees again. 💪

In the digital age, becoming a freelancer is even more interesting. And yes, you can make a living by being 100% telecommuting and work from home or even from another country!

If you want to start a freelance business, we’ve put together a complete guide for you. In this article you’ll see who the freelance life is suitable for, how much you can expect to earn and most importantly, how to become a profitable and successful freelancer. 📈

What is freelance?

The term freelance is an anglicism to describe a non-salaried or independent worker. Freelance is not a profession but a status like that of employee or civil servant. We will see together what this status is, how much you can expect to earn, etc.

By the way, you can discover all the statistics on freelancing in our article.

Definition

A freelancer is a natural person who is independent in his or her profession(web developer, graphic designer, etc.) and who does not have an employment contract with an employer. He is self-employed and provides services for private and professional clients.

You will have understood, almost all the jobs can be done as a freelancer. If you are a writer and work for a newspaper, you can offer your services as a freelancer. The same goes if you are a salaried video editor, web developer or other. Evenother more rare jobs can be done as a freelancer. For example, we see journalists offering their services as freelancers, without being employed by a media. 🗞️

A typical day

As you have seen, it is possible to workin many different freelance jobs and therefore, everyone will have a different “typical day“. Some are going to travel extensively to see their clients, while others are telecommuting and only communicating via video conferencing. 💻

In order to show you what a day as a freelancer could look like, let’s take the example of a person who is a freelance web developer.

To begin with, you should know that a freelancer has mainly two main tasks to perform. The first is to carry out the missions entrusted to him and the second is to find new customers. So, one could imagine that a web developer spends half of his time prospecting and the other half coding.

However, it still depends on the assignments you are given. If you only have small assignments lasting a few days, you will have to spend a lot of time prospecting. On the other hand, if you have long-term assignments (3 to 6 months for example), you will inevitably leave prospecting aside for a while.

In most cases, you will spend several days or weeks working on the same assignment. You will be given a set of specifications(optional, some clients ask for it but not all) and a deadline to hand in your work. Then, it’s up to you to organize yourself to do the work. Knowing that you don ‘t have hours like an employee, you can work mornings, evenings, days or even nights if you want! ⏰

Since there are many things to do in addition to a salaried job like billing, it is important to be well organized. Most freelancers take a few hours a month to edit invoices, track cash flow, report income and more. Accounting is also an integral part of the life of a freelancer!

If you do small, very short assignments through freelancing platforms, all your days will be different. If you don’t like monotony, this can be a good option. Here you will really have new missions almost every day, so your daily life will never be the same.

Who can be a freelancer?

As previously mentioned, almost any job can be done as a freelancer. But generally speaking, the freelance life is not for everyone. Indeed, you don’t have job security, no paid vacations, no meal tickets and the like. 😱

This can hold many people back from getting into freelancing. And it is true that if the freelance status brings much more freedom, it is a less secure position than the salaried position. Therefore, if the job security and other benefits of being an employee are important to you, it is better not to start a freelance business.

On the other hand, if you want to be your own boss, becoming self-employed may suit you. This status is also suitable if you want to be able to choose your own hours and if you like to work alone. Indeed, the big plus of the freelance life is that you can work whenever you want. And if your job is telecommuting, you can even do it wherever you want(at home, in a coworking space or at the other end of the world).

What is the average income of a freelancer?

It is very difficult to establish an average salary when talking about freelance status. Simply because there are so many different types of freelance work and therefore, significant disparities in income. But generally speaking, a freelancer is going to earn more than an employee who does the same job on a permanent basis. 📈

The majority of freelancers work with an Average Daily Rate (ADR). In other words, they will charge X € per day of work. Thus, to hire the services of a freelancer, a client will have to pay 300, 400, 500€ per day worked. But beware, there are many specificities to take into account.

At first glance, you may think that by charging 300€ per day for example, you can earn 6000€ per month. But this is only possible if you work 5 days out of 5, don’t take any holidays and above all, have assignments all the time. Which in itself is almost impossible. And that’s why freelancers will charge so much per day. 💸

According to a study by job search site talent.com, the median income for freelancers is €39,187 per year. For his first years, a freelancer generates on average 24.264€ per year and the most experienced freelancers can earn up to 80.000€ per year.

Again, this will depend on your industry, your experience and the assignments you find.

How to become a freelancer? The 5 steps

Now that you’ve seen what freelancing is all about, we’ll show you step by step how to start your own business. You will see how to monetize your skills, find clients, create your micro-business and more.

Before you start, you should know that we will give you several tips so that you can start with peace of mind. However, if you really want to have all the weapons in hand to succeed in your freelance career, it is better to go through a complete training. On our blog we present several freelance trainings that will guide you step by step to build your career as a freelancer. 🤝🏾

Please note that in this guide, we will assume that you want to become a telecommuting freelancer. If you are planning to start a freelance business to provide physical services, this guide may not be for you.

Step 1: Find a skill to sell/train

Many people want to start freelancing, but one problem persists: can my job be freelanced?

From now on, it is almost possible to sell everything on the internet. Therefore, no matter what skill you have, you are bound to find customers. On the other hand, if you have no monetizable skills, the best thing to do is to train on a skill that sells well on the internet.

Here are the jobs that “sell” best on the internet:

• Web Editor / Proofreader ✍️
• Copywriter 🖋️
• Translator 🇬🇧
• Community Manager 📲
• Graphic / Web Designer 🎨
• SEO/SEA Consultant 🧑‍💻
• Web Developer 🌐
• Website designer 💻
• Audio Transcriber 🎙️
• Virtual assistant 👔
• Video editor 🎬

If you have no skills and want to succeed in online freelancing, we really invite you to train for one of these jobs. These are sectors where there is a high demand and therefore you will inevitably find clients.

To train in any of these skills, there are many resources available free of charge on the internet. We also present on our blog some premium trainings that will teach you from A to Z to practice one of these professions. 🤝🏿

Step 2: Choose your legal status

To be able to work as a freelancer, you will need to have a company. Rest assured, there is no need to create a complex structure with the help of an accountant, lawyer or others. No, you can create a micro-business online in just 30 minutes. 🕜

The status of micro-entrepreneur is the most popular among the self-employed. There are several reasons for this, including its simplicity. The micro-enterprise is a simplified regime for self-employed workers, created in 2008. For the self-employed, this is the least expensive status that can exist.

The operation is quite different from a real company. With a micro-business, you will have a SIRET number, which will allow you to create invoices. As far as taxes are concerned, there are only two.

Social contributions must be paid monthly or quarterly(you choose when you create your business). Unlike a traditional company, the contributions will be calculated on the turnover and not on the profit.

👉 For services, the contribution rate is 22%.

👉 For the sale of goods, the contribution rate is 11%.

Then, you will have to pay each year the Cotisation Foncière des Entreprises (CFE), which will be calculated according to your turnover.

Please note that in order to remain a micro-entrepreneur, you must not exceed a certain turnover.

👉 For the provision of services, the turnover must not exceed 72.600€.

👉 For the sale of goods, the turnover must not exceed 176.200€.

Some self-employed people opt forother statutes such as theSole Propri etorship(EI), or theIndividual Entrepreneur with Limited Liability(EIRL) or even the wage portage. These statutes are especially useful if you exceed the turnover limits of the micro-business.

Step 3: Define your offer, set your prices

Once you know what to sell and you have your micro-entrepreneur status, you will be able to contact clients and register on freelance platforms . The problem is that you will have to set a price for your services. 🤑

As you have seen, the majority of freelancers work with an Average Daily Rate. But depending on the business, the way of invoicing can change. Some freelancers charge by the job, such as copywriters or video editors for example.

It can therefore be complicated if you are just starting out to define a rate for your services. What we recommend is simply to be inspired by the competition. You can go to freelancing platforms to see the prices offered by other freelancers. In this way, you will be able to have an idea of the rate to charge according to your activity. 👀

⚠️ Do not underestimate yourself not and avoids offering a too low rate. Otherwise, you’re going to lock yourself in with clients who won’t pay you enough and you won’t be able to be a profitable freelancer. Trust yourself, your clients will feel it and will be willing to pay you like other providers.

Step 4: Finding Clients

If you’re an online freelancer, there are going to be two main ways to find clients. On the one hand, you can work directly with your clients and canvass them by email or on LinkedIn. On the other hand, you can register on freelance platforms, which connect freelancers and clients. 🤝🏾

Freelance platforms

There are now dozens of platforms that allow freelancers to offer their services. Malt comes to mind, Fiverr 5euros.com and others.

On these platforms, you will be able to find hundreds of different jobs performed by freelancers. Through the main platform Malt, one can find providers for many services(SEO consultant, video editor, marketing consultant, etc.).

By creating your profile on one of these platforms, customers will naturally come to you. Obviously, the platform will take a percentage of the turnover . However, it is also the platform that takes care of the payment, the creation of the invoices and the reminders in case of unpaid bills.

Prospecting

If you don’t like freelancing platforms, you can go “ live “with clients. In other words, you will simply communicate with your customers by email or video conference. The advantage is that no one will take a commission on your sales. However, it will be up to you tosend the bills and take care of any unpaid bills. 🙄

To find direct customers, you will have to “prospect“. Prospecting is simply the act of approaching potential clients in order to offer them your services. Most freelancers(regardless of their profession) use LinkedIn to market themselves.

Here too, you can find online templates of emails or messages to send to approach and close your first customers. 💪

Step 5: Increase your value, build customer loyalty: aim for the long term!

Once you start getting your first clients, the goal is to stand out. You should not be like all the other freelancers, because if you are not, your clients can easily replace you. In order toincrease your added value and appear indispensable to your customers, there are many techniques to implement.

To begin with, you will need to continually educate yourself in order to advance in your area of expertise. You will also have to develop new skills in your current job and learn about its evolution. Otherwise, you risk becoming quickly obsolete, especially if you are working in an internet job. 😮‍💨

Secondly, what differentiates a freelancer from a good freelancer is professionalism. If you are late and turn in sloppy work, no one will want to work with you in the long run. We invite you to always be professional in your work and in your dealings with your clients.

Finally, we really invite you to train yourself to succeed in managing customer relationsin order to keep your professional partners loyal. The goal is certainly not to change assignments every week, but to keep your clients for the long term. If you want to have a real career as a freelancer, you can’t afford to have only short term assignments. ⏱️

Now you know how to start your freelance business and earn a living from the internet. If you want to train before starting as a freelancer, we invite you to read our comparison of the 4 best freelance trainings . Here you’ll get a lot more tips tailored to your situation to find clients. 👀

If you don’t want to invest yet, but still want to earn some money on the internet, we invite you to download our free ebook “Affiliate & SEO“. You’ll discover several skills that can be sold as freelancers such as writing, SEO and website design.