Don't spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity that you miss the right opportunity.

— Michael Dell

The concept of freelancers has been around for nearly 200 years, named for the free “lances” who were medieval mercenaries who would be paid to fight for a particular nation or person. These people didn't have a specific allegiance to any king or queen, but rather they traveled where the gold beckoned them. After they completed the war or battle for their payment, they were free to trudge on and find the next‐highest bidder willing to pay for their temporary loyalty.

The modern‐day freelancer is no different. And it's that very reason why you are going to grow your own freelancing brand first, before you conquer the pursuit of financial freedom.

What Is Freelancing?

A freelancer is an independent, self‐employed person who is hired out on a per‐project basis. Freelancers do not report to bosses, companies, or managers, and are responsible for supplying their own benefits. The trade‐off is simple: a freelancer can make their own schedule, business, prices, and structure, in exchange for forgoing the health insurance, retirement, and other benefits that come from working a 9‐to‐5.

We will discuss in later chapters how this trade‐off is incorrectly marketed, since freelancers can set up their own retirement accounts, buy health insurance, and benefit from tax credits and deductions that are not available to employed individuals.

Freelancers can run their businesses anywhere they want to—there are no rules. But it's most common for a freelancer to face the following decision when first starting out: Do I want to run my own business from a website, or do I want to use the big freelancing marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork to grow my business? Technically, you can—and should—do both.

The fact that so much freedom is already awarded to you the moment you decide to start freelancing can be the very reason why so many people are scared to try it out. We are conditioned to work within rules and confines our entire adolescent and adult lives. We're told which classes we can and can't take. We're told what time to get to work, how to write emails according to the business guidelines, and how to report our Paid Time Off. We're told so many things that it's not uncommon to find yourself truly perplexed staring in the face of freelancing. With different structural options and no rules about what's right and wrong, how are you supposed to get started?

Believe me—I was there, too. I almost felt guilty, like I was doing something wrong working on my Fiverr freelance writing business back in 2016. I would look around in the Starbucks, wondering if someone was catching onto my “naughty” departure from society to write press releases and blogs in the corner. That is some deep psychological programming for you.

Fortunately, following the acceptance of remote work at the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic, freelancing became a popularly sought‐after concept. Millions of people are quitting their jobs to take their current skill set they have developed at companies and go offer it to their own clientele. I applaud them for taking that initiative because not only will it pay off with the freedom for them to travel and see the world, but they will also enjoy higher overall earnings, considering that skilled freelancers earn more per hour than 70% of U.S. workers (Booth 2019).

Still, the concept of freelancing remains hard for people to understand, which is why I am going to show you just how simple it is to make it work for you. I believe freelancing first is the best way to pay down debt, get a feel for basic business practices like customer service and sales, and save up some extra cash you can use to open additional side hustles and investments down the line. Rome wasn't built in a day!

The Pros and Cons of Freelancing Marketplaces and Solo Businesses

Before we dive into the meat of freelancing, setting up a freelancing business, attracting clients, and making your money, let's break down the pros and cons of freelancing marketplaces like Fiverr versus solo businesses managed on your own website.

Which Option Is Better for You?

There is never a one‐size‐fits‐all answer for anything in business. That's the beauty of it. But there is a general structure that you can follow on your quest to own a seven‐figure agency.

First, start with the freelancing platforms. Think of these platforms as the bikes with training wheels. You lose autonomy and some money to them, but they provide you with safety nets. They alleviate the need for sales and placing ads, tracking funds and invoices, and strong‐arming clients who don't pay. As a result, you can focus on the other elements of your business, like perfecting your pitches to your clients, adhering to client expectations, and creating perfect questionnaires that collect all the information you need from a client before an order begins.

While you spend your time focusing on these aspects, you will find that adding in the additional responsibilities down the line is manageable. You don't want to overwhelm yourself at first. Take your time with all of this and realize that in just a few months, using one or more freelancing platforms that were completely free to sign up on can change your life forever.

After you spend some time trading over your autonomy in exchange for the training wheels, you're going to get itchy. You're going to want some say in how your business runs, and you're especially going to want to be able to share your first name with your clients. That's when you're going to open your very own freelancing website off a platform.

Note: You can be on freelancing platforms and open your own freelancing website. There is no rule that says you cannot. Just ensure your pricing is consistent between the two, so you do not confuse or upset your clients. Although your profiles are anonymous on many freelancing platforms, you will want to start collecting clients that you own directly through a freelancing website. We will go over how to do this in subsequent chapters.

When you open this website, it's going to take some time and require a new level of accountability from you. You're going to have to find a website designer to build the website (unless you want to take a stab at it). You're going to want to hire other freelancers (using the marketplaces is a great place to access freelancing talent for your own business) to make the logos, graphics, website content, and even use search engine optimization (SEO) for the entire thing. Then once that's all done, you're going to sit down and think about how you're going to find your clients. You have many options available to you, with the most popular being:

• Social media posting
• Social media groups (Facebook, Slack, and LinkedIn)
• Cold pitching
• Email marketing
• Virtual and in‐person networking
• Advertisements

You will soon learn which methods you prefer for finding your leads. All of these can be done by virtual assistants for you, so you don't have to worry about it. We will review how to find, vet, and leverage virtual assistants in the forthcoming chapters.

Never Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

That is one of my all‐time favorite sayings because it could not be truer in business. The volatility of working for yourself in freelancing is evident, no doubt. Yet you can crush that volatility into oblivion if you spread yourself out over multiple freelancing marketplaces and lead funnels. Who said you had to just pick one thing and cross your fingers? Although your employer has probably created a fear in you that you can't earn money to the side of your corporate job through their heinous “non‐compete” requirements, with freelancing, you can compete against yourself repeatedly. In Chapter 3, we’ll look at why you should get on multiple freelancing marketplaces when starting out.

Chapter 2 Key Points

• Freelancing can be tailored in any way that works for you.
• Start with freelancing platforms and work your way into your own solo freelancing business.
• Consider trying out multiple freelancing platforms when you are just getting started.
• Be sure never to put all your eggs in one basket.