The importance of constant learning for freelancers

How to be a successful freelancer in a constantly changing world? It’s possible but building a strong and successful remote career definitely requires constant learning. In this article, we will look at everything you should focus on if you want to have a lifelong freelance career.

The urge to adapt to unexpected changes

There’s a constant need for freelancers to adapt to new changes. It doesn’t matter if those changes come from one of your remote contracts, or they are a result of the world’s changing economy – there’s that urge to adapt to every change that happens. Freelancers should be open-minded and never rigid. Events that happen all around our globe can affect your business. Just remember what happened with the pandemic – more and more people started changing their careers and became freelancers. What does that mean for you if you already had a successful freelance career? Well, that may bring more competitors to the market, which means that you should provide quality work or even better – improve your knowledge and skills to offer more and stand out from the crowd.

The good thing about remote work, and at the same time – the difficulty of freelance business is that it’s an always growing market. That means, there will be new opportunities, but there will also always be new and better workers.

Keep up with the latest online business trends

Let’s say that you are a web developer. What can you do to keep up with the latest online business trends? Some developers will swear by knowledge related to HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, but others will focus on the market’s needs. You’ve probably realized that more and more customers want to build websites that don’t require a lot of time, energy, and above all – money. For web developers that are trying their best to fit market’s needs, a great piece of advice would be to learn WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix. This way, you’ll be able to complete a task in an easier manner, yet to fit the client’s budget. And although a freelance web developer may earn a little bit less money this way, they’ll still have a lot of time left to work on other projects, which leads us to increased market, more clients and customers, new skills learned, and a better position in the freelance world.

Another example can be related to video creation. Here we have an opposite example – video creation requires more money, energy, and time to promote a business, yet there’s no better way to promote yourself or your online brand. The entire point would be to increase competitiveness!

Offering new skills to old customers – build trust

Every freelancer is hoping to build a long-term contract with clients. What that offers to remote workers is a stable source of income and confidence. But, to build trust and long-term relationships with different clients, there’s always a need to learn something new and offer new skills. Let’s say that you are a writer. If you write for a certain client for years, why wouldn’t you go level up and learn SEO techniques? You can also focus on popular tools and platforms for building websites, such as WordPress that we have already mentioned. If you write, know SEO and WordPress basics, you’ll not only raise your hourly rate but also be sure that long-term relationships with clients will last – you’ll get new tasks. Freelance professionals all around the globe also claim that customer service is a key skill for any business, so learn at least the basics of it.

Life costs are growing

Everything we’ve mentioned so far was related to the needs of the freelance market. Here, we want to talk about freelancers’ problems. Of course, it’s no secret that personal life costs may be growing with time. A freelancer may move to another country, decide to buy a new home, get married, have children, or whatever we may think of. All that means that the living costs will be constantly growing, and the solution is – offering new skills and knowledge. Don’t forget to take a look at the next facts that may improve your online business.

Learn how to negotiate

Learning how to negotiate in an online market is of crucial importance. A freelancer may have a lot of skills and knowledge, yet if they don’t know how to make a proper contract with a client, everything may fail. The best advice would be not to rush to get the highest price for your work but to truly negotiate. Think about what you get from a certain contract – most often, you’ll realize that there are more important things than the budget. If the client is not too strict with its rules, if they can offer more work and will be there for the long term – try to fit their budget. Yet, if you work with someone who has a lot of requirements, you don’t find friendly, or is not there for a long stay – focus on the quality of your work and try to finish the project as soon as possible. This way, you’ll be able to raise your rate, but also to get great feedback that will speak for itself.

Protect your online business

From time to time, every freelancer experience fraud. It may happen that someone decides not to pay you for your work, but it may also happen that someone disappears with your work. Learn how to protect your online business – don’t start anything without a proper contract. Most freelance platforms offer protection, so never start a contract outside of the freelance platform. If you do that, you’ll not only risk being a victim of online fraud, but you may also get banned from a platform because you crossed their rules.

*Bonus advice – While we’re talking about freelance platforms and websites, let’s do a quick reminder – the importance of constant learning for freelancers may also be related to exploring new job opportunities and representing yourself in new online places. Explore all platforms that exist online and offer new and constant work to freelancers. Don’t stick to just one freelancing platform and expect that your business constantly grows.

Overcome your fears and insecurities

It may sound surprising, but many freelance and online workers have some sort of communication insecurities. Don’t like talking on the phone? What about camera meetings with teams and clients? If you have some of these fears and insecurities, which include speaking with others, try to work on overcoming them. Why? Because the future of remote work will definitely include online meetings. Practice alone, until you become confident about it.

Technology is also constantly changing and improving, so be sure that you stay in touch with the newest technological achievements. It’s important that every freelance worker knows how to use tools for project managing, communication, and online meeting platforms.