9 Essential Freelance Skills to Learn Before You Quit Your Job
9 Essential Freelance Skills to Learn Before You Quit Your Job
These are the things I wish I mastered before I became a full-time freelance writer.
The period between your great idea to become a freelance writer and when you’re finally able to quit your job to take your freelance business full-time is a time of “active waiting.”
You’re working hard, but you’re also doing a lot of thumb-twiddling.
It can be agony.
But it can also be an opportunity to dive head first into developing new soft skills, dedicating time to learning, and putting yourself out there in new ways - all while you still have the stability of a full-time income.
Use the waiting. When 100% of your income depends on client work, you probably won’t be able to dedicate as much time to learning or self-development.
Here are nine essential freelance skills I wish I’d mastered before quitting my full-time job.
Time blocking
Time blocking is a time management strategy that I didn’t discover and implement until about a year ago - and it has been amazing for my productivity.
It involves scheduling your day into dedicated chunks of time and putting yourself on a schedule.
This sounds obvious in hindsight, but before doing this, I would wake up each morning with a general idea of what I needed to do but no plan to get it done. I would try to squeeze in my work around the edges of tending to my house, homeschooling my children, cooking meals, and running errands.
Not a productive use of my time and not a way to consistently produce high-quality content for my clients. Now, I sit down each night and write out my schedule for the next day. When I don’t have anything going on outside of the house, it looks something like this for me:
6-8 am: morning quiet time, get ready
8 am-12 pm: work
12 pm: lunch
1-3 pm: homeschool
3-5 pm: work
5-8 pm: cook and eat dinner, clean the house, get the kids ready for bed
8-11 pm: workout, work (if needed), chill, get ready for bed
11 pm: bedtime
I make a new schedule every night because it helps me set my intentions for the following day (and forces me to check my Google calendar and my planner), but this is something that you could do weekly, monthly, or quarterly then keep it visible.
Not every day goes exactly according to plan, but my productivity has drastically improved since I started time blocking.
It may seem strange to time block your days if you leave your house for work, but I can almost guarantee it will help you find more focused time to dedicate to building your freelance business.
Delegation
Even as a solopreneur, you must know how and when to delegate.
You may be better served to hire someone else to do something for you quickly, efficiently, and correctly - rather than trying to do it yourself for free (and doing a poor job).
Some real-world examples that I’ve tried myself:
Hiring a housekeeper to do the deep cleaning
Hiring a website builder to create your website instead of trying to build it yourself
Using a meal delivery service instead of meal planning and grocery shopping
Having groceries delivered instead of going to the grocery store
Admittedly, these things cost money. But that’s the thing to keep in mind as you consider delegating tasks out - is it more cost-effective for you to do all of these things yourself or to work while someone else does these things for you?
Cold outreach
I’ve talked before about how cold outreach isn’t the most fun, but it’s a great way to grow your network, hone your elevator pitch, inoculate yourself against the fear of rejection, and - ideally - land paid work.
Before you quit your full-time job, it’s a great idea to get used to doing cold outreach. Keep a running list of companies you may like to write for, and send them your letter of introduction offering your services. Do this as much as you can.
You won’t get a lot of responses, but it will feel amazing when you do - and even better when one converts into a paid client.
By the time you take your business full-time, you won’t be scared of doing cold outreach.
Client calls
God bless the two founders I wrangled into hopping on my very first client call. They were endlessly patient with my awkward stammering and actually ended up offering me some work and being a continued source of occasional work for a while (until my rates got too high)!
Now, I can confidently hop on a call (showing my face on camera even!) and rock it, knowing exactly what I bring to the table, what questions to ask, and how to share my rates without my voice shaking.
It takes practice! I say, hop on as MANY calls as you can while you’re building up your business - so that taking a call is no big deal when 100% of your income depends on how well you can sell yourself.
Research
Researching an article is a vital skill for a freelance writer.
Most clients won’t accept just any page you find on Google as a source for the claims you make - and you know what? They shouldn’t!
And if you write in niches that Google defines as “Your Money or Your Life,” then providing proper sources and creating thoroughly researched content will directly affect how well your content performs.
Most importantly, we need to do excellent research so that our content is helpful and informative - and in no way harmful or misleading - for readers.
Here are some of the best sources for conducting research:
PubMed for scientific research articles
Government (.gov if you’re US-based) or university (.edu) websites for statistics, data sets, laws, guidelines, etc.
ScienceDirect for snippets from textbooks, as well as research articles
Depending on your niche, there may be several other good sites or resources for your research. Additionally, depending on your client, you may receive a style guide offering additional sourcing guidance. Make sure to follow your clients’ sourcing guidelines to the letter!
Digital Marketing and SEO
It took me an embarrassingly long time to make the connection between freelance writing and marketing.
So let me save you a lot of time: freelance writing is marketing. Whether you’re writing emails, blog posts, long-form articles, white papers, sales pages, product descriptions, or webpage copy, you are doing marketing work.
For that reason, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with the basics of digital marketing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a large piece of the puzzle. It’s all about getting your site on page one (preferably, position one) of the Google search results for a particular search query.
SEO is vast and multifaceted, and as a digital content creator, you will need at least some basic understanding of SEO.
Some of the largest and most well-known web SEO resources offer free courses on SEO, digital marketing, and content writing. They are:
Fundamentals of Writing
And, of course, you have to know how to write! It helps tremendously if writing is something you enjoy doing. I’d say it’s a necessity.
The skill of writing can be cultivated, though, through lots and lots of reading AND writing.
There are also tons of free courses you can take online to help you brush up on your writing skills. Here are a few completely free, highly-rated courses I found on Udemy:
Budgeting
Setting out on your own as a freelance writer requires some serious financial accountability. You won’t receive a set paycheck every month, and you’ll be responsible for setting aside taxes to pay quarterly.
Make sure you’re already a budgeting pro before quitting your job.
You don’t necessarily have to write down every single expense. I sure don’t.
But, you need to know how to live within your means and have a system to pay all your bills on time. If you can’t live within your means on a stable income, the ups and downs of freelancing (like slow months, late payers, or Paypal randomly deciding to freeze your account… true story) may throw you for a loop.
Networking
Finally, it’s never too early to start networking! Get that LinkedIn profile polished up, and get out there. Get plugged into some freelance communities like Peak Freelance or Superpath. Join Facebook groups for freelance writers and digital marketers in your niche.
Engage with other writers and people who work at companies you’d like to write for one day (without the expectation that they mentor you, answer a billion questions, or hire you).
You’ll quickly learn that your network is one of the most valuable parts of your freelance business. But you don’t want to be a taker - you want to give your network even more than you take.
Even if you’re a new freelancer and you don’t feel like you have much to offer, you can:
Like and comment on other peoples’ posts
Share others’ content
Celebrate others’ wins
Share your experiences as you grow - you never know who it might help!
Takeaway
When you’re building your business, but before quitting your full-time job, is one of the best times to invest in yourself.
Here are nine things to consider studying, practicing, learning, or developing while you’re “actively waiting:”
Time blocking
Delegation
Cold outreach
Client calls
Research
Digital marketing
Writing basics
Budgeting
Networking