Business
It’s about time you launched your freelance career Hello and welcome to my podcast, In this episode, I will discuss why it is time for you to launch your freelance career. This also applies to those currently employed. I was lucky enough to have launched mine before the company I worked for shutdown. It was a scary 3 months, especially for those who had no other side hustle. I could spend time talking about how Covid-19 is the main cause for this but no one was prepared for this. I know of friends who went into panic mode, mostly because they worked for many years and never thought of starting their own business. Some of them did not know what to do with their severance package. If you are listening to this, please do yourself a favor and start your own business. The feeling of being your own boss is priceless. Scary but fulfilling. Where to start You will have to first get a website, then create social media accounts and embark on an email marketing campaign. In case you do not know how to design a website, I will give you a few tips. 1. Logo - You will need a professional logo, please do not use those online logo generators. If you can’t afford to hire a local designer, you can use Upwork or Fiverr. Make sure the designer sends you a JPG, PNG, PDF,EPS and SVG formats…..do not settle for JPG. I have redesigned logos for clients because who ever designed their logo never sent them the raw files. Please note, you will need corporate colors. 2. Branded - Website If you are a web and graphics designer, you are one of the lucky ones. If you don’t want to learn to code but need a website as soon as possible I got you covered. Wordpress vs Wix I will start with the easy one, Wix. For those who don’t know, Wix is a drag and drop website builder that requires no coding skills. It is super easy to setup, mostly, because you can host your website on their servers. It has more than 500 templates to choose from. Be warned, one of my clients has had a huge issue with transferring their site to another hosting. I hope they get to fix that, if you can afford their services, then you don’t have to worry about it. Wordpress WordPress is FREE and the most popular website builder that require a certain level of technical know-how, especially with HTML, CSS and PHP. If you are a beginner, don’t worry, it includes some features that can allows you to setup your site with no knowledge of coding. There are thousands of WordPress themes and elements to assist you in creating your dream website. Incase you get stuck, you will find hundreds of YouTube videos that can show you how to customize or fix errors. Also, most WordPress Theme developers attach Installation guides to the downloads. I prefer buying themes from ThemeForest. You can preview the themes, check reviews and how the developers respond to questions. To have a fully functional website you will need a professional logo, a short bio, portfolio (with or without descriptions) and a few articles. You can do this in 1 week or less. 3. Social Media Accounts - You will need to identify the best platform for your business. In case you don’t know which one to pick, I would recommend Facebook and Instagram. For you to look professional, you will need a cover photo for your Facebook page, upload your logo and fill the About and Services section. Do not fill your timeline with offers! Due to character limitations, I am not able to paste the other texts.