So you want to be self employed? 5 tips to help you get there.

Good morning Dinks.  You may remember that I am working towards being self employed. I wanted to be a full time writer and now I am at my 9 to 5 job. So my new career goal is to be a self employed full time writer and author.

If you are an avid personal finance blog reader then you know that many of our colleagues are self employed.  Some of our blogger colleagues offer social media services some of them offer web design services, some of them own and manage several blogs and some of them write content on a full time basis for other people.

I am yearning for the day that I can say that I am officially self employed as a full time writer. I would like to write magazine articles, books and of course online blog posts and I want to do it on my own time from where I want to.

If you share the dream of being self employed use these tips to help you get there:

1. Find a niche and stay in it.  Sometime people feel that they should offer every and all types of services because it will lead to more business and eventually more revenue.  But the truth is that if you don’t find a community clients won’t know how to reach you.  Eventually as your business grows you can branch out, but at the beginning focus on your strongest services and promote them.

2. Let people know you are out there.  Get online, tweet, share and like your brains out.  You may be the best graphic designer out there but if no one can see your work and if no one knows that you are the best graphic designer then it doesn’t matter.  So make friends, go to conferences and tell everyone you meet about what you do.

3. Offer services for free. If you are starting out and building your portfolio offering an exchange of services instead of money is a good idea.  It helps grow your portfolio and spread the word about your services.  If you have a website with a product, offer your product for free when people sign up for your newsletter or like you on Facebook. It helps spread the word about your services and the quality of your work.  At the end of the day it doesn’t cost you anything to offer a ready-to-go product for free.

4. Always ask for the business.  At the end of each job ask your satisfied clients for repeat business and for referrals.  The easiest way to get business is through referrals because when someone vouches for you it gives you credibility.  If you have ever got a new client from a referral then you know this is true.

5. Use your connections.  If you have friends who are in the same type of business but who are not your direct competition then you can exchange business.  As a financial planner I referred clients to my friends in real estate when they were looking for a house and my friends in real estate referred clients to me when they were selling their house so I could invest the money.  It was a win-win situation for everyone.

Photo by ilamont

Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.