What Are Some Questions I Need To Ask Myself Before Starting a Freelance Business?

It is important, to have a successful freelancing business, that you know and understand your business. This is more than just the work you are doing at the moment and the clients you are trying to reach.

Instead, you need to do is figure out what you want to accomplish in your business and why. Think about the value that you are providing to your clients. It is also important to take time at least once a month to make sure that your business is still on the right path (or maybe you want to make some changes)!

It is amazing how many people just start a business without really thinking about it first.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself to help you learn more about your business.

• Why did you decide to start freelancing?
• What do you like to do best? This will help you find out what services to offer.
• Who is your ideal client? Where can you find them?
• What kind of clients hire you? What kind of clients do you want to hire you?
• Why do your clients hire you? How do they find you? What do they like about you? What don’t they like? This will help you determine how you are doing with marketing.
• Do the clients that you work for hire other freelancers? Why? Is it because you can’t do a certain task that they need? Is it because of money? How can you keep your clients coming back to you when they need something done instead of going to other freelancers?
• What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? How are you different from your competitors? This is a time to think about what makes you better than your competitors. Your USP needs to be evident in all of your networking and marketing campaigns. Always remember why clients should hire you instead of someone else.
• Who is your competition? What makes you different? What do they do better than you? What do you do better than them? How can you compete against them better so that you get the clients that you want? Learning about your competition is just as important as learning about yourself. You need to know who is getting the clients that you want so that you can do better and grab the ones that you want.
• How are you marketing? What marketing mistakes have you made? What have you done well? Where do you get most of your clients? This will help you determine where to focus your marketing efforts.
• Would you rather continuously get new clients, or would you want to continue to get hired by the same people? Why?
• How much does it cost to get a new client? Is it worth it? Can you do it cheaper? Are you willing to spend more to make more? Sometimes, you need to take a good hard look at your marketing campaigns. You may be spending too much without seeing any results. It could be beneficial to hire a freelancer to help you market. It may cost a little more, but you may see the results you were not when you tried to do it on your own.
• When you are reaching out to new clients, do you focus on the benefits? It is important to remind clients how you can help them (other than writing, designing their website, etc.). Remind them how much more business they will get. Remind them how professional their website will be, leading to more sales. People need to know what they will get by hiring you.
• Do you follow up after you are finished with a client? Do you do this to get referrals or repeat clients? Follow-up is very important. You need to know that your clients are happy with your work. If not, how can you improve your services to ensure repeat business or even referrals?
• Do you have referrals? How can you ensure that they keep referring you? Word of mouth is the cheapest and the best way to advertise. People are more willing to hire someone if they know that you do a good job. Always reward those who refer other clients to you! A small gift (or a percentage off of their bill) will go a long way in showing your appreciation.
• How has your business changed? What do you want to change? What is your one-year plan? How about your five-year plan? This will help you determine how happy you are with your business. It also allows you to see how you want your business to grow, in a year and five.

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This is an excerpt from my e-book, Your Questions Answered: Top Questions About Freelancing, which is available on Amazon and wherever you buy your e-books.

Previously published on Medium and/or Newsbreak.