Building your Self-Employment Network
Building your brand as a freelancer is just as important as the freelance or contract job you do. Making sure you are reputable, have a strong network, and give 110% in your customer service, will help you grow and become financially sound as a self-employed individual.
A community of trusted clients and customers will help you scale your business, increase your income, and ensure growth. Below are a few tips to growing and maintaining this network, without having to put any effort into cold outreach or direct marketing.
Portfolio Creation
Creating a portfolio of your work is the best way to immediately engage your network. In the digital world, everyone is looking to view a sample of work before they even see it in person, let alone purchase a good or service.
With a portfolio, you can showcase your work easily without having to add too much additional effort. Utilize all past projects, whether they are business or personal projects, to start to build your portfolio.
Diversity in the work you showcase in your portfolio is key. Having a large sample of different types of work will help your customers understand that your work can be tailored to their needs, and their individual wants will be met by the work you do.
Portfolios aren’t just for people working in art, marketing, design, or tech. They can be made for pretty much any product or service. For example, if you are a real estate agent, a portfolio of the different properties you’ve sold, as well as statements from buyers and sellers, can be a simple portfolio that you build when looking to sign on new clients and list new properties. If you are creating a tangible product, like sports equipment, clothing, or a delivery box service, showcasing photos of samples of the product that is being purchased is akin to a portfolio, and will build confidence in your customer.
This confidence being built in your customer will lead to more “shares” of your work - either by word of mouth, digitally, or through physical product sharing. This sort of sharing is required when trying to grow your customer base, and grow trust in future customers.
Testimonials & Reviews
When selling a product, it’s extremely easy to build your network by building confidence in your product. Building confidence isn’t just done by creating a strong product, or providing excellent customer service. Confidence must come in feedback from your customers, and feedback that is shareable and tangible is even better.
This sort of feedback is often categorized as a testimonial or review. Testimonials and reviews come in all shapes and sizes - from a 5-star rating on Uber, Lyft, or Doordash, to a snippet on Google Reviews detailing the excellent customer service received at a store. If you get permission from your customer, you can turn this feedback into a testimonial - essentially, a customer or client who is publicly vouching for the excellence in your work. This sort of testimonial can be shared on social media, on your website, on your portfolio, or even on the back of your business card. Ensuring that you have testimonials and reviews helps build trust in your brand to those who haven’t worked with you yet, and will encourage them to purchase your product or hire you to tackle a project. This sort of content will grow your network, and continuously encourage people to share and vouch for your excellence.
Consistent Communication & Business Practices
Creating consistent communication and business practices is essential to growing your self-employment network. Customers and clients will struggle to share your business if they know it’s not financially sound, or if they are concerned with being taken advantage of. With consistent communication, professionalism, invoicing, and payment, customers will see your business as a legitimate one, and will be more likely to refer it to a friend or colleague.
Building this communication isn’t easy. It often comes with a lot of setup time and hard work - from creating an email address and signature, all the way through to creating an invoicing and payment system that is easy and flexible for different payment methods.
A great way to manage the financial piece of consistent communication is through Hurdlr. Hurdlr will help you keep track of your income and expenses, allowing you as a self-employed individual more time to focus on building the customer service piece of your business. Furthermore, you can invoice and reconcile income directly through Hurdlr, with the use of Hurdlr Pro. Hurdlr Pro will give you seamless access to invoice templates that look professional, impress clients, and will help you manage your payments and income. Furthermore, you’ll be saved a ton of time when it comes to tax season, because with Hurdlr, you’ll have the opportunity to understand your business expenses and potential tax deductions, leaving you with even more time to focus on growing your customer base.
Here Are 16 Real Estate Agent Tax Deductions
Gig Economy Jobs Like Uber
As an independent contractor, driving for an on demand economy company gives you the ability make money with your extra time. Drive during your lunch break, at night, or during busy weekends – it’s up to you. However, these companies don’t only provide taxi-style services; companies like HopSkipDrive enable the driver to chauffeur kids to their activities around town, similar to a nanny. Other rideshare companies allow the individual to use their vehicle to make extra cash by renting it out or sharing a ride to work. If you have a car, then there’s an on demand economy opportunity out there for you.
Gig Economy Sites Like Airbnb
Make money off renting out your home, car, boat, tools, or almost anything with these sites like Airbnb. If you are out of town, make money while you are away. If you have free space in a home you live in, you can leverage that too. You can also choose specifically who you would like to rent to – say, a college sports fan. Check these hosting companies out below.
Gig Economy Delivery Jobs Like Postmates
Delivery jobs vary in their specific functions, but they all allow independent contractors like yourself to travel, create a flexible schedule, and deliver goods (as opposed to passengers). Jobs like Postmates give you the ability to work short gigs during times like your lunch break or at night, while others like Roadie allow you to use space in your car for somewhere you are already going to deliver a package.
Unskilled On Demand Jobs
If you’re looking to help someone out and make some quick cash, then this section is for you. These companies function as automatic lead generators: instead of finding gigs by yourself, these companies give you the gigs. If you enjoy working with people and assisting them with their problems, many of the companies listed allow you to do just that.
Gig Economy Jobs for Freelancers
Freelancing allows individuals to work wherever they want, whenever they want, with whoever they want. Freelance occupations range from bloggers, lawyers, chefs, stylists, caregivers, techies, and many more. If you like the freedom to travel and be your own boss, check out the companies below.
Rideshare Companies With Jobs Like Uber
As an independent contractor, driving for an on demand economy company gives you the ability make money with your extra time. Drive during your lunch break, at night, or during busy weekends – it’s up to you. However, these companies don’t only provide taxi-style services; companies like HopSkipDrive enable the driver to chauffeur kids to their activities around town, similar to a nanny. Other rideshare companies allow the individual to use their vehicle to make extra cash by renting it out or sharing a ride to work. If you have a car, then there’s an on demand economy opportunity out there for you.
Sites Like Airbnb
Make money off renting out your home, car, boat, tools, or almost anything with these sites like Airbnb. If you are out of town, make money while you are away. If you have free space in a home you live in, you can leverage that too. You can also choose specifically who you would like to rent to – say, a college sports fan. Check these hosting companies out below.
Delivery Jobs Like Postmates
Delivery jobs vary in their specific functions, but they all allow independent contractors like yourself to travel, create a flexible schedule, and deliver goods (as opposed to passengers). Jobs like Postmates give you the ability to work short gigs during times like your lunch break or at night, while others like Roadie allow you to use space in your car for somewhere you are already going to deliver a package.
Unskilled On Demand Jobs
If you’re looking to help someone out and make some quick cash, then this section is for you. These companies function as automatic lead generators: instead of finding gigs by yourself, these companies give you the gigs. If you enjoy working with people and assisting them with their problems, many of the companies listed allow you to do just that.
Freelance On Demand Jobs
Freelancing allows individuals to work wherever they want, whenever they want, with whoever they want. Freelance occupations range from bloggers, lawyers, chefs, stylits, caregivers, techies, and many more. If you like the freedom to travel and be your own boss, check out the companies below.
