5 Simple Things You Can Do to Make More Money as a Freelancer
Woohoo!
You’ve made the leap into freelancing, and you couldn’t be happier. You’re living in your pajama pants, working when you want, and sharing an office with your cats—what could be better?
At the end of the month, you pull up your bank statements. You made money all on your own, and there it is, sitting in your account!
You pay your bills—your website host, your accounting software, the payment on your new computer—and set aside money for taxes.
All of a sudden that fat stack of cash you earned looks more like the earnings from your 10-year-old neighbor’s lemonade stand—pathetic. 😞
With a mix of frustration and worry, you start to second-guess your decision to freelance in the first place. Wearing real pants, wasn’t that bad, was it? I didn’t earn much, but hey, those bennies were great! Pretty soon you’re scrolling job listings and dusting off your resume.
Before you do, hear me out:
Freelancing isn’t easy. When you start working for yourself, you pay for your health insurance. You pay for your overhead costs. You pay self-employment taxes. You don’t get a steady paycheck every two weeks.
But the good news — the great news, actually — is that you can make more money as a freelancer. Period.
It doesn’t matter what you do — whether you’re a copywriter, a designer, or a dog trainer. When you work for yourself, there is absolutely no cap on your income. So despite irregular paychecks and the cost of taxes and overhead, you can come out waaaay on top.
With the strategies I’ll share below, you can start making more money as a freelancer as soon as you want.
1. Raise Your Rates
I know your heart’s racing at the thought of raising your rates. But hear me out, because it’s the fastest and easiest way to start making more money as a freelancer. Not to mention you owe it to yourself and your clients.
The psychology of perceived value is fascinating. Consumers look at higher-priced goods and services and see higher quality. So if you’re charging bargain-basement prices on your freelance services? Your clients won’t expect great results.
Instead, raise your rates. Chances are, you’re charging too little. Are you a woman? You’re definitely charging too little. (Unfortunately, the gender wage gap is even worse among freelancers).
When you raise your rates, good things happen:
Your services have higher perceived quality
You can make more without working more
You’ll attract more serious clients who understand the value of your service
You’ll make bank! 💰
See? It’s a win-win(-win-win). Now go raise your prices.
2. Focus on a Niche
If you want to make more money as a freelancer, you need to focus. I don’t just mean you need to limit your Instagram scrolling (but you should probably work on that, too). What I mean is, you should focus on a niche.
I can hear the doubters and the haters already: But if I focus on a niche market, won’t I miss out on potential clients and customers?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Do you really want to serve everyone out there? Do you really want to compete with everyone out there? I certainly don’t. Think about it like this: Niching allows you to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. It can help you zero in on the market you want to serve.
Not only that — niching can help you stand out as an expert.
Think about it. No one wants to work with a generalist. A generalist may be decent at a lot of things, but they’re not an expert in anything. Niching allows you to be that expert in exactly the market you want to serve.
3. Don’t Say Yes to Everything
This might seem a little counterintuitive. If you want to make more money, why wouldn’t you say yes to everything?
Here’s why:
When you say yes to something, you’re saying no to something else.
For example, if you have one client who pays $100 per blog and another who pays $300 per blog, the $100 blogs limit the time you have to spend on the $300 blogs. If you say no to writing the $100 blogs, you can make time for more $300 blogs. And more money. 🤑
Or, say you offer 2 signature services: email marketing and blog writing. But someone asks if you can manage their social media. You may be tempted to say yes — because, money.
But by taking on a project outside of your scope of expertise, you’ll spend a lot of extra time working on it — not to mention you don’t enjoy it. By the time you finish, the extra work might not even justify the price.
Your time and energy are limited, so treat them as such. Don’t say yes to everything — say yes to the things that will have the biggest impact on your business.
4. Build Passive Income Streams
You don’t have to trade time for money forever. In fact, you can start building passive income streams today. Passive income streams make money on autopilot — so you can sleep, watch The Office, or pet your cat while bringin’ home the dough.
Sure, it takes effort to build a passive income stream. But once it's set up and working, you can run your business with a lot more flexibility while earning a lot mo’ money.
So, what passive income streams could you start building today?
No matter what your freelancing business is built around, you could sell an online course. Dog trainer? Sell a course on how to house-train new puppies. Web designer? Sell a course on dummy-proof web design. Copywriter? Sell a course on how to build a copywriting business (<< In fact, a course like this totally changed my life!).
You could also sell digital products, like templates, guides, trainings, or e-books. Again, these formats work for any industry. As long as you can create a product that your audience really wants, you can make significant money from a passive income stream.
5. Get the F Out There!
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but if you want to make more money as a freelancer, you have to be willing to put yourself out there. Before you get all up in arms, I don’t mean you literally have to get out there. You can stay in your jammies.
But for almost any money-making strategy to work, you have to put yourself and your services in front of potential customers. You have to market yourself.
Before you @ me, let’s reframe the concept of “marketing.” It’s not slimy, pushy, or gross — in fact, when you market your business from a place of wanting to help your clients, it’s anything but gross. If you can solve your clients’ problems and make their lives easier, they’ll be thrilled to buy your services and tell their friends about you.
If you’re wondering how to get F out there, here are some ideas:
Email your network and ask if they know anyone who needs [whatever you do].
Build an email list so you can maintain relationships with potential clients.
Create an amazing website — or hire someone to do it for you — and post regular, value-packed blogs.
Find out where your target audience hangs out — and start hanging out there (Facebook? LinkedIn? Dog park?).
Talk about what you do on podcasts, or guest post on other people’s blogs.
Now go! Get the F out there, spread your angelic freelancer wings, and make it rain. That dough is closer than you think!
