We’re currently working our way through our top ten list of “how to get started freelancing,” and today’s post focuses on being professional. If you’re brand new to the freelancing game, you might feel like you’re anything but a professional ____ (insert your field here), and that’s OK. What you need to keep in mind, though, is that no one knows that but you. In most cases, if you tell someone you’re a professional freelancer, he or she is just going to take your word for it.
Of course, if you’re not acting in a professional manner, then the jig will be up pretty quickly. Your “professional freelancer” persona is going to need to be bolstered by your behavior and your actions. There are a few things that you can do to portray yourself as the professional that you want to become.
Always, always, ALWAYS make your deadlines. Sure, you might get away with it once or twice if you get an extension or get your project done the day after you said you would; but you’re not going to last long working this way. For one thing, you’re not going to get repeat clients, and they are such an important aspect of succeeding in freelance work. In addition, if you miss enough deadlines, it will start to become a habit, and we all know how hard it is to break a bad habit.
Spend a little money. Now, we have argued—quite vehemently, as a matter of fact—that you don’t have to have a lot of money to get started freelancing, and we stick by that. On the other hand, we also believe that if you lay a little money out up front, you can probably advance more quickly. One of the best things you can spend your money on is a professionally designed website. This does so much to improve your credibility, and it will get you jobs. The other area where we recommend you spend a little cash is to have business cards designed and printed. The free ones you get online are cool and all, but a really well-designed card gets a lot of attention, and you’ll be amazed how often you’re able to hand them out (like at a Christmas party, for example).
Network appropriately. Get yourself LinkedIn. Twitter. Blog. Go to local functions. We got one of our best clients because Tamara attended a marketing association meeting one time. When you do these things, tell people that you’re a freelancer and that you have your own business. On the other hand, we recommend that you don’t call yourself the CEO, COO, or something along those lines. It actually looks more amateur than professional. Besides, if you’re really a writer/photographer/designer at heart, then isn’t that a title you want to wear proudly? (There’s nothing wrong with “Senior Designer,” though. 
)
Charge what you’re worth. We’ve already talked about setting your freelance rates. One thing I didn’t really mention, though, is that a lot of potential clients will judge you by those rates. If you’re not asking enough, you won’t look professional, and they’ll skip right over you. If you’re charging too little, you may just come across as a hack.
Now, I’m going to let you in on a big secret. Of these four suggestions, there’s only one that Tamara and I did “right” when we started our business. We didn’t have a website when we started, and our first one was built by Tamara’s husband. (We still think of it fondly, but it didn’t do for us what the new one does.) We definitely didn’t charge what we were worth and are still finagling the appropriate rates all this time later. I also believe that we referred to ourselves as the CEO and COO for a short time, which now makes me shudder.
The point is this: You can certainly make it, even if you do just about everything wrong. As far as I’m concerned, there’s really only one major rule to freelancing, and it’s this:
“Don’t suck.”
The rest of it can be learned through trial and error if you have enough time. Or, you can take the advice of people who have already made the mistakes and skip over all the annoying stuff we did to ourselves. Instead of just calling yourself a “professional,” you’ll know that you really are one.
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Christina Lemmey is the mother of two school-aged girls, a wife, and the owner of 
I agree, you definitely need to spend some money to take it up a notch. I made my own site and it has dramatically improved business. I got free Adsense credits from my web host and used them too. Surprisingly, it got me a lot of great clients so I am going to keep using it and pay for it!
My question for you and other freelancers is if you use a custom template to turn in your work? I just turn my work in as word documents but sometimes I wonder if this looks incredibly unprofessional.
@Kathleen – Almost all of our work is turned in as MS Word .doc files. The only time we’ve ever had a problem was with .docx files, because many clients can’t open them.
Does that help?
Now I’m all curious. Does anyone else use a custom template?
I remember reading a blog once about a writer using custom templates. Wish I could find that link! I’m not sure if that’s the norm or not. I just wonder if clients say, “Oh yeah, you can tell she’s a newbie,” when I send my work. Also, when I revise work, I don’t highlight the parts that were edited. Isn’t there some kind of special editing software for that? I wonder if I should start doing that too.
I just submit my work in Word documents unless the client asks for a different format. I don`t think there is anything unprofessional about that.
Kathleen, for editing, I use the feature in Word that allows you to track your changes automatically and makes a note of it for your client. Tamara actually turned me onto it and it is an excellent way to make sure the client knows exactly what you`ve changed. All they have to do is “accept changes”.
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I’m not sure what you mean by custom templates! However, if those involve extra “stuff” (formatting, etc) I would never use anything that gave my client extra work.
I turn in my work according to the client’s specifications: generally some form of Word (since I have 07, I make sure to save it in Compatibility Mode) or Adobe (I have and adore the full
suite.)
A note on expenses: I had $1000 in expenses for Jan and Feb! What the heck? Craziness.
Allenas last blog post..Revisiting the Niche Debate
@ Kathleen – I am struggling with all the options regarding the creation of a Web site. Who hosts for you and what are the things you like/dislike about it? What is the average start up cost for a new Web site? Thanks for the help.
@Ann Marie
I use Godaddy’s Website Tonight. I wanted something I could update myself and chose this program because it is easy to update even if you don’t known anything about design. It’s nothing fancy but it works for me! I got a 10 page website for a year and a domain name for 5 years for around $150. The investment paid itself off VERY quickly.
@everyone
Thank you for the info! I need to check out this edit tool on Word. I guess templates aren’t really necessary then.