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Freelance Business Plan Template + Guide

Rhonda Page

Rhonda is an international speaker and published author. She began as a graphic designer and evolved to brand strategist and business development professional, bringing hundreds of thousands in new business to the various design firms she worked with. She's worked with the biggest global brands such as Kraft and Coca-Cola and been client side too.… Learn more »

Adam Wright

Adam Wright is the Content Manager at Millo, in addition to running his own graphic and web design business, Adam Wright Design. When he's not working on his business, you can find him watching hockey or just about any type of racing. Learn more »

Step-by-Step Freelance Business Plan

What is a freelance business plan, who needs a freelance business plan, benefits of a freelance business plan, now, go make yours.

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A freelance business plan is the ideal way to make quick progress as a freelancer.

Sure, you already feel like you know exactly what you need to do — find more clients, deliver high-quality work within deadlines, send invoices and recover payments. But freelancers who want to grow their business understand the importance of a freelance business plan.

A well thought out and structured freelance business plan helps to craft your strategic and tactical approach, defines tasks and budgets that you can track, and increases your chances of success.

So today, I’ll share my 14-point freelance business plan template along with a guide for creating your ideal freelance business plan.

Let’s dive right in, then we’ll cover some of the basics after. My freelance business plan template for you consists of 14 questions.

Take some time off work when you are working on the freelance business plan for the first time, and try not to take calls until it’s done. You could review your plan every week and this will only take a few minutes. You could also do a monthly review when you enter your revenue and expense figures of the month, but this should not take too long either.

Let’s take a look at the freelance business plan steps below and the guidelines for answering the 14 questions. Download a copy of the template below and follow along as you fill yours in.

1. Company name

We start with the company name – pretty straightforward.

Question 2 is about your purpose , or why you started your company. It may seem that every business starts with profit as a motive, but when you really think about your own motivation you will find a purpose above profit. Did you start your brand design business because you are passionate about helping entrepreneurs create a distinct identity? Or did you start a video content studio to help more brands get the power of video easily?

3. Target Market

We now come to your target market . If you are in the B2B market then you should define the profile of organizations that you target as well as the specific roles within those organizations who make decisions to purchase from you. If you have done a user persona exercise, you could describe the personas here. If you’re not sure about who your target audience is, The Magic of Choosing a Target Audience will be helpful here.

4. Location

The fourth point refers to the geographical areas where you operate.

5. Products/Services

Next we come to a description of your products or services. Do you work on a project basis – with the scope defined by the client? Or do you have any standard products or packages? What is included in your offer? For example, do you offer freelance video creation as a service, and price depending on the scope of each project? Or have you created some standard packages, such as $350 for a 30 second video, with a 200 word script and incorporating 2 rounds of customer reviews?

6. Competitors

The sixth question is about your competitors . You should research before you answer this question because competitors are not always those who provide similar products or services, rather they are those who help users to solve the same problem. This means that your competitors could be from completely different product categories. You will find these insights by speaking to current and potential users.

7. Differentiation

Question 7 is about your differentiation . If you have not articulated this before, then it’s an excellent outcome of working on your business plan. As you clearly write your differentiation, you will be able to communicate it much more strongly during sales pitches or in your marketing material.

8. Problems

Now we come to the problems that you solve for your users. What were they doing before they started using your products or services? This knowledge helps you to find more users with similar challenges. What’s keeping them up at night? They may not say that it’s graphic design or creative needs, and you need to understand how your work helps them. My course is helpful here.

9. Benefits

Question 9 is about the benefits that your product or services deliver. It is extremely useful to articulate this and lends clarity to sales and marketing communications.

10. Marketing

Next we come to Marketing . How does your target audience get to know you? Are you doing anything to reach out to potential customers? You can mention meetups, events, social media, advertising, email campaigns, SEO, or anything else that’s working for you, here.

The next question is about your business goals for the next 6 months. I have suggested 3 goals but you can make a longer list if you want. One of your goals could be related to the new business that you want to generate. You may also have the goal of adding a revenue stream. Goals could be related to expansion, for example, launching in new geographies or adding new products. You may have sales or marketing goals such as creating a branding package , or a product to sell online. You may also have operational goals such as implementing a project management tool or better bookkeeping.

12. Milestones

In point 12, list the weekly milestones that you must complete in order to achieve your goals. You should review this every week, and refine as needed.

13. Targets

Question 13 is to define your monthly revenue targets . I have said 3 months, but you can set targets for a longer-term if you want. This is a good time to consider, are you charging enough to reach your goals? If you charge $1,000 for a logo, how many logos do you need to do to meet your revenue goal?

14. Expenses

Question 14 asks you to put down your budget for expenses . This helps you to be more conscious of how you are spending, and when you think about revenue targets and expenses together, you can manage your profitability better. It’s all about profitability. If your expenses are higher than your sales, you’ve got a problem!

Let’s back track for a quick minute. A freelance business plan is a document that lists your business objectives, targets, milestones, timelines, and budgets. Think of it as a roadmap that provides direction to your efforts, shows you the landmarks along your route and helps you avoid roadblocks.

Every business needs a business plan but most freelancers never get around to creating one. I have worked with many, many creative freelancers, and I know that some of them are aware of what a business plan is, but believe that only large businesses need it, while others are just not fully aware of the advantages of having one.

A freelance business plan is created with the specific requirements of freelancers in mind. I strongly believe that the template of the plan should be simple and should not consume too much of your time when you need to create, update or modify it.

Business plans of shorter timeframes say 3 to 6 months, are usually most suitable for freelancers. The work environment for most freelancers is just too dynamic to be able to plan ahead for the next few years.

I’ll share my preferred template for a freelance business plan here, and take you through the steps. But first, let’s see who needs a freelance business plan and what are the benefits of creating one.

Is a business plan essential for all freelancers? Maybe not, so take a look at the list below and decide whether you need one.

You will benefit from having a business plan if:

1. Freelancing is your main source of income

A plan may not be important for someone who has a job or another primary source of income and is freelancing as a side gig. But if you depend mainly on your freelance business, then the business plan should be a high priority for you.

2. You want to grow your business

If you have the ambition to grow your business, possibly planning to create more bandwidth when you get busy or build a team , then a business plan will help you to achieve that growth.

3. You plan to seek external advice or funding

If you are considering discussing your business with potential mentors, investors or consultants, a business plan is a good starting point.

The time and effort that you invest in creating your business plan will yield a variety of benefits.

Clearer direction and focus

The process of listing your goals and the steps that you must take in order to achieve them brings tremendous clarity and a sharper focus to your efforts. You will consciously pursue business relevant to your goals rather than respond to every opportunity that comes your way.

Prioritize better

If your working days are a blur of meetings, deliveries, and firefighting, chances are that you don’t have the time to do tasks that are important rather than urgent. Once you list these tasks down as weekly milestones that must be achieved for your goals to be realized, you are much more likely to make time for them. Maybe you need to attend networking events in your vicinity in order to attract talent, or maybe you need to spend time creating marketing collateral. Putting these tasks down in the plan makes it much more likely that they will get done.

Track your financial performance

Your business plan helps you track whether you are achieving your revenue targets and keeping expenses within control, or in other words, manage your profitability.

Builds the confidence of external stakeholders

When you need to discuss your business with investors, mentors or other external stakeholders, the business plan will inspire confidence in them and show them that you have thought things through.

Although my template is a little longer than some others, I have seen that it works really well for freelancers. It takes some time when you do it for the first time, then regular reviews and updates are pretty quick. I’m confident that you will find this time well worth it, for the direction, focus, and clarity that you gain from your freelance business plan.

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Best Freelancing Growth

Written by Rhonda Page

Contributor at millo.co.

Rhonda is an international speaker and published author. She began as a graphic designer and evolved to brand strategist and business development professional, bringing hundreds of thousands in new business to the various design firms she worked with. She's worked with the biggest global brands such as Kraft and Coca-Cola and been client side too. Her  Business Accelerator Program  teaches freelancers how to spend less time on pitches and close new business more easily.

Rhonda's Articles

Reviewed & edited by Adam Wright , Editor at Millo.

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How To Create A Freelance Business Plan – Guide + Template

Having a solid freelance business plan is crucial for achieving long-term success. While you may not have the same traditional structure as a brick-and-mortar business, it’s essential to have a roadmap that outlines your goals, target audience, and financial projections. In this article, we’ll discuss the key components of a business plan for freelancers and offer tips on how to create a plan that sets you up for success.

• Purpose of a business plan
• Benefits and advantages

The Business Model Canvas

Value proposition, customer segments, customer relations, key partners, key resources, key activities.

• Revenue Stream

Cost Structure

The lean canvas.

• Freelance business plan template + checklist
• Executive Summary
• Company and Strategy
• Products and Services
• Market Analysis
• Competitors
• Marketing and Sales
• Organization and Resources
• Risk Analysis
• Action Plan
• Common mistakes when creating a business plan

Purpose of a freelance business plan

A business plan forms the foundation of your company. It records the business idea and all the important components that contribute to its success or failure. Therefore, a business plan not only helps to get an idea of what the chances of success are for a plan, but also serves to keep an eye on the development of the company after the start-up, and to make target-actual comparisons and counteract negative changes in a timely manner.

In addition to its internal purpose, a business plan also fulfils external tasks. When starting a business, it especially serves as a basis for evaluation by external capital providers.

A good business plan can already be helpful in the start-up phase to convince potential investors, banks, authorities, as well as potential sales partners, customers or suppliers of the business idea.

However, before diving straight into the creation of a business plan, one should first engage with their business idea in order to illuminate it from all sides. This not only helps to avoid early failure, but also makes the creation of a freelance business plan much easier.

Why use a business plan? Benefits and advantages

Before you start creating the perfect freelance business plan, let’s take a look at the benefits and advantages that it can offer:

• Increased clarity: A business plan can help you get clarity to your decision-making process and helps you put your end goal at the core and work towards it.
• Provides clear structure: A business plan provides structure and allows you to define business objectives. When consulted regularly, it can help measure and manage your areas of focus that are of the utmost priority.
• Creates a marketing roadmap: A business plan allows you to create an effective marketing roadmap, which in turn can help you define things like target market(s), target customers, schedules, timeframes, etc.
• Improved financial decisions: Planning for expenses effectively is crucial when it comes to freelancing. A business plan gives you the information needed to make better decisions financially.

To analyse the potential of a business idea, one can use a variety of methods. One of the most comprehensive tools for this is the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder. In this method, a business idea is placed at the centre and related to 9 dimensions – the so-called building blocks:

Revenue Streams

During the development and analysis of the business idea, all fields are filled with the corresponding contents. Plan to spend two to three hours working on these fields. It is important to take enough time to consider the thoughts for each building block, but not to plan every field in detail. Remember, the completion of the Business Model Canvas should only show whether the business idea is feasible and serves as a guide for what needs to be considered.

The Value Proposition defines the extent to which the business model brings benefits to the customer. The following questions help to define the promise of performance:

• What problem am I solving?
• What exactly am I offering?
• Why are customers looking for my service specifically?
• What makes my offer better than the competition?

Next is the definition of the target audience or customers. It is important to define customer segments that will buy your services or products. Potential customers are grouped together based on their characteristics. The group characteristics can be traditional demographic factors (age, gender, location, etc.) or can focus on purchasing behaviour or reasons for buying.

Next, the channels through which you want to inform your customers about the product or service are defined. It is important to find out where and how potential customers shop. Here are some questions to answer:

• How and where do customers find out about the offering?
• How do customers become aware of my product or service?
• How can customers buy my products and services?
• How do I provide the service or how does the service reach my customers?

To capture all relevant touchpoints between customers and your business, it is recommended to record the so-called customer journey. Here, you put yourself in your customer’s shoes and document every step he or she takes from gathering information to making a purchase (and possibly beyond). This will help you identify the channels that you need to establish and manage for your business.

If you have already thought about the customer journey, you’re halfway to defining customer care. It is not only important to consider how to attract and win customers, but also how to keep the ones you already have. Consider the following questions:

• What options do you have to communicate with your customers?
• Is there a customer service hotline, a contact form, an email address?
• How do customers learn about your new offerings?

In the next step, you will think about possible partnerships and how you and your business depend on them. This includes suppliers and vendors, as well as technology partners or regulatory bodies that you need to work with. Focus on the really relevant partners without whom you couldn’t do your job.

The same applies to Key Resources. Here, the resources needed for your work are listed, including:

• Employees or roles that need to be filled
• Financial resources and capital
• Intangible resources such as licences, brands, patents, etc.
• Material resources such as laptops, office equipment, company cars, etc.

Of course, not every pencil you need to buy for your business needs to be listed here. The focus should be on the critical resources for success.

The definition of Key Activities is one of the simpler tasks in the Business Model Canvas. Here, all activities that contribute to the success of the business model are listed. The other components of the business idea also contribute to this, which is why it is worth deriving the Activities from them.

In general, you need to ask yourself what activities need to be performed to fulfil the value proposition, win customers, and maintain day-to-day operations.

Next, it is important to define how you make money with your business . For freelancers, this means defining their hourly rate or considering other revenue models to generate income. Are there perhaps special contracts that bring recurring revenue or are only the hours billed each time? Define all essential sources of revenue and how they work.

Lastly, the cost structure is defined. The most important variable and fixed costs and their causes must be identified. These may include:

• Production costs
• Marketing costs
• Licence costs
• Personnel costs

As a further development of the Business Model Canvas, the Lean Canvas became known in 2010. It is specifically adapted to the fast-paced and limited resources of a startup and focuses on the problem to be solved and the solution to be provided, as well as the so-called unfair advantage and the core metric. In the Lean Canvas, these elements replace the Key Activities, Partners, Resources, and Customer Relations.

Often business ideas fail because they don’t solve a relevant problem. Therefore, this component was added to the Lean Canvas.

Once the problem to be solved has been identified, the focus shifts to providing a corresponding solution quickly and easily. The Lean Canvas approach involves using an MVP (minimum viable product). The MVP represents the minimum version of the solution – the raw version. This is launched on the market as soon as possible and then further developed in collaboration with customers.

The unfair advantage essentially describes the competitive advantage. For startups, it is important to know this very well or, if it does not exist from the beginning, to define it.

Young companies often lose themselves in the masses of numbers and metrics that define the success of a business. To prevent this, entrepreneurs who choose the Lean Canvas approach should first define only one metric from which they can measure success and failure. At the beginning, when the survival of the company is paramount, this could be profit. Later, when it comes to growth, other metrics come into play.

How to create a freelance business plan – Template + checklist

For those who have thoroughly considered their business idea beforehand, writing a freelance business plan will be easy. The elements of the Business Model Canvas or the Lean Canvas often overlap with the elements of the business plan and only need to be worked out in more detail. The planned size and complexity of the business idea also determine the content and scope of the plan.

The following elements provide a guide for creating your freelance business plan:

1. Executive Summary 

The Executive Summary is a brief overview of the business plan. The business idea is explained briefly and concisely, usually along with the purpose, objectives, and goals of the business. The industry and growth potential of the market are described, and finally, the key investment and financial data are presented.

Write the Executive Summary at the end of the business plan. It serves as a compact overview of the business idea and as the first evaluation criterion for the potential success of the business model and its financing for potential investors.

The chapter, which should be no more than one and a half pages long, includes:

• Business idea
• Offer – products & services
• Industry / Market
• Growth potential of the market
• Financial requirements

2. Company & Strategy

In this section, the foundation for the company’s concept is laid out. The approaches for a successful implementation are presented in detail. It is also important to highlight the arguments and strengths of the idea and the planned company. These can be supported, for example, by a SWOT analysis.

The following sub-chapters are included:

• Founding history
• Milestones, capital, and shareholder structure
• Business goal
• Business purpose
• Vision and strategy

3. Products & Services

This section of a freelance business plan contains all information about your products and services. Define them precisely, describe their unique selling points, and think about pricing segments. 

The subchapters include:

• Products or services
• Product or service advantages
• Pricing segments

4. Market Analysis

For a successful business, the appropriate market potential must be present. Therefore, the selected market must be analysed in detail. Identify customer groups and define strategic business areas. The topics to be addressed include:

• Market volume
• Market position and market shares
• Growth potential
• Framework conditions (economic and legal factors)
• Entry barriers
• Competitive analysis
• Customer groups (segmentation)
• Strategic business areas (product per segment)
• Market objectives
• Outlook on potentials and future.

5. Competition

Here you take a look beyond your own company and get an idea of who your direct competitors are, who your market companions are, and how the situation can develop in the future. The following points belong in the competition analysis:

• Direct competitors
• Their products and services
• Their strengths and weaknesses

6. Marketing & Sales

For a business idea to succeed, the right marketing and promotion of the product or service is crucial. Here, you describe the marketing concept and your marketing mix, where you define what you market where, how, and at what cost. Common models for processing are, for example, the 4 or 7 P’s. In addition, the marketing concept should include all important key points for the timeframe of market entry. The sub-chapters for this chapter include:

• Sales and distribution strategy, distribution channels
• Pricing, price policy
• Communication strategy, channels, advertising, PR

7. Organisation & Resources

For the successful development of a company, resources, management, and employees play an important role. Therefore, this part Organization and Resources describes everything that is important for the organisation of the company, production, or service provision. This includes points such as:

• Production process (location, technology, capacities, etc.)
• Inventory management
• Research & Development
• Legal situation
• Patents/licences
• Responsibilities
• Development/expansion potential

8. Risk Analysis

In this section, possible opportunities and risks are described, as well as measures to counteract the risks. In classic risk analysis, risks and their consequences are listed and classified according to the likelihood of occurrence.

The risk matrix provides information about which risks are critical. For risks in the high and extreme categories, measures to limit or remedy them must be defined. Potential risks can be found, for example, in:

• Management / personnel

9. Financing

A business plan for a planned self-employment cannot be created without detailed financial planning. Create the financial plan in the business plan for a period of 3-5 years to increase planning security. The following topics belong in the financial plan:

• Cost structure
• Revenue cycle
• Cash flow plan – comparison of expenses and revenues
• Profit planning – profit and loss statement
• (Planned) balance sheet – overview of asset ratios
• Required capital / investments

10. Action Plan

No matter how detailed your business plan is, it won’t help if it doesn’t lead to a structured and realistic action plan. Define all the steps that need to be taken until your product or service is on the market. You can use the chapters of the business plan as a guide. The next steps need to be defined, for example, for:

• Product/Service
• Business start-up/Company
• Resources/Partners
• Marketing/Market entry
• Location/Business premises

11. Appendix

In the appendix, documents can be included that would exceed the scope of the respective chapter. For example, the following can be included:

• Resumes / Founders’ Profiles
• Financial planning (Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow)
• Operating permits / Patents
• Organisational charts

📌 Business Model checklist ➯ DOWNLOAD

Common mistakes when creating a business plan (and how to avoid them)

When it comes to such a labour-intensive process as creating a business plan, it can be frustrating when errors creep in. To help you with this, we’ve identified the most common sources of errors below and provide tips on how to avoid them:

Lack of knowledge (e.g. in the area of finance)

• Scrutinise the areas where you are unsure, especially critically.
• Acquire any missing knowledge if necessary.
• Seek out partners and advisors who have the expertise you lack.

Missing structure in the business plan

• Pay attention to the logical structure of the business plan. The chapters and subchapters can follow a different order in your plan if it makes more sense for your business idea.
• Focus on the important components of your business plan, which may vary depending on the purpose of the plan (investor pitch, business planning, etc.)
• Various organisations offer consulting services to entrepreneurs, some of which are even subsidised by the states.

Insufficient differentiation

• Even if your idea seems incredibly unique to you, a comprehensive competitor analysis is necessary.
• This is the only way to define a convincing unique selling proposition (USP) – which is also essential for the success of your business idea.
• Not only does the business idea need unique selling propositions, but each product and service also needs to stand out in the market. Therefore, define a unique value proposition (UVP) for your products and services as well.

Underestimating risks

• Nobody becomes self-employed overnight without careful consideration. Therefore, inform yourself carefully about the risks of self-employment and choose your approach consciously.
• Use various analysis tools to minimise risks.

Poor planning

• It’s easier to take the next steps if they are specifically planned and written down. A dedicated action plan of the individual steps is therefore essential to make the business plan a reality.
• To avoid suddenly facing insurmountable obstacles, a secure risk planning is needed. Make sure to think this through thoroughly before embarking on the adventure!

These articles might be interesting too:

• Client Acquisition: Tips to Acquire Clients & Set Up Your Strategy
• Freelance Profile: What to Include, Tips and Examples
• Self-Marketing Tips And Tricks: How To Promote Yourself As A Freelancer

Stefania Volpe

Stefania joined the international team at freelancermap in 2020. She loves marketing, the digital world, foreign languages and meeting different cultures. She moved from Italy to Germany thanks to an exchange program at the university and worked as marketing manager for several startups. Now she focuses on helping freelancers and IT professionals to find jobs and clients worldwide at www.freelancermap.com.

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Starting a Freelance Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

Updated: June 16, 2021

Published: February 13, 2020

So, you’re in the business of starting a business.

You’re looking for the freedom and flexibility that comes with only answering to yourself.

You’re planning to take life by the reins and your industry by storm.

In other words, you want to get your ow n freelance business going.

What Is a Freelance Business?

A freelance business is one that’s started and run by an individual who works for themselves — generally through independent contract work. Freelancers are responsible for handling aspects of their businesses that typical employees would not, including setting their own hours, determining pricing, pursuing contract work, and paying business taxes.

Starting a freelance business is an exciting prospect. Perks like setting your own hours and pursuing your passion are certainly attractive — but a lot of effort, strategy, and planning goes into earning those benefits.

It’s a tough road with a lot of confusing twists and turns, so it helps to have a map.

Let's explore some key points you’ll have to address using a roadmap to starting a freelance business.

How to Start a Freelance Business

• Understand what you want out of your business.
• Have a solid picture of your personal financial situation.
• Make sure you’re really in it.
• Set measurable goals.
• Sort out the business-end of the business.
• Start figuring out your buyer personas.
• Determine pricing.
• Create and maintain an online presence.
• Network, network, network.
• Market yourself effectively.
• Maintain relationships and boost your reputation.
• Stay persistent when unexpected difficulties arise.

1. Understand what you want out of your business.

Before you set your big freelance business plans in motion, you need to know a lot about yourself and why you’re starting your business in the first place.

Ask yourself some of the following questions — Why are you doing this? Is it to be your own boss? To set your own hours? To pursue your passion? All of the above?

And how much time and effort are you willing to put in? Is this going to be a side hustle? Are you going to keep your day job?

You need to know the answers to all of these questions — and quite a few more — before you can really commit to starting your own freelance business. You can’t actually know what you’re doing if you have no concept of why you’re doing it in the first place.

2. Have a solid picture of your personal financial situation.

The idea of dropping everything to pursue your passion on your own terms is starry-eyed daydream material. That’s why you need to be careful.

It’s easy to romanticize the image of you walking out of your office with a big smile on your face, knowing that you’re about to do what you’ve always wanted without anyone to answer to.

It’s a lovely concept, but you can’t get carried away. You need to ground yourself, and understanding your personal finances is a crucial part of that.

Familiarize yourself with personal and business-related expenses and understand how long your savings can sustain you. Take a good hard look at your financial situation, and identify a point where you might jump ship if things don’t go according to plan.

Take all of that into account and use it to set a monthly income target. There are a lot of helpful resources online — like the Boundless Freelance Target Income Calculator — that can walk you through the different factors you must consider when calculating how much you’ll need to make.

Understanding your personal finances will help you get a clear picture of what you can expect going forward, and give you a concept of how to handle the issues that are going to arise.

3. Make sure you’re really in it.

If you want to succeed as a freelance business owner, you have to be all the way in. You need to find and maintain a special kind of motivation.

You have to ask yourself some burning questions, including — Am I ready to commit as much as I possibly can to this? Is this exactly what I want to do? Do I have a comprehensive plan? Do I genuinely believe in that plan? Am I willing to fail?

When it comes down to it, you have to believe in yourself, believe in your business, understand it might not pan out, and know you’re willing to stay the course to successfully start a freelance business.

4. Set measurable goals.

You’ll need to set benchmarks to make sure your business is making progress and that you, personally, are staying the course. It’ll also help your confidence to know that you’re consistently reaching milestones you’ve set for yourself.

Make sure the goals you’re setting are SMART — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Also be sure to set different kinds of goals — specifically short-term, long-term, and ongoing.

A short-term goal may be something like getting your website up and running with a certain number of monthly visitors within three months.

A long-term goal could be reaching a target in annual revenue within three years.

Lastly, an ongoing goal might be dedicating a specific number of hours to client outreach each week.

Make sure these goals are reasonable and outline a solid trajectory for your business. Keep careful track of them to have a better understanding of what you’re doing well, and what you could be doing better.

5. Sort out the business-end of the business.

You’ll want to handle the nitty-gritty administrative and legal ends of your freelance business before really getting started.

That could mean taking steps like formally organizing a business entity, getting a picture of your tax exposure, and familiarizing yourself with what your business contracts might look like.

You should also have a plan in place for cash management. How and when money comes can be unpredictable in freelancing. You should have some concept of how you intend to maintain enough cash to stay afloat.

Additionally, consider building infrastructure that helps you manage your sales, marketing, and customer service. A CRM is a great way to do that. Consider adopting one and letting it serve as the backbone for a lot of your business operations.

The main point I’m getting at here is that there’s a side to starting a freelance business that isn’t particularly fun or exciting. But you won’t get to enjoy the fun and exciting stuff without addressing it first.

Be sure to work out aspects like accounting , how your business is going to function on a day-to-day basis, and how you’re going to save and manage your money before really launching into your freelance business.

6. Start figuring out your buyer personas.

As per HubSpot’s own definition , a buyer persona is “a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.”

In other words, it’s the kind of person you think you’ll be selling to.

You’ll want to start by conducting general research about your target audience. Get a feel for who your customers and prospects are. You should consider reaching out to those people for surveys and interviews. This will help you understand what kind of buyer is right for your business.

From there, you’ll want to whittle down your base a bit. Pick out commonalities among the potential buyers you’ve identified. This could include considering factors like demographics, how they like to be contacted, behaviors, and interests.

Once you’ve identified trends within your audience, develop personas based on the different patterns you see. For instance, if you’re a caterer, you may notice that 40-to-50 year old women booking their childrens’ birthday parties or other family events make up a significant portion of your business. Use that information to develop a buyer persona specific to those qualities.

Give that group a name and boom! You have a buyer persona.

That’s a very high-level overview of the process, if you’d like a more in depth perspective on how to go about developing one of these personas, check out this article.

7. Determine pricing.

When determining pricing, it’s important to consider how you plan on charging clients.

Will you be hourly? Will you charge a flat fee? Will you use project quotes? It’s important to settle on how you’ll be making money before you start actually making it.

Once you’ve landed on your pricing structure, start figuring how much your services are going to cost. You can start by researching industry averages. You should be able to find some solid figures online. Sites like Payscale and Glassdoor are good places to start.

Additionally, take a look at How to Calculate Hourly Rate for Freelance Marketers & Consultants for some initial estimates.

It could also help to reach out to other professionals in your space to see what they charge and how those price points are working out for them.

Bear in mind, this isn’t an exact science. Finding the right price for your services will probably take some trial-and-error. You should keep experimenting until you get it right.

8. Create and maintain an online presence.

You’re going to need to get a website up and running as soon as possible. That’s going to be your first point of contact with a lot of your customers.

Having a great-looking website that’s easy to navigate assures potential customers that your business is legitimate and professional.

A well-structured, visually appealing website can also distinguish you from other freelancers in your space. You can use it to give your prospects a picture of your services, portfolio, and pricing.

Additionally, you’ll want to establish a solid social media presence. Outreach through social networks is becoming essential to any kind of business — and freelancers are no exception.

A robust social media presence is incredibly important when it comes to engaging with existing customers to keep them interested in your business.

Create and develop profiles across a variety of social networks. The more likes and followers you can gather, the more trustworthy and established your business will look.

9. Network, network, network.

You can’t conduct business without contacts. That’s like trying to drive a car without gasoline. But networking is much easier in theory than in practice.

It takes a lot of energy, and it’s often difficult to know where to begin. There’s no doubt it’ll be tough, but the success of your business could hinge upon whether or not you put in the effort to network effectively.

You should start by identifying where your target buyers are hanging out — both online and offline. Then, you can use that information to develop a marketing and networking strategy that meets them where they are.

Attend local meetings relevant to your industry to make personal outreach to potential prospects and fellow professionals in your space. It also helps to stay active on online forums about the areas your business covers.

Be sure to use social media to keep consistent contact between you and your potential buyers, as well as you and your fellow professionals.

Like I said, you can’t conduct business without contacts, and it’s not easy to establish those relationships. It’s also difficult to maintain those connections once you have them, but don’t get discouraged.

If you make smart, dedicated efforts to reach and connect with prospects and fellow professionals, you should be able to establish a productive network for your business.

Take a look at How to Master Non-Awkward, Effective In-Person Networking for more networking tips.

10. Market yourself effectively.

You should develop a solid content marketing strategy . Blogging is an essential part of that process. When you do, be sure to write content that is generally relevant to your field — not just specific to your own business.

You want to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. That can give you the kind of credibility your business needs to stand out.

You want to show that your business is legitimate. The best way to do that is to demonstrate that you really know what you’re talking about when it comes to your area of expertise.

You’ll also want to write up content offers to attach to your blogs to convert website visitors into leads. A content offer is an asset like a whitepaper or an eBook with information relevant to your field.

You can use content offers to attract and log contacts. In order for a reader to download your content offer, have them fill out a contact form . In doing so, you’re identifying that reader as a potential lead.

You should also be actively promoting content on social media — and it doesn’t always have to be your own. You can actively post other thoughtful content from other outlets in your industry. By doing this, you can let your followers know that you’re staying educated about and on top of industry trends.

Your content marketing strategy can shape your reputation. If you create and promote enriching content that your readers will get a lot out of, you’ll stand out as an authority in your industry.

11. Maintain relationships and boost your reputation.

One of your first priorities will always be preserving the client relationships you establish. You have to do everything in your power to delight your customers and keep them close.

This means keeping consistent contact and providing exceptional customer service.

Positive word of mouth can be a huge boost when starting a freelance business. Happy customers can provide that, and even happier customers will go out of their way to offer it.

If you can, get testimonials from those kinds of clients to display on your website.

And it should go without saying, but everything on this means nothing if you don’t do your job well. Do good work. Put in as much effort as you can. Be professional and consistent with what you do. And keep your customers happy.

12. Stay persistent when unexpected difficulties arise

You must be prepared to stay the course, if you want to make it. Odds are you won’t see stellar results right away, and it will probably take a lot of time and effort before you do.

You have to set yourself up for success and do everything you can deliver on the goals you set for yourself. You’ll hit snags. Some things won’t go well. You’re bound to deal with at least a few hard times.

In spite of all that, you have to be professional, persistent, and do all you can to best serve your customers. That’s going to put you in the best possible position to make it.

It’s not going to be easy. But if your head and heart are in the right place, it’s going to be worth it.

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Trevor Davis

Trevor is an experienced entrepreneur and banker with a background in business plan development, financial modeling, M&A, capital raising, and business valuation. He has worked and advised clients across many industries. Trevor has worked on over $5 billion of M&A and financing transactions and has advised clients ranging from early-stage startups to multi-billion dollar businesses.

Andon Baltakov

Andon is a fractional CFO and a fundraising expert for clients of Toptal. Most recently, he devised a novel business plan and a financial model for a sports information company. He also provided advisory services to launch a new social, digital business. Currently, he is working with the CFO of an entertainment enterprise to structure a business model and expand a side video project into a multimillion-dollar film business. Andon is a seasoned strategy executive who worked at the AP, CNN.

Aaleem Jiwa

As a Deloitte consulting manager, Aaleem led the creation of a business plan and financial model for a city-owned real estate firm that enabled them to develop 50 properties in 10 years. He has helped owners of small companies and executive teams at multi-billion dollar entities optimize their businesses through financial analysis. Aaleem travels extensively, and freelancing allows him to deliver value to companies from any city in the world.

Wen helped a French multimillion-euro food startup build its equity story and manage potential acquirers (Danone). She has project experience with private equity funds, venture capital, and industrial groups in France, Belgium, China, Africa, and the US. She is skilled in financial analysis and modeling, investor deck, and market research. Wen freelances to help advise startups and corporates on business strategy, investor relations, and fundraising projects.

Alan has 30 years of experience as a consultant, including leadership roles at KPMG & KPMG Consulting and EY. He has executive operational experience as the COO of a venture capital-funded company. Alan is skilled in project management with a record of delivering on time and on or under budget. He is also experienced in business planning, process improvement, curriculum design, IT security, and logical and physical architecture. Freelance work lets Alan focus on client needs and projects.

Swapnil Manish

Swapnil is a finance expert with 16 years of experience and an MBA in finance. He has advised on M&A transactions, fundraising, and valuations worth $13 billion at bulge bracket investment banks (BNP Paribas and SMTB). He is also the co-founder of two startups, and he has advised other SME entrepreneurs at the intersection of business planning, fundraising, and scaling up through M&A and organic growth. Swapnil enjoys interacting with entrepreneurs and helping them maximize business value.

Monica Ioannidou Polemitis

With 20+ years of experience in strategic advisory, Monica has led multiple engagements across sectors. She's facilitated the valuation of new business ideas and secured financing from private and public sources, including extensive work with private equity funds and European Union financial instruments such as the EU and European Investment Bank. Recently, Monica has launched Hybrid ConsulTech, a company offering comprehensive digital transformation solutions across Europe and the Middle East.

Alex is a business intelligence and customer insight expert who helped raise over $200 million in funding as VP of marketing and sales at a venture-backed startup which eventually went public. He has broad experience developing business plans, market research, product development and deployment in mobile telecoms, advertising, and digital collaboration platforms. Alex loves freelancing because of the freedom and opportunity to cooperate on exciting projects worldwide and across industries.

Nick Fookes

Nick is a CFA with a 28-year track record spanning 40+ countries in M&A, finance, strategy, and policy. He's supported executive decisions in 60 high-stake projects, including M&A transactions ($46 billion), radio-spectrum auctions and trades ($3.5 billion), public policy advocacy, government contract bids (worth $1 billion), go-to-market strategies, and raises for small caps and tech startups. Independent since 2001, Nick has enjoyed working in diverse markets, sectors, and cultures.

Isaac Prada y Nogueira

Isaac is a former Formula One engineer with over ten years of management consulting experience, applying the management method he learned in F1 (mainly Minimum Viable Testing) to growth strategy, innovation strategy, and optimization of tech startups and SMBs. He has developed a proprietary growth strategy for tech companies called Competitive Manager and has doubled revenues for some of his clients. Isaac seeks projects where he can put in the same energy that took him to F1.

Stella Canivenc

Stella brings leadership, go-to-market, and tech solutions design skills developed over a 23-year international career as a serial entrepreneur and seasoned executive at Fortune 500 companies. She enjoys freelancing because it allows her to work with focused leaders and help them launch and scale their businesses globally.

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A Hiring Guide

Guide to hiring a great business plan consultant.

Business plan consultants have the industry knowledge and expertise to develop a business plan that maximizes your company’s potential and attracts investors. This guide to hiring business plan experts offers insight into best practices, skill requirements, job description tips, and interview questions and answers to help you identify the best candidate for your needs.

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How do I hire a Business Plan Consultant?

To hire the right business plan consultant, it’s important to evaluate a candidate’s experience, technical skills, and communication skills. You’ll also want to consider the fit with your particular industry, company, and project. Toptal’s rigorous screening process ensures that every member of our network has excellent experience and skills, and our team will match you with the perfect business plan consultants for your project.

What do I need to look for when I choose a business plan consultant online?

Do not hire a business plan consultant online without interviewing them at least once, ideally via video conference so you can evaluate your rapport with them. It’s critical to ask them questions about your industry, their industry-specific experience, and their thoughts on current trends—all elements you can’t gauge from an online résumé. In addition to evaluating their experience and knowledge, it’s important to validate it through examples of work products and references.

How do I choose between two quality business plan consultant candidates?

When you have two highly qualified consultants vying for an engagement with your company, compare their skills with your internal capabilities and select the consultant who best complements the skills you and your team have. You’ll also want to consider their interpersonal skills and general fit with your preferred ways of working. Your objective should be to hire the consultant who rounds out the most capable team you can create to develop your business plan.

Do I need to hire a business plan consultant?

You should strongly consider hiring a business plan consultant. Business plan professionals offer significant benefits through their expertise and unbiased point of view. They’ll stress-test your current plans, identify potential risks and growth opportunities, provide a market analysis and industry insights, and ensure that your business plan is credible, positioned to maximize your company’s potential, and appealing to investors.

Who are business plan consultants and how do they add value?

A business plan consultant is a highly qualified individual who combines the skills of a management consultant and a CFO to advise and assist management teams of businesses of all sizes. Beyond creating business plans, they can assist with a number of projects, including market sizing; go-to-market and customer acquisition strategies; pricing and monetization planning; and fundraising strategy. Additionally, they can help you produce a pitch deck, board presentations and presentation materials, research and market reports, financial models, analyses, forecasts, and more.

How are Toptal business plan consultants different?

When you hire a business plan consultant with Toptal, you’ll always work with world-class, custom-matched business plan consultants ready to help you achieve your goals.

By Nicholas Piscani

Nicholas is a corporate strategy and FP&A expert who works with businesses to optimize their operations and execute high-priority strategic initiatives. He has helped entrepreneurs raise more than $600 million.

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How to hire business plan consultants, every company needs an effective business plan to maximize its potential.

A comprehensive business plan details a company’s present and expected future status and needs in order to guide strategic decisions and resource requirements. Research has shown that, historically, companies with business plans have grown 30% faster than those without them and that companies with business plans have been nearly twice as likely to receive funding. That’s because potential investors and investment banks often won’t take your business seriously without a comprehensive business plan.

While business plans are proven to maximize potential at all stages of maturity , many business leaders fail to develop or execute them. They may believe it isn’t worth the investment, or they may be overwhelmed by the number of steps involved and the amount of information required to get started. Other business owners may attempt to develop such plans without external assistance.

However, many company owners do recognize that specialized skills are required to maximize the impact of a business plan and to develop a complementary pitch deck for potential investors. These executives typically hire a business plan consultant to guide them through the entire strategic and business planning process. This hiring guide offers insights into how to select and hire a business plan consultant who can advise and collaborate with you to deliver the business plan you need.

What attributes distinguish quality Business Plan Consultants from others?

Above all else, quality business plan consultants have business planning and industry-specific experience. Typically, more experience equals more expertise, but don’t get caught up in thinking about experience only in terms of years. Once a professional business plan consultant has five or more years of experience, other factors, such as the number of business plans written and the number of successful funding rounds they’ve been involved in, are more important.

When selecting a business plan advisor, it’s important to find someone who develops complete business plans frequently, has a strong track record of success, and has specialized industry experience relevant to your business. For example, the core components of business plans in healthcare and construction may be similar, but industry-specific knowledge adds significant credibility when detailing the organization’s strategic direction, financial plans and models, and resource requirements.

Quality business plan professionals provide clear and concise guidance, and work with you and your management team to develop primary and contingency strategies. The consultant should be able to collaborate effectively during the planning process and illuminate potential shortcomings and pitfalls of an existing or new plan. While they may use a standardized template for creating business plans, the consultant should be willing and able to customize the plan to meet your organization’s specific needs.

How can you identify the ideal Business Plan Consultant for your business?

The ideal business plan consultant will possess a mix of hard and soft skills across multiple business areas so that they can skillfully craft a successful plan and pitch deck. The best business plan consultants have these complementary skills:

Industry knowledge – The business plan consultant best suited to help your organization will have solid industry knowledge and significant experience working with other companies in your sector. Understanding the industry, its competitive landscape, significant trends, and market segments is critical to developing an effective business and marketing plan.

Market research and analysis – This skill is required to establish accurate estimates of the total market, total addressable market, serviceable market, and obtainable markets. Business plan consultants need to gather and analyze significant amounts of data, interpret the results, and derive target markets and market-share goals for your company.

Financial modeling and forecasting – In addition to validating existing financial plans, the business plan consultant should be able to provide insight into current and alternative pricing strategies for revenue growth, understand whether capital and resource assumptions are valid given industry-average and best-in-class capital efficiencies, and confirm that margin expectations are reasonable given other operating assumptions. In-house financial analysts may be able to help fill this need with guidance from the expert business plan consultant you hire.

Data analysis and visualization – A quality business plan consultant should be able to compile and analyze all the inputs your organization provides and use them to create the components of the plan. This should include a go-to-market strategy that highlights your value proposition, identifies how you’ll reach your target market(s), and convinces investors that your organization has significant growth potential.

Presentation skills and storytelling ability – An underrated but essential value that a business plan consultant can bring is the ability to take all the individual components of the plan and weave them together into a compelling, original story that creates stakeholder buy-in and investor interest.

In addition to the aforementioned important capabilities, the best business plan consultant for your company should demonstrate the following soft skills:

Communication – The consultant should be able to distill complex ideas into accessible concepts to ensure understanding among stakeholders, investors, and employees. They should also be willing and able to ask hard questions and challenge assumptions.

Organization – The business plan expert needs to gather, analyze, and organize extensive data and other inputs from multiple sources. This requires impeccable organization and attention to detail.

Critical and strategic thinking – A quality business plan professional can consider threats, present alternatives, and stress-test the business plan to ensure it is sound and considers all possibilities.

A business plan advisor who possesses these complementary soft skills is more likely to be highly effective and deliver a plan that generates a high ROI.

What criteria can hiring managers use to match Business Plan Consultants to their specific industry or business needs?

Hiring managers should consider these three critical criteria when matching business plan professionals to their specific industries and needs:

• Industry experience – Each industry has a unique environment, with unique relationships between the hiring company and its customers, suppliers, competitors, etc. Navigating different compliance requirements and barriers to entry requires specific knowledge. While there is no set requirement for years of industry-specific experience, three years is a sufficient minimum threshold.
• Financial acumen – The consultant should be able to build detailed, dynamic financial models that drive the business plan. Experience with three-statement modeling is ideal, as the consultant will need to understand how investment and operating plans impact cash flow, the balance sheet, and the income statement. The hiring manager should prioritize credentials such as advanced degrees and certifications pertaining to corporate finance, valuation, and modeling financial projections when evaluating candidates.
• Leadership experience – Hiring managers should look for a consultant with a demonstrated history of leading teams and stakeholders through strategic initiatives. At a minimum, consultants should have reached a managerial level with a focus on strategy and business planning. Director- and VP-level experience, along with a track record of successful consulting engagements, becomes more important as the scope and scale of the project at hand increases.

How to Write a Business Plan Consultant Job Description for Your Project

First, define the use case for the business plan and identify the industry in which your company operates. Clearly identifying the sector will help candidates self-select, minimizing the number of irrelevant résumés to review.

Next, specify the experience and any specializations you require. Some technical expertise may be optional: For example, it may not be as important for your business plan consultant to have in-depth financial modeling expertise—as long as that’s a strength of your internal team. On the other hand, your business plan consultant must have extensive knowledge about your industry and market segments.

Your job description should also take into account how far along your organization is in the strategic and business planning process. If you have many of the pieces in place and simply need a business plan professional to ensure you have a cohesive and compelling plan to present, you’ll require a different skill set than if you need a business plan expert to research, analyze, define, and document the strategic path forward.

What are the most important Business Plan Consultant interview questions?

As you prepare to interview your top candidates, you should already have a basic understanding of their experience and skills. During the interviews, it’s important to ask questions that get to the heart of what your organization needs and whether the consultant has the expertise to deliver an effective plan. These questions will help you evaluate and select the best business plan consultant for your situation:

How would you approach this project?

With this question, you’re looking for the consultant to explain how they would use internal and external resources to gather relevant information and craft the story that the business plan will tell as it relates to your specific case. Ideally, the consultant can identify external resources that will provide industry, competitor, and market insights, including potential environmental, regulatory, or legal hurdles and risks.

Can you share your thoughts on the industry’s current state and future outlook?

The consultant you hire should be well versed in your industry, its present state, and the key factors influencing its future. The success of a business strategy hinges on the quality of the market information, data, and insights the expert has access to, and how they will use that information to guide the plan. A qualified business plan professional will be able to discuss total market size, growth rates, key competitors, and significant trends. Their answer should leave you confident that the candidate has the industry experience and knowledge you require.

Can you share specific examples of successful business plans you’ve developed?

The answer to this question should demonstrate how the candidate has applied their expertise in previous engagements or corporate roles. Although the consultant may be able to effectively explain their approach, specific examples will confirm they have the experience and capabilities to deliver what you need. Ask them to define the qualities of a successful engagement to be sure your expectations are aligned.

How do you ensure that a business plan is adaptable and remains relevant?

The last thing you want to do is lead your business down a path that reduces or eliminates agility. The consultant should highlight specific tools, such as scenario and sensitivity analyses, that can be used to develop contingency plans should the primary strategy shift because of changes in the market. The most qualified consultants should be able to identify gaps and trends in the market and suggest potential strategies and technologies to address them.

Additional questions to ask include how the consultant would communicate with you and your internal teams, how they handle disagreements among principals about the strategic direction the organization should pursue, and what, if any, special research and analysis they might perform for this engagement.

A well-rounded business plan consultant will answer your questions in ways that leave you feeling confident in their ability to successfully execute the project and deliver an effective custom business plan that maximizes your company’s potential and attracts investors.

How can a hiring manager ensure the confidentiality and security of sensitive information during the hiring process, especially when sharing business plans or proprietary data with candidates?

Hiring managers and recruiters can take decisive actions to protect their company’s confidential information during the hiring process. These include:

• Requiring candidates to sign nondisclosure agreements before they receive sensitive materials.
• Conducting thorough background checks to verify candidates’ credibility, trustworthiness, and adherence to data security protocols.
• Using secure document-sharing platforms or virtual data rooms with access controls, encryption, and audit trails.
• Using secure communication channels, such as encrypted email services or secure messaging platforms, when sharing sensitive information.

Why do companies hire Business Plan Consultants?

Business plan experts can deliver tremendous value to companies that are developing business plans to guide strategic decisions or pursue funding. While founders and employees may have a significant grasp of the company, its strategic direction, and its business goals, they may not have the expertise to craft a compelling business plan and pitch deck that attracts investors.

One of the quickest ways to lose the interest of potential investors and partners is by presenting a business plan that comes across as disorganized and fragmented. Business plan advisors with extensive experience dealing with investors solve this problem for their clients. They have the well-rounded business background and skill set to contribute and add value to the entire strategic planning process. They have the capability to propel a business forward by weaving a company’s market data, industry trends, business strategy, business goals, and resource requirements into a compelling story for stakeholders and potential investors.

While many business owners develop business plans without external assistance, hiring a business plan consultant can significantly increase the quality and credibility of a business plan, its likelihood to maximize business success, and its ability to attract investors.

Featured Toptal Business Plan Consulting Publications

5 Key Tips for Smarter Sales and Operations Planning Implementation

Creating a Narrative from Numbers

Small Business Resources for COVID-19: Loans, Grants, and Credits

Top Business Plan Consultants Are in High Demand.

7 Steps To Write an Effective Freelance Business Plan [Download Free Template]

• Last Updated: April 4, 2023

Freelancing indeed gives you enough freedom, but without a well-structured business plan, you might end up working hard without a vision in mind.

Well, sometimes you need smart work instead of hard work to reach your goals the quickest.

So, plan out your freelancing business and take it to new heights.

Wondering how?

We have come up with an easy 7 step guide on how to write a freelance business plan for you.

So, let’s start planning now!

Table of Content

• Write Down Brand Summary and Purpose

Define Your Target Audience

List out your services, analyze your niche competitors, marketing and client acquisition, goals, targets, and timelines, financial plan, download freelance business plan template, benefits of freelance business plan.

Put into Execution

7 Steps to Write a Freelance Business Plan

When you want to start a freelancing business, know that you’d have to run a sole proprietorship. Therefore, creating a successful freelancing business with a steady stream of cash flow and profit needs planning and organizing.

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So, if you want to work with ideal clients, here is how you should plan your freelance business.

Write Down Company Summary and Purpose

Do you know why brands like Apple, Amazon, and Google had such success? One of the most contributing factors to brand success is a clear purpose. Any business can be lost in the journey from a startup to being a brand if they don’t have a clear idea of who they are and where they want to be.

Every business has its own story. And this is the section where you would want to tell your business story. It helps in setting up the business objectives and the brand image.

For example, if you are a freelance writer, you should answer questions like:

• What inspired you to be a writer?
• Why did you pick writing as your profession?
• What do you want to achieve as a writer?
• How do your services make a difference?

The previous step helps you understand your brand and this step will help you know your buyers. Your freelance services don’t need to serve all. For example, if you are an iOS app developer, you may exclude Android users from your target market.

To know your audience, create a buyer persona for your services, and include the groups based on criteria like:

• geographical location;
• line of business; &

A freelance wedding planner might not help you find a partner. Similarly, you may or may not provide all the niche-related services. However, one thing is for sure, you should list out all the services that you provide.

Deciding what services you should provide majorly depends on two factors, which are:

• What is your skillset
• What customers want

Being a freelancer, you should know your skillset well. Other than that, if you know your target audience, you would know the problems they face. Therefore, describe your services and how they solve the customer’s problems.

Once you have decided on the services, analyze your niche competitors. Analyzing your competitors is extremely necessary to stay in the business. We live in a highly competitive era for businesses and hence a well-written business plan always includes the competitors’ analysis.

First of all, let’s make one thing clear.

Your competitors are not those who sell similar products/services. But, the ones who address the same problems.

You can make your brand unique by researching your competitors. While looking at your competitors, make sure you keep the following things in mind.

• Set of services they provide
• Fee structure
• Marketing strategies

Once you have studied your competitors, you need to think about the things that help you create a unique brand. Such as:

• What makes you a different brand?
• How differently do you solve the problem?
• How is your service more valuable than others?

Bringing clients on board hugely depends on how you go about marketing strategy. And marketing can only be done perfectly if you have done the market research right. First, you need to understand your targeted audience and their problems to market your brand effectively.

So, one of the most effective ways of marketing is to pitch your services as the solution for the problem. This way you can acquire more clients.

Now, getting new clients is one thing and retaining them is another. Therefore, you must improve the experience to boost client loyalty. The chances of getting hired again by the same client increase exponentially if the client was satisfied with the first experience. Not only that, there are high chances that a satisfied client recommends your services to his/her peers.

So, if you want to ensure long-term business success, keep your clients happy. And here are the quick ways to ensure that.

• Try to go the extra mile
• Maintain clear communication with clients
• Offer clients early bird discounts
• Create a reward system for loyal clients

If you want to reach a goal, you need first to define it. Especially a business in its initial stage must have a milestone to reach. This represents your brand and dictates the entire business planning.

Now, we all want to share the podium with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos right away, but remember that Rome wasn’t built in one day.

Set practical marketing goals that your freelancing business can achieve with all the given resources. Break the end goal into small targets and bind them with a defined timeline. For example:

• Pitching project proposals to ‘X number of potential clients daily
• Getting ‘X number of clients in the first month
• Learning a new skill in three weeks to provide better services

Financial planning is the core of business planning. Without planning your revenue model, how much money is enough money for you to sustain, how many clients would you need to make a profit, how you would raise money from investors.

Financial planning does not only include the income but expenses as well. Of course, generating an income is good, but what you spend money on should be planned.

The financial business plan needs detailed accounting for accurate financial projections. This is why you need to track every expense and income. It helps you set a realistic financial business plan for your actual business.

To work efficiently and in the right direction, you need to have a business plan.

Now, most freelancers think this is too much work and would take a long time to write a business plan independently. Thus, we have designed a freelance business plan template that you can download, edit and make yours.

Unlike a traditional business plan, it will help you summarize the entire plan in just a single page.

It has all the criteria required to make a business plan that works. Moreover, it is available in PDF file format. So, what are you waiting for? Just download the freelance business plan template for free and never go off the track.

A perfect freelance business plan can take your freelance business to new heights. Writing a business plan can help a new business to acquire the first client. It also helps already established businesses to excel and be on top of all the competitors.

So, if you want to know how a perfect business plan can do such wonders, let’s discuss a few benefits of writing a freelance business plan.

A Clear Line of Sight

The freelance business plan forces the business to set priorities and act on them. Without a structured business plan, a freelancer might do everything and get nothing done. To avoid such a situation, you need to have the vision and mission statement embossed.

Right Marketing Strategy For Your Business

Wise financial decisions.

If you want to own success as a freelancer, a business plan lets you make better decisions. In addition, the business plan reminds you of your spending limits and stops you from spending unnecessarily.

Now that we have discussed how to write a freelancer business plan in-depth, you must be eager to go make it right away. However, before jumping to it, let’s read some frequently asked questions so that you never have to stop once you have begun.

How do I start my own freelance business?

To start a freelance business of your demands a skillset. Other than that, here are the quick steps you would have to follow.

• Know Your Goals
• Look for a Profitable Niche
• Identify Your Target Audience
• Set Strategic Rates for Your Services
• Put up the Best-Quality Portfolio
• Be Picky while Choosing the First Client
• Learn to Market Yourself Strategically

Can a beginner do freelancing?

Yes, freelancing is a great option for starting their career and knowing the industry. This gives beginners the experience of the industry and helps them build confidence too.

Does a business owner need to know to account?

A business owner must know the basics of accounting and bookkeeping because most major business decisions are influenced by the accounting of your business.

Can I hire someone to write a business plan?

Now that we know about writing the business plan, it’s time to get started with writing it. The business plan will make you answer vital questions that define your business. Thus, you might need to write it before you pick your first client.

This blog summarises all the steps you need to write an intact freelancers’ business plan and the benefits of writing a business plan. We also provided a freelancers’ business plan template as a bonus.

We know it takes time to figure out your business goals, and you should take all the time as well. So, you need to manage time and automate repetitive business tasks such as invoicing , collect insightful client feedback , and generating stunning sales reports .

To make invoicing and estimates & quotes process easier, you can download the InvoiceOwl app and never bother about such tasks. Instead, refer to our blog to get invoicing tips that are exclusive for freelancers. So, what are you waiting for? Plan your basic business strategy right now!

Jeel Patel is the founder of InvoiceOwl , a top-rated estimating and invoicing software that simplifies the invoicing and estimating processes for contractor businesses. Jeel holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Toronto, which has provided him with a strong foundation in business principles and practices. With understanding of the challenges faced by contractors, he conducted extensive research and developed a tool to streamline the invoicing and estimating processes for contractors. Read More

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Freelance Writing Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their freelance writing companies.

If you’re unfamiliar with creating a freelance writing business plan, you may think creating one will be a time-consuming and frustrating process. For most entrepreneurs it is, but for you, it won’t be since we’re here to help. We have the experience, resources, and knowledge to help you create a great business plan.

In this article, you will learn some background information on why business planning is important. Then, you will learn how to write a freelance writing business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a Freelance Writing Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your freelance writing business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategies for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Freelance Writing Business

If you’re looking to start a freelance writing business or grow your existing freelance writing company, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your freelance writing business to improve your chances of success. Your freelance writing business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Freelance Writing Businesses

With regard to funding, the main sources of funding for a freelance writing business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. When it comes to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to ensure that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for freelance writing companies.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a freelance writing business.

If you want to start a freelance writing business or expand your current freelance writing business, you need a business plan. The guide below details the necessary information for how to write each essential component of your freelance writing business plan.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the kind of freelance writing business you are running and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a freelance writing business that you would like to grow, or are you operating freelance writing and formatting businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan.

• Give a brief overview of the freelance writing industry.
• Discuss the type of freelance writing business you are operating.
• Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers.
• Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team.
• Offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Overview

In your company overview, you will detail the type of freelance writing business you are operating.

For example, you might specialize in one of the following types of freelance writing businesses:

• Copywriting: Copywriting is focused on marketing materials to encourage a target audience to make a purchase; it is compelling and focused writing that leads consumers to a decision.
• Grant writing: Grant writing is focused on the art of persuasion, typically noting the needs of a non-profit company and then offering the solution via the services or products of the non-profit company. Grant writing requires research and a storyline that compels readers to provide funding for worthy public or private projects.
• Technical freelance writing: A technical freelance writer is focused on user manuals, product documentation, and instructional guides. This type of writing demands expertise in vocabulary and precision in writing.
• Resume/Cover Letter freelance writing: One of the major reasons freelance writers are hired is the on-going need for creative, yet comprehensive resumes and/or cover letters. Almost every person seeking employment today will look for a writer to take on the task of creating compelling content in the form of a winning resume.

In addition to explaining the type of freelance writing business you will operate, the company overview needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of customers served, the amount of revenue during the past six months, opening a design and formatting business to support the freelance writing business, etc.
• Your legal business structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry or market analysis, you need to provide an overview of the freelance writing industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the freelance writing industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your marketing strategy, particularly if your analysis identifies market trends.

The third reason is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your freelance writing business plan:

• How big is the freelance writing industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential target market for your freelance writing business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your freelance writing business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: individuals, businesses, charitable foundations and  government agencies.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of freelance writing business you operate. Clearly, individuals would respond to different marketing promotions than government agencies, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regard to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the potential customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can recognize and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other freelance writing businesses.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t directly competing with your product or service. This includes companies that provide templates, forms, or computer-generated materials. You need to mention such competition, as well.

For each direct competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What type of freelance writing business are they?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What sets their business apart from others?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regard to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And, don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide options for 24/7 service or 2-hour turnaround times?
• Will you offer products or services that your competition doesn’t?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a freelance writing business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of freelance writing company that you documented in your company overview. Then, detail the specific products or services you will be offering. For example, will you provide full-package curriculum vitae completion for C-suite executives?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the site of your freelance writing company. Document where your company is situated and mention how the site will impact your success. For example, is your freelance writing business located in a corporate complex where customers can meet in-person with you to discuss projects? Discuss how your site might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your freelance writing marketing plan is where you will document how you will drive potential customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertise in local papers and/or magazines
• Reach out to websites
• Distribute direct mail pieces to your target audience
• Engage in email marketing
• Advertise on social media platforms
• Improve the SEO (search engine optimization) with target keywords on your website

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your freelance writing business, including answering calls, planning and researching subject matter, paying invoices, contacting customers, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your freelance writing business to a second resume-writing service.

Management Team

To demonstrate your freelance writing business’ potential to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing freelance writing businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But, also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing a freelance writing business or successfully running a copywriting department in a large corporation.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement

An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenue and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve more than ten customers per month, and/or offer special pricing for projects over 20,000 pages in length? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets

Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your freelance writing business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a lender writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement

Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and ensure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit, but run out of money and go bankrupt.

When creating your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a freelance writing business:

• Cost of computer and printer equipment
• Cost of furnishings
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Other start-up expenses (if you’re a new business) like legal expenses, permits, computer software, office supplies and equipment

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan, along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or a list of high-profile resources you can access and include in your writing categories.

Writing a business plan for your freelance writing business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will understand the freelance writing industry, your competition, and your customers. You will develop a marketing strategy and will understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful freelance writing business.

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Freelance Writing business plan?

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how Growthink’s business planning advisors can create your business plan for you.

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Why Every Freelancer Needs a Business Plan: A Comprehensive Guide

Why Freelancers Need a Business Plan

How to create a business plan, business planning for freelancers: faqs.

As a seasoned freelancer with over two decades of experience, I’ve seen firsthand the critical role a solid business plan plays in achieving long-term success . It’s a common misconception among many freelancers that a business plan is an unnecessary formality, a paperwork exercise more suited to traditional businesses than their own flexible, creative endeavors. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

A business plan functions as a roadmap , guiding freelancers toward their professional objectives and aspirations. It sets the direction, detailing not just where you want to go, but also how you intend to get there. This plan helps freelancers navigate the often unpredictable terrain of self-employment, making it easier to anticipate potential challenges and obstacles along the way.

Moreover, a business plan does more than just outline your trajectory ; it also clarifies your broader goals. It prompts you to think about what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it, and what you’re willing to do to reach those milestones. This process of reflection and articulation can provide a much-needed sense of purpose and direction, particularly when you’re navigating the freelance world solo.

But a business plan isn’t just an abstract concept or a motivational tool; it’s also a practical guide . It highlights the operational aspects of your freelance business, such as your target market, pricing strategy, marketing approach, necessary tools and software, and financial goals. By addressing these factors, your business plan can offer invaluable insights into the practicalities of running a successful freelance operation.

In this article, we will delve deeper into why every freelancer needs a business plan . We’ll explore each component of a robust business plan, providing you with the knowledge and tools to create your own. Whether you’re a seasoned freelancer or just starting, the importance of a business plan cannot be overstated. So, let’s embark on this journey together, demystifying the process of creating a business plan and setting the foundation for your freelance success.

Many people tend to associate business plans with traditional businesses or startups seeking investment. However, as a freelancer, having a business plan can be just as beneficial and can indeed be the catalyst that propels your freelance career to new heights ( Collective ).

A business plan lays out all of your goals for your freelance business for the next three to five years . It provides you with clear direction for achieving your goals so you can grow and succeed over time ( Make a Living Writing ).

Not only does it offer a clear line of sight for your target, but it also helps in setting priorities . Having a solid freelance business plan is crucial for achieving long-term success. It’s a roadmap outlining your goals, target audience, and financial projections ( Invoice Owl ).

Even if a freelancer may not have the same traditional structure as a brick-and-mortar business, this plan is essential ( Freelancermap ).

Firstly, a business plan helps set clear goals and objectives . As a freelancer, you are your own boss, which means you’re responsible for setting your path. A business plan acts as a roadmap, guiding you towards your ultimate professional destination. It forces you to sit down and clearly articulate what you want to achieve in your freelance career, whether it’s expanding your client base, increasing your income, or branching out into new areas of expertise. Having these goals written down in a structured format can provide a sense of direction and keep you focused when distractions or challenges arise.

Secondly, a business plan allows you to identify potential roadblocks and challenges ahead of time . Freelancing is not without its difficulties, and it’s much easier to navigate these obstacles if you’ve prepared for them in advance. Whether it’s market competition, fluctuating demand, or financial management, a business plan can help you foresee these issues and develop strategies to mitigate them before they become significant problems. This proactive approach can save you a lot of stress and uncertainty in the long run.

Lastly, a business plan isn’t just for your personal use – it can also be a powerful tool for securing funding, partnerships, and clients . A well-crafted business plan showcases your vision, professionalism, and commitment to your freelance career. It demonstrates that you take your work seriously and have a clear plan for success. Whether you’re pitching to potential clients, negotiating partnerships, or applying for grants or loans, having a solid business plan can give you an edge over other freelancers and instill confidence in those considering investing in your services.

A business plan is an essential tool for any freelancer . It provides a roadmap for success, prepares you for potential challenges, and enhances your professional credibility. Armed with a comprehensive business plan, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the freelance landscape and steer your career towards success.

Understanding your target market is the next crucial step . A thorough audience analysis will help you understand your potential customers’ needs, preferences, and behaviors, enabling you to tailor your products or services to meet their demands effectively.

Once you’ve identified your target market, it’s time to detail the services you offer . Clearly defining what you’re selling will not only help potential clients understand your business but also help you focus your marketing efforts.

The next step involves developing a pricing strategy . Your prices need to be competitive yet profitable, which requires a careful analysis of the market and your costs.

Your marketing approach follows closely behind . This encompasses how you plan to promote your business and attract customers. It could include tactics like social media marketing, SEO, or traditional marketing methods.

Operational requirements come next and refer to the resources you’ll need to run your business. These might include personnel, equipment, or software, among others.

Finally, your business plan should include your financial goals and projections . This section gives potential investors an idea of your business’s profitability and financial health, making it a critical component of any business plan. By carefully crafting each of these sections, you’ll create a comprehensive business plan that provides a clear path forward for your business.

Company Summary and Purpose

This foundational element sets the tone for the rest of your plan and serves as a reference point for all subsequent decisions.

To define your freelance business, you need to conduct a thorough self-assessment . This includes identifying your strengths and weaknesses as a freelancer. Are you an exceptional communicator, do you have a knack for problem-solving, or perhaps you possess a unique skill set that sets you apart from others in your field? These are your strengths, and they form the core of your freelance business. On the other hand, recognizing your weaknesses is equally important. Perhaps you struggle with time management or aren’t as tech-savvy as you’d like to be. Acknowledging these areas for improvement can help you devise strategies to overcome these challenges, ensuring they don’t hinder your success.

Next, consider your unique selling points (USPs) . Your USPs are the characteristics or qualities that differentiate you from your competitors. Maybe it’s your extensive experience, your specialized knowledge, or your commitment to customer service. Whatever it is, your USPs should be highlighted prominently in your business plan, as they’re key to attracting and retaining clients.

Once you’ve assessed your abilities and identified your USPs, it’s time to define your business’s purpose . Why does your freelance business exist beyond making money? What value do you bring to your clients? Your purpose should reflect the impact you aim to have on your clients or the industry. It should resonate with your target audience and align with their needs and values.

Your vision statement, on the other hand, is a forward-looking declaration of your business’s goals and aspirations . It outlines where you see your freelance business heading in the future and sets a clear direction for growth and development. Your vision statement should be ambitious yet achievable, inspiring yet grounded in reality.

Defining your freelance business, its purpose, and vision statement is not just an academic exercise . It helps establish your brand and shapes your messaging, making it easier to communicate with potential clients. It enables you to convey what you stand for, what you offer, and how you’re different from other freelancers in a clear and compelling manner. This clarity can set you apart in a crowded marketplace and attract clients who align with your values and appreciate your unique offerings.

Target Market/Audience Analysis

This process involves more than just figuring out who might pay for your services; it requires a deep understanding of their needs, preferences, and behaviors.

To start, you need to identify who your ideal client is . This can be based on numerous factors such as industry, company size, job title, geographic location, or any other criteria that are relevant to your freelancing services. The more specific you can be, the better. This will allow you to focus your efforts on the clients most likely to hire you and benefit from your services.

Once you have a clear picture of who your target clients are, you need to understand their needs . What problems are they facing that your services can solve? What goals do they have that you can help them achieve? This understanding will allow you to tailor your services to meet their specific needs, increasing the value you provide and making you a more attractive choice than your competitors.

Understanding your audience also plays a vital role in crafting effective messaging and marketing materials . Knowing your target clients’ needs, challenges, and aspirations will allow you to speak directly to these points in your marketing materials. This will make your messaging more engaging and persuasive, increasing the likelihood of attracting new clients.

Additionally, a deep understanding of your target audience can inform your pricing strategy . Knowing what your clients value and what they’re willing to pay for can help you set prices that are both competitive and profitable. This balance is key to maintaining a sustainable freelancing business.

Failing to understand your target clients can have serious consequences for your business . It can lead to ineffective marketing, mispriced services, and a lack of competitive edge. On the other hand, a clear understanding of your target clients and their needs can inform every aspect of your business strategy, from service development to marketing and pricing. This understanding is key to standing out in a crowded market and driving the success of your freelancing business.

Services Offered

Therefore, it’s crucial to detail these services in a way that not only clearly defines what you do but also illustrates how what you do meets the needs of your target clients.

To start, you need to clearly delineate each service you offer . This could range from specific tasks, like graphic design or content creation, to more comprehensive packages, like full marketing strategy development or project management. Be as specific as possible, as this will help potential clients understand exactly what they’re getting when they hire you.

Next, align your services with your unique selling points (USPs) and the needs of your target audience . If you’ve identified that your USP is your extensive experience in a particular industry, for example, you’ll want to emphasize how your services leverage this experience to deliver superior results. If your target clients are small businesses looking for cost-effective solutions, you might highlight how your services provide excellent value for money.

This alignment does more than just make your services attractive to potential clients; it also helps you stand out from your competitors . By focusing on what makes you different – whether it’s specialized skills, innovative offerings, or exceptional customer service – you can position yourself as a unique solution to your clients’ needs. This differentiation is key to winning clients in a competitive marketplace.

Remember, your services are not just a list of tasks you can perform ; they’re solutions to your clients’ problems. By detailing your services in relation to your USPs and your clients’ needs, you can present your freelance business as a valuable partner, capable of delivering the results your clients are looking for. This approach will not only help you attract more clients but also build stronger, more profitable relationships with them.

Pricing Strategy

The right pricing strategy not only influences your income but also impacts how potential clients perceive the value of your work.

Setting competitive and profitable prices for your services is essential for the sustainability of your freelance business . Your prices need to be competitive enough to attract clients, but they also need to be profitable enough to cover your business expenses and provide a decent income.

To set effective prices, several factors should be taken into consideration . First, consider the market demand for your services and the location in which you operate. These factors can influence how much clients are willing to pay. For example, if you’re offering a service that’s in high demand or operating in a location with a high cost of living, you may be able to charge higher rates.

Next, take a look at what your competitors are charging . While you don’t want to base your prices solely on what others are charging, understanding the going rate for similar services can give you a good starting point. You can then adjust your prices based on your unique value proposition and experience level.

Your value proposition – that is, the unique value you bring to your clients – should also play a significant role in your pricing strategy. If you offer specialized skills, years of experience, or exceptional customer service, for instance, these are all reasons you might justify charging higher rates than your competitors.

While it may be tempting for freelancers to underprice their services in an attempt to attract more clients, this approach can ultimately harm your business . Charging too little can make it difficult to cover your business expenses or invest in growth opportunities. It can also undervalue your services, leading clients to question the quality of your work.

Remember, pricing is more than just a number; it’s a reflection of the value you provide . By setting competitive and profitable prices, you can ensure the sustainability of your freelance business and attract clients who appreciate the value of your work.

Marketing Approach

As a freelancer, you are your own brand, and it’s through marketing that you communicate your brand’s value to potential clients. From building awareness and attracting new clients to nurturing relationships and driving growth, effective marketing strategies can be a game-changer for freelancers.

One of the most potent tools in a freelancer’s marketing arsenal is a strong online presence . In today’s digital age, the first place potential clients often look when they need a service is the internet. Having a professional, easy-to-navigate website that showcases your portfolio, highlights your services, and provides clear contact information can significantly increase your visibility and help attract new clients. Regularly updating your website with fresh content can also improve your search engine rankings, making it easier for potential clients to find you.

Social media platforms are another powerful marketing tool . They offer a way to reach a large audience at relatively low cost. Whether it’s LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or a combination of these, social media can be used to share your work, engage with your audience, and build your brand identity. By posting regularly and engaging with followers, you can use social media to establish yourself as an expert in your field and attract new clients.

Content marketing is another effective strategy . This could involve creating blog posts, videos, podcasts, or infographics that provide valuable information to your target audience. By providing useful content, you not only demonstrate your expertise but also build trust with potential clients. Plus, high-quality content can boost your SEO, driving more traffic to your website.

Email marketing campaigns can also be highly effective . Whether you’re sending out a regular newsletter, promoting a new service, or sharing your latest blog post, email allows you to directly reach people who have expressed interest in your services. It’s a great way to nurture relationships with existing clients and keep your brand top of mind for potential clients.

Networking, both online and offline, is another crucial element of a freelancer’s marketing plan . Joining industry groups, attending relevant events, or participating in online communities can help you connect with potential clients, learn about new opportunities, and stay abreast of industry trends.

Marketing is a necessary component for any freelancer aiming for success . By leveraging a range of strategies—from maintaining a strong online presence and utilizing social media to implementing content marketing and email campaigns—freelancers can effectively attract clients, build their brand, and ultimately grow their business.

Operational Requirements

Using effective project management and invoicing tools can streamline these processes, which not only increases efficiency but also contributes to a more professional image.

Firstly, project management tools are essential for keeping track of tasks, deadlines, and communication with clients . These tools can help you organize your workload, prioritize tasks, and ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. They provide a central hub where you can manage all aspects of your projects, from initial planning to final deliverables. This can be particularly useful for freelancers juggling multiple projects or clients at once.

Using project management tools can also improve your communication with clients . They often include features such as shared task lists, progress tracking, and messaging platforms, which can help clarify expectations and keep clients informed about the status of their projects. This transparency can enhance client satisfaction and lead to more positive working relationships.

On the other hand, invoicing software is crucial for managing your freelance finances . These tools can automate the process of creating, sending, and tracking invoices, saving you valuable time and reducing the risk of errors. Many invoicing tools also offer features like automatic reminders for overdue payments, which can help ensure you get paid on time.

Professional invoicing not only makes your life easier but also contributes to a more professional image . It shows clients that you take your business seriously and have systems in place to ensure smooth financial transactions. This can increase clients’ trust in your services and make them more likely to hire you again in the future.

Lastly, both project management and invoicing tools can be invaluable for freelancers working remotely . They allow you to manage your business from anywhere, providing the flexibility that is often one of the main attractions of freelancing.

To succeed in the competitive world of freelancing, it’s not enough to just be good at what you do . You also need to manage your projects and finances effectively. By leveraging the right tools, you can increase your efficiency, present a more professional image, and ultimately drive the success of your freelance business.

Financial Goals and Projections

Setting achievable financial goals is essential for ensuring the sustainability and growth of your freelance business.

Firstly, being aware of your income and expenses is crucial . As a freelancer, your income may fluctify based on the number and size of the projects you undertake. Therefore, it’s important to track your income accurately. Additionally, understanding your expenses – both business expenses like software subscriptions, marketing costs, and taxes, as well as personal expenses – is key to managing your finances effectively.

Once you have a clear picture of your income and expenses, you can start setting financial goals . These might include income targets, savings goals, or debt repayment plans. When setting these goals, it’s important to be realistic. While it’s good to aim high, setting unachievable goals can lead to disappointment and demotivation. On the other hand, setting goals that are challenging yet achievable can drive you to improve your performance and grow your business.

Building financial projections is a useful tool in this process . By projecting your future income and expenses, you can establish targets and measure your progress towards them. This can help you stay focused and motivated, as well as identify potential issues before they become major problems.

Planning for taxes is another critical aspect of financial management for freelancers . Unlike traditional employees who have their taxes automatically deducted from their paychecks, freelancers are responsible for calculating and paying their own taxes. This can be a complex process, as tax obligations can vary significantly depending on factors like your income level, location, and business structure. Therefore, it’s important to plan for taxes as part of your financial goals to avoid surprises come tax season.

Setting achievable financial goals is a crucial component of freelancing success . By maintaining a clear understanding of your income and expenses, setting realistic goals, and planning for taxes, you can ensure the financial health of your freelance business.

A business plan is not just a tool for securing funding or attracting investors; it’s a roadmap that guides your freelancing journey . It outlines your business strategy, sets clear objectives, and provides a framework for making decisions. Whether you’re just starting out as a freelancer or looking to take your business to the next level, a comprehensive business plan is an invaluable asset.

The first component of a business plan is a summary of your company and its purpose . This should include a clear statement of what you do, who you do it for, and why you do it. It’s your chance to define your brand and convey your passion and expertise. This section sets the tone for the rest of your business plan and can be instrumental in engaging potential clients or investors.

Next, your business plan should include an analysis of your target market or audience . Understanding who your potential clients are and what they need is crucial for developing effective strategies and offerings. This section should detail your ideal client profile, the problems they face, and how your services can solve those problems.

A detailed description of the services you offer is another essential component of your business plan . This section should clearly outline what you provide, how it benefits your clients, and how it sets you apart from your competitors. It’s your opportunity to show potential clients why they should choose you over other freelancers.

Your pricing strategy should also be included in your business plan . This should detail how much you charge for your services, how you arrived at these prices, and how they compare to the competition. A well-thought-out pricing strategy can demonstrate your value proposition and reassure potential clients that your services are worth the investment.

Your marketing approach is another key element of your business plan . This section should outline how you plan to attract and retain clients, including the marketing channels you’ll use, the messages you’ll convey, and the tactics you’ll employ to engage your audience.

Operational requirements are another important aspect to consider . This could include the tools and software you use, your workflow processes, or any other operational aspects that contribute to your ability to deliver your services effectively.

Lastly, your business plan should include your financial goals and projections . This section should outline your income targets, expense forecasts, and financial milestones. It serves as a benchmark for measuring your success and helps ensure that your business remains financially sustainable.

In conclusion, every freelancer needs a business plan . It’s more than just a document; it’s a strategic tool that guides your business decisions, communicates your value, and propels your freelancing career forward. By taking the time to create a comprehensive business plan, you’re taking the first step towards achieving your freelancing goals.

How do I write a freelance business plan?

Writing a freelance business plan involves several key steps. Start by defining your company’s summary and purpose, which includes what you do, who you serve, and why you do it. Next, analyze your target market or audience to understand their needs and how your services can meet them. Then, clearly outline the services you offer and how they benefit your clients. Your pricing strategy should detail how much you charge and how these prices compare to your competitors. Include a marketing approach that outlines how you will attract and retain clients. Lastly, establish your financial goals and projections to ensure your business remains financially sustainable. Remember, your business plan is a strategic tool that guides your decisions, so take time to create it thoughtfully.

Does a freelancer need a business plan?

Yes, a freelancer does need a business plan. A business plan serves as a roadmap for your freelancing journey. It outlines your business strategy, sets clear objectives, and provides a framework for decision-making. Key components include company summary, target market analysis, services offered, pricing strategy, marketing approach, operational requirements, and financial goals. A well-structured business plan can help avoid chaos and promote strategic growth. It helps set long-term goals, break them into achievable steps, and manage financial aspects. Remember, as a freelancer, you’re not just a service provider but a business owner.

Can you pay someone to write a business plan for you?

Yes, you can hire a professional business plan writer or a consultancy to write a business plan for you. These professionals bring expertise and an outside perspective to your business concept. They can help articulate your ideas, conduct market research, develop strategies, and create financial projections. However, while hiring someone can save time, it can also be costly. Plus, no one understands your business as well as you do. Whether you choose to hire a professional or write it yourself, being actively involved in the process is crucial.

How do freelancers get first clients?

Freelancers can secure their first clients through various strategies. Building connections with businesses and individuals you admire is a good starting point. You can reach out to potential clients directly or wait for them to request your services. It’s also beneficial to develop referral partnerships and offer your skills as a service. Defining your ideal client or market is another crucial step. Getting better at what you do and seeking feedback from clients, colleagues, and experts can also help. Additionally, using your social media wisely can aid in growing your business. Lastly, don’t hesitate to ask family and friends for help in finding your first few jobs. Remember, the process may be challenging, but perseverance and a strategic approach can lead to success.

Can I write a business plan myself?

Absolutely, you can write a business plan yourself. In fact, doing so can be beneficial because it gives you a deep understanding of every aspect of your business. The process involves researching and reflecting on your business concept, target market, competition, operational structure, and financial projections. There are plenty of resources available online, including templates and guides, to help you through the process. Remember, a business plan is not a one-time document but a living guide that should evolve as your business grows and changes. Writing your own business plan can be a valuable learning experience and a great way to take ownership of your business’s future.

How do I write my first business plan?

Writing a business plan involves summarizing your business, describing its operations, analyzing the market, detailing your service or product, outlining your marketing strategy, and presenting financial projections. It’s a vital document that guides your business’s growth and can attract potential investors.

Do freelancers write their own contracts?

Yes, freelancers often write their own contracts. These contracts outline the terms of the project, including the scope of work, payment terms, deadlines, and any other relevant details. Writing your own contract allows you to ensure that your interests are protected. However, it’s always a good idea to have a lawyer review your contract to make sure it’s legally sound. There are also templates and tools available online that can help freelancers create their own contracts.

Do I need a logo as a freelancer?

As a freelancer, having a logo can be beneficial for your branding strategy. A well-designed logo can help to differentiate you from others in your field, add credibility and professionalism to your freelance business, and can be a deciding factor for potential clients choosing between you and your competition. It tells potential clients who you are, what you do, and how that benefits them. Furthermore, a logo can communicate to people with no prior knowledge or experience with your business that you do great work. However, remember that a logo is just one part of your overall brand identity.

What are examples of business plan?

There are many examples of business plans available online. For instance, Shopify offers seven business plan examples that include elements such as an executive summary, company description, market analysis, products and services, a marketing plan, logistics and operations plan, and financial plan. Similarly, Hubspot provides a list of sample business plans to inspire entrepreneurs on their journey. Sites like Bplans.com offer over 500 free business plan examples and templates . Furthermore, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) provides guidance on writing your business plan, including examples.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.

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Freelance Writing Business Plan Template & Guidebook

How to write a freelance writing business plan in 7 steps:, 1. describe the purpose of your freelance writing business..

It also helps to include a vision statement so that readers can understand what type of company you want to build.

2. Products & Services Offered by Your Freelance Writing Business.

When you think about the products and services that you offer, it's helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

3. Build a Creative Marketing Stratgey.

If you don't have a marketing plan for your freelance writing business, it's time to write one. Your marketing plan should be part of your business plan and be a roadmap to your goals. 

Target market

Customer base , product or service description, competitive analysis, marketing channels, form an llc in your state, 4. write your operational plan., what equipment, supplies, or permits are needed to run a freelance writing business, 5. management & organization of your freelance writing business..

The second part of your freelance writing business plan is to develop a management and organization section.

6. Freelance Writing Business Startup Expenses & Captial Needed.

Startup costs are typically the first expenses you will incur when beginning an enterprise. These include legal fees, accounting expenses, and other costs associated with getting your business off the ground. The amount of money needed to start a freelance writing business varies based on many different variables, but below are a few different types of startup costs for a freelance writing business.

You should include any costs associated with marketing and sales, such as advertising and promotions, website design or maintenance. Also, consider any additional expenses that may be incurred if you decide to launch a new product or service line. For example, if your freelance writing business has an existing website that needs an upgrade in order to sell more products or services, then this should be listed here.

7. Financial Plan & Projections

Here are some steps you can follow to devise a financial plan for your freelance writing business plan:

Frequently Asked Questions About Freelance Writing Business Plans:

Why do you need a business plan for a freelance writing business, who should you ask for help with your freelance writing business plan.

You should seek help from a professional business consultant or financial advisor who has experience in developing freelance writing business plans. They can help determine the ideal services to offer, pricing, market analysis, marketing strategy, and financial projections.

Can you write a freelance writing business plan yourself?

Related business plans, home inventory business plan template & guidebook, home inspection business plan template & guidebook, home decor business plan template & guidebook, health and wellness business plan template & guidebook, hauling business plan template & guidebook, hardware business plan template & guidebook, handyman business plan template & guidebook, hair extension business plan template & guidebook, handbag business plan template & guidebook.

I'm Nick, co-founder of newfoundr.com, dedicated to helping aspiring entrepreneurs succeed. As a small business owner with over five years of experience, I have garnered valuable knowledge and insights across a diverse range of industries. My passion for entrepreneurship drives me to share my expertise with aspiring entrepreneurs, empowering them to turn their business dreams into reality.

From assessing market viability and formulating business plans to selecting the right technology and navigating the financial landscape, I am dedicated to helping fellow entrepreneurs overcome challenges and unlock their full potential. As a steadfast advocate for small business success, my mission is to pave the way for a new generation of innovative and driven entrepreneurs who are ready to make their mark on the world.

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Freelance Business: How to Start One From Scratch in 10 Steps

• Guest Author , 
• Updated April 12, 2024 11 min read

Starting a freelance business is quickly becoming a popular alternative to traditional employment options.

After all, why would you want to deal with vertical company hierarchies, stuffy offices, and rigid working hours when you can start a freelance business and work anywhere, anytime, and for yourself?

The idea of being their own boss strongly resonates especially with young people, opting for freelancing 53% of the time .

Consequently, there are over 70 million freelancers in the US today (36% of US workforce), and experts expect that number to reach 90 million by 2028. 

And since you're reading this, you probably want to join the club. The question is, how do you start?

In this article, we'll break down the 10 steps necessary for starting a freelance business. First, however…

Table of Contents

Click on a section to skip

What is a freelance business?

#1 define your business and goals, #2 choose a niche and make it your own, #3 analyze the market and your competitors, #4 set an hourly rate, #5 register your freelance business, #6 create a brand identity , #7 build a network and maintain relationships, #8 prepare a sales & marketing strategy, #9 invoice correctly, #10 continue improving your skills.

Freelancing can be defined as a form of self-employment in which the freelancer delivers their services to companies on a contractual or project basis.

A freelance business is a legal entity (i.e. a self-owned company) the freelancer uses to enter partnerships, deliver services, and send invoices. 

There are many types of freelance businesses. Most commonly, they offer creative and high-knowledge services remotely over the internet, like copywriting , photography , web design and development , and more. 

However, there's a specific subtype of freelancers, often dubbed "gig-workers" or "contractors" , who work on-site. That means even professionals in cleaning, construction, carpentry, and otherwise can be considered freelancers.

10 steps to starting your own freelance business

People often get over-excited when they first hear about the concept of freelancing.

However, it's not as simple as it may seem at first glance. There are plenty of things to consider when first starting your freelance business. 

No need to worry, though. If you take these 10 steps, you'll be on your journey toward success before you know it.

The first question every would-be freelancer needs to answer is, "Do I want this to be my full-time job or just a side gig ?" . This is important because it'll help you estimate how much time and effort you're willing to put in. 

Your freelance business plan will differ greatly depending on whether you're trying just to make a little bit of extra cash on the side, work your way up to quit your main job, or dive head first and become a full-time freelancer.

If you’re planning to freelance while holding a full-time job, check with your employer first to find out their policies on freelancing. If you hide your side activities and get caught, you might quickly learn that the extra cash you made isn’t worth it.

To truly succeed as a freelancer, your work will need a focus. It's always better to do a few things thoroughly rather than many poorly .

Every industry can be divided into a variety of smaller niches. Your job is to do a little soul-searching, find one you enjoy or excel at, and give it your all.

That's not to say you'll be able to pick and choose your projects from the beginning. If you start doing business in an industry in which you have little to no professional experience, you should take every worthwhile job you can get your hands on.

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean you can't have a niche to work towards. 

By specializing, you automatically get an advantage over freelancers with a more general portfolio.

Companies will be more likely to choose you and, thanks to your expertise, you'll be able to barter for higher compensation.

Once you've formulated the idea of your freelance business, it's time to verify its viability by logging on and doing your due diligence.

Namely, you want to learn more about your potential clients, their audience, and your competition. 

Take this into consideration about clients :

• Company size

Things to consider about audiences :

• Education 
• Location 
• Income 
• Expertise in topic

Consider this about competitors :

• Client focus
• Hourly rate

Establishing these market specifics early on gives you a great advantage in preparing for your first projects.

You'll be able to create tailored pitches the customers won't be able to say "no" to, turn in exceptional work, and all that at a competitive but worthwhile price. 

People often struggle to choose how much to charge by either under valuating or over valuating their work.

Luckily, you've done your research and know the hourly rate of your competitors in the market.

All you need to do now is consider your experience , education , and location and adjust your prices accordingly. 

You might get stuck working for pennies if you ask for too little, while worse freelancers make more. But if you too ask for too much, you might frequently face rejection. Or worse, underdeliver and stain your reputation. 

Finally, it's time to register a company and start your freelance business. But don't get too excited just yet — there's still plenty of work to do.

The first thing you'll need to figure out is what kind of company you want to create.

Choices will differ based on where you live, but there are generally two options open to you, each with their own positives and negatives:

1. Self-employment & sole proprietorship

Both terms relate to the arrangement where your private person and registered legal entity are seen as one and the same in the eye of the law and tax man.

Your business' revenue passes through your personal income, meaning you only have to worry about paying your personal income tax when the end of the tax season rolls around.

• Benefit: It's usually quick, cheap, and easy to set up, which means you can start freelancing in a few weeks or even days. 
• Downside: Full liability. In other words, you guarantee the legal entity with your entire personal wealth, including cars, houses, and more. So, if you get into legal trouble and are sued for damages, you risk losing a lot more than you've probably gained from your business.

2. LLC, S-Corp & C-Corp

While LLCs (Limited Liability Companies) and corporations are vastly different, we've decided to roll them all into one quick, comprehensive overview. Otherwise, we might be here all day. 

Many assume you need employees to create an LLC or corporation, but that's incorrect. You can start as the sole member, but it'll cost you.

• Benefit: LLCs and corporations offer limited liability , meaning that even if something goes wrong and you get sued, the court can only touch your company's assets and not your private wealth. 
• Downside: LLCs and corporations are typically costly and time-consuming to register.

Nowadays, there are plenty of solutions for registering your business online, so if you feel stuck, don't be scared to reach out to a local provider, ask questions, and commit only when you feel ready.

We recommend considering your options carefully and researching your country’s specific laws before choosing which type of company to start and going through the company incorporation process.

As a freelancer, you're the face of your business, and you need to act and portray yourself accordingly.

There are 2 aspects of your branding you need to get right to maximize success.

These include:

1. Online presence

Your online presence consists of your social media profiles , website , and a portfolio .

Instead of endlessly promoting yourself, you should leverage your online presence to show off your expertise and skills, share your unique story, and build relationships. 

Use social media to connect with like-minded individuals, peers, and potential clients.

Share stories, start conversations, and create connections because you never know when they might be useful. 

As far as your website goes, you can use it as a publicly accessible portfolio, showing off your latest successful cooperation, examples of your work, pricelist, freelance profile, and story.

2. Communication & visual branding

They say consistency is key, which couldn't be more true in branding.

Your goal is to create a unique brand identity your target market can recognize and instantly resonate with.

For communication , try finding your authentic voice to create posts and make sure you stay in touch with people. Reply to DMs, comments, etc. Your communication should be professional, consistent, and aimed at your target audience.

As for branding , get professional headshots, design a logo , and choose colors to represent your freelance brand (or pay someone to do it for you).

It might seem counter-intuitive to get involved with your competition , but networking with fellow freelancers can be really helpful.

Sometimes, you may need a hand with a project you're working on, and having someone you can reliably reach out to is invaluable in those situations.

What's more, it pays dividends. Help someone land a job, and they're likely to return the favor.

LinkedIn and Facebook groups are a good place to get you started on networking.

However, if a real-life convention pops up near you, it's definitely worth taking your networking offline too. 

Also, don't underestimate Instagram and TikTok.

One of the key strategies for any freelancer looking to increase their client base and income is to  leverage online marketing . This includes everything from boosting your online presence on social media or your website to optimizing SEO to drive traffic to your portfolio. 

The more observant readers might have noticed that we've already been steadily sprinkling freelance sales and marketing tips throughout this article.

Nevertheless, repetition is the mother of all knowledge.

So, let's go over them and expand on some of the ideas already mentioned.

Here are our top 4 marketing tips:

1. Develop a portfolio

In the previous step we've touched on creating a portfolio . But how do you do that? Well, the work presented in your freelance portfolio should accurately reflect the diverse skills you can offer and the results you can deliver.

Depending on your industry, you can choose from various formats to best convey the value of your work.

For example, consider trying case studies , snippets , screenshots , testimonials , or even full samples of your work. 

You should update your portfolio regularly, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be limited to your latest freelance work. If you're just starting and don't have much official content to show off, consider displaying your personal or school projects. 

We don't recommend doing work for free to fill up your portfolio. However, if you don't have anything to show yet, and feel it's the only option, do what you must.

2. Leverage social media

Networking is only one aspect of social media you should consider, though. The real value of social media lies in the opportunity to present yourself in a desirable way.

Try turning your work experiences into content that can inform, amuse, and build your authority .

Here's what to do:

• LinkedIn & Facebook: short, blog-type posts about your craft
• Twitter: witty anecdotes or (fun) facts about your job
• Instagram & TikTok: behind the scenes photos, day in the life of

Bonus: Today, it's pretty easy to create infographics , and everyone loves them.

3. Personalize client interactions

Companies, like people, are unique. As you found out during your market research, certain specifics set your target clients and companies apart from others. Whether it's their size , industry , audience , etc. 

By taking this insight, you can figure out what makes these companies tick. After all, everyone likes to feel special.

By showing them that you understand their unique position and offering value up-front, you'll have a much easier time landing deals than if you don't.

4. Request reviews & recommendations

Once you landed a job, help it land you more jobs.

A client will feel more confident that they are getting a good deal hiring you if others attest to your skills. Also, studies show that most customers react best to reviews and recommendations from people like them. 

So, just by asking for a review after successfully finishing a project, you can add extra value to your profile at no extra cost.

Moreover, if clients see that you engage with reviews and use them to improve, they can feel confident that your work is thorough and that you value their opinion.

Now we get to every freelancer's favorite part — getting paid.

Being self-employed, you need to invoice clients for your services .

In the past, this used to be quite a headache, having to design your invoices in Word or Excel and email them, or worse yet, print them out and send them physically. 

Thankfully, things are much simpler nowadays. An invoice generator like Billdu lets you create and send visually engaging branded invoices in only a few clicks.

What's more, it allows you to keep track of all your documents and expenses in one cohesive environment so that you're ready whenever the tax man comes knocking on the door.

Your invoice needs to include the following:

• A unique invoice number
• Your company details (name, address, contact)
• Client's company details (name, address, contact)
• List of provided products or services
• Product/service description (quantity, price per unit/hour)
• Total price
• Issue and delivery date

Additionally, your invoice can also include the following:

• Additional notes
• Signature or stamp
• Company logo

Example of an invoice

Source: Billdu

Last but not least, you must remember to never get too comfortable. Things move fast in this digital age, and you have to be quick on your feet to keep up.

Hence, don't settle for what you already know just because it's working for you right now.

Constantly seek to better yourself, add new skills, build on the old ones, take classes, expand your portfolio, and grow your community.

If you do that, you'll soon earn a name for yourself and, hopefully, plenty of money to go with it. 

Kamil Aujesky is the CMO of Billdu , one of the best-rated invoicing software for freelancers and small businesses in the world.

• Guest Author

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Steal My Freelance Writing Business Plan (FREE Template) – No Need to Write One!

Are you interested in becoming a freelance writer?

Have you been writing for money but want to make your business legit?

Grabbing up writing jobs here and there is a great way to make a side income but, without a solid business plan, it’s difficult to grow that pocket money into a full-time income.

Which is totally possible, by the way. I’m living proof!

I kind of stumbled into freelance writing when I decided that I didn’t want to go “back to work” after my twins were born.

I dabbled in paid writing and realized that this is really what I want to do for a living.

I knew I needed a game plan to grow my side hustle into a full-blown business .

It was through trial and error that I learned how to write a business plan step-by-step.

And now I want to share it with you!

With my business plan PDF, I’ve done most of the work for you!

All you need to do to fill it out is flex your brain muscle and come up with some amazing business ideas.

Not sure how to start? Here’s a rundown of how to write a business plan.

(Go ahead and sign up to grab the form before going through this process!)

How to Write a Business Plan: Step-By-Step

Business overview and your business goal.

Think about things such as the scope of your business (are you going to focus on a local market or a digital one?) as well as your main business goal.

Your main business goal should focus on what you want the clients to get out of your product/service and what you want to achieve.

Of course, you probably want to make money, so it’s a good idea to set a goal for what you would like to earn each month and for the year.

However, it’s important to focus on non-money goals as well. Do you want to write sponsored content? Have your work featured in a major publication? These are all worthy goals too!

Mission Statement

A mission statement is a description of why your freelance writing business exists, why you are offering your service, and how it helps to solve your clients’ problems.

Writing one doesn’t have to be super complicated!

A mission statement typically contains 2 elements: Value and Inspiration.

To figure these things out, write down what your business does, how it does it, and why it does it. This will help you verbalize your purpose and outline the value you offer through your business.

Mission statements are helpful in letting your potential clients know what you are all about but they also work as a sort of compass should you ever need a reminder of where you want your freelance writing business to go!

Business Name

Perhaps one of the hardest parts of business plan writing is figuring out your business name!

Many freelance writers go with their actual name while others come up with something clever or descriptive of what they do.

For example, my actual freelance writing service is called Innovative Ink which implies that I write plus bring new ideas to the table.

When brainstorming business names, try to be as unique as possible! Not only do you want a name that is memorable to clients but you’ll also want to make sure that the domain name (URL) is available as well.

Having your own domain will make your business look more professional than a subdomain with a free host (such as yourname.wordpress.com). You can check domain availability here .

The Services You Are Offering

This isn’t true at all! Freelance writers can offer a variety of services that will benefit businesses and their online presence.

Here are some examples of the services you can offer as a freelance writer:

• Facebook Ads
• Social Media Posts
• Email Campaigns
• Landing Pages
• Transcriptions
• Editing and Proofreading
• Product Descriptions
• Resumes and Cover Letters
• Online Course Content

That’s a lot! But it’s important not to offer too many services in the beginning.

You don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket when starting your freelance writing business.

Instead, take your niche into consideration.

For instance, if you are going to be a medical writer, you likely won’t need to offer resume writing services.

But if you are focusing on employment and education, resume writing and online course content writing are both valuable to that niche.

When figuring out what services to offer, it’s also important to think about who your ideal client is. What are they offering? How do they market their business? What are they looking for?

For example, if they hang out on social media platforms to market their business, they can benefit from a social media content writer.

Once you have figured out the services you want to offer, list them out and determine the cost of each.

Check out my post here about how to price your freelance writing services .

Value Proposition

This is why it’s important to recognize your value and translate that into an advantage when it comes to hiring you over other writers.

Think about what you can bring to the table when it comes to why businesses will hire you:

• Do you have a solid knowledge of SEO?
• Can you write content that doesn’t have to be edited?
• Can you complete projects quickly?
• Can you help clients with content strategy?

Pinning down your value has everything to do with what will give you a competitive edge.

You also need to determine your client’s pain points and how you intend to solve them. Are you going to help clients save time? Make money? Market their business?

All of this information is going to help you not only structure your website to market your services but also round out an effective pitch when reaching out to potential clients.

Plus, it will help you determine how much to charge for your services – and feel confident doing so!

Competitor Analysis

When you are working on your freelance writing business plan, it’s important to take a look at the competition. This will give you some insight into what other freelance writers are doing and how they are succeeding.

But first, you need to find out who your competitors are!

Start by Googling “Freelance writer + (your niche)” and see who shows up in the top results. You can also do the same search through LinkedIn.

Be sure you focus on writers in your niche, not just freelance writers in general.

Next, take a look at their websites where they target their clients (not just a blog). Check out the services they offer, the prices they charge, and who they have worked with.

Also, pay attention to how they market their freelance writing business and reach clients. Do they have a strong social media presence? Are they offering freebies? Discounts/

Lastly, take a look at their strengths and weaknesses. Do they offer SEO optimization? Do they actively market their business? This is a great way to best develop your overall business strategy.

Marketing Plan

When you start a freelance writing business, there are really two ways you can find clients – peruse job boards and apply for jobs and market yourself so clients come to you.

Developing a marketing plan involves taking these two methods into consideration and organizing how you intend to get the word out about your writing services!

I wouldn’t recommend focusing on too many marketing channels at once – you don’t want to get overwhelmed. Instead, start with a couple of social media platforms and a couple of job boards to get started.

In time, add in a plan to pitch clients directly as well as offer guest posts to other publications.

Your marketing plan should also include posting blog articles to your website, cultivating an email list, and making sure your content is SEO optimized to draw in organic traffic.

As you plug along with your marketing plan, make sure to keep note of what works and what doesn’t. You don’t want to waste your time and energy on something that is not panning out for you.

Startup Costs

Here are some costs you should write down so that you can create a budget for your business:

• Domain and Web Hosting
• Website Design
• Job Board Subscriptions
• Editing Tools (Canva, PicMonkey, etc.)
• Email Subscription Services (Convertkit, etc.)
• Courses (to expand your knowledge!)
• Laptop and Other Equipment

Again, you don’t really have to fork out a lot to get started.

Focus on getting your website up and running, courses to help with your writing and business skills , and a laptop to work on (if you don’t already have one).

Business Goals – Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly

At the beginning of business plan writing, I asked you to think about your main business goal. However, once you get started, it’s important to break down the big picture into more manageable steps.

Start by thinking about what you want to accomplish by the end of the year. From here, work your goals down into quarters.

A quarter is a grouping of three months and typically starts at the beginning of the year. For example:

• Quarter 1: January-March
• Quarter 2: April-June
• Quarter 3: July-September
• Quarter 4: October-December

Knowing what you want to accomplish during a three-month period will help you determine what you should be working on each month!

You can then write down your monthly goes in your freelance writing business plan.

How to Create and Implement Your Freelance Writing Business Plan

Here are some ideas of how to create your plan and make sure you implement it:

What Kind of Format Works Best For You?

I am offering this free freelance writing business plan as a fillable PDF to help you keep track of how you intend to start and operate your business.

However, some people work best with pen to paper so you can print it out as well!

It may help to have a printed copy pinned to the wall of your office or workspace to help you keep track of your plan.

Although, I do know some freelance writers that like to write out their current goals on a whiteboard. It’s completely up to you!

How Will You Update Your Business Plan?

Nothing is set in stone, especially when it comes to business writing and coming up with a plan. You should be prepared to make changes as necessary to help you reach your goals.

For instance, you may start out planning to make money as a freelance writer in one niche only to find yourself gravitating toward another that is more lucrative. You may also begin by focusing on Facebook for marketing but realize that Twitter works best for you.

That’s why I like the fact that my free business plan allows you to fill out the PDF form so you can make changes along the way!

This is also why a whiteboard does wonders for following your plan because you can quickly and easily make changes as necessary.

I would recommend reevaluating your plan at least once a month to see if you’re staying on track as well as what is working for you versus what isn’t.

That’s It! Business Plan Complete!

I’m so excited that you are getting your business plan underway! This really is the first step in creating a lucrative freelance writing business.

Imagine spending every day doing what you love – it’s amazing!

Now it’s your turn: Do you have any other tips for writing a business plan?

Share them in the comments – I’d love to hear them!

Share this post with your friends!

Leave a reply cancel reply.

How to Write a Business Plan Outline in 9 Steps (Example Included!)

Starting a business often begins with writing a business plan , especially if you need funding . It acts as a roadmap, guiding you through each stage of launching and managing your company, and it presents a clear, compelling case to potential investors and partners. But here's the thing: not everyone finds this step intuitive. That's where a business plan outline can be incredibly helpful.

Creating a detailed business plan outline helps you organize your thoughts and ensure you cover all the key aspects of your business strategy. Plus, it might be just what you need to overcome that blank page and start typing.

Below, you'll find an easy-to-follow guide on how to craft your business plan outline, and an example to show you what it should look like.

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What is an outline of a business plan?

Think of a business plan outline as the skeleton of your entire business plan. It gives a high-level overview of the main sections you'll need to flesh out later. It's not the final document but a crucial step in getting you there.

Simply put, it's like creating a detailed table of contents for your business plan, showing you exactly what information to include and how everything fits together. A well-structured business plan outline also helps you plan things ahead, saving time and effort.

Writing a business plan outline in 9 steps

Follow these steps to build your business plan outline and learn exactly what each section should include.

(Bear in mind that every business plan is unique, tailored to the specific needs and goals of the business. While the structure below is common, the order of sections may vary—only the executive summary will always come first.)

1. Executive summary

Imagine you have just 60 seconds to convince someone to invest in your business. That's the essence of a strong executive summary. Although it appears first on your business plan, this section is often written last because it sums up the entire plan. Think of it as your elevator pitch . This section gives a quick overview of your entire business plan, highlighting key points that grab the reader's attention.

Keep it clear and concise. Start with a brief overview of your business, including its name and what it offers. Summarize your mission statement and objectives, and don’t forget to mention crucial aspects like financial projections and competitive advantages.

2. Company description

Here's where you provide detailed information about your company. Begin with the business name and location. Describe the legal structure (e.g., sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation) and ownership. If your business already exists, share a brief history.

For new ventures, explain the business's nature and the problems you aim to solve. Go into more detail about your vision and mission statements, outlining your goals and the principles guiding your business. This section helps potential investors and stakeholders grasp your company’s identity and purpose.

3. Market research and analysis

This section shares insights into your company’s industry. Start with a landscape analysis to give an overview of the market, including its size, growth rate, and key players.

Next, define your target market and customer demographics—age, location, income, and interests—detailing who your ideal customers are. Identify market needs and trends your business will address, and highlight customer pain points your product or service aims to solve.

Consider conducting a SWOT analysis to evaluate your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and gain a strategic view of where your business stands in the competitive landscape.

4. Organization and management

Describe how your business is structured and who runs it. Outline the organizational structure, and if helps, include a chart. Introduce the leadership team and key personnel, highlighting their qualifications and roles. If you have a board of directors, mention them and briefly explain their involvement.

Then, outline your production processes, detailing how your product or service is (or will be) created—from sourcing materials to delivery—to give a comprehensive view of your operational capabilities.

5. Products and services

This section of your business plan outline is crucial for showing potential investors what makes your products and services unique and valuable.

Clearly describe what your business offers, emphasizing your unique selling propositions (USPs) and the benefits and features that set you apart from the competition. Talk about the product life cycle, including any plans for future updates.

If your business holds any intellectual property or proprietary technologies, detail them here to underscore your competitive advantages.

6. Marketing strategy

Having a fantastic product or service is just half the battle. The marketing plan section should outline how you'll reach your target market and convert them into customers.

Begin with market positioning and branding, explaining how you want your brand perceived. Detail your marketing and promotional strategies, including specific tactics to reach your target audience.

Discuss your sales strategy, focusing on how you'll convert leads into customers. Lastly, include your pricing strategy and provide a sales forecast, projecting your expected revenue over a certain period.

7. Operations plan

Here, the goal is to give a detailed overview of the physical and logistical aspects of your company. Start with the business location and facilities, describing where it operates and any significant physical assets. Detail the technology and equipment needed for daily operations.

Briefly describe your supply chain and logistics processes to illustrate how you manage inventory, procurement, and distribution. Finish it by outlining your production process and quality control measures to ensure your products or services consistently meet high standards.

8. Financial plan

Use this section of the business plan to show how your company will succeed financially. Include financial projections like income statements and cash flow statements. Specify how much capital you need and how you plan to use it, discussing funding sources.

Conduct a break-even analysis to estimate when your business will become profitable. Be transparent and address any financial risks and assumptions, outlining how you plan to mitigate them.

9. Appendices and exhibits

In this section, include any additional information that supports your business plan. This might be resumes of key personnel to highlight your team's expertise and experience, or even legal documents and agreements.

Include market research data and surveys to back up your market analysis. Add financial statements for a detailed look at your financial plan. Also, provide detailed product specifications to give a clear understanding of your products and services.

Here's a business plan outline example

Not quite there yet? Take a look at this business plan outline example—it will make everything clear for you.

3.1 Executive Summary

• Overview of the business
• Key points of the business plan

3.2 Company Description

• Business name and location
• History and nature of the business
• Legal structure and ownership
• Vision and mission statement

3.3 Market Research and Analysis

• Industry analysis
• Target market and customer demographics
• Market needs, trends
• Customer pain points
• SWOT analysis

3.4 Organization and Management

• Organizational structure
• Leadership team and key personnel
• Roles and responsibilities
• Board of directors (if applicable)
• Production processes

3.5 Products and Services

• Description of products or services offered
• Unique selling propositions, benefits, features
• Product lifecycle and development plans
• Intellectual property and proprietary technologies

3.6 Marketing Strategy

• Market positioning and branding
• Marketing and promotional strategies
• Sales strategy and tactics
• Pricing strategy and sales forecast

3.7 Operations Plan

• Business location and facilities
• Technology and equipment
• Supply chain and logistics
• Production process and quality control

3.8 Financial Plan

• Financial projections (income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements)
• Funding requirements and sources
• Break-even analysis
• Financial risks and assumptions

3.9 Appendices and Exhibits (if applicable)

• Supporting documents and additional information
• Resumes of key personnel
• Legal documents and agreements
• Market research data and surveys
• Financial Statements
• Detailed Product Specifications

Bonus tips on how to write a winning business plan

Once you've done your business plan outline, it's time to fill in the gaps and craft a winning business plan. Here are some bonus tips to keep in mind:

• Tailor it to fit your business : Customize sections to meet industry-specific needs and highlight what makes your business unique.
• Keep it clear and concise : Use straightforward language and support your points with data to ensure easy understanding and avoid any confusion.
• Set actionable and realistic goals : Define measurable objectives with clear timelines and milestones to track your progress.
• Update regularly : Keep your plan dynamic by making regular updates to reflect changes in goals, market conditions, and strategies.
• Seek feedback : Gain insights from mentors and advisors to refine your plan.

Read this next: How to Start a Business in 8 Steps: A Comprehensive Guide from Concept to Launch

More From Forbes

How To Start A Business Plan: A Step-By-Step Guide

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Creating a business plan is a critical first step for any entrepreneur. Knowing how to start a business plan will help you create a roadmap, guiding your business from startup to growth and beyond. Whether you're looking for investment, trying to set clear goals, or simply organizing your thoughts, a solid business plan can make all the difference.

Here is a guide to help you get started on your business plan:

1. executive summary.

What It Is: This section summarizes your business plan as a whole and outlines your company profile and goals.

What to Include:

• Business name and location
• Products or services offered
• Mission statement
• The purpose of the plan (e.g., seeking funding, guiding the startup process)

Tip: Keep it concise. Although it's the first section, it's often best to write it last, after you’ve detailed everything else.

2. Company Description

What It Is: This section provides detailed information about your company, including who you are, what you do, and what markets you serve.

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• Your business structure (e.g., sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation)
• The industry and marketplace needs your business meets
• Your business’s objectives and how you stand out from competitors

Tip: Use this section to highlight your company’s strengths and what makes you unique.

3. Market Research

What It Is: Market research demonstrates your understanding of the industry and target market.

• Market size and growth potential
• Target customer demographics
• Market trends and outlook
• Competitive analysis, including strengths and weaknesses of competitors

Tip: Include data and statistics to back up your findings and show that you’ve done your homework.

4. Organization and Management

What It Is: This section outlines your business’s organizational structure and management team.

• Organizational chart
• Information about the ownership of the company
• Backgrounds and qualifications of the management team
• Roles and responsibilities within the company

Tip: Highlight the skills and experiences of your team that will help the business succeed.

5. Products or Services Line

What It Is: Here, you detail the products or services you offer or plan to offer.

• A description of each product or service
• The lifecycle of products or services
• Research and development activities, if applicable
• Intellectual property, such as patents or trademarks

Tip: Focus on the benefits your products or services bring to your customers.

6. Marketing and Sales Strategy

What It Is: This section explains how you will attract and retain customers.

• Marketing strategies, including advertising, promotions, and public relations
• Sales strategies, including sales processes, channels, and tactics
• Pricing strategy and how it compares to competitors

Tip: Ensure your marketing and sales strategies are aligned with your market research findings.

7. Funding Request

What It Is: If you’re seeking funding , this section outlines your requirements.

• Your current funding needs
• Future funding requirements over the next five years
• How you intend to use the funds
• Potential future financial plans (e.g., selling the business, repaying debt)

Tip: Be specific and realistic about how much funding you need and how it will be used.

8. Financial Projections

What It Is: Financial projections provide a forecast of your business’s financial future.

• Income statements
• Cash flow statements
• Balance sheets
• Break-even analysis

Tip: Use realistic and conservative estimates. Consider hiring a financial professional to help with this section if needed.

9. Appendix

What It Is: The appendix includes any additional information that supports your business plan.

• Resumes of key management team members
• Permits and leases
• Legal documents
• Detailed market research data
• Product photos

Tip: Only include essential information that adds value to your business plan.

Final Tips for Creating a Business Plan

Creating a business plan requires clarity and precision. First and foremost, keep your business plan clear and concise. Avoid using jargon or complex language that could make the plan difficult to read or understand. Your aim should be to communicate your ideas effectively and efficiently.

Next, be realistic in your approach. Ensure that your goals and financial projections are attainable based on your research and understanding of the market. Overly ambitious projections can undermine your credibility and potentially lead to unrealistic expectations.

It's also essential to remember that a business plan is a dynamic document. As your business grows and market conditions change, you should revisit and revise your plan regularly. This helps you stay aligned with your goals and adapt to new challenges and opportunities.

Finally, seek feedback from experienced business professionals. Having someone with business experience review your plan can provide valuable insights and help identify any potential issues or areas for improvement. Their feedback can enhance the overall quality and effectiveness of your business plan.

By following these tips, you'll be better equipped to create a robust and effective business plan that can guide your business towards success.

The bottom line is that starting a business plan may seem challenging, but with careful planning and attention to detail, you can create a comprehensive guide to steer your business toward success. Use this step-by-step guide to ensure that all essential components are covered, giving your business the best possible start.

Melissa Houston, CPA is the author of Cash Confident: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Profitable Business and the founder of She Means Profit . As a Business Strategist for small business owners, Melissa helps women making mid-career shifts, to launch their dream businesses, and I also guide established business owners to grow their businesses to more profitably.

The opinions expressed in this article are not intended to replace any professional or expert accounting and/or tax advice whatsoever.

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Beyond freelancing: building a business from your freelance skills.

Today, millions of people are embracing the gig economy, where they can turn their skills into freelance income. They're enjoying the freedom and flexibility to work when they want and take on jobs that excite them.

Over time, however, the limitations of freelance work can hold you back. For example, the unpredictability of income can make sticking to a budget difficult. Freelancing can also cap your income because there are only so many hours in the day. Even if you're earning a high hourly rate, you can't create more time.

Whether you're a graphic designer, dog walker, developer, or any other kind of freelancer, there are actionable steps you can take to turn your side hustle into a thriving business. It starts with changing your mindset.

Shift your mindset

The first step to becoming a business owner, rather than a freelancer, is shifting your mindset. Freelancers tend to be focused on day-to-day operations, such as which projects they need to complete and what emails to send. But business owners focus on the long term. They're creating budgets, building processes that scale, and thinking strategically about growth.

Starting today, think of yourself as a business owner, not just a freelancer. You aren't just in charge of responding to that email; you're responsible for building the future of your company.

Decide on a legal structure

There are several types of business structures, and the format you choose will depend on the state in which you operate, whether you have business partners, and the overall risk of your business. For example, if you own a home repair company with a partner, you may want the liability protection of an LLC, while a solo graphic designer might choose a sole proprietorship.

The main types of business structures are sole proprietorship, partnership, and LLC. A sole proprietorship is the simplest form of business and doesn't require any paperwork at all. A partnership is a type of business with more than one owner and also doesn't require any paperwork. Finally, an LLC, or limited liability company, creates a separate legal entity for your business. This protects your personal assets and can offer some tax advantages.

Take the time to research how the different types of business structures work in your state before making a decision for which type to use.

Create a business plan

A business plan serves as the blueprint for the business you want to build. It outlines your business goals and the specific steps you will take to reach those goals. It should include a brief introduction of your business, a mission statement, organizational structure, and a list of the products or services you'll provide. You'll also want to include market research, the specific products or services you'll be using, and your marketing and sales strategies.

Take the time to write a detailed business plan. This will help you clarify your overall goals and plan the specific steps you'll take to turn your freelance gig into a real business.

Set up financials

The shift from freelancer to business owner requires taking a different approach to finances as well. You're not just earning an income as a business owner -- you're managing business finances and thinking about the long term. This could mean opening a company checking account . You might want to consider getting a business credit card , too.

How much will you invest in marketing? What long-term goals do you need to save capital for? How will you budget your profits? It may be worth consulting with a financial advisor to plan for your business's future.

Outsource and scale your business

As a freelancer, you're doing most of the work yourself. As a business owner, you need to delegate at least some tasks. Think about what tasks take up most of your time, that you don't like doing, and don't require a high level of industry knowledge, and hire someone else to do them.

If you have a drop-shipping company, can you hire someone else to manage the blog or write your emails? Or maybe you like writing blogs but want someone else to handle uploading them to WordPress. Look for ways to automate or organize your business processes. For example, calendar tools like Calendly make it easier to manage your schedule, while using the right customer relationship management (CRM) software will help you manage client contacts. Keep in mind that this should be a slow transition. Start by choosing one or two tasks that take up a lot of your time and look for ways to outsource or automate them.

Following these steps will help smooth the transition from a freelancer to a business owner, but remember, it's a process. Take the time to try new things and build a strong foundation for your business before hiring and expanding.

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We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .

Beyond Freelancing: Building a Business from Your Freelance Skills was originally published by The Motley Fool

Freelance Business Plan Writer Business Plan [Sample Template]

Home » Business Plans » B2B Sector

Are you about starting a business plan writing company? If YES, here is a complete sample business plan writer business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE . Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a business plan writing company . We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample business plan writing marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for business plan writers. So let’s proceed to the business planning section .

Why Start a Business Plan Writing Service?

It is becoming very important for entrepreneurs who want to launch their businesses to first write a business plan before going full-swing into the business. This goes to show that those who are in the business of writing business plans will continue to make money as it is a business that is open to writers who are trained to write professional business plans.

Starting a freelance business plan writing service is one good way of making money both online and offline, because your clients can be gotten from any part of the world. The bottom line is that you should be able to deliver top notch business plans when requested.

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If you are planning on making a career from running a freelance business plan writing company, you’ll need to have a good sense of responsibility towards your clients or employers.

There are writing groups and freelance associations in many countries and it is a good idea to belong to them so that you can meet other aspiring and established business plan writers, get information, seek career advice, and establish your credentials as a professional business plan writer. A quick search using search engines and social media should find organizations in your local area or country.

Apart from your inborn writing skills, you would also need a workable business plan document to be able to run a standard freelance business plan writing company with a good number of professional freelance business plan writers under your payroll.

The sample freelance business plan writing company business plan template below will guide you towards writing yours.

A Sample Freelance Business Plan Writer Company Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Freelance writing is a wide field with different niche ideas and freelance business plan writers are part of the freelance writing industry. According to the 2012 Freelance Industry Report compiled primarily about North America freelancing, nearly half of freelancers do writing work, with 18 percent of freelancers listing writing as a primary skill, 10 percent editing/copy-editing, and 10 percent as copy-writing. 20 percent of freelancers listed their primary skills as design.

Next on the list is translating (8 percent), web development (5.5 percent), and marketing (4 percent). Elance, a web platform that connects freelancers with contractors, surveyed its members and 39 percent listed writing and editing as their main skill set.

Depending on the industry, freelance work practices vary and have changed over time. In some industries such as consulting, freelancers may require clients to sign written contracts. While in journalism or writing, freelancers may work voluntarily without payment or do work “on spec” to build their reputations or a relationship with a publication. Some freelancers may provide written estimates of work and request deposits from clients.

Payment for freelance work also depends on industry, skills, and experience. Freelancers may charge by the day, hour, a piece rate, or on a per-project basis. Instead of a flat rate or fee, some freelancers have adopted a value-based pricing method based on the perceived value of the results to the client.

By custom, payment arrangements may be upfront, percentage upfront, or upon completion. For more complex projects, a payment schedule may be set based on milestones or outcomes. One of the drawbacks of freelancing is that there is no guaranteed payment, and the work can be highly precarious.

In writing and other artistic fields, “freelance” and its derivative terms are often reserved for workers who create works on their own initiative and then seek a publisher. They typically retain the copyright to their works and sell the rights to publishers in time-limited contracts. Traditionally, works would be submitted to publishers, where they would become part of the slush pile, and would either elicit an offer to buy (an “acceptance letter”) or a rejection slip.

The total number of freelance writers (those who are specialized in writing only business plans inclusive) in the united states is inexact and based on estimation, as the most recent governmental report on independent contractors was published in 2005 by the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2013, the Freelancers Union estimated that 1 in 3 workers in the United States were self-employed (approx. 42 million), with more than four million (43%) of those self-employed workers members of the creative class, some strata of work specifically associated with freelance industries such as knowledge workers, technologists, professional writers, artists, entertainers, and media workers.

From all available statistics, it is safer to say the freelance writing business is growing steadily despite the competitive nature of the industry. One thing is certain, if you are well positioned, and have the required business skills, network and good testimonial from your clients, you may likely not have to struggle to compete favorably in the freelance writing services industry.

If you choose to start your own freelance business plan writing business in the United States of America or any country of the world, you are sure of breaking even within the shortest possible time possible because there are readily available markets both online and offline.

2. Executive Summary

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is a registered business plan freelance writing services company that will be located in Jefferson City – Missouri. We have been able to lease a small but standard office facility in a strategic business location in the heart of town.

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. will basically write business plans for her clients no matter the location of their business or the type of business they intend running. We will also engage in developing contents as it relates to business (marketing materials, brochures and business reports et al).

We are set to service a wide range of clientele not just in the Jefferson City – Missouri, but also in all parts of the United States and the globe at large since we will have a very strong online presence.

We are aware that there are several large and individual freelancers in the online community who are also specialized in writing business plans, which is why we spent time and resources to conduct a thorough feasibility studies and market survey so as to be well positioned to favorably compete with all our competitors.

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is a client-focused and result driven freelance business plan writing company that provides well – crafted and well – edited original write business plans at an affordable fee that won’t in any way put a hole in the pocket of our clients.

We will offer a complete range of business writing services to our local, state, national, and multi-national clients and we will ensure that we work hard to provide the contents needed by our clients to accomplish their goals and objectives.

At Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc., our client’s best interest comes first, and everything we do is guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hire gifted writers and editors who are well experienced in a wide variety of fields. We will at all times demonstrate our commitment to sustainability, both individually and as a firm, by actively participating in our communities and integrating sustainable business practices wherever possible.

We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is established by the Missouri awarding winning journalist – Dennis Vincent. He has B.A. in English Language, Advanced Diploma in Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Yale Business School. He has robust experience in both print and online journalism having worked as business writer for over 5 years with some of the leading business magazines in the United States of America prior to starting his own business.

3. Our Products and Services

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is going to offer freelance business plan writing services and other business writing services within the scope of the freelance writing services industry in the United States of America. Our intention of starting our freelance business plan writing services is to make profits from the industry and we will do all that is permitted by the law in the US to achieve our aim.

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision is to be amongst the top 3 freelance business plan writing companies in the world.   Our vision reflects our values: integrity, service, excellence and teamwork.
• Our mission is to establish a corporate freelance business plan writing company that will help entrepreneurs and businesses write detailed business plan that can pass reality test when subjected to it; we will work with the facts, figures and other indices in the industry as it applies to the locations our clients intend starting their business.

Our Business Structure

Going by what is obtainable in the industry, we would have settled for two or three full – time staff, but as part of our plans to build a standard freelance business plan writing services in Jefferson City – Missouri, we have perfected plans to get it right from the beginning which is why we are going the extra mile to ensure that we have competent, creative, qualified, honest and hardworking employees to occupy all the available positions in our firm.

The whole idea of the kind of freelance business plan writing services business we intend building and the business goals we want to achieve is what informed the amount we are ready to pay for the best hands in and around Jefferson City – Missouri as long as they are willing and ready to work with us to achieve our business goals and objectives.

Below is the business structure that we will build Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc.;

• Chief Executive Officer/Lead Consultant
• Business Plan Writers

Admin and HR Manager

Business Developer (Marketing and Sales Executive)

• Customer Service Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Office/Lead Consultant:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities.
• Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization

Freelance Business Plan Writers/Editors

• Responsible for writing detailed and workable business plans as requested by our clients
• Responsible for handling editing and proofreading services
• Responsible for writing other business documents such as marketing and publicity materials, business reporting, costing et al.
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Responsible for drawing up contracts and other legal documents for the company
• Design job descriptions with KPI to drive performance management for clients
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders to review the effectiveness of HR Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Defines job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carries out staff induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily office activities
• Manages external research and coordinates all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
• Models demographic information and analyzes the volumes of transactional data generated by customer purchases
• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of business related development projects.
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding sales
• Helps to increase sales and growth for the company
• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the company
• Serves as internal auditor for the company

Client Service Executive

• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the manager in an effective and timely manner
• Distributes mails in the organization
• Handles any other duties as assigned by the line manager

6. SWOT Analysis

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. engaged the services of a core professional in the area of business consulting and structuring to assist the firm in building a solid freelance business plan writing firm that can favorably compete in the highly competitive freelance services industry.

Part of what the business consultant did was to work with the management of our firm in conducting a SWOT analysis for Tapping Brain® Content Mills, LLC. Here is a summary from the result of the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc.;

Our core strength lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team that are considered experts in the industry, a team with excellent qualifications and experience in freelance business plan writing. Aside from the synergy that exists in our carefully selected workforce and our strong online presence, Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is well positioned in a business district with the right demography and we know we will attract loads of corporate clients from the first day we open our doors for business.

As a new freelance business plan writing firm, it might take some time for our organization to break into the market; that is perhaps our major weakness.

• Opportunities:

No doubt, the opportunities in the freelance writing industry that freelance business plan writing is a part of is indeed massive considering the number of entrepreneurs starting their businesses and we are ready to take advantage of any opportunity that comes our way.

Some of the challenges that we are going to face as a new freelance business plan writing company is the fact that there are loads of free business plan templates online that our clients might want to use as against hiring our services. We are also going to face threats from other freelance business plan writing companies and freelance writing companies/freelancers that are also into writing business plans.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

The fact that most businesses will want to access loans or grants means that they will definitely equip themselves with a good business plan. The trend is that some of them usually make use of free business plan templates which they can readily get online.

The disadvantage of these free business plan templates is that they are not detailed enough to address specific businesses, hence the need to hire the services of experts who will take their time to come up with a good and workable business plan.

Another common trend in the freelance business plan writing services line of business is that most players in this industry do not just settle for clients within their immediate environment; they now have strong online presence hence they are able to work for clients in other parts of the world.

Lastly, it is now becoming trendy in the freelance writing services industry for operators to have their own platform where freelance writers and clients can interact and get or give out writing gigs.

8. Our Target Market

As a full service and standard freelance business plan writing services firm, Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. have a variety of practice areas as it relates to business related contents.

Our target market cuts across businesses and non-profit organizations both local and international. We are coming into the industry with a business concept that will enable us work with aspiring entrepreneurs no matter the type of business they intend starting. In other words, our target market is the whole of the United States of America and other parts of the world.

Our Competitive Advantage

The level of competition in the freelance writing industry depends largely on your niche area. If you can successfully create a unique niche for your freelance business plan writing services company, you are likely going to experience little or no competition.

The Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. might be a new entrant into the freelance writing industry in the United States of America, but we have a strong online presence that will help us work for clients all across the world.

Our competitive advantage also lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team that are considered experts in the industry, a team with excellent qualifications and experience in freelance business writing.

Aside from the synergy that exists in our carefully selected workforce and our strong online presence, Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is well positioned in a business district with the right demography and we know we will attract loads of corporate clients from the first day we open our doors for business. These are part of what will count as a competitive advantage for us.

Lastly, our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry meaning that they will be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the freelance writing services industry and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to attract clients on a regular basis. Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. will generate income by offering the following writing services to individuals and for organizations;

• Writing detailed and workable business plans as requested by our clients
• Editing and proofreading services
• Writing other business documents such as marketing and publicity materials, business reporting and costing et al.

10. Sales Forecast

The opportunities in the freelance writing industry are indeed massive and we are ready to take advantage of any opportunity that comes our way. This is so because freelance business plan writing line of business will continue to blossom.

We have been able to critically examine the freelance business plan writing services market, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. The sales projections are based on information gathered on the field and some assumptions that are peculiar to startups in Jefferson City – Missouri.

• First Fiscal Year: $120,000
• Second Fiscal Year: $300,000
• Third Fiscal Year: $450,000

N.B: This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same additional services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

We are mindful of the fact that there is stiff competition amongst freelance writing services companies in the United States of America; hence we have been able to hire some of the best business developers to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall goal of the organization. We will also ensure that our excellent job deliveries speak for us in the market place; we want to build a standard freelance business plan writing services business that will leverage on word of mouth advertisement from satisfied clients.

Our goal is to grow our business to become one of the top 3 freelance business plan writing services in the United States of America which is why we have mapped out strategies that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with not only in the U.S but in the world stage as well.

The Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our business by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to aspiring entrepreneurs and students of business schools
• Promptness in bidding for business plan writing or editing contracts
• Advertise our business in relevant business magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations
• List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• Attend relevant international and local expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets and still deliver quality contents
• Leverage on the internet to promote our business
• Engage in direct marketing approach
• Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our in – house consultants and other brand and publicity specialists to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the hearts of our target market. We are set to take the freelance writing services industry by storm which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our organization.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc.;

• Place adverts on both print (community based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, twitter, et al to promote our services
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our customized clothes, and all our official cars are customized and well branded

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Usually, freelance writers charge their clients per word written or the volume of the editing jobs to be done. At Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. we will keep our fees below the average market rate for all of our clients by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance. In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to startups, nonprofits, cooperatives, and small social enterprises.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulations of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via Point of Sale Machine
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via check
• Payment via bank draft

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our client make payment for services rendered without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

In setting up any business, the amount or cost will depend on the approach and scale you want to undertake. If you intend to go big by renting/leasing a big facility, then you would need a good amount of capital as you would need to ensure that your employees are well taken care of, and that your facility is conducive enough for workers to be creative and productive.

This means that the start-up can either be low or high depending on your goals, vision and aspirations for your business.

On the average, starting a standard freelance business plan writing services company can be cost effective; this is so because on the average, you are not expected to acquire expensive machines and equipment. Basically, what you should be concerned about is the amount needed to secure a standard office facility in a good and busy business district, the amount needed to equip the office, pay bills, promote the business and obtain the appropriate business license and certifications.

Basically, these are the area we are looking towards spending our startup capital on;

• The total fee for incorporating the Business in the United States of America – $750
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits as well as the accounting services (software, P.O.S machines and other software) – $3,300
• The total cost for payment of insurance policy covers (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $9,400
• The amount needed to acquire a suitable Office facility in a business district 6 month (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) – $40,000
• Marketing promotion expenses for the grand opening of Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. in the amount of $3,500 and as well as flyer printing (2,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of $3,580
• The total cost for hiring Business Consultant – $2,500
• The cost for equipping the office (computers, printers, fax machines, furniture, telephones, filing cabins, safety gadgets and electronics et al) – $2,000
• The cost of launching our official Website – $600
• Budget for paying at least two full – time employees for 3 months and utility bills – $30,000
• Additional expenditure (Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions et al) – $2,500
• Miscellaneous – $1,000

Going by the report from the research and feasibility studies, we will need about $150,000 to set up a medium scale but standard freelance business plan writing services company in the United States of America.

Generating Startup Capital for Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc.

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is going to start as a private business that will be solely owned by Dennis Vincent and his immediate family members. The family will be the sole financier of the firm, but may likely welcome partners later which is why they have decided to restrict the sourcing of his startup capital to 3 major sources.

These are the areas we intend generating our startup capital;

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings
• Source for soft loans from family members and friends
• Apply for loan from the Bank

N.B: We have been able to generate about $50,000 ( Personal savings $40,000 and soft loan from family members $10,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $100,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business, then it won’t be too long before the business closes shop.

One of our major goals of starting Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need of injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running. We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer nothing short of excellent business plans, related contents and services at highly affordable prices.

Golden Pen® Freelancers, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare is well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner.

We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check: Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts in various banks in the United States: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Leasing a standard office facility (renovation of the office facility inclusive): Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating part of the startup capital from the founder: Completed
• Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Graphics Design and Printing of Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the needed furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with key players in the industry: In Progress

• How to Become a Successful Freelance Web Designer (2024)

Are you burnt out on the 9-to-5 grind? Are you longing for a career with more freedom and better work-life harmony? You might want to consider going freelance as a web designer. Fair warning, though – it’s not a walk in the park. Succeeding as a freelance web pro demands immense hard work, commitment, and skills.

But don’t worry; this post will map out precisely what you need to do to launch your freelance web design business. We’ll cover all the bases – from building the right skill set to selecting the best tools for your business, such as Divi , and landing those first crucial clients with practical and realistic tips.

Let’s get started!

• 1 Why Become a Freelance Web Designer?
• 2.1 Must-Have Skills to Become a Freelance Web Designer
• 2.2 Creating Your Web Design Portfolio
• 2.3 Finding Your First Client as a Freelancer
• 3.1 Best Website Builder: WordPress + Divi
• 3.2 Best Hosting Platform: SiteGround
• 3.3 Best WordPress Plugins
• 3.4 AI Tools to Help with Website Building
• 4.1 Finding and Retaining Web Design Clients
• 4.2 Specializing in a Niche as a Web Developer
• 4.3 Building Additional Revenue Streams
• 5 Becoming a Freelance Web Designer: Got What it Takes?

Why Become a Freelance Web Designer?

Being a freelance web designer offers a fascinating chance worth considering. The flexibility and freedom are attractive—there are no more rigid schedules or overbearing bosses. You get to be your boss, set your hours, and make your own decisions.

In 2024, the rise of no-code and AI tools makes freelance web design even more special. Platforms like WordPress make web design accessible to everyone, even those without deep coding skills. These user-friendly tools allow you to create beautiful, functional websites with simple drag-and-drop features, removing the need for complex programming.

Get Started with WordPress Hosting

Web design is an interesting career option for anyone wanting to start their own business. With a keen eye for design, some creativity, and the drive to work for yourself, freelance web design can be both profitable and fulfilling in today’s digital world.

Combining flexibility, earning potential, and the no-code and AI revolution makes freelance web design an exciting career choice if you’re into a non-traditional and rewarding professional path.

Getting Started as a Freelance Web Designer

Leaping freelance web design can be daunting when learning how to become a freelance web designer. This section will guide you through the initial steps, from learning essential skills to building an online presence and portfolio. With these proper preparation steps, you’ll be ready to launch your freelance web design career.

Must-Have Skills to Become a Freelance Web Designer

Starting a freelance web design career requires various skills, and this section discusses the skills you may need to succeed as a freelance web pro.

Eye for Design & User Experience

One of the most important skills a web designer should have is an eye for design and user experience. A healthy combination of User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) helps you create beautiful web experiences.

Although UI and UX differ, they are interlinked. An eye for design and user interface focuses on maintaining a healthy balance in your design and creating appealing aesthetics. This goes pretty broad, from maintaining visual hierarchy to color theory, using whitespace, and more.

UX, on the other hand, focuses on the experience visitors have on a website. The principles of UX design help you focus your design choices around your visitors’ behavior. An example of good UX design is making sure the navigation on the websites you create is seamless and easy to follow. Responsiveness is another crucial part of UX design.

Both UI and UX can be taught through courses, but experience makes the best teacher. The more you do it, the better you get at it. So the more websites you create, the more experienced you become in this area of the web design process.

Coding (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript)

Though not as crucial as it used to be, proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is still helpful for web designers. HTML structures content, CSS styles it, and JavaScript adds interactivity. You can learn these skills in many places, from YouTube videos to interactive courses on Udemy , Pluralsight , and Coursera .

You don’t need to master these languages, but basic knowledge of its workaround allows you to build responsive, visually appealing, and dynamic websites tailored to client needs. If you’re not keen on learning, we’ll discuss how you can manage your business without these skills later in the post when we discuss using WordPress to build websites seamlessly!

Prototyping

Prototyping in web design means making interactive mockups or simulations of a website’s layout, navigation, and features. As a freelance web designer, you can prototype to visualize and test your design ideas before developing them.

Creating these interactive prototypes allows you to assess the user experience, functionality, and visual appeal. This step-by-step process helps you refine and polish your designs, ensuring they meet client expectations and you both stay on the same page before doing any actual work. Figma is among the most popular and beloved choices for making prototypes.

Get Started with Figma

Communication skills.

As a freelance web designer, communication is at the core of your business relationships. Listening attentively to understand clients’ visions and then translating your design concepts into beautiful websites is a skill that requires a lot of time and dedication.

Responding promptly, using simple language, and seeking clarification ensure you understand requirements and clients feel heard. Strong interpersonal skills foster trust and successful collaborations.

If you’re unsure about your skills, it’s 2024, and tools like Sudowrite and Jasper will help you on the communication front! 😉

Creating Your Web Design Portfolio

Your portfolio is crucial for attracting freelance web design clients. It is the first impression you make on potential clients, and as the saying goes, the first impression is most important.

An impressive portfolio demonstrates your expertise, creativity, and commitment to quality results. It proves your abilities to potential clients, improving your chances of getting hired for higher-paying projects. In the competitive 2024 market, a well-crafted portfolio establishes you as a talented, reputable freelance web designer.

Not sure where to build your portfolio? Let us introduce you to the potent combination of Divi and WordPress .

With Divi’s visual builder and WordPress’s content Management System (CMS), showcasing your work spanning different design styles, industries, and project complexities using clean visuals, client testimonials, and making regular updates is a breeze—all without the need for coding. We’ll discuss this combination’s power in detail soon.

However, if you’re only just starting, you may wonder how you will display past work. That’s a good question. You don’t need to display real websites right off the bat. You can display concepts or prototypes you make, which can help you hit the ground running.

Finding Your First Client as a Freelancer

Finding that crucial first client takes perseverance. Leverage your network by spreading the word among your family, friends, and acquaintances. Join online freelancer communities and relentlessly market yourself on social media. But make sure you don’t spam since that might ruin your credibility.

Platforms like Fiverr are also the first choice of most freelance designers when it comes to finding initial projects. WordPress also has a dedicated job board you can check. Don’t hesitate to offer discounted rates initially to build your portfolio and testimonials.

Once you land that first gig and knock it out of the park, you’ll eventually gain momentum. Patience and hustle are essential when starting out freelancing.

Best Tools for Website Building

To get started and thrive as a freelance web designer, these top website-building tools will streamline your workflow and help you deliver stunning sites to clients. Let’s take a look at them:

Best Website Builder: WordPress + Divi

If you want to showcase your portfolio and build a website building business, WordPress is hands down the best way to go. This platform gives you complete control over designing and customizing your site. You can select from various themes and plugins to craft an attractive website that excels in search engine performance.

This is because of its SEO-friendly attributes and the abundance of SEO plugins available. And the best part is that it is entirely free and open source, barring the cost of hosting and plugins. This is why it has become so popular that it now powers more than 43% of all websites worldwide—that’s about 1.1 billion websites!

But WordPress Isn’t Enough on Its Own…

For every WordPress website, you’ll need a theme, and Divi is one of the most versatile options out there. Its user-friendly Visual Builder, a drag-and-drop tool that doesn’t require coding skills, allows you to design beautiful web pages easily.

Plus, you can access over 200 design modules for endless creative options. Are you worried that you might not be creative enough? No worries! Divi has the most extensive collection of 2000+ premade layouts and website packs , adding a new layout almost every week , ensuring you never start building websites from a blank screen.

Are you planning a clean portfolio or looking to design something more edgy? Divi provides everything you need to make your vision a reality smoothly. These features aren’t the only tricks this pony does. It unleashes its full potential with a game-changing Theme Builder feature. This powerful tool lets you take control of every inch of your website, from the smallest detail in headers and footers to completely customized blog post templates and archive pages.

Great with features and all. But how will it help me with my freelance web design business, you may ask? Divi’s affordability makes it accessible to creators of all levels, starting at an unbeatable price of just $89/year . Just $89/year for all the above features, which you can use to build unlimited websites. Yes, even your client websites! Not a fan of yearly renewals? You can also grab a lifetime license for a one-time payment of $249 . This pricing makes Divi easily the most affordable page builder in the market.

Get Divi Today

What does divi offer additionally.

When we say Divi is a genuinely innovative website builder, we mean it! Divi AI is an AI-powered design assistant that can write on-brand text, generate realistic images, write compatible code, and create entire web pages — all with just a simple text prompt. With unlimited usage available for as little as $16.08 per month , it’s a true game-changer for freelancers and designers.

Explore Divi AI

Let’s talk about scalability. Apart from usage on unlimited website usage, Divi offers helpful team features to ease your transition from an individual freelancer to a full-blown agency should you find great clients and establish a successful business.

For example, Divi Teams allows for seamless collaboration between team members and streamlines access to client billing and support tickets. For just $1.50 per month per seat , your team and clients will have access to all the fantastic features of Divi.

Explore Divi Teams

With Divi Cloud , you can easily store all your favorite layouts in one place without exporting files. It’s like having Dropbox for your Divi assets , only unlimited and much more affordable, starting at just $6/month! You will be amazed how much this nifty feature saves time and cuts down on back-and-forth in the long run, especially if you have a team working on multiple websites simultaneously.

Explore Divi Cloud

Are you looking to elevate your team’s and clients’ experience? Divi VIP offers premium support, with guaranteed responses within 30 minutes, 24/7. But don’t worry- we seldom take even that time to revert. Additionally, as a VIP member, you’ll receive an extra 10% discount on all purchases from the bustling Divi Marketplace . Experience the best support in the industry even faster!

Explore Divi VIP

Love all the features listed above? Become a Divi Pro member for just $277 per year and save $388 upfront compared to purchasing each component separately. This membership includes access to AI, Cloud, VIP, and adding up to four team members/clients to your team . For even more savings, consider the Divi Lifetime + Pro bundle , which combines lifetime access to Divi with yearly Pro services fees for just $297 in the first year and $212 per year after that.

Become A Member Today

Essential bundles you maybe interested in….

Speaking of Divi Marketplace, here are some items from it that might interest you. These bundles can significantly expedite your website-building time.

The Ultimate Divi Header & Menu Builder Bundle

Ultimate Divi Header & Menu Builder Bundle provides a comprehensive range of Divi menu components, header templates, and a versatile child theme designed for use on Divi websites. It contains an array of features, including the DiviMenus module with added capabilities, the ability to create full-screen menus, Divi MadMenu for advanced menu design options, and a selection of pre-designed headers to elevate and personalize the look of your site.

Go to Divi Marketplace

The Ultimate Divi Starter Bundle

With the Ultimate Divi Starter Bundle , you can access over 40 new and innovative Divi modules, a professionally designed child theme, unique header and footer designs, a popup builder, expanded theme options, and a collection of premade layouts for different purposes. This bundle greatly enhances Divi’s capabilities, providing a more straightforward and customizable experience.

The Ultimate Divi Utility Bundle

To optimize the Divi Builder’s capabilities, the Divi Utility Bundle offers comprehensive functions to enhance user experience. These features include conditional display settings, advanced content creation options such as popups and mega menus, additional modules and theme customizations, improved responsiveness, and accessible maintenance mode for seamless website development.

Best Hosting Platform: SiteGround

To use Divi + WordPress effectively, you need to have the WordPress.org software installed on your server. This process can be complex, especially if you lack technical expertise. However, SiteGround simplifies this by preinstalling WordPress and all the necessary tools.

SiteGround is one of the leading WordPress hosting providers thanks to its impressive uptime, fast page loading speeds, and robust backup features. Their customer support is excellent, available 24/7, and offers various resources tailored specifically for WordPress users. Furthermore, SiteGround seamlessly integrates with Divi, allowing you to launch a WordPress site with all settings specifically configured for Divi quickly and effortlessly. Learn more about Divi Hosting by Siteground here.

SiteGround’s focus on WordPress is evident through features such as a free SSL certificate, specialized caching for WordPress, and seamless compatibility with popular plugins and tools. Their competitive pricing, particularly in the first year, makes it a compelling choice for freelancers working within tight budgets. Moreover, they provide daily backups and user-friendly restoration tools, which are essential for maintaining and protecting your websites.

Launch a WordPress Website With Siteground

Best WordPress Plugins

In this part of the post, we’ll quickly highlight a few vital plugins you’ll need to set up your portfolio and client websites. These will significantly streamline your website-building process.

WP Rocket: Best Caching Plugin

WP Rocket is a top-tier premium caching plugin for WordPress. It is highly praised for its easy-to-use interface and compelling features that optimize website performance. This plugin excels at speeding up your site by optimizing CSS and JavaScript, preloading cache, enabling LazyLoad, optimizing the database, and ensuring compatibility with Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). Although it doesn’t provide a free version and dedicated tools for media optimization, WP Rocket remains a solid choice for those wanting to enhance their website’s speed and performance effortlessly. Read the complete review here.

Optimize Your Website With WP Rocket

EWWW: Best Image Optimization Plugin

EWWW Image Optimizer is a powerful WordPress plugin that excels in automatically compressing new images and optimizing existing ones in bulk. It offers features like resizing images upon upload, removing metadata, and converting them to WebP format for improved compression, storage management, and page speed. Freelancers like yourself might appreciate its user-friendly interface and appealing options. One of its standout qualities is reducing file sizes without sacrificing quality. If you plan to have an image-heavy website, this tool is our top pick among image optimization options. Looking for more info? Check out our detailed review .

Optimize Your Images Using EWWW

UpdraftPlus: Best Backup Plugin

UpdraftPlus is a trusted WordPress backup plugin with over 3 million active installations and nearly 5-star reviews. It offers free and premium versions, allowing you to create full backups of your site, store them in the cloud or locally, schedule backups, backup specific components, and restore data effortlessly. The plugin also supports incremental backups, integration with various cloud storage services, and a user-friendly interface that simplifies backup configuration for beginners. UpdraftPlus is also efficient, uses minimal server resources, and is ideal for anyone seeking reliable WordPress backup solutions. Read more  here.

Keep Your Hard Work Safe With Updraftplus

Solid Security: Best Security Plugin

Solid Security , previously known as iThemes Security, is a robust WordPress security plugin that protects your site in over 30 ways, including password safeguarding, monitoring user activities, and brute force protection. It is straightforward: turn the required features on or off, and you are done. Moreover, it includes malware protection by a reputed security service called Patchstack, which individually may cost upwards of $89/mo. Solid Security is popular among beginners looking for effective yet affordable security features, making it an ideal option to protect your portfolio.

Secure Your Website With SolidWP

Rank Math: Best SEO Plugin

Rank Math is an SEO plugin that shines with its ability to provide real-time insights while you write, helping you optimize your posts effortlessly. Its SEO dashboard conveniently shows your ranking keywords, search impressions, and site errors identified by Google, all without slowing down your website. It smoothly integrates with Divi, bringing powerful SEO features directly to Divi’s visual builder. With features like Google Search Console integration, AI content optimization, snippet preview, and a wide range of SEO tools, Rank Math rightly calls itself the “swiss-knife” of SEO. It is an excellent choice for freelancers, solo content creators, SEO managers, and web admins aiming to streamline their SEO tasks.

Get Found Using Rank Math

MonsterInsights: Best Analytics Plugin

MonsterInsights easily connects your WordPress website to Google Analytics, giving you a user-friendly dashboard packed with detailed visitor information such as where your traffic comes from, which pages are popular, who your visitors are, and real-time stats. Trusted by over 3 million users and boasting a 4.5-star rating, it’s the preferred choice for WordPress analytics for many users. It offers essential data to help you improve your SEO and enhance user experience with features like tracking conversions, monitoring eCommerce performance, tracking affiliate links, and, more importantly, ensuring that your Google Analytics usage is EU and GDPR-friendly. Read our full review here.

Track Your Success With MonsterInsights

AI Tools to Help with Website Building

Starting your own freelance website-building business from the ground up might seem intimidating. Balancing various tasks could make you feel overwhelmed and mentally exhausted. But, by incorporating AI tools into your workflow, you can regain control and clarity. These tools help streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and offer valuable insights:

Grammarly: AI Writing Assistance

A well-written copy without grammar or spelling errors is essential to establish credibility. You can enhance your website copy with Grammarly , a cloud-based AI tool. You’ll find it valuable for ensuring clear, concise, and error-free assignments and to get real-time guidance on grammar, spelling, and punctuation, enabling you to focus on developing your ideas. In addition to basic grammar checks, it offers AI-powered suggestions to improve sentence clarity, word choice, and style, helping you craft a more sophisticated writing voice. Its features include a dedicated plagiarism checker, AI vocabulary enhancement, and accessibility across various devices and platforms.

Get Grammarly

Jasper: AI Copy and Image Generation

Jasper AI is your ultimate writing companion, making content creation a breeze. It crafts top-notch, authentic content across blog posts, product descriptions, and marketing copy with just basic prompts and inputs. Moreover, with Jasper Art, generating website images becomes a snap – describe your vision, and voilà! No more endless image searches for the perfect image. We go into Jasper’s details in this article.

CodeWP: Code Generation

CodeWP aids WordPress development with cutting-edge AI technology. Thanks to its conversational coding feature, you can easily create code snippets and plugins by describing your needs. Get instant expert AI support and quick issue resolution, which can be used to plan and design unique features and website sections that won’t usually be possible natively in WordPress. CodeWP’s AI models are trained on popular plugins and services to ensure precise and compatible code generation.

Divi AI: For All the Above 😉

With Divi AI , you can easily create top-notch content and images for your website. You can also review and amend your writing’s grammar and syntax, translate it, enhance it, adjust its tone or size, generate images, expand images, use AI to add or remove objects from the image, and much more – all within the editor itself.

But there’s more to Divi AI than just that. You can generate personalized code for any custom design needs, which may be tricky with standard modules. Additionally, you can design a webpage using Divi AI by providing a detailed prompt. And guess what? There are no restrictions on the amount of text or images you produce or the number of websites you utilize Divi AI for – yes, even your clients’ sites.

These aspects make Divi AI an incredibly cost-effective AI tool that should be part of your web design toolkit. It’s not only budget-friendly but also very versatile. You can try out Divi AI for free for up to 10 iterations on your Divi setup, after which the pricing starts at just $16.08/month. If you’re new to Divi, you can unlock even more savings by clicking the button below to see the latest offer.

Get Divi + Divi AI

Thriving in The Freelance Industry

The freelance web design business is increasing, presenting many opportunities for those ready to take the plunge. Here are some practical tips to help you maintain your success and stay ahead of the competition.

Finding and Retaining Web Design Clients

In today’s competitive world of freelance web design, securing and keeping clients is a skill that combines creativity and strategy. Make sure you update your portfolio regularly with your most recent projects. Gathering client testimonials is crucial as they are strong evidence of your work quality. You can also use social media platforms to showcase these testimonials and establish trust.

One effective way to find consistent clients is through referrals. Referrals can lead to repeat business and have the highest conversion rate among all marketing approaches. To grow your client base further, consider attending industry events and actively networking to make new connections. Platforms like Meetup can be advantageous in this regard.

Lastly, keep yourself updated with the latest design tools and techniques to stay ahead in the field. You can establish a thriving freelance web design business with a loyal clientele by staying persistent, offering exceptional service, and being committed to continuous learning.

Specializing in a Niche as a Web Developer

Specializing in a specific niche can help you distinguish yourself in freelance web development. You can position yourself as an expert by focusing on a particular area.

As the saying goes, catching fish in a pond is easier than in the sea. You might be great at creating online stores or building complex web applications for startups. Concentrating on one area allows you to improve your skills and stay updated with the latest trends.

Clients look for experts who genuinely grasp their unique requirements. Keep learning about the newest trends and best practices in your niche. Over time, you will establish a strong reputation and build a loyal client base that values your specialized skills.

Building Additional Revenue Streams

Not every day is filled with sunshine. For that reason, developing additional methods of income could prove beneficial. Let’s explore these potential revenue streams, understand their significance, and learn how you might create one.

What is a Recurring Revenue?

Recurring revenue is the consistent income from existing customers through regular, predictable payments. This could be from subscriptions, memberships, or contracts. Unlike one-time sales, this model offers a reliable cash flow and financial stability, even if you take a break from actively working.

Why is it Important?

Recurring revenue is essential because it provides a steady income stream, reducing the financial uncertainty freelancers often experience. Unlike one-time consulting payments, recurring revenue guarantees consistent cash flow, helping cover ongoing expenses like rent and utilities.

This consistent income eases the stress of finding new projects, enabling you to focus on growth and enjoy more personal freedom. It acts as a financial safety net, supporting your long-term financial well-being.

Potential Recurring Revenue Streams

Now that you know what recurring revenue is and why it’s vital, let’s explore how you can earn this steady income from your clients:

Reselling Hosting

Hosting is vital for launching a website and can be a great source of recurring income. Setting up your hosting service involves finding servers, panels, and services, and you’ll have to handle support and server maintenance independently, which can be pretty challenging, especially if you lack technical skills.

Alternatively, you can consider reselling hosting through a platform like SiteGround Reseller . This allows you to benefit from their hardware, excellent support, and software while branding the service as your own to maintain trust and professionalism.

Offering Maintenace Packages

A WordPress website can be infinitely extended using its robust themes, plugins, and extensions repository. However, one crucial downside is that these components must be constantly updated to maintain compatibility and secure the website. Updating plugins can be a menial but time-consuming task, especially for clients who would rather spend time working on their business.

Using this point, you can convince your clients to offload the maintenance task to you for a fixed monthly fee. You can even include the plugins mentioned in the Best WordPress Plugins section as part of this maintenance package, as most of them offer agency or developer license, which individually costs less than personal licenses.

However, updating and maintaining multiple sites individually can become a rather headache-inducing task as you build your client base. This is where a plugin, like MainWP , enables you to manage multiple websites from a consolidated dashboard with just a few clicks.

Creating and Selling Templates

Once you hone your skills as a Divi designer, you can create layouts and templates to sell them on platforms like Divi’s marketplace . This benefits you in two ways. It generates additional income on autopilot and serves as a way to showcase your skills, attracting more clients who may be interested in your personalized design services.

Becoming a Freelance Web Designer: Got What it Takes?

Becoming a successful freelance web designer is no easy feat, but the journey is far from impossible. The perks that come with it are truly rewarding: the liberty of being your boss, planning your schedule, and engaging in projects that fuel your creativity.

With solid allies like the ones listed below by your side, launching your web design venture swiftly is within reach without following the conventional path, which may take months to learn.

Stay at the forefront by honing your skills, staying updated on design trends, and building a solid portfolio with Divi to attract clients who value your unique style. As your business grows, you may integrate tools like Divi Teams , Cloud , and VIP for a smooth transition to a business you can no longer handle alone. Succeeding in freelancing requires dedication, discipline, and a genuine love for creating exceptional online experiences. And if you have made it so far, we believe you have all of those!

Get Started With Divi!

Explore plans, pricing and features. Click here to get started. 👇

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Aayush, a writer with a flair for detail, champions open-source software and is a reservoir of intriguing facts. As a WordPress aficionado, he navigates the areas of design, development, and marketing, bridging the gaps between these areas of interest.

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How to Start a Freelance Business: A Friendly Guide

Step 1: Understanding the freelance market

Step 2: identifying your service offering, step 3: understanding market rates, step 4: managing taxes and invoicing, step 1: choosing a business name, step 2: choosing a business entity, step 3: considering business insurance, step 4: acquiring clients and networking, step 5: leveraging your network, step 6: delivering exceptional service, step 1: choosing the right platforms, step 2: building a professional online presence, step 3: building a portfolio, step 4: developing a marketing strategy, step 5: using social media effectively, focusing on a niche market, spotlighting your unique skills, expanding your service range, hiring subcontractors or employees.

Starting a freelance business can open up a world of opportunities and flexibility. This friendly guide will walk you through the first steps to establish yourself as a successful freelancer. We’ll cover everything from identifying your skills and creating a strong portfolio to navigating legal requirements and setting competitive rates. Whether you’re just beginning or looking to refine your freelance strategy, this guide will provide practical advice to help you build a thriving freelance business. Let’s dive in and explore how you can turn your skills and passions into a rewarding freelance career.

How can a beginner start freelancing?

Do freelancers need LLC?

How to legally be a freelancer?

Stage 1: Getting started with freelancing

Starting a freelance business involves understanding the market, identifying your services, and setting up your business structure. Each step is crucial to your success as a freelancer.

Before you begin, take some time to research the freelance market. You need to know what services are in demand and who your competition is. Look at platforms like Upwork to see popular job postings.

Check out other freelancers’ profiles to get an idea of their skills and experience. Join online forums and groups where freelancers discuss their work. This can give you insights into what clients are looking for and what rates are common.

Next, identify what services you can offer. Think about your skills and experiences. Are you good at writing, graphic design, programming, or marketing? Make a list of all the services you can provide.

Consider taking a few online courses or attending workshops to strengthen your skills. This can help you become more competitive. Once you know your services, think about your target clients. Who would benefit most from what you offer?

Setting your freelance rates means balancing fair compensation for your skills and staying competitive.

Understanding market rates involves researching what others in your field charge. Look at industry reports, job boards like Upwork, and freelancer surveys to get a sense of the average rates. Use online resources such as CareerFoundry to understand whether you should charge hourly or per project.

You can also ask more experienced freelancers, but be cautious of copying someone else’s rates blindly. Every freelancer has a unique mix of skills and experience.

By keeping an eye on the competition, you can set a base for your pricing structure that helps you attract your first client while ensuring you’re compensated fairly.

When freelancing, managing taxes is crucial. First, know that the IRS treats freelancers as self-employed. You’ll need to pay self-employment taxes, which include Social Security and Medicare. It’s wise to set aside around 25-30% of your income for taxes.

For accounting, keep detailed records. Track all income and expenses. Use software like QuickBooks or FreshBooks to stay organized. Invoicing clients on time and keeping a log of all invoices sent, paid, and pending is essential. Create clear and professional invoices with itemized services, payment terms, and due dates. This helps you get paid faster and reduces misunderstandings.

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Stage 2: Creating a business structure

Creating a business structure is essential for your freelance business. It helps in managing finances, legal matters, and overall operations smoothly.

Select a unique and memorable name that accurately represents your services. This name should resonate with your target audience and convey a sense of professionalism and reliability. Once you have a few options, conduct a thorough search to ensure that your chosen name is not already in use by another business. This includes checking domain name availability for your website and considering social media handles. Additionally, explore trademark options to protect your business name legally and prevent others from using it.

Selecting the right business entity impacts your taxes and legal protection. Many freelancers start as a sole proprietorship because it’s simple and has less paperwork. However, this means you’re personally liable for any debts or legal issues.

A limited liability company (LLC) offers more protection. It separates your personal and business assets. Setting up an LLC may cost more, but it can save you trouble down the road. Consider consulting with a legal expert or accountant to determine which entity is best for your situation. Being informed and prepared can make a big difference.

Protect your business with appropriate insurance coverage. Common options include:

• Professional liability insurance: Also known as errors and omissions insurance, this protects against claims of negligence or mistakes in your professional services.
• General liability insurance: Covers third-party claims of bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury.
• Health insurance: If you don’t have coverage through another source, consider obtaining health insurance to protect yourself and your family.

Assess your specific needs and risks to determine the right insurance policies for your business. Insurance can provide peace of mind and financial protection in case of unforeseen events.

Winning new clients and developing a strong network are vital for any freelancer. Forming strong proposals and leveraging your existing network can set you up for success.

A well-crafted proposal can make a big difference in acquiring new clients. Start by understanding what the potential client needs. Read the job description carefully and tailor your proposal to address their specific requirements.

Use clear and simple language. Highlight your skills and past experiences that are most relevant to the project. Include any testimonials or case studies that demonstrate your expertise. Potential clients want to see evidence that you can solve their problems.

Structure your proposal with headings and bullet points. This makes it easy to read. Break your proposal into sections like Introduction , Project outline , Timeline , and Budget . Clearly define your deliverables and set realistic timelines. Ensure you explain how you will communicate and handle any potential issues.

Lastly, proofread your proposal. Spelling errors and typos can make you seem unprofessional. Taking the extra time to ensure your proposal is polished can pay off in landing your first client.

Your network can be one of your most powerful tools. Start by reaching out to your existing contacts. Let them know you’re freelancing and what services you offer. Ask them if they know anyone who might need your help.

Attend networking events, both online and in person. Websites like Upwork are great for finding freelancing opportunities and connecting with other freelancers. Join relevant online groups and forums where your potential clients might be.

Use social media to showcase your work. Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram can help you reach a wider audience. Share updates, projects, and testimonials to keep your network informed. Engage with others by commenting on their posts and participating in discussions.

Building strong relationships with your current clients can also lead to referrals. Excellent customer service will encourage them to recommend you to others. Follow up after completing a project to ask for feedback and thank them for their business.

Delivering exceptional service involves managing projects efficiently and ensuring quality and timeliness. You need to keep clear communication with your clients and consistently deliver high-quality results on time.

Efficient project management begins with setting clear objectives. Break down projects into smaller tasks. Use tools like Trello or Asana to keep organized.

Regular check-ins with the client ensure everyone is on the same page. Update them on progress and be open to feedback. This keeps expectations aligned and builds trust.

Setting realistic deadlines is crucial. Don’t overpromise. Use a project timeline to plan each stage. Address any issues as they arise to prevent delays.

Tracking your time helps in identifying areas where you can improve efficiency. Use apps like Toggl for this purpose. This data can help you streamline future projects and offer better estimates.

Stage 3: Developing your brand and online presence

To succeed as a freelancer, it’s crucial to create a strong online presence and establish a professional brand. You need to pick the right platforms, build an engaging profile, and showcase your best work. This will help attract clients and grow your freelance business.

When building your online presence, selecting the best platforms is essential. Popular freelance platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer can help you find clients. Additionally, social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter are great for networking and marketing.

Research each platform to see where your target clients spend their time. Sign up on multiple platforms, but focus on a few where you can really shine. Being active and maintaining updated profiles on these platforms will increase your visibility and opportunities.

A professional profile is key to attracting clients. Creating an online platform for your business with 10Web is simple and efficient.

• Choose Yes to get a domain or click No if you have one already.

• Once your site is generated, preview it and make any necessary adjustments using the user-friendly tools provided by 10Web.

Use a clear, high-quality photo and write a compelling headline that highlights your expertise. Your summary should be concise and engaging, emphasizing your skills and experience.

Make sure to include relevant keywords so your profile appears in searches. Detail your work history, education, and any certifications. Testimonials or endorsements from past clients can also boost your credibility. Be honest and straightforward in your profile to build trust with potential clients.

An impressive portfolio showcases your best work and demonstrates your abilities. Include a variety of projects to show your range and skill set. Each project should have a brief description, your role, and the outcome.

Use visuals like images, videos, or links to websites you’ve worked on. Highlighting specific results, such as increased traffic or sales, can make a big impact. Organize your portfolio well and keep it updated with your latest work. This will help attract potential clients and show them what you are capable of.

A well-crafted marketing strategy is essential for attracting and retaining clients. Start by identifying your target audience . Understand their needs, preferences, and where they spend their time online. This allows you to tailor your messaging effectively.

Create a marketing plan that outlines your goals and the tactics you will use to reach them. This can include content marketing , such as writing blog posts or articles related to your services, email marketing to keep in touch with potential clients, and SEO to make your website more visible in search results.

Plugins like Yoast SEO can help optimize your content for search engines. The 10Web AI Assistant can also help you craft SEO-friendly and engaging content.

In addition, use tools like Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Regularly review and adjust your strategy based on what works and what doesn’t.

Social media can significantly boost your online presence. Identify which platforms your target audience uses the most. Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram can be valuable for freelancers.

Create profiles on these platforms and regularly share content that showcases your expertise. This can include portfolio pieces , client testimonials , and industry insights . Engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages promptly.

Join online communities and groups related to your field. Participate in discussions and offer helpful advice. This not only builds your reputation but also expands your network.

Use hashtags strategically to increase the visibility of your posts and attract potential clients. Analyze your social media metrics to see what type of content performs best and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Beyond basics: Specializing your services

Specializing your services can help you stand out in a crowded market. By focusing on a specific target and spotlighting your unique skills, you can attract clients who are specifically looking for what you offer.

Choosing a target can provide a clear direction for your business. Let’s say you’re a graphic designer . Instead of trying to serve everyone, you could target tech startups or local businesses. This way, you can tailor your marketing efforts to attract clients in that target.

Create content that speaks directly to this audience. If you’re a web designer for ecommerce, write blog posts on improving online sales through design. This shows potential clients that you understand their needs and can solve their specific problems.

Benefits of focusing on a niche market:

• Less competition
• Easier to become known as an expert
• Higher client retention

To further specialize, highlight what makes you unique. For instance, if you’re a copywriter with expertise in finance, promote this unique skill. Explain how your knowledge can craft more effective and trustworthy content for financial clients.

Showcase your skills through case studies or a portfolio. A writer can display published articles or books, while an artist might have a gallery of their work. Make sure these examples reflect your specialty to attract the right clients.

Tips for spotlighting your skills:

• Update your portfolio regularly
• Get testimonials from past clients
• Offer free resources or tips that showcase your expertise

By narrowing your focus and highlighting your strengths, you can create a distinctive brand that attracts the right clients.

Scaling up your business

To grow your freelance business, you can expand the services you offer and consider hiring additional help. Each approach can present specific opportunities and challenges, helping you handle more projects effectively.

As you scale your freelance business, offering a wider range of services can attract more clients. Start by identifying related skills that complement your current offerings. For instance, if you are a graphic designer , you might add web design or branding services.

These additional services can make you a one-stop shop for your clients, increasing your value to them. It’s essential to invest time in learning these new skills or get certifications to ensure quality work.

You can also look for trends in your industry to determine which new services are in demand. This can help you stay competitive and meet the evolving needs of your clients.

At some point, you might find that your workload requires more hands. Hiring subcontractors or employees can help manage this. Begin by clearly defining the roles you need to fill and the skills required. You might start with subcontractors for specific projects. Ensure you establish clear communication and project management processes.

When hiring, consider the long-term growth of your business. Subcontractors offer flexibility, but employees can provide stability and a deeper commitment to your business’s goals. Determine which approach aligns best with your vision and current client demands.

To sum up, starting a freelance business involves careful planning, dedication, and a strategic approach. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can successfully navigate the initial stages, from identifying your skills and setting up your business structure to marketing your services and managing your finances. Remember, continuous learning and adapting to market trends are key to sustaining and growing your freelance business. With persistence and a proactive mindset, you can build a rewarding and successful freelance career.

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How Much Do I Need to Retire? A Complete Guide to Retirement Planning

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• Target savings will vary for each future retiree, depending on one's expenses and current salary.
• Many advisors recommend saving 15% of your earnings annually or even more if you are getting a late start.
• Multiple income streams and a conservative withdrawal rate ensure you don't run out of money.

Acquiring adequate retirement savings doesn't happen overnight. For most people, saving enough for retirement requires decades of dedication and strategic financial planning . But how much do you actually need to save to ensure a comfortable retirement? 

Here are the best retirement plans , calculators, investment strategies, and tips you can use to ensure your retirement savings plan is on track. 

Assessing your retirement needs

Unfortunately, there's no general number to aim for when saving toward retirement. Your target retirement savings goal will differ greatly from your siblings', neighbors', and even your coworkers' goals since the amount you'll need largely depends on personal factors.

However, one rule of thumb applies to everyone: The sooner you start saving, the less effort you'll need to put in to reach your goal, and the better-positioned you'll be later in life. 

According to the 2024 MassMutual Retirement Happiness Study , the average age for retirees in the U.S. is 62. If you were to live to 85, this means you'd need enough money to cover all your expenses (and retirement goals) for at least 22 years. Economic factors like inflation will also certainly impact your savings over time.

Estimating your retirement expenses

Understanding what you expect retirement to look like will help determine how much you'll need to fund that lifestyle. If you plan to travel the world in luxury, your budget will differ from someone wanting to bird watch from the backyard each morning.

In retirement, your savings will cover many of the same expenses you had pre-retirement. This includes costs like food, housing, transportation, clothes, gifts, utilities, insurance (including a health plan), and travel.

In most cases, these expenses won't change much from pre- to post-retirement, which makes creating a budget easier. But if you have big plans for your retirement years (moving to a new state or country, buying a bigger home, increasing travel, etc.), you must calculate how much your new standard of living will cost. 

How much do you need to retire comfortably? 

The first step to adequately saving for retirement is to determine how much you'll need. This means analyzing current and future expenses and deciding how much you can afford to put away each month. You may also want to use a number of different savings and investment vehicles or passive income streams.

Financial advisors suggest saving around 10 times your current salary by the time you reach retirement age. Before you retire, you should aim to reduce your annual expenses as much as possible, including paying off existing debt. This can help stretch your retirement savings for even longer. 

As always, it's wise to consult with a trusted financial planner to help you determine your unique needs and retirement savings strategy.

How much to save for retirement based on your age

One way to see if you're on track to reach a comfortable retirement savings is to aim for a multiple of your current annual earnings. This serves as a rough estimate so you can get a better sense of your situation. Remember that the amount of savings required to ensure a comfortable retirement varies according to your projected retirement costs and even the specific investments you choose for your retirement portfolio.

According to Fidelity , here's how much you should have saved up each decade to meet your retirement goals:

Financial advisors recommend dedicating 15% of your annual income toward retirement. However, depending on your retirement goals, financial obligations, and current assets, you may need to save even more.

Types of retirement accounts (401(k), IRA, etc.)

There are multiple savings vehicles and income streams to consider for building your nest egg. These can affect how much you need to save today, depending on which sources of income are available to you.

Some of the most popular types of retirement accounts include: 

• 401(k) plans: Employer-sponsored investment vehicles with compounding power and tax advantages to help you grow your nest egg steadily over time. Money in a 401(k) can be invested in various securities, and your contributions may even be matched by your employer, amplifying your efforts. Funds can be distributed without penalty beginning at age 59 ½, or earlier with certain exceptions.
• IRAs: IRAs are retirement accounts individuals open through major banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. The best IRA accounts include traditional, Roth, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs. IRAs have the same tax advantages as 401(k)s but offer more flexibility over how your funds are allocated.
• Traditional pension plans: Traditional pensions are another employer-sponsored investment vehicle certain businesses offer. With a pension, your employer is responsible for contributing and investing the funds in your account. The amount contributed is determined by employee earnings and years at the business. 

Outside of savings accounts, other ways to generate income during retirement include:

• Social Security benefits: Social Security is a government program that provides individuals with monthly retirement and disability benefits. You can opt-in to start receiving Social Security benefits as early as age 62, but you'll receive lower payments. Financial experts recommend delaying Social Security until you reach full retirement age (age 70). 
• Annuities: Annuities are another retirement income source to consider. They're offered by insurance companies and act as a long-term investment vehicle. After purchasing an annuity — either with a lump sum or periodic purchase payments — you will receive regular payments over the course of your retirement.

Planning for inflation in retirement

Remember to consider inflation and its impact on your savings. For instance, in 2024, there have been inflation rates of 3%, following the 3.3% increase in 2023 and the high 6.5% rate in 2022. Generally, you should account for inflation of approximately 2% per year.

However, certain economic, political, or natural disasters can cause unexpected spikes in inflation. In those cases, you may experience significant financial losses that require you to permanently or temporarily adjust your lifestyle and budget. One of the best ways to hedge against inflation and market downturns is by continuing to invest after retirement . 

Healthcare costs and long-term care planning

Try to account for potential unexpected expenses, such as medical care for you and your spouse or even financially helping a child or grandchild.

"The most common expense that a retiree can ignore (or forget to budget for) is end-of-life expectancy expenses," says Jim Ludwick, a CFP and member at Garrett Planning Network . "This includes caregivers coming to your house, going into assisted living, or skilled nursing. Those are very expensive parts of people's lives. And a lot of times that can eat up quite a bit of savings if it goes on for an extended period of time."

Downsizing and lifestyle adjustments

When planning your retirement lifestyle, consider where you want to live. You may want to downsize depending on your preferred lifestyle, savings amount, and priorities. That said, your priorities may be buying your dream retirement home or moving to a certain location. In this case, be sure that you factor those larger expenses into your budget.

Retirement planning general rules of thumb

While everyone's situation and needs will differ, there are a few primary rules of thumb that most financial advisors follow, which you should consider when determining how much to save for retirement.

Retirement income as a percentage of pre-retirement income

Many financial professionals recommend that you account for between 70% and 80% of your pre-retirement income each year in retirement. This means that if you currently earn $60,000 per year, you should plan to spend between $42,000 to $48,000 annually once you retire. 

This isn't a set rule for everyone, and you may need to even account for more savings. "Many people need to have income streams (or savings and investments) cover 80%, 90%, or even 100% of their pre-retirement budget," Ludwick says. It all depends on your specific expenses now and in retirement.

Saving 15% of your earnings every year

If you start saving for retirement early enough, an annual savings rate of 15% may be sufficient to meet your goals. If you're off to a late start, you may need to save a lot more each year to catch up. 

"As you get older, the amount needed for savings to reach the same end goal roughly doubles every 10 years," says Tolen Teigen, chief investment officer for FinDec . "So, if someone waits ten years to start saving, instead of 30, they are now 40. Instead of 8% to 10% annually, they are now looking at 16% to 20% saved to reach the same end number."

Saving 10 times your income by retirement age

As mentioned above, many financial advisors and firms like Fidelity recommend having approximately 10 times your annual salary saved by the time you reach retirement age. While this may not be exactly what you need, it's a good target to keep in mind as you go. You can always adjust it depending on your projected needs in retirement.

The 4% withdrawal rule 

Many retirees are concerned about running out of money once they reach retirement. The 4% rule may be a good guideline to avoid this. While many factors can affect the actual drawdown process, the 4% rule can be a good place to start if you want to avoid running out of money.

This rule states that retirees can withdraw up to 4% of their retirement savings in year one of retirement. So, if you have $2,000,000 in retirement savings, you would withdraw $80,000 that first year. In year two, you would adjust that $80,000 for inflation and withdraw that amount from your savings.

Keep in mind that while the 4% rule is standard, some financial advisors say your actual withdrawal percentage could be anywhere from 3% to 5%.

Seeking professional advice when retirement planning

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to saving for retirement. Everyone's needs will be different, and so will their approach to saving, including when they start and how much they can set aside each year. Consulting with a certified financial planner or other retirement expert is the best way to understand your unique needs.

"Planning ahead and checking in on your efforts" is key to saving enough for the retirement years, Ludwick says."It's dangerous when you're 75 and realize you're running out of money and you have to move in with a younger sibling or something." 

His advice? "If you want to stay independent, do your homework ahead of time. Think about all those things that could possibly happen. If they don't happen, you're lucky … and your kids and grandkids can have a nice gift that you leave behind."

You can calculate how much you need to retire by assessing your expected expenses, considering your desired lifestyle, current expenses, projected inflation, and healthcare costs. Business Insider's free retirement calculator can help you see if you're on track to secure a comfortable retirement. You can also use other rules of thumb, such as having an annual savings rate of 15%.

The 4% rule in retirement planning suggests withdrawing 4% of your retirement savings each year to prevent you from prematurely running out of money for at least 30 years. It's a general guideline to help estimate how much you need to save. However, some advisors recommend more or less than that rate.

You can maximize your retirement savings by regularly contributing to tax-advantaged retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs to maximize employer matching contributions, investment opportunities, and compound interest. Generally, it's best practice to max out your retirement accounts first. Also, adopt a diversified investment strategy for greater portfolio growth and risk management.

The sooner you start planning for retirement, the easier it will be to compound your savings and reach your goals. Starting in your 20s and 30s allows more time for your investments to grow. It's still possible to catch up if you start in your 40s or 50s by saving more aggressively and adjusting your strategy, but it will be generally more stressful. 

Common mistakes to avoid in retirement planning include underestimating expenses, waiting to start saving, relying too heavily on Social Security, failing to diversify investments, spending too quickly, and not accounting for healthcare costs and inflation. The best way to avoid these common mistakes is by creating a thorough financial plan and consulting a financial advisor.

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