Freelancer – How to Get Rich?
by Gina Yap in People+Organizations | 4 Comments | Add your comment

Share

“Score a big client!”

“Charge clients a lot more!”

“Work on as many projects as possible!”

All of the above are rational applicable ways of getting rich as a freelancer. At the end of the day, the question is this: Do we get rich freelancing or are we freelancing to get rich?

As freelancers, we have the choice of working as much as we want, or as little as we want. We get to choose between spending time with our loved ones and doing the things we love, or spending time working our ass off to earn big bucks. But there is a limit to how much we can earn as an individual. Because we all have 24 hours a day. Being a freelancer, we solely manage the projects we have in hand. That means if you need 3 hours to work on a poster, you can only complete 8 posters a day. Nothing more. So how then can you get rich?

The Tithing Decree. If you are a Christian, you would know that everyone tithes 10% of their earnings to the church they attend. Well, this is the same principle I use. I put aside (more than) 10% of my monthly income into a savings account, which is purposely set to disable the withdrawal feature. That way, there is only money going in and not money coming out. Savings is the first step to getting rich. If you don’t save, even if you strike lottery, you will still not be rich.

Sharing Money is Gaining Money. Because you have only 24 hours a day, in order to earn more, you have to borrow someone else’s 24 hours. Instead of rejecting projects because you do not have enough hours to work on them, accept these projects and sub-out to another freelancer. Earn that small percentage for recommending the projects (and hopefully one day they will recommend some projects to you too). If you play the middleman role between the freelancer and your client, you get to earn a client servicing fee too!

Upgrade Yourself. Learn a new skill, conquer a new software. If you are a writer, learn how to do translation. If you are a 2D designer, learn how to draw 3D visuals. If you are a graphic designer, learn how to design a website. The more skills you know, the more services you can offer, the more projects you can accept – which means you get to earn so much more besides growing yourself as a professional.

Invest to Harvest. Yes, you have to spend money to get money. And you should have money to invest if you have practiced the Tithing Decree highlighted above. And the best investment of all is yourself. Invest in yourself. Spend that money to expand your freelance business. You can use it to advertise your website online, or launch a project of your interest to build awareness for your business. Or anything at all that build awareness for your business.

Charge More. Make sure you don’t charge too little just to get the project. Clients are compromising quality for dirt cheap jobs. As professional, never lower your price just to get the project because it would cause industry suicidal. Charge what you think is right. And if you have to let go a project because of price, by all means let it go. Because all you need is a project that pays you just right. No point working on 3 projects to earn the same amount as a good one project can pay. Make more money from good projects by working less. Then you’ll have time to accept even more good projects.

So these are some ways to get rich as a freelancer. It doesn’t matter if we freelance to get rich or we get rich freelancing; All of us wants to be rich so that we can lead a comfortable life. And all it takes to achieve that is discipline. If you discipline yourself to follow the steps above, you will indeed be rich one day.

ABOUT THE COLUMNIST

Gina Yap Lai Yoong is a full time freelancer focusing on writing and designing communication strategies for branding & marketing campaigns for various corporate clients in the country. While many wouldn’t choose to dive into the challenges and uncertainties of full time freelancing, she has decided to travel this path so that she could spend more time doing the things she love – which includes helping others to discover the full potential in them through inspiration and motivation. Her debut Malay novel is out at the market in 2010. She resides at Cybermate's Dungeon.

View Gina Yap's Column