How Working for Others Can Grow Your Income – Tina B's World
blog post title image 6.9.22

How Working for Others Can Grow Your Income

Leave a Comment / Blogging, For Bloggers, Side Hustles at Home, Work From Home, Work From Home Tips / By

Wanna live a certain lifestyle, but don’t have the means?

Join the club! 

Wanna do something about it? You could become a freelance service provider. 

woman working on her computer

Why? Probably because this is appealing to you:

  • Setting your own hours
  • Being your own boss
  • Making your financial goals and dreams come true

Sound good? Yeah, I thought so. Working from home definitely has it’s perks. 

Let’s discuss:  

Let's Get Started

You have to have money to fund your lifestyle, whatever that looks like for you.

If you’re like most people, you don’t want to take years to build up a nest egg (savings).

How do you attempt to fasttrack that? Work for others.

Why is that faster? Well, when you work for others, there’s no wait time. You can land projects to work on right away.

Bonus? You get to be your own boss so you only take projects you feel will be a good fit for your skillset and time availability. 

Although there are people making incredible money with affiliate marketing and blogging, it takes quite a bit of time to build that income. In some cases, it could take over a year to hit even a four-figure month.

Maybe you’ve been working on a side hustle creating your own products. That takes both time and creative energy. You have to:

  • come up with an idea
  • plan it out
  • create it (or outsource creation)
  • develop or add graphics
  • upload it to your website or third party platform 
  • market/promote it
  • pray your audience responds favorably and purchases it

So, while building a blog or creating info products is a good idea (and will pay off in the long run), it’s not a good idea if you need the extra income a bit quicker. 

So, What Now?

So what do you do? 

Your answers lie in the service industry, working for others so you can quickly take projects that are made available to you. 

TIP: only take on as many jobs as you can handle. Be realistic. Yes, you might need the money.. but your client needs quality work, so keep your workload in mind. 

Best part of being a freelance service provider? You’re not limited to one niche.

So what are your limits? 

  • Your knowledge
  • Your skillset

Both of those can be expanded though. There is a plethora of online classes for pretty much every subject available. 

What types of services can you offer? Whatever you know enough about and/or are skilled in. Offer whatever type of service that suits your fancy, as long as there’s a market for it. 

How do you know if there is? Easily! Go to a freelance job site and check the categories/jobs available. That tells you what others are looking for. 
Example: writing. Some freelance areas are:

  • Ghostwriting
  • Copywriting
  • Technical Writing 
  • Content Creators
  • Creative Writing

What else can you find?

  • Graphic Design
  • Other types of design work
  • Virtual Assisting
  • Editing
  • Transcription
  • Photography

Think of any online or what you think would be a typical work from home job. That can be offered as a freelance service. If you don’t want to try a job board or recruiter, you can always do a search to see what kinds of freelancers are currently being hired. 

Finding Clients & Projects

So how do you find the right jobs, projects and clients for you?

Look for them! Yep, it’s as simple as that. 

There are more jobs offered for freelancers than there are people to take on the work.

You will have no issues being able to find work. 

Upwork

You can sign up for a site like UpWork and poke around.

  • look for the type of project you’d like to do by using their search function 
  • use their category finder under “types of work” and just click on one of the links.

Example: Sales & Marketing leads to dozens of different projects listed.

You’ll find everything here:

  • social media manager
  • YouTube video editing
  • keyword research 
  • so much more! 

Thinking these projects might not pay enough? Think again!

Yes, there are jobs for the inexperienced, but people with experience can earn a decent amount of money providing your services.

The best part: they list the pay for each project up front, so you don’t even have to bother wasting your time combing through to find one with the salary you desire. 

Fiverr

Fiverr is another site where you can land projects.

  • Sign up
  • Create an account offering your skills or knowledge
  • Get hired to do projects (known as gigs) 

When the company first started, all the gigs were $5.

Now? The gigs can be in $5 increments.

You’ll find service offers “starting at $275” or some other amount.

You can offer freelance services such as:

  • proofreading
  • design
  • building websites
  • coaching
  • consulting 
  • dream interpretations 
  • and so much more! 

It’s not unheard of for people to be earning $500+ per gig.

The more experience you have or gain, the more money you can make. 

Networking

Another way to find projects and gain clients is to network.

It’s your choice how you do this:

  • Online
  • In person

Networking with other marketers can quickly get your name out there and from that, you can get client referrals that will help to grow your reputation. Make it a point to mention what you do and that you have openings in your schedule.  

How do you network?

  • Hang out in places where marketers hang out.
  • Coffee Meetings are a good idea too. 

Set Up A Website

If you don’t have your own website, then you probably should set one up, even if it’s just a single landing page with links to your work.

Having a website will give those in your network a place to direct referrals to.

Things to add:

  • Skillset
  • Talents
  • Specialties
  • Awards/Achievements
  • Pricing/Salary Requirements

If you need help doing this, you can access my blog/website resources HERE. 

Other Places to Find Jobs

Always link back to your website when you sign up with any gig site. 

Common Freelance Gigs

On all of the freelance job sites, there are many different categories listed.

Have a specific skill such as in the IT industry? There are sites dedicated solely to niches, so make sure you specify that if you use a search engine to find work.

Use this formula: “(skill) job board” or “(skill) work from home”.

You will get plenty of results and are bound to find something. 

High Demand Gigs on Upwork

Some common freelance gigs are in such high demand that you won’t have any trouble finding clients. They are the top services people are outsourcing and/or hiring for. 

Upwork has a varied lot of clients so you can pick and choose the ones you want to work for. The most in-demand categories are: 

  • virtual assisting
  • administrative task managing
  • editing
  • design
  • writing 

Under the editing category, you might find:

  • audio or visual projects
  • written material like speeches
  • papers
  • guides
  • eBooks 

You can also work as a writer and the type of work that you do will relate to the skills that you have:

  • resume
  • blogging
  • content marketing

The better you are at what you do, the more money you can make on any of these sites. Just be sure to go above and beyond, making sure the client is 100% happy with your work. 

High Demand Gigs on Fiverr

On Fiverr, people are most often looking for some type of graphic design work like:

  • Logos
  • Social Media Headers
  • Book Covers 

Another well-searched category? Writing. People either don’t have the time, don’t know how or just aren’t interested in doing it themselves, but they know it’s necessary.

They’re looking for: 

  • Cover Letters
  • Website Content
  • Any kind of writing you can do, there’s a market for it

Admin gigs are always needed on Fiverr: 

  • Virtual Assistant
  • Social Media Manager
  • Customer Support
  • Scheduling
  • Research
  • Data Entry
  • Video Creation & Editing

There are many people who need short branding videos (intros and outros) to use in their online video marketing efforts. 

Top Earners & Client Expectations

There’s no room for mediocrity if you want to fund your lifestyle as a freelance service provider. You have to be the best you can be if you want the top dollar earnings.

In a world where “good enough” often seems to be the mark, people get tired of substandard efforts. They’re looking for freelancers that know how to take care of them as a client.

If you want quality clients to pay big bucks, then your offer has to be the same quality.

If you’re thinking no one is going to pay extra for what you’re worth and that everyone is just trying to save money, your mindset is in the wrong place. 

Plenty of clients are willing to pay more to get more. They expect that the work you’re going to do for them will be great. Do your best to make sure it’s mistake-free.

If your service is writing, you should have a good grasp of how to write well. There’s no excuse for subpar writing, especially when there are so many books and tutorials readily available. 

That goes for any niche. 

You may not know everything there is to know, but you can learn if that’s what your client needs. Maybe you’ve never heard of all the real estate terms your client handed you, but you can learn about them. You will deliver a well-researched piece that’s so well-written, the client will be thrilled they hired you. 

Yes, you need to know your stuff when delivering a final project, but you are also free to ask questions. if you need clarity on what your client wants. Asking questions won’t make you seem like you don’t know what you’re doing. It means you care about the outcome and want to deliver a stellar piece, worthy of its price tag. 

That Little Something Extra

You want to do work that sets you apart. You want to deliver unique content. Don’t just rely on what everyone else is writing or designing. Be creative and create with the client in mind. 

Go the extra mile: 

  • See something that could add value? Let the client know.
  • Have a resource that could help with a project? Pass it along. 
  • Was there something else the client mentioned? Recommend a solution. 

Meet Your Deadlines!

Your clients will expect you to meet your deadlines, no excuses.

Nearly every service provider in the world has dealt with an emergency situation that’s impacted their ability to get a job done, but those situations are rare.

When you take on a job, make sure that you can meet the deadline or turn in the project earlier than the client needs it. This will mark you as someone who cares about the client’s timeline.

  • Don’t take a project because you need the money.
  • Take it because you know you can handle the time constraints. 

You don’t want to get a reputation as someone who holds up a client’s project because you couldn’t get stuff done on your end.

Want top dollar for your work? Be friendly, but remain professional. 

You’re not their:

  • therapist
  • best friend
  • water cooler coworker

They just want you to get the job done and do it right. This takes a load off their shoulders, which is one of the reasons they outsourced to begin with. 

Follow Up Work? Piece of Cake!

Yes, getting a job is great, but do you know what’s greater?

Repeat business.

Landing a client really isn’t that difficult, but you don’t want your clients to be a one-project-stand. If you enjoyed working for them, you’ll want to establish a long-term working relationship with them. If they don’t need more help immediately, simply ask them to keep you in mind for future projects. 

What should you do to let clients know you’re available for more work? 

Stay in touch with your clients. Check in with them as you normally would when you were working with them. 

Let them know you have room in your schedule when your current project is finished and ask if they would like to book you in advance. This let them know you’re giving them preferred space and it makes them feel important. 

Suggest Additional Work

Mention something you noticed about their site, like the need for a new contact page or lead magnet. 

Offer a bundle of services, but nothing that you won’t be able to handle. Ex: if you are hired to do the articles for a website, offer a graphics package at a small discount.

Let them know how they will benefit from the extra service:

  • Will it increase traffic to their site?
  • Will it improve their conversion rate?  

You already know what they need because you have seen it for yourself, so tap into that and let them know what service you can provide that will help. It’s completely possible that what you suggested was overlooked because the client was too busy to handle it or just overworked in the first place. 

Sometimes, clients won’t know they need something until you point it out. They may not even realize that they will feel the same scattered feeling month after month because they were lacking.

Turn them into repeat clients by offering your services on retainer. You don’t have to do the exact same work (especially if it’s not needed), but rather discuss what else you can do and how you can help them.

Example: you were hired to write blog content, but they need social media content. Offer to create the posts and write the captions as a part of the retainer. 

Becoming an online freelance service provider is a great way to earn the kind of money that will meet your basic financial responsibilities and also provide for an increase to your lifestyle.

It provides:

  • the flexibility you seek in a work day
  • the power to pick and choose who you work with

This is much better than applying for a strict 8-5 job where you have no say over when and if you get a raise or which clients you’re assigned.

Yuck.

Who wants that when the alternative is so much better? 

COMING SOON! 

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