Yeah, good point. No one really wants to hire a freelancer directly out of school/university (unless they just want a really basic and really cheap job doing).

I started freelancing after years of industry experience, and I still had to learn absolutely masses along the way after that!

I think the bottom line with lots of industries is that you have to be prepared to put some work in at the coalface (low levels) before you get to the more interesting and rewarding jobs!

 

I think a freelancers without experience in industrial companies is incredibly difficult to find remote work. Such an engineer simply can’t say anything, he cannot be entrusted with serious work. As a rule, companies hire a freelancer to work in which they are not competent, therefore they are interested in a professional. I have been actively working as a freelancer for 3 years now and now I have come to the conclusion that I need to move on. I should оpen company or a small factory. This is the only way to realize your abilities more effectively. I am tired of constantly looking for a job, it’s much better for me to work on large contracts, for example, for a whole year than to stay in small jobs. Ideal option - a small engineering company with its own small factory.

 

Yeah, there are definitely ups and downs. It's pretty tough to always be searching for work, not to have a steady paycheck and to always be working on small(ish) jobs... but then on the other hand the freedom is amazing. We can work almost when and wherever we want, we can take unlimited holiday (although you don't get paid) and we can choose to only work on jobs that are personally interesting (unless we're really skint!).

I think that going back to a 'real job' would probably help me out, in terms of learning new skills, networking, and people skills (my only other colleague is a cat!) but just don't think I'd be able to hack sitting in an office from 9 to 5, making money for someone else.

 

Maybe this small but significant steps toward yours success:
- Go beyond charging minimal rates for your knowledge, skills and experience; your experience has more value than that.
- Read business books, test out new strategies, buy better equipment, enroll in online courses, and develop new and marketable skills.
- You could also consider repackaging your current services into an affordable bundle that new and regular clients will have a hard time refusing.
-Small projects were initially a big help for gathering feedback and building your reputation.

 

This is actually a very big one! I found that as I increased my rate I actually got more work, and, more importantly, the quality of my clients vastly improved. They were just much easier to deal with and had much more realistic expectations.

I'm sure there's a sweet spot, beyond which you start getting less clients but I haven't found it yet. I experimented with this quite a lot and my current rate is nearly four times my initial rate (which was low but still much better than minimum wage)

 

Alright from what I have learnt from this. To get better clients I must firstly not low ball myself to a point where they only see me as incompetent, but also to get a lot of recommendations and feedback after the jobs.

But how long did that take for you?

And also Did it ever happen that you took up a project that you couldn’t complete?

Sometime you just underestimate the job and take it on with a low rate but turns out its much harder than you thought. And would require more work. What should one do then? Reconsider doing the job? or do it anyway because the project has already started.

 

Yes, you need to do some work and get a good review.
After the first good review it becomes easier, 3-4 reviews will be quite enough.
It is important to have a good portfolio even if these jobs are not done in Upwork. A good portfolio works very well for you. One of my clients hired 2 freelancers me and one more specialist. The second freelancer has just registered on the Upwork site, and he has not had a single review, but he had an incredible portfolio with amazing projects.
The client hired him and pay him 1000$ for the job, this was the first contract of this freelancer. In the course of our work, this freelancer proved to be not the best, most likely the projects in his portfolio were executed by other people, but this impressed the client).
The client wished to continue working with him since he indicated a 2-fold lower price per hour. I made recommendations on how best to solve it, and closed the contract. I’m sorry for the client most likely he will lose money and time with that freelancer. The conclusion from this life experience is the following: no matter what kind of specialist you are, if you have excellent portfolios, this is 50% of success)
The second important point is communication. It is very important to build a dialogue with the client. Last week I signed a contract with a small company, there is a need to develop a design for various small devices and products for about 15 projects per month, this is gj vtymitq vtht 1.5-2000$ / month. I just did a little test work for them, corresponded correctly and showed myself as a professional, now we are working together. This is the second company on my client list.
As the first projects, to get good feedback, I took on $ 40-100 for small projects while spending significantly more time on it what are they worth.

 

Yeah, I've taken on quite a few jobs where I've severely under-estimated the amount of work that's required. For some of them I don't want to think what the hourly rate ended up at - way, way less than minimum wage, but you do get better that estimating.

I guess you can close the job (I might be wrong but I think that if you haven't received any payment then the client can't leave you a bad review) but personally I always finish them. I make it a real point to try to do an amazing job every time, even if it's only a $50 job.
Usually people really appreciate this - sometimes they give a bonus, sometimes they write a great review. Sometimes they don't, but I try to take pride in always doing the best I can!