In which order articles will be published on this site?

Running a business is a long-term game. One can not expect to start a business and make it successful in a few months. Therefore long-term mindset should be made before starting it. As contracting is also a solo business, one should spend time deciding whether to do it or not. Posts will be published in order based on the following topics.

1. Decide to start contracting/freelancing.
2. Get started and grow it into a sustainable business.

Decide to start contracting/freelancing.

The next few posts on this site will help you to decide whether to start contracting. The posts will highlight the benefits, challenges, lifestyle and various ways to start (part-time/full-time). This is a crucial step. One should have a contractor mindset before starting. There is no benefit in trying it for a shorter duration and leaving it. I will try to give you a practical perspective so you know what to expect when you are into it. So there will be lesser surprises.

For example, It is not a good idea to quit your current job and start the contracting path starting from scratch. You should continue and get some free time to start looking into it.

The first step is to analyse your current situation related to your skillset, job commitments, financial health and other responsibilities. Your goal should be to have enough time to experiment with contracting. The more time you give to it, the more your odds of doing it for the longer term.

The next few posts will help you decide on whether to choose the contracting path (part-time/full-time). The decision-making posts will be tagged with #DecidingToFreelance.

Get started and grow it into a sustainable business

Once we have some posts that will help you with decision-making, I will focus on writing posts on how to get started and grow the business. In the starting, you will have the following questions.

1. Where to look for clients?
2. Do I have enough skills to get started? How to improve my skillset?
3. How should I position myself as a contractor?
4. Should I charge a fixed rate or hourly rate?
5. If hourly, what should be my hourly rate?
6. How to get paid? Taxes?

and many more. I will first write posts on the most common questions. Once we have posted on how to get started as a beginner, the future posts will focus on growth.

1. How to get better clients?
2. How to increase my hourly rate?
3. How to identify bad clients from the initial conversation?
4. The focus should be on building long-term relationships with clients. You should not look for gigs every week.
5. Hourly vs Retainer contracts.
6. What's next?

I hope you get an idea of what to expect from future posts. If you have not subscribed yet, subscribe to get a notification when a new post is published.

Thanks for reading.