Cheap Freelance: What's the Real Cost

Many freelancers begin doing business in a field of dreams; "If you build it, they will come". That just ain't so!

Just the same as the websites you build must sell visitors on the unique benefits of doing business with your clients, before you can get a client, you must be able to sell a prospect on the unique benefits and extra value your business offers to his or her company.

One of the first steps in building a successful freelance business is building a portfolio. However, one of the first mistakes newcomers make is to work too cheap (even free) to accomplish that goal.

In Under-selling Your Freelance Services, You Short-Change Yourself.

Here's the thing. Reasonable clients expect to pay a sensible and competitive price for quality work. They contact you believing that your skills and expertise will help them achieve their goals. They understand that their Internet success is tied to your success in helping them build their web presence. Although they may provide ideas, they expect you to have the know-how to implement their ideas. In short, reasonable clients expect to pay for value received.

The concept of building free sites in order to create a portfolio is compelling at first glance. Yet, if you do, you're actually selling yourself short and more importantly, showing low confidence in your own abilities, which promotes the idea that your work has little or no value.

How does this impact your business?

Web development is a very competitive business, which you can tell just by the number of web developer forums on the Internet and web design/development websites you find in search results.

The success of your freelance business has a major dependence on 1) repeat business and 2) referrals.

1. Repeat business is the backbone of freelance. Developing a clientele of steady, long-term relationships minimizes the need to spend time looking for more work.
2. Satisfied paying customers refer other paying customers. On the other hand, free or cheap work generates referrals for more of the same.

Work smart, not hard.

Consider developing several of your own domains, using them to build your portfolio. For instance, building your own web publisher website not only beefs up your freelance portfolio, it also gives you the chance to increase your skill set, adding more value to your services with the extra benefit of earning while you learn.

Then, before you hang your shingle, set your house in order. Create a strategic business plan and learn how to set your prices according to your business goals and level of expertise.

Starting with your freelance business, if you build it right, they will come—paying clients who will take you out of a "field of dreams" and put you into the real ballpark!