Successful freelancers are always looking for ways to learn and improve while freelancing. While every freelancer is unique, many of the most prosperous gigsters follow a shared blueprint for success. And they generally employ a range of good habits that enable them to be highly effective in their respective fields. Learning from successful gigsters, we share five habits that you can incorporate into your freelancing journey to increase your chances of success.

1. Learn the value of saying no.

When you’re new to the world of freelancing, every interaction with a client is an opportunity. The fact that you’re in touch with potential customers is exciting, and the knowledge that they might be willing to pay for your services will give you confidence. You might find yourself saying yes to every single project and request in the early days, just to gain some relevant experience.

But as you increase your workload and develop a client base, you must quickly learn the value of saying no. You should only take on projects that you feel comfortable with and don’t succumb to the pressure of offering unrealistic discounts just to get work. Saying no also ensures you don’t take too much on at any given time and will help you manage your workload.

2. Respond to all messages courteously. 

When somebody gets in touch with you to ask about your services as a freelancer, you should respond to every request. Even if you don’t like the sound of the project or are too busy at present, it’s polite to touch base and offer an explanation. Responding to all messages will help you build your network, and your potential clients will remember you.

Just because you’re not able to take on work right now, they will remember that you were polite and approachable when you communicated in the past and might return and offer you work in the future. Remember, it costs nothing to be courteous, so be sure to treat others how you would hope to be treated yourself.

3. Improve your time management skills. 

One of the most important aspects of life as a freelancer is time management. When you agree upon a deadline with your clients, you need to deliver on or ahead of schedule. Delivering late can cost your clients money and won’t be good for your future project chances. Before agreeing upon a timescale for delivery, ensure that it’s realistic and won’t put you under too much pressure.

But time management isn’t just about deadlines. You need to develop a system that allows you to prioritize upcoming deadlines and ensure you allocate sufficient time to your ongoing work. Using a free project management tool like Trello can significantly improve your time management skills, as you’re able to chart the progress of each of your projects. You will learn quickly as a freelancer that time management is vital to your success, so be sure to adopt a system that works well for you.

4. Ask for feedback. 

Asking your clients for feedback is an excellent way of honing your skills as a freelancer. Once you’ve delivered your project, there’s nothing wrong with dropping your client a brief message, asking for an honest assessment of your performance. While not everyone will take the time to respond, some of your clients will be more than willing to offer you feedback and guidance on how to improve in the future.

Once you’ve received feedback, you then need to decide what to do with it. Remember, there’s a fundamental difference between feedback and criticism, so you don’t need to act upon every negative comment that you receive. Equally, some feedback might be wide of the mark and not representative of your overall performance. Our advice would be to act upon feedback that you hear on more than one occasion from several clients, as this is most likely accurate.

5. Create and maintain your portfolio. 

Whether you’re a writer, graphic designer, or web developer, your portfolio is your primary marketing source. Before agreeing to work with you, clients are likely to ask for examples of work that you’ve completed in the past, and sharing your portfolio is an excellent way to impress them. Include examples of all the work that you’re proud of, as well as external links to other sites that verify your work.

It’s also a great idea to add customer testimonials to your portfolio. Just like asking for feedback, if you feel like you’ve worked well with a particular client, ask them if they’d be willing to write a line or two about your experience of working together, and ask if you can link it out to their professional profile or company website. Verified testimonials build trust between you and your clients and are an excellent help in generating new business.

Final thoughts. 

To enjoy success as a freelancer, you need to incorporate a range of good habits into your daily practice. Hopefully, the five habits that we’ve introduced here will inspire you to reflect on your work and improve your professional offer. You will discover that subtle changes to your approach in the world of freelancing can make a huge difference to your success, so try out these easy-to-adopt habits that will undoubtedly help you increase your productivity.