(upbeat music)
- Hey everyone, it's your girl Jenn
and we are going straight to business,
freelancing to be specific.
I have been freelancing for a decade now.
So it definitely makes me seasoned,
I learned a thing or two about building your business,
building your brand and being able to stand out.
This video is sponsored by Squarespace,
and I'll be sharing with you some tips
that I found useful in this space.
So let's get started.
So at a bare minimum,
you need to know what your business is.
What do you do?
Are you a graphic designer?
Are you a video editor?
Are you a stylist?
Are you a hairstylist?
Are you a video producer?
There are so many freelancing jobs.
What really makes someone next level is having a website
creating a website sounds so daunting and scary.
I mean,
my first website was the best that I could do.
It was so hard.
You don't need to worry about that anymore
thanks to Squarespace.
Jeez, I have been using Squarespace since 2016
and it's made my website looks so dope
so professional, so clean, crisp.
Squarespace has so many templates for you to choose from.
And it requires no coding,
I repeat, no coding,
you just simply wave your cursor
over the template that you like, and boom, you got it.
You can upload your personal work,
change color themes, add a sick font,
and create a contact page
where potential clients can reach you.
Making a website has never been easier
and I'm going to run through all the features
that Squarespace has to offer.
Number one,
they are an all in one platform
to build a professional website, online store or portfolio.
It's so easy to claim a domain slash URL,
create a custom site that matches your style
and brings your idea to life.
For emails you can stand out in any inbox
because Squarespace makes it easy to unify your brand voice
with their email campaign feature.
For e-commerce
Squarespace has lots of tools to run your business
with e-comm templates,
inventory management, easy checkout process
and secure payments.
You can also understand your audience better
with their analytics feature.
You're gonna have access to pageviews,
traffic sources,
time on the website,
most read content
and audience geography.
You can also purchase domains directly from Squarespace,
and each domain comes with a beautiful parking page
and free W-H-O-I-S or who is privacy.
If you need help or have a question,
Squarespace offers email support
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
All customer care team members
are employees in their offices
and will respond to help requests in about an hour.
It's also really nice to be able to display
all of your work in one place.
And it just makes you very accessible to search for
and the client can look at your body of work
and see if it's a good fit or not.
You want your website to be a reflection of who you are
and what you can do
and Squarespace makes it so easy for us to do that.
Honestly
let Squarespace specialize in what they do,
which is creating dope, beautiful websites
and you can focus on what you specialize in.
Honestly, if I can build this website,
you can absolutely do it as well.
Head on over to squarespace.comm for a free trial,
play around with it
and once you're ready to launch,
go to squarespace.com/jennim
and you will get 10% off
your purchase of a website or domain using my code jennim.
It is fabulous.
Please go check it out.
So once everything online looks good,
it is time for you to get out there,
mingle,
network,
and I hate the word networking,
but it is crucial
and it can seem very daunting
but it is so crucial.
I mean at this state,
it's kind of hard to get out there physically,
but once the state of the world decides to calm down,
then it's important to get these face to face interactions.
When you're freelancing
your sphere of reach is very important.
Like people hire people that they know
or people that they know that they know, you know.
I'm sorry to say but who you know really matters.
Like, let's say there is one job opportunity
and the person hiring
just gets like a cold email
from someone that they have no idea
their work is like, it's good.
But if they meet someone that they know,
that can do the same job,
they're going to hire that person.
And networking doesn't have to be these like huge events
and going to big parties all the time.
It can be as simple as
joining a Facebook group with other people
in the same community.
It can be signing up for a writing class,
where there'll be other writers
and potential publishers there.
It's very, very important
to treat everyone with respect and kindness.
I really don't like it when people
are just nice to that person that can help them
and those people are really easy to spot.
You never know what meeting people and being nice to someone
will do for you.
Because you can't really be that strategic about networking.
You can't be like,
okay, I'm going to meet this person from I don't know,
and I'm going to make a great impression
and they're going to hire me.
It doesn't really work like that.
You kind of just have to like feel yourself out there.
And people are always changing jobs in the creative space.
I feel like I can make a whole another video
about networking
because it's a big beast.
But I feel like the biggest tip I can give you is
realizing that you are a part of the networking ecosystem.
The more you connect other people with other people,
the more it'll come back to you.
It is like karma.
So let's say someone is looking for a graphic designer.
I'm like, okay, I'll keep that in mind.
And I have a friend who's a graphic designer,
but like hey, hey, you want to use this person,
my friend who's great at this,
then your friend that you hooked up with the job
is going to, like always keep you in mind
for any potential jobs that you potentially might need.
So it's just important to have these assets going on.
When you make a good impression
that's when you can kind of trade information
and once the potential client sees your website
made by Squarespace,
they'll be impressed
because it builds credibility.
Also, websites are a great place
for you to stay connected and keep in touch.
I get so many emails through my website
where people have met me at events,
but they weren't able to trade information,
they'll contact me directly on my website and email me
and that way we can do business
and see how we can collaborate.
Finding a community is also a key factor.
It doesn't necessarily have to be
this people who do exactly what you do,
but at least finding like one or two friends
that understand the freelancing grind,
because it could feel very isolating.
Having a community of people that understand you
and you can vent your frustrations to
and empathize with you is so important.
And also you guys can evolve and grow together,
you guys can trade recommendations on the best equipment
or the best strategy about something.
And also you guys can go to networking things together.
Because when you're already with a group of friends,
it's easier to meet other groups of people because,
I mean, it's hard to just be there alone at events
and try to talk to people.
I mean,
I wish I could be better at that,
but it's just easier to meet people
once you already have your community.
Do not expect for you to become an overnight success.
Honestly being an overnight success
chances are,
if you skyrocket that fast,
you will skyrocket down that fast.
So it's almost nice to have a gradual build up and up.
You need to have patience because
you're probably going to do this job for free for a bit.
You got to really, really enjoy what you do.
When I first started YouTube,
I had no idea that I would have the financial stability
that I have today doing this job that I love.
But
it took a while to do this.
I was doing YouTube for free for years.
I it was always my side hustle.
I always made sure
that I was able to support myself in other ways.
I was working in a smoothie shop, I was going to college
and it wasn't until I was able to support myself fully
for at least a year doing YouTube
was when I was like, alright, I'm gonna do this full time,
let's freakin do it.
Just be smart about it because I know
I hear some advice of people being like,
if you're going to be freelance,
you're going to go all in, no safety net.
But I don't know as someone who,
as someone who is very risk adverse,
I recommend having a safety net.
Save some money up before you go full freelance.
Or wait until you have some financial stability as freelance
and then go full time.
It's going to be a grind
and it's called a grind because you are grinding it out
you're like pushing yourself at max capacity.
And if you do jobs for free,
make sure that you are strategic
with the jobs that you do for free,
because people will want 100% take advantage of you.
And if you do work for free too much
it can also bring the rates down for everybody else.
Your skill won't be
taken seriously enough
if everyone's just doing for free.
You know what I mean?
So it's important to
be very calculative on who you work for free for
because doing work for free
there needs to be some incentive for you.
When you're working from home
it is so important to have a clean environment,
at least for me.
I cannot stand a dirty environment.
It makes me feel so cluttered.
It makes me feel claustrophobic.
I mean, I am dramatic, but my space is everything.
So when I'm working from home, I make sure that it is clean,
it is tidy it is everything is where it needs to be.
If my place is dirty and I need to work,
I almost use cleaning as a way to procrastinate.
I'm like, oh, I can't work until the floors are scrubbed.
So make sure that your space is clean
before you set out time for working
because when you are working, you should just be working
and not focusing on anything else.
And having a clean environment
really helps you hone in that energy.
If you're working from home
it is always so important to find what time your flow is.
And a flow is when you are the most productive.
And flows can be different for different types of projects.
Some people are most productive at 10am
after they've had their first coffee.
Some people have it an afternoon,
others at 3am
it does not matter
because in freelance,
as long as you get your work done,
no one cares what time you got it done
as long as it's there, like by the deadline,
that is what's important.
It's really helpful to know when you're the most productive
because it creates a routine for you.
So for me,
I get my flow
at like 10am
to 1pm
that is when I'm the most productive
especially for admin work.
I'm in the zone
and that this is where I can also carve out treatments too
I feel really creative then too.
I have my filming flow from like 1pm to 5pm
when the sun is out,
because honestly, I have no choice
because I don't really understand
how to use synthetic lights.
So
I film when the sun is out.
And if I am brainstorming,
my flow comes at 10pm.
This is when I've all the resistance is gone
and I'm just I have no distractions,
and I'm just focusing on this creative concept.
I'm just like playing around.
I'm like looking at films,
I am reading books,
I am looking at artwork from different sites.
In this job where there's no routine,
I have created this routine for myself
and I absolutely love it.
Now we're moving on to finances and expenses.
It was never my forte.
From the jump I have always had an accountant.
I know what my strengths are,
and they do not lie in numbers.
And I
consider
consider your mind as precious energy.
And if doing taxes and calculating
makes you want to pull your hair out
and makes you so anxious
and debilitates you from actually doing your work
just get an accountant.
Honestly, that is money that's investing in yourself
and with taxes
you want to make sure you're doing it the right way.
And your accountant can help you set up estimated taxes
so that way you are giving your money away to the government
throughout the year.
Taxes are very stressful for a freelancer
because you don't get to keep the money that you get.
You need to give a percentage of that
away back to the government
and you
oh might, it's literally so depressing.
I really wish that the government just took away the money
before it got into my account.
It's not fun.
So you're gonna need to save the money that you get
and save a portion of it for taxes
because you never want to spend more than you're earning.
It's also very important to track your expenses.
Now, it's so easy.
You literally there are like lots of apps for this,
but you literally just take a picture of your receipt
and you can throw away the receipt
and the receipt goes into the iCloud
and then it just organizes everything for you by month.
And it's amazing.
Because if you ever get audited,
which I hope that I never do,
that's really going to come in handy.
Having a website is a key component
on keeping your work impeccable because
it is the first digital impression
that anybody or any potential client might have of you.
And it really sets the tone
of what your reputation might be.
And Squarespace makes it so easy for you to create a website
and have you prepared.
As a freelancer
your reputation is everything.
If you drop the ball over and over again,
word spreads so quickly
and no one's gonna want to work with you.
So make sure that you are on time
that you are kind to people
that you are always doing your best that you're prepared.
These things are so, so, so, so crucial
when it comes to freelancing.
Be communicative, be direct.
I feel like
even if you are amazing at what you do,
like you're like, let's say like you're just
this amazing photographer
if you always have a stank attitude at work,
and you're constantly late and flaky,
I'm sorry, but there's no one
that's gonna want to work with you.
Or if once they do, they're gonna realize,
oh, that was a horrible experience.
Let's say you're a mediocre photographer,
but you have a bright attitude,
you are always on time,
you are super communicative and you make me feel safe
I will just go with you.
I will grow with you
I would want I just want to be around you.
And that's those are the facts.
So keep that in mind.
So wow, that was a lot
but those were a couple of my tips
on how to find success as a freelancer.
I would absolutely love to hear any tips that you guys have
in the comments down below.
I feel like this is just a good place to have a community
maybe you can network down below I mean staff.
We're all like connected globally now, which is so amazing.
I want to thank Squarespace again for sponsoring this video
go to squarespace.com to get a free trial.
And once you're ready to launch
go to squarespace.com/jennim for 10% off
your first order of a website or domain
by entering the code jennim.
I want to thank you guys so much for watching
and I'll see you guys in the next one.
Bye.
( upbeat music)