Did you ever start freelancing without any experience??

[4f590c6e]

How was it it when you first started and have you grown,looking from the time you started to now??

[5a24222d]

Have plenty of experience outside upwork. But none in this platform. Is it necessary to upgrade to get clients?

[allpurposewriter]

Rani,

To survive in this world, you should continuously upgrade whether you are a freelance worker or an employee. But "to get clients ..." as of today? No. It isn't always necessary. It's just that learning will be necessary to landing clients tomorrow. Today is different. Upgrading will protect tomorrow, not ensure anything today.

As of today, the number one factor in finding your first client, as far as I can tell, is confidence. 

If you have been at this a while and have lots of nice reviews, a new client will look at those reviews and see that others have taken a chance and were happy they did, because it alll worked out. But if you have no reviews, where will clients find any confidence that hiring you will work out? They have to take a huge leap in faith to assume confidence in someone without an established track record.

So, what are you going to do? The first thing to understand is that you alone have to supply or create the confidence in yourself that otherwise isn't obvious. So, you have to say things like, "my previous employer loved my work ..." This, at least, looks like someone else took a chance and was happy how things turned out.

You can use a lot of specifics to point out your track record is solid. If you say, "I worked at ____________ for 10 years and the results were _______________," it begins to sound like confidence in you is warranted. Lasting 10 years on a job means that somerthing must have worked out.

You have to supply the confidence in the way you write your profile. Just saying "I have 10 years experience," isn't really good enough. You have to say "I have 10 years experience and the results were ________________." Or you have to say, "I was given the same task again and again, because I was good at it." Basically, you have to validate your claims with tangible information, not just lofty abstractions.

One you realize that the missing ingredient in getting your first gig is the lack of confidence, you can write a profile that seriously addresses that. 

The other way to do that is to offer your services for practically nothing. But then you have to ask for a solid review to make up the difference. You can find clients willing to do that, but be very, very careful. This could backfire.

I think the failsafe way around this is to take a job for very low wages, then return the money if you get a bad review. A lousy review will set you back months or years; meanwhile, you've worked for so little money, it doesn't matter if you return it or not. It is much more important that you find good reviews as compared to earning a few dollars. That good review will set you up. Those small wages will only get you dinner.

[cd40abe8]

Starting freelancing without any skill will be very though. It won't be easy because you won't have better understanding of what the client is saying and some terminologies the client will be using. 

[allpurposewriter]

Employers hire people without any experience. They do this sometimes because they think re-training someone is easier than training someone for the first time. Employers also want someone who will fit into their company environment, so they will hire someone they like with limited experience before hiring someone they don't like with significant experience.

Freelancing is the polar opposite of this. Your personality hardly matters here. Freelancers work remotely, so who cares if they get along with others? With freelancing the only thing that can assauge the client's fears is experience. 

One of the hidden fears on Upwork is the fear that a freelancer will bid on some job they aren't qualified to do and quit halfway through the job, leaving the client high and dry. The best insurance against that is for clients to hire someone with enough experience to convine them that they know how to see a project through to the end. 

[williamtcooper]

Busisiwe,

Everybody had to start with no work experience.

It's completely different now compared to decades ago because business need evolve.

[bf97c28c]

Hi, Busisiwe. It's an interesting question. I started out with a lot of experience in one area, but during my freelancing, I changed to an area that was new to me. So it's like starting out with no experience.

[bilal1983]

Starting without any experience in freelancing, but having corporate job experience is different. That is how I started. It helped me in my field of work, and when I started I didn't know what to expect. As I learned more about the platform, dos, and don'ts, ins and outs, and started getting better and winning more jobs, I realized this could work for me as a complete switchover from corporate to freelancing, and I've not looked back since then. It is the best decision I've made in my career and this life suits me.

It is slightly more difficult to start freelancing without any work experience at all. Having skills in your area is very important as well. But one may start freelancing without any experience for sure. Just be good at the service you are offering, and put as much time as you can into learning the platform, and knowing the rules. Making a profile and sending proposals is the easy part. Anyone who asks me about freelancing, I always advise them to spend a LOT of time watching videos and reading articles, make sure they are skilled in their field, and THEN jump into it.