3 Major Keys to Success as a Freelancer (Working Online)
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
- On December 20th, I said goodbye to my desk job, took a short break from work over Christmas and returned to my life as Chris the Freelancer on January 6th.
Within 2 days, I had found my first new client and 2 days later, I started work.
Now almost two months later and I’m still working for this client and honestly, they’re one of the best clients I’ve ever had. They’re well-paying, consistent and they pay within a few hours of me invoicing them.
And, this is very interesting to me because in the past, I’ve really struggled to find freelance work and I’ve even been at the point of giving up.
But as I started to think about what I had learned over the years of me working in this career, I realised a few key ingredients that I was missing.
And this experience has inspired me to share what I think are the three major keys to succeeding as a freelancer with you guys in this video.
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About Chris the Freelancer
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Chris is a self-taught web developer who started learning to code back in 2015 after discovering the ‘digital nomad’ movement.
He now works as a freelance front end web developer and teaches what he knows to thousands of students through Skillshare.com.
Visit the website: www.christhefreelancer.com/ to learn how you can Learn to Code and Travel the World.
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You can also find Chris on...
Facebook at / christhefreelancer
Instagram at / christhefreelancer
![step-by-step: how to actually work [from home] as a freelancer](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KLTvEb57Kj0/mqdefault.jpg)
![ОРБАН приехал к ПУТИНУ и "отчитался" о поездке в Киев 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_0ukDovOWq8/mqdefault.jpg)
Cheers from Poland! You look now like Jim from the Office :)
Dzien dobry z Chicago.
Great tips, Chris! From my experience, I've found that knowing you'll succeed before you get there is a big part of getting there. If you don't believe, you won't achieve. 🙏
Really loved the part about growing confidence. This really resonated!
Great Content! Really enjoyed this video, Thank you for this info Chris!
Great informative video as usual Chris, awesome tips!
Great video! Simple facts, well explained with examples.. very motivating :) Well done!!
Point #3 cannot be stressed enough. You can be the best at your craft and highly confident, but if you don't communicate with your customer clearly, especially in a timely manner (don't make them come looking for you), you are opening yourself up to a world of trouble. Clients don't know what you're doing unless you are telling them and showing them through candid, succinct, and timely communication.
1. skills
2. confidence
3. well communication skills
Thanks for your videos. The best ones on nomadic life/freelancing. Keep up the good work. Cheers from Germany
Truth! Love your videos!
Great tips! Thanks, Chris :)
Your content is always very valuable!
Nice, you are back at it! I just came across your Skillshare courses and I'm going to work through them, I'd like to do Shopify theme work as well.
Thanks mate, stay safe!
Yoooo Chris you put on some major size I noticed it right away, looking strong!
Thanks mate!
Great video, thanks Chris. For my part, and it’s a learning journey, is to focus on your skills, be a master of what you are good at, develop your weaknesses but don’t be a jack of all trades! I am a teacher, not a coder, I would like to train as a coder but realise it would take me time to do so, and my teaching students would suffer. So I have realised that I can be a teacher, anywhere pretty much, so that’s my focus .
Thanks for your sharing, Chris :)
1. skills: bạn có kỹ năng gì, bạn cung cấp giá trị gì cho khách hàng, để làm công việc đó sẽ cần có những kỹ năng nào.
2. confidence: tự tin về bản thân và thuyết phục khách hàng làm việc với mình.
3. communication: giao tiếp hiệu quả: hiểu và đáp ứng đúng những gì khách hàng cần.
Bonus: chuyên sâu vào 1 ngách sẽ tốt hơn cho sự nghiệp lâu dài, tăng khả năng cạnh tranh của bản thân trên thị trường.
Great advice Chris, and wow jump in subscribers a lot waiting the return!
Chris, your hairstyle looked better earlier...:(
You're great!
Great to see you back mate! Really missed your vids.
Thanks! Yes, I'm experimenting currently with the hair. It's a work in progress haha
Nah this one is good, fuck the haters
Good fundamental advice.
Very good points indeed
Here's an idea for your next video mate 😉
Where do you find your clients when in Thailand? Do you retain regular clients?
And of course the cliche, how do you start finding clients, with no experience.
Keep up the awesome content!
I’d say it’s definitely easier when you’re actually in the same country as the prospective client. This opens up the opportunity for in-person meetups.
In order to retain clients it’s important that they need ongoing services. I used to build websites for people but they usually only needed one website. Now I freelance for agencies on retainer.
@@ChristheFreelancer That's a great idea Chris, thanks.
Upwork. He talks about it at the end.
Greetings from the USA! Dope content
You've made some great resources on here bud!
Good advice. Another requirement for someone not in tech is market specific knowledge. My knowledge of market value rates for both Ireland and the UK makes my service more beneficial than getting a foreign surveyor that doesn’t know what labor or material costs in those territories are.
Exactly having the best skill is not enough, communication matters :)
Hi Chris,
I saw you in Chiang Mai at Coco Kala but I did not recognize you at that time. I was like "why does his face look so familiar to me?". And now I know why! Haha.
Very happy to see you back on UA-cam. You inspired me to quit my job and move to Chiang Mai.
Nice! Thanks Sushee
Thank you for this video Chris! Do you know if there is a market for UX Design? I wonder if it is as in demand as your programming skills...
I'm in one of those offshore countries. The I word.
My only advantage against others from my country is that my communication and English skills are great.
I agree with you Chris.
Also can you speak about acquiring digital assets and businesses?
Could you make more practical Shopify theme development tutorials on your UA-cam channel, please? I still feel I'm stuck after watching your skillshare videos.
Thanks for this tips. As of right now I am on the beginning. Building my skills. The confidence is what I am going to build more.
I hope you have a video for people who wasn’t born as English native as nomad. How you will approach client and hired you.
I'm still shocked Chris doesn't have more subs
This channel should blow up even morr
Approaching clients is a very important aspect
You will actually increase the chances of sales and eventually the number of clients you'll get every month if you provide something completely free that people in your target audience would be willing to pay for
Here's a PDF that is an ultimate guide to getting more customers as a freelancer
www.freepdfguides.com
There's a live chat on the site also if you need any other insights or walkthroughs
Success
Read "The Freelance Manifesto". It's about animators but taught me so much when it comes to communicating with clients. Also "How to win friends and influence people" is fantastic for communication in general.
Practice and know the basics is a good thing to start! Could you please make a video about how you learned to code from the start?
I made a short eBook on that www.christhefreelancer.com/how-to-code-book
Thanks for the tips I hope I will be able to monetize my skills in a year.
Great tips Chris! Do you have a plan for a future video to handle how you make an attractive portfolio to convince clients as a freelancer?
Not right now, no
I would like to do free Lance work as well, but honestly it seems difficult. Also overall confusing. Would love to travel though
Excellent tips... Bottomline one needs to really work hard to be a gd freelancer.. Nothing comes free
Very inspiring video Chris!
What do you think about React? Have you ever tried it before? I'm specializing in it and using GatsbyJS and I'm really enjoying, btw the websites hit 100 in all google audit requisites and it's incredibly fast.
Keep posting new videos 👊
Cheers from Brazil 🇧🇷
Yes. I learned a bit of it back in 2017. Most recently I’ve been getting into Vue.js though
My goal is to be a digital nomad. With Covid, I am working mobile, but my challenge is working with a locked in time zone. So it brings quite a challenge to working overseas :(
Hey Chris have you heard of X-Team? Been hearing about them more often recently. A fully remote company that have hacker houses you can work out of/live in rent free as an employee. Wanted to know whats your take on something like that?
What was the "offshoring company" which he mentioned?
Thanks. Would be interesting to know how from you how much references still play a role nowadays.
Hmm, it would help but in the end, anything that helps the client to trust in your abilities is helpful
Don’t feel though a reference for the work you’re maybe starting out in needs to reflect what you have recently learned. It could be a character reference from a trusted source or even who you leaned from.
Chris I plan on going on the digital nomad journey in May this year. Do you recommend Chiang Mai or Bali for a beginner such as me?
Chiang Mai but either is fine
I am an IT team lead , well the title just for show, I am from India and started out as a tech support rep 14 years ago. around 2013 I learnt Netwrok technologies and did a CCNA after which i went into Network Admin adn support. over the last 3 years I have learned a bit of Linux, cloud , virtualization , a little bit of Python coding and now want to learn Dev ops and learn the whole CI/CD model , I also want to specialize in Pythona and data science later. I got laid off my office recently and went to phanghan for a week in march . Now I want to be a digital nomad but am confused how to go about it. I guess I have to learn how to use tools like Jira , and others to bill clients , be part of projects, effectively communicate with teams around the world, I have done such projects in the past working for the company Accenture and almost all the work I did in the past 5 years has had people collaborating on bridge calls. I guess I am ready but am just so confused how to go about it, I wish I could find someone like you to hire me as an understudy and pay me just a little , say 20-30 % while I work and home and learn the tricks of the trade a little and then when I build a portfolio and start to earn enough can venture out to the palces I want to work at , ie Koh phanghan. do yoga, relax on the beach , nourish my soul as well. if thats not an option I guess it should be , so a free lancer wold have a watson , I mean an aprentice or an intern , get a lot of manual work done by him which would be symbiotic coz the tranee would learn and the trainer would have more quality time to do more cognetive work . Let me know if this is a thing and you can recommend anyone , I think if I can get even the same amount of what I use to earn here in India while I am an aprentice then it will still be very less for the freelancer . if not how to go about things ? I am following your vidoes. I guess I need to first figure out what to specialize in and what to focus on . I think I am going round and round in circles. I guess being laid off has made me a bit anxioius but I know I can do this as well . I wish anyone who has read so far a great day :)
I got the answer to most of the questions from your other videos . I need to be really cemented and good at work first. work on the digital aspect before the Nomad I guess. It is not easy and barrign a few off days most would be work work work , I guess I will focus on the digital part, focus on trying to get free lance jobs and building a reputation and name for myself then think about the nomad and travel bug that I have . Thanks again .
You're looking ripped AF lol
davlmt Nomad is very fit!
Def looking more buff
Hey Chris , would you say places like Upwork are a race to the bottom in terms of getting more as a freelancer?
Not necessarily but I think eventually, you want to get off these platforms and start to attract clients through professional circles.
Hi Chris, I really liked your video content. But I have a question please
How do you get your first work as a freelancer with in two days and where exactly?
could you please do other video about that.
Hey man. It was all through LinkedIn. I sent a bunch of messages to other Shopify Plus partner agencies and got a few bites :)
Great video chris, im motion designer working on 3d tv promos and i have 9 years experience on tv, i like to know from your experience how to find client, is it any website i can connect with clients or i have to reach to them by email? Thanks again for your content 👍🏻
UpWork, LinkedIn, cold email and personal networking are all options to find clients
@@ChristheFreelancer thank you for your reply, i have saw it at end of your video, your content so helpful 👍🏻👍🏻
Where did you found good Shopify tutorials? Thank you!
Check out my UA-cam channel ‘Code with Chris the Freelancer’ 😉
Can you please make video about how much you’re making a year as a freelancer? Or, in general, how much someone doing Shopify freelancing could earn a year?
You said you don’t want to name those offshore countries. You can it’s OK, we know it’s true. Also if someone is freelancer from an expensive country to live in like Australia. He can’t offer rates as offered by someone living in India(my country and I am proud of), bangladesh, Srilanka, Indonesia, Malaysia etc.
Can you please make a video on how to find services for companies that would allow someone to start working online?
You mean like job ideas?
www.christhefreelancer.com/digital-nomad-jobs/
Hey Chris I am in Bangkok if you would like to do a collaboration that would be cool, Cheers
hey man, do you think there is a lot of opportunities for test automation engineers?
No idea man.
REALLY want to do the networking part that freelancers do. Can you focus a bit on that mate? I know you already do (nomad cruise etc), like making friends and so on.
Networking for work or friendship/dating?
@@ChristheFreelancer Friendship/dating aspects would be nice.
Maniae Official yeah, like you mentioned, these nomad community organised trips are great but I’ve found it pretty easy to connect with people in the major hotspots like Chiang Mai and Bali.
You just gotta hang out where other nomads hang out and you’ll inevitably meet some
How about sharing how much you earn and how you get your jobs? Private I know but super interesting.
I am also a Shopify partner developer since last 7+ years.. ✌️
Why did you choose this particular specialization?
ua-cam.com/video/g7iiIiREL5E/v-deo.html
In my opinion it's:
1. Positioning
2. Sales
3. Skills
Can you expand?
@@quentinrufin4025 1. Positioning: Specializing on one niche as Chris explained because you are perceived as an expert and over time you also develop to an expert in this niche and can deliver greater results and charge higher prices
2. Sales: You have to be able to understand the prospects' problem, craft an offer to solve this problem and communicate the value you deliver to the client
3. Being able to deliver great results
Have you started to complete yet your passive income target by applying your skills so as to not have to rely on clients or are you simply enjoying it so much that working for others is more of a paid hobby?
Haha I wouldn’t say working for others is a ‘paid hobby’ for me.
I would like to build more passive income but I’m not a very ‘passive’ person so I’m more looking for ways to work on stuff that satisfies me the most :)
Chris the Freelancer oh okay Chris. Thanks for coming back to me 🙏🏼. What is it that satisfying you most? Sorry for all the questions I’m just trying to get a bit more understanding as to how your mind works as a ‘digital nomad’. Clearly you enjoy what it is you currently do and it’s great you share that by teaching others.
How do you find your clients?
It’s evolved over time but recently I’ve been using LinkedIn InMail.
As soon as you work with Shopify why didn't you mention PHP? :)
Not following you sorry. Why should I mention PHP?
@@ChristheFreelancer oops, sorry, I thought it is built with PHP. I've just realized that Shopify is Ruby on Rails powered :)
В ОТПУСК САМ! - про путешествия yes but unlike Wordpress, you have no access to the code. Just the API and the theme (which is in Liquid)
Where´s Chris ? Where are you ? It's been so long I haven't heard from you.
Confidence as a developer has been a big issue for me. I came into programming via a bootcamp, and whenever I was struggling with something at work, I felt like a useless fraud.
How I (mostly) got over that is a long story, but the biggest thing has just been time/experience. The better I get, and the more challenges I overcome, the more confident I become that I can tackle whatever's thrown at me.
So advice to all the newbies: stay strong, stick with it, it really does get easier.
Great content mate, I will share this on my remote work groups.
Sent you an email about a podcast, check it when you have some time.
Cheers.
Thanks for the comment! I will warn you however that I don't do interviews unless I know the person asking :)
First...er no, second!
How do you work and get away with visa restrictions
What do you mean by ‘get away with visa restrictions’?
@@ChristheFreelancer depending of you nationatity and your destination you have to go to an embasy of you destination and request a permit to enter the country explaining with details what will you do there and they can refuse to get you in by nothing can be you aperence, your nationality etc
Emanuel Riquelme hmm, haven’t had many issues with this, I’m afraid.
I am in the fortunate position of being from a Tier 1 country though. A lot of places I travel to have visa exemptions or visas on arrival
Chris the Freelancer Thought that was a obvious question .I suspect you do enter on a tourist visa and do a border run .You do talk about working and living in Thailand what you don't mention is work restrictions.In order to be frank you fail to mention any of this assume this is not to expose yourself .
100th comment: handsome bloke
Javascript + Framework
Node or PHP
mysql
And you're good to go.