Imagine this for a second at night when you're ready to jump into bed; a text message steals your sleep away, puts a wide smile on your face, and encourages you to become more of what you're. You head towards the fridge, pick two or three beer cans to celebrate that occasion. It's when your first freelancer client pays whatever you asked in the invoice and tells you how satisfied he is with your work. And when you ask for an endorsement on LinkedIn, he happily agrees to it, the immediate moment.
What moment can be the best for a freelancer other than this in the freelancing journey? I'm sure everyone is super-excited to kick-start their journey as a freelancer. It's a journey that is equally risky and filled with opportunities to see how well you stand out in the highly competitive professions.
The only risk is, you're your boss here. A simple mistake can cost you and your client. But here are five tips to save you and double your chances in data science freelancing jobs (even if you're a first-timer).
Let's dive in.
(Even if you're a first-timer) The Only Five Tips To Double Your Data Science Freelancing
Start Your Branding on LinkedIn (Let People Know Who You're)
Unless you market yourself, how would people know who you're and what you do? So, build your brand by curating content that can help others or show your expertise in your areas.
So what can you share in building your brand?
• Your success stories, a journey where you stand today.
• Your struggle period and challenges you face.
• Your strategies and approaches
• Your expertise in data science (while helping beginners in their journey)
• Tricks and hacks for the complicated algorithms
When you post all these, your connections will find them relevant and give their views in the comments. They'll even engage with your post. HRs might call you for a job in their organization. Or you'll start getting outbound leads for freelancing opportunities, or you can begin 1-on-1 consultation.
Chose The Platforms That Has Potential Clients For You
Although LinkedIn is a great platform to establish your brand, boost your credibility, it's not the only platform to find your freelance clients. There are Upwork, Toptal, and Fiverr for the same.
The next step is to open your account and update the required information to fetch clients for you. Like:
• Your bio and expertise
• How it can help your clients
• Some proofs and testimonials
You can even join various data science community pages, where people often post for their requirements to hire freelancers. Grab those opportunities and kick-start your journey as a freelancer.
Imitate Various Approaches From Your Role Models
Remember: whatever you learn in data science training is most common for everyone in the data science field. Your research and approaches in various areas make a difference and help you stand out among the crowd.
When you build your connections, look for two things: 1) where you can learn to build your identity, 2) whom you can help towards their dream job in data science.
When you find great personalities on functionalities, follow them, learn their approaches. Refer KDNuggets, Towards Data Science for some excellent repositories to explore more about data science. Learn from the expert and start working on your projects simultaneously.
When your projects are over, you already have a portfolio with various experiences in the data science field, which doubles your chances even if you're a first-timer.
Define Your Rate, Create Your Contracts To Get Signed From Your Prospects
Before you start your freelancing project, the best thing you can do is get you and your prospect on the video call. Let clients know your process and how you can add value to their business.
Once you know what they want you to help, discuss how you would like to work with them—like per hour, $45 to $100 as a beginner.
If you hold a PG Diploma in data science, never work for less than $85. Most seasoned data scientists charge between $125 to $250 for quality research and experience delivering the highest quality.
In contracts, mention everything about the deliverables, mode of payments, any advance you charge before you begin, the expected date of deliverables, and other necessary conditions. Get them signed and keep a copy for your records too.
Create Your Set-Up To Get Yourself More Productive
Freelancing is always a tough challenge until you find a system that works for you. From scheduling everything to marketing for yourself, keeping updates with the latest stuff is a lot of things. There are chances you might miss, and it can trouble you on many occasions.
Therefore, finalize the time you want to work for your clients and when you want to work for yourself. Subscribe to various newsletters to keep updated about the latest happenings.
Invest in specific tools and courses to hone your skills and create extraordinary results. That way, you can help your clients the best.
Create a to-do list of what you want to do tomorrow, today itself. Prioritize the essential works in the beginning and least significant at the end, so you never miss anything important. Always attend webinars, meet people with the same interests, and go live often to strengthen your brand.
Over to You
With these five tips, you already know about how to establish yourself in the highly competitive market and double your chances of data science freelancing even if you're a first-timer. And freelancing gives you freedom on how you want to work and the types of projects you decide.
It's the ultimate freedom to choose the time you want to dedicate to your work, and what time do you want to spend with your family and friends? Trust your journey and get paid for the number of projects you work on.
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