About Being a Freelancer: From a Junior Freelancer’s Point of View

Hi everyone. In this story I want to write about being freelancer. I’m working as a data analyst in a non profit organisation. Also I’ve been working as a freelancer for approximately 2.5 years. Almost 7–8 months ago I created my own team and I’m doing web jobs with them. Let me tell you how I started.

I remember that, once we talked with my senior while I was an intern. I asked him, how can I be freelancer?

Because at that time he was doing actively freelancer (also he is doing actively freelancer). I want to emphasize here, thanks for him because I learned and still learning so many things from him.

He replied, “Firstly you should create your own website. You are saying, I want to be freelancer but you don’t have website even.” So I created my own website excitedly. I remember, I was so happy when I finished the coding website. I coded it with Django in one weekend. I showed him the website. He told me, I have to deploy it on a real server. While I am trying to deploy, I would have learn so many things. Really it happened as he said. I deployed my website. At least I had a real project on the Internet. I remember that I coded it in one weekend but I had tried to deploy for almost 4 days.

Some times later I quit my job which I was intern for following my dreams. I was going to be a freelancer. But I understood early, It was not easy. Approximately 1 month later I started a new job as a web developer in a digital agency. At these days I started to introduce myself as a freelancer. I improved my website. I kept the trying to find my own clients and to learn “how I can set the price” from work which I was working at those days.

I don’t want to talk to much however at least I found my client from my acquaintances. I started doing some business. While my clients were increasing I was acting like a real company. I sent out e-mails like corporate e-mails, I designed my own posters for my social media posts. After these, people thought I had already created my own company. Even someone asked me, which technologies I was using in my company? I smiled because I hadn’t created my own company, but it seemed a real company. I understood at that time, I had to create my own market with social media and taking advantages of my contacts. It had been more efficient than UpWork etc. for me.

In this paragraph I want to some write about tools which I get help while I was serving to my clients. I rented a VPS (virtual private server) from a server provider. In the beginning I used one server. Because when I got freelance job, I was using Python for them. In those days, I was in love with Django. And one server was enough for me. But some time later I thought, I could use WordPress for web jobs. Also customers could use easily it. Because if someone wants to learn WordPress, it was enough just spend a little bit time on Youtube about WordPress. After that they can learn it. And I did. I started to use WordPress for some web jobs. I bought CWP (centos web panel) for my second server. So I rented another server for WordPress jobs. At that time I could provide hosting services. It was another way of earning money for me. And I started to use my own Django software for tracking payments. It is simple and easy. So I am using these tools for my freelance jobs.

At least I want to write some texts about my team and what I am paying for my colleagues. Again I don’t want to talk to much. But let you know, I paid more than my rights to my friends who I worked with them at the same freelancing projects. While I was working with them for my freelance jobs, I understood if they earn money I can earn money. I shouldn’t be stingy and greedy. Because money can motivate the friends and they can give their best. I think it is the golden rule. Pay your colleagues or partners generously. After that they will work very well for you and they will never let you down.

At the end of this story: I wrote this text for today’s English class and I wanted to publish it on my medium blog. So please don’t judge me for my English 🥲