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Everything you need to know about building your personal brand as a freelancer

. 4 min read . Written by Vanshika Goenka
Everything you need to know about building your personal brand as a freelancer
You work as a freelancer? You must be living the life!

Sounds familiar? We’ve all heard this line before, be it from well-meaning friends or acquaintances who have a half-formed idea of what freelancing entails. While the rest of the world may see freelancing as an envied way of life, only a freelancer knows the tough side of this seemingly glamorous work model.

As liberating as it is, building a freelance career has its own pros and cons. Working for yourself means you are your own assistant, accountant, business development manager, and client servicing representative, which can be a boon some days and a definite bane on others. But at the end of the day, being a freelancer means you’ve managed to build a career entirely on your own terms and you wouldn’t have it any other way!

At Kool Kanya, we understand the support you’d require to deal with the ever changing business world, which is why we introduced the PowerPass. This is a well structured subscription programme that will give you the hands-on learning to hone the skills required to navigate the world of content, social media, digital marketing, and more. If you’re looking to #RaiseYourPower, here’s where the search ends.

As a freelancer, you are your own company and you’re owned by no company! Here’s where creating a personal brand becomes extremely important so you can effectively manage the pros of this lifestyle which come in the form of dry work spells, navigating earning as a freelancer, and dealing with inconsistent cash flows, etc.

We’re going to give you some quick hacks and tips that will act as a base on which your freelance career can stand. Let’s go?

1. Highlight what you bring to the table

When you’re freelancing, you need to be specific about what your offering is. List down everything that you are capable of doing and the bucket that into a fancy sounding name. For example, if your freelance skills include social media, strategy, and copywriting, you can label yourself as a Content & Marketing Strategist/Specialist.

You can use this label on your LinkedIn profile, website, and everywhere. Once you’ve identified your niche, the next step is to commit to it and build it. This would look like investing in courses that help you develop your niche and add to your credibility. If permissible, pause projects that don’t come under it or contribute to your growth.

2. Get social: Put out your media

Yes, we know you’re thinking that this seems like an additional task and as if you don’t have enough on your plate already! But trust us, the time investment is totally worth it and will help you create a personal brand that acts like your walking talking portfolio.

Presence on social media, especially on platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, will help you connect with prospective clients and get you noticed.

Use this to share your behind the scenes, how you came up with a campaign, and your small and big wins. With the world going digital, it’s become very important to mark your social footprint and this is one of the most crucial freelancing skills to learn.

3. Build a personal website

If you’re building a freelancer portfolio to be able to work with international clients someday, then building a website should be the number one priority on your list. The website will allow you to put your work in a dynamic manner, add a few testimonials from your existing clients and also portray your personality.

You can add a list of the clients you’ve worked with in the past and some work you are proud of. This also becomes a single link you share with anyone who asks for your portfolio. There are multiple sites like Wix, Webguru, and so on which will let you build a basic website with ease.

4. Use LinkedIn to your advantage

If you’re wondering how to get clients as a freelancer, here’s the way! The newest social-media kid on the block, LinkedIn has become the most efficient platform to land freelance jobs. Spend some time with it and use its in-built features to build your personal brand. Write a strong summary, list down all the brands you’ve worked with, ask for recommendations, update your skills, build a strong network, and join existing groups/communities on LinkedIn.

Almost all working professionals are on LinkedIn today and you never know whose eye you may catch.

5. Create content about and for yourself

Circling back to point number two, get on the inbound marketing bandwagon and understand how to add value to your audience, prospective clients and people you may want to hire.

This will help you build a community and will ensure that work keeps churning for you. Make sure you make your face the brand and start putting it everywhere.

Creating content for yourself and your personal brand would look like:

  • Insightful videos/blogs which solve a problem for your audience or clients who are looking to hire someone like you.
  • Contribute to guest blogs, collaborate with someone in the digital space. For example: If you’re a graphic designer, collaborate with a musician to create something together.
  • Do a fun Q&A and build that community.

Now that we’ve given you the skeleton to building a beautiful freelance career, we want to go a step ahead by putting together a detailed course on How To Earn A 6-Figure Salary As Freelancer which will act as a freelancing guide showing you how to build a personal brand, manage your clients, get assignments, and more.

Whether you’re someone who is looking to make a shift to the freelancing world from the corporate world, or an existing freelancer who is looking for structure, this course will cover it all and then some more.

Khushbu Vaid, the co-founder at Pentagon Events and Shalvi Mangaokar Biswas, a brand-marketing consultant and co-founder of The Mill have come together to design a course that’s fun, seamless and gives you a certification in the end!

Ready to take your freelance career to the next level?

Disclaimer: You may be reading this blog after the current learning course has lapsed. Head over to our all courses page to check for the latest courses and upskill yourself!