This is Day 1 of 31 Days to Start a Freelancing Business (Or Make Yours A Better One). Every day, we will focus on a specific task you should carry out in order to start a profitable freelancing business. Even though this series lasts 31 days, feel free to go at your own pace. And if you’re already freelancing, it still helps to go through these tasks again. You’ll find ways to improve and make your existing freelancing business even more profitable and more enjoyable than it is. I’ll be doing it with you!

So you’ve decided to start freelancing. Congratulations! It’s a leap of faith, whether you were thrust into it by a lay-off, or it’s a dream you’ve had for years.

Either way, it pays to start right. And let’s begin with YOU.

What Can You Do, Exactly?

Begin by making a list of all your skills. Grab a big, blank sheet of paper and a pen or pencil and just list down each and every thing you can do.

Don’t think about this too much. This is similar to a brainstorming exercise where you don’t edit, evaluate or judge any of your ideas yet. The only criterion is that everything you write should be something you can do – a skill you already have in your field. So please don’t include your hobbies here, unless you want to freelance in that area!

Don’t think about whether  you’re good at it, enjoy doing it, or think there’s a demand for it.

Think of skills you picked up while you were employed. Things you have formally studied or trained for. And don’t forget skills in your field that you learned on your own.

Write until you can’t think of anything more. And then ask your friends and family what they think you can do (again, not what you’re good at but what you can already do). Stop only when you’re sure you’ve exhausted all the possibilities.

Should you write on paper or the computer? Use what works for you best. Personally, I brainstorm much more effectively with paper and pen, preferably a very large and very blank sheet of paper. Otherwise, it feels like the lines on the paper constrain my thoughts.

But that might not be the case for you. Maybe your brain gets cranked up when you’re in front of your computer screen. If that’s the case, then type your list onto your computer.

Now We Analyze

After completing your list, you may want to take a break before moving into the next part of today’s task: analyzing your skills.

Now is the time to look at your skills and decide:

• which skills are you really good at?
• which skills do you enjoy doing most?
• which skills are in high demand?

Ideally, you’ll identify a few skills that fit all three descriptions, as represented by the middle portion of the graphic below, where all three circles overlap.

Don’t worry too much about the third item yet (demand). You’ll be going back to that on a later date, when you find out what your target clients want.

I suggest you transfer your list of skills into a matrix like this:

Again, don’t over-think this exercise. The important thing is to be both thorough and honest.

Today’s exercise will be one of your bases for putting together your service packages. But don’t get ahead of yourself. We’ll be taking things one step at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed.

Relax and enjoy the exercises. Because if you’re not having fun, then what’s freelancing for?

PS: If you have any questions, please post them in the comments below.

photo credit: Crystl

To win a job bid on Elance – or any other bidding site for that matter – you need to sell yourself.

In fact, to get a job over other applicants, you need to sell yourself.

The question is: do you?

Many freelancers are extremely uncomfortable with the idea of selling or marketing themselves and their services. I understand. To sell yourself, you have to commodify yourself to a certain extent – see yourself, your skills, your experiences as a product, with features that are worth a certain amount of money to other people.

It’s not easy to think of yourself as a chunk of pie on the store shelf (or whatever product you want to imagine yourself to be). But it is necessary.

You sell yourself on your professional website. You sell yourself on your Elance profile. You sell yourself on your bid. And on every single piece of communication you send to your prospective and existing clients.

So my conclusion is that every freelancer should have at least a basic understanding of copywriting. You don’t need a $1500 home study course. If you just want to master the basics, here’s a list of some free resources I recommend:

1. Copyblogger Copywriting 101 - Brian Clark is one of the most respected and most successful bloggers to date. He knows his stuff. Even if you just read Copyblogger every day, you’ll get enough copywriting and marketing education to boost your self-selling skills.

2. Copydaddy’s Salesletter Writing Training Series – If you’re into video, you’ll like Brian McElroy’s videos about how to write a sales letter. Check it out even if you’ll probably never have to write a sales letter.

3. Remarkable Communication – Sonia Simone is one of my favorite copywriters (I stalk her on Twitter, LOL). Read her blog to learn how to communicate better with your clients. And do sign up for all her free e-courses.

4. Ittybiz – One can hardly mention Sonia Simone without Naomi Dunford coming up, so my next recommendation is for you to read Naomi’s blog too. Ittybiz’s content is more general, covering all things small businesses should be concerned about (you DO know your freelancing gig is a small biz, don’t you? Or potentially a big biz). But in this particular post, she does actually talk about copywriting. Warning: Contains profanity (but she’s really funny, too). Oh and don’t leave without signing up for one of her free e-courses.

If you’d like to find out more about how to win bids for high-quality projects on Elance, check out “How to Make Money on Elance” by TheSavvyFreelancer.com.

So there you have it. Build your copywriting skills, implement something new, and do let me know how it goes. Post a comment below. Thank you!

Disclaimer: I am a complete Elance failure; I’ve never won a bid on Elance. So I picked up these nuggets of wisdom from six-figure Elancer, Trish Lamber. Click here to learn more about my interview with Trish.

photo credit: Cosmic Kitty