How to Start
Freelancing

This is my quick, practical guide on how to begin freelancing. The world is vast and there are so many creative ways to make money, so don’t limit yourself!

The steps in the post are what worked for me. I am now a Top Rated Plus freelancer on Upwork, have earned $60K+, and have a 100% Job Success Rate. I share this information to show you what is possible and inspire you to take action today.

One pathway, endless options.

Welcome!

So you’ve decided you want to take control of your financial destiny.

Whether you need to make extra money or want to work for yourself, making the leap into freelance life can be both exciting and overwhelming.

Before we dive in, I want to clarify a few terms. These terms are often used interchangeably, but you can decide which one feels the most reflective of you.

  • Typically works hourly or projects with a variety of clients. Experience level depends.

  • Typically offers services for a set period of time; often has 7-10 of deep experience in a specific area.

  • Typically offers services or products. 1-3 team members.

  • Typically refers to someone who creates a business they intend to grow; often associated with startups/tech world.

Steps to Start Freelancing

01
Identify Your Why
(Don’t Skip This)

02
Create 5
Brainstorm Lists

03
Do Market Research
on Upwork

04
Craft Your Offer,
Price, & Upwork Profile

05
Skip the Website,
Build a Portfolio

06
Vetting Clients &
Sending Proposals

07
Make a List of
Personal Practices

08
Tools to Stay
Organized

09
Business Basics
& Tax Tips

Step 01

Identify Your Why

First, identify why you want to start freelancing.

Knowing your why becomes essential as you craft your offering and decide which clients to work with. 

Your why becomes your north star, your motivation. It can also be your gut check when uncertainty arises. You can simply ask, does this project/rate/client rate align or support my why?

    • I want to be in charge of my own time and hours

    • I want to be able to rely on myself for income

    • I want to work remotely from anywhere

    • I want to build a business and small team

    • I want extra income to support my lifestyle

    • I want to transition out of my job and do something I enjoy

    • I want to quit my job or I got laid off, and need to start making money now

Step 02

Create 5 Brainstorm Lists

Take a few hours to reflect on your work experiences and create 5 different Brainstorm Lists.

You likely already have some of this info in a resume, so upload it to ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to pull a refined list as a starting point. 

Once you have your lists (they can be short or long), these become your keywords! Next, bold the keywords you are most interested in pursuing for freelancing.

Step 03

Do Market Research on Upwork

Create a free account on Upwork.

In the search bar, start typing in your top keywords from your Brainstorm Lists. This will pull up jobs associated with your keywords so you can see what people are actually hiring for.

Do:

✅ Test different keywords
✅ Use the filters on the side to narrow your results
✅ Use the hourly rate and project fees to filter for rates you want. This helps filter out low paying jobs.
✅ Look at the Hirer’s profile in the job listing; where they are based, their rating, and average hourly rate.

The goal of this exercise? Identify jobs you can do, at a rate your willing to accept. This will help craft your offer.

Have fun in this process, stay curious! You may be surprised what results pop-up with certain keywords.

Step 04

Craft Your Offer, Pricing, and Upwork Profile

Crafting Your Offer
Your offer doesn't need to be perfect on day one. Start simple and refine it as you work with clients.

Consider:
→ What problems or pain points are you solving?
→ What are your actual deliverables?
→ How much support is included? What is not included?
→ What is the timeline?
→ How will you charge (hourly, project, retainer)?
→ What is the next step?

Pricing
This can vary widely depending on what you offer.

General Rule: Calculate your hourly rate from your salary, then double it. This is your freelancing hourly rate. This creates a cushion for taxes, health insurance, and non-billable hours.

Example: $60K/year ≈ $30/hour. Your freelance rate ≈ $60/hour.

Another option is to work backward: decide how much you want to make each year and how many hours you want to work each week, then use those numbers to determine your rate.

🎥 Loom walk-through of my Upwork profile and what to look for when creating yours.

Step 05

Skip the Website, Build a Portfolio

“Do I need a website to start freelancing?”

The short answer is no!

I freelanced for 1 year without: a website, a logo, or any branding. So don’t get caught in building a brand when you don’t need one to get started. You can build your brand and website later down the road.

Instead of building a website, I created a portfolio on Notion.

This was free, easy to build quickly, and served as a “website”. On my Community Portfolio, I highlighted my areas of expertise, case studies, and what it was like to work with me. I then linked my portfolio directly in all proposals or messages to clients.

As bonus I didn’t expect, many of my clients were entrepreneurs or small businesses who used Notion themselves, so liked that I knew the platform.

Build a Website

⚠️ More upfront costs

⚠️ Requires business name & branding elements

⚠️ Easy to overthink

⚠️ Takes longer to build

Build a Portfolio on Notion

✅ Free

✅ No branding required; can still be visual

✅ Simple building process

✅ Quick to build

  • You can truly do this whenever. I built and launched my brand and website 1-year into my freelance journey. 

    I lucked out in one way: back in 2016 I created a small business to start selling my ceramics. So from that, I already had a brand name, logo, Squarespace website, and Google Workspace — all I need to do was revamp it. I didn’t use the brand from 2017-2022, so I guess my 6 years of paying for Squarespace and Google finally paid off.

    When you start building your brand and website here are some low cost options to consider:

    → Creative Market: for cool images, icons, etc.
    → Coolers.io: for determining your color palette 
    → Canva: For bringing design elements together to create images.
    → Google Workspace: For claiming your business email.

Step 06

Vetting Clients + Sending Proposals

  • In the beginning you may feel pressured to work with anyone who will pay you, but please take care to vet your clients carefully.

    Here are a few ways I vet clients, whether I am sending a proposal or they have invited me to apply for a job.

    • Verified Payment Method: I won’t submit a proposal or schedule Discovery Call until a potential client has this.

    • Client Rating on Upwork: Consider this carefully. Most clients I work with have high ratings. One time I made an exception because this client had a lower rating (3 stars) but not many reviews so I gave the benefit of the doubt. It was a mistake.

    • Free Discovery Call: Before I work with anyone, I always have a 20-minute chat with them to make sure we’re aligned on scope.

    • Trust Your Gut Instinct: Every time I ignored soft red flags during a Discovery Call, I almost always ran into issues later with the client. So trust yourself!

  • When sending Proposals, don’t overthink it or make it too long.

    → Lead with how you can help.
    → Establish your qualifications or quick proof points.
    → Suggest 20-minute discovery call to see if it’s a fit.

  • Hello Hiring Team,

    I’m interested in helping you quickly get your Circle community setup! What you've outlined sounds very straightforward and shouldn't take too long to set up.

    I have built 3 communities on Circle, so I'm well-versed in Circle’s back-end, settings, and features. I even have a setup checklist ready for us to take action on. Additionally, I've managed a Circle community for 3 years, so I can strategically design your Community to maximize engagement.

    If there’s alignment, I’d love to connect and learn more about the community your building and how I can support. You can book a 20-minute call here: [LINK]

    You can get to know me a bit better in my Community Portfolio if you would like: [LINK]

    Thank you,
    Christina

Step 07

Make a List of
‘Personal Practices’

Okay, you’ve crafted your offers, started sending proposals, and are ready to start taking on clients!

Before you begin, I recommend making a list of Personal Practices to help hold yourself accountable.

They’re super simple, but they remind me of what I’m committing to as an entrepreneur and business owner.

Step 08

Tools to Stay Organized

Depending on your offer you may need different tools to run your business.

Here’s what my current tech stack looks like:

Squarespace • Domain • $20/Year
Squarespace • Website Subscription • $96/Year
Google Workspace • Communication & Documents • $9/Month
Fathom • AI Meeting Notetaker • Free
Canva • Invoices and Graphic Design • $15/month
CapCut • Video Editing • $22/month
ChatGPT • Ideation Partner • $22/month
Claude • Ideation Partner • Free
Notion • Internal Project Management • Free
Toggl • Tracking Client Hours • Free
Slack/WhatsApp • Quick Client Comms • Free

As you can see, my core business expenses are quite low.

  • I try to accept any way people pay me, so I have accounts at the following:

    • Domestic Bank Account (ACH Transfer)

    • Wise (Domestic, International, Various Currencies)

    • Venmo

    • Stripe Invoice

    • Upwork

    • Paypal 

    Some clients also set me up on their payment platform (Gusto, Mercury, BILL, etc.) and I typically receive payment as an ACH Transfer.

    Typically I require a deposit to start work, and send invoices on the 16th and 1st of every month.

  • I use Notion as my internal Business Hub and Dashboard. It’s simple but helpful!

    • I have a sheet for leads (inbound/outbound) with statuses.This helps me track leads and hires.

    • I have a kanban board for tasks.

    • I have a community HQ which houses info, templates, etc.

Step 09

Business Basics + Tax Tips

Business Basics

Becoming a freelancer and running your own business doesn't have to be complicated or overwhelming.

At a minimum, I would recommend:

→ Create an LLC (cost depends on your state)
→ Get an EIN (free and federal)
→ Open a business bank account

Financial Tracker

You can easily track all your essentials in one spreadsheet. Here’s the tabs on mine:

  1. Income

  2. Expenses

  3. Tax Sheet (auto-calculates how much I need to set aside for taxes)

  4. Personal Income (HYSA); your report this on your tax return

  5. Health Insurance; you can report this on your tax return

  6. Roth IRA Contributions; nothing to do with my business or taxes, but this is where I track. I try to max it out as quickly as a I can each year.

Tax Tips

→ I do my own bookkeeping. If your business is simple, can you get far on your own with some help from ChatGPT.

→ I file my own taxes and use the IRS's Free Fillable Forms.

→ I don’t pay quarterly taxes (yes, they tell you to) instead I put my tax money in my HYSA to accrue interest over the year (stock market feels too risky for me). I set aside 15-20% of my income for taxes.

The biggest advice I can give around money is to train your mindset!

You NEED to be comfortable looking at your bank account and actively tracking your income and expenses. I am looking at my Finance Tracker weekly, if not daily