Freelancing 101
Being a freelancer is a fun and liberating pursuit.
Even in its infancy, your freelance work will feel like a series of victories before you’re ever making the money to quit your 9 – 5 job!
That said, finding the work will prove to be equally difficult – sometimes more so – than completing the orders you receive!
This matters because, for obvious reasons, the clients you find determine the lifespan of your freelancing career – and they definitely do not pop out of thin air! In the beginning, you are likely to find yourself taking all the jobs you can.
This is good, it builds your brand, grows your resume, and sets you up to have competitive rates for your time when you do start earning the big name clients! To this end, finding clients in Paris will come down to three avenues: freelance mediation – sites like Expats Paris (as well as Malt, Fiverr, and Upwork) that operate in France and have local freelancers ready to go, Advertising your service, and networking.
How to use Freelance Mediation
Anybody interested in freelancing will need to price appropriately! When you are first starting out, you might think it is wise to charge a rate that averages the local rates. For example, on trip advisor, one will find travel services ranging from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars with most charging sub-100.
These are compelling numbers when you begin your freelancing career, but a word of advice suggests that you should undercharge when you are starting out if your goal is to build a brand! Legend has it that the reason Amazon is as successful as it is today is because it lost money in its infancy in exchange for becoming a household name around the world!
Now, we’re not recommending that you go lose money, but if you are in a place to make less money and offer an excellent service, you might just find tourists sharing your name with friends back home and start building a following of your own!
How to Advertise in Paris
Being the epicenter of business that it is – has a history of video advertising going back to the 1980s. So successful is the advertising culture in France that the RATP ( Paris Transport Authority ) was ushered into a golden age of success alongside the golden age of advertising – and the principles of advertising have not changed since.
To successfully advertise today, you are likely going to use the internet to get your name out there! The way this works – or can work – is you can pay sites like Facebook to launch an ad campaign. The trick to doing so in Paris is to use the feature wherein your ad is launched by location!
You are going to want to pick villages and cities throughout France that have a high population density (which should be easy in such a bustling city and nation) so your ad gets in front of the most people.
Networking in France
The beautiful part of working in France is the social atmosphere that exists here! It attracts not only tourists but also business people and dreamers! If you live in France, use this to your advantage! To network successfully, is an art. Nothing that we write here will be foolproof and work 100% of the time. But, there are some important considerations to make.
Firstly, people don’t want to network “for free”.
That is, people won’t do business with others if they don’t get something out of it. It doesn’t always have to be much, but anything you can do for people and their interests will get your name in their heads more effectively.
Furthermore, networking will involve being persistent.
It won’t be enough to just give people your business card and walk away.
You will want to follow up – politely – over time and each time you should be bringing something you can offer!
