Becoming A Freelance Creative: How To Survive

Making the decision to pursue a career as a freelancer in a creative industry is a brave one, the creative industries are amongst the most competitive to carve out a career for yourself. It can be difficult, especially early on, to figure out how to make yourself stand out and get the work and career that you deserve. Here we are offering a pros guide on how to get on and make a name for yourself in this line of work.

Get Experience

Experience is king, and it's tough when you don't have a track record. You will want to get experience to create that track record; often, unpaid work is the norm for young hopefuls looking to get a foothold in the profession. 

But you should not just take any work unpaid; it is straightforward to be taken advantage of, you should assess what you would get from experience and ask the bosses what experience you will gain before you take up any position.

Know How To Promote Yourself

Being a freelancer, you will need to be able to effectively promote yourself, let them know you are out there. You have to network well; keeping a good list of contacts is vital in this line of work. Once you have worked for someone or with someone, it's good to stay in touch as it could turn into a source of regular practice.

Protect Your Intellectual Property

This is something you may not immediately think of when considering your career, but it is an important one. If you are working on someone else's project and doing work as directed by them or their organization, you may be asked to sign a contract stating that any work you do in that role is now the intellectual property of them and, in these circumstances, that is fair practice. 

However, if someone is using your work and it's not a specially commissioned piece, then the copyright should usually still lie with yourself, so be sure that when you create any part of work, you are aware of effective copywriting to ensure your rights are protected.

Learn How To Manage Your Diary

Diary management is the most difficult aspect of working as a freelance professional. You need to make sure that you have enough work on your books to keep going, but the danger is if you take too much on then you will be in danger of not keeping a good schedule and so disappointing some of your clients meaning you may not be first in line anymore. So be on top of your calendar, and you'll be fine. You can also use the best planner that will help you manage and spread out freelance tasks among other important things on your daily schedule.

Keep A Portfolio Or Showreel

Being a creative professional, you create things, and since these things exist, you must be able to show them off in a way that impresses. These days online portfolios and showreels are the easiest way to do this as you can share and promote your work on your website, through social media or by directly emailing a link to a potential client.