I was terrible at this starting out, admits David. "Charging $20 or $30 an hour, not factoring things that took my time but weren’t clearly billable time." As David figured out how to properly track his time and continued adding new clients, he found his rate range through studying the market, assessing his skill level, and thinking carefully about each project. "I’ve learned from my own experience, from other people’s experience, and reading books. I’ve looked at survey numbers to figure out what the market is doing, then I’ve tried to place myself in that market, thinking about how competitive my skills are at this moment in time," says David. "I then try to factor in how much I want the job and how much work managing the client will be."
If you get more than 80% of the jobs you apply for, you’re priced too low. You need a bunch of clients to reject you. I closely monitor what percentage of jobs I get, and try to keep it to 80% or less.
Of course, to be comfortable rejecting jobs you need to financially position yourself in such a way that you don’t need to jump on every job offered, which Solon readily admits. "I’m negotiating from a position of luxury. If they want to walk away, they can walk away.
You’ll quickly find that there’s no one-size-fits-all price that’s appropriate for every client for every engagement (or different engagements for the same client). "To me, it’s part of that sales job," says Laurie. "If the client wants a deliverable at a certain time, here’s my rate. Does that fit into your budget? Then you go from there, with a lot of back and forth."
As mentioned above, if you’re part of a talent network like Toptal, payment processing may be handled for you. If you’re not operating through a talent network or job board (or if you are, but they don’t handle payments), you’ll need to learn about invoicing. Create an invoice template to send to clients for work completed. If you and the client have agreed to an hourly pay structure, carefully track hours over the course of the engagement to make sure you’re getting fairly compensated for work completed. Ensure you’re set up to receive payments via ACH, bank wires, and PayPal, or use an online tool like TopTracker that offers free time tracking, invoicing, and the ability to receive no-fee payments.
The ability to work as a freelancer creates enormous opportunity for highly-skilled and motivated individuals all over the world. This guide is intended to provide you with everything necessary to get your freelancing career started — now it’s up to you to begin applying for jobs and getting your first clients! Before we end, take a look at these final thoughts from our experts on how to sustain a long and successful freelance career.
The person you negotiate your contract with may not be the person you’re reporting to. "It’s not unusual to be working for someone that wasn’t involved in the signing of the contract or defining the statement of work," says Laurie. "The expectations of the person you’re working with may be completely different than the description of the job agreed to in the negotiation." In cases like this, it pays to practice clear and regular communication with all parties involved to avoid complications down the line if the work changes. "If there’s a change to the work that was scoped and that you’ll be paid to do, you need to make sure the original person is aware of those changes."
While remote work enables you to design your best work day and focus to a degree an office worker can only dream of, you may find that you’re missing out on office chatter related to the project. "If you work remotely a lot, you don’t get to hear what’s happening around the office, which is a blessing but it can be a problem at the same time," says Lucas. "It’s hard to get all of the information that you need." To combat this, Lucas has found a solution in forming office relationships that are more casual in nature. "I try to grow relationships with people at the office and have one-on-one calls, like having a coffee," says Lucas. "At my current job, there are a few people I have casual calls with apart from my manager that help keep me in the loop."
If a client isn’t satisfied, take the time to figure out what went wrong. Not only will this help you to improve your work for future engagements, but it’s critical for maintaining healthy client relationships. "If you should be unfortunate enough to get a dissatisfied client, work your butt off with them to find out what went wrong," says Solon. "I’m willing to put in ten times the effort to find out from an unhappy client where I went wrong. In my ten years of freelancing, I’ve had only one momentarily dissatisfied client. Now, they’re one of my best friends."
If you’re a highly-skilled professional looking to launch a freelancing career, or if you’re currently a top freelancer looking to access engaging, remote work opportunities with the world’s leading organizations, apply to join the Toptal talent network!
Toptal is an elite network of the world’s top talent, connecting our community of the best and brightest in business, design, and technology with top organizations around the globe. Through Toptal, you can become a part of the top 3% of talent from anywhere in the world, on your terms. All Toptal clients are thoroughly vetted — only those with the budget, skill, and intent to hire make the cut.
In today’s tech-savvy world, freelancing has become a go-to career choice for many IT and tech pros. The appeal? You get to enjoy flexible hours and a wide range of exciting projects. But with so many options out there, you might be wondering: which industries are actually hiring the most tech freelancers in the UK?
The financial sector is one of the leading employers of tech contractors, especially in the UK’s thriving FinTech space. Banks, investment firms, and insurance companies rely heavily on technology for digital transformation, cybersecurity, data analytics, and automation.
Healthcare providers and medical technology companies are adopting digital solutions faster than ever. From patient data management to telemedicine, the healthcare industry is seeking freelancers with tech expertise to modernize systems, ensure data security, and improve patient care.
The retail and e-commerce industries are investing in digital solutions to enhance customer experience, improve supply chains, and build smarter platforms. With online shopping and AI-driven personalization becoming standard, these businesses often rely on freelancers to stay competitive.
Telecommunications companies are continually innovating to improve network infrastructure, mobile services, and 5G technology. Many hire freelance IT and tech professionals to work on short-term projects related to these advancements, creating a thriving market for specialists.
With the rise of digital content, streaming platforms, and interactive media, the media and entertainment industry increasingly depends on technology. Freelancers in this sector can contribute to everything from app development to video game programming.
Yes, the UK government and public sector organizations increasingly outsource tech work to freelancers for digital services, cybersecurity, and infrastructure projects. With a focus on improving online services for citizens, IT contractors have plenty of opportunities in this sector.
Whether you're a seasoned IT contractor or just starting out, the demand for freelance tech professionals is growing across multiple industries in the UK. By targeting sectors like finance, healthcare, retail, and telecom, you can position yourself for success.
Hire a HackerYour portfolio isn’t just a collection of past projects—it’s your digital handshake, your elevator pitch, and a key tool for winning clients. We're sharing 10 practical tips for building an IT contracting portfolio that grabs attention and wins clients.
It takes a special person to succeed at freelancing… but when you do, the advantages are incredible. Do you have what it takes? Here are seven top strategies for fresh newbies and seasoned freelancers alike. If you can execute on these, you’ll not only succeed as a freelancer, but stand out as a top-performer. Ready to dive in?
Simple - they won’t hire you. But that’s okay! Trust me, this is the same miscalculation that most other freelancers make. The truth is, the pie is big enough. Don’t focus on the size of the pie. The reason freelancers struggle to get hired is NOT because there aren’t enough projects in the world… it’s just because they don’t win the bid.
If you were to choose “Roofing Websites” as your niche, like our example above, there would always be enough work in that industry to make you a six-figure salary. There would be enough work to make a 7 or 8 figure agency in it.
When you declare your focus on a single niche, you truly become an expert. Fast. After just your first five websites in a particular field, you’ll have unique insight into the businesses you serve.
If you work in a new niche with every project, so much of your time will be taken up by researching the industry, recreating resources and systems, and just being slow (since you’re NOT an expert).
Truly, the key to sales is confidence, and not knowing your pricing beforehand makes you feel unconfident and makes you look incompetent. It will be obvious to the client that you don’t have a plan, which is bad for two reasons:
Setting pricing “packages” also implies having more than one package. If you have a productized service, setting pricing tiers is a great strategy. If your service isn’t productized, you still want to roughly know what your different pricing tiers are so that you are prepared to negotiate confidently.
Note: I’m NOT saying that you should negotiate downwards like it’s no big deal… you still take your time and let your client know that you are hesitant and truly want the project to be a win-win scenario. It just helps to know what your options and boundaries are up front.
You get the idea. Develop at least two solid marketing strategies. If you’re looking to expand your channels, this article is a great summary of the top 9 marketplaces for designers looking for work, and this post covers 18 unique ways to find new clients.
HOWEVER. Also avoid the temptation to try and focus on all the marketing platforms… as a freelancer, you don’t have the time and resources to really succeed doing “everything”. Each marketing channel takes work. Don’t spread yourself too thin and put in a lackluster effort on too many platforms.
Needing to get a new client as soon as possible will also make you a worse marketer. It’s the definition of short-term thinking, and will make you act desperate instead of confident in sales situations.
It’s amazing how a client will sit on an idea for years, thinking to themselves that they need a new website or new product designed… but then when they decide to actually do it, they want it done yesterday.
Make it your goal to eliminate as much waiting time on the part of your future client as possible. If the client is receiving multiple proposals, it helps to be the first. Begin the conversation with them. By the time they gather more proposals, they’ve already spent time building rapport with you, and will be biased towards hiring you.
For example, when running Facebook ads, I’ve had the most success when setting up a Zapier automation that sent me a text as soon as someone submitted their info through the ad, and yep, I would call or text them immediately.
Another reason why it’s crucial to be super responsive with potential clients is because, whether consciously or subconsciously, they are using that time period to make a judgment of how it will be to work with you on a freelance project.
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