Freelancing with no skills ?

[EliE77]

I've done it with 0 skills and 0 school degrees. I don't earn great money (yet) and there has been a lot of figuring stuff out by myself plus the help of some threads on this forum like the ones linked by Andy.

I know English well and I'm Italian, so I started out as a translator. Amidst my translation works I've had some people ask me if I was up to write new content, and I accepted.

They were happy with it and I've been slowly abandoning the translation route, as I wasn't enjoying it much and I don't have much faith in the field, but I'd say you can still make it big if you have a better mindset.

Yes, you can learn web design relatively quickly enough to get profitable. What helped me the most with the fear of not being good enough was framing the problem this way: you aren't trying to make a website for a huge media company like Disney (at least, for now), just to help out your city's plumbers or electricians or brick & mortar stores or landscaping business.

Other fields that don't require formal training and that can be learned while you get paid for them are copywriting and digital marketing.

Did you stop translating because it wasn't profitable enough ?
How writing content is going for you ? Did you have any previous experience in it ?

Great English btw

 

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[EliE77]

Yes and no.
As with anything else, you can get started pretty fast, sure.
To get good enough at it to get paid, you`ll have to put in the hours.
How quickly you`ll progress largely depends on your current skills and knowledge.
There is art to making a web design so dont think its like learning to ride a bike.


What other skills do people need you to learn?


I recommend you read: The ONE Thing
Its available on audible as well.


Proboboly not.
I'm no expert here, but I rather not hand over control of my inventory to 3rd parties if I`m going to be running a online store.

My skills and knowledge are pretty limited right now, I have a lot to learn.
How many hours do you think I have to put in to get good enough ?

Thx for your help, I added the book to my " To read list "

 

[EliE77]

There’s been a few similar threads to yours recently with lots of good replies. I can’t remember their name or find them.

No worries Andy you've done enough with your first post

 

[alexkuzmov]

How many hours do you think I have to put in to get good enough ?

Thats way too subjective.
What are your current skills?
Do you work a job
Are you working on a business?

 

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[EliE77]

Thats way too subjective.
What are your current skills?
Do you work a job
Are you working on a business?

Got you.
No skills as of now that I can monetize online, that's why I am looking to learn some so I can make money out of nothing.
Not working on any business yet

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

I wonder if more businesses want to get online with this coronacrisis and lockdown?

There must be & even those that don't think they need to would do if they were shown the untapped potential their company has for growth without significant cost or effort.

Sometimes it just needs fresh eyes & imagination.

 

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[EliE77]

That's just the freelancer sites.
Approach the right unsexy companies & you can virtually name your price.

For example, a butcher I use does a brisk trade, retail, wholesale, for collection & delivery.

Their online shop sucks, it doesn't list half the things they sell & my collection order is taken by phone, I have to give my personal details every time, order exactly the same thing, they write it by hand on paper & stick it to the order.

Not only that, I buy fresh chicken carcass for my dogs from them.
It's half what the raw dog food suppliers charge & it's much better quality.
Raw dog food is a huge market & it's largely online delivered by courier.

I know they sell a lot of product, my orders are written in the back of supplier invoices LOL.

Imagine how they could scale with the right proposal: web design, e-commerce, SEO, FB & Google ads, sales funnels etc.

There's loads of local companies around if you're observant.

I live in the country, the town sucks, all the usual small retail businesses, no budget, small value transactions, but there's quarries, farms, machinery, garments.

Omg now I think about it, I'm living in a goldmine.

Food for thought...

Yeahh you're right, and now that I think about it I know a lot of company that don't even have a website.

Ahah I am living in a goldmine too, I need to go buy me a shovel.

Are you a Freelancer yourself ??

 

[EliE77]

Now it’s important to learn the basics of web design. Take a few PSD files, pay attention to them and try to do something similar. And if you work hard, in the end you will have enough skills to work remotely.

Thank you

 

[EliE77]

Yes, it wasn't profitable for me, but I had a couple of really nice clients, so if I tried harder I could have probably done well for myself. It'd have helped if I could join a freelancer list of a translation agency, but these all want degrees and qualifications, so I couldn't.

Content writing is going well for me. I did not have any previous experience in it, nor I ever cared about writing in school. I read a copywriting book (Ca$hvertising) and I was good to go. It taught me everything I know about how to write content.

Good for you !
Well, this book must be really good then LOL

Could you tell me when did you start learning English if you don't mind me asking ?
Are you as fluent as a native speaker ?

 

[daftypunk]

Yes and no.
As with anything else, you can get started pretty fast, sure.
To get good enough at it to get paid, you`ll have to put in the hours.
How quickly you`ll progress largely depends on your current skills and knowledge.
There is art to making a web design so dont think its like learning to ride a bike.


What other skills do people need you to learn?


I recommend you read: The ONE Thing
Its available on audible as well.


Proboboly not.
I`m no expert here, but I rather not hand over control of my inventory to 3rd parties if I`m going to be running a online store.

OP shouldn't read one thing. He still needs to figure out what hes best at, so he can start by learning web design but can drop it if he doesn't feel hes improving after hours of hard work.

 

[EliE77]

You should listen to @Kak podcast with guest @MoneyDoc on a bullish/bearish approach to FBA

Kill Bigger Radio with Kyle Keegan

Enjoy engaging discussions on entrepreneurship, economics, leadership, investing, personal finance, value, purpose, and wealth with entrepreneur and economics enthusiast Kyle Keegan. We build things that matter. We build things that last. We Kill Bigger. New episodes are recorded several...

www.spreaker.com

Thank you sir ! I will.

 

[EliE77]

One of the worst mistakes I've ever done was quitting after encountering some defeat.
"Nah it's not for me" I thought, every single time.
And guess what, with that line of thought I ended up nowhere.

Web design (and web development) is about solving problems and bugs.. Solving problems is the essence of coding. It's actually normal to experience defeat when coding. The key is not to quit.

I personally found HTML and CSS quite easy and fun to work with, but I'm hating JavaScript cause I find it hard. But there's no point in quitting just because you can't learn something. If you keep trying, you'll eventually understand anything.

Whenever I feel like quitting I tell myself "What makes you think that if you try something else, you will not face obstacles once again?", in the sense that, obstacles are in any path. If you try to avoid the obstacles, you are basically avoiding success and going to ground zero over and over again.

Exactly !

I'm just not considering quitting as an option.

 

[EliE77]

Generally when someone asks what to do when they have no (insert something here) I tell them to get that thing. We are all capable of doing that, you are in charge, so do it.

In this case, you need to build some skills. Don’t try to freelance without skills.

Don’t put the cart before the horse. Go get a horse (skills, not literally) and then, if you really want to be a freelancer, sell those skills.

In my most recent thread I'm being told that just having the basics of Html and CSS will be enough for me to get started. This is really confusing LOL.

Thanks for your reply

 

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[EliE77]

Try to check out some scalable business models.

You can absolutely start something that is bigger than our own skills.

You are just starting out... There is ZERO reason to sell yourself short and pigeonhole yourself into some freelance work. Just a word of advice you might be thankful for later or you might not consider at all.

If you want to at least ponder what I just told you... Go read Zero to One by Peter Thiel.

Definitely worth considering, thanks for the advice.

I only want to go freelance to replace my job, I don't intend to make a career out of it.

Thanks for the book, I'll read it as soon as I finish Unscripted