How to Win as a Freelancer in 2021

2020 has taken a lot out of all of us, but freelancers have been hit especially hard by the pandemic. It’s a new year, and time for some new approaches. To help you kick off 2021 successfully, we have 5 inspiring tips for you from an expert--Nick Kyriakides, winner of the 2020 Freelancer of the Year award. Nick is a senior post-production artist working with clients like Adidas, Google, Pepe Jeans, and Huawei.

To share his experiences and business knowledge, Nick has created his new company NK Courses, focusing on creating tools and courses for freelancers. His most recent online course is Freelance Mastery - How to discover clients. It’s designed to help freelancers get better quality, more consistent clients, as well as higher-paying work! The entire Mailbutler team hopes you enjoy Nick's tips and that they help you get back on track in 2021. Thanks, Nick!

Looking back on 2020

Where do we start with 2020? I’ve had many friends and fellow freelancers that have been underwhelmed with lack of income, projects, and job opportunities to keep their creative skills sharp and their careers on track. With huge cutbacks in film productions, I found trends shifting to focus on social media adverts, animated explainer videos, and online marketing. In any difficult time, lies opportunity. This meant a huge demand for freelance video editors and post-production wizards to help promote small businesses and brands' messages and products during this time. 

I was incredibly fortunate to have the busiest year in my career, because of a winning-formula I followed to bring in consistent clients over the years, which I’d love to share with you.

Looking ahead at 2021

Although we have it within us all to make drastic changes at any moment, there’s something about a fresh start. We’re done and dusted with 2020 and we can now enter 2021 in the right direction:

My top #5 tips to successfully start 2021

#1 Know your why

Understand your values and drivers for why you do what you do, this enables you to make informed decisions that are in line with your goal. When you face any challenge, you know why you genuinely want it at the core, and nothing will get in the way of that.

#2 Have a clear vision

Having clarity is one of your greatest powers to motivate and steer you in the right direction. If you know what you want, you can then plan the necessary steps to fulfill your vision. By knowing the end goal, you can then reverse engineer precisely the ingredients you need to get there.

#3 Plan for success

Now that you know your why and what you want, you then need to get organised by planning ahead, setting a clear checklist of tasks you need to complete with realistic deadlines for each task. Be sure to break any large tasks into smaller actionable ones. It’s far easier to keep track of progress and complete several smaller tasks than fewer large duties. 

#4 Action

Possibly the most important step of them all is to take consistent action on the checklist you’ve made each day. It’s all too easy to allow for distractions or procrastination. To avoid this, allocate time just for those tasks and turn off all unnecessary notifications. 

#5 Review

Take stock and review where you’re at and how near you are to your initial goal. Ask yourself, do you need to adjust your focus? Are you on course to reaching your goal? What are the necessary steps now needed to achieve this? The idea is to go into a healthy feedback-loop of taking action, reflecting on your actions, and then fine-tuning your plan to suit. 

Follow these simple steps, and you’ll be well on your way to creating the 2021 that you’ve envisioned. 

If you’d like to understand your ‘why’, how to successfully freelance and get more clients, you can join Nick's brand new online course - Freelance Mastery - How to discover clients here.

Also: Don’t miss out on our interview with Nick Kyriakides “Combining Two Passions In One Business”!