When you were becoming a developer did it just happen magically or did it take hard work and take time? If your experience was anything like mine it took years to reach a level of professional expertise.

Considering that becoming a developer didn't happen overnight it would be crazy to think that becoming a successful freelancer would happen right away too. Starting a freelance business takes time and an effective plan. This is going to be a practical lesson and will involve some take home work.

Since you're going through this course I'll assume that you are dedicated to launching a freelance business. Starting a freelance business can be part time or full time, and while we're developing a launch plan your goals will help dictate the timeframe for the launch.

Writing Down Your Freelance Business Goals

We're going to take a structured approach to developing a launch plan for your business. And we're going to start with writing down your goals.

Lewis Carroll said:

"Any road will get you there, if you don’t know where you are going."

In other words, without clearly defined goals you're not going to have a clear path to success. Let's walk through the practical steps for defining your freelance business goals.

Decide on your long term goals

This is the high level view of what you want to do. Examples would be:

• "I want to get some side work."
• "I want to quit my job and start freelancing full time."
• "I want to build a full development company and scale up a team of programmers."

Don't worry if you haven't decided on this yet. For example, I started with the mindset that I wanted to simply take on some side work. Then my business grew so much that I was able to start freelancing full time. And finally I got so many clients that I had to hire developers to work for me and I was able to start building a full digital agency.

This step is critical when it comes to scheduling your freelance business launch. Your high level goals will determine the rest of the steps in the strategy process.

Decide on a timeline for launch

The timeline for your launch will be determined by a number of factors.

Full Time Freelancing

If you want to become a full time freelancer and you currently have a job, you'll most likely want to spend around 6 months of ramp up time to:

• Build up a full list of clients.
• Acquire reviews/testimonials from successfully completed projects.
• Along with the full suite of freelancing requirements, such as setting up a portfolio and marketing tools.

Part Time Freelancing

If you are wanting to get into freelancing to generate an additional revenue stream your ramp up time can be as quick as a few weeks to a month.

Don't Forget the Paper!

Don't forget to write down your goals. Right now you should have a piece of paper that lists:

• What your long term freelance goal is.
• What your timeframe is for launching your business.

What's Needed

In this section of the course we'll go through each of the items that are needed for launching a freelance business, including:

• Creating a portfolio
• Defining a list of services
• Publishing a website to showcase your skills
• Compiling professional proposals to give to potential clients
• Setting up freelance profiles
• Setting up accounting systems for tracking projects and revenue

What's Next

In the next section we'll walk through how to create a portfolio that showcases your skills as a developer. We'll also review some freelance portfolios that other developers have built that have helped them to acquire and keep clients.