Let’s talk about two non-negotiable skills I believe you need to be a successful freelancer. Those are time management and communication skills. You can hone in and develop so many skills but these two really need to be foundationally set in you. 

It may look a little different for everybody. However, when you’re working in the digital space and working online and you have clients that you need to meet with, you need to be pretty much an expert in time management and communication. Clients are going to rely on you to have these in place and if you don’t these three things could happen:

1.  You’ll be walked on by your client.
2. Put in a position where you don’t know what you’re talking about.
3. Or you’ll find yourself irrelevant and won’t be as helpful as a freelancer like they need you to be.

If you have any questions, please reach out or dm me. If on a scale from 1-10 if you’re a horrible communicator and have horrible time management skills and not at the 8-9-10 on the scale, we need to talk. We really need to get your skills honed in and getting some habits put into place and setting that solid foundation. I can definitely help you out with that if you need that extra help. 

My quick tips to improve your time management skills:

1. Setting your schedule - Knowing what your schedule is and relaying that to your client is going to be super helpful. If you don’t relay your schedule, your client is going to expect you to work on their schedule. Part of being a freelancer is that time freedom. 
2. Prioritizing - Make sure you know what your priorities are. For example for me, my is my family comes first, then my career, then my clients. You need to keep your priorities in order. When I feel like those are kinda slipping that’s when I get to a point of overwhelm, defeat, and burnout. 
3. Being productive - There’s a difference between being productive and being busy. Always check in with yourself: is this bringing me closer to my goals and is this a return on my investment. 

My quick tips to improve your communication skills:

1. Take control of the communication - I love when clients come to me about something we discussed a few meetings ago but they didn’t take great notes. There’s no problem because I know that I did take notes on what we talked about.
2. Be upfront about your communication style - I let my clients know that I check my emails first thing in the morning when I sit down at my desk, again midday, and then once more at the end of the day right before I’m done working. They know that there will be three times of day when they will get a response after they email me. 
3. Keeping clients in the loop - Developing those check-in points during a project to let them know how everything is going. 

I can not stress enough how important these two foundational skills are to have to be a successful freelancer. I’m not saying there are not other skills you may need. But, having great time management and communication skills is a great place to start and set you up for success.