So, after reading the 10 Part Time Jobs, Freelance & Home Business Ideas, you make a decision to finally choose to start with one. A year later, you want to know how your business is doing. Is it growing, is it stagnant, or is it shrinking and destined for eventual death? Here are 5 signs that show your freelance or part time business is growing.

1. You start receiving repeat orders

Repeat orders refer to your previous customers who have used your service in the past and now want to use it again. When you start receiving repeat orders, not only it indicates a growth in your freelance business, but it is also an indication of 2 other positive things. Firstly, you are doing a good job. And secondly, you have built a trust with your client.

There is no doubt. People will not come looking for you if you do a suck-up job the first time you work with them. They already know your quality. They were happy with you before. And they sure they will be happy again. That is why they come back to you.

2. You start receiving request for other jobs

Sometimes, knowing that you are good in writing a business plan, your customer comes back to you asking if you can draft their company annual report. They ask you to prepare their quarterly performance appraisal. They also ask you to write a letter of recommendation. Sometimes, they ask you to proofread their articles to be submitted in their weekly newsletter.

In other words, they start asking you to do jobs outside of your own specialization.

While your specialization may lies in writing a good business plan, a good writing skill and vocabulary is the foundation to write anything. So somehow your customer will know that your ability is not limited to writing a proven business plan.

3. You spend more time on job execution and less on marketing your freelance business

One of the earliest struggles you need to go through when you first step in into that freelance road is finding your first batch of customers. You contact every single prospect possible to sell your service. You register with as many websites that provide the freelance marketplace and part time job avenues. Sometimes you try for months without seeing the results. You bid for 10 jobs and seeing 9 of them rejected.

Read on, you will understand why.

If you look carefully, those websites and avenues are filled with other freelancers and part timers who, just like you, trying to stamp their name in the freelance world. Many will compete in the same specialization as yours. One thing for sure, they know how to make themselves sound as good as a master in their chosen field. In fact, they are so good in selling their skills that they know how to make Keningau Airport sounds bigger than the size of KLIA and Chennai airports combined.

That’s why you find it very difficult to get yourself noticed, especially when you are just starting out and still struggling to find your first customer. No one knows you. In the freelance world, the demand for the jobs is always in very much in excess to the number of jobs available at one time.

Once you have got your customers, things will be a bit easier, and you will see opportunities starting to come by. Sometimes, you find yourself working for only 1 or 2 clients per month that gives you most of the income for that particular month. You focus your time more on getting and completing job orders, and less on marketing your services.

Also, once you are known in the freelance marketplace, it is easier for you to get the job advertised. When you bid for 3 freelance jobs, perhaps you will get 2 of them.

4. You start to outsource some of your work

Because of the too many job orders, you now need to find ‘extra hands’ to do your work. So, you start hiring and recruiting other freelancers to work for you to complete some of the jobs like researching, compiling and so on while you focus on your core strengths. That being said, you still have to make sure that the quality of the service or end product is as good as when you are doing it on your own.

In outsourcing your work to someone else, you need to maintain very uptight quality control guidelines or you risk your clients asking why your work quality is deteriorating.

Also, in the process of outsourcing some of your work, you need to know exactly how well the person can do your work. Often, freelance work and freelance outsourcing involve a great deal of trust. If no trust is formed than you should never ask someone to do the job for you.

5. You are thinking of exit strategy

What? Exit strategy? Why would I think of an exit strategy when my freelance is successful and growing?

Some of you shouted.

Yes. Exit strategy. If it does not make sense to you now, it is probably because you have never done a serious freelance job before, or just starting to.

Exiting here does not mean quitting the thriving business. It does not mean you should stop doing things that are pouring money to you.

What I am referring here is a means to convert your service to a product that you can sell so that you will not be spending hours, days or months doing freelance jobs. Let me give you an example.

As you know, before Irfan Khairi releases his book, Secrets of the Internet Millionaires Revealed, he provided consultation service to his clients on how to market their products and services online. He did it on part time basis. Irfan found out that, the more successful his part time service was, the busier he got.

That did not sound like an ideal work style to him. So, he decided to create a product out of his consulting service. The outcome? A best selling book and more free time!

So, think of an exit strategy. Remember, freelance job is not for forever.

Other posts you may want to read:

1. Find Freelance Jobs with IAmFreelancer
2. 10 Part Time Jobs, Freelance & Home Business Ideas
3. Freelance & Part Time Jobs at GobalaKrishnan.com
4. JOB is Just a Tool
5. 5 Financial Loans by SME Bank