Manvinder: This is just the beginning!

Manvinder is a freelance content writer and creator, who operates in the Finance, Economics & Business industry. He started freelancing in December 2020, with an aim to monetize his writing skills. He believes that determining a niche should be on the basis of long-term thinking. 

As a freelancer, he enjoys the vast opportunities that the field allows, however, he also acknowledges the uncertainty that comes along. The three best words that describe him are Oblivious, Curious, & Thinker. While he gets anxious about not so important things, he is a very keen and determined person. 

Being a freelancer, his mission is to show up regularly. His biggest learning in life is that consistency can move mountains, climb mountains, and break mountains. He wants to reinvent his game and be known as a person who stood out from the crowd and spoke his heart out. We wish him success for the future. 

Read Manvinder’s insightful journey:

1. Introduce yourself to us?

Hey everyone, I’m Manvinder Arora, writer, creator, and a thinker. 

2. Why did you choose the field of writing? How did you get introduced to this field? What fascinates you the most about your career choice?

I never chose writing voluntarily, it all started in May 2020 when I came back home from college and was desperately seeking internships to make my CV more appealing. 

Well, I got a couple of internships in writing, one was with a mental health startup, and the other was, a content-based platform. So, the part that fascinated me the most about the industry is that I get the opportunity to read a lot, consume great content, and the ability to shape it in my words.

Writing always unleashes your curiosity to understand things and this very fact motivated me to show up at the desk every day. 

3. Why did you choose to freelance? When did you begin to freelance? Were you planning it, or how did it happen?

I chose freelancing out of the urge to make money, I did all my internships unpaid and LinkedIn as a platform is really active when it comes to freelancing. So, I happened to come across many people who were dabbling with it and making money. So, without evaluating the field, I delved into it, and started my freelancing journey from December 2020.

It was never planned, planning is when you assess what works for you, what doesn’t and take actions accordingly. In my case, the only agenda was to make money!

4. Throw some light on the importance of choosing niches and working on personal branding for freelancers.

In my little 3-month journey I’ve reckoned that a niche is something that resonates with you, something that fascinates you because things that don’t resonate never sustain long enough. So, a niche should be always determined on long-term thinking, this is what I’ve learnt from Rutuja, an amazing freelancer! 

As far as personal branding is concerned, not only for freelancers, it has become a super important thing for everyone because we’re heading towards a time when your LinkedIn/Twitter profile will become the new CV and as you work to make your CV impressive, you also got to build your own brand where you exhibit your diverse personality and original thoughts. 

5. What are the most prominent techniques that you use to market yourself?

I’ve not learnt many networking strategies as yet and only rely on inbound based leads. Well, if you have a strong personal brand, you ultimately put your marketing on autopilot because when clients land on your profile, they get to see your content, and the research to produce that content. Therefore, personal brand is the numero uno technique to market yourself in my opinion.  

6. How do you price your services as a freelancer? Any essential points that a new freelancer should know of?

The costing element is quite difficult for me to ascertain as being new to this game myself so I talk with people who are into the field for quite some time and try to get their insights if they had been in my place.

Check the amount of research you need to put in, and the total time to understand the topic crystal clear, estimates work the best and come with either a per word rate or a fixed rate but the bottom line is quote your rate in sync with your research.

7. How to deal with isolation and loneliness as a freelancer?

Being a newbie, I spend more time with no clients than having one. So, I end up with a lot of time in my hands and if you have time in your hands, your mind messes with you and throws you in a situation of volatile thoughts, that’s the worst part of being alone. You got to deal with yourself, your issues.

So, in those situations, I do what my mind demands, confront because if you look inward and not fret about the wrong that it intends to show you, it will get better and for that, I listen to music and lose myself in the lyrics! 

8. What according to you are the most essential skills that anyone interested in this area of work should develop?

You are in a world where you have to interact with people, deal with people, form networks with people and do business with people. So, everything that makes you better at doing all the above things become essential! Putting it in the order, communication, negotiation, and networking. The most imperative skills to have!

Tools are the need of the hour, after becoming a content creator, I happened to come across the ocean of tools and software intended to make your things absolutely seamless. So, the first and the most basic one, Canva, anything design or template, Canva is the perfect tool for you!

For scheduling my content, I use Buffer, to have a to-do list, Notion is a good option. For finding topics to write about, I use Ubersuggest.

Though, I’m exploring more tools but these happen to truly automate the thing with a single click.  

9. As a freelancer, what were the biggest obstacles you overcame? What were your worst mistakes?

I can answer the latter part of the question better. So, the worst mistake I made was to undervalue myself and believing that I can never make any mistake and frankly, I closed my first deal grossly undervaluing my abilities, skills. 

So, as a creator, you should know what you deserve and quote only what you deserve. Nothing more, nothing less. 

10. What is the one major pro and/or con of freelancing, according to you?

One obvious pro is that you run into so many people and businesses that you never know existed, so it really opens up your mind regarding the possibilities that you may exploit. 

One con, the one I quoted above, being with no clients in turn no money. So, the fact that you’re forgoing a fixed salary or being an employee is the biggest risk in freelancing, and undeniably a major con. 

11. What mission and vision do you have? How do you want history to look at you?

The mission is to show up regularly at whatever I’m doing because you don’t have to have something extraordinary to be great, the simple ability to show up is all you need. 

Though, I’ve never thought about the vision deeply but to keep reinventing my game.

When I leave, I want the history to remember me of someone who never feared to change his entire game, who never felt embarrassed by standing out, and lastly, spoke my heart out. 

12. What would you do differently if you had to begin your career again? What would you focus on once you restart?

It’s natural to feel that you’ve missed something along the way and I feel the same. Investing a little more time in forming strategies to go about things rather than getting into it recklessly is what I would like to focus on.

Manvinder can be reached out on Refrens, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Are you still skeptical about freelancing? Read and share our article on Misconceptions About Freelancers to debunk the stigmas surrounding it.