Tips to Get Your First Freelance Data Analytics Job

How to Get Your First Freelance Data Analytics Job? Pro Tips for Beginners

If you want to put your skills on a test and experiment with new things in your interest area, then go freelance. Freelancing is the most effective way to get a stronghold on data analytics in terms of time, money and resources. Know-How to get freelance data analytics job in 5 tips.

Through a freelancing career you will know what you favor, what you don’t like, and what could be the best way to optimize your skills in data analytics. In this blog, we will share how to get your first freelance data analytics job.

Whatever your choices are – run this as a part-time business or casually explore analytics field, start it as a full-time business or completely restart career as a data analyst, this post should be highly beneficial for you.

However, you will be using the reverse engineering technique – actually doing the work first, in comparison to sitting and taking the course or planning to learn.

Tips to Getting Started as a Freelance Data Analyst

1. Target Should Be Medium-Sized Growing Businesses

While data analytics is very much needed at a large percentage for big businesses, such as Fortune 500, one thing we observed that very few companies target the SMBs.

Medium-sized businesses, although have a good amount of data, don’t know what to do with them. They also don’t prefer investing in full-time employees as their main focus of business is generating leads, marketing, growth or customer satisfaction.

These companies face a lot of problems, such as not knowing which metrics to track, handling scattered data in multiple sources, data imperfections etc.

There are a whole set of problems they face that can be solved only professionally. So, here’s the thing: you can go as an individual freelancer or as a small service providing company.

You can actually add massive value to this market by identifying their problems and providing sustaining resolutions. Initially start with the common and basic ones that you are already aware of. Eventually, you will start to identify their problems and when you work with them.

2. The Fastest Way to Get Clients – Start at the Prospecting Phase

Here’s a simple yet profound theory: Go fishing where the fish are. If you go to a pond that’s filled with fish, you are more likely to catch a dozen. The same rule applies to all sales and marketing strategies.

Generate leads where the demands are more. An Insurance advisor will catch hold of people whose insurance policies are due for renewal; simple enough?

Likewise, the fastest way to set up your freelance data analytics career is starting at the Prospecting Stage. The prospecting stage basically refers to talking or responding to clients, companies or businesses that have job requirements for sure.

You have to grab at the roots, as in where the requirements are readily available and go where clients are already looking for people to solve their problems. This is the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to initiate your freelancing career.

3. Start Researching And Choose Your Platform

You can choose any platform, but what should be more crucial for your business is the research of skills needed. The research phase is important in getting your first freelance job.  Here’s a list of questions you need to consider in your research phase:

  • What is the Market Demand? : Check the sections, categories, sub-categories of work or jobs that clients post. Check the type of job mentioned in job postings.
  • What is Your Expertise? : Your experience in analytics. Using your existing skills (such as data visualization, mining, machine learning etc.), what kind of requirements you can serve?
  • What is Your Ideal Future Work Aim? : Based on market research what are the skills, work or experience you would want to learn further to get projects?
  • How to Mix and Match? : Learn to go after the most applicable work possible for your first few projects, and gradually move up the ladder towards your ideal work profile.

Recommended Platforms for Market Research for Data Analytics Job

  • Upwork
  • Freelancer
  • Experfy
  • Toptal
  • Fiverr
  • Sage Legion and
  • Peopleperhour

4. Branding, Profile Creation And Creating Unique Portfolio

You have to make a unique profile of yourself, keeping only your customers in mind. Instead of talking more about yourself, you should focus on what customer wants to hear.

Although, qualifications and services provided are important for a freelancer’s profile, what clients really care about is how you can SOLVE their PROBLEMs, and care less about your degrees.

Your profile should target each customer group separately; point out their problem areas and their pain points and things you can do to solve them.

In the beginning, you may be confused as to which market or customer groups to target. However, with constant testing and refining, you will evolve.

Here are some subheadings for profile creation

  • Know your market – type of companies, businesses, and data type and amount
  • Problems of your target market in terms of data, insights, reporting, etc.
  • Best solutions for specific problems of the target market.
  • List of all your services

You can also search profiles of existing freelancers from your interest field and analyze their style.  Add few samples works in your portfolio, such as screenshots, links, etc. Your portfolio should reflect your aims and solutions offered.

5. Time To Get Your First Freelance Data Analytics Job

It depends on the way you convince your client that you can complete the work in an appropriate time frame without compromising the quality. Your communication, cost, and timelines should be clear. (1)

Some pointers to keep in mind:

  • Spend quality time to write each proposal. Your aim of a proposal should not focus on getting the job but should focus on getting a good response.
  • Your conversation with clients should be professional and precise once you get a response. Ask only relevant but elaborate questions before taking up the job.
  • Make sure your solutions and client’s requirements coincide.
  • Add value to the conversation, even if you don’t get the job. Don’t do a hard sell.
  • Always propose a sample work or pilot project for 1-2 weeks to prove your mettle. To ensure that you put your 200% in this phase to retain long term clients.
  • Follow up to get the job. That’s your ultimate goal, remember.