5 Freelance Job Ideas Worth $100k in 2020

As a freelancer, you could be making $100k a year.

What if I told you that there are a million ways for you to make $100k a year, and that you could be making this kind of money with freelancing?

Crazy, right?

The journey through entrepreneurship is infinite. I’ve done all sorts of jobs. From providing a service to developing courses, from selling physical products to doing consulting; I can tell you right now that there’s more than one way to make $100k a year, but for today I’m just going to give you five.

5 Freelance Job Ideas You Should Consider

These are all service-based businesses. Service-based businesses are great because they require less overhead, you can dive right in, and all they really take is your specific skill-set and your ability to connect to people.

When I made this list, I reflected on the needs of bigger businesses that could hire you because it’s going to be easier for you to make more money as a freelancer.

If you’re serving businesses that are producing a good amount of revenue, you can provide your skill to them and then shave off a small piece of that.

So, $100k a year. Let’s round that to $8,300 a month. As a service provider with the right skill set and the right direction, this is incredibly achievable.

Video Shooting And Editing

If you look at what is in demand right now in the marketplace, you’ll see that we are incredibly focussed on video content and video development.

Just like web 1.0 and 2.0 being all about blogs, writing, and SEO, now the major platforms are battling for our attention with engaging videos.

Youtube, Instagram, TikTok – all these platforms are being used by big businesses looking for great content to attract the right audience. If you can shoot and edit great videos, this is the best skill set to have at this point in time.

To get started all you need is a decent camera, I use a Canon 80D, and some editing software. If you have a Mac, iMovie is free and easy to use, and if you want to upgrade and splash a little cash you can get Final Cut Pro.

Get some basic shooting and editing skills, I recommend taking about six months to a year to get really good at this stuff. Shooting stuff is super fun, and if you do find it extremely enjoyable then you’re going to get good at it. And if you can get good at it, you can start shopping yourself.

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Research what big trends are in video production now, then create little teasers and promos around these trends and start sending them out as demos to companies.

This skill is highly adaptable, highly versatile, and highly in demand. If you can get 8-10 freelance clients a month at $800-$1,000 a project, you are right on track for that $100k run rate.

Coaching and Consulting

Coaching and consulting are great service-based ways to provide help for people who really need it, but first you need to understand the difference between the two.

Coaching is allowing people to find their own solutions by asking them great questions and helping them to grow. Consulting is telling people what to do and helping them implement.

There’s a good mix between the two, but I prefer to separate them so that we have some clarity on what the differences are and what you want to pursue.

What areas of life would people have need for a coach or a consultant? I’ll give you some general verticals:

Love, sex, and relationships
Making money or business
Health, beauty, and fitness
Self-discovery, self-improvement
Life coaching and spirituality

Those are the five verticals where coaching and consulting have proven markets. If you can become great at coaching and developing people in one of those areas, you can charge for that. There’s a great book called the Prosperous Coach which I highly recommend that you read if you want to be a coach.

Here’s a caveat. Don’t just look at other coaches and imitate what they do. When you’re getting clients for coaching and consulting, you need to be able to draw from personal experience. It doesn’t mean you have to have figured everything out in life, it just means you need experience dealing with the problems they are facing. You need to have overcome a struggle, learned something from it, and be far enough away from it to be able to give advice.

PR and marketing

There are more people than ever trying to start a business, and those businesses need attention. The attention brings them prospects and leads, and a certain percentage of these turn into sales. This is where PR and marketing are required.

There’s a difference between PR and marketing.

Marketing is turning prospective leads into clients. For marketing, you can achieve that through landing pages, copywriting, funnels, and automations. You need to have an understanding of current marketing trends, be able to stay ahead of them, and implement them in an efficient manner.

PR is essentially reputation management and getting press. You need to know how to generate buzz for a product launch, understand press cycles, and know how to help people speak on camera.

START YOUR SIDE HUSTLE: How To Use Existing Skills to Earn an Extra $1,000 From Home

This is a place where in the past few years, people have jumped on the bandwagon and said, “Oh, I’m a marketer. I can help you do this because I’ve watched a few videos on marketing or read some books.” or “I have a clickfunnels account, I know all about that.” And they positioned themselves as an expert marketer when they’re not.

I am not ever saying that you should position yourself as an expert if you’re not. I am saying that if you know what you’re doing here, then this is an area of opportunity for you where making $100k a year is not difficult at all.

I would say that the easiest way to get started is to learn and understand the marketing sphere.

Get an understanding of today’s web based economy, know how a funnel works, understand how someone can go from not knowing who you are, to becoming aware of you, to becoming interested in you as a freelancer, to eventually wanting to work with you.

Your next step is to focus on a specific industry, and target a niche within it.

I’ll give you an example. One of my clients was working well doing marketing for ecommerce companies. He made the decision to move away from just ecommerce in general, and instead focus in on one aspect of ecommerce and make it his speciality.

He decided to specialize in apparel companies and made it his business to know everything about that sphere. After this small shift, he was able to get more clients at a specifically focused angle. Apparel companies saw that he was able to understand their angle and unique challenges, and he was able to charge more for it.

At first, you’re not gonna probably know what your industry niche is, so I would say start broad and after some time you’ll come to know where to hone in.

App Development

If you know how to develop an app that works well and looks good, then you’re in luck: freelance app developers are in high demand across the market with no signs of stopping.

App development is an important one because there are so many companies now that need an app to go with their product or service. Businesses want app integration and apps that compliment a physical product or service.

Look at the valuations of different companies in the tech space, particularly SaaS-based or wearable plus SaaS. These are some of the most lucrative businesses when it comes to when it comes to valuations. When it comes to customer retention, getting the formula right for a recurring model is highly valuable. And investors know this.

If you can figure out how to develop applications, you’re going to be in a good position because these businesses are trending up. With the rising tide, your boat’s going to rise as well.

You may be a little concerned about the competition overseas doing it for less money – don’t be put off by all of that. I’m here to tell you that if you position yourself as someone who is highly skilled, someone who understands the business, and someone who does high-quality work, then the competition won’t affect you. There’s also a learning curve to developing applications, which is good for you because it creates a moat that stops other people from coming in.

If you’re a good app developer, you could have three clients who are paying a recurring $3,000 a month and you’ve hit your goal. Believe it or not, this is a pretty standard amount for freelance or independent developers. All you need is to get 3 clients a month, and you’re well on track for that $100k.

Integrator

I want you to look at a book called “Traction” by Gino Wickman. It’s a fantastic book that talks about all the different types of leaders. I could go on and on about this topic, but for now let’s just have a peek at integrators.

The visionary is is the dreamer for the company. They envision direction and innovation.

Then there’s the integrator.

An integrator is the leader who is going to get down in the dirt and make sure things are getting done. They do the work that makes the visionary’s dream a reality. Integrators are in high demand because there are a lot of visionaries out there, but there aren’t as many integrators.

Tim Cook is an example of a great integrator. Most people think that every entrepreneur should be a ‘Steve Jobs’ type of visionary, but without Tim Cook coordinating things nothing would have been achieved.

Integrators may not have the big vision that the visionary does, but they have the chops to get it done every single day.

If you are integrator, you’re the type of person who doesn’t mind getting your hands dirty, you thrive working with different team members, and enjoy making sure all the pieces are running. You’re like a train conductor who fixes problems before they become disasters. The integrator is the one who really is the glue that holds the company together.

So many small businesses need integrators who can do the dirty work. They need someone who can figure out the software, organize the scheduling run, the meetings, and all the important stuff.

These small businesses are looking for an integrator to sort out little marketing hiccups, communicate across departments, and keep the ship sailing smoothly. You will easily hit that $100k mark if you can lock in an integrator position at one of these smaller businesses. They’re looking for someone to keep their engine running smoothly, and you can be the one to do that.

START YOUR SIDE HUSTLE: How To Use Existing Skills to Earn an Extra $1,000 From Home

Freelance Ideas Worth $100k

So there you have it, just five suggestions for freelance businesses that can make you $100k a year or more. It really is that simple!

Just by learning the right skills, identifying your niche, and being great at what you do, this goal is easily attainable. None of these skills are overnight skills, they take time to master and understand, but once you build them, you’ll have people chasing you to work with them.

Got some great freelance job ideas you want to share with us? Let us know in the comments below!