How Freelancing Gave Suzanne an Alternative to the Traditional Job Market
Many job seekers find themselves stuck after graduating from college or when changing careers. The traditional job market is competitive. You need experience to land a job, but first need a job to get that experience. When Suzanne Ctvrtlik found herself in this position after college nearly five years ago, she decided to take matters into her own hands by freelancing on Upwork.
Suzanne's road to freelancing full-time
Ctvrtlik studied animation at Texas A&M University. After graduating, she had a negative experience that will sound all-too familiar to many people who’ve been on the job market. She applied to over 70 jobs, which led to only one interview from a company that then ghosted her.
"After a few months, I was like, okay, I have to find a way to make money. I know how to do graphic design, so I Googled 'how to sell graphic designs online,' and I came across Upwork. I did a couple of lower-price jobs just to get reviews, test it out, and see how all of the messaging and job postings worked."
At the time, Ctvrtlik didn't know any full-time freelancers, and didn’t set out to make it her career either. Freelancing was just a way to make ends meet while she continued applying for full-time roles.
Ctvrtlik's perspective started changing when she met her first long-term client, Brennan Agranoff, the founder of HoopSwagg and PetParty, custom sock companies based in Oregon. Agranoff made headlines in 2017 for selling over a million dollars in custom socks through his startup while still in high school.
"I considered him a mentor when I started freelancing. He was around my age and was really the only point of reference that I had for someone who had successfully built a business to where they were able to hire other people."
Ctvrtlik was still applying for full-time roles and hoping to enter the traditional job market. Once she began winning contracts and earning more on Upwork, she started to reconsider her career plan and think bigger.
"Once I started making around half of the income that a 'normal' job would bring in, I decided that instead of splitting my time between applying for jobs and freelancing, to shift my focus to freelancing. I wanted to see if I could just double what I was doing, which would bring in the income of the 9 to 5 jobs that I was applying to."
Today, Ctvrtlik is a full-time independent professional. She measures success in part by not having to set an alarm in the morning to go to work, a feat she has proudly achieved. As a freelancer, Ctvrtlik can create her own schedule and work the hours that fit her lifestyle. This often includes being a digital nomad and globetrotting to places far away from her home base in Austin, like Dubai, Thailand, and Costa Rica.
Ctvrtlik in Dubai
"The flexibility of freelancing is awesome. I can take a day off, and I can work at night if I want to. I've always been more of a night owl. So not having to wake up at 7 a.m. to drive myself to a job is amazing."
While Ctvrtlik is a successful independent professional today, she remembers what it was like to build her freelance career from scratch.
“As a freelancer, first, you're running a customer service business. Second, you're running a marketing business. And third, you're doing whatever it is that you were hired to do, like graphic design."
In our interview, Ctvrtlik shared some advice and tips for those looking to start freelancing, which we cover in detail.
Create a compelling portfolio
When you're fresh out of college or changing careers, you may not have any portfolio pieces from paid clients or employers to showcase. Ctvrtlik suggests submitting proposals to smaller, lower-paying projects on Upwork at first to build up your portfolio.
"I definitely did have to work on my portfolio before I got my first client. I took on a couple of really small photo editing and simple graphic design jobs to start off."
Another way to build your portfolio is to create mockups for faux clients. Just make sure to note in your portfolio that these weren't paying clients. Mockups help you develop your skills while creating the exact types of portfolio samples you need.
"I did a few personal projects that I put together in a portfolio, just making projects for fake companies, mocking up different designs so that clients would be able to see the range of work that I could do. For one of my first book design covers, I just took a Harry Potter book and redesigned it in a modern minimalist style because I wanted to attract clients that needed that specific style."
When you're just starting, figuring out what type of samples your portfolio needs can be tricky. Looking at other designer's profiles and portfolios for inspiration can be helpful. See what the common types of samples are, like logos, landing pages, product packaging, and book covers, then start mocking up your own.
Presentation is a big part of your portfolio—it's your first impression. You want to make sure to showcase your work in the best light possible. Ctvrtlik always puts a few finishing touches on her portfolio items to make them more visually appealing.
"There's a lot of ways that you can polish up 'okay' work to make it look better. I put almost all of my projects onto mockups. If it's a website design, I'll mock it up onto a Mac computer screen with a pretty colored background. Or, if it's an email design, I may have a mockup of someone scrolling through the email on their phone. So there are different ways that you can make it a little bit more presentable and easier for clients to actually envision themselves using the designs."
Figure out your style
Compared to working for a company full-time, being a freelancer allows you to develop and own your style, especially as a creative. Independent professionals can work in their specific niche and become experts.
Ctvrtlik advises other designers who are interested in freelancing to find their style. Your style can be what sets you apart from other talent on the platform, which can help bring in clients.
"Being a freelancer allows you to really create your own style, and clients will find you based on that style versus the other way around. You can choose a particular style that you know that you're good at or enjoy working on. I think it's important to stick with that, and clients will seek you out for that specific style."
Sometimes, clients decide to go in a different direction, or your style doesn't quite match what they were looking for. Ctvrtlik has learned not to take feedback personally.
"The client has a specific vision in mind, and they're hiring you to make that vision come to life. Some clients may want a little bit more creative feedback or pushback from you, but a lot of clients do have a really specific thing in mind. The better that you're able to meet that, even if it's not necessarily what you would do if you had free rein, the more helpful it is for the client."
One pro tip that Ctvrtlik has is not to let any work go to waste. Even if a client decides not to use your design, she suggests adding it to your portfolio if it fits your style.
"You can either change the branding on it, or you can say, 'This was one version of a collection of concepts that I made for this client.' So if you feel like you have gone through some really strong revisions, and then the client is asking for more feedback that isn't necessarily reflective of your own style, you can totally still use those older versions in your portfolio."
Cross-market on social media
Social media is a free tool that you can use to promote your freelancing business while building your portfolio and demonstrating your skills. Around the time that Ctvrtlik started freelancing, she also launched her YouTube channel, Arvabelle, which has over 174k subscribers today.
Ctvrtlik's channel is about personal finance, investing, and entrepreneurship. While this doesn't directly relate to her freelancing skill, graphic design, it has helped her win clients. YouTubing was a way for Ctvrtlik to showcase her creativity and other types of design skills she could offer clients.
"When clients would Google my name, my YouTube channel would come up, and they would be able to explore my videos. Clients would realize, okay, she's done these different video projects and graphic projects for herself. She clearly enjoys this and has been able to rank her own work pretty high. If she can do that for herself, she can probably do it for us. So that has been another great way to show off my skillset by working on personal projects that I would do anyways."
Ctvrtlik in Thailand
Add a quick sample to your proposal
In the beginning, Ctvrtlik didn't have the Talent Badges, client reviews, and variety of portfolio samples she has today. If she saw a proposal on the Talent Marketplace™ that she was really interested in, she would mock up a quick sample for the client and add it to her proposal.
Ctvrtlik knew that she had the design skills to complete the projects, but if she hadn't done anything else that was similar, these samples would help give her clients an extra vote of confidence. Clients on Upwork can't ask for unpaid test projects. It's a violation of the Terms of Service. As a freelancer, you can choose to do this on your own if you think it will help you win the contract.
"If you are applying to a job and you don't specifically have the type of work that they're looking for but you know that you can do it, consider at the start, creating a little mockup for them for free. That was how I actually got my first job on Upwork."
One of the clients she won this way was Agranoff. He was looking for a graphic designer for one of his sock companies. While Ctvrtlik had never designed sock graphics before, she felt confident that she could do it.
"So, with my application, I said, 'Hey, here's a quick sock mockup that I made.' I think that was what set that application apart, that I was actually able to provide them with the specific example of the type of work that they wanted."
Be active on Upwork and respond quickly
When companies post jobs on LinkedIn or other job boards, they are often looking to fill positions in the next few weeks or even months. As an applicant, you can wait a few days to send your resume and cover letter. But on Upwork, clients are ready to hire right now and want to find talent who can get started as soon as possible. Ideally, you want to be one of the first few freelancers to submit a proposal for a project.
"If you aren't responding to people, they're not going to hire you. A lot of the jobs that I've gotten through Upwork were simply because I was one of the first or one of the only people to respond."
From freelancer to agency owner
Ctvrtlik grew her freelancing business and reached the limit of what she was capable of doing on her own. Instead of turning down work, she decided to create her own agency, Retrospective Media, and hire other freelancers to help.
"When my business got to the point of me not being able to take on any more clients because there physically were not any more hours left in the day, I started considering that I might need to expand or hire help."
Starting an agency allowed Ctvrtlik to keep growing. She still works as an independent freelancer, taking on projects for her favorite clients, but now has a team of independent professionals supporting her. In the past five years, Ctvrtlik's career has grown in a way that she thinks would be difficult to accomplish in a traditional job.
"I definitely think that freelancing allows you to grow a lot more quickly than a 9 to 5. The pace that you have to work and that you have to learn at is much, much quicker than if you are doing the same role for a year or two years."
Ctvrtlik found the experience she gained as a freelancer incredibly helpful for running her own agency. She recommends starting as a freelancer and making sure you can do the work yourself before launching an agency.
"I didn't expand into an agency format until I personally was maxed out with my work. Having the experience of doing it myself for several years, I got to know what issues would come up. It helps me to give my contractors and my freelancers better direction as well since I have experience doing it myself."
Building better talent and client relationships
Ctvrtlik splits her time between freelancing and running her own agency. This helps her to be a better client and set talent up for success.
For clients looking to hire talent on Upwork and build relationships, Ctvrtlik had some thoughts, which we cover below.
Use freelancers to complete projects faster
Freelancers have flexible schedules and operate their own businesses—they succeed when you do. Talent on Upwork are highly motivated to deliver high-quality work and be productive. They don't want to lose a client or get a negative review.
"Freelancers may be able to complete your work overnight, and you will have it ready the next morning—that's awesome for a lot of companies. If they are freelancing full time, then they may be able to complete projects faster than an employee would, who already has a full workload."
Remember that freelancers aren't employees
Freelancers run their own businesses and set their own schedules. Know ahead of time if you need someone to attend meetings and how you prefer to communicate. Outline your expectations in the job posting and interviews so you find the right match.
"It's really important for the clients to be upfront about what the communication expectations are. Are you going to expect the freelancer to jump on a call every few hours? Are you going to want to keep communication mostly to email or have them join your Slack or Asana boards? Let the freelancers know so that there isn't a mismatch in communication and availability requirements."
Be clear about what you're looking for in your job postings
When a freelancer reads your job posting, they should be able to tell whether or not they have the skills and experience to complete the project. Adding additional information, like the company name, links to your website, or examples of styles that you like, is helpful for talent so they can do research before submitting a proposal. Try to wait until you have a project ready before you start looking for talent.
"I do graphic design specifically, so for me, I avoid any postings that are like, 'Hey, we need help with a variety of graphics, but we don't know what that looks like yet.' I stay away from those types of vague job postings because, from what I've seen, usually those clients don't necessarily have the work lined up yet."
Let your freelancers know when they're doing a good job
Freelancers are used to getting feedback, especially from clients asking for revisions and changes. Sending a little note to let talent know when they're getting it right and doing well can go a long way. Showing them how their work fits into the overall picture can help them feel more invested and included.
"Something that I think is actually really important for clients to do and that freelancers really appreciate is letting us know when we do a good job. It's really easy to be going back and forth over email or Upwork messages, asking for revisions but never really affirming that like, 'Yeah, that was awesome.' It doesn't have to be constant, but every once in a while, send them a picture of the product packaging that they designed or even mail it to them physically so that they can actually hold it and see it."
Find talent who closely align with your needs
Make sure the talent's profile and portfolio fit the skills and style you need, especially in the creative space. You want to find freelancers who are the best at what they do, especially when you need a specific style or type of work. Look for specialists rather than generalists.
"When I'm hiring, I open up the portfolios first. If it's not a good fit, I close it. If the work doesn't match my style, I close it. I don't move on to reading anything else that they've sent. Once I have narrowed it down to a few people who have really good portfolios, I'll message them."
Offer paid test projects
Test projects are a great way to get a feel for talent's work, communication, and how they respond to feedback. This is helpful, especially for new freelancers who show promise but don't have a wide range of portfolio pieces. Investing the time and resources into a paid test pays off when you find the right talent and can build a relationship with them.
"I'll always pay for a test project or even a test month with a freelancer. It takes time to learn how to work with a new client. I know a couple of people that I have worked with, and when I hired them, I didn't necessarily think that their work was the best fit based on the test project that they initially sent me. But then, after I gave them feedback, I was like, oh my gosh, this is actually exactly what I was looking for. So sometimes you can be surprised by how good people are at taking feedback."
Enter the world of freelancing
Whether you're a client looking to build a flexible workforce or a skilled professional interested in freelancing, Upwork can be your home for work. Making an account as a freelancer or client is free. Sign up and start posting jobs, or see what projects match your skills on Talent Marketplace.
Suzanne Ctvrtlik started freelancing to help pay the bills while she applied for traditional jobs. As she began winning contracts and steadily earning on the platform, she realized she could support herself by freelancing full-time. She's never had to commute to the office to fill a 9-to-5 shift, and has been able to grow her business and start her own agency.
You can hire Suzanne or her agency, Retrospective Media, on Upwork to help with all of your design needs, from websites and landing pages to social media graphics and emails. Suzanne and her agency have worked with Fortune 500 companies and household names like Chick-fil-A, 1-800-Flowers, McDonald's, and SurveyMonkey.