5 Ways Fiverr Jump-Started My Life as an Entrepreneur A digital branding specialist explains how her explorations on this online marketplace led her to create a consulting business.
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In your heart you may believe you have the skills to start a new business but you're stalling because you haven't proved it to anyone, not even yourself.
How do you earn the credibility you need to attract the clients you want? How do you transition from thinking about becoming an entrepreneur to actually developing the skills needed for long-term success without the pressure of raising startup funds and investing in marketing?
If going for an MBA is out of your price range, I highly suggest using Fiverr as a source of business accreditation. Fiverr is an online marketplace where anyone can sell products or services for as little as $5 and have their work reviewed by customers. Don't be fooled by the low pricing. Hundreds of skilled professionals are using this platform to create a steady stream of income, charging more than the initial starting price and I am one of them.
My journey with Fiverr began as a simple experiment. I wondered if I could earn income by offering a service that I usually did for fun. This trial effort has since evolved into a full-time consulting business and I have helped dozens of business owners by creating marketing, branding and business development strategies and helping visionaries structure their ideas.
Through Fiverr, I was able to help numerous clients meet their business goals and now I can confidently identity myself as a digital branding and marketing specialist. Today I offer my creative services, along with other helpful information, on my own web platform. I still solicit work through Fiverr because it is a great way to introduce my services to emerging businesses.
Fiverr gigs, which might seem like small fries to many businesspeople, have allowed me to supersize my income and offered me the credibility I needed to create a brand-new dream from scratch. Here's how Fiverr can help you build your business skills as an entrepreneur:
Related: Freelance Site Fiverr Raises $30 Million in a Play to Become the 'Amazon of Marketplace Services'
1. Turn play into pay.
When you offer a service for $5, it can't be too complex or you'll take a loss. Beginning a business on Fiverr forced me to offer a service initially that I could deliver without elaborate effort, yet still add value to people's lives. It had to be something that I would be thrilled to produce so that the novelty of creating it wouldn't wear off.
I chose to offer digital marketing services, the very activities that always felt like "play" to me.
Offer a service that feels like play and your income will increase exponentially since entrepreneurs flourish when they do work they enjoy.
2. Reveal your goals to the world.
It's easy to hide a passion if you aren't very confident in your abilities. But if you want to make sales through Fiverr, you can't hide.
Not only did I feel like I had to share the fact that I was offering a service on Fiverr for $5; I had to announce to everyone I knew that I was undertaking a new goal. That was scary because if I didn't do well, everyone would know.
Fiverr forces you to publicly acknowledge the goal you're trying to reach, which every entrepreneur needs to do if they want to reach the next level in business.
3. Become a better communicator.
This platform helped me to further hone my skills as a communicator by introducing me to many other personalities that challenged me to create a digital voice that was appealing and professional.
Through trial and error, I also learned the importance of communicating to potential clients what they should expect from my work. I set limits on what I was willing to offer and established terms for how my work would be evaluated.
I learned that responding quickly and politely, assuring customers that I sincerely wanted them to be pleased with the work and offering a money-back guarantee helped customers trust my intentions.
Related: Use Kickstarter to Validate Your Million-Dollar Idea
4. Become confident.
Because of my work on Fiverr, creating solutions for businesses is now second nature to me and I am completely confident in my ability to offer a service I once thought slightly out of my league.
When a potential customer contacts me to share a marketing goal or business-development issues, I can typically decide which type of solution I can offer within five minutes.
With dedicated practice you can become astute at problem solving, reducing the time you will spend on each project and that will enable you to help more customers and increase your profits.
5. Keep trying.
When you begin working toward a new business goal, you might make mistakes. Those mistakes may lead you to believe that you have sabotaged your progress forever. After a while I began to understand that each time a customer decided not to work with me there was a lesson to be learned.
Fiverr delivers such a steady stream of clients that even when I felt rejected, I knew that I had to dust myself off and move forward with confidence because each new sunrise would bring a new customer and a fresh opportunity to adjust my business style and work toward delivering perfect execution of my skills.
As an entrepreneur develop a system that lets you flow seamlessly from one project to the next, exceeding the expectations of customers along the way.
Related: Create Side-Hustle Income by Teaching What You Already Know
