Apply these 'Jeff Bezos' tips in your freelancing career, whether you’re just starting out or wanting to advance to the next level.

Before Amazon became massively successful and one of the most valuable public companies, Bezos was just a man with a dream sitting in his single-person office. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1995 with just 10 employees.

Amazon was not always this huge in success. It started as a dream, a dream that no one else saw yet but that he saw in Jeff’s mind.

Through Jeff’s many experiments, trial and error, and consistent testing, that is how Amazon came to be. 

During an interview, Jeff Bezos revealed:

• "Our success at Amazon is a function of how many experiments we do per year, per month, per week, per day. "

As a freelancer, it’s important to remember many of those experiments you try out will fail, but "big failures" are a necessary part of the journey toward success. Bezos stated. "We take risks all the time, we talk about failure," he also said: 

• "We need big failures in order to move the needle. If we don't, we're not swinging enough. You really should be swinging hard, and you will fail, but that's okay, In addition to taking risks and failing, entrepreneurs must also be passionate when going into business for themselves.”

I find Bezos mindset inspirational because it all begins with your ‘why’ which is your vision and your reason for going into business for yourself in the first place. Keeping your vision in mind is what helps any successful entrepreneur or freelancer grow.

The only way you can live up to your fullest potential is by thinking big and continuing to push towards your dreams, even if nobody else understands, just like Bezos did.

When the inevitable roadblocks and challenges arise on your journey, being able to constantly adapt, test, experiment, and shift will be the reason you can breakthrough and keep moving forward.

However, aside from Amazon's constant focus on experimentation, this was not the only thing that made them the success that they are today...

It was also due to their relentless focus on customer satisfaction. Bezos stated:

 "The most important thing is to be customer-obsessed," he said. "Don't satisfy them, absolutely delight them."

That's why Amazon has been able to ingrain itself in people's daily lives and develop customer loyalty.

Amazon prides itself on customer loyalty. Their goal has always been around the customer. 

As a freelancer, your focus should be the same!

Once a customer trusts you and finds value in the services you provide, they will most likely become loyal to you. 

This gives you the ability to turn them into a predictable recurring client that you can bill monthly vs. just a one-time project that you never hear from again.

As you go into your freelancing career no matter whether you're just starting or you're already established in freelancing , if you want to have more success, think about how you can implement new experiments to keep learning and adapting.

You can also take a look at where you can expand your service catalog as a freelancer. One way to approach adding another skill to your arsenal is to offer a skill that's still in the same skill category as your initial skill but branches off a bit.

For example, if you like designing websites but you don't do much of the actual content on the website, you can learn how to bundle your skills together and include copywriting and graphic design.

Without experimenting, you're not going to know what other services and what other skills would be a good addition to what you already know and that's something that Amazon has figured out. 

If you can take a couple of steps out of the process for your customers/clients you will begin to raise yourself above the competition and stand out.

For example, If a client is going on Upwork.com and they need to hire a marketing freelancer, there's a lot more benefit they can get from hiring someone very good at multiple different skills as opposed to hiring multiple less experienced freelancers. 

Hiring managers are also now realizing that they can bring someone on to their digital team long-term and not just for a one-time project like a lot of people think freelancing solely consists of.

They think freelancing is made up of constant one-off gigs, but that is simply not true for those who know how to approach it. Offering your services as a freelancer has the ability to turn into a real profitable business if you shift your focus towards attaining long-term recurring clients on a consistent basis.

Just like Jeff Bezos knows, you need those repeat customers.

Start to look at how you can get clients that are long-term and then once you have them look at how you can get more referrals from them. The way any online business thrives today is by being able to get into their target market and being able to raise themselves above the competition so people go to them. Bezos quotes:

• “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word-of-mouth is very powerful.”

When you are thinking about how you can have more success as a freelancer in 2021, think about what Jeff Bezos would do. His advice on growing a business is: 

• “There are two ways to extend a business. Take inventory of what you’re good at and extend out from your skills. Or determine what your customers need and work backward, even if it requires learning new skills. Kindle is an example of working backward.”

You can draw a lot of inspiration from anyone who's gone out there and started a successful business from scratch. So as a freelancer, focus on crafting that vision you have because no one knows how far you can go besides yourself.

That should be your goal, to live up to your fullest potential. The only way you can do that is by thinking big and envisioning a very big future just like Jeff Bezos did. He also quoted: 

• “Seek to build a community–to make better choices in the people with whom you partner–that’s the only way to have greater long-term impact on the world.”

If Jeff Bezos never started Amazon, we may not have known who he is today...

When you're thinking about how you can approach freelancing and how you can have more success and impact in 2021 think about what Jeff Bezos would do. It’s important to follow people who already have a track record and aren't just talking about it. Only take advice from people that are in a position where you want to go.

By adopting the Jeff Bezos mindset of constantly experimenting, always expanding, focusing on the customer, and gaining recurring clients, you will start to see the most success in your freelance career.

- Paul Mendes

 Founder of Profitable Freelancer