Working as a freelance professional is an ideal work solution for many individuals in the 21st century. Once you become successful as a freelance professional, you may find yourself becoming increasingly inundated with projects and tasks as your exposure grows.

The logical step for any freelancer who has more clients than hours in the day is to take the initiative to transition from freelancer to entrepreneur, making a business out of your skillset, knowledge, and contacts. Starting a business independently raises unique challenges that are rarely faced by freelancers independently.

Here are a four crucial steps to help ease the transition from working as a self-employed professional to embarking on the task of hiring others.

1- Consider the Costs Involved

It is important that you consider whether the transition from working on a freelance basis to owning your own business will be financially viable for you. Every single case is different, and the best solution is to draw up a detailed budget of potential costs, balanced against the potential sum of money you could earn. Here are some of the costs you should consider:

• Hiring or purchasing business premises 
• Business insurance and protection for employees
• Staffing costs
• Corporate fees and taxes for small business

There are a variety of costs involved in starting a business and it is important to calculate the realistic amount of profit that your business can garner, rather than just focusing on gross profit.

2- Choose the Right Staff

Over the span of your career, you will have undoubtedly worked alongside highly motivated and exceedingly competent individuals. Now is the optimal time to get in touch with contacts that may be interested in working for your business start-up. It is important to consider that hiring the right employees is essential for business success; quite simply, it is easier to guarantee an employee’s success if you have previously worked with them and can form a quick, strong relationship with your new worker.

3- Strengthen Your Business Knowledge

Many freelancers are excellent at working independently and often possess extremely valuable technical skills. This does not mean that they are equipped with an in-depth knowledge based in the world of commerce, though.

Fortunately, there are a variety of ways that you can improve your entrepreneurial skills and business knowledge before you make the transition from freelancer to entrepreneur; one popular choice is to study a commercially focused master’s degree, such as https://online.suffolk.edu/programs/ms-business-analytics. This course will enable you to manage your business independently and in the most efficient manner possible.

4- Line up Future Projects Now

If you are planning to transition from freelancer to entrepreneur, you should organize yourself for this shift as soon as possible. While you are still self-employed, you should prepare your work-load in relation to the body of staff you intend on hiring.

This means an increased capacity to handle projects and encourage requests from new clients. You may have sufficient tasks as a freelancer, but you will need a significantly larger workload to become a successful entrepreneur.

If you have design needs for your new company logo, website, etc., consider DesignContest. This popular freelance platform just recently released a 2.0 update that makes it easy and affordable for users to either start a contest or hire one of their 260,000 professionals one-on-one.  

Transitioning from a freelance professional does come with challenges – but if you follow these tips and maintain a proactive approach to entrepreneurship, you can achieve outstanding results.