Freelancing for beginners: your first job won't come from a job site, it comes from people who already know you

You want to freelance so you can work from home and stay close to your kids. Then you open a job site, see a screen full of impressive profiles, and your heart sinks. “I don’t have anything to sell,” you think, and close the tab. If that’s you, raise your hand.

But here’s the truth: most freelancers don’t get their first job from a job site. It usually comes from people who already know them. We’ll walk you through it step by step, from finding the skills you already have, to landing your first 3 jobs, setting your price, and the tax you need to know about from day one. And we won’t sell you any dreams about having loads of free time either.

I’ve never freelanced before. What skills can I sell?

Quick Answer: Whatever friends and family keep asking you to help with is usually a skill you can sell. Pick one and turn it into a clear service.

Think about what the people around you often ask you to do. Many of us have these skills already without realizing it.

Skill you already have	Service you can start selling
Office experience, good with Excel	Bookkeeping income and expenses, stock tracking for small shops
Love taking photos and making social media images	8 sales posts a month for a shop
Good at English, Chinese or Japanese	Translating product descriptions and short documents
Good writer	Writing captions and product descriptions
Former teacher or tutor	Online tutoring by the lesson
Detail-oriented and organized	Order management admin, by shift

The key is to sell one service, not your whole self. “I do everything online” sounds so broad that clients hesitate to hire you. But “8 sales posts a month, captions included” lets a client see right away what they’ll get.

If you’re not sure what kind of work fits the time you have, read more in Home business ideas for moms, chosen by the time you really have

Where do I find my first 3 jobs?

Quick Answer: Start with people who already know you, like friends, former coworkers and local shops, because they trust you without needing to see a portfolio.

Most beginners go through these steps and it works.

1. Tell people you know exactly what you offer. Post on your personal Facebook or in your story, something like “I’m now making sales posts for small shops,” with 2 to 3 samples of your work.
2. Message the shops you buy from regularly. Bakeries, coffee shops and clothing shops in your neighborhood often have no time for social media. Offer to make one sample first so they can see what it would look like.
3. Ask for a review and permission to use the work in your portfolio. Every time you deliver a job, ask the client to write a short sentence, and ask whether you can show the work in your portfolio.

Your first 3 jobs don’t have to be free. You can charge a price that’s fair to both sides, but see the real profit this round as the portfolio and reviews that will lead you to the next job.

What’s the difference between Fastwork and Upwork? Where should I start?

Quick Answer: Fastwork is Thailand’s freelance marketplace, with Thai clients and in Thai. Upwork is an international marketplace where you need to communicate in English. Both get much easier once you have work to show.

	Fastwork	Upwork
Clients	Mostly Thai people and Thai businesses	Worldwide
Language	Thai	English
How you get work	You set up service packages for clients to choose from	Mostly you send proposals for jobs that clients post
Payment safety	Client pays through the system, and the platform holds the money until the work is approved	Also has a payment system through the platform
Costs for the freelancer	Fee deducted from your earnings	Fee deducted from your earnings, and you need Connects credits to submit proposals

Both platforms change their fees from time to time. Before you set your price, check the latest numbers on each one’s fee page.

The big advantage of taking work through a platform is that the money is held by the system, so you don’t have to worry about a client not paying. In exchange, you need to build the fee into your price.

How do I set my price so I’m not working hard for nothing?

Quick Answer: Count all the hours you actually spend, including talking with the client and revisions, multiply by an hourly rate you can live on, then compare with market prices.

Beginners often count only the time spent “sitting and working” and forget about these:

• Discussing details with the client and answering questions in chat
• Revising based on feedback (which for some jobs takes as long as the first round)
• Sending files, writing quotations, chasing payment
• Platform fees and tax you need to set aside

A simple example: 8 posts take 6 hours of actual work, plus 3 more hours of talking and revisions, 9 hours in total. If you want 200 baht an hour, your minimum price should be around 1,800 baht. Then adjust based on market prices and your skill level.

The best way to avoid working for free is to write a clear scope of work before you start, for example “2 revisions included, each extra revision is 150 baht,” and to ask for a deposit before starting with clients who hire you outside a platform. For a detailed costing formula, read on at Product pricing formula

How do I tell if a job is a scam?

Quick Answer: With a real job, the client pays you. If anyone asks you to transfer money before you start, whether they call it a registration fee, a deposit or a fee to unlock work, stop right away.

Moms looking for work-from-home jobs are a group scammers love to target. Several major Thai banks warn about the same common signs:

• Easy work that pays unrealistically well, like liking posts or reviewing products for thousands of baht in commission a day
• Asking you to transfer money first as a registration fee, a deposit, or “tasks” where you have to top up money to withdraw your earnings
• Paying you a little real money at first to win your trust, so you then transfer a bigger amount
• Asking you to pay into a personal account, not a company account
• Pulling you into a group chat where people show off that they really got paid, to pressure you into deciding fast
• Using a big brand or platform name but contacting you through a personal account

If you’re unsure, ask yourself one question: “Who is paying whom in this job?” If the answer is that you have to pay first, you don’t need to think any further. If you’ve already been scammed, contact your bank immediately and file an online report with the Thai cyber police.

Raising kids at the same time: how much work can I take on without burning out?

Quick Answer: Take on work based on time you know you have, not time you might have, and always allow more time before the deadline than you think you need.

Let’s be honest. With a young child, your real working time is often about half of what you planned. Your child gets sick, won’t sleep, or is teething. A day you planned to work 3 hours might shrink to 40 minutes.

• Track the time you reliably have free for 1 week before taking on work
• In your first month, take on only half of what you think you can handle
• Tell clients from the start what hours you answer chat
• Set your delivery date 2 to 3 days later than when you think you’ll finish. Deliver early and clients are happy. Deliver late and clients don’t come back.

If you feel like there’s never enough time, try reading Time management for a mom’s business, which focuses on energy more than schedules.

How is freelance income taxed?

Quick Answer: Most income from doing work for others is type 40(2) income. You declare it on the P.N.D. 90 form (ภ.ง.ด.90) at the start of the following year. You can deduct 50% as expenses, but combined with 40(1) salary income the deduction can’t exceed 100,000 baht.

Know this from the moment you start taking work, so you’re not confused at the end of the year.

• Clients that are companies often withhold some tax at source and give you a “withholding tax certificate,” or 50 Tawi (50 ทวิ). Keep every one of these. When you file, you may get money back.
• Clients who are individuals usually don’t withhold tax, but you still need to declare that income yourself.
• A flat 50% expense deduction applies to 40(1) and 40(2) income combined, up to 100,000 baht. No receipts needed.
• Record income from every job in a notebook or Google Sheets: who paid, what date, and how much. It makes the end of the year much easier.

If you’re single and your income for the whole year is over 60,000 baht, you have to file. But filing doesn’t always mean you have to pay. After expenses and allowances, many people don’t owe a single baht. For the online filing steps screen by screen, read File your taxes online, step by step

If your income is a mix of types, for example you take freelance work and also sell products, the income categories may differ. If you’re not sure, you can call the Revenue Department’s information center on 1161.

Summary: what can I do starting tomorrow?

Quick Answer: Pick one skill, turn it into a clear service, and tell people who know you first. You don’t need to wait until everything is ready.

1. Write a list of things people around you often ask you to help with, then pick 1
2. Turn it into one service with a clear number of pieces, price, and number of revisions
3. Make 2 to 3 samples, then tell people you know
4. Once you get work, ask for a review every time. When you have 3 jobs done, open a profile on a platform
5. Record income from every job from day one

You don’t need to be the best on a job site to get started. You just need to be someone clients trust, who delivers on time and knows how much she can handle. That alone will take you much further than you think.