Being your own boss.
If you're a model who hasn't been signed to a modeling agency yet or if you're that type of person who loves to be your own boss then freelance modeling may be the way for you. You'll be basically representing yourself, responsible for finding your own work and building your own portfolio. Marketing yourself is another task you'll have to do. Other tasks include: educating yourself about everything in the modeling world, keeping your resume updated, and much more. As you can see requires a lot of work and that's the price of freedom when you become a freelance model, at the end the effort worth it. It's all about getting your first success, after that you'll get the momentum and nothing can stop that.
Freelance modeling requirements.
There's no pattern or template for physical requirements in freelance models, nonetheless if you're very attractive and have a well worked body plus an amazing smile, it's going to help a lot for sure. What is good about freelance models, is that they can work in several fields of modeling: commercial, fitness, glamour, catalog, etc.
Nowadays, as a freelance model you'll find a lot of opportunities. One excellent advice is: use the internet. Finding your freelance modeling job is easy if you: have an excellent attitude, arrive early to every audition, respect your coworkers and make as much contacts as you can within the industry. Professionalism is a key element. Satisfied clients will refer you, this way you'll always have a modeling job.
Freelance modeling jobs.
What is good about being a freelance model is that even though you don't have an exclusive contract signed with a modeling agency, you have the ability to be signed non exclusively with several modeling agencies. These non exclusive modeling agencies will find you work by getting you booked with clients. The more non exclusive modeling agencies you sign with the more opportunities to get you hired. What you need to understand is that you'll have to pay them a percentage of the works they find you, nevertheless these agencies are very able to secure you high modeling rates. So at the end the percentage they take is won't affect your income much.
Model Mayhem Website.
At the same time, you can find modeling jobs by your own. You can do this by using the internet. There's a great website dedicated to search for modeling auditions and castings for freelance models: Model Mayhem. Sign up there, create your profile including your contact information. Make sure you upload some good pictures of yourself. It's advisable that you explain the types of works you're willing to do and which want not. Once you're in the website, you'll see the Castings section. Use the search engine they have there, so you can filter.
Craigslist is also another site to look for modeling jobs/gigs. Please proceed with caution with this site, some posts are scam.
Freelance modeling rates.
Rates for freelance models vary, depending on each model. It's about the skills you posses what will increase your rate, nonetheless several modeling gigs pay a
fixed rate, which is set by the company who hires the model.
Now, regarding photo shoots, you'll have to decide the moment you'll start charging for them.
If your level of experience is acceptable, you have an awesome portfolio and look and you have some good referrals, you can easily charge $50 per hour. This value can be adjusted in time, you'll know when it's the right moment to do it, but keep in mid that if you became greedy, you may lose some good work opportunities. The best thing to do is evaluate your process from time to time, measure your strengths and select a rate that you feel is fair for your profile.