Freelancing has become a very famous “Without a Boss” phenomenon for the last few years. It turns you into the CEO of your life because you can work according to your defined schedule or as per your convenience. The world’s workforce is preferring freelance work due to the freedom it offers. As a result, it is gaining more interest worldwide. This flexibility and then rise in earnings from it are making people join the freelancing club. As time passes, the number of freelancers has been increasing. Let’s get into the details of What is freelancing and How COVID-19 has hit Freelancing?.
History of Freelancing:
Maybe you are familiar with the term freelancing, but where does the word “freelancer” come from and what is the history behind it? You may be amazed to find out that freelancing came prior to the Internet. Thomas N. Brown’s and Sir Walter Scottboth described a “free-lancer” as a medieval mercenary soldier who offered his services to the highest bidder.
Nowadays, a freelancer is a person a self-employed worker or, as the Cambridge Dictionary defines it, a freelancer is “someone who works on different projects with different companies instead of being a company employee”.
In the 1970s, American physicist and engineer Frank M. Nilles introduced the concept of working from home in order to provide a solution to transportation problems in the US, which made it hard for people from remote areas to travel to the major towns for work purposes. After the development of the internet in the late 1960s, these people started connecting with each other for a job. Today, almost everyone has access to the Internet, hence, making this easier for freelancers and clients to connect.
Freelancing Definition:
- To do pieces of work for different organizations, rather than working all the time for a single organization:
- Working independently usually for various organizations rather than as an employee of a particular one.
- Doing particular pieces of work for different organizations, rather than working all the time for a single organization.
Who is Freelancer?
A person who delivers services to clients directly without involving any intermediary that often charges intermediary fees. Freelancers also typically provide all kinds of services that are required by most businesses to excel including graphic designing, marketing, accounting, bookkeeping, project management, teaching, tutoring, virtual assistant, web designing, development, social media manager, and writing. They also identify specific niches to work upon like real estate etc.
Importance and Benefits of Freelancing:
Freelancing is the popular and legit way of providing your services to make money through great earning avenues and becoming self-reliable in this era to enjoy the freedom to be CEO of your life and enjoying flexible working hours. It breeds confidence, “𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐍𝐀 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞”, said Robin Sharma.
It has been noticed that more and more people are opting to join as freelancers based on year on year basis data. Further, freelancers are skilled workers who are valued over the ones with formal education or lacking skills. Having said that, freelancers work on their own and are crucial for contributing to the economy of any country.
Moreover, in developed countries, the numbers of people who are freelancing and entrepreneurs are higher than in underdeveloped countries.
Further, people are quitting their full-time jobs and aim to make a good amount of money online by offering their skills. They work from home and avoid a hectic time schedule of 9 to 5 fixed salary jobs. They prefer self-employment over a regular job and enjoy the freedom of working in their own selected hours. Freelancers also update themselves as the demand changes for required skills to remain successful in their particular field to make their mark.
Makes you Know Your Strengths
Freelancing helps you become conscious of your strengths and encourage you to make money by utilizing your plus points. Being a freelancer, you can opt for projects that you can resonate with and make money. People are making a billion annually over a single platform.
It is becoming popular, especially among females of underdeveloped countries like Pakistan, India, and other Asian countries. In-country like Pakistan where females face a number of challenges while going outside for a fixed-time job, freelancing is gaining recognition among them. They can work from home and become financially independent. Freelancers can select a specific time, when their productivity rate is high, to carry out their job tasks instead of allocating the whole day.
- Use music to your advantage.
- Identify your most productive time of the day.
- Make your to-do list work.
Freelancing Markets
𝟏- Traditional:
In the traditional market, the Employer posts a project and interested freelancers bid on the project. The employer evaluates the bids submitted and selects one of the freelancers to perform the job, who gets paid for the same upon completion. Upwork.com, guru.com are examples of traditional freelancing marketplaces.
𝟐- Non-Traditional:
This credit goes to Fiver.com. Being a non-traditional marketplace has attracted a huge number of users because there is no tricky process of bidding. On Fiverr, the freelancer does not have much control over Gig(s). Important Elements of Gig are as follows;
- Title & Tags.
- Packages.
- Description.
- Images/Videos.
For more insights, visit beingguru
Invest in Yourself:
“𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞, 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧”, said Robin Sharma.
“𝐁𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐞-𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨. 𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦”, Said Robin Sharma. Greatness begins beyond your comfort zone.
𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐚 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟖𝟎/𝟐𝟎 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞:
Learn 3 skills that you feel passionate about and master them thru deliberate practice. Apply the 80/20 rule, which says that invest 80% of your time in getting your hands on identifying certain skills and then transform it in a way that makes you money.
“𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬. 𝐀 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠”, said Robin Sharma.
By and by you would recognize that of these 3 skills, there is one single skill that matches your profession. Boom! There your financial prosperity begins in a more effective manner. It would not only help you during rainy days but also prepare yourself for potential challenges coming your way, enabling you to respond to tough times with fortitude. It is not difficult to master a skill in the presence of plenty of online avenues available. Harvard and Oxford University both have offered a number of free online courses. In addition, other online platforms like Udemy and BitDegree have made some of their high-cost, high-selling courses free to enable people to learn new skills and transform themselves into better.
Fasted Growing Skills:
1. Blockchain Technology.
2. Amazon DynamoDB.
3. Tensor flow.
4. VoiceOver.
5. Art Direction.
6. Subtitling.
7. Content strategy.
8. Microsoft Power BI.
9. Augmented Reality.
10. Computer vision.
Create a Freelancing Portfolio:
Many freelancers find it difficult to build a portfolio. The most effective way to populate your profile is by doing free projects and build a portfolio, which shall hopefully bring a positive response from the freelancing market in the form of orders. Freelancers should create a profile by researching good keywords, especially long-tail keywords. This practice must entail an 80/20 rule because this shall provide help in ranking your profile / GIG ranked on a freelancing website.
Bidding on a Project and AIDA:
This must be noted down that one should only bid on projects with which he resonates himself. In other words, bid on projects which you find related to your skillset and expertise. Never undertake a project which could cast a slur upon your profile. Employer posts multiple projects and obviously different from each other, therefore while becoming part of the bidding process, every bid must be different for every project.
It does not only include the price but also a catchy proposal (encompassing AIDA) to ignite a call to action. Also, explain who you are and what you can do to get this job completed. Follow the principles of copywriting by focusing on Consideration / You Attitude essential for business communication.
7 Rangi Formula:
Following is the 7 Rangi bidding formula, 𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐌𝐫. 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐦 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫 (A renowned Pakistani Freelancer and Blogger), that can help winning projects when including in bidding proposal effectively;
As a Graphic Designer you can write in the following manner:
1- Greetings (Hello, Client Name)
2- Restating Employer Project
———————
I understand you are looking for an XYZ logo design. You like ABC color with EFE touch and need a GHI look.
———————
3- Introduce yourself
———————
I am a graphic designer with 10 years of designing logos, brochures, and different artwork. Being a freelancer I take a lot of pride in my design work. I create a sketch on paper first and then produce it on Adobe Illustrator and do the final touchup on Photoshop.
———————-
4- What ‘I’ can do for an employer?
———————
YOU ATTITUDE
“I can create a state of art, eye catchy logo design within 3 business days. To give you options, I will offer 3 different logos to choose from based on your requirement and preference. Once the work is done, you will get all source code that will be completely editable. Your satisfaction is my priority and if selected, I will not disappoint you”.
———————
5- Portfolio
——————-
You can watch my diversified portfolio at the profile link.
——————
6- Free mockup/Question
Now, this is a magic trick used to attract the client’s interest. Usually, they are inclined to take up this offer.
A typical offer goes like this, I would like to offer you a FREE mockup design of your logo so you can see my design ability. Are you interested?
——————-
7- Closing (With a solid statement) and providing your contact information.
Looking forward to your response and doing business with you.
Thanks,
Your / Company Name
Website Address (if any)
Any other details deemed necessary.
Benefits of Premium Quotes:
As more and more people are turning towards a phenomenon called Work From Home, competition has also increased. In order to stand out yourself in this scenario and improve the chances of your visibility when a lot of proposals are on a single job. There is a feature called Premium Quotes offered by one of the largest freelance marketplaces Guru.com providing a competitive edge to freelancers and available to those having a professional, business, and executive membership. Though it is a bit costly there is also an advantage of opting for premium quotes. This feature helps freelancers place a quote on the top of other quotes having Green Tag, hence, improving visibility and chances of being hired for a particular job.
Freelancing Websites:
There is a number of freelancing websites, who could help one out to make money online by offering skill and get the job done. Commitment and consistency are a requirement. “Without Commitment, you will never start, and more importantly without consistency, you will never finish,” said Denzel Washington. Online freelancing assignments have also increased due to the availability of freelancing marketplaces allowing people to connect with each other and get their work done in the most amicable way. For more insights about freelancing websites over 101, please visit https://www.beingguru.com/2016/09/101-websites-to-earn-money/
Insights from Article Published in Dawn Dated Sep 26, 2020
Significant drop in freelance work amid Covid-19 – Writer Rimsha Jahangir
As we are cognizant of the fact that COVID-19 has not only affected regular jobs all over the globe but has also adversely hit freelance work, as most Pakistani freelancers expressed that the demand has decreased significantly in these stressful times. 64% Pakistanis freelancers came up in the recent survey suggest that businesses and companies have greatly cut freelancing costs and stopped rolling out new projects/contracts.
A survey has been done recently from over 100 countries including Pakistan and other emerging markets as well, wherein freelancers provided their opinions regarding the impact of COVID-19 on freelance services to payment platform Payoneer.
Freelancing during Covid-19
A report titled ‘Freelancing during Covid-19’ by Payoneer, based on a survey of over 1,000 freelancers, showed that 64pc Pakistani freelancers — 33pc of them graphic designers — said demand for their services had greatly decreased. For 15pc freelancers, the business had remained as usual, while 18pc reported that demand for their services had increased, according to the report.
24 pc Pakistani freelancers said that they would not lay off any team member and grow while on the other hand 9pc came up and said that they were cutting down on team members. 82pc of freelancers said that demand would increase after Covid-19 and competition will increase as compared to pre-pandemic times. 64pc said that they have not changed their rates and even increase during this period. However, 35pc freelancers said that they lowered rates.
Although this pandemic has slowed down the demand for freelancers in the short run, it is just a matter of time. It shall reinstate the moment businesses get back to their regular operations and start outsourcing their work.
Payoneer survey
“Payoneer surveyed over a thousand freelancers and found that 53pc predicted that demand for their services will increase after COVID-19 is over. Payoneer’s CEO said that there is already a quick growth in freelancers. Freelancer of the Year 2019 Ayman Sarosh,, who is from Pakistan said: “Currently businesses are moving online and freelancers have a tremendous opportunity, both in web/app development and digital marketing to help grow their businesses.”
“I have seen quite a few freelancers who have been very active not only on job portals but also on other social media channels, extending their expertise to help and advertise their services. The current situation seems to be providing an equal chance to opportunities and new online ventures that were never considered viable before,” he added. Moreover, the report stated that those who work with international clients, especially are based in North America and Europe have seen the maximum slowdown in freelance work demand. However, those freelancers who are dealing with clients based in Asia and Australia saw less of a decrease in demand for freelancers.
If we see it in a Global Landscape, the report pointed out, rates for freelance services remained stable despite the slowdown.
Conclusion:
It has been concluded that the number of freelancers is increasing on a year-on-year basis. It can solve the problem of employment for those who cannot work in offices and perform a 9 to 5 fixed salary job. Freelancers also contribute to the economy. It is one of the best sources of alternative income for those who aim to have multiple sources of income and to avoid putting all the eggs in one basket.
Freelancers can exploit multiple marketplaces and their distinctive features, including traditional and non-traditional, to their own advantage by offering skillset against the related projects, which can be developed by following the 80/20 rule. Eye-catchy profiles and proposals help in winning projects, hence, adding to the portfolio. Initially, one can build a portfolio by offering services for free. Moreover, freelancing also helps to raise income levels and solve the problem of employment in remote areas of the country where it is difficult to find work. People can earn attractive incomes through freelancing. It is a gateway to service sector jobs and entrepreneurship because freelancers are service exporters.
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