What Freelancing Is?
Self-employment and freelancing are synonymous. Freelancing is a kind of self-employment where services are offered to clients on project or contract basis.
Freelancing had existed long before IT evolution and online freelancing. In fact, origin of term freelancing is also very interesting.
In 1800’s term freelance was used to refer a mercenary or soldier who would fight for which ever country or commander paid him the highest.
Scope of freelancing has broadened to almost all fields of work.
Be it consultancy, designing, writing, translation, programming, accountancy, project management and whatever proficiency and skill set one have; freelancers have always been in demand. The reason behind it is that clients / businesses don’t have to bear fixed employment costs and obligations.
Here we are talking about online freelancing. Advent of online connectivity and e commerce has enabled clients and free lancers to find each other more conveniently.
Why Freelancing?
Regular job binds worker to follow certain working hours and working conditions. Whereas Freelancing offers much working freedom and financial freedom.
I have been freelancing for nine years and I am super happy with this choice of career. And have the damn good reasons to be much contented.
- Leisure of being my own boss.
- Financial freedom.
- I control my workload.
- Liberty of working from anywhere.
- I choose whom to work with.
- Chances to work on diverse projects makes my job exciting.
- Flexibility to set my schedule.
How It Works?
Free lancers get work order or projects from clients on different online freelancing websites / platforms.
Clients float these jobs for fixed amount or they publish project budget to which freelancers responds by applying or bidding.
While applying or bidding for project freelances must consider
- Project Budget
- Required Time Limit
- Effort Required
- Clients Profile / History
- Other Freelancers’ reviews about client
- Clients Location
Upon acceptance client finalize project milestones with freelancers and they mutually agree payment terms and stages.
Upon completion of project full payment is realized.
Freelancing platforms normally charge fee from both freelancer and client.
It not only acts a place to connect but also facilitate payments or money transfer between the parties.
Moreover, upon completion, freelancing platforms also upraise profile status of freelancer and client. Which help to attract parties for their next projects
Freelancer platform serves and safeguards the interests and stakes of both the freelancer and client.
Top 10 Freelancing Websites / Platforms:
- Fiverr
- Freelancer
- Upwork
- PeoplePerHour
- TopTal
- WeWorkRemotely (WWR)
- Guru
- SimplyHired
- Flexjobs
- TaskRabbit
All these websites have some distinctive features Iet’s have a brief and quick review of some of these.
- Fiverr is good for small projects, easy to sign up. Just list your services and client will approach you instead of you bidding for the project.
- Freelancer works on bidding method. Good for big projects & long-term clientage. Big companies and clients. Variety of job fields. Bid a project with proposal and wait to get selected. Comparatively low project fees.
- Upwork clients pay comparatively higher. Broader industry base.
Factors In Selection of Freelancing Website / Platform
The most important thing in freelancing is selection of freelancing platform. Following factors must be considered thoroughly before signing up a freelancing website because frequent switching of platform will not let your profile grow and get mature.
- Client Base
- Project Hunting Method
- Ease of Sign up & Payment
- Project Fees
Selecting Field of Work (profession) In Freelancing
What will you do as a freelancer? Means what freelancing services will you offer to clients or what will be your field of work while freelancing. This has the utmost importance.
There are hundreds of professions that people work in as freelancers. Many are skill based and many are semi-skilled. Skill based fields have more value and income.
Some of the popular freelancing professions are:
- Writing
- Editing
- Proofreading
- Translating
- Transcribing
- Programming
- General Development
- Web Development
- App Development
- Graphic Designing
- Bookkeeping
- Online Marketing
- Social Media Management
- CRM Management
- Virtual Assistance
- Analysis
And many more…
While choosing you freelance profession you must consider:
- What you are good at
- Demand on Freelancing websites
- Competition among freelancers
- Payoff
How Much A Freelancer Can Earn?
Freelancer’s income depends upon demand and competition of profession you choose or what you are good at.
Let’s analyze average incomes of some top freelancing professions in the year 2022 that just said goodbye.
Content writers bagged average annual salary of $42000 @ $35 – $40 / Hour.
Programmers’ annual salary was about $120,000 @ $60-$70/ Hour.
Web Developers approximately earned about $95,000 a year @ $50-$60/ Hour
Graphic Designers’ annual average earnings were also about $90,000 @ $45-$55 / Hour
If we compare earnings of these professions in Traditional 8 Hours, 5 days a week jobs, we will find that freelancers are on upper hand as compared to their regular counterparts, in addition to all the freedom and leisure of independence.
Factors To Get Hired
The more frequent you get hired the more you will earn. While assigning project to freelancer’s client consider following points.
- Freelancer’s Profile
- Experience
- Skill Set
- Job Completion History
- Previous Clients’ Reviews
- Bid Amount
- Job completion time projected by freelancer
- Communication
- Enthusiasm for the project
Key Note:
Winning or getting a project is success itself but it’s not all, more important is that you complete it in agreed timeline and delivers the quality work. This what will build your profile and freelance history.
Good profile and freelance history not only attract new clients but also retain previous clients with bigger contracts in future. Quality and commitment are what matters most in success in freelancing.
Aristotle once said and I quote “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work”.
Thought For Inspiration
If you are not skilled or qualified no need to worry at all, you must be good at something naturally. And that is your power. All you need is to explore your strengths. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe.