The labor market situation has become more uncertain than ever and has consequently launched a demand growth of non-traditional forms of labor relations. This increased the number of freelancers or people who working as independent professionals. Being a freelancer means to be self-employed worker who is not a long time tied to a specific employer, and at the same time can be temporarily bound for several of them. This mode is usually adopted by people who after getting fired fail can’t find another steady job. However, many freelancers willingly chose to be free from the traditional mode because they realize that by their own skills they can earn more money than to work for someone.
What is freelancing?
If you want to start a freelance career, you need to know what is freelancing. Freelancing is one of the best methods of making money on the Internet. It depends entirely on the skills, abilities and experience of individual persons or freelancers. Freelance mode implies autonomous and independent work for the client. The work is based on the basis of a temporary employment contract or temporary contracts.
Who is a freelancer? Freelancer is a self-employed worker. A person who is not tied to a long-term one employer and at the same time can work for many. Depending on his interests and skills freelancer takes projects for a particular company and deliver them on time. As soon as he finished his job he gets paid for the work done and moves on to a new project.
Who’s in the job search process, he knows that most companies today seek and employ people with work experience. If you’re fresh out of college and you can not find a job for a long time it is normal for you to experience missing. However, if you are resourceful and you feel you have enough knowledge to smaller projects, try out as a freelancer.
In addition to gain experience and improve your knowledge, in this way you will fill in the empty boxes in your CV. Also, if you are already employed and have an excess of free time, make the most of your work experience for the additional work.
Why become a freelancer and start a freelance career?
If you decide to work as a freelancer, it will certainly go in favor that you will be able to choose the jobs you want to do and whic are motivating, because you will not have a boss who will give you boring projects. You will also be able to choose where and when you will work, so you will be able to work in your own home and you will not waste time going to work. Well, for starters who starting a freelance career it is important to properly evaluate skills and knowledge. You should be aware of in which category of work you are the best what can you offer to customers. Assessing yourself is important in determining prices for your services, but it is positive that you will not have a boss who will underestimate the price and the skills that you possess. When you deciding about the price for your services, you should always bear in mind that byexcessive lowering prices, you become disloyal competition. This will lower the price of all services, or long-term harm to you. Freelancers always must highlight the quality of their work.
Time management for freelancers is one of the biggest challenges. The great advantage is that you can choose your own time to work when you are most motivated and relaxed and not under pressure from the boss, and thus gain quality work. Freelancing often offers greater earnings, especially if you have a lot of experience and recommendations from clients with whom you have worked, because you can charge more for your services.
In addition you will be able to take as many clients as you need to earn more money. The advantage is that you do not have to work for the poor employers. Workers who work for someone often have to put up with bad clients, but not freelancers because they can easily reject those clients if they do not want to cooperate with them. Also, when you’re self-employed, remember to keep track of your own income. If you need to print out pay stubs for yourself or employees, you can use an online pay stub generator. Paystubsnow.com is fast and easy to use. You can check them out here.
Why freelance is “safer” than office work?
Dynamism
The claim that small businesses are more agile than traditional companies is largely proven. In the time that spend three company’s collegium in the decision on initiating the process of researching a good business opportunity, a freelancer will decide, gather a few colleagues and quickly begin realizing. Freelancers are accustomed to receiving the punches. If some job stops ot do not reach success, they can try something completely new and different tomorrow – not next year.
Lower costs
Utilities, equipment, insurance, and generally running a business out of the office building has become too expensive. If the profit is insufficient, jobs may fail because of the accumulation of these costs. Freelancers, on the other hand, have almost no extra cost, especially if you opt for a coworking space. Even when come harder times, they have no problem to overcome the crisis.
Perform multiple tasks at the same time
Who has more chances to survive economic shocks: a big company engaged in one activity or an entrepreneur who knows how to do five things at once? Freelancer are alone in work which demands constantly further education, constantly wider network of contacts and working hard at acquiring new skills that make them more competitive in the business they are dealing with. Days dealing with a single service or product are long over.
Just from the above and many other reasons, freelancers are stable in their jobs. They can not be dismissed, returned to a lower position or moved. Do not depend on the wisdom of the invisible managers. They do not care losing a customer because they know how to come up with new one.
If you are starting a freelance career, this infographic below, which shows pros and cons of freelancing should be helpful:
6 best websites to search for “freelance” jobs and start a freelance career
1. Freelancer
Freelancer.com is one of the world’s largest freelancing, outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and projects. They connect over 16,102,585 employers and freelancers globally from over 247 countries, regions and territories. Through their marketplace, employers can hire freelancers to do work in areas such as software development, writing, data entry and design right through to engineering, the sciences, sales and marketing, accounting and legal services.
2. UpWork (oDesk)
Upwork is the premier platform for top companies to hire and work with the world’s most talented independent professionals. They’re creating a world of unmatched talent and opportunity, where global teammates who are thousands of miles apart can work together seamlessly. It covers work areas like web and mobile development, design, writing, customer service, marketing, accounting, consulting and more.
3. Elance
4. Smashing
On this page you can find the most freelance jobs related to the programming, design and writing. Smashing Jobs is your job board that will help you find the right person for your job opening. It is featured at Smashing Magazine — a magazine that has more than 4 million monthly users and is known to be one of the most successful magazines for creative professionals.
5. Simply Hired
As the name suggests, it is a simple “rent s employee”. Besides the freelancers, it can be found full time jobs here. SimplyHired is a Google-like search engine for jobs and a quick way to survey a massive number of job listings. The site, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., aggregates information from job boards, news sites and company listings. At last count, it had 30 million unique visitors a month.
6. Demand Studios
You have the talent, ambition and drive. They have the audience and promotional tools to help you voice your expertise and stand out in your industry. This site offers employment to experienced and professional freelancers. Earnings could reach $ 300 a week.
We hope that you find this information useful. We wish you good luck in starting a freelance career. Those who have experience with such work, we would like you to share your experiences and impressions with us and fellow beginners bellow in comments.
The best way to get paid – Payoneer
Payoneer is our preferred way to get paid for freelancers who want to withdraw their online earnings instantly (within hours or within a couple of days). We have been using Payoneer for almost three years now. It is also good for wire transfers to local banks and a great alternative to PayPal for online transactions.
Payoneer is popular in US, Japan, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Argentina, Kenya, South Africa, Australia and so on. To withdraw via Payoneer, you must first sign up for Payoneer account. The process is pretty straightforward and applying for the card doesn’t cost a penny. All you have to do is sign up with your personal details like Name, Street Address and Mailing Address (with post box number if available) where your MasterCard will be sent. You can also use shipping services like UPS or FedEx but those will cost extra. Once you receive the card you will have to login your Payoneer account and use the debit card number for activation. Then you can transfer money from Odesk (upwork) , Elance, Freelancer etc. to your Payoneer account.
Things you’ll need for your Payoneer Account:
- Scanned image file of your personal identification (any one of the following)
- Passport or Citizenship or Driving license
- Correct shipping address, zip,postal code (Shipping detail not required if Payoneer MasterCard is prohibited in your region)
- For Example, Shipping address for sample user is:
- Address line 1: Chicago Street 5
- Address line 2: PO BOX ….. (if you have one)
- City: Zagreb
- Zip code: 10020
- Note: It is recommended that you use a PO Box number on your shipping address so that your MasterCard reaches the post office and sits safely in the box instead up getting lost in the post office (we all know how disorganized the place is). You can also use someone else’s PO Box number.
- For Example, Shipping address for sample user is:
