Career as a freelancer
Freelancing seems to be a simple activity: you work at home, have a program as you want and you are responsible for your own success. Everything sounds great but in reality, freelancing means much more than that.
A career in freelancing involves certain sacrifices and starting a new lifestyle. You need to consider these things before you begin and more than that, you have to be willing to face the challenges.
Here’s a list of things you should know before you start:
Do not expect that once you start a career in freelancing, you will be successful. Freelancing has special requirements, such as personalized management, resource planning, and industry knowledge. All this takes time. It will take some time to learn how to balance the new activities in your life.
Freelancing also includes loneliness. It’s a kind of isolation from society. Don’t imagine that you won’t socialize with people at all but it’s not like going to work every day, where you have colleagues to talk to or drink your coffee. Take the positive side of things, freelancing is more about yourself, and so, you can give time to your plans.
The good part is you will not have a boss to prioritize your tasks. But this requires greater responsibility on your part. You will have to plan what you have to do and make sure you do all the tasks you have set up. As a freelancer, you are responsible for your work more than anyone else.
You can make your own program, but this aspect requires self-discipline. Freelancing is a job that gives you freedom but you must be careful not to lose your nights to complete some projects or wake up too late to discuss with your customers. It takes a balanced program tailored to your lifestyle, even if it is not as strict as a company.
You will have customers, people who have opinions, who want things to happen in a certain way. With these people, you will collaborate. You will have to create the best way to communicate and promote your services. A good relationship with customers is an important ingredient in ensuring a successful career as a freelancer.
When you work for a company, you have a fixed salary and various benefits. Things are not the same when it comes to freelancing. Here, things depend directly on your work and the services you provide.
As a freelancer, you will have to give time to the news in your field. This requires a thorough research of the industry and the way things go. You will certainly not apply them all, but you will be able to choose those trends that will help you in your career in one way or another. You have to be constantly informed about the changes taking place in that field.
Before you start working on your own, you will need financial resources to invest in what you have proposed. In particular, you have to think about how much you spend each month, if not, at least in the first month. You will learn, over time, that resources must be well managed and everything you do must be planned in advance.
The main industries for freelancers:
Programator web/ Software development
Nobody asks you who you are or what faculty you have finished. The client will ask you what you can do and what projects can you show to prove your skills? For such a domain, you must have programming knowledge in PHP, ASP, Java, C ++, as well as working with databases (MySql, MS SQL, Oracle).You also need good communication skills and understanding of the client. There are many communication problems, and they often lead to dissatisfaction on both sides.
Designer
Opportunities for a graphic designer are countless, most of which require websites, magazines, posters, prints, computer games, or logos. Mainly, if you are interested in the field you need to have knowledge of Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark Xpress, 3D Studio or Dreamweaver.The less pleasant part: many times, there will be an auction on freelancing sites. The client posts the brief, and those who want the project will have to work without having the guarantee that the project will be chosen and will receive the money.Also, such projects are available worldwide, and each designer presents the amount he/she wants to receive. In such situations, inevitable freelancers from underdeveloped countries will demand much below the price of others.
Content Writing
Often it is not only necessary to be able to write and you will also need to have SEO knowledge. For this type of service, there are two main forms of remuneration.A first form is the one you pay at the hour, and among freelancers with some experience in this area, the tariff is on average between 20 and 70 $ / hour. The second form of payment is based on the number of words.
Few big sites where you can get projects:
Upwork — is a cloud-based global freelance jobs platform formerly known as Elance-oDesk. It is purportedly the online workplace site that has the broadest coverage and the largest pool of employers and job finders;
Freelancer.com — is a freelance and crowdsourcing marketplace used by over 25 million users. Employers can find the talent they need to do various jobs such as social media marketing, data entry, website design, and more. The marketplace is vast so they can rest assured they will find the right person for their project;
Guru.com — is a freelance platform where independent professionals collaborate with employers from all over the world. This marketplace is a pool of freelancer with their own fields of expertise;
Peopleperhour.com — a freelance market composed of people who are experts in their fields. The platform enables businesses to reach to professionals from all over the world who can work flexibly at any time;
Nexxt — is a leading network of skilled and talented professionals that operate in a variety of industries. The role of Nexxt is to intermediate in the process of connecting skilled workers with interested employers, which is achieved through company advertising and promotions, detailed position descriptions, and enhanced communication;
Envato Studio — is a community of hand-picked designers, developers, and digital talent, available to work on a variety of projects.
Originally published at blackellis.ro on July 10, 2018.
