Are you new to the world of freelancing and interested in understanding how to do freelancing work? Do you want to explore more about freelancing or thinking of becoming a freelancer, then you must read on!
Table of Contents
Basics of Freelancing
Let’s start with some basic terms and definitions to understand Freelancing and how it works.
What is Freelancing?
“Freelancing means to work individually and independently”. Freelancing is a type of self-employed business where an individual is working for himself and is called a freelancer.
It’s really one of the simplest and most pure forms of freelance business, the freelancer submits the freelance proposals to the client and offers a specific service or outcome, and in return, the buyer pays them a fee for their services.
What is a Freelancer?
“A freelancer is an individual who is not employed or working as an employee in any company or organization”. Freelancers are self-employed people who are working for themselves as self-employed individuals or running a freelance business.
What to do as a freelancer?
Freelancers sell their skills as a service to organizations and individual clients”. Freelancers can be hired by anyone for a particular task, job, or contract on a part-time, short-term, or long-term basis, but they do not receive the monthly recurring fixed salary as permanent employees. Similarly, freelancers do not have the same level of commitment as employees to any particular company.
What is a Freelance Work?
“Any task or job performed by the freelancer is called freelance work”. Many organizations and clients prefer freelancers to perform some part of the main job to reduce the overall cost.
How do freelancers earn a salary?
There is a short-term or long-term contract or agreement between the freelancer and the client. Freelancers accept payment in return for providing a service or product that the client agreed upon. For example, if I hired a photographer to take new headshots for me, I could pay a freelancer for that session and that would be the end of it.
Sometimes people pay freelancers to work a set number of hours per week or per month. This arrangement is often referred to as a “retainer”. A retainer refers to when you retain the services or right to someone’s time. A lot of legal professionals work on retainer. Every month, they bill a set amount of time to the client, regardless of whether that full-time is used or not.
How many freelancers are there?
According to research published in 2019, 57 million Americans out of which 53% of workers aged 18-22 are freelancing.
With the increasing demand of the economy and business needs, freelancing has been boosted a lot and organizations were promoting freelancers and freelance work. Up till 2019, freelancing is growing at a steady rate, but the real push was after the COVID-19 lockdown.
Especially, after the spread of corona globally, people are getting fired and forced to work from home, pay cuts, and a lot more were happening and that’s when people started thinking about a passive source of income to meet their expenses. Everybody is talking about freelancing and freelance business more than ever before.
Nowadays, everyone is looking to generate passive income and freelancing is adopted by many as a passive source to meet the shortcomings of the main source of income. Online freelancing and freelancing platforms had gained unusual popularity among the youth and jobless people during the last few years.
And that’s because there are more freelancers today than there have ever been in history.
How do I become a freelancer?
Honestly speaking, with remote work on the rise, more people than ever want to become a freelancer or start freelancing.
Thankfully, it’s easier than ever to become a freelancer these days. Not only, it is more popular to become a freelancer than ever before, but companies are getting more and more comfortable hiring freelancers rather than full-time employees.
A lot of jobs can be done remotely, and companies don’t need to provide the same financial or healthcare benefits and retirement plans to freelancers as they do to full-time employees.
Maybe it’s time for YOU to become self-employed and start freelancing.
Decide on the type of Freelancing
It all depends on one’s choice and situation. If you want to quit your existing job and start a new full-time self-employed freelance career and focus on creating a freelancing business or building your own brand, then the path is different. And if you want to become a part-time freelancer to earn extra passive income in your free time, then it’s altogether a different path.
You mainly have two options to continue as a freelancer;
1) Part-Time Freelancing
The first option is part-time freelancing. Freelancing part-time or as a side hustle is a great place to start. When there is less pressure to generate income immediately, you can be more thoughtful with the type of work you do and the clients you do it for.
Freelancing is often built from trust and client relationships, and those relationships take time to form. So, if you start freelancing part-time or on the side, you give yourself time to create the crucial relationships you’d need to make a full-time living freelancing.
2) Full-Time Freelancing
If you want to be a full-time freelancer, then you have to quit your existing job and career and work as a full-time self-employed freelancer. Your focus shall only be on getting the to generate full-time income.
It’s a hard decision to make and requires lots of brainstorming, discussions with family and friends, analysis of success factors, and a lot more.
The route to success on this path requires skills, hard work, and dedication, and the result is awesome, you will enjoy the rest of your life with the income generated as a freelancer. Welcome to the world of entrepreneurs!
Where to Find Freelance Work?
Nowadays, there are two ways freelancers can find freelance work. In the field or on online freelance platforms.
In the field, you can find freelance work within your social connections or find direct clients by targeting businesses, main contractors, and subcontractors. You can directly approach them at their offices or by email for possible work opportunities.
Another way is online freelance platforms, these days many freelancing platforms like Fiver, Upwork, Guru, freelancer, and many others are providing an online freelance platform where you can offer your freelance services. Once you are registered on these platforms, you can just log in and start finding freelance work.
You can find many freelancing task requirements and freelance work on these platforms. You can offer your freelance services in many categories available to choose from.
Benefits of being a Freelancer
As a freelancer, you are your own boss of your freelance business, and you have an opportunity to build your own brand as well.
Freelancing provides a lot of flexibility and control to an individual in his life and daily schedule.
Most freelancers choose their own working hours, the choice of selecting work that they do, and the clients they work with, and may even be able to work remotely.
Freelancing is also a form of entrepreneurship, which means freelancers have total control of their earning potential.
Freelancers aren’t locked into a salary, so they can earn as much as they are able to bill their clients.
Freelancing provides a lot of variety in the type of work you can do. If you are someone with a lot of interests and are tempted to try new things, freelancing can help you explore all kinds of projects and industries. Freelancing provides the flexibility many people want in order to figure out their next career move.
Conclusion
Freelancing means being your own boss. It’s on you to find a way to fill your time with paid work, whether it’s client-direct, subcontracting, or through a job freelance marketplace. There are dozens and dozens of different types of freelance jobs, and more companies are hiring freelancers than ever before.
