Become A Freelancer

Why Freelancing is Taking Over:

The recent economic recession has seen jobless rates sky rocket and for many of the lucky people who still have jobs has resulted in wage cuts and revoked employment benefits.  

But even in these troubling times, people are finding new ways to earn.

With employers hesitant to hire full-time employees, many business owners are opting to hire freelancers.

Business owners need their work done and for that they require employees. Hiring means committing to a monthly salary and possibly providing benefits to employees that are potential liabilities. Considering that these employees may not even have enough work to keep them busy 40 hours a week and justify their salaries. 

That’s where freelancers come in; a freelancer does the work as and when it arises and is paid once it’s complete.  Long-term freelancers are usually grateful and will keep in contact with the hope of acquiring more work.  And businesses have a lot more options, considering that these freelancers work from different parts of the world, possibly even third word countries where the economies are not stable and because of this are quite inexpensive.  They belong to and have mastered their own respective fields.  And can be hired according to requirements: for instance, some of the world’s most proficient software engineers, call center agents and graphics designers come from Pakistan, India and the Philippines (not necessarily in that particular order).  

Finding Work:

If you’re an aspiring freelancer trying to find work relative to your career field and capabilities, the fastest way to do so is to visit online sites such as Odesk, Elance and Freelancer.com to name a few.  These sites serve the same purpose as a real-world human resource contractor,   i.e. providing businesses and individuals, referred to as ‘prospective clients or clients’ from here on, with a platform for hiring qualified man-power.

These sites let prospective clients post details of the jobs they need done and allow freelancers to submit bids for the jobs.  Once the client has found a freelancer that meets his/her requirements (usually judged by the cover letter submitted with the bid and the freelancers profile), can proceed to hire the freelancer or negotiate on the terms.

The Cons of Being a Freelancer:

The benefits of being a freelancer are endless, but there are draw-backs as well.  For example: most reliable full-time employees have a boss to report to, hence they stick to deadlines, maintain quality of work and are professional.   Whereas freelancers usually work remotely (from home) and have to report to their clients only at certain times of the day/week and staying professional and adhering to deadlines can be daunting when you’re not at an office desk and don’t have to face a boss. And by face I mean literally stare them in the eyes.

Full-time employees also retain the benefit of being spoon-fed, bosses will tell them exactly what they want, show them examples and will regularly check-up on the work being done and sometimes even guide them.  Freelancers on-the-other-hand are in most cases expected, by the client, to understand the requirements and complexities of the task over the phone or in written, which makes envisioning what the finished job would look like quite difficult.

Unlike freelancers, most full-time employees know that they will be paid at the end of the month.  Whereas freelancers run the risk of being duped by unscrupulous clients.  Many freelance contractor sites mentioned earlier in this article have enforced methods to prevent this from happening; however it is still something to be taken very seriously and can happen.  In the end, it’s all up to the freelancer to judge whether the client is capable of fraud and to build long-term rapport with reliable clients and vice versa.

Full-time employers usually provide employees with benefits such as basic health and life insurance, however most freelancers are left to fend for themselves.  Odesk recently introduced their own health benefit plans (at a rather affordable per month rate) to help freelancers based in the United States deal with this problem.

Being a freelancer myself, I have reaped the rewards of hard work, but along the way have been faced with some of these problems.