The term freelancing came into existence from Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe describing a medieval mercenary warrior or free-lance. It connotes that the lance is neither avowed to any lord, nor it’s available free of cost. Today, freelance economy has begun to dominate the way of work. In fact, 1 out of 3 Americans comprising 42 million people have found to work as freelancers in 2013. And it is estimated that by 2020, freelancers will constitute 50% of full-time workers. That counts over 60 million people.
Autonomous work is getting more popular these days among all generations of workers and the majority of employees plan to work independently in near future. Still, you may hesitate to start a freelancing career as you are not sure of why you should opt for it. You may think of various reasons like whether you are lacking a good portfolio or not getting a long due promotion in your full time job. Well, there could be several excuses. However, if you do your homework and assess your skills, you will find no specific reason for not choosing freelancing. In fact, this is the right time to go for a freelance career. Now, let’s weigh up the reasons for it.
Internet Accessibility – The Key to Your Working Freedom
Freelancing has become simpler with fast internet accessibility. Now, you don’t have to wait for slow connectivity and file download. Most people can now access the internet as it has become cheaper. You are having cable, broadband sticks and other tools. Besides, the internet is available almost everywhere. As a result, the freelancing opportunity is larger than what it was before 10 years. Several websites are there to help you with freelancing jobs.
So just check out the freelancing jobs available out there and apply them before leaving your existing full-time vocations? Moreover, pick up online tools and e-learning to get your desired freelance job. If you want to obtain new skills for your freelance job, you can get them from the internet. Thousands of free online courses are there. You may look for YouTube tutorials on SEO, programming and other subjects. Furthermore, if you are searching for tips where to start from, you may subscribe to blogs or join different freelance groups.
Mobile Technology – Provides You the Flexibility of Communication
Quick acceptance of mobile technology raises the competence of freelancing domain. Virtually everybody carries a mobile phone and so communication has improved between the employers and freelancers. Mobiles help freelancers to get push notifications of location based projects and thus let them move quickly from one project to another. There is an upsurge in mobile data analytics platforms for the freelance workers, which provide employers an enhanced ability of tracking and analyzing a freelancer’s work. In 2014, businesses accessed freelancers with numerous data points like performance assessments, references, salary, certifications as well as skills.
Hence, mobile data analytics are playing an important role in helping businesses to find freelancers. Nevertheless, it should be admitted that data transparency through mobile is a two-way process. And, so freelancers are also required to access vital data about companies through mobile to take the right decisions about undertaking a worthy freelance assignment.
The Impact of Economic Change
The economy is unpredictable. Currently there is not much stability in the job market and so if you are engaged in a job today doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have it tomorrow. The working environment is changing significantly and sometimes it becomes difficult to continue with your present job, if you always have to fight for proving your worth. Having a freelancing career on the side acts as a shield to you and your family during a crisis.
Freelancing and full-time employment share an inverse relationship in an economy. So in times of economic downturn, full-time work openings get reduced and freelancing gets a boost. However, even if the economy is not going through a downturn freelance economy may continue to rise, as seen in the last 1 year. Hence, it’s not always true that freelancing is countercyclical to full-time service.
Act now!
Freelancing might not be as easy as it looks for some people. You must do your advertising, networking, management and then provide services to your clients. It may take much of your precious time and make you feel stressed. If you assess your strengths, plan ahead and be disciplined then there is no reason you would be disappointed by your decision.
Sign up on some of the major freelancing websites out there and carefully assess the requirements. Once you are confident you can submit proposals and bid for projects. However for some, going through the proposal submission and bidding process might look like a herculean task. So if you are an IT professional, you have an option to sign up on eTeki.com and let the freelancing work come to you. All you need to do is to interview candidates, assess their technical skills and provide a feedback. This is simple and each assignment lasts no more than 45 minutes.
Happy freelancing!
