Who is a freelancer and what does he do

The content of the article

• Freelance Features
• Types of freelance work
• What do freelancers do
• Pros and cons of the profession
• How to become a good freelancer and make a lot of money
• Decide what you can offer the customer
• Identify your target market
• Create portfolio
• Register on professional sites
• Set the price of your work
• Choose orders and execute them efficiently
• Learn new things
• Remember the principle of bestowal
• Where to find a job for a freelancer

Freelance is not a separate field of activity, but a way of organizing it. Freelancers do not work for a particular company, but offer their services directly. These people become independent contractors, independently choose projects, plan a work schedule. Freelance helps organize life in a convenient way, therefore it occupies an increasingly large niche in the modern employment structure.

Freelance Features

Freelance work or freelance differs from official employment in the absence of guarantees. The specialist himself is looking for customers, negotiates the price of services, discusses the terms of the contract, seeks to fulfill the agreements on the part of the client. Income directly depends on the availability of projects, the ability to build long-term relationships with customers.

The freelancer is independently responsible for the quality of his services, must constantly improve it if he wants to increase his client base and increase profits.

Self-employment differs from small businesses in a reduced tax burden. Self-employed persons carry out the task independently, without hired employees. With an increase in customer base, a freelancer receives orders for large long-term projects. In this case, it is necessary to register an individual entrepreneur or legal entity.

Types of freelance work

Four main types of freelancing are distinguished on the international self-employment market:

• Full time freelance work. An employee interacts with the company, working from home at a convenient time for him..
• One contract freelance. The specialist carries out a one-time order for the contractor, and then searches for a new client.
• Freelance part-time job. A person from time to time provides services to specific organizations.
• Own freelance business. Its owner undertakes complex projects, hires other specialists to carry out part of the work..

What do freelancers do

Most people associate the concept of self-employment with creative professions, the IT sphere. But freelance is not only about working on the Internet. Answering the question, who is a freelancer, you can cite as an example not only a programmer or copywriter, but also a nurse, teacher, designer.

On the principle of self-employment, it is possible to organize activities in many sectors: education, medicine, law, accounting, advertising, consulting, sales.

Common professions that allow you to work on freelance:

• Typesetters, authors of texts. Services for writing, editing articles.
• Teachers. Full-time and online lessons in various disciplines, individual and group coaching.
• Programmers. Creation, administration, promotion of sites, applications, software.
• Health workers. Home Health Services.
• Accounting Specialists. Outsourcing Accounting.
• Lawyers, tax consultants. Full-time and online consulting of legal entities and individuals, registration, submission of documents to the FSN.
• Sales managers. Remote Call Center Workers.
• Advertising, Marketing Specialists. Organization of advertising campaigns on the Internet, promotion in social networks, PR.

Pros and cons of the profession

Benefits:

1. The ability to take only those orders that you want to do. The freelancer himself forms the customer base, he can refuse customers who do not like you.
2. Independent determination of the value of their labor. No bosses setting salary levels.
3. Freedom to choose a schedule, lifestyle. Establishing flexible priorities between work and leisure.
4. Preferential taxation. The rates of fees from self-employed citizens are lower than the amounts paid by legal entities or individual entrepreneurs.

Disadvantages:

1. Financial instability in the early stages of development. Losses in income due to lack of orders are inevitable until the formation of a base of regular customers.
2. The need for parallel work on several projects. To dial the pool of the main customers, you need to operate in multitasking mode.
3. The importance of competent organization of working time. It is necessary to clearly plan the day to avoid overwork and professional burnout.
4. Personal responsibility for all aspects of their activities. On the shoulders of the self-employed lies the search for orders and negotiations on conditions, paperwork.
5. Loss of a number of social benefits. Freelancers pay taxes and insurance premiums for themselves, have no compensation for vacation and sick leave expenses.

How to become a good freelancer and make a lot of money

Qualities of character and personality traits necessary to achieve success in the self-employment market:

• Discipline. A freelancer must become his own boss: control the timing, quality of the order. Will have to organize work and personal time as efficiently as possible..
• Tenacity. The ability to cope with difficulties, not to deviate from the set goals, the ability to take the next step after failure is important.
• Stress resistance. Need to respond appropriately to failures and criticism.
• Organization. It is necessary to correctly plan the working day, correctly evaluate your strength, so as not to break deadlines.
• Communication skills, a competent balance of perseverance and flexibility. The ability to find contacts with different people will provide a large number of orders.

Decide what you can offer the customer

The newcomer to freelance needs to identify strengths, present them to the client in the form of a unique selling proposition.

Highlight a set of competitive advantages (price of work, terms, additional services), show the customer why cooperation with you will be beneficial.

Identify your target market

Create a portrait of the target audience, think over what you can offer it. At the first stages, it is important to understand how professional skills meet the requirements of a particular customer..

Start with small projects, do not immediately try to conclude a large contract with a large company, expand the scope of activity and increase volumes gradually.

Create portfolio

Take time to create an archive of completed orders. It should include the best work, reviews of grateful customers. Creating an attractive portfolio helps to establish new relationships in a professional environment, quickly convey its advantages to customers.

Those who are interested in freelance in the IT field, it is advisable to start their own website.

Register on professional sites

Create a personal account with a portfolio on several popular resources, online exchanges, respond to vacancies, complete the first tasks. Freelance and remote work sites in the initial stages of self-employment will help to find orders even in the absence of experience in the chosen profession.

Set the price of your work

Calculate the cost of services in advance. Payment should be adequate – to cover time costs and additional costs (if some responsibilities are performed by other people). Negotiations on price – an important part of the conclusion of any contract, learn to conduct them competently.

Be prepared for the fact that the price of a beginner’s work is often below the market average.

Choose orders and execute them efficiently

Carefully choose your assignments. If you don’t like the conditions or have any doubts, learn to say no, even in the absence of another job.

Better to refuse right away than to place an order badly or throw it at runtime.

Treat each project as your business card, approach the solution of any issue with maximum return.

Learn new things

Working on freelance, you have to compete with specialists of different levels. To achieve success, you need to constantly develop, study, invent innovative approaches to solving complex problems.

You may need to learn new skills over time to expand your target audience..

Remember the principle of bestowal

In freelance, the principle of bestowal, that is, getting the result after maximum investment, works very clearly. Most professionals need a lot of time and effort to achieve a decent income. Due to the high competition, it takes time to get professional recognition, creating a working personal brand.

Feedback is delayed through the system, so you need to be prepared to work at low rates first, continue to achieve your goals after a series of failures.

Where to find a job for a freelancer

You can search for employers on the Internet – on specialized resources, job sites, social networks, message boards, using search engines.

Popular sites for freelancers:

• hh.ru;
• fl.ru;
• kwork.ru;
• workathome.ru;
• freelance.ru;
• pchel.net;
• freelancejob.ru;
• freelancehunt.com;
• devhuman.com;
• advego.com;
• copylancer.ru;
• weblancer.net.

You can promote your services and look for customers offline:

• apply to a recruiting agency;
• Post an advertisement about your services;
• send a commercial offer to customers;
• reach customers through friends, acquaintances.