Author: Freelancing Buzz

Generally, freelancers enjoy the benefit of living a more flexible life than employees do. They can decide when and where they work, making their work experience more pleasant. The caveat, however, is that your work-life balance often falls out of kilter. You end up losing count of the number of hours you put in at work, not realizing that you have very little time left to spend with your family, recreation, social circles, and hobbies. To keep your work-life balance in order, here are a few tried-and-tested strategies that I’ve found to be especially effective. 1. Maintain a Defined Yet Flexible Schedule Without defining your work hours, you run the risk of overworking. Go with the times of day when you are most productive and focused. It can be the usual 9-to-5, from sunset into the wee hours of the night, or whatever works best for you. Then structure your working hours into blocks. For the most part, it’s best to put the “deep work” tasks that you find most demanding of focus at the top of your list, rather than putting it on the latter part. Remember that your attention and willpower are exhaustible resources. By working on your most difficult tasks first, you budget the energy and mental alertness to work on them. But as your own boss, you’re also able to make exceptions to these time blocks. You can rearrange your schedule on the fly, as needed, to accommodate emergencies, special events, and client availability, among others. Also, be sure to communicate your days on and off to your clients, so they know when to expect to hear from you. 2. Minimize Context Switches How many different devices and apps do you use for your freelance work? How many push notifications do you get on each device per day? How many different clients and projects are you juggling at once? Do you find yourself multitasking too much, hopping from one to-do to the next, without completing any of them? What other distractions keep you from delving into deep work and actually getting things done? Context switching is a bona fide productivity killer. The thinner you spread yourself, the less you’ll get done. Source: RescueTime Handling several apps for different tasks will make you feel inefficient and all over the place. You have to remember where to go next, migrate information from silo to silo, log in and out of accounts, and switch interfaces. This makes it impossible to maintain a consolidated view of your projects, issues, and to-dos. Simplify your workflow by using business platforms with all-inclusive functionalities. One especially powerful platform in this sense is vcita, an app lets you take care of everything relating to client marketing, collaboration correspondence, documents, appointments, and billing in one place. Your contacts can also schedule appointments with you or perform any other action through a user-friendly self-service portal . Using business management “suites” like vcita, you can take care of business with fewer distractions, allowing you to be […]

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Sometimes, all organisations have to admit they can’t do everything themselves and need a helping hand . This is particularly the case for charities in improving their digital capabilities. Luckily for charities, there are a number of out of house experts that can be brought on board. This includes hiring freelancers or tapping into the free support on offer from pro-bono specialists and partnerships. There is also a range of tools and platforms to help, offering access to outside support to assist charities to be more efficient and improve their operations. Tapping into the skills of expert freelancers can be particularly advantageous as charities look to cut costs due to a loss of income amid the Covid-19 pandemic. This means operating on a shoestring budget for some and, sadly, widespread in-house redundancies for others. To ensure charities are still innovating, particularly with digital, hiring freelancers can be an effective solution to the financial challenges ahead. For example, they don’t require holiday pay, sick leave or pension contributions compared to in-house staff. Cancer Research is among those to consider turning to out of house resources more frequently amid the pandemic. In July 2020 the charity announced plans to cut its workforce by 500 to meet a £300m drop in income caused by the outbreak. It says there will be a greater focus on “investing strategically for the future while contracting in other areas amidst continued financial uncertainty”. Here we will take a look at some of the best resources and tools for supporting charities using out of house resources. Media Trust’s volunteer platform The Media Trust has created a useful volunteer platform that connects media and creative industry professionals looking to volunteer their skills and charities looking for communications, media and digital support . This is already proving popular with charities. At the time of writing, there were 132 opportunities posted by charities looking for outside help. This includes youth gambling charity GamCare-Big Deal , which is looking for support to help it create content for TikTok. This is a specialist area of social media and digital marketing that the charity has noted that it needs extra support in. Another is the Galapagos Conservative Trust , which is looking for outside help to create its first impact report, having previously produced annual reviews. Data Kind pro-bono partnerships The charity DataKind links up charities and good causes with data science and social sector experts to help develop data projects that address humanitarian problems and advance data science. The charities involved get access to data and artificial intelligence skills outside their organisation. Meanwhile, the specialists involved benefit from supporting good causes and helping their own professional growth. This has seen 250 projects completed globally, including in the UK, involving more than 18,000 volunteers. Among those to be supported is Citizen’s Advice . Through the partnership, a Civic Dashboard tool was created which mines data from Citizen’s Advice consultations to help it understand emerging social issues in the UK. This helps the charity […]

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CareerGig Offers Traditional Benefits for Freelancers As the U.S. unemployment rate remains high, CareerGig, an online SaaS-based platform launched today offering affordable insurance for freelancers. The platform also provides access to available freelance gigs and contract projects at top companies looking for candidates. On the hiring end, companies that sign up for the service will have access to state of the art verification services and immediate access to ready talent, reducing valuable internal time and resources, and can provide their 1099 workers with benefits through the platform. Tailored especially for freelancers and contractors, CareerGig’s robust menu of offerings include health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, and health service accounts (HSAs). CareerGig also offers supplemental benefits such as accident, critical illness, and pet insurance. All offerings are outlined and available through the company website at careergig.com. Human resource professionals within companies are able to access CareerGig’s streamlined and secure verification process allowing for multiple assessments and background checks, saving time and internal resources. Built with blockchain, artificial intelligence, and other technologies, CareerGig provides companies the security and peace of mind when hiring candidates. In addition to verification services, companies that hire through the platform would also be able to offer their 1099 workers insurance and benefits through CareerGig. “Research shows that 36% of Americans are already part of the gig economy and 90% are open to joining; but the biggest concerns being the lack of access to health and financial safety nets. At CareerGig, we understand those concerns and are building a company committed to offering the flexibility of self-employment with the stability of insurance and benefits,” said Greg Kihlström, CEO and Co-Founder of CareerGig. “What’s more, our core philosophy of trust and validation using the best available technologies means that our platform is built with our customer’s data privacy and best interests in mind from the start.” ### ABOUT CAREERGIG Career benefits. Gig lifestyle. Choose both. CareerGig is a SaaS technology platform and ecosystem that matches freelance and contract workers to top employers, and with independent access to health and financial benefits exclusively tailored for those in the gig economy. Powered by blockchain and AI technology, CareerGig also provides employers the ability to hire qualified and verified talent through an accelerated and scalable state-of-the-art process. CareerGig helps individuals create freelance careers, and makes life easier and more secure for companies that hire them. Contact us at careergig.com

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Narrowing in on your niche and identifying your talents can help kickstart your freelancing career The nation-wide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19 has brought all of our lives to a complete standstill. Due to the ensuing economic recession, there has been a reduction in salaries and some have even lost their jobs. Because of this, freelance jobs have been on the rise in India. Freelancing gives you the freedom to pursue your passion on your own time within your homes. It can either act as a supplementary income or a primary source of income, depending upon how much time you want to spend on building your craft. Here are some of the most popular options if you are looking to kickstart your freelancing career. Writing If you have a knack for weaving words, you should consider a career as a freelance writer. Brands are always on the lookout for something creative and fun to add to their blogs, website and social media posts. You should grab this opportunity to market your services as a writer. You can explore writing either long-form content like blogs and website pages or short-form content like ad copies, based on what you’re comfortable with. Graphic designing If you have a good knowledge of design tools and a creative mind, you can become a freelance graphic designer. Make sure you create a good portfolio that showcases your design talent. Brands will decide to partner with you based on the quality of your work. This is definitely a freelance job that pays the bills while also being a lot of fun! SEO analyst Today every website requires a strong SEO strategy in order to rank on Google. If you have a strong technical understanding of SEO, then you can easily provide SEO audits and fixes for clients on a freelance basis. You can check out other freelancers in your category to see how much they’re charging and price your services at around the same level. Campaign manager Many brands understand the importance of maintaining a good social media presence, but not all of them are aware of what is the best way to do so. If you have experience handling social media accounts, then you can freelance as a social media campaign manager. You will handle a brand’s social presence, schedule posts and run ads. This isn’t just a great way to earn money, but is also extremely interesting to work on. If you want to brush up on your digital marketing skills, you can always sign up for an online digital marketing course. Video editor Most brands are realising the importance of using good quality video content on their platforms. Videos can engage and inform audiences better than most other forms of content can. If you are proficient in video editing tools, then you can get a freelance job as a video editor. Your clients could be anything from small businesses, to ad agencies to even social media influencers. The freelance jobs […]

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A new freelancer platform specifically designed to offer businesses access to a more flexible communications workforce, has launched today. Founded by London-based freelance PR professional Sarah Paterson, CommsPeople was established after Sarah posted on social media that she was working on an idea that might help other freelancers who found themselves struggling to find work during lockdown. Following the post, which has since received nearly 8,000 views, Sarah was immediately inundated with hundreds of requests to join. Now, CommsPeople has secured over 200 sign ups from PR professionals of all levels from across the globe, as well as a strong client base who are keen to build relationships with trusted professionals. Sarah Paterson, PR Consultant and Founder of CommsPeople commented, “As a freelancer myself, it struck me that the existing freelancer marketplaces out there need to drive work to their talent pools in a more strategic way. In addition, some businesses need help in deciphering what they need in the first place – the ability to talk to someone before asking them to respond to a brief is vital to the success of any project. On top of that, not every business needs to work with an agency to achieve the results they need – in some cases they are better off working with independent professionals who can offer a degree of flexibility alongside the expertise they bring. CommsPeople is a platform that as well as helping freelancers to find work, allows businesses access to a more flexible workforce where required.“ For a while I have wanted to create something that would allow businesses to access PR professionals in a more cost-effective way and now it seems that service is needed more than ever. PR and comms is a tool that can add a huge amount of value to businesses, especially at the moment.“ CommsPeople distinguishes itself from existing freelance platforms by enabling businesses to easily search for available workers who possess the skill-set, knowledge and experience within each sector, delivering the exact match for their business needs. This was posted in Bdaily’s Members’ News section by Graham Sharp .

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College life is exciting and hectic for students since there is so much to do with a tight budget. Being broke in college can be frustrating since you are independently managing your finances. Holding a full-time job might also be tricky because of long class hours. Fortunately, freelancing can help you kick start your career while still in college. Freelancing as a college student is the best way to have an extra source of income while juggling your studies. If you have tight deadlines on assignments, you can delegate the academic work to the essay writer while you concentrate on your freelance work. Depending on your passion and skills, there are numerous services you can offer at a nominal fee. Read on to find out all you need to know about freelancing, how to start, and tips to help you in the freelance world while studying. What is Freelancing? Freelance, also known as gig work, is when you sell a type of service as an independent worker. It is usually a one-person show where you set up your business, market it, and do it yourself. Unlike the usual 9-5 job, freelancing comes with freedom. You can manage your working hours as a student to avoid compromising your study time. Also, you can work for a particular agency or part-time sub-contracted work. Typically, freelancers have a flexible schedule in terms of service delivery and payment. If you have a client, you can discuss the best time to execute the work and delivery time with ease and convenience. The work is usually on a short-term basis, and the client pays upfront without any complication of tax remittance. Types of Freelance Work Most college students have different types of hands-on skills that can be turned into a money-making venture. You can also incorporate your passion and offer a particular service to students or people in the college community. Below are some of the types of services you can offer as a freelancer: Graphic and web design Tutoring Catering Photography and videography Content writer Cleaning services Sales and marketing Events planner Data entry jobs Translation and transcription How To Start Freelancing Juggling between work and academics can be quite overwhelming for students. As much as freelancing is an excellent opportunity to earn money, it requires effort, dedication, and resilience to start, build a network, and stay afloat. But, how do you start a freelancing career while in college? Identify your skillset Think about your strengths and what you love doing. Mostly your passion and skills will coincide. Also, you can incorporate the knowledge from the course you are studying. For instance, if you are a computer science student, you can start a web designing business. However, the freelance venture can be outside your studies. Ensure that you identify your skills first before setting up a freelance business. Target customers Find out your target market, and if there is a niche for your service. Are there competitors in the field you want to start? […]

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced entire employee populations to work from home. And as workers settle into that rhythm, it is uncertain how many will actually need to report to the office five days a week after a coronavirus vaccine is found. (Dreamstime/TNS) As the unemployment rate approaches 14%, older workers are suffering disproportionately in the coronavirus pandemic. For some, though, there might be a reprieve: freelancing. Though not traditionally an arena where Gen X and boomer workers seek employment, the growth in work from home, online jobs and the elevated rates of joblessness are drawing 55+ workers into this brave new — and sometimes terrifying — world. Upwork, one of the leading freelance websites, found in its research that nearly one-third of boomers and one-third of Gen Xers are actively freelancing, either full or part-time. And that was before the coronavirus decimated the traditional workforce. Freelance work spans as many as 8,000 skills across 70 job categories, according to Upwork research. Among the top 100 jobs, average income is nearly $44 per hour, equating to an annual salary in the $91,000 range. That’s well above the median U.S. salary of just under $49,800. (For freelancing overall, the average hourly rate is about $28.) What kind of jobs are we talking about in the top 100? As you might expect, many are in technology: database design, Amazon Web Services, search engine optimization, various programming languages and the like. But the field also includes more traditional work, such as architectural rendering, accounts payable management, project scheduling, systems administration, public accounting and such. Outside of the top 100 is a vast range of skills from corporate law to statistical analysis to internal auditing. A recent search on Upwork for the broad category of “project management” found nearly 1,400 gigs. Many are offering hourly pay in the range of $20 to $40. Others are higher. A company needing a Kronos project manager is offering an hourly rate of $75 to $100. Another for a project task manager lists wages of between $50 and $80 per hour. And a startup is seeking a product manager at up to $125 per hour. A search of individual freelancers — the sites list both employers and workers — with expertise in various types of project management and a 100% success rating across at least 10 gigs (yes, you are rated) shows per-hour fees of $38 to $125. Bridgestone, Airbnb, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Priceline and the universities of Colorado and Southern California are clients of Toptal, which markets its freelancers as the top 3% in industries ranging from software development to product management to financial modeling. As of last year’s third quarter, 38% of the freelance jobs in the top 100 categories at Upwork came from foreign companies. Among the leading countries are Canada, the U.K., Australia, India, Israel and Germany. To be sure, many older workers find themselves discombobulated by the world of freelancing. They’re accustomed to cubicles, not kitchen tables. Many are also unsure of the […]

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Looking for extra earnings but less pressure? One word, freelance! The job market is always rising and falling. In a day, some people are hired, some fired, and some are still on the job hunt. That’s just the harsh reality of the working life. Don’t you agree? In fact, the income we have is mostly enough to make ends meet and occasionally to spend on the greater expense of living comfortably (unless you’re earning big bucks of course). If you are a busy mom, a student in college or even a clerk at an office, freelancing is still a great opportunity for you. Of course, it’s not only restricted to these groups of people. Anyone, literally anyone can freelance! Many people tend to ignore or overlook the idea of freelancing because it is often mis – conceptualized. What is freelancing anyway? It’s clearly not an internship and it’s definitely not doing jobs for free either. Calling it part-time? Well, it doesn’t seem to be accurate. According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary , freelance simply means ​’earning money by selling your work or services to several different organizations rather than being employed by one particular organization’. In other words, you’re sort of like your own boss. ‘Now, that’s what we want to hear!’, some of you may say. Does it mean if you have a current job you should leave it and venture into freelancing full time? Whoa, whoa…hold your horses! We don’t want to simply do something only to regret it…and we mean regret it BIG TIME. In case you missed the title, it’s freelancing for EXTRA SAVINGS and not ‘ your only savings’ . During an instability in the country’s economic state, it is wise that we think it through before we quit our full-time job and only wiser to consider an extra side income. So, freelancing becomes the better option and here’s why. 1. The Best Of Both World Firstly, this point will be directed to most work-at-home moms, and they would agree that freelancing has given them best of both worlds. They get to do what they love and get paid for it and taking care of their growing families. On another note, they also get to work around a schedule that lets them fulfil their jobs as specialists and as homemakers. Freelancing is a lifestyle that requires grit, guts, and sacrifices. Hence the reason why we call them SUPER MOMSIES! 2. Financial Security Alert Since freelancing is project or client based, the money earned is being generated from the completion of a task upon what was requested by the clients. Here’s another plus point. You are able to weigh the amount of income you will be getting from each client. That’s right you can pick and choose! As obvious as it may be that freelancing benefits a person by not confining them to one source for income, it also sets an alarm to know if you’re financially secured. So peeps, don’t waste your time and […]

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Image Credits: Indian Folk The past few months definitely made us realize that everything adapts itself to the changing times. We have seen new brands coming, new trends becoming a part of the industry and therefore giving rise to, and providing more chance to the gig economy. The growth has been tremendous. This has made way for a lot of freelancing opportunities as well. A ‘gig economy’ is a rather new term that defines the concept of companies hiring people for temporary, flexible jobs rather than recruiting full-time employees. The Growth of The Gig Industry A study conducted by McKinsey tells us that around 20% to 30% of professionals in developed markets are engaged in gig economy. The factors responsible for this include i ndependence, freedom to choose the kind of work they want to do and better financial prospects . Another key driving force is technology that has made all of this possible. Most importantly startups are driving the growth of this industry. In India, the freelance industry is estimated to grow to $20 to 30 billion by 2025. Freelancers are in demand because of the following reasons – they are cost-effective, they offer flexibility and domain expertise, networking & reach. The Meaning of a Freelancer Freelancers are professionals who are self-employed and work with an organization or a team for a particular time. If you are someone who plans to step into this industry, you have to be ready to market yourself and be a part of the platform. Once you step into the market, you will meet like minded people who are keen on working for smaller projects or working for different companies. It involves work in which talent is paid for a task assigned, it includes diversified workers with many sources of income, contract workers, freelancers, small business owners, and temporary workers. For more information, the government of India has also engaged gig workers for projects like Digital India, Swacch Bharat, and Smart Cities. The various Survey results show that in terms of skillset, IT(41%), Marketing(23%), and design(21%) are leading the way. Freelancing is popular and the reason is the benefits it provides like a greater job opportunity, independence, higher income, and a move in the direction of wage equality. While 83% of freelancers work from home, 17% work from other places like coworking spaces, library, and private offices. Who can Become a Freelancer? Anyone can become a Freelancer. The key to becoming one is that you need to have some kind of niche expertise; as long as you have some kind of skill, ability, or wisdom that will help in the recognition of a brand, there will be somebody willing to pay for it. I also want to elaborate on how to go about becoming a freelancer. Firstly, remember to be motivated enough and be ready to present yourself as a brand who offers expertise in the field. There is a higher demand in all sectors that allow previously full-time-only workers to seek more […]

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With these five tips, you can get the best talent for your freelance work, at the best possible rates. 0 Comments In the recent few years, freelance culture has gained popularity. There are several reasons for this from both employer and employee side . For example, freelancers get the flexibility to work on their own terms and do not need to worry about their qualifications as freelancing works on a talent basis. On the other hand, employers can avoid high and fixed costs of permanent employees, as freelancers work at moderate rates. The most benefitted domain from freelancing is startups because they can quickly get their work done without employee commitment. However, hiring freelancers can be a task in itself. If you are looking to hire freelance programmers , we have brought here a simple guide to help you out. Tip 1: Know What You Need to Look For Programming is a diverse field, and you can find talent for every skill. The first thing to take care of, while hiring freelance programmers, is what skills you want in your freelancers. For example, if you want a website for your company, then you will have to look for talents that are good in web development and related skills. The same goes for all other domains. If you do not know much about programming and are clueless about what skills to look for, then there are two options. Ask the Experts: There must be people who have already acquired what you are looking for. By taking their recommendations, you can find the most suitable talent for your work. Do Not Exaggerate: Leave the work to people who know about the domain. Do not put in information or requirements that you do not know about. Tip 2: Look for Recommendations Once you know what you want, the next step is to look for it. Your best freelance destination is recommendations from your group of friends, family, or professionals. Ask them if they know any excellent freelancer that would fit in your requirements. The benefit of this method is that it reduces the risk of hiring an unknown programmer. As your trusted source would be recommending the talent, your efforts will be diminished, and you can trust the person more with their work. Tip 3: Test Before Hiring If you cannot find any recommendations, the next step is to start looking for freelancers online. But as said in the previous step, hiring a random freelance programmer can be risky as you are not sure about their work. Platforms like DevsData can be used to find the required freelancers. However, to be certain about their skills and capabilities, you can create an assignment that they need to complete to get hired. The test assignment should be short but should cover all crucial aspects that you need to look for in a programmer. A few things you can incorporate into it are: Simple questions related to the kind of work you need them to […]

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