5 Things You Need to Know Before Going Full-time Freelancer

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According to oDesk, there are more than 3.7 million Australians who are in the freelance industry. With the advent of technology and the Internet, we now live in a more liberated workforce.

More than 51 percent of those Australians who left their traditional day job now earn 69 percent of their previous income within a year. Additionally, 58 percent of them refused to go back to their traditional corporate job no matter the amount of money to be offered.

Why are Australians lured into the freelancing world?

Australians are known to be the laidback type. Thus, it makes total sense that they resort to freelancing as their job and sometimes their way of life. Every year, there are a lot of Australians who will trade the job security for the perks of a more flexible working way of life.

With millions of Australians resorting to freelancing, a lot of people are wondering why a lot of people are into freelancing these days. The freelancing realm is so lucrative because of its increased flexibility. Aussies prefer to have a workstyle that has so much flexibility from the online platforms because freelancing allows them to choose what they work on and earn awesome financial returns.

Yet, this trend towards freelancing is not a serious surprise anymore. The greater sense of independence and increased freedom to pursue the kinds and hours of time they will work allures people the most about freelancing.

For small business owners, freelancing is a more favorable, easier, cheaper and faster way of finding expert individuals to get their tasks done when there is no need of fulltime labor.

Businesses can hire freelancers with years of unparalleled experience on a similar type of project they have on hand. This can give the business a new perspective or horizon to explore.

Additionally, it poses fewer risks for business to hire a freelance worker who will resort to online work from home than the traditional office-based arrangement. When you hire someone on a fulltime basis, you are invoking a long term commitment and relationship. There is definitely a significant cost associated with in-house employees, especially if things do not work out eventually.

How do you prepare yourself for shifting towards freelance work?

People may have different reasons why they go for freelancing: some go freelance because they can work whenever they want, because of the freedom to pick and choose the types of projects they work on, and because this way they won’t lose their enthusiasm while working.

Freelancers have built their skills and credibility up to a level that they can go out on their own. Thus, you have to prepare your skills, employment experience, and your heart to survive and succeed in the freelance industry. We want to lend you a hand in preparing yourself as you venture as a freelance ninja:

1. Be realistic. Come into terms and figure out what you need to thrive and survive. You should be more responsible by actually setting up a basic budget. Try to determine how much you will need to keep your standard of living. You can make necessary adjustments that you might be able to cut away from your monthly liabilities. Therefore, you can enjoy your life and spend time with your family.

2. Avoid incorporating business structures. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn from it. There is absolutely no reason to incorporate a company without delay, but you owe it to yourself to know the various business structures and how they differ from each other.

3. Try to learn more about sales and marketing. Freelancers find it hard to tackle sales and marketing. For most of them, sales is almost like their second nature from their previous careers. However, you should exert more effort into bringing and closing deals that come knocking on your door. Hopefully you will get the feel of sales and marketing since freelancing will require you to do it often.

4.    Get some inspiration from success stories of freelancing. You do not have to deal with a psychotic and demanding boss as well as those annoying officemates. You have to be disciplined when you want to work as a freelancer. Be motivated by reading through inspiring success stories.

5.    Find useful tools but do not overdo it. With a plethora of software and applications to be an efficient freelancer. Yet, you do not need to invest much of your time into figuring out which tools will make your freelancing endeavors work like magic.

Author Bio

Kristoffer Canimo is a writer who strictly cannot start his day without coffee. When he's not writing or reading, he spends his time playing League of Legends. He's currently based in Manila, Philippines and loves huskies, midnight walks, and Raymond Carver. He freelance writes for a Sydney-based plumbing Just Flow Plumbing.

   

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