You’re looking for an independent place to start and develop your freelance career. We’re here to help. - Medium

Job security can be a huge stress factor for freelancers. It’s not just about finding enough clients and work, but also about finding the right clients…<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Wrn-sQdidRDPZxaxEOPkjw.jpeg" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/nl-nl/@olly?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Andrea Piacquadio</a> on <a href="https://www.pexels.com/nl-nl/foto/vrouw-die-witte-top-draagt-terwijl-het-doen-thumbs-up-3790805/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure>How you present yourself online and to future clients is key to finding the next job. In this article, I’ll give you some tips to help you focus: your freelance profile, your online presence, your rate, and your passion and skills.<h3>A perfect freelance profile</h3>When you’re a freelancer, you’re the product whether you like it or not. When you’re looking for roles, you’re selling yourself — your knowledge, your experience, your skills, your work ethic, and your values. Your profile and online presence are essential to making that perfect first impression.Your profile pictureDid you know that a profile with a nice and professional picture gets 21x more profile views?The profile picture is the first thing your potential clients see. Use a recent and professional-looking picture. Adding a personal touch to your picture immediately creates that first connection with a client. If you don’t have a recent professional-looking picture, there are a lot of freelance photographers who will happily lend a hand…About meA complete “About me” section with at least 3–4 lines increases the chance of being contacted.Tell something about yourself as well as what you’re offering. And please, use your real name! Describe who you are, the type of work you do, your interests, your education, qualifications, awards, certifications, and publications. Consider adding where you are located, how long you’ve been working independently, and add a fun fact or two!RecommendationsRecommendations are ranked high on the list of essentials. Potential employers always scan profiles for recommendations, especially those with real names and pictures. Recommendations give you an 8x higher chance of landing a new job or project. Invite your former employers or co-workers. Whilst this may be easier for experienced freelancers, we advise starting freelancers to invite their co-students, or friends and family to write something about you…SkillsBe as complete as possible in your skills. When you add at least 10 skills you will be contacted 33x more often. Personal attributes or soft skills are at least if not more important compared to hard skills or diplomas and certificates. If you’re not sure what to add, there are a lot of soft skill tests out there on the internet to help you get started. Also, ask people you’ve worked within the past or your friends and family for their input. As a starting freelancer, don’t forget skills learned during your prior work history. Or, add skills you’ve gained during any volunteer work you may have done.OffersPricing your services can reduce going back and forth with a client and allows you to start working on projects much faster. Whether you’re starting your independent journey or have years of experience, pricing your services can be challenging to know how much to charge (see the topic “Calculate your rate” below). Give your potential employers a clear description of your offer. Include the core skill in the title and support it with a detailed description.AvailabilityKeep your availability updated, in a place that you can easily share with potential employers, so they know if you’re open to work and by when. Even if you’re not immediately available, keep this information up to date so clients can reach out even if you’re only available in a couple of weeks.How to connectAnd a bit obvious, but is sometimes forgotten, add you’re online (e-mail/telephone number) contact details and social accounts (LinkedIn/Twitter) to your public profile, so potential clients can always reach you directly. Or use <a href="http://www.Calendly.com">www.Calendly.com</a> to give clients the option to plan a (short) meeting with you.Portfolio and projectsShowing off your portfolio and projects is becoming equally important than your experience, if not more important.Always use a good picture. A catching title, company name and be as clear as possible about the project, scope, and size, as well as about your role in the project, the work you did and the value you added and/or use a link from other platforms like LinkedIn, <a href="https://www.awwwards.com/">awwards</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a> or <a href="https://www.behance.net/">Behance</a>.Core valuesWork (and life) can at times feel like a bad storm. You can feel like a boat, being tossed around by the waves and the wind with little or no control. Your core values are the anchors that will stick with you and keep you on course through even the worst of storms. Unsure what yours are? There are online lists with hundreds of potential items. Review them carefully and pick the 4–5 that feel closest to who you are and what you stand for.<h3>Online Presence</h3>Showing your online presence on your profile is super important in the freelancing world. It not only gives clients an idea of who you are and what your personality is, but it also validates you and your experience.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*h_2ieDzBsevHWlIUTJNCMg.jpeg" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/nl-nl/@keira-burton?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Keira Burton</a> on <a href="https://www.pexels.com/nl-nl/foto/vrouw-in-bruine-jas-met-witte-keramische-mok-6146933/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure>Social accountsUse your social accounts to share your profile, your freelance skills, and experience on social media (Twitter/LinkedIn) and let people know about your availability and how they can connect with you.NetworkingStart networking, offline if possible, but at least online. Find a community that works for you, where you find answers to your questions; your day-to-day topics, finance, skills, the issues you deal with, etc., and where you can connect and chat with other freelancers. Even if it’s only a coffee break…Guest bloggingAre you a blogger? Use guest blog options on relevant websites or platforms to show off your skills and voice your opinion about your work field. Your content must be relevant of course and, if possible, help other freelancers.<h3>Calculate your rate</h3>As a freelancer, you need to be aware of what you’re worth, what the value of your skills is, as well as the value of what you’re offering. This can be a process, but if you have figured out your own value, clients will also value you, which in turn increases the chance of a next job. Of course, this value changes as you have and get more experience.If you have no idea as a starting freelancer, have a look at <a href="https://clockify.me/average-hourly-rates">Clockify</a>. Please note that your location is one of the biggest factors that determine your hourly rates.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*sZAQQGCOvQZ1IEV6nRKgWA.jpeg" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/nl-nl/@karolina-grabowska?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Karolina Grabowska</a> on <a href="https://www.pexels.com/nl-nl/foto/telefoon-tonen-mobiele-telefoon-rekenmachine-4386326/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure>There are mainly 3 options to determine your rate:<ul><li>Time-based Rate A rate is an ongoing price for the amount of time spent. An example of a rate is € 50/hour or € 1,000/week. Rate pricing is best for freelancers who are just starting out. It is also good for projects where it is hard to estimate the total time required to complete it, or for tasks that involve a lot of moving parts. We recommend very carefully tracking the amount of time spent, and keeping your client informed on a regular (at least weekly!) basis. For yourself, track your projects so you can eventually move to a fixed price once you’ve performed this service multiple times and are able to standardize this offering.</li><li>Fixed Price A fixed price is a one-time fee a client pays in exchange for a service. Fixed prices work best if you know how long a project will take and how much value you will deliver.</li><li>Contact for pricing If your rates are negotiable or vary often, contact for pricing is a great way to work out a pricing model with clients individually. Your price can be finalized by identifying the specific needs of your client and their total budget for the project.</li></ul><h3>Passion and skills</h3>Don’t be too modest or too limited in expressing your skills. Show what you’re capable of; show off your experiences, your blogs, your websites, your portfolio, etc. But, be crystal clear about what you are offering. Please try to avoid vague titles or skills.As a freelancer, it’s really important to stay relevant, keep your skills up-to-date and continue to expand them. Use the time in between jobs for (online) courses. Or, provide coaching or mentoring to others, and add it to your profile. Be passionate about your skills and the entrepreneurship of freelancing. And learn from others, I personally like Scott Luscombe, with his <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/events/6897528651634855936/">Freelance Success Friday</a> events where he shares his way of working.<h3>Any thoughts?</h3>If you think I’m not complete, or if you have another opinion? Let me know, I’m very curious.Do you want to be a guest blogger, or do you want to share your experiences, good or bad, as a freelancer? Please send me an e-mail (ella.reizevoort@aforceof.one) or use the comments.<a href="http://www.aforceof.one/p/ereizevoort/">www.aforceof.one/p/ereizevoort/</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=da8e3665cd1a" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/what-are-tips-and-tricks-for-a-happy-freelancer-da8e3665cd1a">What are tips and tricks for a happy freelancer?</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What are tips and tricks for a happy freelancer?

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/959/0*T6k3THO6l5OgE5E3" /><figcaption>Getty</figcaption></figure>How do long term freelancers see themselves differently from other freelancers? It’s a question I’m often asked by new and recent joiners to the freelance revolution.Freelancing in the modern era, enabled by global talent marketplaces like <a href="https://yunojuno.com">YunoJuno</a> or <a href="https://measurematch.com">Measurematch</a>, two UK based platforms, is a new twist on an old career theme. Independent professionals have been with us in many technical and commercial fields for centuries: Freelance engineers designed and built many ancient Roman buildings we still admire. But the freelance revolution now lifting independent talent in tech, marketing, independent management consulting and many other professions, has accelerated in the past several years.We’re still learning so much about the critical factors that make or break a successful freelance career, and one of the questions that regularly comes up is how long experienced freelancers differ from more recent converts. While millions have joined freelancing in the last few years, many hastened by Covid-19, others — let’s call them freelance pioneers — have worked independently for a decade or more. How do these early solopreneurs see themselves, and in what ways is the pioneer generation different than newer members of the freelance revolution?The Global Survey on Freelancing, my collaboration with the University of Toronto, is able to provide some insight. Our survey worked with over 75 freelance platforms, agencies and communities around the world, and captured the perspectives of 1900 freelancers from over 30 countries, two-thirds of whom were full-time. These professionals are independent experts representing an expansive list of industries and technical and commercial specialties.Here’s what we learned: freelance pioneers are different from other independent professionals. By comparing freelance pioneers, those with 10 years or more experience as a freelancer, to the overall freelance population, we found that pioneers describe themselves more positively than less experienced freelancers, and on almost every factor: In fact, 31 of 38 attributes or over 80%. In many cases, the difference was significant; in others, more marginal. However, the overall trend was strong and consistent.For example, freelance pioneers rate themselves considerably more flexible and adaptable (72% v 66%), resilient (69% v 59%), accountable (77% v 70%), and better able to work with others (81% v 74%). We found smaller differences in areas like dealing with conflict (57% v 56%), multi-tasking (55% v 52%), and networking (35% v 34%) And, in a few areas, pioneers and shorter term freelancers rated themselves similarly or slightly reversed ratings, for example, listening skills (61% v 61%) and thinking globally (58% v 59%).Below is the full set of ratings:<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/960/0*JxZe3-YoPXqPYIXB" /><figcaption>Global Survey — Global Survey on Freelancing</figcaption></figure>What can we take away from these data as a profile of freelance pioneers? Three factors are particularly evident:1. Freelance pioneers see themselves as achievers who own the outcome. Goal oriented, ambitious, resilient, accountable, problem solving, delivering on commitments are all ways in which freelance pioneers distinguish themselves from less experienced freelancers.2. Freelance pioneers describe themselves as deeply invested in client and colleague relationships. While pioneers don’t see themselves as more devoted or effective as networkers (35% v 34%) or more skilled at making business connections (46% v 45%), they do rate themselves more strongly than others in commercial and collegial relationship building: forming effective client relationships, working well with people at all levels, dealing well with conflict, more generously crediting others, and working more often with other freelancers. They also see themselves as attentive and responsive to relationship concerns, for example, thinking ahead about working relationships, dealing with conflicting perspectives, building harmony in working groups, , and caring about listening and communication skills.3. Freelance pioneers think of themselves as expert problem solvers. Freelancers generally see themselves up to date technically, but pioneers more frequently describe themselves as expert, and reflect greater confidence in their skills and orientation as creative, optimistic, realistic, anticipating potential problems, and remaining attentive to challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome. They also describe themselves as more willing to assume a leadership role when circumstances demand, and as an effective planner and time manager.Practice may not make perfect, but for freelance pioneers, the depth of experience seems to be both a confidence builder and undoubtedly a competence builder as well. These correlational data have obvious limits. We can’t say whether pioneers brought a different attitude with them to freelancing, or came to it through experience. But we can say with assurance that longer tenured freelancers overall have a track record of success, and that makes pioneers important to the platforms they support in several respects: Financially, of course, but also as a brand reputation builder, a help in attracting and retaining platform talent, a coach and mentor for young talent, and a source of advice to the platform team. It only makes sense for platform leaders to know their long term freelancers, understand their needs, and value them as a unique and important platform asset.Viva la revolution!This article was originally published by Jon Younger (and with his permission to republish ) at <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonyounger/2022/01/03/how-do-freelance-pioneers-differ-from-less-experienced-freelancers/">https://www.forbes.com</a>. Jon is an HR thought leader, author, teacher and early stage investor. Writing about the freelance revolution and the future of work. Books include HR From the Outside In, HR Transformation, and Agile Talent. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jon_younger">@jon_younger</a>, and check his <a href="https://linkedin.com/in/jon-younger-phd-57a41455/">Linkedin</a> page for new articles.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=d2825d3b07de" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/how-do-freelance-pioneers-differ-from-less-experienced-freelancers-d2825d3b07de">How Do Freelance Pioneers Differ From Less Experienced Freelancers?</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How Do Freelance Pioneers Differ From Less Experienced Freelancers?

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*lQScx_UlZafFBAs5WJsjkA.png" /><figcaption>My photo at a coffee shop in Singapore.</figcaption></figure>There is comfort in knowing that a 9–5 job is a stable income, especially if you are in well-established, long-term companies. Freelancing — well, that’s a little different; you could have a client for the next few months or none at all. You could be working on multiple projects in a year or just one.One of the things I wish to debunk in this article is that freelancers do not have it easy. We don’t just sell a product, we sell ourselves. It doesn’t stop at knowing how to do your job but there are also things that we have to consider such as sales, marketing, and advertising, brand presence, and even customer service.Many of us believe that a person’s freelancing journey starts at a point where we get frustrated with our 9–5 jobs and in most cases that might be true but if we look deeper and search within ourselves, it is actually the freedom that comes with it. It’s the realization of working hard to make yourself financially capable and not make your boss a millionaire — to not rely on someone else’s risk but your own. Hey, if you could burn the midnight oil for them, why not do that for yourself?And so, here you are, battling the tidal waves, rowing against the current, letting the terrain hit you every chance it gets, and worst of all; no one’s teaching you how to do it all. You’re just figuring things out on your own.The basics of freelancing, as it happens is not creating a website but it is one of the vital beginnings where you can establish yourself. It’s a platform to show you, what you do, and where you can be contacted.Now, as you have no clue of what to do, you’ll probably buy courses — which has no end because you don’t really know what you need to know. But don’t fret, there are a lot of freelancing gurus who are successful in their field and would even teach you the basics for free and in detail like how <a href="https://medium.com/u/e7df903c6cf5">Chris Do</a> does it. I learned a lot from this awesome dude and I can guarantee that he gave me more confidence in terms of execution. Other commendable gurus are <a href="https://medium.com/u/23301797025a">Tom Hirst</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/themizko/">The Mizko</a>, <a href="https://www.udemy.com/user/danielwalterscott/">Daniel Walter Scott</a>. They have played a huge role in my freelancing career and I certainly hope they would be a part of yours, too.Do not fall pit into hogging courses which are probably accessible for free. Do your research and then be your own judge of weighing your knowledge and whether you think you need more coaching/mentoring. The best thing is to look for people who are already successful in the field you want to tackle and shamelessly follow their methods, learn from them, and use that as your foundation.One of the things I cannot stress enough is to niche down. Sure, if you can manage to do web development and design, go ahead but remember all parts of your freelance life are done by you. You are not just a worker bee anymore, you are an independent company. Plus, focusing on one niche gives you the upper hand of not giving up the quality of your work. If you can perform the same quality as any other corporate, your clients will come knocking at your door in no time.Hey, one more final rant and tip, do not dive into the ocean blindly, set a financial goal to reach for your freelance journey, and never go into the waters without a life vest. Have a safety net of savings to lean on while figuring things out, ideally for a good 6–12 months.And never stop learning. It will never be enough to know what you just know now. Be open to feedback, learn from the best, keep reading and investing in yourself.If you feel like giving up, remind yourself of your goal. Take a rest, have a to-do list for the year, and list them back down to months, weeks, and days. No one is successful on the first try, if there is, everyone would have done it and we’ll all be successful.But you’re one of the people who risked it and made it work. Be proud of yourself.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=4a8c75b9b98b" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/freelancing-an-honest-insight-of-the-freelance-industry-4a8c75b9b98b">Freelancing: An Honest Insight of the Freelance Industry</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Freelancing: An Honest Insight of the Freelance Industry

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*e2ZVGTBaZVKGY35nsdZvdQ.png" /></figure>So, after 2 months it’s time to share some numbers. Our highlights and learnings. Hopefully, it will help you in making your decisions…We had (and still have) this idea; one place for freelancers to create their best digital self, for better jobs and more opportunities. One place to create a profile, maintain it, share and control it. And in the next phase of development with more features like “manage your schedule” and “integration”.We started with building our a force of one platform about 2 months ago. Our first goal was to create a database of freelancers (and supporters), an audience, who want to help us build our platform by giving us feedback on our prototype and prioritizing features. And after that, developing our MVP and of course our final product. We wanted to have our first subscribers within a few weeks.We started on 2 sides; marketing and development. What did we do?Marketing: the focus is and was on awareness/thought leaderships/acquisition of subscribers.<ul><li>Creating a subscription site</li><li>Company page of LinkedIn/Twitter, for posts and share blogs</li><li>Newsletters to keep our subscribers updated and ask for feedback</li><li>Subscribe to start-up/voting platforms like Kernal, Indiehackers, Product Hunt, etc</li><li>Blogs on Medium (to share)</li><li>Polls and surveys to decide on features</li></ul>Development: the focus is and was on developing a prototype first and MVP next<ul><li>developing our design furthermore,</li><li>developing our prototype</li><li>opening a Slack channel, to communicate, share ideas and feedback with our subscribers</li><li>developing our basic MVP</li></ul>Some numbers I like to share with you, which are a result of the last 2 months:<ul><li>30 subscribers</li><li>81 followers on LinkedIn</li><li>21 votes on Kernal</li><li>10 posts on LinkedIn aforceof.one account,</li><li>2167 views on the last post</li><li>13 followers on IndieHackers,123 followings, 6 posts, 18 votes</li><li>25 followers on Twitter (aforceof.one), 181 followings, 16 tweets</li><li>20 likes on last (personal account) blog <a href="https://www.indiehackers.com/Medium">@Medium</a></li><li>31 followers on Medium, 202 followings, 5 blogs, 50 likes on the last post</li><li>2 newsletters</li><li>2 polls</li><li>2 surveys</li><li>16 channels (personal, website, newsletter, e-mail, Medium, LinkedIn, IndieHackers, Twitter, Slack, Kernal, ProductHunt, Betalist, Betapage, start-up base, Reddit. Quora)</li></ul>We are very happy with this result so far (as being all part-time freelancers).What went well:<ul><li>The collaboration o The three of us (CEO, CTO, CCO) work very well together. Good diversity in skills. o We are all very motivated and focused. o Regularly planned meetings, work with Trello for our planning.</li><li>The speed o In developing a prototype o In attracting subscribers</li><li>The response o On social media, newsletters.</li></ul>What did we learn:<ul><li>Stay agile and change course if necessary o Up until now, the survey did not respond well o Some people don’t like to give feedback in public and don’t want to use Slack o At some points we changed our product because of the feedback (but we also got it confirmed)</li><li>Different channels, a different approach o Different audiences per channel, different kinds of messages o Do some research on the different channels and find out where your audience is, or what hashtags to use, or who to follow o Stay focussed on a few channels, not every channel works for you, and be consistent and post regularly o Kernal gave us a good start, and I really like their online presence. ProductHunt/Betalist/Betapage didn’t do much and for most start-up platforms you have to pay for a quick review and acceptance on the website. I understand the revenue model, but it didn’t work for us. Reddit did not work out very well either up until now.</li><li>Be consistent and patient o You have to be aware that you have to create a brand from scratch</li></ul>Take aways:<ul><li>Collaboration/good teamwork is everything</li><li>Consistency and online presence</li><li>Stay agile</li><li>Research the channels of your audience</li></ul>And now almost ready for our public basic MVP. If you subscribe on <a href="https://www.aforceof.one">https://www.aforceof.one</a>, you can join us ( <a href="https://www.aforceof.one">https://www.aforceof.one</a>) and pretty soon you will receive a special invite code…Any comments, questions, or advice, please let me know!Originally published at <a href="https://www.indiehackers.com/post/result-of-building-in-public-2-months-marketing-and-development-of-a-force-of-one-42aa9a75dd">https://www.indiehackers.com</a>.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=eee903dae211" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/result-of-building-in-public-2-months-marketing-and-development-of-a-force-of-one-eee903dae211">Result of building in public, 2 months marketing and development of a force of one</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Result of building in public, 2 months marketing and development of a force of one

As a (starting) freelancer, have you ever made a list of the pros and cons of freelancing? How did that balance turn out? More cons than pros? And could you easily convert the cons into pros?<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*hV28IoEUaHZpD_9OByHPag.jpeg" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@nate_dumlao?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Nathan Dumlao</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/job-application?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure>Starting of as a freelancer, with a lot of working experience (15+ in year in commercial management), I saw a lot of advantages.<ul><li>The flexibility, when and where I work of course; managing my own schedule. I can decide what job I want to take or not, and for whom I want to work.</li><li>Being my own boss, making my own decisions.</li><li>And as I’m an inquisitive person, I was really looking forward to experiencing different types of jobs and learning about different types of organizations.</li><li>The satisfaction of using all my knowledge and years of experience to help people and companies in developing themselves.</li><li>Finally, perhaps not for everybody, but Corona took remote work to the next level for me.</li></ul>However… besides the advantages I also experienced some of the disadvantages (and I know now, a lot of freelancers do):<ul><li>The fact that there is uncertainty about income and workload. It took me quite some time to get used to that.</li><li>Finding the right work-life balance. I don’t feel like I can close the door behind me at 5 o’clock.</li><li>The time it takes to find a next job. Marketing myself, signing up at websites, agencies and maintaining my network.</li><li>The online jungle with all the websites, platforms, agencies out there. I really had really no idea which platform, website or agency would work for me, besides the fact that I receive a lot of e-mails with job proposals that are mostly not a match.</li><li>Every time I have to sign up again and create a new profile and maintain it. If the profile doesn’t look good, or is incomplete, I feel I have less of a chance of getting hired or it may effect my earnings.</li></ul>Some of these disadvantages even became frustrations for me. Every time I have to sign up, I need to create and maintain a perfect profile. The profile is the first impression employers have of me. My profile looks different on each platform, and the reviews I collect as a freelancer are posted to a specific platform and are not interchangeable, so not really mine. Shouldn’t these profiles and reviews be all about us as freelancers instead?As a freelancer we already are entrepreneur of course, but I found out pretty quickly that besides the advantages of freelancing, I really like the freedom. I also wanted to start my own business, build and grow a company and experience every facet of it. And when I met my first co-founder, these 2 merged together.The idea of doing something for freelancers was already there, but how and what we could do to reduce the disadvantages and frustrations, became clear after a while.Wouldn’t it be great if we, as freelancers, only had to create one perfect profile, with interchangeable recommendations, verified skills, education and experience which is set-up the way it works best for you? And only we decide who sees al this information? And isn’t it clear that for different kind of freelancers, a different structure of one’s profile is important? When you are a designer, your portfolio is more important than your working experience, and when you’re a software developer, your hard skills are more important.Freelancing will emerge more and more as a prominent way of working, the future of work will continue to change in a how we contract, but also in the way we work together, such as in flexible teams.I truly believe that freelancing will develop in a very professional sense and that freelancers, as well as the hiring agencies and companies, will search for a match on different levels; core values, (hard and soft) skills, industry, experience, portfolio and in different combinations.Do you share this? Follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/ellareizevoort">https://twitter.com/ellareizevoort</a>.Do you want to join us (<a href="http://www.aforceof.one">www.aforceof.one</a>) or do you want to share your experiences, good or bad, as a freelancer? Or do you have a strong opinion about our vision, please let us know on <a href="https://twitter.com/aforceofone">https://twitter.com/aforceofone</a> or in the comment.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=2af05e649f8d" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/how-great-disadvantages-of-freelancing-can-change-the-future-of-work-2af05e649f8d">How great disadvantages of freelancing can change the future of work</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How great disadvantages of freelancing can change the future of work

And why you need it!You already are the perfect freelance online marketer, software developer, designer, or writer. And as a freelancer you know you have outstanding skills; you are experienced, the right work ethic, motivation, and flexibility. But is that enough?<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*uyUR4bo3EkTlPE0-TRhJ3w.jpeg" /><figcaption>Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/tumisu-148124/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=5207277">Tumisu</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/">Pixabay</a></figcaption></figure><h4>What are the key factors in getting your next freelance job?</h4>Your skills, your experience, the right mindset, flexibility, work ethics, yes! But there is one thing that we sometimes forget or don’t pay enough attention to and is equally important. Your reputation!A reputation that is built on all the things you’re good at and of what other people think of you, based on trust. An offline and online reputation based on references, recommendations, testimonials, and online presence.Especially difficult when you are starting off as a freelancer and have to work on your portfolio. You start subscribing to all the freelance platforms, creating and updating your profile, waiting for a client to respond. Or maybe you can use your personal network?Even when you’re an experienced freelancer with a good network, it can be hard. Your personal network is not inexhaustible you have to put the effort into maintaining and growing your network.The basics have to be correct; skills, experience, education, and portfolio. Your profile or resume has to look good and everything has to be true. Right? It will bounce back at you if you are not honest. But…you have to work on trust! So how is your reputation doing? And is it easy for you to get reviews, recommendations, and references (the condition is of course that you have done a good job!)?Building an (online) reputation takes time and is not always top of mind for a freelancer. Because there is so much to do:<ul><li>The present job or project you have, of course</li><li>Preparing for the next job: searching at all the freelance platforms and job sites, social media, reacting, interviews</li><li>Your paperwork, all the administration you have to do and managing your schedule an projects</li><li>Your own website, maintaining your site an portfolio</li><li>Etc.</li></ul><h4>How can you be more focused on your reputation?</h4>See yourself as an entrepreneur! What if you, as a freelancer, start looking at yourself as being a company (perhaps a little one but nevertheless..) and therefore as an entrepreneur? And reflect!How do you make choices, as an individual, in purchasing or ordering something, like a vacation? What are your key drivers? Destination, price, and…….what other people think and have experienced.Or when you book a restaurant; of course, you make a choice in what you like to eat and what it will cost. But maybe even more important. How did other people experience the restaurant?“You experience the importance of recommendations as an individual yourself…”Potential employers look at what you are offering as a freelancer, skills, price, projects, industry, etc., but also look at your reputation. Reputation builds a company!! So also builds your own freelance company. Recommendations, testimonials, reviews, references all represent online and offline trust. Trust by colleagues, employers, fellow students, or even maybe friends or family.Quote from a customer&#39;s perspective: “We will use the actions of others to decide on proper behavior for ourselves, especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves,” says Robert B. Cialdini, author of the bestseller <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Cialdini%E2%80%99s+6+Principles+of+Influence&amp;qid=1552165898&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1-catcorr">Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion</a>.<h4>How do company’s collect their recommendations and reviews?</h4>They deliver, do a good job, and ask for them! Asking for recommendations is not always easy and can be awkward. But you know you did a good job! Always remember what the value of a recommendation is. Look at yourself as an entrepreneur. It’s all about building your own (little, or not so little) company.Please let me know what you think? And how and if you already use recommendations?Follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/ellareizevoort">https://twitter.com/ellareizevoort</a>Do you want to join us (<a href="http://www.aforceof.one/">www.aforceof.one</a>) or do you want to share your experiences, good or bad, as a freelancer? Please let us know on <a href="https://twitter.com/aforceofone">https://twitter.com/aforceofone</a> or in the comment.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=ea230fb92e1" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/how-recommendations-influence-your-freelance-reputation-ea230fb92e1">How recommendations influence your freelance reputation!</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How recommendations influence your freelance reputation!

Employees want to work in more flexible ways and employers need to be more flexible when it comes to work.If anything, the pandemic has forced people to consider how and where they work. For some workers, the pandemic has changed their priorities to being a stay-at-home parent or they’ve decided to pursue their dream jobs. For others, working at home has become the norm and they’re not prepared to go back to their daily commute. Whatever the reason, the future of (flexible) work means more people will live and work in flexible ways. Companies or agencies need to be more flexible because of the growing need for diversity in skills, experience, and especially agility.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*i8TEZH6GqSb_YtZB_r7zkw.jpeg" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@anniespratt?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Annie Spratt</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/team?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><h3>What does it mean on the hiring side?</h3>Companies need to build teams with a diversity of skills and expertise, each member with a focus on a special task. It also means that companies become even more dependent on freelancers. These freelancers must have a cultural fit with the company and their ways of working to be successful in these teams.<h3>What does it mean for us freelancers?</h3>On the freelancer side, it means we need to work together in a team and be aware of our own interpersonal skills and our role in a team as an extra dimension concerning flexible work. Working remote as a freelancer in a team can make this even more challenging. As freelancers, we may sometimes think; “freelancing means freedom to me, I don’t want any strings attached, or be dependent on others”. And maybe you became a freelancer because you like to work alone. Working in these flexible teams grows our network, and it brings us a lot of good references (which we heavily depend on as freelancers). Although most of us freelancers seek freedom, we don’t want to spend too much time seeking our next job. Right? Do you need to be prepared as a freelancer?Yes? If you want to be successful, you have to be prepared for the future of work and this development in freelancing. A complete insight into your skills will definitely help you.An overview of ”hard” skills as we call them is simple enough. Certificates, diplomas, courses, education, and experience are all quite measurable or can be checked very easily. “Soft” skills or better said; interpersonal skills or personal attributes are more difficult to map. Of course, an objective assessment is the best, but most of the time you only have personal feedback. If you don’t get the insights into your soft skills spontaneously, I would definitely ask for it.<blockquote><a href="http://surejob.in/soft-skills.html">Soft skills,</a> also known as “employability skills” are defined by Business Dictionary as “a group of essential abilities that involve the development of a knowledge base, expertise level, and mindset that is increasingly necessary for success in the <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/modernize-outdated-culture/">modern workplace</a>.</blockquote>In general, the interpersonal skills, or soft skills a freelancer needs for being a freelancer are already pretty clear: communication, collaboration, time management, adaptability, personal leadership. Because of the future developments I mentioned before, some will be magnified:<ul><li>Collaboration/teamwork; as being part of a team, team effort becomes more and more important than personal collaboration and working one-on-one with a colleague or a hiring client.</li><li>Personal leadership; besides leading yourself, leadership towards others and within a flex team is an extra dimension.</li></ul>Having interpersonal skills does not necessarily mean you have to be an extrovert. Everybody has interpersonal skills. It means that as a freelancer you have to increasingly be aware and have knowledge of your interpersonal skills. And, so does your future employer or client. The insight you have in your soft skills determines how you function in a team and what role you have. But it also determines if there is a cultural fit with the company or the client and the team.There are a lot of ways to gain insights into your interpersonal skills, and there are a lot of good test like DISC, etc, which are proven and are used by companies to create good working teams. There are also feedback methods such as the 360 review to get outside information about how people work. But they are all time-consuming and therefore not an option when your next freelance (team) job starts tomorrow.So yes, we as freelancers have to be prepared.I strongly believe that we need to create an environment that facilitates the understanding and constructive use of interpersonal skills to promote working in freelance teams, and also matches the culture of a company and establish a long-term relationship with other freelancers and clients.What do you think? And how do you think the future of freelance work will develop? And what will be needed to be prepared?I’m Ella Reizevoort, Co-founder of a force one.As <a href="https://www.aforceof.one/">a force of one</a>, we help freelancers to create their best digital self, for better jobs and opportunities.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=7919645974e2" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/why-interpersonal-skills-are-essential-for-the-future-of-work-7919645974e2">Why interpersonal skills are essential for the future of work</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Why interpersonal skills are essential for the future of work

<h3>Let’s make freelancers a force to be reckoned with — time for change!</h3>Have you ever considered giving up freelancing? I mean, were you ever so frustrated with finding a new gig, scouting all the platforms, marketing and selling your skills, contracting, invoicing or your accounting? So much that you considered giving up your freedom and finding a “normal” job?Freelancing is more than just another type of contract. To us, it’s about being self-employed, about being free to do what we want, about pursuing our own passions. But the freelancing environment is fraught with challenges and pitfalls.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*9U3-NImHO6vkOlAC" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@shanerounce?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Shane Rounce</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><h4>Challenges</h4>Let’s start with our largest challenge — finding our next assignment. Some of us have enough of a network to be able to find our own assignments. However, most of us need to make use of whatever means we can to find our next “gig”: making use of platforms such as Upwork.com or Freelancer.com, putting a post on LinkedIn, blogging, updating our own website, reaching out to agencies or going to our friends &amp; family. It’s very much a “spray and pray” approach where we can only hope someone will respond.A lot of the platforms and agencies out there are doing whatever they can to profit from our work — taking anywhere from US$1/hour to 15% of our total fees for helping us find an assignment. They limit our ability to directly meet with our potential future employer. We are also limited in how we can market ourselves. We need to put our work experience and profile in their specific format, we cannot link to our LinkedIn profile and we cannot even use our full name — all out of fear that they might be circumvented in the contracting or invoicing process.All of this comes on top of our administrative challenges: contract management, expense keeping, invoicing, accounting, insurance, etc.<h4>Our vision</h4>At a force of one, we believe it’s time for change. Covid-19 and technology have changed our world views rapidly. Our current workforce models are outdated and must move from a profit focus to a people focus — putting the freelancer front and center. The future of how we work demands change, a rethink of how we approach work. A fresh mindset that helps all freelancers find their next assignment and make it one they find fulfilling and boosts their personal development.<h4>Why?</h4>Companies need a force of skill. Freelancers are that force. We are that force. A force of skills and abilities. A force of ideals and ideas. Of balance and work in life. Of passion and craft. A force of one.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*3SzN4U5Jflw-SrzQ" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@possessedphotography?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Possessed Photography</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><h4>Our plan</h4>We have a lot of ideas for a new platform to address these challenges, centered around the freelancer. We will #buildinpublic our platform, keeping everyone posted on our progress. To build our first version of the platform, we’ll be inviting 50 freelancers to brainstorm with us. Are you an experienced freelancer, looking for your next assignment (or will you be shortly)? Are you interested in helping us design a better world for freelancers by talking about your greatest challenges as a freelancer? Can we help you market &amp; sell yourself to find your next gig? Join forces: <a href="https://aforceof.one/">https://aforceof.one/</a>.If you’re not that freelancer, but still interested in our ideas, please follow us on Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/aforceofone">https://twitter.com/aforceofone</a>) or LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/aforceof-one/">https://www.linkedin.com/company/aforceof-one/</a>.<h4>What’s next?</h4>In our next set of blogs, we’ll tell you more about our plans. We’ll also introduce ourselves a bit more and tell you why we’re passionate about this idea.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=2b97bc2795ef" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/lets-make-freelancers-a-force-to-be-reckoned-with-time-for-change-2b97bc2795ef">Let’s make freelancers a force to be reckoned with — time for change!</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Let’s make freelancers a force to be reckoned with — time for change!

Tired of having to market yourself as a freelancer on so many platforms? Not knowing where to go next — how to have agencies find you? We share your pain.As explained in our previous blog, we believe it’s time for a change. We’re going to build a new platform, putting the freelancer front and center. We would like to share some of our first ideas with you in this post.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*KoF8kFE1E2-VS-PC" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@goian?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Ian Schneider</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><h4>Our design philosophy</h4>We have already put quite a bit of thought into our platform. Before I go into them, I’d like to start with our design philosophy. We’re building a platform for freelancers. That also means we’re going to listen to our freelancers. First, we’re going to invite 50 freelancers to brainstorm and think with us on their key challenges. Second, we’ll soon be launching a survey for the wider freelancer community to provide input as well. Third, once we have our MVP (minimum viable product) up and running — we’re absolutely committed to continuously validating the most desired features with our community.The involvement of our community is also why we’re going to be building in public — keeping everyone updated on our progress as we go.<h4>Our first ideas</h4>Let’s start with our largest challenge — finding our next assignment. As said, some of us have enough of a network to be able to find our own assignments. However, most of us need to make use of whatever means we can to find our next “gig”: making use of platforms such as Upwork.com or Freelancer.com, putting a post on LinkedIn, blogging, updating our own website, reaching out to recruiters or going to our friends &amp; family.We believe that marketing should center around the freelancer, their skills, their personality and their experience.Our starting point will be creating a visually attractive profile. Our objective is to find the optimal balance between letting a freelancer market themselves and their skills as positive as possible, centering the profile around the person the freelancer is — and ensuring the profile is as honest as possible. For our MVP, we’re considering starting with the following list of features, letting freelancers:<ul><li>add their work experience and education, but also past freelance projects — including visuals such as links, PDF’s, pictures or videos;</li><li>add links to other platforms such as LinkedIn, but also other profiles such as Github, Twitter or Stack Overflow;</li><li>add their hard skills, as well as their soft skills and personality traits;</li><li>add their target hourly (or daily/monthly) rate;</li><li>add their availability — so even if you’re available a month from now, or you’re only available 3 days / week — an employer can find you;</li><li>allow for verification of their identity, their work experience, their education and other sections;</li><li>decide what to share with whom, for example — not share all information publicly, but still share that information with agencies or employers who have agreed to our terms and code of conduct;</li><li>allow agencies or employers to reach out as they see fit — via the platform, e-mail, phone or any other channel;</li></ul>In our mock-up screenshots below you can see an example of what this could look like.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*NIF8yA2vZWJ0yH173fRSmQ.png" /><figcaption>A force of one freelance profile — sample screenshots</figcaption></figure><h4>Our plan</h4>We have a lot more ideas for our platform. We will #buildinpublic our platform, keeping everyone posted on our progress. To build our first version of the platform, we are inviting 50 freelancers to brainstorm with us. Are you an experienced freelancer, looking for your next assignment (or will you be shortly)? Are you interested in helping us design a better world for freelancers by talking about your greatest challenges as a freelancer? Can we help you market &amp; sell yourself to find your next gig? Join forces: <a href="https://aforceof.one/">https://aforceof.one/</a>.If you’re not that freelancer, but still interested in our ideas, please follow us on Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/aforceofone">https://twitter.com/aforceofone</a>) or LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/aforceof-one/">https://www.linkedin.com/company/aforceof-one/</a>.<h4>What’s next?</h4>In our next blogs, we’ll introduce ourselves and tell you why we’re passionate about this idea.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=f63e6755ec43" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/tired-of-copying-your-freelancing-profile-across-the-internet-time-for-a-change-f63e6755ec43">Tired of copying your freelancing profile across the internet? Time for a change…</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Tired of copying your freelancing profile across the internet? Time for a change…

Is the freelancer market too competitive? Is it too difficult to stand out from the crowd to warrant your hourly rate or to even find a next gig as a freelancer?The other side is equally hard or perhaps even harder. Over the past years, I’ve hired nearly every type of freelancer — from a senior interim manager to developers and designers on Fiverr and Upwork. This is my story of hiring a senior interim manager in Europe and why I believe a change is necessary!<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*Xd6iKEDDTD0BsW7l" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@homajob?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Scott Graham</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure>Let me start by introducing myself. My name is <a href="https://aforceof.one/p/mwormgoor">Mark Wormgoor</a>, now a startup founder &amp; executive coach. Until late last year, I was Director of IT Operations at Jacobs Douwe Egberts, a leading global coffee and tea company.<h4>The Process</h4>This story takes place in a large corporate. One of the managers in my team got promoted and I urgently needed a replacement. Longer term I needed to go out and hire a replacement, but as that process would take 3–6 months, I needed someone immediately to fill the gap during the interim period.My options were either to go with an interim resource from one of the larger consultancy organizations or system integrators out there or to find an independent freelancer. As this was a management role, I preferred to go for an independent freelancer — ensuring the interim person was not related to any existing partner of ours. For the hiring process, our corporate worked with an agency (let’s call them Y) to contract independent freelancers to reduce the administrative and legal work for us.<h4>The Search</h4>Ideally, I’d just like to go through a list of potential freelancer candidates myself. Unfortunately, such a single simple database does not exist. I asked around in my own network, but no one knew of a candidate that was available.About a week or so later, during a business trip, I receive an unexpected call from a small agency (let’s call them A) I have never heard of that they have found the ideal candidate for me. Perfect! I tell them we always need to hire via agency Y, but am happy for them to send me the CV. They tell me they’ve contracted via agency Y before — so there won’t be a challenge.About another week later, I find out agency A has actually gone out and posted their own LinkedIn job ad to attract a candidate. As I did not want every small agency out there posting LinkedIn ads on their own without my approval, I asked them to remove it. We interviewed the one candidate they proposed who was not a match for us unfortunately. At this point I asked them to only contact us via agency Y and we went our separate ways.<h4>The result</h4>In the end we found someone else via agency Y about a month later. The point of this story is that it’s tough as a freelancer to find a job. But it’s just as difficult on the other side to find a suitable candidate for a role.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*mPN2Ah-lJD9g5LHP" /><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jupp?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Jonathan Kemper</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><h4>My ideal</h4>This is just one of many hiring experiences I’ve had, but to me it’s a great example of what’s wrong in the freelancing market. There are a lot of highly skilled freelancers out there and there are a lot of organizations out there looking for them.There are a lot of platforms out there trying to fill the gap. However, they do require you to sign-up and contract first (which in an enterprise is really hard!) and their databases contain only a small amount of the freelancers out there. Plus, as their business model is often to make money on the actual transaction, details of the freelancer are often hidden.There are a lot of agencies out there as well. There are some really good ones, but they suffer from the same limitations I do; they only have a limited network they can use and don’t have full visibility of available freelancers. But, there are also agencies out there with lower standards such as the one I encountered.In the end, the financial interest of the platforms and the agencies in the market seem to take first priority. A quality match and the interests of the client and the freelancer often seem to come in second. In a market where freelancing continues to grow, a trend even further accelerated by Covid-19, we need to fix this market together.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=f853da20bf25" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.aforceof.one/why-hiring-freelancers-is-just-as-hard-as-being-one-f853da20bf25">Why hiring freelancers is just as hard as being one</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.aforceof.one">aforceofone</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Why hiring freelancers is just as hard as being one

aforceofone - Medium

Today, the 22nd of March, is earth day. "How freelancing can save the world (or the earth", is a bold statement. I came across [this article](https://revolancer.com/magazine/earth-day-2022-and-remote-work/) on Revolancer from Una Jones. And as a matter of fact, I agree! It depends of course how you define freelancing. A lot of freelancers work and worked remotely, and after (at the end of) Covid19 a lot of freelancers still work remotely unlike people with a permanent job. Employees with permanent jobs go to their offices more and more, unlike what we all expected to happen. So freelancing in general is more sustainable. Do you agree?

How freelancing can save the earth!

Just now, I came across [this blog post on remote work by Upwork](https://www.upwork.com/resources/building-trust-remote-teams). It's written for managers of distributed teams. However, I strongly believe that individual team members (including freelancers - regardless of the size of their assignment) need to take their individual responsibility here as well. 
![](https://assets-global.website-files.com/5ec7dad2e6f6295a9e2a23dd/624b9192faabc4059ae9d805_How-to-build-trust-with-remote-teams.jpg)
As a remote freelancer, do you keep these in mind every day?
- Be transparent, responsive, and dependable
- Schedule regular meetings with your client
- Set expectations / Establish clear goals and objectives with your client
- Be clear on your role and take accountability
- Be consistent
- Use team collaboration tools (and if the client doesn't have any, or doesn't allow you to use theirs - bring your own!)
- Build connections with other team members
- Provide and seek (peer-to-peer) feedback
- Focus on your output, and celebrate successes (also those of others! give recognition!)
- Manage your own work/life balance

Trust in remote teams

Online networking is just as important as offline, and there are a few freelancers, freelance experts or business accounts out there who have a lot of followers and/or post really relevant items that can help you in your freelance journey. They share their experiences, post job they run into etc. If you have the time, have a look at these accounts on Twitter:
-	[Sara Horowitz](https://twitter.com/Sara_Horowitz), also founder of freelance union, writer
-	[Stefan Palios](https://twitter.com/stefanpalios), he created his own business using his freelance experience

On LinkedIn have a look at:
-	[Scott Luscombe](https://www.linkedin.com/in/creatibly/), he has his Freelance Friday meetings and gives tips (for free) to other freelancers
-	[Jon Younger](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-younger-phd-57a41455/) he is a writer for Forbes and writes about the future of (freelance) work 

Feel free to share other freelancers or freelance experts with good ideas to expand our freelance network 


Online networking, who to follow as a freelancer

Have you experienced issues with a client?
I think mainly there are 2 kind off problems that occur:
-	Client who do not want to pay (sometimes intentionally) or 
-	Client who want more from you then you agreed upon for the same price

I hear and read more and more about “clients” who want something for free and never had and have the intention to pay, so freelancers get scammed. And clients become more demanding. So how to deal with this and how do you maintain a good relationship with your client?  My tips:
-	Check your client! Does the company or person exist? If you can’t find anything positive online, let them pay by advance (at least for a part of the order, or a down payment) 
-	Let them sign your offer/contract.
-	Always create milestones in your offer/contract, with scheduled reviews. And start with the next milestone, when the former one is paid. If you create manageable amounts for your client, this should not be a problem. And you both stay happy, because the result of the milestone is monitored as well. 
-	Be persistent in what you agreed upon, if the client demands something different or more; make an additional offer. My opinion it that if you give something away, you will not easily get it back. And it also says something about the quality of your work.

And talk to other freelancers about these issues…This really helps in being persistent in the agreement you have made with your clients.

What are your experiences on this matter and how did you deal with it?


How do you deal with clients who do not keep their agreements?

Freelancing, especially remotely, can be very lonely, and networking with other freelancers at a personal AND a professional level can be motivating, but also helps you in getting your next job.

Some ideas, if you want to meet other freelancers:  
-	Go to coffee corners where a lot of freelancers work. I live in a city and there are a few in my neighborhood
-	Rent yourself an office in a (small) business area. That’s what I did, to get out of the house and have professional contact with other (small) businesses.
-	Rent a desk in a special flex office, something you can become a club member, and they organize events as well. 
-	And a bit quicker and easier; plan a digital coffee break every now and then, to chat or share professional issues
Any other ideas are welcome


Some ideas to build your network

As a freelancer, I think you should be aware of what you’re worth, what the value of your skills is, as well as the value of what you’re offering. To have the highest chance of accepting your quote, your skills and price must be in balance and they will develop and help you in growing financially. I always use an hourly rate (I came across this overview https://clockify.me/average-hourly-rates, location-based of course),  but it depends on the kind of project if a fixed fee works better for you of course. And if you use a fixed fee, how do you manage your clients and projects? Any tips?

I came across this overview https://clockify.me/average-hourly-rates. What do you use?


Calculate your rate

I think as a freelancer it is more difficult to keep a healthy work-life balance because work never stops. 
For me, it is important to
-	 set clear work hours. I always get up at the same time every workday
-	 really plan my spare time. Otherwise, I will be stuck to my laptop all the time (especially working remotely).
What works for me (to clear my mind) is to be active in my spare time; a walk in nature on regular bases or a walk around the block in the evening, yoga and to the gym at least once a week.
What do you do to stay balanced? 


How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?

Do you do your own bookkeeping?
I myself as a freelancer have a personal bookkeeper because I really don’t like it. And because I don’t know what software to use. There is a lot of (free) small business bookkeeping software available, like Quickbooks, Quicken premier, Budget dynamics, Bunni, Slickpie, Zoho etc
What works for you and what are your experiences? Do you have a specific tool?  


How do you do your bookkeeping?

My opinion, I wrote on [Medium](https://medium.com/aforceofone/what-are-tips-and-tricks-for-a-happy-freelancer-da8e3665cd1a) this year, about some items that are helpful in finding the next job as a freelancer, and the next….
-	A profile that is as complete as possible
-	To be online present
-	To know what your rate is
-	And  to be passioned about your skills

What applies to you? Any advice or addition?



What is needed if you want to be more sure of your next job, gig or project?

Really a new list of upcoming in-demand freelance skills Karla Glatt posted on [Medium](https://medium.com/@karlaglatt/8-top-in-demand-freelance-skills-for-2022-351623ae1c2)

-	NFT art
-	Blockchain developer
-	Video Creation and Editing
-	Scripted Live Chat
-	Lead Generation 
-	Social Media Management
-	Data Science and Analysis
-	Voice Over

Very specific and maybe not all so well known as the more regular skills like Web development, JavaScript, WordPress, coaching, writing, etc. What is your experience as a freelancer? Do you see other new developments? Or still a future for the more regular (remote)  skills? 


New upcoming in-demand freelance skills 

Networks are a great way of finding new clients and work. What channels and tools do you use?

Build your network

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Meet, share and engage with other freelancers

We are often balancing multiple clients. Plus, we need to do our own admin on top of our work for clients. Efficiency is key, so share your tips & tricks with us!

Work Efficiently

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Contracting, Accounting, Invoicing, Timekeeping, Taxes, and so much more…

Freelancers often don't get to go home at 5pm. Our work continues in the evenings, doing our admin, finding new clients, writing blogs, networking. Share your challenges and your tips & tricks

Relax, you are doing great 😊

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How do you have fun? Manage your work-life balance?

Starting a career as a freelancer can be a great challenge. If you are unsure where to start, rest assured, you are not the only one

Get Started

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Helping you with the first steps of becoming a freelancer

As a freelancer, it’s really important to stay relevant, keep your skills up-to-date and continue to expand them

Skills & Personal Development

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Discuss the best places and strategies to find jobs as a freelancer in order to achieve financial security and to develop your career

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