Freelance employment: Do you have what it takes?
More people are finding freelance employment aside from their regular day jobs. They leave the security of their regular employment to move on to the challenges of freelance employment. Freelancing has become a career choice for many who people who enjoy the benefits that it offers. Freelancers often attribute their interest to freelance employment to the following factors:
* Wider range of job opportunities;
* Fast turnaround of projects;
* More freedom to choose projects of choice;
* More flexibility to work on different jobs on a simultaneous basis; and
* High income rates
Do you have what it takes to go freelance? Before you take the plunge and begin the journey of working at home, read through the following steps and tricks.
1. Determine the amount of money that you’ll need to earn to sustain your expenses. If you have a day job now, you will be saving a great deal of money once you make your shift to freelance employment. If you begin to work at home, you will save a lot of money from commuting, food, taxes, and more.
2. Take a self-assessment test and list all your skills and experiences. Include your hobbies and interests too, as doing this will determine what types of freelance jobs you can take on. Do you keep a personal website? Then perhaps you can on freelance web design. Do you keep a personal blog? Then you can take on writing jobs. If you know how to do searches in the internet then you can write about any topic that may be given to you.
3. Visit internet web sites offering freelance jobs to see what jobs are currently offered. Take notes and keep a list of these jobs. You should also be on the lookout for companies and organizations that use freelancers for their projects. Look at how much they pay freelancers and take note of the different rates they offer for different projects. Keep a list of these important details as they will surely help you later in estimating how much you should charge for any given project.
4. From the notes you have gathered, try to create an estimate costing of the projects you have identified should the projects be given to you. Keep in mind the number of days given to the projects you have identified. When you have done this, you will be able to see how much you could potentially earn.
5. After doing all of the above, you can now start applying for the freelance jobs that you have identified. These jobs will help you earn some amount that you can later use after quitting you day job.
6. Once you have confirmed that the projects have been awarded to you, use a table to plot specific data about them. Write down all the information about these projects such as contact persons and their contact details and number of days to complete the projects.
7. As you begin freelance work, you will start to feel the flow of freelance employment. Bear in mind that you will not get all the projects that you want so you should apply for different jobs. However, be careful when taking on several jobs. Remember that you should not take on more jobs than you could handle.
8. You are now ready to quit your day job when you have developed an effective system of doing freelance work. But since you are doing freelance work, you should be able to track your jobs and their payment schedules.
