Freelancing is a new way to earn money nowadays. And it is from the comfort of your home. You earn in US dollars. You don’t need to travel and no need to dress up and wear makeup. The amount of time that you can save commuting and preparing can easily be converted to cash since you can accomplish more.
I started freelancing having very little idea about it. Not knowing what service to offer, I started accepting transcription jobs where the client will send me a video or audio file that I will transcribe and save it as a Word document. The topics vary, even topics that I know nothing about like AI, machinery, medical and legal terms.
Unlike normal office work, being a freelancer will require you to think like a businessman , a contractor because you are.
You are selling your skills, your time, your services and you have to bid to land a project. Projects can be short term, one -time project or long term contracts; there’s hourly rate, too!
The range of work that you can do online varies. You will need to be confident and you will negotiate your rate. Working online will require having an office setup like a quiet place to work, a noise cancellation headset, a fast and stable internet connection and of course, the ability to speak and or write good English.
There are no stable jobs online, but it can be highly rewarding. A client can fire you anytime and you can fire your client, too and find a new one.
What’s so cool about this? You can go anywhere and still work as long as you have your laptop with you and an internet connection. Imagine enjoying the beach or travelling abroad, not worrying about filing for a vacation leave and not getting paid.
You may be a mom , take care of your children , bring them to school and still work online. A student doing part-time work online. You can be a breadwinner taking care of a loved one in the hospital and still be able to work and earn. You can be an office employee from Monday- Friday and accept gigs on weekends for a few hours.
There are pros and cons working online. You have to be highly disciplined because no one will supervise you. You have to be highly resourceful and will troubleshoot your own problems since there are no ITs or helpdesk to help, and no one to train you. You will have to be highly independent, do your own research and use Google and YouTube a lot to find answers. And yes, you can watch Netflix while working too.
According to Payooner, a payment platform used by many freelancers globally, the freelance scene is still young- close to 70% of the 7,000 freelancers they surveyed are under the age of 35 and 21% are under the age of 25. The youth movement is led by freelancers in Asia, where 82% of the surveyed respondents are under 35, compared to only 47% in North America ( Payooner 2020 Freelance Income Report).