Freelancing 101: What Every Potential Freelancer Should Know
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This post originally appeared on BusinessNewsDaily on August 2, 2017.
The gig economy is booming. According to Forbes, between 2005 and 2015, 94 percent of 10 million jobs created were either freelance or temporary gigs. For freelancers, this shows a great demand across different niches and industries and a steady decline for traditional 9-to-5 day jobs.
However, being a self-employed freelancer means owning your own business. Whether you’re prepared for it or not, you have to be your own boss. To help you better understand the nature of freelance work, here are nine things all potential and current freelancers should consider about the current state of the market climate.
1. Freelance work isn’t just one-time projects.
Traditionally, startups and smaller businesses hire freelancers for short-term ad hoc projects that the owners and their staff don’t have time to do themselves. This trend has begun to change recently, as companies are integrating freelancers into their core business strategies.
“Modern businesses are choosing to run in a very lean fashion,” said Nikolas Badminton, an author, researcher and keynote speaker for Futurist. “Sometimes there are solopreneurs that build everything they need using freelancers and they run the business on their own. Even large businesses are using freelancers as part of their contingent workforce.”
Rich Pearson, senior vice president of marketing and categories at Upwork, has observed a similar pattern, noting that some freelance positions are for projects extending as long as six months. This is an important trend for freelancers to pay attention to if they are looking for steady work.
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