The Freelancer Explosion
Individuals from all over the world have discovered the benefits of becoming an independent contractor. The modern structure of business has helped fuel this evolution. Gone are the days of working for a single company for your entire life and then retiring with a healthy pension.
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Many successful contractors say getting laid off from their job was the best thing that could have happened to them, although they didn’t realize it at the time. Through this unexpected change, they were able to start new careers and build lives that better suited their families and dreams.
Layoffs, relocations, and switching companies and careers have become the new way of doing business. Within this insecurity, however, has also risen opportunity. As employers search for a new kind of employee, workers are learning to redesign their lives in positive ways.
Freelancers of all kinds are flourishing with the opportunities that technology and the new work structure have provided. All of our lives are impacted by what we can do online, and this trend is also impacting the way we do business. The work world is evolving right before our eyes.
A New Kind of Freedom
The benefits to freelancing online are myriad. In a survey conducted by Elance, several key ones appeared:
• Control over your own schedule. No more fitting your life and personality into someone else’s timetable.
• Being your own boss. Interestingly, for some this gave them a better feeling of job security because they weren’t worried about getting laid off.
• The ability to follow your passion. Elance is full of success stories about people who were finally able to do what they loved for money, rather than what they had to do for money.
• No commute. No longer are you wasting hours and days of your life stuck in traffic.
• More choice over the projects you can do. You bid on only those jobs that appeal to you.
• No dress code. If jammies and slippers are your thing, no one’s there to stop you.
• No cubicles. This outward manifestation of an inner sense of drone-ness is now passé.
Not surprisingly, given these advantages, many freelancers claim they’re happier than ever in their new lives (see Figure 1.1). They look in life’s rearview mirror and wonder how they ever lived any other way.
Figure 1.1: In general, freelancers love their lifestyle.
Full Time, Part Time, Nap Time
Freelancing doesn’t need to be an all-or-nothing deal. How you go about building your business as a contractor is one more element that’s totally up to you. No rule exists as to how fast or how slowly you should grow.
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If you want to just test the freelancing water by dipping a toe in, remember that the beginning is the hardest. It takes time to build up the feedback and ratings to get the best jobs. So give it a try, by all means, but don’t forget that it gets easier with time.
If you’ve recently been laid off and have all the time in the world, perhaps you can really launch yourself into this new endeavor. Even if you’re still sending out traditional resumes, you can build your Elance profile and begin submitting bids and proposals.
Maybe you have full-time employment, but you also have a dream job you’d like to explore. In this case you wouldn’t have the time to devote yourself entirely to freelancing. Going slow and gradually building up clients would work perfectly.
A rapidly expanding source of freelancers is the stay-at-home parent. Moms and dads alike, while looking after the kids, simultaneously crave the intellectual stimulus and adult interaction of work. Elance and freelancing dovetail into this situation nicely.
Projects can be completed while the kids nap or are away at school, or in the evening when the house has finally fallen quiet—whatever time suits your situation and personality. This is part of the magic of being an independent contractor.
Three Kids and a Kitchen Table
One example of the power of this new way of doing business comes from Melissa Johnson in Ohio. Melissa had been earning a cozy income in her corporate job when she became pregnant with her third child. A 4-year-old and a 2-year-old were a handful, but when a third baby appeared on the horizon, Melissa realized she needed to make a change. A friend of her husband suggested she look into Elance. According to Melissa, she spent five minutes checking it out and was hooked.
By placing bids and winning jobs, she began to build her knowledge of Elance and the freelancing life. But it wasn’t until her third child was born that she took the leap; she quit her corporate job and devoted herself fully to raising her children and freelancing through Elance.
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All top freelancers will tell you that carefully scheduling their work time is critical to success. It’s far too easy to give in to life’s demands and luxuries when not following a regular schedule.
Within four months of quitting her job, she built her freelancing business so she averaged more per month than at her corporate position, which paid $60,000 annually.
More importantly, and in her own words:
“These days, instead of rushing myself and my children out the door at 7 A.M. only to sit in gridlock for an hour and then in a stuffy cubicle for another nine hours, I’m working from my home office, my couch, my kitchen table, or my patio. I’m leisurely taking my kids to and from preschool, nursing my infant during client calls, and getting dinner ready at a reasonable hour instead of hitting drive-thrus at 8 P.M.”
Not everyone has enjoyed the success Melissa does, but her story shows not only what’s possible but what’s actually been accomplished.