Is freelancing a career booster for women?
Sailing Solo!
Free Bird!
I am the Boss!
The above lingos seem like music to ears, it seems the world has fallen to your feet and you are the Queen!
But as they say — Grass is always greener on the other side!
So this article would walk you through weighing the pros and cons of freelancing and we will also discuss if it is indeed a career booster to women!
There could be many reasons why an individual considers freelancing, like
· The need for extra income
· Looking for Flexibility
· Urge t explore something new from your existing skillset
· Unable to land the job you want and does not want to waste time
· The office politics is too much for you to bear
· You are “choosy” about projects and people
· Personal dependencies that make it hard for you to commute
If you have any other reasons, I would love to know about it in the comments section.
While the reason could be any, what’s important before diving into the pool of freelancing, is getting your facts clear.
While working in an office, you just need to compete with your peers and answer a handful of your managers, with freelancing — you are out there learning to swim with sharks! Don’t get scared as it’s indeed an adventure ride.
How to become a freelancer in five steps?
1. Pick Your Core Area
There are multiple types of job profiles available, do not just pick one because you are being offered that, you decide what you want to do — Data Entry, Mystery Shopping, Content Writing, Recruiting, Testing, Mobile App Development, and any such fields.
Pick the area that interests you and you can stick to it and grow. Look for the career chart if you start now in this domain, where do you see yourself in 2 years, 3 years, and 5 years.
This might be overwhelming, trust me, but unless you have the clarity of where you are going, freelancing can stress you and demotivate you.
A Freelancer Story
Kiyah, a Business writer, who was working as a freelancer for the last year, was lost as the work was getting monotonous and she didn’t find anything that interested her. She realized, the challenge of freelancing was missing. When she started — her challenge was to get few clients, which she did but after that what should the next step be? That’s when she decided to expand her services to Product Design as well. Then she crafted a path for herself, how she can add new services every year by reskilling and getting projects.
She also planned to add members to her team and start her entrepreneurship journey in 5 years. So with a goal fixed, she was excited and willing to go back to work every day.
2. Get a demo project ready
The difficult part about freelancing opportunities is that people judge you by what you have done, so if you have a good experience and then you are making the shift, that would speak, but again a portfolio helps in judging your experience and talent. The same goes for a fresher/newbie, make sure to have a demo project ready and published on www. You could use any of the free tools like word press/blogger to showcase that.
In fact, with a no-code platform like carrd, webflow , studio.design can make your portfolio quickly.
A Freelancer Story
Ginny, after a decade-long career, when began sailing solo, her contacts, and network helped her in getting the first few clients. But after 2–3 years, her network of people changed and she was looking for newer projects. But her accomplishments and projects in the last 2–3 years and before that as an employee, she didn’t have a way to showcase that. That is when she decided to document everything — the process, the challenges, and the learnings, it not only helped her in getting new projects but also as a repository in case she is looking to solve a problem.
3. Decide on your rate card
Most of the project owners would like to get the best quality work at the minimum price. So do not go with what is offered, of course, that again differs with you being a beginner or a pro in the field. So do some market research and know whats the market rate offered for your expertise is. You could register on these sites like freelancer.in, odesk, elance etc. to get a rough idea. You can also connect via LinkedIn and talk to people who are already working in this area.
Mind you, if you have a portfolio ready and people insist on running a pilot for a month or working on some samples, politely say no. To be honest, people who cannot judge you based on your portfolio would not be able to decide with your samples/pilot as well.
They are indecisive and do not have much of the budget to spend or honestly do not think you can do this job. So do not ever work for free.
A Freelancer Story
Jane and Catherine were college buddies, after their graduation they were keen to explore the freelancing world! Jane started with content writing while Catherine was into app development. Jane started her own blog and used to schedule frequent articles on various topics, she also came up with a portfolio that clearly defines the kind of services she could offer. Catherine on the other hand was pitching clients to get a project, as the talks progressed one of the prospects said yes — but also said to work on a pilot for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks of almost 10–11 hrs of work a day, the client simply refused to pay saying the functionality is not as per the requirement. She was devastated, but her friend Jane quickly came to the rescue. They put in the code in the GitHub and started posting on social media about the services her friend can offer. Voila — things were much better now. But Catherine swore never to work on free/sample projects ever again.
4. Shortlist and research on companies who could hire you
Say if you are good at mobile app development, look out for companies who work in this domain and send them a proposal they can’t refuse! Your portfolio could be of great help here, share the link — it is like your resume but with case studies.
If you are finding it hard to look out for companies, you can also send a request on social media to your network as looking for work. Make sure to have a profile with an update as open to new opportunities, that surely helps.
A Freelancer Story
Rhea was exploring projects in Blockchain, she browsed for projects like Blockchain startups in a year “2020” “2021” and looked out for their founders/head. Based on the kind of product and her choice, she wrote a customized proposal and mailed them.
After just a few days, they asked to schedule a discussion to take the proposal forward. In fact, after serving them, she is being referred by others in their network as well. So all that exploring is truly worth your time.
5. Be Patient
The last point is the most vital one, you would not get a good opportunity overnight so you need to be patient and keep trying! You know — there is just one opportunity waiting just for YOU. But how long should I wait?
The answer would lie in your career chart, how much time you would take to build your portfolio. How many pitches you think would be enough before you can brag about your first project?
A Freelancer Story
I do not have a freelancer story for this note, as most of the people I know had got their project with patience 😊
Let me know your patience story in the comment section below :)
Is Freelancing a career booster for women?
The arguments for a YES
· If you are looking for flexibility
· You are not the primary earner
· You have dependencies that you need to take care of at home
· You are simply looking to stay connected and contribute
· You are looking for extra income
· You like to choose project and people you work with
· You like to explore places and projects
· You are a digital nomad and get bored with one set of projects/work
Then certainly Freelancing could boost your career, go for it and make the kill!
The argument for a No
· If you are looking for a timely schedule
· If you need consistent earnings
· If you Love to commute and find ways to get out of the house
· If you are look for structured work rather than exploring and figuring out
· If your set career path is something like a VP in the next 15 years
· If you seek health insurance, perks, and other benefits
Then, Freelancing might not be a good choice for your career. So let’s keep it as a side hustle or the last resort if you want.
However, there is no Yes/No answer to this particular question. As each situation differs according to the individual. So maybe freelancing might work for your friend and it might not work for you. Understanding the game of freelancing is very important.
In the end — if you put your heart and soul into something, it would surely bear positive results. If it didn’t, do not worry — the hard work always pays off and you would reap its benefits in one form or the other.
If you like my post, I am part of the Shevolve Mentor group and have been sailing solo since 2015, after a decade-long career. I would be writing more on Mentors and Mentorship for women in the coming days on Shevolve.
Shevolve is a group of enthusiastic and passionate women who are looking to build a strong community to work with like-minded women and help them achieve their career goals. I am a tiny part of the Shevolve Team, aiming to help wonder women in need of guidance to achieve their dreams.
If you are looking for mentorship you can follow Shevolve for the next mentoring event.
Author — Samiksha Seth
Originally published at https://shevolve.medium.com on March 16, 2021.
