Freelancing or working for a company: how to understand what you really want to do? Freelancing or office work How to determine the amount of payment for services.

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We live in very interesting times. People leave their native places of residence, their “familiar” places in cozy offices with cookies and “goodies”, they strive to increase their income without working 12 hours a day and generally want to turn work into a holiday. On every corner looms a manifesto that “If you do what you love, you won’t have to work a day.” The model of making money and finding your own path in life has turned into building a simple - at first glance - combination of “startup + online store + personal blog.” Above all this is an almost manic confidence that everything you want will come, you just need to devote all your soul and time to your passion - and from it you can create “the work of your life.” Is it really?

Doing what you love most in the world is not enough. You can love reading but still not monetize your own blog about books. You can be passionate about snowboarding, but not even close to being like the pros who make money by participating in cups and competitions. The erroneous formula “you can turn a hobby into a job” does not even bring us close to success, to the financial and life independence that many startup founders, bloggers and simply “talented slackers” (as my grandfather called them) dream of.

You can do very, very many things in life; but you can only make money on what you are exceptionally good at and for which you are ready to “work” even more than you did in the office. You are making a big mistake if you go freelance from school or after college without even working for a year in a company. In this case, your creative and professional path (no matter what you do) will become a comedic and absurd “run” of an egoist somewhere towards Thailand, where everyone “sits at their iPads and makes a startup.” Such an approach can ruin a young specialist without practical experience and the ability to self-organize in the slightest degree in a couple of years.

Your own business is always based on certain developments from the past: acquaintances, saved funds, accumulated skills and acquired knowledge are formed - unfortunately or fortunately - only during work in companies or large projects. The most valuable asset is the connections that arise in a professional environment, surrounded by employees, partners, and clients. These connections will be useful to you to launch your business if you decide to do something “on your own.” By the way, you can understand that “you want something of your own” only by comparing the situation on both sides of the “barricade” and applying it to yourself and your attitude towards work. It is possible that after working for six months or a year or two in a company, you will realize that you don’t really need a startup - and that’s normal. There is nothing wrong with that as long as it suits your current perception of the world and your own professional goals. In another case, the “a couple of years in the company, and then .” scheme works well. In the third, I generally go into consulting and work in parallel with several different projects/startups. But you can only understand what exactly you want to do by comparing models and situations in practice.

The only advice that can be given with confidence: always pay off all “debts” and try. Be a realist and not just a dreamer who believes that “life’s work” does not require money. Let me give you a simple example.

Designer Paul Jervis worked for many years as a corporate web designer in a regular office job. He started his career from a junior designer and worked his way up to art director. Years of work taught him to be “creative” 8-9 hours a day, 5 days a week, almost all year round. The beginning of his journey and his career growth were associated with the fact that Paul was not afraid to ask questions not only to his superiors, but also to his colleagues and subordinates if he did not understand or did not know something. At some point Paul developed a sort of intense dislike for his job and what he was doing; but money continued to play an important role in his life, and well-paid work was not so easy to find, especially against the backdrop of the economic crisis that broke out at that time. To alleviate the nauseating feeling of the corporate routine, Paul began speaking at conferences, attending industry barcamps, and visiting professional “get-togethers” more often (despite the fact that he is an introvert by nature).

Leaving the corporate world and starting his own business was not a painful “breaking point” for Paul Jervis. because a couple of years before his dismissal, he had developed an extensive network of acquaintances, interesting and useful contacts, among which were those who were ready to employ Paul and those who wanted to order a design from him.

In addition to a huge range of potential clients, Paul has gained extensive experience over a decade of corporate work in how to properly organize development, build relationships with customers, manage time and calculate budgets / resource costs. From a novice designer, he turned into a pro who gave credit to both the company and the process of learning real (not) knowledge. And only then was he ready to move on, which had a positive impact on his work as an independent specialist: he became financially independent in the status of a freelancer, just as he could become as part of a large company. If Paul had thrown himself “headlong” into freelancing right after college, cherishing in his head only the dream of “becoming a cool designer,” most likely he would have simply failed or become one of the thousands of faceless “armies” of would-be specialists roaming freelancing online -exchanges in search of at least some work.

The above example does not mean that you need to give up your dreams and desire to become independent in life. This little story is just an object lesson that shows that before you become a freelancer and decide what exactly to do with your life, you should work on your own skills, connections and vision of your place in life. And then everything will definitely work out the way you want it.

Greetings, beginning freelancers!) Today in this article I will share my experience in freelancing - the best, fastest and most correct way to start making money on the Internet.

Why can I advise you something?
I am a freelancer with 2 years of experience, here is my account from the Work-zilla exchange.

I have been registered on it since May 2014, that is, 1.5 years. With more than 10,000 freelancers, I am now in 192nd place and have already completed more than 100 projects. This exchange is just one of the sources where I make deals with clients for my services - I create Landing pages and make websites and online stores on WordPress.

And I started from complete scratch. I didn’t know how to do anything and didn’t know how to communicate with customers at all and how to get them to pay me money!)

In this article I will tell you what steps I would take if I were now a newbie and starting my freelancing career from scratch. Let's start!

Beginning freelancer. Where to begin?

1. Choosing a profession - Try everything first, it’s easier to decide what you like and like best, in which direction you want to develop.

If you have already decided what you will do as a freelancer, then great. If not, then decide :-) As brilliantly said)) But it’s true, without this step you will not move forward.

How to quickly decide on a freelancing profession?
Try everything that interests you at least a little. Before I started doing web design, I studied creating websites using the WordPress, Joomla engines, studied SEO, Infobusiness, MLM, Programming languages and only then web design and landing pages. And I don’t regret anything; the skills I acquired in all areas still help me to this day.
Read
Don't be afraid to put in the time, even if it ends up not being what you want to do. All the time is spent thinking about whether it’s mine or not. You probably won't know until you try.

Choose a niche you like, you must like it, in order to achieve good results in any niche you will need to develop, it must be interesting to learn new material.

There is a course by my colleague Vasily Blinov and Svetlana Kirilyuk “Start in freelancing”, after completing which you will master the secrets of freelancing, you will understand the algorithm for making money on the Internet - link to course

When you decide, I advise you to engage in only one business, one profession, perhaps also parallel related topics, but nothing more.

If you are doing only one thing, for example: Creating Landing pages, then you will develop as much as possible in this vector and as a result:

the work performed will be more and more professional each time
you will understand your customers better
your work will cost more
you will be happier seeing your progress.

You need to respond to projects on freelance exchanges, such as work-zilla, as much as possible, offer your services to more people, appear on message boards, etc.

Develop the habit of being polite with your clients, the exception may be people who consider freelancers to be idiots :-(, but that’s a separate conversation. Being polite with people is, in principle, normal :-), but in freelancing it plays a very important role. Customers really love adequate and polite freelancers, because it saves them time and nerves.

And here another important thing comes into play - word of mouth. If you do all of the above correctly, then you are guaranteed a sundress. If you are recommended to their friends, then this is a big plus for you, it means that clients are satisfied with the way you do your work.

Take reviews. The best option is a video review, but if they don’t want to film, let them at least write in the text and give a photo. You can post reviews on your website or in the same Google Docs document.

At this stage: We declare ourselves and our service as confidently as possible, we stop being afraid of customers, we communicate with them more, we improve our communication skills, we identify customer needs.

6. Repeat all this in a circle

- We are developing in the chosen niche - we are looking for orders - we are doing the work - a new project in the portfolio - the client is satisfied - we are taking feedback - they recommend us to other people - we are building a base of regular customers - we communicate better, more confidently with customers -

Parting words

This is the path I would take if I were a beginner freelancer.

How long would it take? I don't know, and that's not the most important thing. The main thing is to see your progress, never stop developing in your profession, in communicating with clients and in the ability to sell your services at a higher price.

If suddenly this path seems difficult to you, then just remember why you decided to do freelancing in the first place?

I see obvious reasons to work on the Internet:

Compared to hired work, I earn more than I could earn working for my uncle
I can work from anywhere in the world where there is Internet
I am growing personally, developing as a professional in my niche
There is no fixed salary, but there is also no ceiling, all my earnings depend only on me. I control my life, not someone else, and that’s cool!)

That's all. I hope I answered the question - How to become a freelancer from scratch? I wish you success on your freelancing journey! :-)

« Freelancer (English freelancer - freelance worker). Being outside the permanent staff of any company, a freelancer can simultaneously fulfill orders for different clients. The term freelancer was first used by Walter Scott in his novel Ivanhoe to describe a “medieval mercenary warrior.”

Freelancing— remote, freelance work.

What to choose - freelancing or office work. This is what we will talk about.

In 2013, in Russia it became possible to regulate remote work (in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation - remote work) by concluding an employment contract in which electronic signatures are placed or documents are sent by mail.

With the active development of the communications sector and the Internet, the process of obtaining information has become significantly simplified, which has given impetus to the popularization of remote employment options.

“The concept of remote work was developed by the American Jack Nilles. In 1972, he expressed the idea that it was not necessary to keep workers in the office, since modern communications made it possible to maintain contact between employees at a distance. In 1979, the works of Jack Nilles attracted the head of the special Committee on US Economic Development, Frank Skiff. He continues the scientist’s ideas and comes up with a new term “flexiplace” - “flexible workplace”. A specialist publishes an article in the Washington Post under the loud headline “Working from home saves gas.”

In the United States, according to the Department of Labor in 2005, just over 10 million people were freelancers, which amounted to 7.4% of the US workforce. Of course, now this figure is many times higher.

In Russia, freelancing has been popular as an alternative to conservative work activity for about 10 years, most actively for 5-7 years. According to experts and futurologists, the field of IT technologies and, accordingly, freelancing will become the most promising areas in the labor market.

At the same time, according to customers and people who know a lot about remote work: 95% of remote workers are low-skilled comrades, superficial knowledge and skills who came from foreign work structures to the field of freelancing in the hope of easy profit. That is, everything is banal and, in general, as in all areas: the majority want to get money and not work. Statistics on the number of remote workers in Russia are difficult, since many work unofficially, but approximately, such specialists are several percent of the country’s total workforce. After all, habitual employment, “social and communicative,” full-time, with a schedule and a 5-6-day work week, occupies the largest niche in the Russian labor market.

Freelancing is called as many different names as possible, and they select synonyms for its antonym (office work, permanent work activity). Free flight or “working for an uncle”, prospects of being in charge, freedom or voluntary slavery for the sake of credit, independent development or eternal service to other people’s ideas, etc.

Let's take a closer look at the pros and cons of remote employment and office work.

Freelancing - pros and cons

pros

For an employee: the ability to choose and regulate working hours, not to come to attention at 8 a.m. in some confectionery shop or in an empty library or office; lack of dependence on the “evil” boss, the possibility of changing the latter if something does not suit you; the opportunity to achieve career heights (even being a bird of free flight) with strict self-discipline, of course; all the conditions and circumstances arising from the listed advantages (such as: combining motherhood and part-time work, a home environment instead of the suffocating and crowded atmosphere of buildings, etc.).

For the customer: no additional costs for servicing the workplace, minimizing document flow due to freelance employees; payment for work performed (and not for time), or an agreement on payment; the ability to terminate cooperation at any time.

However, no matter how many people would like to add broad prospects for choosing both workers and employers to the list of advantages of freelancing, this is a very deceptive action, since in reality it is difficult to find both good employers and good workers (especially considering, according to experts, the latter are no more than 5% of all those calling themselves freelancers).

Minuses

For an employee: unstable salary, it all depends on the “cunningness”, perseverance, resourcefulness of the freelancer himself, he must be responsible for himself and look for work as he pleases, interest himself, unlike a boring office: where, perhaps, you don’t need to move much, but you have your own a person receives “three kopecks”; in most cases, the work is unofficial, which entails the absence of records in the employment record (affects pensions, etc.), social package, benefits, it is not easy to take out a loan, prove your financial independence (but you can draw up an agreement if necessary); if a person devotes a lot of time to work, then isolation from the outside world is difficult for extroverts to endure; physical inactivity, health problems due to sitting at the computer for a long time and a sedentary lifestyle.

For the customer: the employee at first is essentially a “pig in a poke”, uncertainty about who promises to complete the task at the other end of the dialogue does not guarantee the completion of the order if it is urgently needed, the employee can let you down and you won’t ask anything from anyone, the conversation is not even about prepayment (after all, most employers pay either 50% of the advance payment, or only for the work done), and about the failure of projects and plans, moreover, the “free bird” can fly away at any time without warning, and again you will not show anything; since 95% of freelancers do not have the proper qualifications, the customer will be forced to sort through the flow of useless people, wasting time and energy, however, with face-to-face cooperation it happens about the same.

“Currently, a stable layer of freelancers has formed on the Internet who earn their living by working remotely. Freelancing is common among journalists, photographers, lawyers, artists, architects and designers, programmers, optimizers, copywriters, translators, participants in affiliate programs, and design engineers. There are many specialized sites designed to help freelancers find their next order" (Wikipedia)

There are a lot of exchanges for freelancers on the Internet, where, if you don’t succeed through friends and word of mouth, you can find both workers and customers, however, as a rule, most of those who visit these exchanges are looking for cheap and standard ones, but if there are orders, that means everyone is happy with everything.

Office work or permanent job

pros

For an employee: stable salary, payment by the hour, and not for the work performed; social packages, benefits, loans, vacation pay, maternity pay; communication in a team, fulfillment of the need for social activity, the possibility of tangible career growth if the employee has aspirations and a desire to achieve something.

For the employer: the opportunity to personally control the work process, there is someone to ask and someone to hold accountable in case of failure of the project or plan.

Minuses office work is described in the advantages of freelancing: all the good things that remote work promises will not be delivered by the office.

Finally, the question that worries everyone: how much do freelancers earn in Russia?

In 2006(survey of sites Kadrof.ru, FreelanceJob.ru) the earnings of freelancers generally ranged from 100 to 600 dollars per month, about 20% of respondents received over 1000 dollars per month.

2007: “The company Webcontent.ru cites “statistics from the life of the average copywriter”: “To eat in a decent cafe [in Moscow], the “average copywriter” needs to write 900-1500 characters of text. If he lives in the region, 400-600 characters will be enough; A metro ride in Moscow will cost 60 marks; A liter of gasoline for “horsepower” is 60-80 characters; To purchase the most popular foreign car in Russia, Ford Focus in the most affordable modification - 625 pages of text or 1,125,000 characters; An inexpensive one-room apartment in a new Moscow building will cost almost 7,500 pages of text or 13,500,000 characters; It’s easier to buy in St. Petersburg - for 4,700 pages or 8,460,000 characters with spaces; If you don’t eat, don’t drink and write 5,000 characters of text every day, you can get the most affordable foreign car in 225 days, and an apartment in 1700-2700 days.”

2011: “Hard work in freelancing can bring a person no less money than he would earn in a regular office. If you believe the results of a study by the website “Free-lance.ru”, the average monthly income of a Russian remote worker reaches 44 thousand rubles. It should be noted that only every third freelancer surveyed is a resident of the capital, and the average salary in the Russian Federation is about 20 thousand rubles.

People who design and develop websites, as well as specialists in public relations, marketing, promotion on social networks and, of course, programmers, receive the most for their work. These categories of workers can earn 100 thousand rubles per month.”

Today, even the most average, but constantly working freelancer (for example, a copywriter - albeit not very talented, but diligent and hardworking) in the majority earns at least 20-30 thousand rubles (naturally, those who work little and are paid accordingly - even less). on average, as those who have passed the stage of perseverance and achieving the heights of self-discipline assure, it is quite easy to earn 40 thousand. These are ordinary workers (copywriters, designers, etc. - single), you can always get more, the main thing is desire. Those who work in a team or have a subordinate staff, albeit remotely, earn more than 100 thousand rubles per month.

The future of freelancing in Russia

Freelancing is a promising area of both business and employment; in addition, the development of freelancing trends is beneficial for companies: it saves time, resources, and money.

Not everything is so simple: remote workers are not only a relatively new stratum of society, consisting of people who do not want to work “for their uncle” and get up in the morning, this is a whole ideology, a protest of young minds against the mechanism of monotonous activity that has been debugged for decades, deadness of offices, doing work unnecessary to anyone.

“Freelancers, in fact, are the quintessence of the most fluid modernity, those people who destroy the usual order common among most workers. The transition from a unified to an individualized society makes it necessary to analyze not so much the way of life as its styles that develop among different groups. Lifestyle reflects the social conditions in which an individual finds himself and his abilities (resources) to cope with the challenges of our time. In the conditions of an individualized and unstructured employment strategy, issues of personal self-organization become of particular importance: the possession and management of necessary resources, abilities, needs and interests” (from the dissertation “Freelancing as a lifestyle in modern society”).

Even offices can no longer accommodate everyone who wants to sit in them, and employers themselves are beginning to understand that it is unprofitable to keep a lot of useless personnel for support, By 2019, according to experts, the percentage of remote workers will increase significantly:

“The share of office employees who have remote access to business applications and corporate systems, regardless of location and the subscriber device they use, will grow to 52 percent of the state's total by 2019. This is evidenced by the results of a study by the analytical company IDC.

Now this figure in Russian offices is about 30 percent.

According to Elena Semenovskaya, research director at IDC in Russia and the CIS, more than 86 percent of Russian companies have a strategy to support mobile employees who can work outside the office, and the rest plan to develop it within a year” (Lenta.ru)

And still: what is more profitable and what to choose - freelancing or permanent work?

As a rule, this question is asked by those who are unsettled as specialists in the field of traditional official employment. As we all understand, three higher educations do not guarantee a stable, highly paid position; in addition to intelligence, potential, and acumen, you also need qualities, without which, alas, nothing can be achieved. Among those same freelancers there are many educated people who have not realized themselves for a number of reasons. Often the motto of those who have low qualifications or see part-time work as their goal in life, but do not want to apply themselves differently to the business, is “we can do everything!” We can do everything, which means we can’t really do anything. It is advisable to go into freelancing, using it as temporary or relatively permanent income, in a specific area in which a person is knowledgeable, for example, he worked as a lawyer, had practice and can write practical texts on this profile. You can’t write great texts about culture, composing them according to the structure of cheap SEO. Also, artists who cannot find work in life go to paint portraits in the web sphere, not realizing that these are completely different niches.

Although you can try everything, it is better to try to do something than to sit idly by and suffer from idleness or despondency.

Advice for beginners and established web designers who are deciding whether to switch to freelancing?:

Freelancing is primarily for those who need irregular free time, these are students, young mothers, people who want to live freely, for those who stoically endure loneliness and are able to single-handedly bring a project to completion.

Sitting at the computer a lot is really harmful, but any freelancer can perfectly plan his time and find a period in it to visit the gym, no one forces a person to stick to a chair and grow sides, this is his personal choice.

Also groundless are the stereotypes that “remote workers” are mostly detached from the world, unsociable individuals. Where else if not in freelancing can you find time to express yourself in the social space, for sports, etc.? It just often happens that programmers and similar figures come from those who spent a lot of time playing computer games and, like some Bill Gates, suffered from social phobia. Programmers (from personal experience of dating) are indeed often not people of this world, but there are also enough of those who successfully combine the virtual and real world.

Personally, I, who for personal reasons chose the advantage in my life of freelancing over working “for my uncle,” was always bored because of one thing: lack of communication. I think for some, interaction with people is much more important than many nuances, but when it comes to making money, the priorities are a little different. I will say that you can perfectly combine social activity and work alone, alternating them and organizing your time correctly; it’s great when in the real world you don’t rush and don’t rush to achieve career heights, but just relax.

There are always prospects, it’s just that in freelancing no one is responsible for you except yourself, if you do the work, there is money, if you don’t do it, there is no money, there’s more than enough incentive. Self-discipline, self-organization, motivation, self-tuning, etc., there is you and work, no traffic jams on the way, alarm clocks blaring throughout the house at 6 am, evil bosses, but also when you urgently need to submit an order - it’s worth doing regardless of illness , fatigue, problems.

Freelancing- modern society has not yet understood its essence, people evaluate it fragmentarily, superficially, but do not catch the main thing: this is not just the sphere of work, an alternative to the office, production, this is a new breath in the lifeless rhythm of fuss that no one needs, a red flag of the young who are quietly making their own little revolution.

Leaving the office to go freelance is a common story. Freelancers have the opportunity to wake up later, travel outside of vacation time, and choose what work to do and who to collaborate with. But many people give up flexible schedules and varied projects in order to continue working in the office, which means getting up early, wasting time on the road and even complying with the dress code. Why? We asked former freelancers who now work for companies about this.

Having learned about my liberation from “office slavery”, friends called and offered to do something- business card, logo or website

Anastasia, banking specialist

Moscow

I'm from Stavropol, In my third year I started working as an assistant lawyer. I really liked my job, but after two years a stupor set in: I was not given serious work and had to be content with little, receiving pennies. At some point everything became boring. I decided to quit my job, not having any alternatives at that time.

On the Internet I saw a site about remote work, they offered to take a training course, and I decided to do it. I don’t know what exactly pushed me to take such a step, but I paid and spent a month learning how to earn money remotely. A little later, I began to take orders to write articles and papers for students. I also liked video editing and Photoshop, but I couldn’t master it professionally. Then, sitting at home, I earned 20 thousand rubles - more than I earned at offline work. But something was depressing me.

Then I decided to leave my comfort zone and moved to Moscow in September. In Moscow you can’t live on that kind of money without your own apartment, this is not a provincial town. It became clear that I needed to look for offline work. Yes, it's boring office work again. I tried to find something close to what I did as a freelancer, but after a month of searching I couldn’t find anything.

I recently got a job at a bank as a collections specialist. The salary is twice as much as freelancing. But I’m not going to give up freelancing: I hope that working in a bank is just an intermediate stage in my life. It was very difficult to adjust to the schedule from 09:00 to 21:00. I like to do what I want, when I want. And now it’s hard for me to the point of madness. I understand why people are often depressed and dissatisfied with life. People are driven into limits, but many cannot live like this, they simply exist.

You can earn the same amount of money remotely as you do offline. You just need experience. I see only one disadvantage in offline work. I understand that I have a stable salary and I don’t need to worry, but is it worth my freedom...

Elena, copywriter

Tula

I'm from Tula, I've lived here all my life. I started freelancing almost immediately after I got into copywriting. It turned out this way: from 09:00 to 18:00 I wrote texts in the office, and after 18:00 - at home. I began to think about going completely freelance, but I didn’t have the necessary experience and client base.

At the end of 2013, I was lucky - I was laid off. And I began to take my first serious steps together with my best friend. We sent commercial proposals to SEO studios and offered text writing services. A couple of months later we made a website for ourselves, which quickly entered the top of Yandex and Google for search queries. Orders started pouring in almost immediately.

I didn’t have any strict schedule back then. I could start work at eight in the morning, or I could start at two in the afternoon. All this lasted until 18–19 pm, but I always remained in touch at least until midnight in order to quickly respond to force majeure. There was always enough work, as well as money.

We almost immediately began to earn amounts comparable to the average salary of an office plankton in Tula. And after six months of work, the studio was already bringing in about 100 thousand in income per month. To return to the office under such conditions was, to put it mildly, unprofitable and stupid. But then the business relationship with my studio partner fizzled out, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I had to leave my post.

Now I'm working in the office again. I work with freelance copywriters, supervise their work, and sometimes write myself. Of course, after a free home schedule, getting used to the office again was unbearably difficult. It’s still hard for me to drag myself out of bed at six in the morning, load into the transport and bring my mortal body to work. It’s hard to get used to the notorious open space, but I have no other choice. At least for now. I haven’t worked in the profession for too long, I need to get into copywriting again, remember all the nuances. Now I can only do this in the office.

Office and freelancing have both pros and cons. Freelancing doesn't always feel like a holiday, and the office isn't just gloom and dullness. The advantages of an office are stability, a social package (at least minimal), and a strict daily routine. You don’t have to constantly think about where to look for customers, as this is a headache for the employer. You always know how much money and when you will receive in this and all subsequent months, and this is not bad. Well, plus daily communication with colleagues in the smoking room and in the dining room.

A freelancer is deprived of such benefits. He is, if not constantly, then very often in search of customers, because there is either a shortage of them, or they pay too little, but he wants more. And even when a new client is found, it is always a risk, because not everyone is ready to work on prepayment, and if a freelancer agrees to postpayment, he must understand that they can get scammed. This dilemma is solved by an agreement and work through a legal entity, but not everyone is able to create an individual entrepreneur.

But a freelancer can work in a robe and slippers, without even getting out of bed. And no one will know about it. You can turn off the computer at any time and go for a walk, for example. Or even on vacation. A freelancer is also free to choose projects and even clients. Don't like the way I write? Goodbye! Don’t feel like writing about cables or hypoallergenic prosthetics? What is the problem? We will not! But to do this, of course, you must first reach a certain level, which does not happen immediately and not for everyone. Most often, a freelancer takes on any orders, because you still want to eat every day.

So I can’t say for sure where it’s better - in the office or freelancing. Both have their pros and cons, and in order to finally choose something, you need to try both, see what comes out easier and better. I have made my choice for today, but I know for sure that when the circumstances are right, I will choose freelancing.

Office and freelancing have both pros and cons. Freelancing doesn't always feel like a holiday, and the office is not only despondency and dullness

During interviews I was often asked, why I decided to quit freelancing and work in an office again. Employers had concerns that I'm unaccustomed to office life and I won’t be able to work effectively

Alisa, logistician

Moscow

I've been working since I was about 16 years old. She started as a promoter and model at exhibitions, from the age of 18 she worked as a sales consultant in a lingerie store, when she could not combine work with study, she switched to part-time. While I was writing my diploma, I was an administrator and then a financial consultant at an English language school - I sat in my office, struggling with 1C. In fact, the conditions were quite pleasant: your own office, practically no dress code, average salary, small team, corporate advantages. Everything was fine, but the work was nervous and exhausting. At some point I got tired and disgusted, so I spat and left. I slept and rested for a couple of weeks, and then started looking for options to work from home.

For more than six months I lived on copywriting, SMM and part-time work at various exhibitions. I found orders in specialized communities on VKontakte, but I couldn’t earn enough to earn money from the office. For me, freelancing was like a break from the office environment. If there were orders, I tried to deal with them as quickly as possible in order to free myself up more free time. So I didn’t have the concept of a “working day.” It could be a working night or a working day. What I liked most was managing communities on VKontakte and Facebook. They paid little, but there was no requirement to create my own content, so that suited me.

Now I am a logistician in a gas and oil pipeline repair company. I returned to the office because I am quite lazy and lack self-discipline. Freelancing is harsh: you need to fight for orders, do everything quickly and efficiently, prove that you want and can do everything in the best possible way. Working from home has its own burdens. There is a bookcase, a bed, a refrigerator nearby, and there are so many movies and TV series on the Internet - it’s distracting. In general, I returned to the corporate environment and have been working calmly and without distractions for three years now.

The most difficult thing is to arrive at work on time. I live 20 minutes away by car, but for various reasons - from migraines to choosing clothes in the morning - I am often late. What saves me is that I am a good specialist, so apart from minor delays, there are no complaints against me.

Apart from changing the regime, almost nothing has changed, I dress in whatever I want, I work when there are orders for transportation, I have time to do my business. Now in the office I earn three times more than I did in freelancing then.

I don’t regret returning to the office, given all my problems with discipline, it’s easier for me to drag myself to my workplace on time than to force myself to work from home. And, of course, pleasant corporate bonuses in the form of insurance, holidays and even coffee are captivating.

Good day to you, dear friends! Tell me a little secret and tell me your own fears are stopping you? How many opportunities have you had to sacrifice because of obsessive self-doubt? How often do you feel offended and be angry with yourself for the fact that other people become successful and bring to life those ideas that you did not dare to implement? If you have never experienced such feelings, then I am amazed, because you are a real rock! If you are already accustomed to such sensations and have come to terms with their presence in your life, well, it’s a shame, I’m powerless to change anything here.

My article today is intended for those of you who, despite fear, are ready take risks and go towards your dreams, desires and ideal life. In previous articles, I told you about the features of freelancing, and showed you the strengths and weaknesses of the life of a free worker. Since you have a complete picture of what life is like as a remote worker, it's time to figure out how to become a freelancer from scratch.

Who is a freelancer?

I am sure that many of you would appreciate the opportunity to go to your work office in your dressing gown and slippers, located literally a couple of meters from the bedroom and kitchen. For this dream to become a reality, you just need to change your stable job in a company to a remote one. Are you interested in this prospect? Then let's figure out what working as a freelancer on the Internet is, and who a freelancer is.

If we go back a little into hoary antiquity and travel back to the Middle Ages, it will become clear that in those days freelance knights were called freelancers. Today, this title is held by people who work from home and work on individual projects for a certain fee. Freelancers can be involved in several areas of activity simultaneously and work with several customers at once.

By the way, work is not always remote; free workers can be found among builders who make repairs in apartments and houses, and among plumbers who skillfully repair pipes. However, in the vast majority of cases, employers and performers find each other precisely in the Internet. They also transfer their working relationships there. In general, it was the growing popularity of the Internet that provoked the freelance boom and made this type of employment in demand.

In some ways, individual entrepreneurs can also be considered freelancers, however, in no case should these two concepts be equated. This is due to the fact that a freelancer is usually one single person hired to perform a specific amount of work. But an individual entrepreneur may well have a staff of employees whom he will manage.

Remote work as a freelancer is complete absence of bosses, everyday life from Monday to Friday and strict planning of the working day from 9 to 18.

Counting money: how much can you earn?

Well, let's move on to the most interesting part - counting money? I am sure that many of you are eager to find out how much freelancers earn, and what you can count on if you change jobs. I’ll say right away that earning money from freelancing will largely depend on the amount of time you devote to work, your field of activity, your qualifications and experience. In addition, your success will largely depend on your ability present your services. Relying on my own experience, I can safely say that an experienced freelancer can make money 2 or even 3 times more than his office colleagues occupying similar positions.

Well, if you translate experience, skill, qualifications and hard work into numbers, it turns out that the average freelancer earns about $500 a month. Moreover, this amount can be earned both by a person without education and by a highly qualified specialist with a higher education. In the case of freelancing, customers look directly at your skills and talents, and not at the color of your diploma. It is for this reason that such a profession ideal for students who are looking for work and are just gaining experience.

It is not at all uncommon for freelancers to get 2-3 thousand dollars per month. True, such amounts are most often earned professional designers, programmers and website optimizers. If you are not going to give up your main job completely, are continuing your studies at university, or want to find a part-time job for the weekend, then the profitability of freelancing for you will be about $150-200 per month. All in all, not such bad money, right?

Registration on the freelance exchange FL.RU

Who is freelance suitable for?

If you don’t know where to start building your own freelance career, I suggest you first figure out How close is this lifestyle to you?. To do this, just get answers to a few simple questions.

What personal qualities and skills should a good freelancer have?

Successful A remote worker is, first of all, a self-confident, inventive, enterprising, active, flexible and, of course, organized person. In addition, you will need to learn how to work in the " multitasking" This skill is simply necessary in order to manage to complete several projects simultaneously and meet the deadlines agreed with the customer.

How to determine the amount of payment for services?

For beginning freelancers, this issue often becomes a real stumbling block. To determine the amount of remuneration for your own work, I advise you explore websites and forums, which reveals the topic of the value of the profession in which you plan to earn money remotely. In addition, a win-win way to find out the cost of working from home for beginners is to find out how much an hour of labor costs for a similar full-time specialist, and increase it by 25-50%(This amount includes additional expenses such as taxes, insurance, pension contributions, equipment and office supplies). Don’t forget that at least a quarter of your work will consist of activities for which you cannot pay (this includes analytics, marketing, accounting, and the like).

If you get the chance, try to find out what experienced freelancers who specialize in the same industry as you charge for their services. To avoid the problem of how to make money freelancing as a beginner, I advise you during the first working year, work at a slightly reduced rate. This will simplify the search for clients, allow you to quickly gain experience and establish yourself as a specialist.

Do your research

If you really want to master freelancing for beginners and become a successful professional, you will have to spend thorough analysis.

Try the work-zilla exchange with simple tasks

Step-by-step instructions “How to become a successful freelancer”

Well, now let's figure out how to start working as a freelancer on the Internet, and what you need to have in order to succeed in this business.

Get a computer and free access to the Internet. Now your journey to the office and back will look something like this: turn on the laptop - you’re at work, turn it off - the working day is over. Remember! When you sit in front of a monitor screen, you are a first-class specialist, nothing more, nothing less. Try to develop a habit and bring it to the level of a reflex.
Create wallets in electronic payment systems. You can find out about that in my separate article. However, in addition to an electronic wallet in this payment system, I advise you to also acquire wallets in Yandex Money and Qiwi. Despite the fact that this method of paying for freelance services is the most convenient and in demand online, I advise you not to neglect the opportunity to receive money also for bank cards. Always have a debit card with you. Personally I use Tinkoff Bank card . By the way, it wouldn’t hurt to have a Bitcoin wallet in your arsenal.
Installing software for your work and normal PC functioning. It’s not enough to just put a laptop on your desktop; you also need to take care of its “stuffing.” Install a good and reliable antivirus on your computer, office products like Word and Excel, download a convenient screenshot and an Internet browser in which you can create bookmarks of the most frequently used sites and web pages. A program for reading books and other text files in pdf format is also useful.
Creation of accounts in popular social networks and their design. Since you will transfer all communication with customers online, you also need to take care of communication programs. In addition to having email and pages on social networks, it makes sense to install Skype, viber and whatsapp. In general, the more options for communication you find, the better. As for the design of profiles on social networks, they should look quite formal and adequate. The account should contain several real photographs of you in which you look well-groomed and attractive. Whatever it was, but your profile is like a resume, your business card by which the employer will evaluate you.
Choosing a profession, for which you have the makings and predisposition, in which you can develop as a professional. You can read about the most popular professions for freelancers in 2017 in my separate article, but for now let’s quickly look at the list of vacancies that can be found on sites for beginner remote workers.

Main list of professions and vacancies

So that you have an idea of what a freelancer does and can find the most suitable type of activity for yourself, I decided to sketch out a small list of the most popular and in-demand specialties on the Internet services market. Here's what I got:

Completing tasks from 500 rubles on the Kwork exchange

Where to go in search of work?

It can be quite difficult for beginners at first - it is not clear where to look for customers, how to offer their services, which sites to monitor for the purpose of employment. To make this task a little easier, I’ll give you a few ideas, which will simplify the process of finding your first clients:

Register on specialized freelance exchanges. There are many platforms online that bring together free performers and customers. I will present the highest quality exchanges for remote workers to you a little further, but for now I advise you to think about the structure of your own portfolio and decide what you will write in your work account.
Browse vacancies on Internet sites, portals and web projects that interest you. It is quite possible that your favorite online store is just looking for a remote operator to process orders, or perhaps the VKontakte group needs a new moderator.
Submit job advertisements on specialized sites, study the offers already available on them. For example on the hh website
Use your social media page as a platform for self-promotion. I talked about that in a separate article. Now we are talking about presenting your service by writing an appropriate advertising post and pinning it on your wall.
Create a separate group on a social network, where you will tell about your service and promote it. Read about that in my article.
Become a regular visitor to thematic forums for finding remote work. Forums like searchengines.ru , seobuilding, lingvoda.ru , codeby.net And phpforum.su .

Major freelance exchanges

As for specialized exchanges, for employment I recommend that you use the following services:

fl.ru . An excellent platform for finding customers and performers in the field of IT technologies. Remote advertisers, programmers, webmasters and designers - the best workforce and interesting projects can be found here. Here you can create your own directory, as well as study the rating of the best freelancers. By the way, this same service also has a store where you can put up for sale the fruits of your intellectual labor (articles, translations, website templates, etc.).

Registering an account on the fl.ru exchange

Weblancer . In my opinion, the most successful exchange for beginners who are just starting to navigate the endless expanses of freelancing. In addition to the fact that many diverse projects are collected here, the site administration is quite strict in ensuring that scammers and swindlers do not appear on the service.

Registering an account on the Weblancer exchange

- the oldest and, perhaps, the best online freelance exchange in RuNet. Here you will have at your disposal a convenient mechanism for searching for projects of any level of complexity, and the opportunity to fully communicate with a potential customer. For a fee, you can increase your position in the freelancer rankings.
Kwork . An innovative freelance exchange, which is famous for its non-standard approach to organizing labor relations between customers and performers. This site is more like a store in which all services are sold at a single price - 500 rubles.
Moguza.ru - online store of freelance services at a fixed price. Here you can sell your work for no less than 100 rubles. This approach to formalizing labor relations solves the problem of large volumes of work and low wages.
Text.ru . A specialized copyright exchange where you can find writing jobs, sell finished articles, or order content for your own websites or groups on social networks.

Use the copywriting exchange Text.ru

I will provide a more detailed list of all exchanges where you can find orders in the article “The highest quality exchanges for remote workers.” Here you will find sites with inexpensive, but at the same time quite simple projects, as well as with foreign, complex, interesting and quite generous orders in terms of payment.

First steps

Well, so that your job search is crowned with success as soon as possible, here’s a short briefing how to act newbie on the exchange:

We don’t make mistakes: what do novice freelancers get undermined by?

To prevent your career as a remote worker from falling into disarray and ending before it even begins, take into account a number of the most common mistakes that almost all “green” freelancers make, and try to avoid them.

Never take your workplace lightly

Despite the fact that many remote workers begin their careers at home, it makes sense to think about renting a separate office, workspace, or, at a minimum, setting aside a room in your apartment and setting it up as an office. Organizing your workspace is essential. Believe me, lying in bed with the TV on is extremely difficult to get into the mood for work.

Diversify your risks and never rely on one single customer

Even taking into account the fact that many companies treat freelance workers with great respect, value their work and often pay more than their full-time employees, you should not fall into complacency. No matter how valuable an employee you are, it is much easier to refuse your services than to fire an office employee.

Allow for possible periods of downtime and unemployment in your budget

Unfortunately, there is no escape from a temporary lack of orders in freelancing. That's why I advise you save a small amount each month as an emergency reserve in case one project is completed and another has not yet been found. Such financial protection of your rear will allow you to accept downtime at work as something integral and ordinary. Oh yes, don't forget that you will need money for your vacation. Because the There is no vacation pay in freelance, you will need to take care of the financial component yourself.

Don't leave things to chance

Your professionalism in what you charge the customer for should be on the same level as your professionalism in conducting business. Try about a quarter devote a working day to administrative and marketing matters. In moments of overwhelm, when a lot of work accumulates, it is easy to lose vigilance, stop looking for new customers and decide that workload is a constant phenomenon. Without control of your own business, success is not possible. Hard times and serious difficulties will arise literally out of nowhere if you do not learn business management and cannot balance debit with credit.

And finally, some useful tips that will help you at the start of your career as a remote worker:

Don't be afraid of difficulties at the beginning of your journey

The ability to go through thorns to the stars will be very useful to you in free swimming. The skills of self-motivation for work, planning work time, the ability to find clients and arranging a workplace - all this will be simply necessary at first to lay a strong foundation for a freelance career.

Be careful and don't trust anyone

Make it a rule work only on prepayment. You don’t need to be too trusting of strangers if you don’t want to end up broke. After the project is completed in full, do not rush to immediately transfer it to the customer. Submit a small portion for inspection, have the employer verify that the work is completed and pay for it. Only after this you can safely send him work. If the person refuses to pay, say goodbye. You keep the advance payment to recoup the time and effort spent on the project.

Draw up technical specifications in advance and discuss the scope of upcoming work

Detailed technical specifications and designated scope of work– an integral part of your interaction with the customer. This will allow you to avoid misunderstandings with the employer regarding what you are taking money for and what you undertake to do, and will insure you in the event that you are required to carry out a larger volume of work than was agreed upon at the beginning.

Know how to say “No!”

Understand that You can't earn all the money in the world, and therefore you need to learn to refuse people. Calculate your time so that it is enough to complete all orders within the predetermined time frame. Don’t spread yourself too thin, because the quality of your work and, as a result, your reputation will suffer. Don’t rush to fill all your time with orders, because no one has canceled going to the cinema, relaxing, implementing your own projects and usually lying on the couch.

Open an IP

The issue of paying taxes is a serious problem that, as a rule, has not been resolved by many freelancers. Register as an individual entrepreneur, regularly replenish the state treasury with taxes and sleep peacefully. The tax authorities will not be knocking down your doors, and your pension contributions will accumulate and work for the benefit of your old age.

Team up with like-minded people

Cases where freelancers come together and work as a team to complete complex projects are not that uncommon. You can find a vacancy to work in a group on one of the thematic forums. It is quite possible that such cooperation will develop into opening your own company, and you will be able forget about being hired forever. In this case, you can search for customers through the same freelance exchanges.

Summary

In general, I can safely summarize and say that freelance is a great start for your own promotion, self-realization and earning truly decent money. In addition to the fact that you will have decent income, you will gain valuable experience, find new clients and be able to create an amazing portfolio, which, I want to note, will never be superfluous. The most important - don't stop and don't stop developing. If you feel that it’s time to grow as a professional and go free, go for it! You will always have time to return to your old office life, so don’t be afraid of change.

That's all for me, dear friends. I sincerely wish you success in such serious endeavors. See you soon!

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