Читать книгу Freelancing. The smartest Way to be free and highly Paid - Ильгиз Валинуров - Страница 7

Most likely, you have already read about it somewhere. So I put it briefly. In the medieval centuries, this was the name of the helpers to the spearmen, the knights. Those who carried their weapons. Lance is a spear. According to Wikipedia, the term became widely used after publishing of the novel by Walter Scott “Ivanhoe”. The most striking example from classical literature is Sancho Panza in “Don Quixote”. However, Cervantes wrote about this even back there in the 17th century.

It doesn’t matter how or when the term first appeared. The more important issue is what does it define now.

It does define people who can work for multiple employers and are not tied up to each of them by longterm obligations.

A freelancer is a person who offers their services to employers without being employed by them. Which services?

This can be writing texts, design, page makeup, search for personnel, training, programming, translation, photo and video shooting, website creation, mailings, typing, information collection, accounting, legal services. This can be absolutely any work related to mental labor.

What kind of freelancer services do I order myself? These are website promotion, corporate souvenir design, makeup of handouts for seminars and trainings, making of presentations, design of publications for Instagram, layouts of my books, creating covers, designing my YouTube channel and its content promotion, translation of my books to other languages, creation of illustrations for books.

In other words, I am a fairly regular customer for freelancers.

Let’s take a look what are the advantages of working as a freelancer.

Independence

There are several nuances here. Independence from the office. No office squabbles and unnecessary talks. Freelancer is paid for the result. And he doesn’t have to attend meetings and other get-togethers; he does his job. He focuses on it and dedicates time to it. This increases productivity.

Independence from one employer. He has several of them. If something happened to one – closing, or delays, or a change in policy for example – he can switch to the others. Employees who work for one employer are more at risk.

You have a mortgage and loans, and you get a salary from one company. If something happens to it, this may be crucial for you and your family. And if there are 10 employers, this doesn’t mean much, right?

I have a cousin Vadim. He has been working at customs for more than 15 years.

We rarely meet – about once every 3 years. One day he asked me a question: “How do I make way to commercial structures»? «Why? – I asked. – You serve to the state, have a guaranteed salary on time, you have status, shoulder straps, career promotion.»

The answer surprised me: «We are unstable. Nobody knows what the state will introduce tomorrow and what new rules will be.»

I was in shock. I was sure that civil servants are confident in the future and trust the employer. But it prooved to be false. Well, we had a talk and a discussin; I suggested him options and introduced to the local business community. Nothing has changed.

Although he is not happy with the work, he remains there, at customs. Does it malke sense for me to influence it? No. Changes is a matter of independent choice.

I can help you change only if you’ve already decided that this is necessary for you.

What else can I say about independence? Here goes independent of the location. In most cases, mental work can be done from anywhere in the world.

What about independence of the work schedule? You are doing a job by the right deadline, not just working from 9 to 18.

Independent of the tasks. Yes, this is also interesting and unusual in the beginning.

Could I realy do this way?

If you work in an office, you have to implement all the tasks that your boss gave you. Working for yourself, you can choose projects, tasks, customers, and partners. You can easily refuse the work that is not interesting for you it is not profitable.

Since I’m an entrepreneur, for me the possibility to choose who I’m willing to work with is one of the main values.

A freelancer is in fact an entrepreneur, who works for himself and his family.

So what else can we do besides being independent!?

Saving time on the road

You don’t need to spend a couple of hours on the road and in traffic jams every day.

But! If you flew to Bali, then 11 hours of flight to Denpasar we will not consider a waste of time on the road, okay?

More time with your family and friends

You need to work. But you don’t have to rush to the office at 9:00. You can take the kids to kindergarten and school in the morning, and meet them after. Even if you are busy at home, then your homies see you and it makes them feel good. This is much better than staying late at work.

As a father of five children I know this, and it has been tested by personal experience and two divorces.

Ready to start freelancing? Doesn’t it sound great and inspiring?

What about the cons?

Yes, there are several. Let’s get into this.

At first glance, the most difficult thing is sales. Say, you used to do the design in the company, receiving technical specifications, implementing it, approving it with the internal customer. But now you have to start from finding the customer. Then agree on working conditions, sign off the specifications, get prepared, agree on the contract and sign it off, complete the work, sign the act of acceptance… Possibly to do the job of a courier and bring documents in person or send them by mail, then get paid, then pay taxes…

Isn’t it easier to work for hire?

Organizational, legal, and accounting issues look intimidating only at first glance. I know people who are afraid to start their own business because of the fact that they did not know how to solve all the bureaucratic issues. Even in 2019, one fellow admitted that he was afraid to start business because he didn’t know how to organize «protection». The guy is under 30. In the «dashing 90’s», he wasn’t even born. Why the fear of bandits, protection, kickbacks? Perhaps from parents or from internet tabloids?

Let’s talk about my experience. I started my company in 2000.

And initially everything was outsourced. Legal services – such as company registration, account opening, contracts with customers and employees. Accounting services – such as reporting, taxes. The only thing I did myself was signing payment orders. Yes.

There were times when you had to do it by hand and then take it to the bank by feet. Now I make payments to clients using my mobile phone’s Face ID. What bank do I use? The «Tochka» bank. I do recommend it to you.

Subscribe to its founder’s Facebook. His name is Boris Diakonov.

Creating corporate identity, business card design, website and office design, IT-administration, document delivery – all this was done by external contractors – companies, or individuals. They weren’t called freelancers then, but in fact they were freelancers. Now these tasks can be solved remotely, even the system administrator can be located in an other city.

In other words, my company only had recruiters on staff. All functions, except recruitment, were given to external contractors.

Now it is much easier to get income officially and pay taxes. In Russia, there is a special status of «self-employed». You pay 6 % tax on income received form corporate entities and only 4 % when payment is received from individuals. Everything is automated, Both from the point of view of registration and taxes. Physically you don’t have to go anywhere at all. In Europe, America, and Asia, there are similar rules, but taxes are higher there.

Let’s go back to the cons.

1. There’s a need to search for customers. This means – to sell. And this is loved not by all of us. As for me, I like to sell. I like to get into the problems and tasks of customers and offer solutions. And to bill, of course.

2. Income may be unstable. You have customers today – but tomorrow you don’t. This will be discussed in the following chapters. There are lifehacks and rules for this.

3. You have no social guarantees. Do you believe in them at all? Now you are your own guarantor of income and expenses. Saving and investing just 10 % of the income, you can save a decent amount over a few years. If you haven’t done financial planning before, here’s the reason to start.

4. Self-motivation and discipline. Previously, it was possible to obtain the «magic-kick-in-the-ass» from the management. Now you’ll have to do it yourself.

5. Vacation. Previously, you could relax 100 % during your vacation. In freelancing, on the one hand, you can arrange vacation at any time, on the other – now you have it unpaid and, if the financial reserve is small, you will have to get to work even when on vacation.

6. Psychological reluctance to work independently. This is partially connected to paragraph 4. This is essential difference between freelancers and employees on the company’s staff who work remotely. If you are on the company’s staff and work at home, you still have a boss, colleagues, common chats, intranet, meetings. And a stable salary. A freelancer doesn’t have that. Socialization is necessary for most people. Well, only if you’re not a 100 % introvert who sits in the office with headphones on and tries not to talk to anyone without a strong need.

7. Risks of non-payment from the customer. You’ve done the job, but the customer haven’t accepted it. Or he has accepted, but refused to pay.

And you can’t go to his office. He’s in another city, or maybe even in another country.

It is necessary to understand that for the employer working with you looks like risky.

What can this mean?

1. He can’t control every day whether you ‹ve been implementing the job for him or not. And he ordered it from you; this means, he needs it to be done by the deadline. A freelancer may get sick or get distracted from the job by personal problems. By outsourcing of the same task to a company, the customer avoids such risks, since the executor can pass the task to an other employee.

2. A freelancer may refuse the implementation of the projects agreed upon before, especially when getting a more profitable order. There is a risk for the customer not to get the result at all.

3. When passing the project for implementation, the employer can share confidential information about the company’s past and even its strategic plans. For example, if you are an accountant, a marketer, or analyst on freelance. Companies who are afraid of these risks, they commit the freelancers only the simplest work. And they may be blackmailed by unscrupulous freelancers.

4. The quality of implementation and communication. If the company has common understanding of the rules for preparing documents, their transmission, discussion, approval, and everyone is OK with the rules, the freelancer just can’t take all the nuances into account while working simultaneously with a dozens of customers. This may cause conflicts or disruptions in order execution.

And the advantages for the customer are even more significant!

1. The most important thing is that the thing for what you pay is the result, not the process. The customer does not care if you spent 1 hour on the task or 10 hours. He pays for the service implemented. This is not the same in case of office workers. According to statistics, an employee spends 2.5–3 hours out of 8 directly performing their duties. The rest of the time he wastes on meetings, breaks, coffee, chatting with colleagues.

2. The job of a freelancer is usually cheaper than the same service order from the company or employment of an employee in the staff.

3. The customer may obtain an expertise absent within the company. And even international specialists, who may not be present not only in their city, but in the whole country.

Isn’t it cool?

4. There are no costs for equipping the working places, buying software, and other resources.

5. Substantial savings in the salary. Vacation and sick leave are not paid. And when signing contract with the self-employed, you pay no taxes.

6. The opportunity to finish the cooperation at any time, without big sanctions and payoffs, which is impossible while dealing with the employed staff.

7. The opportunity to experiment with different performers, and choose the best for your longterm cooperation.

If you are reading this book and are not a freelancer, but an employer, think about which of your tasks can be passed to freelance today.

If you are a freelancer, before moving on to the next chapter, answer a few questions in writing.

Having studied the pros and cons of freelancing, what do I think? Is this for me?

____________________

____________________

____________________

What exactly attracts me to freelancing? What’s still stopping?

____________________

____________________

____________________

Do I want to obtain new experience?

____________________

____________________

____________________

Rank the power of your desire on a scale from 0 to 10

____________________