What is Freelancing? Why and how to start?
Freelancing is considered to be the number one source of income when people are looking for ways to earn extra income in addition to their studies or work. What is freelancing, and how to start freelancing, it is normal to have various questions in the mind of newbies. And today’s article is about the answers to all these questions.
What is Freelancing?
freelancing has become a beacon of hope for many young people who are facing unemployment in the present era.
Millions of people around the world have chosen and are taking up freelancing as a career. The free part of the word freelancing refers to the freedom of this profession. Freelancing is not a single profession. It is an amalgamation of numerous professions.
Freelancing can be of many types, such as freelance photography, freelance journalism, etc. There’s no end to the amount of work you can do with freelancing. The best part is that you are everything in this process. No one twirling a wand over your head, no obligation to work a regular 9-5 office.
You can work anywhere, anytime, with anyone you need. That is, you will do your work completely freely. Also, you don’t need a huge office for this kind of work. You can become a successful freelancer by basically using your skills with a few useful things in the short term.
In this case, the issue of computer and internet connection will also be kept in mind. And this is how you can end your unemployment. But remember, You can earn an unexpected amount of money.
As mentioned earlier, freelancing can be of many types, but in today’s article, we will discuss online-based freelancing.
What is online-based freelancing?
In this kind of freelancing basically, specific work is done for another person or another company with the help of a computer and the internet at home.
There are actually so many job opportunities in online-based freelancing that the list of jobs may not be exhaustive. One of the most popular freelance sites today is Upwork. Entering Upwork will find numerous jobs. For example:
- Web Development
- Web design
- Software development
- Digital Marketing
- Graphics Design
- Video editing
- Database entry
- Translation
- typing
- Proofreading
- SEO Blogging
- Content writing
- Engineering jobs
- Photography
- Customer care job
All the works mentioned here are mainstream works. There are numerous jobs beyond this, and within these jobs, there are various types of branches and sub-branches. Although seemingly difficult, there are many simple tasks that can be mastered with very little effort.
How to learn to freelance?
In any profession, you need specific knowledge and clear skills about that profession. Freelancing is no exception. As mentioned earlier, there are many things you can do in freelancing.
So first, you need to decide what kind of work you will do. Next, you need to think about the task. After all, you need to get proper training on top of it.
Freelancing training
You don’t need to worry much if you are skilled or have previous experience in the subject you will be working on. For example photography, graphic design, translation, etc. With prior knowledge and light maintenance, you can get started. However, if there is no prior knowledge, taking training is mandatory. You can follow two ways for this.
- Online Freelancing Training
- Offline Freelancing Training
Online Freelancing Training
Honestly, online training is the best medium for freelancing in today’s world. You will find thousands of tutorials by simply searching on YouTube or Google. There are also many reputable sites that teach these. For example:
A lot of work can be learned from these sites almost for free if you have a little patience. Although in some cases getting the certificate may have to count a lot of money.
But if you have a certificate you will be much ahead in your freelancing career. You can take one-to-one training from these sites. Each has a reputation for providing training in one or the other. For example, you want to learn HTML by hand.
In that case, W3Schools will be the best for you. If you want to learn by watching the video again, Lynda.
From edX you can do courses on engineering-based topics in addition to these if you want. This is the biggest advantage of taking online courses.
You don’t need any prior degree. It all depends on your performance in the particular course. But you need to understand that you can actually complete any course you enter.
Offline Freelancing Training
Apart from online sites, you can also take courses in specific subjects from many reputed institutes in the country. Currently, there are several such institutions in Bangladesh. Who teaches the process of manual pen work in their own training center.
But like online platforms you have to pay not only for the certificate but also for the course admission fee. At the end of the course, you will get the certificate given by the institution. Also, many institutes help their students in various jobs for a certain period of time even after the completion of the course.
How to start freelancing?
Learning and knowing work is a must, but a successful career requires a good start. There are a few things you need to keep in mind.
For example:
- You may not get the job you want at first. But if you persevere, it is definitely possible to get the expected and even the unexpected job.
- Experience matters a lot when it comes to salary. As your experience increases you can increase your salary accordingly.
- But you can do some work for free to get the first skills. But keep in mind that the amount of work should not be too much. Then your price may decrease.
- One of the best ways to start freelancing is to work with free sources. For example, most of the things we use in the online world today have to be bought with money. But something that is legally free from the start is free source.
- By working on a free source software or a free source project, at the same time as you will have work habits, you will understand your own shortcomings, your experience will increase, and good relations with many big freelancers will be created. And if you maintain a good relationship with them, it will help you in difficult times later.
Freelancing career
You can start your freelancing career only if you are skilled. Before going into details let’s be clear about what a career is. Many people think that ‘profession’ and ‘career’ are the same things.
This is not the case. What you do for a living is your profession. And whatever you do in that profession, whatever achievements or failures there are, that is your career in that profession.
Where to find work for freelancing?
To get work in freelancing must be associated with some online platform and website. There are numerous sites for freelancing these days. Your first task at the beginning of freelancing is to open your account on these sites.
But there is no need to open accounts on numerous sites simultaneously. Open accounts on some popular sites as per your choice.
After opening the account you need to fine-tune your profile. In addition to your name and photo, you must mention what kind of work you are good at, an expert in any software, how many years of experience, and your educational qualifications.
But many people suffer from inferiority with their institutional education. It is immaterial. Because the client will see your work. What matters most is whether you can do the job well. Below are the names of some reputed freelancing sites.
However, there are different ways to work on these freelancing sites based on remuneration, such as:
- Hourly rate
- Bidding
- Project Base
Hourly rate work
Freelancing sites allow you to decide how much money you will work for. It has various methods. One method is the hourly rate (Hourly rate) i.e. deciding how much money you will charge for each hour of work. There are no hard and fast rules, but you must check the market and decide your own remuneration.
Determine your salary based on your experience, and type of work so that you are in line with the salary demanded by others. In this case, new freelancers usually ask for less remuneration. But many experienced freelancers earn between $50-$150 per hour depending on the job.
Bidding
Another method is to get work by bidding. The pay range will be fixed by the person doing the work in this bid process. All freelancers will bid within that range. It’s like an auction.
Whoever bids the lowest is more likely to get the job. But in this case, you have to keep in mind how much money you will pay if you work. And bidding too low may make the client think you’re inexperienced. As a result, you will lose your job. Similarly, too many bids cannot be given.
That is, an overall balance must be maintained. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get the job after the first bid. If you repeatedly bid for different jobs, you will surely get work. And as your number of jobs increases, the chances of getting a job in the future increase.
Project Base
Often freelancers engage directly with clients to take on a variety of projects on a fixed-term basis and for a fixed fee. There are many projects that are almost impossible for a single freelancer to complete.
Such large tasks are usually outsourced by a company and many freelancers complete the work together. This is the project. A freelancer can join a project if he has certain experience. He will work there until the project is completed. Remuneration is usually decided before starting the project.
Some work on a daily basis depending on the project. That is, as long as the project continues, the client will pay the remuneration for each day. Others charge a large sum of money to complete the entire project.
How to become an established freelancer?
To be established in any profession, there is no way but to stick to that profession. Remember, ‘hard work is the key to progress’. Clients will give you a good rating if you bid for regular work and do the jobs you get well.
As a result, it will be easier to get more clients in the future. The more you work and increase your rating, the higher your position will rise. At some point, the clients themselves will contact you and do the work. If it takes a few years like this, you won’t have to look back.
A few years may seem like a long time, but when you think about it, you will realize that freelancing can take much less time than the time it takes to become established in other professions.
When you become an established freelancer and work on specific topics, your own remuneration will be fixed. There are many freelancers who charge lakhs of rupees.
Also, many freelancers open websites under their own names, and even open small online companies like LLCs, many do freelancing. That is, it is very clear that if you can make yourself qualified then you can earn much more than the average income in Bangladesh.
In addition, many ordinary freelancers in Bangladesh are currently making a comfortable living by freelancing.
Which is a matter of pride for a small and developing country like Bangladesh, which is technologically far behind other countries of the world.
According to the Dhaka Tribune newspaper, the total number of freelancers in Bangladesh in 2020 is around 7,00,000, and active freelancers around 5,00,000, who are working regularly. Bangladesh is currently ranked 3rd in the list of world freelancers. Which is almost unbelievable.
Domestic Freelancing Site
Bangladeshi freelancers occupy a huge market all over the world but there is no such good freelancing site for our own country. Various initiatives have been taken at different times in this country but due to a lack of clients, they could not be successful.
Bangladesh government also had some such initiatives including Balance, TrueLancer, and ShadinKaj. But due to the lack of money and effort required to build a marketplace, Bangladesh may not have a freelancing site to speak of.
But there is nothing to be discouraged about, working internationally and like 10 successful freelancers you can stand on your own feet.
Hope this article gave you good ideas about what, why, and how to start freelancing. Finally, it can be said that there is no better solution than freelancing to solve the unemployment problem in Bangladesh.
Only an unemployed person understands the curse of unemployment. And during the current global pandemic, many small companies have collapsed, and thousands of people have become unemployed. This situation will not be normal very soon.
And if you want to survive in this recession world, get down as fast as possible to improve your skills. And it’s not just for the unemployed either.
Everyone from children to old people can use their free time to earn a lot of money. And so you can try to keep up with the modern era and earn money online from home.
Although freelancers were looked down upon in the society of Bangladesh at one time, in this time of the global pandemic, how bright the future of freelancers is, our surroundings have made us understand this very well.
So don’t delay and get to work now, and take advantage of the opportunity to earn from home through freelancing.
Some common questions and answers from customers
Question: Is freelancing halal or haram?
Answer: Whatever path you choose to earn money in life, all paths have both halal and haram processes. The same is true of freelancing. In the freelancing sector, if you learn to work well and work honestly with people without thinking about money first, it will definitely be halal. On the other hand, if you adopt dishonest ways or harm people in the hope of earning extra money, then it will be haram.
Question: Is there any particular difference between outsourcing and freelancing?
Answer: Along with the term freelancing, many of you may have heard the term ‘outsourcing’. Although these two are closely related, they are not the same. Basically, the root of freelancing is ‘outsourcing’. Despite having a deep relationship, there are certain differences at work.
