Freelancing - The Future of Work
December 06, 2019
Freelancing isn’t just some weird gig people do anymore.
In fact, it’s getting so serious that predictions say freelancing will take up 50% of the workforce by 2027!
Perhaps you’ve thought about freelancing.
You might even be doing it as a “side hustle” right now.
But you haven’t taken the golden leap yet, where your income consists MAINLY of your creative talents.
You may want to consider looking at freelancing as a serious investment.
Maybe even an entire career investment.
To get an idea of just how much it’s changed, freelancers brought home an estimated total of $1 trillion in annual earnings in 2016.
Needless to say, if you haven’t been keeping up, you’ve been missing out on a serious piece of that trillion dollar pie!
If you’re wondering if freelancing is here to stay, here are 14 reasons we (plus some notable experts) believe that freelancing is the future of the work industry:
1. Companies Are Looking For Specialized Skills For One-Off Projects
Freelancers have unique talents and experiences. Most likely they’ve worked for many different clients on different types of projects.
So when they get to combine their creative talent and experience they acquired from previous jobs to help others, it’s a win-win situation for both parties.
Will Lee, CEO of Blue Whale, a company devoted to building a stronger network of one-person businesses said:
“Think about how this could be useful for a company. Say you need a professional writer for a single project. It would not make sense to hire a full-time writer, because your writing needs aren’t enough to justify it.“Hiring a full-time employee would be expensive and a waste of company money. However, a freelancer would fit the project perfectly. The company would use the freelancer’s skills for the project, pay them, and then the two entities would part ways.”
This approach is smarter for companies.
Sometimes all you need is a one-time project, whether it costs you $200 or $5,000.
Keep in mind: One time projects can quickly turn into monthly checks.
If the work you provide brings in so much value to the client, and they can really see their return on investment in you, it won’t be surprising if they want to do more work with you in the future, or even put you on a monthly retainer.
2. Employee Benefits Are Expensive For Employers
Costs for every new EMPLOYEE they hire is exactly what companies DON’T want to spend money on.
Benefits consist mainly of: health insurance, paid time off, and sick leave.
Will Lee, of Blue Whale, said:
“Freelancers are free agents, not part of any company’s permanent staff, so the employer does not need to provide freelance workers with any benefits.“When freelancers are hired for projects, companies can spend less because they only have to pay the freelancer for their services. This could be one of the fundamental reasons motivating corporations to utilize freelancers more frequently.”
Although this may seem like a total downside, freelancers actually favor this a lot more.
When you’re making six figures in your pajamas, the lifestyle + income you make quickly pays off those benefits.
3. Millennials Are “On Demand” Creatures
Christina DesMarais, an expert on habits of successful individuals and organizations and contributor to Inc. Magazine says about millennials:
“Working at a company for a decade is something none of them will likely be doing.”
Growing up with a smartphone being pretty much another appendage, this generation is constantly seeking “novelty, connection and immediacy.”
Christina continued:
“When Millennials think about their careers the expectations are so much greater in terms of the experience, the automation, the data that’s at their fingertips. Anything other than that is frustrating.”
When everything is within their reach with a click of a button, whether that’s food, clothes, movies or face chats, making money will be expected to be no different.
But hey, they know their worth. Can you blame them?
4. Getting Work As a Freelancer Is Cheap And Simple
Although finding work on platforms like Upwork, Freelancer.com, Guru and Fiverr go against many philosophies we share in The No Pants Project, many start their freelancing journey on sites like these.
“Cloud-based platforms which connect freelancers with clients are widely available and inexpensive to use.“Every business will have access to every worker and it will be only separated by search. The middle operators that have historically defined how the workforce is accessed are going away.”
In The No Pants Project, we teach you how to use simple and cost-effective client-getting methods that get you the quality, high-paying clients you need for a sustainable freelancing business.
A few methods include:
- Email – who knew technology’s most ancient online message carrier could pump out thousands of dollars a month? Yes, I said thousands.
- Facebook – You’d be surprised how much spending $1 a day on Facebook ads can get you. But if you’re looking for strictly free methods, all three of these methods are applicable.
- LinkedIn – 20-100 messages on LinkedIn may be all you need to land clients that’ll pay you the top-tier prices. And you can do it for free 99.
5. There Is No Such Thing As Job Security
If you’re a freelancer, you’re already more prepared for what’s to come.
Amanda Abella, a full-time writer and millenial personal finance expert who wrote Amazon’s Best Seller Make Your Money Honey shares her findings from Fast Company.com:
“This particular Fast Company article pointed out how nearly half of freelancers already see the impacts of AI changing the workforce. This is in contrast to only 18% of the regular employed.“In other words, freelancers know what’s coming. Since they know what’s coming they can better prepare. Meanwhile, those who are traditionally employed may be in for a rude awakening down the road.”
Job security is a joke, and freelancers know this:
The biggest corporate layoffs of the century have already taken place with huge companies like Wells Fargo being forced to lay off 26,500 of its workers to Citigroup letting go as many as 50,000.
6. Freelancing May be Less Impacted By AI
Although artificial intelligence poses a threat to humans to replace their inevitable accounts of error and inefficiency in the work field, Amanda confidently points out two things an AI CANNOT replace:
“The last thing the article pointed out really fascinated me. According to the founder of LinkedIn, freelancing gives people a certain advantage when it comes to the threat of AI – they are in direct contact with the companies they work for.“In other words, they build relationships and their knowledge base – two things AI can never take from them.”
An AI cannot replicate each person’s unique, creative abilities.
It also cannot replace the one thing that binds us all together: our human ability to connect.
Both are absolutely critical to growing any kind of business.
0 comments