The reality of freelancing
Zeeshan Wasim
The global economy is experiencing a drastic change due to many factors, which also include the Corona pandemic. Organizations all over the world are laying off their employees and unemployment rate is increasing. The business world is also being disrupted. Because of all these unpleasant changes, a considerable number of people are becoming inclined towards freelancing, instead of regular jobs. And as stated afore, freelancing is on the rise, leading towards the type of economy which is known as gig economy.
The gig economy refers to such an economy that consists of income earning activities outside of the traditional and long term employee-employer relationship. Although this type of economy has been in existence for a long time, but, it became mainstream in recent times and the range of services and opportunities that fall under this term has expanded significantly due to disruptions taking place in the overall global economy.
As a result of the rise of gig economy, people are turning away from conventional jobs and focusing on online contractual work e.g. freelancing; however, being a freelancer myself, I have seen that people have unrealistic expectations from freelancing which ultimately lead them to give it up completely in disappointment when their expectations are not met. Most of the people don’t know the reality of freelancing in actual terms but the fact is that patience and hard work are the two basic things required in this regard.
The biggest false belief of the people is that freelancing means working less for more money as compared to a regular job, but nothing is easy in this profession and the assumption that working only a few hours for a lot of income is absolutely wrong. In this field, one will need to put in a lot of time as he/she would spend in a conventional job.
Another assumption is that freelancing means earning a lot of money right from the start, however, it is also a wrong perception. Freelancing will require you to work a lot for a very little amount in the beginning. Every freelancer needs to put in a lot of effort for a very little fee. This phase of charging less for lots of work lasts for a long time in freelancing career.
Perhaps one of the most important qualities that one needs to succeed as a freelancer is patience. Most people believe that freelancing means the jobs will rain down at once. This is not true and it is important to know how freelancing works. In this profession, there will be a time when one will be overwhelmed with too much work and then there will also be a time when he/she will have to wait for a long time to get a small job. Actually progressing in freelancing is very slow and it requires a lot of patience.
So, if anyone wants to participate in gig economy, he/she needs to be well aware of the reality of freelancing as it requires a lot of work and time, however, once one is able to build a sound customer base and good image in the field, he/she will start reaping its benefits.
Furthermore, it is to be noted that gig economy offers more opportunities now than it ever did before. As the number of regular and conventional jobs is rapidly decreasing, it is the time for all of us to start developing our IT and writing skills and capabilities so that we can become good freelancers and take advantages of this rising economy.
The writer is a freelance writer and student of BBA at the Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences), Peshawar. He can be contacted at: srkgothambat@gmail.com.
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