Regardless of what job you do or what jobs you may have done in the past, you have skills and abilities that you can rely on that will allow you to take on freelance work independently.
Don't believe me?
Take the example of the stay-at-home mom.
From the moment they wake up in the morning to the second they go to bed at night, they utilize the skill set of a hostage negotiator, conflict resolution manager, project coordinator, chef, housekeeper and caretaker, babysitter, entertainer, and psychologist.
Granted, they usually don't hold qualifications in all of those subjects, but they don't need to. It is the ability to act and deliver that counts. It is common knowledge that many students leave college highly qualified, yet are unable to perform in the arena in which their qualifications exist.
By looking back at your life and seeing what you have been asked to do, both at home and at work, you can outline all the various things that you have delivered that could then be sold independently to a third party, in the form of freelance work.
An easy way of doing this is to get a piece of paper and a pen, and draw a mind map.
On each piece of paper, put the situation in which you performed the task in the center, such as home and the various jobs that you have done in the past, regardless of whether you were paid or not. You may even want to split home into two sections, as in the case of the home where you lived when you were with your parents, and the home as you have now, maybe as a parent or a single individual.
From the middle of the mind map, note every task and every context of the task that you can think of, connecting the words together with lines. These tasks will form the basis of your skill set.
It doesn't matter what it is, where you did it or who you did it for, put it down on the paper, regardless of how silly it may seem to you. The point here is to get the possibilities down, not to criticize them.
In essence, this is what your employer is doing to you from the moment that you are interviewed to the second that you leave, get fired or retire. They are earning money out of you, taking your best ideas, your best efforts, your life, your health and your emotional energy, all for a small amount of pay in return.
But when you learn to understand your skills and abilities, you can then freelance those same skills and abilities at much higher rates and on your own terms.
An example of this that we dealt with recently was a lady who was very good at doing PowerPoint presentations. She had worked previously in a busy office for an engineering firm. In this role, she was paid just above minimum wage, but was known for being very good at creating dynamic and clearly understood presentations for the whole company. The board of executives were using her work day in, day out!
Using a website known as E-Lance, which you can look for in Google, she took the skills and abilities that she had in PowerPoint and started advertising her services.
While the first five jobs were at a relatively low rate compared to her competitors because she wanted to get a good reputation, the bookings are so many that she can pick and choose which job she does, but here is the best bit:
She now charges $35 an hour to create PowerPoint presentations on a freelance basis. She works two hours less a day, but earns well over three times as much. And she can also work from anywhere she can take a laptop.
The skills and abilities exist for everyone. There are things that you can do well, whether you know what they are yet or not, and someone wants you to do it, purely because someone else doesn't!
A freelancer takes advantage of this situation and works on their own terms, knowing that their life, time and money are more valuable to them than they are to a traditional employer.
So take action and perform the above exercise to discover what talents, skills and abilities you have. Isn't it time to grow your own freelance business?
This sort of work can be a very effective way to earn easy money, especially considering the recent financial situation with the economy. The effort that you would normally put into keeping an employers company afloat goes straight into your own household. You get the benefit in your bank account, and you can proudly say that you run a legitimate business doing the things you are good at.
Don't believe me?
Take the example of the stay-at-home mom.
From the moment they wake up in the morning to the second they go to bed at night, they utilize the skill set of a hostage negotiator, conflict resolution manager, project coordinator, chef, housekeeper and caretaker, babysitter, entertainer, and psychologist.
Granted, they usually don't hold qualifications in all of those subjects, but they don't need to. It is the ability to act and deliver that counts. It is common knowledge that many students leave college highly qualified, yet are unable to perform in the arena in which their qualifications exist.
By looking back at your life and seeing what you have been asked to do, both at home and at work, you can outline all the various things that you have delivered that could then be sold independently to a third party, in the form of freelance work.
An easy way of doing this is to get a piece of paper and a pen, and draw a mind map.
On each piece of paper, put the situation in which you performed the task in the center, such as home and the various jobs that you have done in the past, regardless of whether you were paid or not. You may even want to split home into two sections, as in the case of the home where you lived when you were with your parents, and the home as you have now, maybe as a parent or a single individual.
From the middle of the mind map, note every task and every context of the task that you can think of, connecting the words together with lines. These tasks will form the basis of your skill set.
It doesn't matter what it is, where you did it or who you did it for, put it down on the paper, regardless of how silly it may seem to you. The point here is to get the possibilities down, not to criticize them.
In essence, this is what your employer is doing to you from the moment that you are interviewed to the second that you leave, get fired or retire. They are earning money out of you, taking your best ideas, your best efforts, your life, your health and your emotional energy, all for a small amount of pay in return.
But when you learn to understand your skills and abilities, you can then freelance those same skills and abilities at much higher rates and on your own terms.
An example of this that we dealt with recently was a lady who was very good at doing PowerPoint presentations. She had worked previously in a busy office for an engineering firm. In this role, she was paid just above minimum wage, but was known for being very good at creating dynamic and clearly understood presentations for the whole company. The board of executives were using her work day in, day out!
Using a website known as E-Lance, which you can look for in Google, she took the skills and abilities that she had in PowerPoint and started advertising her services.
While the first five jobs were at a relatively low rate compared to her competitors because she wanted to get a good reputation, the bookings are so many that she can pick and choose which job she does, but here is the best bit:
She now charges $35 an hour to create PowerPoint presentations on a freelance basis. She works two hours less a day, but earns well over three times as much. And she can also work from anywhere she can take a laptop.
The skills and abilities exist for everyone. There are things that you can do well, whether you know what they are yet or not, and someone wants you to do it, purely because someone else doesn't!
A freelancer takes advantage of this situation and works on their own terms, knowing that their life, time and money are more valuable to them than they are to a traditional employer.
So take action and perform the above exercise to discover what talents, skills and abilities you have. Isn't it time to grow your own freelance business?
This sort of work can be a very effective way to earn easy money, especially considering the recent financial situation with the economy. The effort that you would normally put into keeping an employers company afloat goes straight into your own household. You get the benefit in your bank account, and you can proudly say that you run a legitimate business doing the things you are good at.
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