Welcome to the freelance economy also known as the gig economy. You're part of a growing tribe of freelancers who are taking responsibility for steering their own careers and creating economic opportunities for themselves, their families, their communities, and possibly in the future, their teams. Workforce dynamics are shifting rapidly. The types of work that can be done independently or remotely are increasing every day, and opportunities to make an extra income outside of a 9 to 5 job are becoming more and more abundant. In 2019 up work and freelancers union published a report stating that freelancing is a massive $1 trillion market in just the US bigger than many other countries economies, and representing 5% of the gross domestic product in the US. The median hourly rate for skilled freelancers was $28, more than 70% of other skilled workers. Of course, freelancers can charge more, depending on their particular services and skills. Contrary to some people's point of view, freelancing can be a viable way to make a living compared to traditional employment. A broad array of skilled professionals can be freelancers in any age group. Freelancing is becoming a very common and even highly sought after career option. 29% of baby boomers, 31% of gen x workers, 40% of millennials and 53% of gen-z workers have all tried freelancing. Freelancing is an opportunity in a strong economy or a weak economy. In a weak economy, it's pretty common to hear about companies cutting back when they face financial challenges. It's costly, complex, and risky to manage employees and some jobs are being eliminated due to automation. Unlike in previous generations where our parents and grandparents worked for 30 years for the same company, it's difficult, impossible or even foolish to depend on a long term career at a single employer. In a strong economy, companies need to hire freelancers to keep up with demand and source talent that may not be readily available for full time jobs. In either case, being aware of your freelancing options can help you steer your career through good times and bad, adding extra income while you're working or becoming your full time occupation. I'd like to share with you my freelancing origin story. I started freelancing quite by accident after the startup I was working for cut back their entire workforce right before a recession. When that unexpected layoff happened to me, I was pretty freaked out. I mean, I had just left a 10 year career at a very stable company for this opportunity at a startup in a brand new city across the country where I didn't have any professional or personal network. But I did have a family relying on me and many bills to pay. So these were the worst possible circumstances to start a risky freelancing career, right? Well I had no choice. I had to figure something out and quickly, so I started asking around to the one or two people I knew in the new city, I invited them to coffee to share what was happening and that I needed to find some work. I found out that a friend of a friend needed help building a website. So I met him for coffee and took the job. I wasn't sure how to do what he was asking me to do, but I figured I would figure it out. I felt like I was faking it until I made it because I didn't know much about building this type of website. However, I had way more skills than I was giving myself credit for. I had managed many large company website projects before this and I had considered training to do this kind of work before. So I had a solid direction as I researched my way through this project. I took this freelancing job as an opportunity to learn something new while making some extra money to tide us over. At the time, I didn't even know the word freelancing. I just thought I could do a little consulting between jobs. At the time there was no Uber lift or door dash, there is no Upwork or other marketplaces to find gigs. I went out on my own to figure things out. I also didn't have a course like this to understand how to describe my services handle taxes, benefits or any of the other complexities of running a business. I just took action by asking around for opportunities and once I found one I started working and figured out things as I went along. That first project paid handsomely was fun and interesting and I was hooked. My second freelancing client hired me full time and I worked for them on really interesting projects for two years. But I missed managing my own time priorities and projects and decided to quit to focus full time effort on freelancing. That company continued to be one of my clients because they didn't want to lose me, they wanted me to help them with transition work and that smooth the way for me financially too. Over time I discovered that tons of people actually make a great living doing this and that the benefits were pretty tempting. I got to work from home while my kids were young, participate in their school and sports activities, work on interesting projects with cool clients and make a good living. I didn't have to answer to a boss commute, deal with irritating coworkers or clock in and out at a certain time. For the most part it was bliss. But there are many lessons I had to learn the hard way. Over the last 14 years as a freelancer, I had a few potholes and needed advice or a helping hand to dig my way out of them. In this course, I'm sharing all the lessons from my journey and my freelancing friends journeys that we wish we knew when we started down the freelancing road. While it's possible to wing it and be successful. I hope that these valuable lessons will speed and ease your journey to success as a freelancer. Freelancing has become a massive global trend as digital nomads can be seen on social media, working from anywhere in the world and posting their adventures. While best selling books like the four hour workweek, make freelancing seem easy, lucrative, glamorous and effortless, but freelancing is not for everyone. It requires a high level of self discipline and structure to make a living that replaces your salary and then some. Some people call this special set of skills agency, this means you know how to stay motivated and take responsibility for making things happen. Working in your company versus working in someone else's company requires a very big mindset shift. Freelancing requires you to have a broader set of business skills and you would normally need in a typical job. There is no co worker or boss to blame when things go wrong, it's up to you to do an excellent job every day and fix problems whenever they arise. Almost everyone starts freelancing in the same place that I did. They have no idea how to make freelancing work. They start with overwhelm and learn to simplify. They start with self doubt and build confidence. They start with a lot of fear of the unknown and fear of failure and they turn those feelings into excitement. And let's face it, when we are learning something new we start with incompetence and through practice, we build competence. Remember when you learn to ride a bike, picture that moment in your mind when you first hopped on, put your feet on the pedals and started to wobble. Did you get your balance right away and sail away or did you have to get some support and suffer some scrapes for a few tries first. Almost no one does anything perfectly the first time they try. Give yourself credit for trying and keep trying until you get it right, your persistence will pay off. We designed this class to help you get started in a low risk environment to get to your financial goals faster, understand the big picture and feel prepared to take massive action. Freelancing can actually be quite simple, develop a clear overview of what you want to offer and at what price and through networking online and in person find clients, win clients, bill clients and start working. Freelancing involves reward and risk feast or famine. You want to quickly boost your skills and confidence to get yourself into feast mode. And the good news is that you can decide to be a freelancer and be one just like I did, once you have a client who is willing to pay you, you can really build an interesting career from there. If this is your first time starting or running a freelance business, you are about to learn a lot. You're building a solid foundation for your business by taking the time to learn. Running a business is hard, even if you have tons of business experience, there is so much more hands on experience that you will gain in the first few years of your business. It's dynamic things change frequently, but it's also exhilarating, frustrating and rewarding. If you've been freelancing for a while, you'll pick up and refine some valuable skills in either case. It's a good sign that you are here because you are digging into this course, we can guess that you are someone who enjoys learning, reading, researching, watching videos and planning. But are you actually freelancing yet you love learning and you're intrigued by freelancing, but are you actually doing it yet, is the activity you're doing reading, learning, thinking, creating revenue. You don't need to know everything to start something. As you learn to do the exercises in this course, you'll be answering some really interesting questions about your business and getting feedback from potential customers. Feel free to turn them into actual customers along the way. I want you to start feeling comfortable making progress and taking imperfect action together. We'll review step by step ways to get out of analysis paralysis. Step out of your comfort zone and jump into the freelancing market with two feet. It's important that you put yourself out there, tell the world that you were freelancing and start to meet potential clients, share your winds with the class community in the discussions and start to gain valuable experience, to share your success stories and inspire others. Most important of all, start freelancing to make a better living.
