By Aaron Velazquez
Tools to Help Freelance Marketers & Creative Professionals
Self-employment has greatly increased since pre-COVID times, leading to a rise in freelance workers and independent consultants. Most of these people that dropped the conventional business structure probably realized that they have a strong skill set that they can sell without the constraints of a company. Further, the widespread rise of remote and hybrid work gave these folks the means to conduct international business from the comfort of their homes. This combination has led many workers to monetize their knowledge, become their own boss, and work wherever and whenever they want. However, there are still pitfalls that these new freelance workers run into.
The main problem that we have heard of from Workzones members, especially those that are in the beginning stages of building a client base, is the struggle to continually market their services to customers. No matter how talented the individual, it’s often difficult to find those first few people that would like to pay for your skills, especially when you have not built up a credible reputation. And when they finally get a customer or two, they now have to devote most of their time to the current task at hand. This leaves little time and energy to find the next few clients, setting up a future lull in business, and the cycle continues.
Online Job Board Resources
To alleviate this common problem of freelance and independent contract work, there are numerous sites that provide a “network of consultants” where you can outsource much of the marketing involved in self-employment. Some of the biggest names being Eden McCallum and Business Talent Group, along with Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer; but there are a multitude of other sites, often catered to different markets and expertise levels. While these sites do often take a cut of each job or require a membership fee, work with a fee is better than no work at all. And I mean, who isn’t trying to take a cut these days anyways?
Now even with these services at your disposal, there are still issues one can run into when freelancing: at-home distractions, weak wifi, lack of in-person interaction and networking, remote worker “cabin fever”… the list goes on. This is where your local coworking space, like Workones, can assist. Not only can we provide the basic office necessities, like a distraction-free environment, strong wifi, all the standard office supplies, and opportunities to meet like-minded individuals on the daily, we can also provide private rooms for client meetings, important calls, and whatever else you may need. While it may be difficult to actualize your self-employment dreams, it is possible, and Workzones is here to help whenever we can.
