What is Freelancing

This is the first lesson of the freelancing comprehensive guide lessons, in which we will talk about the concept of freelancing, and how it works, and some other aspects of the idea and field of freelancing.

With the increasing unemployment rate, the lack of job opportunities and the willingness of young people to seek employment even if their passion or ambitions are not commensurate with their passion sought, freelancing emerges from the darkness as a solution that satisfies all parties.

Here we will talk about what is freelancing and what are its specifications? And how to avoid an unemployed title with the least resources, here is the beginning of a series of many episodes that introduce you more about freelancing from the beginning to professionalism.

What is freelancing?

Freelancing, a term that has spread like wildfire in recent years, is one of the kinds of work that is entirely new to many, especially in our Arab region, and its idea is born in the 21st century and closely linked to the Internet.

In freelancing, anyone with a skill, capability, or even knowledge about something, can employ this skill or potential by providing services or tasks to others in exchange for money.

Freelancing provides freedom for both service providers and their applicants, in which the owner of the business or company requests specific and clear tasks from a particular person at a specific time in return for a specific financial fee.

The task or service provider also does its job freely, because basically chooses the area in which it wishes to work, and also has the freedom to carry out tasks on the schedule it wants, as well as the possibility of completing more tasks for more profit.

Freelancing in its current concept depends heavily on internet technology and modern communications, the Internet here is the way to meet the owner of business and freelancer, and the Internet is the means used to start discussion, negotiation and reach agreement, but also the means to achieve the task Delivered to the business owner, it also offers a lot of payment and receiving options.

It is worth mentioning that the Internet is not only a way to facilitate self-employment, but it is a reason to create, prosper and grow self-employment opportunities for many, behind all the huge number of internet sites that are increasing every day, there are designers, developers, and marketers working as freelancers, as well as the tremendous opportunities that have been created as a result of the growing trend of internet marketing.

Through this, we conclude that the Internet is a means of supporting and facilitating freelance, and is also a reason for creating and growing to freelance.

An illustration of the idea of freelancing in its simplest form

To illustrate the idea of freelancing easily let's take this simple example:

Buthaina is a 20-year-old girl who teaches at the Faculty of Commerce, but is fond of Photoshop, loves design and always works to create new ideas for a picture of her own or images that she edited.

Ahmed is also a young man in his 20s, who is fond of the world of Comex and has a Facebook page with 500,000 active members who care about comex.

Ahmed's page specializes in comics about teenage girls, and this has brought him some make-up advertisers, who constantly pay him to promote their products.

Ahmed makes some profit from his page so he decided to invest part of that profit in making professional photo designs to grow his page and bring in more followers, and then bring in more advertisers to make more profits.

By chance, Buthaina is on Ahmed's list of friends, and because Buthaina often shares her designs with her friends, Ahmed found her a suitable designer, communicated with her and asked her to do 3 designs a week for a specified amount of money, so Buthaina became a freelancer as a photo designer.

This is a primitive and miniature picture of the idea of freelancing, but in fact, freelancing contains a lot of details, ideas, and aspects that we will all talk about in this guide through his nine lessons.

Now we're going to move on to a set of freelancing special points, which will work together to answer the question of what is freelancing more professionally and clearly.

Important points for the freelancing domain

There are two types of freelancing in terms of full-time

First: full-time freelancers in which freelancers only work on freelancing platforms and do nothing else.

Second: part-time work, in which the FreeLancer works partly alongside other jobs, or besides studying. We conclude that freelancing is flexible and suitable for almost everyone.

There are platforms specialized in the field of freelancing

As a result of the growth and expansion of the freelancing circle, many specialized platforms have emerged in freelancing, which acts as intermediaries between service providers and their applicants. It provides a professional and organized link between service providers and applicants, and guarantees the right of both parties because they operate with a clear and explicit system and conditions and both parties must commit to it.

Freelancing expands to almost every aspect of the business

Although the idea of freelancing is most evident in the digital and modern technology-related areas such as image design, video editing, web design and development, and online marketing services. However, it is not surprising to find an accountant, engineer, lawyer or photographer working as a Free Lancer.

in the field of freelancing, payment be for completion and not for time

One of the obvious differences between the concept of a job versus the concept of freelancing, that the job pays you for a certain number of hours, but in freelancing the financial benefit is the product of the achievement mainly, the designer of the pictures, for example, earns money according to the number of images he has completed whether he did it in a day or a month or an hour.

In freelancing the Internet is necessary but not inevitable

We mentioned that the Internet is the seed of prosperity in the world of freelancing, it is the means of communication between the FreeLancer and the owner of the business, and the means to accomplish tasks and receive money as well.

But what if Buthaina met Ahmed by chance at a birthday party for a mutual friend and they agreed to work, and she sent him the designs through Flash Memory every week and received her financial dues directly by hand.

Can't we call this work a freelancer too?

Of course, we can say that this freelance also despite the absence of the Internet as a party to the equation, but in practical and realistic terms, the Internet is an almost indispensable arm in the field of freelancing, especially in its more sophisticated and extensive forms, how not to go beyond the limits of time in a way that we did not We've dreamed of it before.

Besides, it creates more freelancing opportunities as we mentioned above.

Information and statistics about freelancing

1. In 2017, there were 57 million independents in the United States of America alone.

2. Growth estimates that in 2020, about 43% of the total u.S. workforce will be self-employed.

3. Freelancing contributed about $1.4 trillion to the U.S. economy for 2017.

4. Freelancing has been found to be more capable of coping with future career changes, with statistics indicating that in the last six months 55% of Freelancers have participated in a study to develop their skills, compared to only 30% of non-Free Lancers.

5. According to a survey of freelancing workers, about 71% of respondents admitted that online jobs increased by 5% between 2016 and 2017.

Although the statistics at the top are American statistics, freelancing in the Arab region has also seen a great boom in recent times, yes we do not have accurate statistics to monitor this growth, but there are many indicators that give us an idea of the magnitude of this development, including:

1- Khamsat, the most famous Arab site in freelancing has witnessed great development and growth in recent times, it now occupies a global, and also local, especially in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, according to the site Alexa ranking sites in terms of fame.

2- There is a great growth for Arab groups and pages that include freelancing private communities.

3- Because freelancing is largely linked to technology and its spread and not to the nature of societies, so growth in freelancing in developed countries will necessarily be followed by freelancing growth in all countries of the world, including Arab countries.

4- To realize the extent of growth and development in the free labor market in the Arab countries, you just have to follow the growth that is happening around you in the number of Websites and Arab applications, and projects based on technology.

What are the advantages of freelancing?

- You're always free.

Freedom of choice is one of the most brilliant features of freelancing. From the beginning you are free to choose the area you love and see yourself creatively, you are free to choose projects that you find you can do better, you are free to organize your day as you wish, and you are free to increase the material return by working longer, or working more quality and perfectly.

- You will get rid of a lot of waste dissenting causes of time

Because of the freelancing nature, you can accomplish from your own home and room, there is a huge saving at a lot of times in moving from home to work and vice versa, or preparing to go to work.

In case of freelancing all you need to actually start your business is to run your computer.

- You have the opportunity to be creative

Compared to traditional job work governed by many restrictions, regulations and rigid rules, freelancing is flexible and the opportunity to implement in many innovative ways, freelancing is the way you implement your ideas and unleash your creativity.

- There is no financial limit governing you

In the freelancing field, there is always an opportunity to make more money compared to a job. Fortunately, doing more work is not the only way to achieve higher financial returns in freelancing, there is always an opportunity to achieve more through mastery and professionalism in completing tasks.

As long as you're a professional in your field and can perform tasks creatively, there are always customers willing to pay more for your work.

- You have the flexibility to move from one domain to another one

In the traditional career, there are always obstacles and limitations that make it necessary for you to continue working in areas you don't totally like.

In freelancing there is a great degree of flexibility, overnight you can start new areas as long as you have the skills required by these areas, you can also in freelancing finish your business in record time, in order to change the field or even to take a long vacation as you wish.

- You won't need a lot of resources to get started

All you need to work as an independent is your computer or laptop connected to the Internet, and a bank account until you are sent money, meaning you'll need some limited resources that almost everyone has.

And now are you ready for the next lesson? Keep in touch.