Many times you’ve probably heard of the Law of Attraction, meaning that situations happen to you correlative to your thinking. Mind you, this works both ways and you’ve also probably heard of Murphy’s (or Sod’s) Law which states that if anything bad can happen, it likely will. I think we can agree that if one believes in the Law of Attraction, Murphy’s Law isn’t exactly the ideal model to follow if you’re looking for a happy and fulfilling life. Even in the darkest of times, positive thinking can have a profound effect on the elements around you. At times this thinking can help mitigate stress and allow you to relax your mind and think clearly. Positive thinking can keep you inspired and ease/remove any doubt in pursuing unknown endeavors. In some ways, positive thinking rewards you in some fashion or another for simply being well, positive. Now I am not saying that one has to be positive and sunny skies 100% of the time; we’re human and we have “those days”, we mourn losses, we get overwhelmed, etc. It’s normal; however the idea is that we don’t let those hardships hold us back and positive thinking plays a key role in helping us push forward. So when you feel like the world is seemingly against you, don’t look at it as a setback; instead look at it as a challenge and let the elements know that you will gladly push back in the face of adversity. If positive thinking has done anything for you, feel free to leave a comment. One of the biggest dilemmas new Freelancers constantly face is figuring out how to price their services. It isn’t as simple as pricing yourself below your peers and while it may help you short term, such isn’t (or shouldn’t) be the end goal if you’re trying to create a sustainable living for yourself through freelancing. It takes a lot of research, savvy and most importantly confidence to put yourself out there and show potential clients that you’re just as good as they are. The issue with charging low prices is that like the old saying goes “you get what you pay for” low prices encourage work from cheaper clients, this can easily evolve into a situation where you’re stuck working with smaller projects and your work being devalued from a competitive perspective (in other words, you aren’t getting paid by your skill level).
The idea is to never undersell yourself, if you lack experience in a particular field it may behoove you price below what industry veterans make. However, a good tip for doing this (depending on your preferred payment plan) is to research and lookup the averages in your field. Search out databases like Glassdoor.com and Indeed.com or even scope out what freelancers in your field are pricing themselves. Take your results and combine it with your previous wages and/or experience and find a middle ground, with the target being to price yourself as competitively as possible without taking yourself out of the range that larger project clients look for. Even being new to freelancing, that doesn’t mean you have to sell yourself short. Be confident in your skills and what you bring to the table because every person (or in this case freelancer) is unique. Some projects you will succeed, other times you will fail but don’t let that define you from working for a price that you deserve. Hello to all, here is another set of ads that I did a while back. If you didn't know, video games are among my favorite hobbies and this set in particular focuses on some concept box arts for the Playstation Vita.
Happy New Year everyone, hope you had a wonderful holiday season. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while but the New Year is as good a time as any so let’s get to it.
It was recently announced that two of the more popular online staffing platforms in Elance and Odesk would be merging and pooling their resources together. While the merger in theory sounds rather ambitious, there are still many questions to be had in the long term implications of this move. My main reservation as it has always been is the price disparity when it comes to competition in the freelance space. It is well known the difficulties that freelancers from wealthier nations face when competing against others from international markets who offer their services at a much lower cost. Another issue is effectively convincing potential clients (businesses, entrepreneurs, etc.) of the value in building relationships with freelancers and convincing potential candidates that there is value in pursuing freelancing. Both Elance and Odesk use algorisms to match candidates with clients with little else in between, much of the shoulder work is paired onto the client thus making it more bothersome for them to consider building relationships with the candidates and potentially hiring them full time. Freelancers across both platforms average less than one hundred dollars and while this could probably be explained away, it still does nothing to convince promising candidates why they should pursue freelancing if the income opportunities are so small, scant and virtually meaningless. The quality and volume of work must improve across both platforms and new development should be put towards making the busywork between matching clients and candidates as seamless as possible. There needs to be protection for both businesses and freelancers and convincing arguments must be made for more freelancers to enter the competitive space and encourage a market where freelancers can prosper, both professionally and financially. As a freelancer, I have a vested interest in this and I want to see this industry prosper; however with such a monopolistic hold on the marketplace between Elance and Odesk, I again can’t say I don’t have my reservations for the long term implications of this deal. In the end we shall see. |
Frank Sheppard
NOTE: all opinions/views represented here are my own and do not reflect on any third party that I am affiliated with. Archives
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