Methodology to do high yielding freelancing in Pakistan

 

During recent decades of technology, a word is becoming more and more common and frequent known as “Freelancing”. Specifically, it has gone viral in the era of COVID-19 as restrictions forced employers and employees to fulfill tasks remotely.

However, newbies don’t get the way to do freelancing in Pakistan and lack confidence, knowledge, motivation, stats, and technical aspects in their way. Here is a humble attempt to show the ways and potential of freelancing in Pakistan so that one can keep him/herself in the right way. Here are important Ws about freelancing.

 

Ø What does mean freelancing? 

Freelancing is a service provided which includes the freedom to work from home or a non-traditional workspace, a flexible work schedule, and a better work-life balance. So, a freelancer is an independent laborer who earns wages on a per-job or per-task basis, typically for short-term work. 

Trending Freelance services includes Digital marketing, web designing, and development, SMM, copywriter, photography, virtual assistant, accountancy, etc. Each of the above-mentioned services includes many niches and sub-niches. Interestingly, these are the highest-paid services too. 

  

Ø Why one should choose to freelance?

Everyone may find different reasons to go with freelancing but the most realistic dynamics behind are that people get to ditch the 9 to 5 jobs. Alongside flexibility being a huge draw, freelancers sometimes find that they make more money spreading their talent over multiple organizations. Upwork has found that 60% of freelancers now make more money after leaving their full-time job. But the recent boom in freelancing in Pakistan we are observing is due to COVID-19 in the year 2019 to 2021. This period urges people to find other streams of income. It resulted in Pakistan being the fourth fastest-growing freelance market with 47% growth. It reflects that scope of freelancing in Pakistan growing day by day.

 

Ø  Where to learn to freelance?

Freelancing is selling like hot cake in Pakistan. There are many Government and private institutes and individuals teaching freelancing. Apart from this, some people teach Pakistanis to consider it as a national cause and to eliminate poverty. Some important institutes are digiskills, iskills by Tanveer Nandla, E-rozgaar scheme. Prominent individuals include Sir Hisham Sarwar, and Sir Imran Ali Dina. 

 

Ø  Where to do freelancing?

After getting a strong grip on a specific niche he/she can start freelancing on any proper freelance marketplace. Many freelance marketplaces are varying on services/project type and hourly payment. Here we will discuss top freelance marketplaces. Upwork is one of the most authentic and large with approx. 43 million visits and an average time duration of 11.23 minutes. Pakistan is the 4th largest country with 5.49% of the total traffic on Upwork. Fiverr is another one with 60 million visits. Other freelance marketplaces are People per hour, Being Guru, Freelancing.com, and Workchest.  The last one is a Pakistani freelance marketplace co-founded by Hisham Sarwar.

 

Ø  When to do freelancing?

Infect, if you have expertise in any field, it is suggested to provide freelancing services in a relative field. It enhances your exposure and keeps you up-to-date. All you need is to have fire in the belly as 

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

— Aristotle

Ø  How do freelancing?

There is plenty of material on websites, YouTube, and Facebook about how to do freelancing. However, there are some simple steps to go through a freelancing career in Pakistan.

 

Some Steps to start freelancing

     Define your goals for freelancing

 What do you want out of freelancing? You should define your goals. Some people do freelancing as a full-time job while others do it to earn extra income either for rainy days or needs. You may start it as a side hustle or as a hobby.

 

       Choose which skill you will start freelancing with

 Whether you’re set to become a freelancer full-time or on the side, your business will be built around the unique skills you have to offer. Those skills are your greatest asset. So, you must choose a skill to sell on any freelance marketplace. List all the skills you ever learned, then narrow down your skills and choose a particular niche, polish it and start selling.

 

3.      Define your target clients

 Think about the skills you’ve chosen to start a freelance business with. Who needs that type of assistance? And who would you WANT to work with who needs that type of help? Examples include small businesses, nonprofits, and restaurants.

 

4.      Package your skills into the solution for clients

 Turn your service/skill into a solution for your clients. Offer quality work with some extra efforts within the committed time duration.

 

5.       Create a portfolio to showcase your skills

 Who would YOU rather hire: a graphic designer who can show you 10 logos she’s made for clients or a graphic designer who can’t show you a single one? The answer is obvious – we want evidence to show us why we can trust this person. So, we must build our portfolio to show our clients. The best way to create a portfolio is a personal website or blog site as suggested by freelancing guru Sir Hisham Sarwar.

 

6.      Develop a strategy to find your clients

 To find clients in the Freelance marketplace, make a marketing strategy and find your clients. Set a reasonable price, place, and promote your product/service.

 

7.       Start creating new advocates

 Your clients are your advocates. Do some extra efforts for them and they will refer more clients to you.

8.        Communication skills

 Effective communication at the workplace is the key to establishing strong relationships and getting important projects done, especially when you're dealing with freelancing and remote collaborators. Of course, communication doesn't only feel good, but it also shows results. Infect, communication is crucial to the success of a freelancer. 

 

Conclusion

 Freelancing may be in trend nowadays but it should never be a destination for freelancers but a major milestone. Freelance income may not be consistent sometimes. Therefore, someone can earn money from freelancing and invest it somewhere else like affiliate marketing, etc. From the above discussion, we can conclude that the future of freelancing in Pakistan is bright and more people are willing to join it.