Self-Employment And Work ExperienceSelf-Employment And Work Experience

August 15th, 2022 by dayat No comments »

For many years I managed a computer training centre. During those years I handled the financials, sales and marketing, human resources and anything else that required input. During this time I also on rare occasions and as an emergency, took over in reception answering the phones. This was not difficult and I did a fair job of it. Certainly never had any complaints! I abided by the easy principle of being friendly to people. I would hazard a guess that I would not be able to find employment as a receptionist as I would not have sufficient work experience.

What experience would be considered essential to being a good receptionist? I would guess, being able to deal with people would be the most important. Learning how to use the telephone system would require a maximum of half a day’s learning, and any clerical systems the company used, would be different from company to company. This means previous experience would not count.

Take this reasoning one step further and apply this to self-employment. If you work for yourself, you will be required to deal with people. Would answering the telephone at a large company provide you with the experience you need? Or would you be able to learn how to do this by following a few basic steps such as being friendly and helpful. In fact one would almost be inclined to say, that working for a company could mean that you pick up bad habits. Recently I had occasion to phone companies to find out who the relevant people would be to send information to on training. The general rudeness that I came across during this exercise has been quite staggering. If anybody handling their own business, were to behave like this to callers, you would be out of business.

I can hear the objections already. Low skilled jobs are different to high skilled jobs. Working as an investment broker for instance requires work experience. What is experience? It generally involves learning from doing something right or from making mistakes. Some people also learn from following people blindly, but those generally tend not to be in senior positions, or if they are, not for very long. Does it matter where this experienced is gained? Working for yourself you will do things right and you will make mistakes, the same as working for a company. The mistakes you make while working for yourself could be expensive. The mistakes you make for a company could mean you loose your job. There doesn’t really seem to me much difference. If you do things right working for yourself you win financially, if you do things right for a company, there is generally no change in circumstance. You might get promotion and earn another £500 per month, or your boss might just take credit for your good work!

In order to minimise making mistakes, we tend to seek advice from other people in the company we work for, whether it is your immediate boss or the division head, or co-worker. When self-employed, finding advice and help is not as easy as walking into the office next door, or asking a co-worker in the cubicle next to you. But help and assistance is available as well, and often quicker and cheaper for instance on the internet provided one learns where to find it. Is it quicker in a company? Not necessarily. It requires some time as well to work out who the right people are to ask, and where the company might keep the resources for additional information.

I don’t really see any huge advantages to working for a company when it comes to gaining experience. In fact it can be said that some companies might even teach their staff bad habit such as rudeness to customers or even unethical practices.

Anja Merret lives in Brighton, UK. She has recently started a blog and writes on issues that interest her from self-improvement to tech stuff for amateurs. Anja has had a varied and interesting career journey. She started as a high school teacher, changed professions to become an admin manager at her late husbands law firm because this allowed her the flexibility to look after her small children at the time. After many years she left this position to try her hand at an art gallery, moved across to public relations and finally found her niche in education again managing a computer training centre for many years. During this time she also involved hersel

Freelance Jobs Online – Self Employment and Work From Home Motivation

May 15th, 2022 by dayat No comments »

Freelance jobs are gaining more popularity than traditional jobs at an increasing rate. People who are motivated by wanting to work independently often find online freelancing a convenient way to get self-employed.

Skills widely sought in the freelance market include computer programming, photography and photo retouching, web design, graphic arts, computer programming, copywriting and editing. The top paying freelance jobs are writing and editing. After writing, the most paying freelance field is web design and graphics.

If self-employment is the goal, freelancing is one of the most cost-effective and immediate ways to start. Freelancing jobs can be found in print, via word of mouth, previous employers and classified ads; online agencies and marketplace-style job websites are the Internet’s latest contributions to this growing field.

A wealth of new resources have sprung up in the form of freelancing job search websites like Freelancer.com, Guru.com, eLance.com, and oDesk.com; providing companies with a connection to the competitive pool of contractors who submit bids and applications in response to job postings on the site. This allows the contracting company to choose their freelancers based on talent, application and bid rather than geographic location.

Some jobs have a fixed price, while others bill hourly as work progresses on the project. With the completely online nature of most freelancing jobs, talented professionals and eager amateurs alike can be recruited from anywhere in the world. Freelancers with more experience and expertise within their chosen craft typically charge more for their services and have a portfolio available for prospective clients to browse, whether on their own website or in a profile for their agency.

Most professionals start their freelancing career working for an agency or other business, establishing credibility, portfolio and contacts as they complete jobs in their chosen market. As much freelance work is done on the contractor’s own time, this makes it possible to continue working at one’s primary place of employment while building a client base, and gaining valuable experience.

Businesses that use freelancers reap multiple advantages. The specialized skills needed for a particular project can be gained only for the duration of the job without further ongoing obligation. Savings gained by not having to provide benefits to freelance workers are often one of the factors that motivate businesses to consider contracting out work. Freelance workers online have proven to be the profit drivers to many businesses.

There are advantages of freelancing online: no travel cost needed, travel time saved, you are the boss and you are in control. You have the chance to earn more money by working more hours or serving many clients. However, there are downsides to relying completely on freelance employment for livelihood. Locating, applying to and negotiating terms for projects are the freelancer’s responsibility, and there is no guarantee of an adequate amount of available work. The comfort of working from home can sometimes lead to complacency and a drop of production, and clients can suspend work at any time. Steps should be taken to have as little idle time between jobs as possible, and having enough contracts steadily moving through the application and production process will assist in avoiding those gaps.

Above all, the truth is number of online freelancers are many but the number of online successful freelancers are very few. To be a successful freelancer online you need to have a skill or a set of skills which is in demand. Freelancers need to find a way to attract clients. This is the biggest challenge for someone who is new to freelancing. Freelancers also need to have excellent communication skills, be self-motivated and dedicated to providing quality services.

It is essential to know the challenges that freelancing or starting your own business can pose before you start working as freelancer. Knowing how some freelancers became successful online helps. At the same time, you should also know the common reasons of failure in freelancing online. You can talk to other freelancers who have been on this track for years, read article magazines, forum posts, and success stories. If you start freelancing online without acquiring skills and without knowing the facts of freelancing online your freelance venture might add another fail to your list. Do your research, be prepared to work hard, be persistent, and diligent. Those qualities that make an excellent employee will make a successful freelancer.