The Freelancer Within
By Sharon Davis
Every day, I'll get an email that goes something
like this: "I've been looking for a homebased job for x number
of months now...with no luck. I just want something I can do in
the evenings or on weekends so I can supplement my income. Can you
help me?"
You might be thinking, "Yeah, I'd like that
too... can you help?"
Well, I just might, though my suggestion might not
be exactly what you had in mind.
A lot of the peple who email me have marketable skills.
Skills like typing, word processing, accounting, human resources,
transcription..the list goes on. Here you are working all day long,
then spending all this time searching for that ever-elusive telecommute
job. Well, there may be another option- freelancing.
You might say, "Me? A freelancer? I don't think
so. I don't have the time to go out drumming up business."
I say, "Oh, but you do!" Among all the
other nifty conveniences the Internet has given us (Finally, a place
where I can get garden gnomes 24 hours a day!), there are now "Freelance
Marketplaces". These are sites that enable the freelancer and
the employers who need freelancers to hook up.
Most of these sites work something like this:
ABC, inc. is a relatively small company that doesn't
have a Human Resources department (or Accounting department or Transcription
department). Rather than take on the expense of creating an in-house
HR department , they want to contract out their HR related projects.
They go to a Freelance Marketplace, post their projects and then
wait for the bids to roll in.
This is where you, being the consummate Human Resources
Professional (or Accounting Professional or Transcriptionist), will
go and post your bid for the project..and voila! You're a freelancer.
Some sites that offer this type of service are eLance.com
and Ants.com. While both registration at both sites is free, Ants.com
charges a fee of 5% for all jobs completed by you. eLance.com is
currently offering their services for free during the Beta period,
but it is clear that this will change at some point. At eLance.com,
freelancers (or e-lancers) can leave feedback regarding project
posters. This is a handy feature that can help you to decide who
you want to do business with.
The beauty of being a freelancer is that you
can often do your work on a part-time basis- at your convenience.
The bottom line is that you will typically have a deadline to meet,
so when you do the work is flexible. Another benefit to this is
that as you build your clientele and your reputation as a freelancer,
you may find that you have enough business to freelance full time.
© Copyright 2001 Sharon Davis.
Sharon Davis is the Mother of two girls, the owner of 2Work-At-Home.Com
and the Editor of the site's monthly ezine, America's Home. In her
spare time she reminisces about what it was like to have spare time.
To subscribe to her free ezine, Click Here
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This page last updated:
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 11:05 AM
EST
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