How To Design A Sustainable Freelance/Contracting Career + Speedcoding Challenge

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Ready to kickstart your freelance career or just getting started on your freelance journey? You’re in the right spot. Learn from the world’s largest fully distributed workforce in the world.


The independent talent movement is the future of work. If you’re considering leaving full-time employment for a career as a freelancer, now is the time to find your successful space in the independent talent workforce. More people are working freelance today than ever before, with the freelance marketplace now contributing $1.2 trillion to the US economy. Some of the most in-demand roles for freelancers right now are senior developers with professional experience in React, Python, Blockchain, QA, and Node.js.


This workshop will help you design a sustainable and profitable full-time (or part-time) freelancing/contracting career. We will give you tools, tips, best practices, and help you avoid common pitfalls.


At the end of the workshop there will be a Q&A session with a Freelance Developer who can answer your questions and provide insights and tips into their own success.


During the Workshop break, we will be running a speed-coding challenge! At the end of the workshop, we will award a prize for the winner and display the leaderboard.


We will have you login to our portal and complete the challenge as fast as you can to earn points. Points are assigned based on difficulty and the speed at which you solve the tasks. In case you complete all tasks, you get extra points for the remaining time. You’ll see your score, ranking, and the leaderboard once you complete the challenge.


We will be giving away three Amazon Gift Cards ($200, $100, $75) for the top three winners.

This workshop has been presented at React Summit 2022, check out the latest edition of this React Conference.

FAQ

Top Talent is a network that offers freelancers the opportunity to connect with clients and secure freelance jobs. It is an exclusive network accepting only the top 3% of freelancers, providing them with a platform to find consistent, high-quality projects and ensuring they receive life-changing work opportunities.

Top Talent maintains a rigorous selection process to ensure only the top 3% of freelancers join their network. This process includes an online test, a one-on-one interview with a technical screener, and a practical project evaluation to assess the applicant's skills and capabilities thoroughly.

Freelancing offers several benefits including the freedom to choose when and where to work, the potential for higher pay compared to traditional jobs, and the ability to directly manage work-life balance. Freelancers also report higher contentment levels and the flexibility to shape their career paths.

Freelancers should determine their value proposition based on skills, experience, and industry reputation. They should also consider their living expenses, business costs, and necessary savings for insurance and emergencies to set a realistic rate that covers all financial needs while reflecting their professional worth.

Freelancers can utilize their professional networks, stay informed about industry trends to identify opportunities, use job boards, and participate in freelance platforms. Building strong client relationships and maintaining a high-quality portfolio are also crucial for securing ongoing projects.

Freelancers often face challenges such as job security, finding consistent projects, managing taxes, and isolation. Overcoming these challenges involves good planning, networking, using platforms like Top Talent for steady project flow, and possibly consulting with professionals for tax and legal advice.

Shane Ketterman
Shane Ketterman
75 min
04 Jul, 2022

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Video Summary and Transcription

This workshop covers the essentials of freelancing, including getting started, managing expenses and client relationships, finding clients, building your reputation and brand, and joining freelance platforms. It also highlights the benefits of freelancing, such as freedom and higher pay, and the support provided by TopTal for freelancers. The workshop emphasizes the importance of communication, transparency, and maintaining professional relationships. It also provides tips for raising fees and building a strong freelance brand.

1. Introduction to Freelancing

Short description:

Welcome to the workshop on designing a sustainable freelance career. I'm Shane from Top Talent, and I'll be sharing best practices and tips for freelancers. Toptel has an exclusive network of freelancers, and we take the top 3% in their career. We'll cover topics such as your freelancing business, how you get paid, and how to find work.

Welcome, everybody, here. I'm going to get started since we're right on the hour. Let's see. We're going to make this fun. So hopefully, everybody can see my screen, how to design a sustainable freelance career.

I'm Shane, and I'm from Top Talent. I'll be doing this little mini workshop today. Let's get started. This is about designing a freelance career. And I am Shane. I work for Top Talent. I am on our core team. We have just over 1,400 employees. And we have about 10,000 clients. So we have been doing this freelance network thing, I should say, for about 10 years, actually 11 years. So being able to share with you guys how to design a career in freelancing, it's been something that's culminated over many years. So the things I'm about to share with you are best practices, they're tips, and they're things that we have seen work really well for our network of freelancers.

Just so you know, Toptel has a network of freelancers. I believe it's one of the largest networks. It's an exclusive network. And not everybody gets into our network. We take the top 3%. So it's the best people in their career. And the reward for that is life changing work. And I will get to that in the presentation. So if anybody has any questions about freelancing, please share. Sometimes it's called contracting. It's in different countries it's called different things. And if you know it by a different term, let me know. But I'm going to call it freelancing. But just know that it can be also called contingent work. It can be called contracting. And it's all the same.

So let's get started here. These are the things I want to talk about. So just so you know, we're going to talk about your freelancing business, how you get paid, how to find work. And Speed Coding Challenge will actually be moved down to the bottom. So let's get started. And again, if there's any questions, please feel free to ask in chat. And I will make sure that the chat is open. And I will make sure that everybody has an opportunity to get those questions answered.

2. Benefits of Freelancing

Short description:

Why would someone start freelancing? It offers freedom, higher pay, and the ability to have your own career path. The freelance marketplace contributes $42 trillion to the global economy. 71% of companies plan to shift to more contingent project or contract work. Freelancers report being more content with their work-life balance. Let me address some common fears and concerns about freelancing: not having enough experience, job security, finding projects, doing taxes, and being isolated from code.

OK, so why in the world would somebody start freelancing? Why would they leave their job and kind of start freelancing on their own? Why would anybody do that? Well, one thing I can say, oh, I see there's two people. Oh, freedom, yes. The coding test is at the end. Yes, it is. And freedom, yes, freedom. That is one big thing that people leave. Thank you for that comment.

This is, without a doubt, one of the largest transformations in history that we're seeing right now. We've been seeing it for a while at TopTel. We've been monitoring it for a long time. And if I were to draw a chart, you would see that it started to become more popular in the last five years. However, due to the pandemic, it really fueled this transformation. So it's massive. The freelance marketplace contributes $42 trillion dollars, and I'm sorry, this is US dollars, to the global economy. That's important because businesses are accepting freelancing as a part of their workforce. 71% of companies plan to shift roles to more contingent project or contract work. And freelancers report being more content with their work-life balance. Freedom comes down to freedom, comes down to higher pay, it comes down to being able to have your own career path. And more than 2 third of freelancers said that they earn the same or more than they did working full time at a traditional job.

Now, I know that that might sound great to some people, and you might be thinking, well, OK, how do I do this? I will share with you the path on how to get started with this. And let me, I guess, let me ask everybody a question. If you think about freelancing and you think about contract work, just put in chat some of your fears, some of the things that you probably would say, yeah, it sounds great, but I really don't want to do it because of this. Let me know, and I can address those. Here's how you do this. Let's say that you are pension. That's a great one, Naveed. Yes, that is not having enough experience. Yes. Job security, finding projects. Thank you guys. This is fantastic. Yeah, this is great to see, having to do taxes on my own. Job security, yes. OK, OK. These are great. 24-hour work. You guys are hitting all of the points. And this is fantastic. Detention, yes. Wow. Being isolated from code, OK. Awesome. OK, so yeah. This is great, you guys. I'm going to address all these, believe this or not. These are fantastic. Thank you. Keep it coming. I love this. This is great.

QnA