Payoneer has always recognized outstanding international businesses that are changing the world around us, expanding, exploring, and building their way to success. Payoneer’s Entrepreneurship Awards is given to leaders in the following categories:
We recently held an exciting webinar in which we brought together present and past Entrepreneurship Awards winners from the Freelancer of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year categories to discuss a topic that is especially pertinent today as so many workers around the world transition to remote work: Debunking Freelance Myths.
Didn’t get a chance to watch our informative and value-packed webinar? Watch it today!
The Entrepreneurship Awards Winners who joined are:
During the webinar, these global experts shared their experience and tips on freelance success, showing that while there are many common myths about joining the gig economy, freelancing is a potentially lucrative, fulfilling, and even world-changing career choice.
One myth about freelancing is that isn’t a real career. Ayman responding first, described how she first started out freelancing as a doctoral candidate to supplement her income, but that quickly saw the benefits. Although she worked in the corporate world for a time, Ayman is now a successful freelance content writer and virtual assistant, and she hasn’t looked back. As she summarizes: “This is not just a side gig – you can build an empire this way.”
Katerina began her business back in 2012, though it started as a side gig, Katerina’s freelance career grew steadily until she left her company job to pursue it fully. Following her experiences as a freelancer, Katerina found a company to facilitate opportunities for freelancers. One thing that people may not realize is that the global gig economy gives freelancers from everywhere the ability to work in distributed teams on longer-term projects, giving them a real opportunity to grow professionally. Freelancers worldwide are working for top-tier companies in Silicon Valley without having to leave their home countries, contributing to improving local ecosystems and increasing the standards of life in emerging countries.
For Katia, being a freelancer contributed to her success in building a company. Aside from being more profitable than her office job, freelancing helped her understand how to delegate and find the best hires, thereby ensuring a high level of output and the ongoing success of her growing business. Furthermore, as Siva expressed, current trends resulting from the global shift to remote work indicate that freelancing is growing as a viable career choice. Many businesses hire freelancers to save on operational costs while not compromising on the quality of the output.
Luiz brought up the point that freelancing gives you more freedom and security. This is the most vital takeaway from the webinar and a benefit highlighted by all of our webinar guests. When you are freelancing you have the choice to build your own schedule and work on what you love. In many ways, as we are currently seeing, freelancing gives more security than an office job. Plus, just as Katerina did, freelancing gives you the ability to build your own team and decide how you want to expand when it’s time to scale.
This myth plays on the insecurity that you won’t be able to secure enough clients to sustain your freelance business. However, Katerina points out that for many global freelancers, the income earned as a freelancer is higher than the local standard.
Furthermore, freelancing offers you the opportunity to relocate to less expensive regions where your income goes farther. This is why the gig market is home to digital nomads who travel to exotic locations with low living expenses, seeing the world and working when and how they want.
As an individual freelancer, Ayman agrees that the comparable income for freelancing is on the upper side of conventional wages and that the real benefit, both financially and personally, is freedom of movement. Conventional establishments are less flexible and there are limits on what you can earn, but freelancing is the opposite. With consensus debunking this second myth, Luiz and Katia concur that flexibility is both the key to earning more and doing it on your own terms.
Echoing an earlier point from Siva, Luiz debunks this myth about freelancing by stating that the current situation shows us that nothing is certain. As a freelancer, you can follow the path you believe in and truly excel at it. If you focus on what you love, you will be able to earn more clients and more income while bringing real value to customers. When you do what you love and put in the work, you will get clients.
Another misconception is that freelancing can be isolating, however, that is also a matter of choice. For example, if you are building a team, you have a choice to hire people local to you or remote so you can determine how frequently you connect and meet face to face. Katia agrees that teams can meet to foster connection if that’s what you choose. That’s the benefit of freelancing: there’s no single formula.
In terms of happiness, the flexibility of freelancing is great and enables you to work hours that are not standard for office jobs. Ayman concurs, recounting that the flexibility of freelancing lets her spend more time with her children and find real work-life balance.
As for uncertainty, Katia and Siva both emphasize that if you provide high-end services to a targeted audience you won’t need to struggle to find clients. You can choose what you want to work on, choose your clients, and decide on the pace of work. For example, if you find projects that are sustainable and more long-term, you won’t need to be constantly moving from project to project. On the other hand, to change things up you can also find shorter-term, high energy, high-cost projects. You just need to experiment and find the right balance.
Freelancing is not one size fits all. You can adapt it to your needs and deliver genuine value doing what you love.
Some of the best tips for freelancers from some of the best in the business were delivered during the webinar’s live Q&A. From how to optimize your client acquisition strategy to how to keep track of your finances, our guests delivered some valuable advice on how to build your best freelance business.
If you missed the live webinar, you can still catch Debunking Freelance Myths anytime to sharpen your competitive edge by learning from Payoneer’s Entrepreneurship Award winners.