Kitobni o'qish: «Freelancing. The smartest Way to be free and highly Paid»

© Валинуров И., 2020

© Валинурова Д., иллюстрации, 2020

© ООО «1000 бестселлеров», оригинал-макет, 2020

Ilgz Valmurw s a famous headhunter, author & bestsellers on personnel search, and career management Speaker of the largest international conferences “Career consultant of the year”

Doctor of human resource management Busness consultant on strategic personnel managemen. Fa 20 years in the profession conducted 15000 interviews with mid- and senjor-level candidates fa the world's largest capaations. 5.000 HR specialists have been trained in mao than 10 countries at his semnars and trainings. He is one of the top 10 expens in Russia on staff training and development.

A father of five children, and a traveller.

The book is full of real examples from the work of freelancers and their customers around the world. Prmides a step-by-step start and development plan fa oneself as a successful freelancer Contains checklists, ideas, life hacks, and inspires action!

"If you want in 20 days to go through the way the author went for 20 years, be sure to study this book”.

Alexey Zakharov, Superjob.ru, President

Author’s note

“We live in a time of change. Today, everything in the world is changing rapidly. If you don’t change the situation, then tomorrow you will be overtaken by your competitors” – this is how most business books published over the past 20 years begin.

I don’t agree with that. This is an exaggeration. Consultants write so to make readers feel how outdated they are, and make them run to pay money for “magic pills” – an advice from consultants.

Change has become part of our daily routine. New technologies appear every day. And we become either their creators, or users. We can no longer stay beyond the world global trends.

Companies implement automation, digitalization, and pass work to robots and artificial intelligence. Knowledge management systems reduces dependence on personel.

The key problem is that technology is changing the way of consumption, not the habits themselves. People used to read newspapers, but now the content is in the Internet. We used to meet to share the latest gossip – now it is discussed in social networks. We made calls to discuss work and personal issues – now we exchange messages and emojis in messengers. We used to go shopping – now we order delivery after choosing goods in the online store. Used to read paper books – now we read electronic ones or listen to audio. In fact, a little has changed…

Not many people change their basic approach to life. You went to work. The employer has decided that part of the functions you can perform from home. And now you already go to work not 5, but 2 or 4 times a week. This saves time. But the essence of the work has not changed. The same employer pays you the same money regularly 2 times a month. Almost everything is as it was before.

The point of this book is to show the new reality. Reality in which you work from anywhere in the world for employers who can be located in any country.

Isn’t it interesting?

Let’s go then!

Forword

Ilgiz has created a unique product about how to start living and earn money on your own. For those as brave as he is, this is the ability to avoid mistakes and start nicely right from the start. For the timid ones this is a chance to spot the possibilities. For those who have to search for ways to earn money, this is a great way to understand that freelancing is not scary and it may contaion more possibilities than that of their previous life.

This book is like a torchlight, it is full of practical tips.

And the stories of hard working yet free individuals, who demonstarte by their own example what does it mean – to be, to live and to earn as a freelancer – make it especially beautiful.

But I guess that the main advantage of the book is that it is honest and positive. Ilgiz honestly warns about what a freelancer can expect and what he gets in return. I think the book will become a reference for those who goes this way.

Boris Diakonov, co-founder and President of “Tochka”Bank

Forword from the first reader

The modern world of employment relations is changing and transforming faster and faster every year, and technological progress does not stand still. 15 years ago it was hard to imagine that you can successfully perform one or another task remotely, transferring large amounts of data at a long range, organizing online conferences and creating virtual production teams.

More and more people leave warm and cozy office and go into free floating under the name “remote work” – the freelance!

So who is a freelancer as such in the modern world?

This is a person who offers his services via specialized media resources by means of private ads. This has been done before in newspapers; now this is implemented in internet – on various websites, by word of mouth and, of course, using personal contacts. All these are logical things used for job search of any kind.

Freelancing is especially widely spread in areas such as design (in all its manifestations), copywriting and journalism, law, programming, architecture, translation, photography and video production. There are also a few different types of expert activities, but for our country, unlike the United States or China, freelancing is still more related to creative professions.

More than 50 % of people engaged in freelancing are in the age between 25 and 34. This is so to speak a backbone of freelancing. The next age category is between 35 to 44. Less freelancers are at the age of 1824. People at the age of 45+ are quite rare: only 8 %. Young people under 18 are even more rare.

Over the past ten years the freelancing, while staying a part of the self-employed segment, came out of the shadows and became a big growing market, a separate and important branch of the national economy with its own rules, shop ethics, information space, financial mechanisms, public and state regulation.

Super profis, the intellectual elite of self-employed, its “digital collars”, arose among freelancers.

Since freelancing is a personal business, there exist it’s own pros and cons, its disadvantages and advantages, the same as in any other type of business So what are the advantages of being a freelancer?

Of course, the most important thing is independence from anyone, free working hours and comfortable working conditions: work at home, own workplace, clothing, food, downshifting or, on the contrary, travelling to other countries. Creating an optimal balance between family, environment and work. Possibility to talk to the customer in detail. A comfortable state for the production of a particular service. A relatively low threshold for starting your own business. It is clear why though: you work for yourself, and from the point of view of the overheads you fairly low professional income tax plus spendings for the computer hardware, furniture, daily routine payments such as food and drinks.

Also one of the big advantages is the ability to choose your own job and refuse uninteresting or unprofitable projects. The ability to choose partners independently and adapt to the existing virtual team.

There are usually two sides to a coin. What are the disadvantages for freelancers?

One of the main disadvantages is that you have to search for new orders yourself.

This can be costly in terms of time and money since the marketplaces for freelancers are not charities; they live on money earned on selling paid premium accounts and advertising.

The income is extremely uneven, this is why you need to plan your own budget and do bookkeeping to understand how to pay taxes, how much money has come and how much has gone, and how much money you spent on your promotion.

There are no sick leaves, social security, or trade unions. You need to take care of yourself.

There is also a risk of fraud from the side of the customer.

For some people, much extra effort can be required for self-management, which may lead to a nervous failure. And, of course, you can’t ignore the customer and his pros and cons.

Undoubtfully, a huge plus is the variety of choice and agreements. A choice to get paid hourly or for the implemented work only. A possibility to engage a highly qualified person for a smaller budget.

Savings on the rent of the workplace, no need to provide social guarantees and pay for the vacation and sick leave. And, of course, a minimum of paperwork and reporting.

The disadvantages include complexity of controlling the workflow, the problem of protecting confidentiality and the risk of leakage of certain private information, the inability to engage a freelancer in the projects which require access to state secrets and personal data.

Let’s return to the issue of job search and self promotion.

As I wrote in the beginning, job search and self promotion is implemented via online job marketplaces, word of mouth, personal contacts, and other resources. One way or another, the issue of self promotion is quite important and long lasting. But, oddly enough, it seems to be very simple. At the same time, it is really very difficult to explain where to start and how to build your personal brand.

Now I will try to specify the main postulates very briefly. Always be open. Put your photo in your profile, not a virtual image. Share your contacts, and fill in your portfolio with the works that you have completed and that can be absolutely anything, including those made for friends and colleagues. Show yourself and your skills to potential customers as eloquent as possible to the potential customer. Take on only those obligations that you can fulfill!

Participate in industry forums, competitions, and awards: it will allow you to show yourself and your skills. In addition, events of this kind set the benchmarks of quality, the level of professionalism and the vector of development. This is very important both for your development and for the development of the market!

If you want to be an independent, responsible, educated, confident «free artist», a free fighter and a true freelancer – just be the one!

Yours sincerely:

Kirill Anoshin

Founder of multi-profile marketplace for remote work Freelance.ru

Director of The National Freelancers Guild: Freelancers Guild. RF

Producer of the independent freelancers award “Golden spear”: GoldenLance.ru

Introduclion

In April 2011, one of my clients in search for top managers, the international restaurant holding “Arpikom”, asked me to speak at an internal corporate conference “Russian food market outside the home in 2020”.

This took place 9 years ago. My task was to analyze global trends and prepare recommendations for changes from the point of view of the labor market, job seekers and HR services, speak to key employees of the holding company and give recommendations for preparing changes within the company.

I have prepared 17 points. Today I reviewed my presentation once again. And I was surprised to see that 6 of them are directly related to remote work. A third! Another third is indirectly related to remote work.

And only one point did hasn’t come true. Namely the death of a resume.

Yes, a traditional resume remains a necessity if you applying for an office job. What were the other 5 points? To put it short.

The first – you probably already guessed. Remote work. Yes, at the beginning of 2011, this was not a trend. This was the probable future – and today it has come true. Due to coronavirus in 2020, most companies around the world have asked employees to work from home. And some of these employees will definitely not return to the office.

The second point is geolocation. Search for a job near your home.

Only a few years later the leaders among job search websites “Superjob” and “Head Hunter” introduced an opportunity to specify the location of the employer in the job description.

But If you work not in the office, then your geolocation is any country in the world.

The third point is online interviews. Now there is no need to meet in person in the office to find a job and demonstrate your experience. Our recruitment agency “Business Connection” acquired customers and candidates all over the world. If in the very beginning of the new century an order from the Philippines, the Czech Republic or Cyprus was an extraordinary challenge for us, now we understand how to implement it.

The fourth point is changing of the business processes. Remote work creates new standards of communication, managerial competences, task setting and performance control. A special goal arises – to motivate employees you can’t see every day, and their socialization. These are new challenges for HR.

The fifth point is project-oriented activity. Earlier the employers were confident in the stability of sales markets, business processes, and their own invincibility. And they hired people, in fact, to support and strengthen current processes. The new economy, and especially the “Industry 4.0”, expects super results in a short time, clear budgets, clear view of the resources used and the reasonable commercial result from the performers. It is no longer possible to do in the same way as before simply because it was done this way before.

Each task is a project. With all the rules of the project management involved.

And the sixth point, most important for us, is multiple sources of income. Yes. As blasphemous as it sounds, work in large corporations is a legalized slavery. You work from morning till night and have a weekend for your personal life and family.

And a vacation leave once a year to recover and to continue work.

Can you imagine an employer 10-20-30 years ago who would have been positive about what you go freelancing in order to have extra earnings? No. This is a corporate betrayal, an activity beyond the corporate rules.

But what about now? Now this is becoming a normal practice. Employers understand they’re losing their monopoly on you. You become less and less dependent on them. It is unpleasant for them, painful, and causes resistance.

But they can’t change the trend. And those employers who have accepted this and allowed their employees to be independent of them, they get a lot of loyalty and respect from employees.

This is the purpose of the book. To show the possibilities of multiple sources of income and independence from a single employer.

I can give you my own example. I’m an entrepreneur. Main business is search for top managers. These are people with an income between 500 thousand and 3 million rubles a month. In addition, I conduct personnel management seminars around the world. I’m a book writer and get quarterly.

royalties from the book sales in paper, electronic and audio formats. I’m a career consultant. I help you decide on career development, development strategy, tactics for achieving goals, find the ideal employer for these purposes. I’m an HR consultant and an expert in HR digitalization: I help companies attract the best candidates and build the right relationships with employees to increase efficiency and reduce routine. I’m a speaker at conferences. And I get paid for it. In 1999 I started working as a recruiter. He received the money only for the filling in the vacancies. Since then, I have mastered some related industries and other sources of income. The main thing for me is transition to the executive search level, the search for top managers.

You might say that it makes sense for a headhunter to conduct HR training and write career books. Yes, it makes sense. With all this, how many other people do you know who, starting from calling candidates by phone and conducting initial interviews, and getting $150 a month, were able to actually reach a level where one hour consultation is $500 worth?

I’d been going for this for 20 years. But now is the time when it is possible for you to reach this quicker!

I am grateful to each of my customers for their experience and opportunity development.

And especially to the restaurant holding company who asked me to make a one-hour report “Key HR trends-2020”. In the result, I performed more than 30 times with this presentation. At conferences and meetings in Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Spain, Azerbaijan, and even in Indonesia.

It’s amazing that, even after making a speech in 2019 with the same presentation in Moscow, where I didn’t change a single slide, I received an ovation and a lot of questions from HR professionals.

I promise that the next presentation will take into account the trends of 2030 and will be altered.

And we’re getting to the point!

Move on to free relocation, income, success and selfrealization!

Chapter 1
Who are the freelancers

Most likely, you have already read about it somewhere. So I put it briefly. In the medieval centuries, this was the name of the helpers to the spearmen, the knights. Those who carried their weapons. Lance is a spear. According to Wikipedia, the term became widely used after publishing of the novel by Walter Scott “Ivanhoe”. The most striking example from classical literature is Sancho Panza in “Don Quixote”. However, Cervantes wrote about this even back there in the 17th century.

It doesn’t matter how or when the term first appeared. The more important issue is what does it define now.

It does define people who can work for multiple employers and are not tied up to each of them by longterm obligations.

A freelancer is a person who offers their services to employers without being employed by them. Which services?

This can be writing texts, design, page makeup, search for personnel, training, programming, translation, photo and video shooting, website creation, mailings, typing, information collection, accounting, legal services. This can be absolutely any work related to mental labor.

What kind of freelancer services do I order myself? These are website promotion, corporate souvenir design, makeup of handouts for seminars and trainings, making of presentations, design of publications for Instagram, layouts of my books, creating covers, designing my YouTube channel and its content promotion, translation of my books to other languages, creation of illustrations for books.

In other words, I am a fairly regular customer for freelancers.

Let’s take a look what are the advantages of working as a freelancer.

Independence

There are several nuances here. Independence from the office. No office squabbles and unnecessary talks. Freelancer is paid for the result. And he doesn’t have to attend meetings and other get-togethers; he does his job. He focuses on it and dedicates time to it. This increases productivity.

Independence from one employer. He has several of them. If something happened to one – closing, or delays, or a change in policy for example – he can switch to the others. Employees who work for one employer are more at risk.

You have a mortgage and loans, and you get a salary from one company. If something happens to it, this may be crucial for you and your family. And if there are 10 employers, this doesn’t mean much, right?

I have a cousin Vadim. He has been working at customs for more than 15 years.

We rarely meet – about once every 3 years. One day he asked me a question: “How do I make way to commercial structures»? «Why? – I asked. – You serve to the state, have a guaranteed salary on time, you have status, shoulder straps, career promotion.»

The answer surprised me: «We are unstable. Nobody knows what the state will introduce tomorrow and what new rules will be.»

I was in shock. I was sure that civil servants are confident in the future and trust the employer. But it prooved to be false. Well, we had a talk and a discussin; I suggested him options and introduced to the local business community. Nothing has changed.

Although he is not happy with the work, he remains there, at customs. Does it malke sense for me to influence it? No. Changes is a matter of independent choice.

I can help you change only if you’ve already decided that this is necessary for you.

What else can I say about independence? Here goes independent of the location. In most cases, mental work can be done from anywhere in the world.

What about independence of the work schedule? You are doing a job by the right deadline, not just working from 9 to 18.

Independent of the tasks. Yes, this is also interesting and unusual in the beginning.

Could I realy do this way?

If you work in an office, you have to implement all the tasks that your boss gave you. Working for yourself, you can choose projects, tasks, customers, and partners. You can easily refuse the work that is not interesting for you it is not profitable.

Since I’m an entrepreneur, for me the possibility to choose who I’m willing to work with is one of the main values.

A freelancer is in fact an entrepreneur, who works for himself and his family.

So what else can we do besides being independent!?

Saving time on the road

You don’t need to spend a couple of hours on the road and in traffic jams every day.

But! If you flew to Bali, then 11 hours of flight to Denpasar we will not consider a waste of time on the road, okay?

More time with your family and friends

You need to work. But you don’t have to rush to the office at 9:00. You can take the kids to kindergarten and school in the morning, and meet them after. Even if you are busy at home, then your homies see you and it makes them feel good. This is much better than staying late at work.

As a father of five children I know this, and it has been tested by personal experience and two divorces.

Ready to start freelancing? Doesn’t it sound great and inspiring?

What about the cons?

Yes, there are several. Let’s get into this.

At first glance, the most difficult thing is sales. Say, you used to do the design in the company, receiving technical specifications, implementing it, approving it with the internal customer. But now you have to start from finding the customer. Then agree on working conditions, sign off the specifications, get prepared, agree on the contract and sign it off, complete the work, sign the act of acceptance… Possibly to do the job of a courier and bring documents in person or send them by mail, then get paid, then pay taxes…

Isn’t it easier to work for hire?

Organizational, legal, and accounting issues look intimidating only at first glance. I know people who are afraid to start their own business because of the fact that they did not know how to solve all the bureaucratic issues. Even in 2019, one fellow admitted that he was afraid to start business because he didn’t know how to organize «protection». The guy is under 30. In the «dashing 90’s», he wasn’t even born. Why the fear of bandits, protection, kickbacks? Perhaps from parents or from internet tabloids?

Let’s talk about my experience. I started my company in 2000.

And initially everything was outsourced. Legal services – such as company registration, account opening, contracts with customers and employees. Accounting services – such as reporting, taxes. The only thing I did myself was signing payment orders. Yes.

There were times when you had to do it by hand and then take it to the bank by feet. Now I make payments to clients using my mobile phone’s Face ID. What bank do I use? The «Tochka» bank. I do recommend it to you.

Subscribe to its founder’s Facebook. His name is Boris Diakonov.

Creating corporate identity, business card design, website and office design, IT-administration, document delivery – all this was done by external contractors – companies, or individuals. They weren’t called freelancers then, but in fact they were freelancers. Now these tasks can be solved remotely, even the system administrator can be located in an other city.

In other words, my company only had recruiters on staff. All functions, except recruitment, were given to external contractors.

Now it is much easier to get income officially and pay taxes. In Russia, there is a special status of «self-employed». You pay 6 % tax on income received form corporate entities and only 4 % when payment is received from individuals. Everything is automated, Both from the point of view of registration and taxes. Physically you don’t have to go anywhere at all. In Europe, America, and Asia, there are similar rules, but taxes are higher there.

Let’s go back to the cons.

1. There’s a need to search for customers. This means – to sell. And this is loved not by all of us. As for me, I like to sell. I like to get into the problems and tasks of customers and offer solutions. And to bill, of course.

2. Income may be unstable. You have customers today – but tomorrow you don’t. This will be discussed in the following chapters. There are lifehacks and rules for this.

3. You have no social guarantees. Do you believe in them at all? Now you are your own guarantor of income and expenses. Saving and investing just 10 % of the income, you can save a decent amount over a few years. If you haven’t done financial planning before, here’s the reason to start.

4. Self-motivation and discipline. Previously, it was possible to obtain the «magic-kick-in-the-ass» from the management. Now you’ll have to do it yourself.

5. Vacation. Previously, you could relax 100 % during your vacation. In freelancing, on the one hand, you can arrange vacation at any time, on the other – now you have it unpaid and, if the financial reserve is small, you will have to get to work even when on vacation.

6. Psychological reluctance to work independently. This is partially connected to paragraph 4. This is essential difference between freelancers and employees on the company’s staff who work remotely. If you are on the company’s staff and work at home, you still have a boss, colleagues, common chats, intranet, meetings. And a stable salary. A freelancer doesn’t have that. Socialization is necessary for most people. Well, only if you’re not a 100 % introvert who sits in the office with headphones on and tries not to talk to anyone without a strong need.

7. Risks of non-payment from the customer. You’ve done the job, but the customer haven’t accepted it. Or he has accepted, but refused to pay.

And you can’t go to his office. He’s in another city, or maybe even in another country.

It is necessary to understand that for the employer working with you looks like risky.

What can this mean?

1. He can’t control every day whether you ‹ve been implementing the job for him or not. And he ordered it from you; this means, he needs it to be done by the deadline. A freelancer may get sick or get distracted from the job by personal problems. By outsourcing of the same task to a company, the customer avoids such risks, since the executor can pass the task to an other employee.

2. A freelancer may refuse the implementation of the projects agreed upon before, especially when getting a more profitable order. There is a risk for the customer not to get the result at all.

3. When passing the project for implementation, the employer can share confidential information about the company’s past and even its strategic plans. For example, if you are an accountant, a marketer, or analyst on freelance. Companies who are afraid of these risks, they commit the freelancers only the simplest work. And they may be blackmailed by unscrupulous freelancers.

4. The quality of implementation and communication. If the company has common understanding of the rules for preparing documents, their transmission, discussion, approval, and everyone is OK with the rules, the freelancer just can’t take all the nuances into account while working simultaneously with a dozens of customers. This may cause conflicts or disruptions in order execution.

And the advantages for the customer are even more significant!

1. The most important thing is that the thing for what you pay is the result, not the process. The customer does not care if you spent 1 hour on the task or 10 hours. He pays for the service implemented. This is not the same in case of office workers. According to statistics, an employee spends 2.5–3 hours out of 8 directly performing their duties. The rest of the time he wastes on meetings, breaks, coffee, chatting with colleagues.

2. The job of a freelancer is usually cheaper than the same service order from the company or employment of an employee in the staff.

3. The customer may obtain an expertise absent within the company. And even international specialists, who may not be present not only in their city, but in the whole country.

Isn’t it cool?

4. There are no costs for equipping the working places, buying software, and other resources.

5. Substantial savings in the salary. Vacation and sick leave are not paid. And when signing contract with the self-employed, you pay no taxes.

6. The opportunity to finish the cooperation at any time, without big sanctions and payoffs, which is impossible while dealing with the employed staff.

7. The opportunity to experiment with different performers, and choose the best for your longterm cooperation.

If you are reading this book and are not a freelancer, but an employer, think about which of your tasks can be passed to freelance today.

If you are a freelancer, before moving on to the next chapter, answer a few questions in writing.

Having studied the pros and cons of freelancing, what do I think? Is this for me?

____________________

____________________

____________________

What exactly attracts me to freelancing? What’s still stopping?

____________________

____________________

____________________

Do I want to obtain new experience?

____________________

____________________

____________________

Rank the power of your desire on a scale from 0 to 10

____________________

Customer’s opinion

Ekaterina Skrypnik, Group of companies (GC) “Business information systems”

GC “Business information systems” is engaged in implementation of complex projects at the junction of IT technologies, reengineering of business processes and a narrow subject matter. We have long experience of working with freelancers. Freelancing pros are the first we turn to in case of need. These are people who are have expertise in some narrow subject area (for example, a specialist in extracting of the results of intellectual activity from a content, a specialist in deep machine learning, specialist in management of organizational changes, etc.), and they are also people who do something very well: designers, copywriters, layout designers, business event hosts, etc.

We create a database of proven freelancers for ourselves and try to re-contact those with whom we have already worked together.

How do we choose freelancers? Upon the recommendation. We never compromise on the compensation for professionals. For us the guarantees that the work will be done on time and efficiently are much more valuable than saving of 15–20 %.

Where do we look for freelancers?

The easiest thing is to publish the call on Facebook – and you very quickly get contacts of people who do something well.

You can also search for particular specialists in professional communities, groups on Facebook and on Telegram.

The only way to control the quality of a freelancer’s work if you have agreed on organizing of a digital space for work and iterative approach to the acceptance of the implemented work.

That’s exactly what we do. We sign off a contract with every freelancer, and a specification and a work schedule are attached to the contract. We suggest to work on the basis of our IT infrastructure (if it is possible), to track the progress in real time mode.

Of course, we have encountered poor-quality work – we update a black list of unskilled and undisciplined freelancers we have worked with and we don’t want to deal with anymore. And here is the most difficult thing: since you can claim to refund the advance payment while working with a company, and apply penalties for violating the requirements for the quality of work and the calendar plan, it is much more difficult to call an unscrupulous freelancer to account. Keep this in mind when making the final decision.

If you want to progress in IT business and offer your service to our company as a freelancer, then visit our website and contact us on https://company-dis.ru/

Customer’s opinion

Maria Rybina, product owner of the “City business school” international business school

I’ve been working remotely myself since 2014, so searching online and interacting with contractors that I’ve never seen it in my life is my usual working routine.

Sometimes it is simply impossible to meet in person, especially if you are separated by a distance of thousands of kilometers.

This was the case with one of our freelance workers named Dasha. A Muscovite, she worked at an office and did not even think about remote cooperation. Then she married to an engineer working in the oil industry. His contract with the company dictated relocation every three years. Young family moved from Moscow to Paris, and then to the Arab Emirates.

Of course, there was no “normal work” for Dasha there.

The only option was to search for SMM work remotely. In one of the chats for freelancers, she saw our ad about a position for a specialist and left a request.

We needed someone for a short-term project. The meeting was held online: in the process of communication, we realized that the person understands marketing and specifics of promotional work. Dasha did some work on influencers marketing for us, and then revealed another strong point of herself: she perfectly structures the work and clearly tracks all stages of the process, quickly responding to changes that this is especially important for project collaboration.

The work was built Google documents with weekly planning meetups in the online conference mode. So the personal presence was not required, the main thing was the stable Internet. At the beginning of the collaboration Dasha was still living in Paris, but even her relocation and adaptation in a new country did not affect the implementation of work duties. In addition, she would inspire the team with sharing her window view from the phone and stories “from the inside” about the culture of another country. So she fitted the team perfectly.

Our project collaboration has grown into a permanent one. We already successfully completed the project that initially had been a cause for our cooperation, and then the next one. And Dasha is still in the team, already on a permanent basis. During this time, she has mastered a new front of work and even hired an assistant, having taught her also remotely and thus strengthening our team with a new qualified employee.

The success of our joint work and Dashas’s growth from a freelancer to permanent employee of the company became possible due to her responsible approach to work and our experience of management in remote mode, good communication and proper control of a remote team environment and relationships in the team.

Remote work has its own nuances, regardless of whether you are looking for a one-time remote employment, or a project or a permanent collaboration. We here in the company “City Business School”, being the leaders of the remote education market, have collected best practices and experience of remote work and put in the basis of a special training course on building the remote teams.

Find out more and leave a request for training on our website: www.e-mba.ru

Exclusively for this book’s readers we suggest a promo code “Ilgiz” for 30 % discount on remote management programs.

Personal experience

Violetta Grishina, YouTuber

My name is Violetta Grishina. For the last year on remote mode I earned more than in all 10 years of working in my own business, in the office, and on television…

My first salary was approximately $100 a month for work as a TV host. First big income from renting an apartment in the age of 18 years came up to $1500 for a couple of days of work. There were earnings of $7000, but all this was not systematic and would occur from time to time.

I could earn S7000 for selling a house, but then would not get a penny for six months, or I could earn just $300–400 from rent every month, spending all my time on work. This was a good aid for a full-time student. But it is not something that gives stability and confidence in the future.

Over the past year, my monthly income has become more stable: $5000 or more a month, and all this while sitting at home with a newborn daughter. And most importantly, I have a vector for development and growth, the income is growing and will continue to grow, and my personal participation in the operational routine is becoming less and less.

Over the past year, I have fulfilled a dream that I would postpone earlier due to lack of time and money: I have spent 2 months by the sea with my family and grandmother, a month in Turkey and a month in Thailand.

And also 3 months on the Baltic coast. I would walk with the child for 2–3 hours every day and was by her 24 hours a day, while remaining in demand as a professional; met new like-minded people, worked with TV stars and even started sharing my experience on educational forums, which also began to bring money. I created my own video course, trained several people in my team, and worked with people who are freelancers like me, who I have never seen with my eyes. Am I a freelancer? Maybe, but only in terms of being free of bounds to certain locations.

Otherwise, this is a business and a system that had to be built.

Now 80 % of my clients are people I’ve never met in life.

All our communication takes place only in messengers and look las follows: we call or write off, I tell about my services, we make an agreement, discuss the details and get to work: the contract, the payment, and the fulfillment of obligations. I get hired, I attract other freelancers, companies, and remote workers – my team to give the result. In fact, I’m a manager who gives the result.

I can do all this from a warm bed at home, on the beach, or in the gym.

What do I do? I produce YouTube projects. What it all started from? From working on TV for most of my adult life.

Later, with the appearance of the YouTube, I realized that my competence may come in handy. First requests for videos appeared on the Internet, and projects became larger and more interesting, the tasks bigger and broader; I had to expand my own competence in the field of digital marketing, and master advertising accounts. Everything I couldn’t do on my own, was performed by other people: I searched for them on websites, by networking, by recommendations. I had to heavily dump the first year, to gain experience. I gave almost everything I earned to contractors, made mistakes, and paid out of my pocket to fix them. The client would receive what was promised, at all my costs; most often it costed everything you earned. Over time, you gain experience, learn from mistakes, acquire a team of reliable freelancers and do your job so good that the client is happy and willing to pay money for your professionalism. In fact, I have a business with the same risks and obligations; just it happened so that my entire team sits not in the office, but somewhere on the remote and all our communication takes place via task boards and messengers. The only one minus is that most freelancers work as individuals and you have to transfer the payment to their bank card account; and when it comes to accepting money, I use the accounts of my legal entity. I pay taxes and put their cost in the final price. In the same way I have also an accountant on the remote, a lawyer, operators, editors, assistants, designers, web masters, targetologists, specialists in video advertising, excellent marketers, etc.

And for any task, I know how to find a person who will do well.

And my clients come mostly on recommendations. And I have my reputation to keep. And, by the way, I know that I will probably go to work in an office one day, but definitely not because of some despair, but only for the sake of interesting and large-scale projects.

And my team will tirelessly do tasks for my clients, create and promote YouTube channels and raise the check for professionalism.

Personal experience

Anton Veselov, Deputy director state public scientific technical library Russian Academy of Science

While I was working in the socio-political newspaper “Honest word”, I had an “upscale” freelance – in the newspaper “Kommersant-Siberia”. When I finally got hired in the staff of the main business publication of the region, additional working hours have become the main incentive for self-improvement. I worked part-time in the capital’s edition “Outdoor advertising” and learned the basics of advertising campaigns, worked in the “Tourist newspaper” and trained my desire to travel around the world (and soon these wishes had to be fulfilled).

Later, when I came to work for Rossiya-24 TV channel as a producer and a host, it seemed that all my professional dreams had come true, and I should be more modest. But, my large family constantly needed money. And first of all, I didn’t have enough “cross-pollination” with a new “parallel” case. And I settled in the Institute of communication to establish communication, reform the website and photograph the main actors of the educational process. Looking ahead, I will say that now I am a member of the Novosibirsk regional branch of the Union of photo artists of Russia; I scrutinize other people’s websites, I am always ready to participate in branding, naming, and launching new electronic representations. But this was not enough. In parallel with television and higher education, I became an editor-in-chief of the business gloss “Status”. I had to rush around the city in my car, having just a couple of hours a day to support the workflow on each “additional” field. De jure I performed fulltime duties everywhere. The magazine was a star at the time, and the Institute’s marketing strategy showed strong tectonic shifts. As for my work on television, the final Saturday show and the daily five-hour “live” newscasts still seem exemplary to me.

After joining the largest library in Siberia as Deputy Director for public relations, I took on the heavy burden of all the publicity of the State Public Scientific Technical Library of the RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.

To ensure a presence of at least 50,000 people for mass events, I had to learn to be creative around the clock, inventing popular science shows, music and theater projects, organizing significant exhibition and educational projects. This work weirdly combined the functions of an official representative of a Federal institution in government bodies (you have to be “in full parade” in the city hall and the government every other day), and a gallery owner (literally, I would hang pictures myself), a screenwriter and organizer of festivals for 10 thousand people, a host of events with the participation of scientists, the Mayor and Governor, and a press Secretary of the libraries. Otherwise, who else will write press releases and be the “talking head” for the press?! The work is fussy, but rewarding. And the body requires something else!

Years of “multi-stop” training do not allow you to be idle. Fulfilling my vow to the God of journalism, I continue to write texts: not only about the library, but also about artists, theater figures, and entrepreneurs. In need of a “TV drug”, I run my own TV program called “My people”, and every Sunday my half-hour premiere interview airs on. For a whole year out of these three, I hosted a radio show with the frivolous title “Connection. With Anton Veselov.”

On the live broadcast every Saturday would come the mighty ones of this world. And all this was interspersed with music.

Another “place of force “ is the host’s chair. I manage large forums and “closed” round tables. My credo is a neighborhood with the major representatives of government and business. This is not just how I earn money (although sometimes this area of activity feeds me literally gorgeously), and also it trains my social skills and gives me a reason to” dive to the bottom “ in the twists and turns of the forest industry, in the innovations of design or, let’s say, to penetrate the depth of understanding of the world business.

I am afraid that the most memorable event took place when I was freelancing: a dive into the deepest mine in Eurasia in Norilsk, participation in the EU-Russia summit, and the corporate book “ Tomsk oil” with a visit to the fields and refineries of the Tomsk region, a special project about Norilsk Nickel Plant, launch of the Snow Forum by pushing an Ice Button, or art objects auction in the “Pobeda” cinema. I can’t complain: I found myself in these “additional” cases, having left the engineering profession and “diving” into journalism, PR and event management.

Chapter 2
What You Can Do Outside The Office?

On a freelance, you can do any kind of mental work.

The cook cannot work as a freelancer while in sunny Thai. This is work at the stove or with a knife in your hands.

Personal, physical presence is necessary. However, if the cook is an expert in Russian or Mediterranean cuisine, he can consult, record an online course, create a mailing list with recipes. And this is mental work. And if you create it in English or ask another freelancer to translate it, then other chefs around the world may become his clients.

Here the chapter may be finished… but!

Want more details?

Then let’s get deeper in the situation. Who will find it easier to switch to freelancing, and who will have additional tasks to be resolved?

The light option. The easiest and logical one

Let’s assume you are currently working in the company as a designer / recruiter / SMM specialist / accountant / trainer. You can continue the list yourself.

Fill out your job here ____________________.

And make an agreement with your employer that you will no longer work in the staff. Now you work for yourself, continuing to perform the previously agreed functions. Not all employers will accept this, but I’m sure more than half will. After all, the advantages for them are obvious.

They are confident in your efficiency: you have already worked for them. They start saving money on your salary. They free up workspaces and save on rent. They pay for the result of your work, not for the fact that you come to the office.

What’s your benefit?

You continue to do clear and familiar work. You have income. You have something to present to future customers. When you say that you left the company, and still continue to work for them, this is a great indicator that you satisfied your employer, and this adds points to you and gives confidence in your competence and respect to you to your future employer. I personally know such examples among HR specialists, book and magazine layout specialists, internal coaches, Internet marketers. This is an easy start for professionals with an income of up to 1.5 thousand dollars.

If your experience is insufficient and your income is still less than 1 thousand dollars, then the employer will question your competence.

And you may have to start taking small orders, slowly building up both experience and customer database.

Another situation is if you are a top manager, a manager with an income of more than 10 thousand dollars.

I know examples when top managers would leave a company but continued to work with former employers as consultants. In my practice such examples took place with HR directors, sales and marketing directors, financial directors, chief technologists, and digital marketing directors.

Cooperation of this kind can usually last 3–6 months. During this time, you need to find other customers. You do not perform routine tasks, you are involved in fundamental, important business challenges, the cost of which can go into millions. And your income from the project can reach the tens of thousands dollars. That is even higher than you received as an employee. There are also limitations. Such projects usually require personal presence. This doesn’t mean that your customers are only in your city. If you live in Moscow, your customers may be in Saint Petersburg, London, Paris, Nur-Sultan. If you can reach the customer within a few hours or a train or by plane, then there is no problem. It is unlikely that customers will be located on other continents. Although if you have special expertise, it may be customers from Silicon Valley and China.

The specialists of this grade are not usually called freelancers, but in fact they are. You work for yourself, performing consulting services for customers. Usually people like you are called business consultants. I am also a business consultant. This is one of my roles. My most frequent tasks in this role are to assess employees of the HR Department, conduct an audit of selection process, to help formulate and form the employer’s brand, write selling, attractive ad texts about vacancies, conduct training of the personnel of HR department. And also other orders, related to personnel management. I don’t have any orders connected with finance or sales. But my expertise in HR is more than 21 years.

Classic freelancers were given non-core jobs in terms of the main business. As I have given examples, we gave the design to freelancers. Now the situation has changed.

For example, digital marketing agencies can perfectly sell their services, and redistribute their performance between freelancers. And even the project management process can be outsourced. My friend Margarita, while at home on maternity leave, at the same time, would led 5–6 projects in the digital sphere as a project manager, managing other freelancers. And she earned more than 8 thousand dollars a month. If she was in the staff for one only company, her revenue would be about $25003500. In other words, the business process and core business value are changing. The company becomes not a possessor of marketing competencies, but an excellent sales expert, and the matters paid the customers are outsourced. And this is also what is changing the business landscape and the labor market. Losing key expertise may be dangerous for business. However, the profit may be higher. There are classic examples that are decades old. For example, the world-famous McDonald’s. Its main business is real estate with fast food restaurants inside, not the restaurants themselves. It earns money from franchisees.

Let’s structure it.

Freelancing is possible for both legal entities and individuals.

Let’s start with individuals. What services can you offer them?

I will also give personal examples. And you for sure will remember yours.

The repair. Of any kind

repairs in the apartment, repair of electrics, plumbing, installation of doors, wallpapering. I once tried to do some plumbing in the bathroom. I have spent a lot of time, first having to go to the store for the right fittings, then unscrewing the mixer without having the right tools. Finally, I got it assembled and installed. But something went crooked. And I called a plumber. Everything was done in 15 minutes and perfectly. Why did I spend 3 hours?

Here goes also repair of household appliances, computers, electronics. My children constantly break the screens of phones and iPads. Fortunately, iPhones are being repaired in the shop in the next building. More precisely, there were a shop for several years. Now it’s closed. And the phones are still broken regularly. If I knew the right repairman who could come along with the right parts and fix it, this would be great. Or at least he would pick it up, repair it, and bring it back.

Then comes clothes repair and tailoring. You can come to pick up things that need repair, take measurements and do the work at home.

I ordered a tuxedo from such a freelancer. For this I had to go somewhere in the end of nowhere. If the tailor would come to my house to take measurements and for fitting, then I definitely would have recommended it to my friends.

Room cleaning, washing, ironing, taking clothes to the dry cleaners… I have a housekeeper. She comes every Monday. I generally don’t think about washing or ironing anything. This is convenient.

Cooking

My friend Ulyana makes Sunday dinners for families. Menu is agreed in advance. She buys the necessary products herself, checks what kind of cooking inventory is available, and if necessary, brings them her own. It costs starting from 150 dollars for a family. Maybe it’s not cheap, but you will get an exclusive dinner in a beautiful home environment, and it will be cheaper than in a restaurant. Your relatives will remember this for sure. And Yes, to get to this level, she studied abroad with Italian and French famous chefs. If she goes to another country, anywhere in the world there will be those who wants to get such a service. And surprisingly, she found the power to change the career track. We’ve known each other for 20 years. Back then, she was a human resources manager. Then rose to HR director. Found herself a favorite hobby. And made a business out of the hobby.

I have heard about an online school for baking cakes, which brings its creator more than 3 million rubles a month. I had a job position of a pastry chef once. While working on the it, I met the most famous and renown pastry chefs from the countries. None of them came up with the idea of making such a school.

And none of them makes $40,000 a month.

Body care, health and beauty

The manicure. My friend Margarita works as a lawyer in the labor inspectorate. Salary in the civil service for a specialist is not big at all. Margarita took manicure and design courses, then ordered supplies from a wholesaler and become interested in modern trends in nail design. Her handmade and exclusive work with your fingers costs from $50 to $150.

In about 2 hours. She gets more money from five clients a month, than at the main job. And you have to register in advance to get your nails done. Before holidays and special dates like February 14th, Halloween, Christmas, March 8th, she takes a day off at her own expense, because there are too many orders for nails. Girls like to be special at parties, and they are waiting in line to get to Marguerite’s and get shiny for a party or date.

When I was a student in the ‘ 90s, I did my haircut from at home. Actually, I lived in a dorm. Not because I didn’t have time to go to the barber shop. Students have plenty of time. Simply it was cheaper for me than going to the salon. I was saving, and my friend Natalia, who has been trained and worked for several months in a beauty salon, received more income than she would get for the same service as an employee.

The masseur. This is also a high-paying job. The session can cost from $50 to $100. The masseur would come to my house with her special massage table 2 times a week.

And it is not expensive to take massage courses. If you don’t want to go far, you can organize an office in your apartment and invite people who live within walking distance.

Clothing stylist. He comes to your house, asks questions about your events, meetings, and goals. After that, he determines your dress code, looks at what you have, and creates images from what is available, recommends what you need to buy. And maybe help you with shopping. I used these services and was happy with it. Even shocked. Found out how little of business clothes I have, despite the fact that I have 20 years of entrepreneurial experience. The cost may vary from $50 to $300 per hour. No supplies or additional costs from the stylist. Only time is paid. To obtain this skill you won’t spend much time. This is not thermodynamics.

All over the world, before the wedding a make-up artist and a hair stylist come to the bride’s house.

This is a common practice. Such services are quite expensive.

A freelancer gets, in fact, an order for one time. When else this girl is going to get married? Maybe in a few years, maybe never. At the same time, you can immediately offer a discount on styling, for example, for celebrating or a wedding anniversary, for a meeting from the maternity ward, for other special dates. The client can become yours for life.

Work with children

Parents always need help. Help to sit with children, teach them school subjects, take them to hobby groups.

I have 5 children. The eldest, Sofia and Dinara, are studying at a university. And the younger ones are 6 (Elisey), 9 (Rose-Belle) and 11 (Ramil Khan) years old. They have two nannies, because one does not manage to handle a big number of events and activities.

Additionally, they are engaged in speech therapy (it is clear that he’s a freelancer). Children are homeschooled. And freelancers teach them via Skype.

When we lived in Bali (it lasted 3 years) and the children were studying at the international “Green School”, we had an Indonesian nanny named Made, whose day would begin with cooking breakfast for the children and end with putting the children to bed. In fact, she was busy with cleaning, cooking, purchasing food, accompanying children to the beach around the clock. And she’s a freelancer, But currently working for one customer. When we left the island, she got other parents as clients.

Recently, during an interview with some head of a HR Department, I learned that the candidate has additional earnings, teaching English to an elementary school children. I asked a question.

“Tatiana, are you fluent in English?”

“No. I will not be able to conduct a meeting or negotiations in English. But my level is enough to teach children the basics.”

To be honest, I was outraged and surprised for half a day, and I thought that what she was doing was unethical and deceptive. In the evening, I calmed down, arranged my thoughts and said to myself: yes, she might do this.

Tatiana can give children the basics. This is what they need now. In the evenings, after the main work. And it adds about 30 % to her salary in the main place. She’s good.

When I entered a university in 1993, the only tutor who helped me was a German teacher who worked at the same university where I entered. What for? I don’t know. Before I was one of the best German students in school and a prize-winner of the national Olympiads in German. Why parents insisted on individual work with a freelancer teacher?

There are two reasons.

1. They didn’t know how good my German really was to pass the exam. In addition, l studied English myself, with a teach-yourself book. And I haven’t just got the highest grade in German at my business entrance exam;

I also spoke to the examiners in English. When I entered Novosibirsk state technical University, I also started studying French.

2. This was reinsurance. Confidence, that everything possible has been done. And you can use it as a freelancer. Show the potential customer that working with you will eliminate problems.

Here is an example of 2020. An entrepreneur from Siberia requested me to look through view the responses for the vacancy ad they have placed. He has been in business for 10 years. I’m in recruitment more than 20 years. He knew I had a better understanding of the labor market and had known what to look for in a resume. There were more than 230 responses to their vacancy for the position of commercial director. It was important to him, that I personally studied each resume, did not miss strong candidates, and gave advice on who exactly to meet. I did the job. I identified the top 10 most relevant, 25 possible for communication and all the others who don’t fit the job. I called him, and together we discussed the 10 most interesting candidates. He agreed with me 100 %. We didn’t even discuss the second and third groups of candidates. I’m sure he would have made the same decision without me. Sometimes the consultant’s job is to confirm their decisions with an authoritative opinion.

I got $800 for an hour and a half of work. Am I not a good boy? The payment came to my legal entity’s account. After deducting taxes, less than 70 % remained. But if I was self-employed, so only 6 % of the transaction would have come on taxes.

Think about who you can be an authoritative expert for.

Write at least 5 points.

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