{"id":1704,"date":"2014-09-24T00:15:32","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T08:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2014-09-23T14:28:55","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T22:28:55","slug":"how-freelancing-can-help-you-work-less-and-earn-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/how-freelancing-can-help-you-work-less-and-earn-more\/","title":{"rendered":"How Freelancing Can Help You Work Less and Earn More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"work<\/a>If you haven\u2019t noticed, the economy and the job market has changed drastically in recent years. In fact, I see it over and over \u2013 we\u2019re now living in the \u201cYou Economy.\u201d Instead of waiting around for an employer to hire you, you get the pleasure of going out and creating your own opportunities.<\/p>\n

And in my experience this is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Instead of being chained to desk all day long you can create your own schedule and map out your own career. In the beginning it\u2019s hard work. But everything worth doing is hard.<\/p>\n

Are you ready to leave the day job? Here\u2019s how freelancing can help you work less and earn more.<\/p>\n

Believe that You are Worth More<\/h2>\n

This was the hardest for me to conquer.<\/p>\n

All my life I had worked crappy day jobs, usually making in the $10-$12 per hour range. I knew I was smart, I knew I provided my employer\u2019s value, but I live in a small town and I don\u2019t have a college degree. My salary was capped at a pretty low rate.<\/p>\n

When I decided to start freelancing this was the mental barrier I had to get over. I had a general idea of what others in my niche were charging and I knew I was just as capable as they were. The problem was that I was so used to earning such a low wage that it didn\u2019t feel right charging more.<\/p>\n

As I entered my freelance career I made a big mistake: I didn\u2019t charge enough.<\/p>\n

As time went on I started slowly increasing my rates with new clients. Over the past year and a half I have more than double my initial rate. While I\u2019m working the same amount of time, or even less than I did when I first started, I\u2019m earning more money.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s compare that to one of my old jobs.<\/p>\n

For 40 hours a week at eleven dollars an hour I was grossing $440 per week. Now I work somewhere in the ballpark of 25 hours a week with a rough hourly rate of $30 per hour or $750 per week.<\/p>\n

Niche Down and Charge More<\/h2>\n

Usually when freelancing everyone wants to be generalists. I see the appeal, I really do. You\u2019re afraid that if you box yourself into one category you\u2019ll be passing up on opportunities. But that\u2019s not how it really goes.<\/p>\n

Companies want to hire specialists not generalists. For example when I first started freelancing I had just left a job as insurance agent. I had specialized knowledge and I knew that\u2019d work in my favor. I started emailing insurance related companies asking for jobs.<\/p>\n

I had an extremely high success rate with this approach. That\u2019s because not everyone knows the ins and outs of insurance. One of my clients expressed to me how hard it was for her to find contractors who actually understood the work she needed done.<\/p>\n

But I did understand. And since I didn\u2019t have much competition in this area I was able to secure a higher rate.<\/p>\n

Niche down what you do<\/a>. Find the area in which people will respect your expertise. If you do this you can charge more for your work.<\/p>\n

Work More Earn More<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t know about you but the last several day jobs I had, had plenty of down time in them. In fact the insurance agency was so slow from August through December that it was hard for me to even stay awake.<\/p>\n

Freelancing is not like that. You get paid for the time you put in. As long as you maintain a good hourly rate by being a specialist you should be able to earn the same amount in twenty five hours as you did at your old job in forty hours.<\/p>\n

And the best part is that you can work when it suits you best!<\/p>\n

Is Freelancing for You?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ll be the first to admit freelancing isn\u2019t for everyone. You have to be willing to put in that initial unpaid time to find clients. After that you\u2019ve got to be self-motivated to get your work done and you have to be able to keep up with multiple clients. Not to mention there\u2019s no benefits<\/a> and you\u2019re responsible for paying your own taxes.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019ve got a good job and prefer working in a traditional setting, that\u2019s great. But if you feel like you\u2019re stuck in a dead end job, with no benefits, and no future then freelancing might be right for you.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t think that you have to have a fancy college degree or some specialized education, because you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve entered the You Economy you can create your own opportunities. Think about your particular life experiences, your skills, and what you enjoy to find your own freelance niche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven\u2019t noticed, the economy and the job market has changed drastically in recent years. In fact, I see it over and over \u2013 we\u2019re now living in the \u201cYou Economy.\u201d Instead of waiting around for an employer to hire you, you get the pleasure of going out and creating your own opportunities. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[66,300,400],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}