freelancer

This interesting article on deskmag discusses the German government’s plan to force freelancers to pay a compulsory retirement ‘contribution’. Will it kill off entrepreneurship and destroy millions of independent careers? At least that’s the opinion of Tim Wessels, an IT specialist from Hamburg who has launched a petition against the so-called “Rewarding Life’s Work” law. With this law, provided it is passed, Freelancers will be forced to pay €350+ a month to support the broken pension system, on top of the €300-€600 they must already pay for health insurance (plus other taxes). Demanding that entrepreneurs fork out at least €650 a month in contributions before they earn a single cent will end innovation in Germany…

Hi all,

today we released a small membership account, called the “Starter” membership!

With this release we have added an additional, flexible membership option to projektwerk.

As a “Starter” you can use projektwerk for only 8€ a month, enabling a more extensive use compared with the “Basic” membership. The “Starter” membership probably suits you if you wish to proactively contact other users now and then and want to publish projects or profiles on a small scale.

Your benefits as a “Starter” user:

• Contact up to 3 project partners proactively each month – instead of having to wait for requests as a Basic member
• View complete project descriptions and profiles
• Receive detailed matching information on suitable project partners
• Bookmark interesting projects or profiles

More:

• Publish one profile or project at a time
• Receive daily updates for interesting new matches
• Refine your matches with location and relevance filters

Many freelancers operate as just another anonymous resource in the crowded market. Their services lack an identifying mark that stands for something. It is therefore not surprising that, at times, it can be very difficult to prevail in a highly competitive freelance environment. In that sense, building a distinctive image and lasting reputation for your freelancing business can be very beneficial.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that having business cards, a logo, a website, a social media presence, or a slogan for their business means that they have a brand. But they are wrong. Those things, in and of themselves, are not a brand, but they can help build a brand. They serve as a reminder of what your freelancing business stands for. In a nutshell, a brand is what your clients think of when they think of you and your work. Simply being known as a good designer or good programmer is no longer enough. You should rather be known as a designer who provides elegant yet simple work or a programmer who is known for his/her exceptional ability to solve tough problems. Developing a strong brand takes time and effort. Besides exceptional work, building a brand usually requires significant and consistent marketing and PR.

Having a strong freelancing brand can mean the difference when pitching for a project or job. What do you think?

“This interesting post, published by TechCrunch on February 4^th 2012, does not only remind us of how one of the greatest inventions of our generation has already changed the way we communicate, share information, or shop but also gives us a taste of what is still to come: The Internet is changing the way we work – the web is disrupting labor and transforming the definition of employment as we know it!

The post discusses the rise of the “independent worker”, who is one that operates independently and flexibly in today’s work environment – unattached to any particular company. The author, Nick Cronin, summarizes what he believes are the main factors contributing to this development, how these changes are affecting companies’ hiring processes, and the increasing importance of labor efficiency for maintaining a competitive edge.

“The era of the lean, flexible workforce is here and guess where both companies and independents are increasingly locating each other. Yep: The Internet.”

Read the full post “Labor Efficiency: The next great Internet Disruption” on TechCrunch

In that sense, check out the leading online project marketplace for freelancers and businesses in Germany:

projektwerk

According to an article on fins.com (2011), the job market for freelance technologists is continuously growing. Research company Forrester Research estimates the total U.S. business and government spending on IT goods and services to grow to $876 billion in 2012, up 8.8% from 2011 and a 16.2% increase over 2010 levels. Read the full post here:

Having success as a freelancer depends on many factors of which I have collected the most important ones (in my opinion) here – that does not mean that having those factors will ensure your success or that success is impossible without them, but they will definitely be more than nice to have.

The idea
A bright idea turned into a realistic business plan is the safest way to achieve success. Refrain from copying existing business plans, be original and offer something special and helpful to potential clients or customers.

Adaptability
Being adaptable is truly important, since freelancing in itself not always runs according to the original plan. First, reality does differ from the business plan, no matter how realistic and elaborated the plan is. Secondly, the surroundings will change with time – the market will change as well as your customers´ expectations. Being prepared for change is key.

Endurance
The first 3 years are said to be the most difficult. Especially the beginning is characterised by the pursuit for clients / customers and a regular or at least reliable income. Even though it gets better with time, endurance and discipline are important factors for achieving lasting success.

Learning to delegate
To delegate sounds easy, but for many people this will turn out to be a difficulty. Delegating is important, because it is so easy to get lost in small, everyday tasks or tasks one does not have the knowledge to handle. Turning to experts will save you the energy to deal with the core of your freelance business.

Commercial skills
The idea is convincing, the technical know-how exists and you do not lack enthusiasm. That is a good start, or the heart of your freelancing success. But the commercial skills are often being underestimated, even though they are the groundwork of your business. Freelancers who do not happen to have an education in business should attend a course or at least spend some time reading technical literature – even if they plan to hire an expert.

Now it´s your turn: Do you agree? Do you have any further suggestions?

When Meridith Levinson from the American CIO thinks about job searches, few positive associations come to her mind. Moreover, the words are: frustrating, discouraging, inexorably.
Over and over again, she meets people looking for a job who tell her about their frustrating moments during their search. The most commonly named moments she has listed up for the German CIO.

Due to the fact that the application process is more or less for freelancers, we would like to show you that you are not alone with your frustration: Here are the top ten dangers for your motivation during the project search.

Project providers listen up: We urgently recommend to avoid these!

1. No answer to an application: Applicants are not expecting a rapid response, because they know that their application was probably not the only one. However, not receiving any answer might be very frustrating.

2. No further contact after an interview: It is even more disappointing when there has been a personal meeting and there is no further contact.

3. Unreal and expired projects: Experience shows that the same projects are sometimes advertised repeatedly. Applications to those projects lead to nothing. Misgivings that those projects do not even exist are justifiable. This was even confirmed by the employees of some companies. But why? Concerned applicants would think that those projects were only advertised because the company wants to look solid to their competitors.

4. Very specific requirements: The market becomes more and more demanding and in order to be the perfect fit, you have to fulfill a lot of requirements. However, those many requirements also have positive aspects: You save time, because you won´t apply for a job for which you do not have all the qualifications, yet.

For many projektwerk members, a quarterly, semi-annual or annual billing period is a commitment that is too long and inflexible for the flexible freelance working world. Therefore, we now offer the 1-month membership on all projektwerk platforms

Before going online with the new billing period, we tested the 1-month membership on projektwerk creative. Due to the high demand, we decided to implement the shorter period on all projektwerk platforms.

The same conditions as those of the longer billing periods apply to the 1-month membership. Only the cancellation period differs from the other billing periods: Here, you can cancel your premium membership up to two weeks before the extension date.

Here you can find more information on the projektwerk membership:
https://it.projektwerk.com/en/users/membership

Freelancers, companies or other experts of the sectors IT, consulting, engineering, creative or medical are the ideal target group of your service or your product? Than you will reach your potential customers, custom-fit via the projektwerk blog. You can resort to daily increasing resources of, at the moment 68.000 registerd members.

Your possibilities to attract attention:

• Your banner in the projektwerk blog

projektwerk is running two blogs: one in German and additionally one in English. You can read about current trends, tips or partners from different branches.

• Your article in the projektwerk blog

With the presentation of your service in the projektwerk blog you will receive several thousand readers per month. Furthermore via other social media canals potential customers will be attracted.

• Combi-adverts with the projektwerk Newsletter

Positioning without much wastage: Place a combi-ad in the projektwerk newsletter with about 250 signs, a picture (.jpg or .gif) and a link. We are sending our newsletters once a month – at the one side a general freelancer-newsletter, reaching about 25.000 recipients and on the other side the branch specific newsletter.

You can find more detailed facts and information about advertising possibilities and the mediadata of the different branches in the footer of each platform. In the following one example: http://it.projektwerk.com/partner.html

Please do not hesitate to contact us in case of questions!

Facebook today announced Timeline, a total redesign of the current profile page. Timeline chronicles your Facebook history and enables you to look at everything that has ever happened in your Facebook lifespan. Here’s a Mashable post that offers some great snapshots of Facebook’s new appearance and discusses some of the novelties. What do you think?

Picture courtesy of Mashable

Some of the new features include:

• “Timeline” – a stream of information about you (the photos you’ve posted, all your status updates, the apps you’ve used, even the places you’ve visited) that scrolls all the way back to your birth.
• You don’t have to just like something – “Facebook Gestures” enables users to express various kinds of reactions or emotions.
• Facebook apps will only ask for permission once to post content on your behalf – before apps had to ask each time before sharing information about you.
• Lightweight or trivial information is going to the “Ticker” – only the more relevant things such as status updates, photos from a wedding or a vacation, or changes in relationship status will appear in your news feed.
• And lastly, you can watch TV and movies, listen to music, and read news with your friends — all within Facebook.