The pros and cons of freelancing that everyone should know

Here are some pros and cons of freelancing that you should think about if you’re considering building a career as a freelancer.

The pros

Five advantages freelancers enjoy that people who work regular 9-to-5 jobs don’t have.

Be your own boss

One of the biggest advantages of freelancing is the opportunity of being your own boss. So freelancing can be your career path if working for someone else makes you feel trapped in your position with no chance for progress. Everything is up to you, from the number of hours you put into the project you decide to work on, to the money you earn at the end of the project.

For some people, this can be liberating and enables them to thrive. If you want to be successful as a freelancer and be your boss, you must have self-confidence, a desire to learn, and the ability to manage a business.

No commute

Another benefit of freelancing is the freedom to work remotely from wherever you want without going to your workplace. You can choose to work from home depending on your sector. This is another fantastic benefit of working for yourself.

Long commutes to work can be eliminated, freeing up time that can be used for work or other activities. Some commutes can eat up hours of your day, and make you feel miserable before you even arrive at work. The perk of working from home (or your favorite place) also comes with the obligation to ensure that you do it efficiently and productively. Because it’s very easy to lose concentration when you work from a comfort zone.

Choose who you work with

As an employee, you have little to no control over your coworkers. Your manager will choose a team of people that he believes are best for the company. With freelancing, you won’t have this problem anymore because you decide who you work with. 

You can make your own rules as a freelancer and choose clients and coworkers who weave well with you. You aren’t required to work for clients you dislike or put up with a terrible coworker. However, this doesn’t prevent the possibility that you will occasionally have to work for a picky or obnoxious customer. 

Flexibility

Freedom and flexibility are two of the advantages that freelancing gives you. Working as a freelancer can be a dream job if you have children to care for or maintain a work-life balance. Depending on your sector, freelancing allows you to create your schedule how you like. You decide when you work, how many hours to work when to take a break, and from where you work.

This can be a significant advantage because it enables independent contractors to care for their children or spend time with their families while working. To make your freelancing successful, keep in mind that organization is essential and that you will still need to invest a significant amount of time in work.

Money

Another advantage of being a freelancer is the fact that you don’t have income limitations.
When you work as an employee, your salary will only slightly increase each year, if at all. However, as a freelancer, you can set higher prices for your offers and earn more money if you become recognized as an authority in your occupation.

As you gain trust among your clients, your income will increase in direct proportion to how much you work and how large the projects you contribute to are. Additionally, you would pay less in taxes if you operate your business as a limited company rather than as an employee.

The cons

Five disadvantages freelancers have that people who work regular 9-to-5 jobs don’t have.

Irregular income

Although freelancing has many advantages, it also has disadvantages, one of them is not having a steady monthly income. If you leave your regular job, you also leave behind the stability it provides in the form of a steady salary. One of the major disadvantages of being a freelancer is this. Freelancers must constantly plan and manage their upcoming projects and incomes and chase potential clients.

However, the stress of always looking for projects is reduced if a freelancer has a few loyal clients. That’s why is important to have specific expertise and experience in a certain field.

No employee benefits

Another disadvantage of freelancing is not having employee benefits such as pension plans, and private healthcare. If you work as a freelancer, you won’t get compensated if you take a vacation or are forced to take time off due to illness. This means that you must always have a saving account for emergencies that you can use to cover lost wages or time off.

That’s why you need to think carefully and make a good strategy for your employee benefits if you want to work as a freelancer. Because freelancing doesn’t offer you the protection that people who have a full-time jobs have.

Chasing after slow-paying clients

One of the main differences between full-time employment and freelancing is that when you work full-time, you get paid as promised every two weeks or every two months. It would be odd if you weren’t paid on those anticipated dates.

But, when you are a freelancer, you must establish your payment terms and be willing to defend yourself if a customer has trouble paying you. Sometimes you will have situations like these. A client who has agreed to your payment terms can claim that you must wait one additional week because their accounting team has been out of the office. Or, a client can claim that they will postpone paying all freelancers for a month due to slow sales. 

Loneliness

Even though working remotely from your comfy home or your favorite place may sound like a dream job to you, still some people don’t want to work as freelancers. This style of work is quite monotonous in a long run and if you are an extrovert, you’ll start feeling isolated from the environment. 

On the one side, the office can be noisy and full of interruptions from coworkers and other visitors, yet, you will discover that working alone isn’t very enjoyable. Sometimes coworkers can help you in your work and can be a part of your support network. So, as a freelancer, you will have to establish your network and support.

Competition

Another disadvantage is that you’ll often face a lot of competition because the pool of freelancers is enormous, and there will be a lot of competition in your field of expertise. This could drop your work’s prices to unacceptably low levels in a long run.

To combat this issue, you have to build a sustainable strategy. Make sure to keep up with market trends, build a strong skillset, establish a solid clientele, and keep up with marketing your services to specific audiences. This can help you to step out of your competition, get noticed by serious clients, and contribute to large projects.

Conclusion

To be a freelancer or not, what’s going to be?
Of course, you are the only one who can decide on this question. However, you may have a better picture of if freelancing is an option for you after reading the pros and cons of freelancing listed above.

Don’t rush, you don’t have to choose today. Take your time to process all information, then consider what to do. If the pros outweigh the cons, then start a freelance career. If not, keep your daily job and move on with your life.

Four ways how managed services help you scale your business

Regardless of the type of business you’re running, here are ways in which managed services let you scale your business.

Minimizes damage from potential threats and risks

Cybersecurity threats are continuously on the rise. You never know when your business will become a victim of phishing, ransomware, or other forms of malware. Sadly, a cyberattack can be a debilitating blow to your business, negatively harming revenue and reputation. Predicting an attempt is nigh impossible, but implementing a cybersecurity plan can lower the risk.  

A trustworthy MSP helps you set the proper precautions in place if your internal security department is ineffective. Most take a proactive approach to mitigating risks by staying updated with current trends and threats.  

When you have been utilizing break/fix servicing, you may see a stark difference if you switch to managed services. It may be time to closely scrutinize break fix vs managed services, so you can get your business on the right track early. 

Provides round-the-clock support

If expanding to a new location is one of your business’s goals for this year, you’ll need to hire more employees to help in-house. Sadly, the move translates to additional concerns such as recruitment, payroll, overhead, and insurance, to name a few.  

By working with an MSP with the right resources and workforce, you can conveniently upgrade your agreement and ensure your business has 24/7 support. There’s no extra work to handle on your part anymore. 

For example, having a round-the-clock MSP can tackle potential network issues before first-shift employees arrive in the morning. Companies without one often end up with downtime, disrupting the flow of operations. The likelihood of losing revenue and customer trust increases the longer it goes. It’s a good thing MSPs cut them down as much as possible.

Boosts the productivity and efficiency of your company

Working with an MSP will ensure your company has the ideal IT infrastructure to support your needs. The best part is that your provider will oversee it for you, helping save time and keeping all operations flowing seamlessly. In the long run, it boosts productivity, which serves as the precursor for growth in no time.  

Depending on the MSP you’ll be working with, one that specializes in your industry may be best. A reputable provider has the knowledge and experience to deal with technical and business-related issues that require suitable IT solutions. Working hand in hand with them will guide you along the way in building practical solutions to streamline operations and boost overall productivity. 

Additionally, most MSPs can handle various time-consuming core tasks on your behalf. The best part is that they have the tools and expertise to do so with satisfactory results. This allows your workforce to focus on other tasks, such as strategic planning and cybersecurity.  

Cuts costs

Another advantage of partnering with an MSP is maintaining cost-effectiveness. Working with a reputable one reduces overall operational and IT-related expenditures. The funds and resources you save can be set aside for the growth of your business.  

Most MSPs offer a subscription-based scheme with monthly or yearly fees for managed services. But businesses can also choose others options that best suit their financial limitations.

Depending on the MSP, every service level agreement can be tailored to a company’s specific needs. This helps keep hardware and software management requirements aligned and boosts productivity while only paying for the services the business needs.

Conclusion

In today’s digital world, every company should take the necessary measures to maintain an edge and grow. An option worth considering is to hire reliable managed services to ensure your company stays on the right track. In this light, partnering with an MSP may be the best decision to ensure your business scales successfully. By improving overall productivity, lowering risks, and delivering round-the-clock support, your company will maintain a competitive edge and grow in no time. Start your search for the right partner today.

5 steps on how to build a brand that will last

This article discusses the steps on how to create a solid brand to help you find loyal customers and boost sales.

Brand prominence

There’s a reason why today’s large corporations are all so well-known. They have existed for many years, some more than decades, because they established their identity and made themselves a household name.

That’s your first step in building a brand. Who are you as a business, and how would you like to be known to buy your customers? It’s what you need to determine to identify how you can be persuasive as a brand and how it can help customers become aware of what you can satisfy.

Also known as brand salience, a brand has to ensure its identification with its customers. A brand also needs to help customers recognize it through their products and how it can associate itself with the customer’s needs.

Salience means that people recognize a brand and its importance to them. It’s how much consumers can remember the brand in different situations. You can build a brand strategy or work with digital marketing services such as Clearwater – Digital Marketing.

Create a personification of your company

One method brands did to become more familiar to customers is to humanize themselves. Essentially, they turn their brand into an entity that humans can relate to and eventually become a part of their lives.

Personifying your company is like giving your business a personality. Gone are the cold advertising days when companies only cared about the colors and value proposition. When marketing to people with needs and emotions, you need to personify your company to appeal to potential customers. It’s among the best ways to identify how to build a relationship with your customers.

You have two ways of creating your brand through personification. First, you can answer some questions like what kind of person would you like your brand to be? Use age, interest, gender, occupation, location, and interests.

Second, you can adapt a celebrity and how you describe them, such as hip and current, conventional but classic, or fun and unusual. It’s much like creating a person you best want to represent your business.

Identify your main and secondary customers

Branding is how you differentiate your business and identify its purpose. For example, you see products in the market that don’t have any branding and are considered undifferentiated. In this step, you must be able to identify your target audiences or customers. You need a specific mindset here because you want people to like your brand and share the “why” of your brand.

Create customer personas to guide your messaging as a brand and how you can market yourselves. Going through the practice of developing customer personas or profiles can help your cause. It’s an effective way of finding the people who will become loyal to your brand. Apart from the standard demographics, use psycho-social factors like motivators, hobbies, personality traits, and more to layer them.

Create quality products

Popular brands are known for their quality products, so you must also spend time on product or service development. What your company offers must stand out from the already condensed market.

Customers must be able to tell if your product or service is worth it from the campaigns you eventually set up. They’ll need to see if it’s worth their time or money. Remember that customers look for the best options from other brands.

To create a quality product or service, you need to have a good understanding of quality. Quality can be about creating products according to numerical specifications. At the same time, you must also base this on customer satisfaction.

Build a solid product strategy by learning what your prospects need, having a clear product vision, determining your goals, and creating a logical product roadmap. You also need to implement a Quality Management System (ISO 9001, for example) as a set of rules that your company will use to create and provide products and services.

Before launching, development and market testing are vital in ensuring your strategies perform as expected and if they eventually need improvement.

Develop your mission, vision, and values

Start by jotting down the mission or purpose of your business. The mission statement is why your business exists and does what it does. The vision statement describes the ideal future of your business and what it wants to achieve. The values statement is what values and principles the company follow.

These values help remind you why you strive to keep your business alive and work on continuous developments and improvements.

Conclusion

You can build a strong brand identity by identifying brand prominence, personifying your brand, identifying your customer, developing high-quality products, and creating your mission vision. If you, as an owner, want to strengthen your brand, you will need to invest your time, creativity, and money to get the word out about your products and services. Knowing where your brand stands will also help you formulate marketing strategies that voice out what your brand wants to convey.

Tips to better manage your money

If you want to get better at managing your money, here are some tips that can help you take care of your finances like a pro. 

Know when a loan can help

If the bills are overwhelming you or unexpected expenses have come up, you may want to consider a loan. In such scenarios, exploring personal loan services for quick financing can be a prudent choice, especially when immediate financial relief is needed. These services often offer expedited processing, helping you navigate through tough times more swiftly, whether it’s an unexpected medical bill or a car breakdown. 

As with any kind of financial situation, make sure to choose your loan carefully, so that you avoid getting into debt that is a bit too tough to pay off. Whether you’re trying to start a business or renovate your home, look into loan options suited to your needs. For example, in those two cases, you might research business loans and home equity loans that can provide you with adequate financing.  

Cut back on what you spend

When it comes to moving forward financially, you may need to use an expense tracker app that helps you see where you spend your money. This can allow you to identify areas where you could be overspending or even paying for things that you don’t use. Think about everything from your streaming subscriptions to your grocery shopping—you could be throwing away money that you could be saving. 

Learn how to shop frugally

If you want to spend less and save more, learn how to shop frugally. From using coupon apps that help you to find the best savings in your area to look for more affordable alternatives when at the store, there are a variety of ways to shop for less. While learning how to find discounts and deals may seem time-consuming, when you’re saving more money and making moves toward a better financial future, you’ll find that it’s worth it.  

Set aside savings

To truly move forward financially, savings are a big way to reach your goals. From saving for a down payment for a home to using some savings to invest for your future and to grow your money, savings are important and you should prioritize building up a savings account. 

Even if you start small, you’ll find that saving money can be hugely useful for your future. Open a dedicated savings account and do your best to never touch your money in that account. Before you know it, you’ll be able to save more than you thought possible.

Ask for help

Sometimes, due to past experiences with money or how you were raised, overspending can be an ingrained habit that is very hard to break. This kind of “addiction” can have you in a vicious cycle that makes it very hard to move forward when you’re striving to make gains with how you manage your finances. 

If you have a family member, business mentor, or friend who has done well for themselves, ask for tips and suggestions on how to best manage your spending habits. In doing so, you can change the way you perceive and use money. 

Conclusion

If you have never learned how to properly manage your finances, it can be hard to know what the best options are for spending less and saving more. These tips can help give you an idea of where you can start managing your money better. 

While good money habits may not be the easiest habits to build, it’s worth taking time to improve your finances. If you want to reach future financial goals, you can start with these simple tips to improve your money habits today!