What are the Barriers to Becoming a Successful Freelancer
What are the Barriers to Becoming a Successful Freelancer August 2, 2021 sayudurDigital MarketingNo Comment Hurdles for Women as Freelancers Freelancer In this article I will write about a few common challenges women face when they aim at becoming a successful freelancer. In the previous article (Link to the previous article) I have discussed how rapidly the gig economy is expanding in Bangladesh and how good a place it is for women to start working. Even then most of the women feel insecure to take up the challenge. These insecurities are based on a number of factors. Some of them are personal whereas some are social and educational. I will discuss each of the factors in this article so that you can be aware of the barriers before joining the league of fellow freelancers. Misconceptions about Freelancing The first barrier that you need to overcome is about the misconception regarding freelancing. Many in Bangladesh think that Freelancing is only about Graphic Designing. However this idea is not true. It is a hub of content writers, web designers, developers, etc. You can also create online lessons to teach something to others. The choice depends on what skill you have. In Fiverr, those who are working as freelancers, they are selling their skills to earn money, nothing else. At first it might seem a mammoth task. But if you stick to it for some time and acquire relevant knowledge you will survive the battle. Lack of Motivation As soon as a person becomes a freelancer, she steps into a dream world. She begins to think that her profile is seen by thousands of people across the world and dozens of orders from her clients will be pouring in into her basket. So when she does not get a response in a few days’ time she feels her dream is lost. She gets broken hearted and becomes heavily pessimistic. At that time it is she who must rise above this emotional barrier. She has to know that getting order is a matter of time. In the early days she had to keep patience. She must believe that if she has enough competence she will surely get orders from clients if not today, she will get it tomorrow or the day after or maybe within some days. Procrastination Closely related to this is the habit of procrastination. Do you have the tendency to think that it is better not to try at all than to try your best and face failure. You are not alone. This is a prime barrier to success in freelancing. If you are delaying taking up a course or reading a book on freelancing you will lag behind in following the latest trends not only in technology but also in other areas. The buyers sometimes ask for orders that are aligned to modern developments. So there is no time to waste in freelancing. You have to keep on updating yourself. High Prices of Devices I know many of the women who cannot afford a computer or laptop to work as a freelancer. Besides, many of them work on their smartphones. Again, if you want to make your own channel and videos you need a number of gadgets to ensure the quality of your videos. Many women cannot afford enough money, so they are compelled to lag behind. Lack of Family Support To become a successful freelancer for a woman, support from her family is of utmost importance. She simply cannot do even for a day without the support of the members of her family, be it her parents or her husband or even her children. Their support can make it easy for her to cut a good figure in freelancing. If it is otherwise, she is damned. She will find it very difficult to continue as a freelancer, let alone earn success. Feminine Qualities Many women are seen to be under the impulse of negativity for being a woman. They speak to themselves, “I am a woman, I can’t make it.” This sort of negative attitude must be shunned and the sooner they do it, the better. Instead they must rise above this belief. They must be confident enough to think that they can do anything and everything if they want to. Moreover to become successful as a freelancer is rather comparatively easy for them. For many reasons the job of freelancing is best suited for them. Just they need some basic knowledge on computers and proficiency in English. That’s all. No Fixed Income The income from freelancing is not fixed. Like any other field of work, you have to use your expertise in freelancing and deliver the best. Here like any other occupation, quality matters. If you have a positive attitude towards your work you can earn more. There is no limit. Lack of Proper Training and Guidelines Unlike men, women are lagging far behind in the use of computers. More often than not, most of them have little or no knowledge about computers. In the ICT sector, as low as only 16% of women are working. They have a phobia regarding STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). To speak the truth, only a few women are seen to be computer literate. So the reality is against the women in respect of doing well in freelancing. For this, the greatest and urgent requirement for them is to gather knowledge about all the computer-based fields and become computer literate. Coders Trust in this regard has designed courses exclusively for women and too for free. Their purpose of running such courses is to empower women. Lack of Confidence Lack of confidence is another common deficiency in women. When a job, if it is a little unfamiliar, is entrusted with them, they tend to say, “I can’t”. It happens in most cases. This mental make-up must be kept aside if they want to succeed as a freelancer. Being a freelancer, a woman enters a vast global
