What professions are suitable for freelancing and how much can you earn in each of the areas

If during the coronavirus pandemic you are accustomed to remote work and do not want to return to the office, it's time to think about freelancing. Two experienced freelancers will help with the search for a suitable occupation: a candidate of economic sciences and teacher Sergey Bogachev and entrepreneur Ivan Petukhovsky.

Together they wrote the book “Freelance Basics. Pros and cons of working for yourself ", which is published by the publishing house" Alpina PRO ". With his permission, Lifehacker publishes Chapter 9 with an overview of the professions suitable for freelancing.

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The realities of the present time are such that many types of work can be transferred to freelance: for this you just need to take employees out of the organization's staff and allow them to work outside the office. Even some medical professionals can work freelance, if, of course, the legislation of the country in which they provide their services allows. But still, when embarking on the path of freelancing, you should be aware that not every job can be done remotely.

You can become a chef or a freelance auto mechanic, but in this case you will not be able to work remotely from the location of the customers. Being employed in these industries requires you to live close to your customers. Working in such areas, you cannot use one of the key advantages of freelancing - the ability to choose a place of residence in a region of the world that is comfortable for you. Therefore, when choosing for yourself a profession to which you are going to devote yourself in freelancing, consider the possibility remote work. Let's take a closer look at each professional direction in freelancing.

According to researchThe 2020 Freelancer Income Report / Payoneer Payoneer, the highest paid freelancers are lawyers. The average hourly rate for a telecommuting lawyer is approximately $ 30 an hour. In addition, lawyers spend on average less time on work than other freelancers - no more than six and a half hours a day.

Specialists in the field of tax law are most in demand. They have the highest rates, a stable flow of customers and a high demand for services. Also in demand are drafters of agreements and contracts, legal advisers, legal assistants. Recently, there has been a growing demand for the services of specialists in the field of fraud analysis, offshore legislation and the services of migration lawyers.

Jurisprudence is a great field for freelancers. But, choosing this direction, you should remember about an important feature of this profession. The point is that different countries have different laws. By becoming a lawyer in Russia, you will not be able to practice in the UK. Moreover, in most countries you will be prohibited from practicing law if you do not have diplomareceived on the territory of the country.

Therefore, freelance lawyers are tied to one sales market for their services; accordingly, they cannot share macroeconomic risks between sales markets in several countries. For example, if there is a sharp depreciation of the ruble in Russia, then this is negatively affects the income of freelance lawyers focused on the Russian market, since their revenue is exclusively in rubles. At the same time, freelance programmers fill the largest percentage of the order portfolio with orders from other countries. This option is not available to lawyers.

The next professional group that is distinguished by high earnings on the Internet is information technology specialists. Among them, developers of games, mobile applications, database programmers, and web developers stand out. Their rate is around $ 20 per hour. But they spend more time on work than lawyers - about 7.5 hours a day. Knowledge of the English language opens up the entire international offshore programming market for the freelance IT specialist, which makes his income stream very stable.

Professionals in the field of economics and management can boast of practically the same incomes as programmers.

Their average rate also hovers around $ 20 per hour. But they have to work more than all freelancers - almost 9 hours a day, which is higher than the average working day. Financial managers and analysts, accountants, project and business managers, personnel officers can work remotely. An important feature of this professional group is the very high percentage of freelancers hiring subcontractors and eventually moving from freelancers to the category entrepreneurs.

The most creative professional group of freelancers are designers. Their incomes vary greatly depending on their specialization. Graphic designers, logo makers get around $ 15 an hour. But the rates for web designers and multimedia professionals can often be as high as $ 30 per hour. Design is a very good direction in freelancing, especially if you know English.

The most sought after freelancers are marketing and sales professionals. Sales managers, SEO-optimization specialists, SMM-managers, social media advertising specialists, YouTube promotion specialists, contextual advertising, brand managers, product managers, traffic managers - these professions make up the largest group in the field of free and remote hiring.

Their income varies greatly depending on the level of professionalism and experience. Novice freelancers in the industry are paid $ 10 per hour, but experienced freelancers can be considered some of the highest paid freelancers. The rate of internet marketing aces can go up to $ 50 or even $ 100 per hour. In branch marketing and sales, it is much easier to find a job and orders than in other areas of freelancing, but earnings here depend not so much on the price of your services, but on the actual results of your work.

Word masters also make up a large proportion of professional freelancers. Copywriters, website translators, literary translators, technical translators, content managers, proofreaders, journalists - there is always a job for them on freelance exchanges.

Their rates, as a rule, do not exceed $ 15 per hour, but they have the opportunity to sell their texts multiple times by book publishinghow yours truly does it - the author of this book is a freelance trainer in marketing and business fundamentals. I do not invent complex plots, but simply write textbooks on the topics of my scientific interests. Also, do not forget that freelance translators have the opportunity to move to the category of tutors, where hourly rates are much higher.

I could write a separate book about remote tutoring and teaching, since I myself began to work in this particular segment of the market. From my point of view, this is one of the most comfortable and monetary areas of freelancing.

The working hours of a remote tutor or teacher are always strictly regulated. This minimizes stress and makes work pleasant and comfortable.

The main requirement for remote teachers is the highest qualifications in their subject. Therefore, if you decide to work in this area, then try to get a master's degree, or even better - a candidate's or doctoral degree. Paying online teachers lives up to the highest expectations.

Tutor rates start at $ 10-15 per hour in Russia and can go up to $ 100 per hour for international students. Having gained popularity, having published his books and gaining fame, the teacher can periodically (however, no one bothers do it regularly) organize remote group workshops, the hourly rate for which can reach 500 dollars.

The last category of teleworkers to be sure to mention is customer and administrative support workers. These include data entry specialists, business assistants, customer support specialists, and virtual administrators. They receive relatively small wages for their labor - no more than $ 10 an hour. But on the other hand, they can start working even without higher education. I would recommend this kind of work to students who plan to work in freelance after graduation. It will allow them to gain experience with clients and teach them the rules. freelance exchanges.

Without a doubt, the list of freelance jobs above is far from complete. We did not mention the field of telemedicine, remote psychologists, online trainers and many others. There are also a large number of narrow and new emerging niches in the freelance market.

We have described only the main and most popular professional areas. Each of you can find application for your talents in a specialization that you can see and define independently, thanks to creative imagination and a deep understanding of the mechanisms of functioning of the interesting you industry.

Summary

1. The highest paid freelancers are lawyers.
2. Developers of games, mobile applications, database programmers, and web developers can also boast of high incomes.
3. The third highly profitable group are financial managers and analysts, accountants, project and business managers, and personnel officers.
4. The most creative professional group of freelancers are designers.
5. The most sought after freelancers are marketing and sales professionals.
6. Word masters also make up a large proportion of professional freelancers. These include copywriters, website translators, literary translators, technical translators, content managers, proofreaders, journalists.
7. Remote tutoring and online teaching is one of the most promising areas.
8. Client and administrative support is the best area to start a freelance career.

In Freelance Basics, you will learn how to create personal brand and provide passive income. And also figure out what difficulties freelancers most often face and what mistakes they usually make.

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