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Freelancers: stand out in the crowd

National freelancing day aimed to draw attention to the thousands of flexible workers in the UK, organised by the Professional Contractors Group (PCG).

Freelancing seems to have largely flown under the radar, despite the growing casualisation of the workforce, and more people adopting freelancing in their careers.

In a recent interview in Bdaily, Dean of The Faculty of Arts, Design and Media at Sunderland University, Graeme Thompson, said more of his students were turning to successful freelancing careers after their study.

So, in a competitive marketplace, what does the freelancer do in order to stand out? Di Gates, director of Stick Theory, comments: “Building a successful career as a freelancer is all about creating a great reputation – not just for the quality of your work, but for your quality of service.

“Some companies won’t use freelancers because they fear a lack of professionalism or commitment, so you need to challenge these perceptions and build on the commercial advantages of using freelancers.

“Freelancers can often provide a more flexible and cost-effective service for their clients, and can often bring in additional associates to help projects grow as needed. Make sure you’re clear about these areas of added value – and remember that reputations are hard to build but easy to use, so make sure you treat everyone in your networks with respect.”

The creative and design sector in the UK, and worldwide, is a highly competitive marketplace to operate in for freelancers which therefore means differentiating between the competition is becoming an ever more difficult task.

Freelancers need to look at ways of achieving this and one way is to be upfront in discussions about copyright ownership and to transfer itt over to clients upon completion of Business to Business projects.

This can act as a great added value to their clients when they are pitching for work and will hopefully give them that competitive edge over the rest.

I was particularly struck by an advice article on the PCG site that mentions evolving to another service or specialism (point 4), and how this can lead to excellent testimonials, and further work.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Craig Olugbode .