Working Freelance - Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
Negotiable Deadlines
Choose your work
Make more contacts
Work from home
No routine
Set your hourly rate
Develop skills
Wide variety of jobs
Disadvantages
Lonely
Hard to find work
Less working hours
Uncertainty
Motivation
Costs - equipment
Competition - all round skills; financing, marketing, CPD, networking.
No holiday pay
Companies might turn down your work
Not turning down work
Jobs that I have recently applied for all offer part-time contracts.
What is a part-time contract?
Part-time is a form of work which does less hours than full time employment. A typical part-time job is fewer than 30 or 35 hours per week.
Business Card
Business Card
Competencies
Punctuality -
Organisation
Communication
Customer Service
Team Working
ASSIGNMENT.
1. What is your chosen sector? Tell me as much as you can about what this sector does.
Sport / Technology Journalism.
Journalists collect and gather information in multiples way and present it in a written or spoken form, Journalists could also work for a bigger news conglomerate or they can work freelance for themselves. Sports Journalists go to different sporting events and report on what happens, giving statistics and live updates, they could also do opinion pieces if they worked for a more relaxed company, like a magazine.
2. What is your chosen specialism? Explain this as fully as possible.
I would like to work as a Football reporter as I think I have a knack for writing and I thoroughly enjoy it as well as the sport. I would also enjoy writing for a technology/gaming website/magazine as I enjoy playing games and keeping up to date with new technology and gadgets therefore giving me a knowledge in this area . I would like to write for a website or a niche magazine in comparison to a newspaper.
3. What is freelance? Explain as fully as possible the roles you would have to fulfil if you were working as a freelance.
Working freelance is basically being your own boss. You would work from home whilst promoting and selling yourself to different organisations and companies so they'll hire you to do articles in the area that you specialise in. You'd have to do your own financing so you have enough to get by while negotiating terms with the different magazines and newspapers so prices for your work is reasonable.
It's basically making a commitment to a profession instead of a company.
What different types of contract could a freelance worker have?
A freelancer would have to have contracts with very specific terms. They will primarily use Fixed Term Contracts. This contract gives the contractee a fixed amount of time to finish a certain job. Once they have completed the task to the expectations and requirements of the contact they are no longer employed by the company. Usually these contracts can't be negotiated although occasionally an employer will negotiate with a freelancer if they want more time or a little bit more money.
When employing a freelancer, the contractor is still responsible for the health and safety of the contractee, so if one had an accident or even died doing the work, the family of the wounded could sue causing legal damages to the company. Tender Contracts are also commonly used so the contractee can get many different articles/pieces of work.
What qualities do you think you need to be a good freelance worker?
To be a successful freelancer, you'll need many attributes. I think one of the most important qualities you'd need would be discipline. Many opportunities will show themselves when you're looking for jobs and once you've grown a reputation you'll be approached by employers. You'll be tempted to take as many as you can, at first this might seem like a good idea because you'll be making more money. But eventually you'll have too much work to do and you'll have no time for yourself which could lead to depression. Responsibility and decision making, you'll need to be responsible when talking to employers because they are, temporarily, your bosses. You'll need to take responsibility for the actions you make and the things that you write, make sure that you know the company that you're doing the work for. Management skills, you'll need to be able to finish a piece of work by the time required and you'll need to be able to schedule your work so that you can finish all the work that you've agreed to do. You need proffesionalism so that your contractor will treat you as a freelance consultant for their firm, not as an employer. This can mean a number of things; most importantly, you'll do what you've agreed to do on time and you'll honour the things that you've promised. You're honest and straight up with your contractors if there are any problems which make you need more time. Finally, I think persistence is extremely important because being a freelancer is extremely challenging and it may not be immediately rewarding. When you see your email inbox full of rejection emails and not interview invitations, you might start to doubt your skills, but you need to get over that bump and eventually people will begin to see your work and send you the offers.
What could be the negative aspects of being a freelancer and why?
Finding work when you start is arguably the biggest hump in the road, there are so many other freelancers who already have a reputation for good work in your sector, so why would they hire you?
You will have to fiercely and vigorously sell yourself to these companies, show how dedicated you are to your profession and people will start to notice the effort you put in and see how fantastic your work is. As I said earlier, it can eventually be quite depressing if you don't have any activities that you like to do in your spare time. The constant isolation of working from your home if you're in a particular sector. One thing that puts a lot of freelancers off is the lack of benefits, you have no sick pay/leavers pay. You can take all the holiday you want although you won't be getting any income therefore you probably won't be able to manage to survive comfortably - the way you've grown accustomed to. You could be working for a long period of time at once, a client might need something very fast so you'd be working around the clock to get something finished, this also leads onto the variable income and variable workload; overall it's a very inconsistent way of living.
It's generally hard to work from home. There are so many distractions, you might have to finish some work in the next hour but you just can't miss your favourite football team play their rivals therefore making you not be able to finish your work. This comes with the earlier mentioned self-discipline.
If you could choose a type of freelance contract to have, which one would you pick and why?
I would pick a Fixed Term Contract. This way I know exactly what they expect me to do, when to have it finished for them and how they want the certain piece written or done. I want them to know that as soon as they're happy with the work that I've done for them, I want to be paid the agreed amount and go our separate ways. I would want the company to be a little bit negotiable with the terms as I could possibly have personal things happening or maybe I wanted a little bit of extra money however I wouldn't be expecting them to agree as they probably set what they want and what they're giving me with no negotiating.
What sort of resources would a freelancer need in this area?
You'd need the equipment to do whatever sector you're in. For a journalist you'd need knowledge, and a computer. Usually, the contractors don't give you the equipment, although for some sectors they probably do. You'd need the appropriate software which allows you to finish the work you need to do for your contractor to the standards you've agreed to.
My chosen area of journalism is the Sports/eSports area. I have an interest in these areas and a pretty good knowledge. The work carried out in this area could be many different types of work ranging from stories about the latest transfer rumours, opinion pieces on recent games and statistics and general reviews on the latest games/news/scores.
In this sector, there's not many resources that you would need to do this work. You would need a computer with the correct software to be able to write up your work, you would need transport to be able to go to the games and events that you're writing up about whether it's a local, unknown game for a small, local newspaper or England playing at Wembley as well as a knowledge of the games so your article is as interesting as possible. Usually freelancers will use Fixed-Term Contracts as they don't want to be working for a company for a long time so they keep getting opportunities. Especially in the Sporting industry as there are games all the time so you'll be constantly writing different types of articles for different people, which could be seen as a disadvantage as you'll be working a lot of hours. In the sporting industry, there are a lot of different companies that have a good reputation that many journalists aspire to join: BBC Sport, Sky Sport, Virgin Sport, Sports England and many other smaller companies and even magazines that produce footballing articles. You could even do work for your favourite football club in the PR department, or producing articles for the website.
As any journalist in any industry must, you've always got to consider the legal considerations - especially when you're a freelancer. If you slander or libel in one of your articles, your whole reputation is ruined as there are many other freelancers people would rather temporarily employ than one known to have lied in their work.
Add more for distinction!
What is income tax?
Income tax is a tax you pay which directly correlates to the amount you get paid.
Income tax comes out of many different things like direct income, pension and even benefit pay from your job. Usually, the employer will take tax from your income before you're given your salary although if you're self employed, you have to keep certain documentation of pay and work done and pay your income tax manually.
What is National Insurance?
National Insurance is the system in which mandatory payments are made by all employers and employees to give assistance to the government for healthcare, the unemployed and the elderly.
Some people will pay different amounts dependant on how much you earn and how you choose to pay your contributions. There are different classes:
Class 1 - If you are earning between £112-£155 a week, you pay the lowest amount and these costs are deducted from your salary.
Class 2 - This class is for the self-employed, you don't have to pay unless you are making £6000 annually.
Class 3 - Voluntary Contributions. If you don't pay your National Insurance, you'll get gaps in your Record resulting in more payments required. Usually, if you don't have at least 15 years on your National Insurance Record, you won't be given your pension. Voluntary Contributions allow you to fill the gaps and clean your record so you won't be made to pay more annually.
Class 4 - People making over £8060 profits.
When you reach the state pension age, you can stop paying National Insurance contributions.
What does VAT stand for and how much is it set at?
VAT means Value Added Tax and it's typically set at 20% on most products. Alternatively, there is a reduced rate on some products and services. There is also the 'zero rate' where there is no VAT at all. Usually the zero rate is on the majority of foods and baby clothes. Things like stamps, financials and property transactions are excluded from the VAT for obvious reasons.
You are doing a job which involves you travelling to Swindon, either by train or by car, staying overnight. You will have three meals while you're there - dinner, breakfast and lunch.
You want to make around £100 a day net - i.e. after your tax has been taken out. Work out how much you are going to charge the company for the job.
A train to Swindon from Portsmouth at peak times is roughly £18 pounds each way, so it would be £36. I will stay in the Campaline Hotel, which costs £60 a night. I think it's a reasonable hotel as it's only 2 stars - the hotel has breakfast, lunch and dinner dining which according to reviews is relatively cheap. I valued the whole hotel and dining at £90.
90+36=126
£126+£100 profit = £226 + £52 tax.
I will charge the company £278, paying 52 in tax and 126 in accommodation and dining.
You need to tell the company how much you expect your expenses to be.
Production of the content I was hired for wouldn't take too long once I had all the information and I was interested in the topic, since I personally would be doing writing the resources wouldn't be too expensive. I would charge an extra £21.
Outgoings
1. Office Rent (if not working from home)
2. Cost of gas / electricity / rent - if working from home (don't forget you can only claim a percentage - check on the HMRC website for details.
3. Hire purchase costs for equipment and software (this applies if you have borrowed money to buy these - for example through Apple finance.
To become a freelancer and start working from home, I would need a laptop/computer to write articles that I have been hired to write. I would also need software to write them on, like Microsoft Office, which would give me all the software I'd need to be able to do the work required. Microsoft Office costs anywhere between £59.99 for the basics to £299.99 for all the features and a lifetime subscription. A Macbook costs
4. Car / Van
5. Insurance (public liability, sickness, equipment etc)
6. Phone / line rental
7. Website / domain name / hosting
Website hosting can be extremely cheap, as low as 99p a month, although reliable and professional hosting comes a bit more expensive. From a highly recommended hosting company, it would cost around £3 a month, or £36 a year.
8. Advertising - who? how much?
9. Other appropriate costs
10. How much would you need to earn per month to ensure you could cover these costs and still make a good living? Based on the figures you calculated last lesson, how many days a week would you need to work to achieve that?
90 Word Copy Writing.
Djokovic Beats Federer to Reach the Australian Open
Final
Novak Djokovic beats Roger Federer, reaching the Australian
Open finals!
Storming to a two set lead within the hour, it was looking
like Djokovic would serve a humiliating defeat although in the third set
Federer made an exquisite fightback. Fourth set was tough for Federer as
Djokovic broke him in the eight game and served out the match in just over two
hours.
Foiling Federer’s fightback in the third set, Djokovic
knocks Federer and prepares to play the winner of Olympic champion Andy Murray
and Milos Raonic.
“It was very close, I feel like I am at the peak of my
career.” Djokovic said courtside.
"Wolfsburg have signed David Bytheway, one of the best Fifa players in England. The Twenty-Two year old has been playing FIFA professionally since he was Seventeen. Here's Jake Stokes with more information."
"After representing England at the FIFA Interactive World Cup, he was invited to multiple tournaments in Las Vegas, Brazil and New York. The 22 year old
Business Plan.
Jake Stokes Sports Journalism
I will be in the sports journalism industry. I would prefer
to be writing for an online source, rather than a newspaper or a magazine. I
will write about a variety of sports, primarily the ones that I am
knowledgeable about and enjoy watching – like Football, American Football and
Tennis. I would do many different types of articles from match reviews to
articles about the happenings and latest events in the sporting world.
It is important that you have knowledge of the sport and you
keep a close eye on what’s going on so that your work is on par, if not better,
than competitors and other organisations. It’s also important that your sources
and information are accurate so that you don’t report wrongly.
Sport Journalism is often mocked for being a not-so-serious
style of writing as we don’t necessarily cover ‘serious’ topics that
newsreaders would in front of a news desk. Although in the past decade, it has
grown a shocking amount and demanded a large amount of respect. It has become
an essential quality that all large media outlets should want and should have
as it attracts a lot of readers as sports get more popular. I only see it
getting bigger in the future.
My writing is marketable to a large amount of publications
and people, a lot of people love sports, therefore a lot of people want to read
about it. I could do articles for Newspapers, online publications, columns for
magazines, whoever needs it.
I have knowledge of the sports that I would like to write
about which gives me an advantage, also American football isn’t that popular in
the UK so not many journalists specialise in it therefore it wouldn’t be as
hard to sell articles about this subject.
I write in my spare time about subjects that I enjoy which gives me an
advantage instantly to people who don’t.
I would like a platform to publish my work so that I can get
feedback from readers and my platform so that I can improve my writing.
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