If you don’t like your 9-to-5 job and feel like making a big change in your career, you’ve come to the right blog. The freelance industry gives everyone more than enough opportunities to take a turn, work outdoors, and improve their quality of life.

According to Upwork, the largest freelancing platform in the world, 84% of full-time freelancers achieve the lifestyle they prefer. This is mostly why the number of freelance professionals keeps growing so steadily. Last year, over 56 million people were doing some sort of freelance work in the U.S. alone.

However, freelancing brings a few challenges of its own and some individuals still find it hard to give up traditional career development methods. If you are a member of this group, keep reading our post to learn about the benefits of freelancing and see five real-life success stories.

The Benefits of Being a Freelancer

Before we get you acquainted with our five freelance heroes, we want to discuss a highly practical side of this type of career building. According to content creators at Essay Shark, individuals who decide to switch from traditional to freelance work do it because of the following benefits:

• Flexible work hours: As a freelancer, you get to decide when to work. This doesn’t mean you can work less than before (on the contrary, most freelancers work even harder), but you definitely don’t have to wake up at dawn if you don’t want to.
• Flexible location: This benefit is our favourite. You are free to work from home but you can also find a cozy office that suits your requirements. However, you can decide that working from a local coffee bar is the perfect solution, while no one ever stops you from working while travelling.
• Choose clients and projects: Beginner-level freelancers tend to work with almost everyone, but you will soon start choosing clients and projects much more carefully. There is no need to work with people you believe to be rude or inappropriate in any way.
• You are your own boss: It is another benefit because you don’t have any superiors to tell you what and what not to do. While it does increase personal accountability, it makes you happier and more satisfied.
• A chance to earn more: As soon as you establish yourself as a successful freelancer, you can gradually start increasing revenue. Besides that, you get to keep all the money for yourself.

Real-Life Freelancing Success Stories

You have seen the pros of freelance working, but this section is where the real fun begins. It’s much easier to figure out the privileges and professional opportunities if you see examples of freelancers who already made a breakthrough. We present five such stories here:

1. 
   

   Nicolas Cole: Freelance writer

   
   

Nicolas Cole used to be a gaming fanatic and a copywriter at an advertising agency with a regular 9-to-5 job. Writing a book on gaming was his extracurricular activity for over four years, but he felt like it was time to change as soon as the book was released.

Nicolas decided to take a short break and visit a friend in Los Angeles. As he was running out of money, he started freelancing as a ghostwriter for all sorts of senior executives. Soon enough, it turned out to be an amazing business opportunity that allowed Nicolas to launch a company together with his friend Drew.

These two friends proved that assignment writing service plays a major role in modern business, particularly for CEOs and other senior managers who want but don’t have time to build their self-brands. The opportunity has been waiting for years, but it took Nicolas courage to leave his job and start doing what he does best.

2. 
   

   Paul Clarke: Freelance photographer

   
   

Here is another example of a person who uses his creativity to evolve and start doing something he really loves. Paul Clarke was an interim director working on government technology projects who turned into an event and portrait photographer.

The reasons for leaving his old position were standard: Paul wanted to get out of the rush and create a business he could really call his own. What we like about this story is that Paul admits there was not a single moment when he decided to become a full-time photographer. Instead, he calls it a long-term process that lasted for a few years.

Christopher Hudson, a content creator at “6dollaressay reviews†agency, says he has seen a lot of freelancers like Paul: “It takes a long time to make a decision and part ways with the old way of life. But the year is 2019 and I believe modern-day professionals should not be afraid of experimenting with freelancing anymore.â€

3. 
   

   Kelly Vaughn: Freelance web developer

   
   

Kelly Vaughn quit her government job to run her own digital freelance business in Atlanta. She is a professional web developer with dozens of successfully completed projects, but what makes her case so interesting? Well, it is Kelly’s determination to share her insights with other freelancers.

First of all, Kelly believes future full-time freelancers should spend some time working both jobs simultaneously. In her opinion, a freelancer might need up to a year to build a portfolio and grow a client base.

Secondly, Kelly recommends finding a convenient coworking space because new freelancers can hardly afford a solo office. It allows you to work in a relatively peaceful environment, but you can still meet new people and perhaps even grow your network of professional connections.

The third piece of advice is to scale your business cleverly. As time goes by, you will probably start working with many different clients, so don’t let it jeopardize the quality of work. Feel free to form your own team if necessary and hire one or two freelancers to help you.

4. 
   

   Brandon Cowan: Freelance mobile app developer

   
   

The story of Brandon Cowan is also very interesting. Back in 2010, Brandon was only a 19-year-old guy when the whole world started revolving around mobile apps.

Brandon always enjoyed playing with smartphones, while iOS coding has never been a stranger to him. This is why he decided to create the App Making Guide to help users learn how to develop their own iOS-based platforms. It turned out to be a huge success for a solo developer, so Brandon made a few more apps, including iParkedHere and PetRescue. His projects were getting better, so Brandon eventually decided to launch his own company called Crazy Dog Apps.

The thing we like about this story is that Brandon never even bothered with traditional employment. He started as a freelancer because he believed in his skills and ended up running his own company.

Our fellow colleagues claim that the ultimate point of the story is to focus on freelancing exclusively: “If you are a youngster with enough knowledge and potential, you might as well try your luck with freelancing straight away.â€

5. 
   

   Susanne Peng: Freelance designer

   
   

Susanne Peng is the last but certainly not the least interesting freelance success story on our list. Like many other freelancers, Susanne did not even consider making a career out of it. Instead, she engaged in a couple of extracurricular projects just to accumulate some money.

But the wheel kept turning faster and faster, so now Susanne is a super-successful freelance designer. One could say that it is the most common situation since most professionals don’t never plan to dedicate themselves 100% of the time.

Susanne’s message is clear – freelancing offers you tons of opportunities to make a career while choosing the lifestyle you want. The pressure grows, but so does the privilege of living the life you’ve dreamed of.

Conclusion

The freelance economy is far from perfect, but it creates a brand new world of career opportunities. It allows you to become your own boss, choose clients carefully, and work from wherever you want. On the other hand, it does force you to work twice as hard because you have to earn a decent living.

In this post, we showed you five stories of freelance success you should look at when deciding whether to make a career change or not. These are definitely not the only success stories out there, but it should be more than enough to give you that extra push and encourage you to try out new possibilities in your life. Good luck!

The post 5 Stories Of Freelance Success You Should Look At appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Remember MySpace? People used to write long posts about their feelings, thoughts, and wishes. It became a digital diary for all those who wanted to write and read. However, as social media and digitalization started transforming society, things changed.

With easier access to blog creation tools, there were more and more blogs. This increased the overall quality of content, as well as its popularity amongst millennials. According to Statista, the number of bloggers will reach a mind-boggling 31.7 million just in the US.

However enticing blogging may be, young bloggers often find it hard to promote their blog and how to make their content relevant. To better understand the blogging phenomenon, we have to analyze the goals and wishes of millennials when they’re writing. What are they looking for, exactly?

To spread awareness and inform

The crux of all journalism, despite the prevalence of big media houses, is still in citizen journalism. Independent, uninfluenced and intricate blogs are one of the favourite niches millennials choose to dabble in.

Thanks to the internet and a multitude of other factors, we’re living in an age of increased social awareness. These aren’t just distant and hard-to-believe issues. Things like poverty, unemployment, and politics touch each and every one of us. Inequality and unfairness act as a trigger for many millennials to start blogs.

A popular form of blogging is the so-called “opinion piece.” First, millennials read about problems that exist on a national, regional or global level. They analyze them and post their own view of that problem or event. It is precisely these blogs that form critical thinking and give us a variety of views to analyze and choose from.

The true importance of millennial citizen journalists is that they are shamelessly biased in the healthiest way possible. Because of this reason, citizen journalism will take over the media space in the next 50 years or so. They don’t claim that they’re unbiased and are here to inform and tend to take a stance the next moment.

People have no problem with opinions – instead, they have a problem with lies. Many news outlets, both on TV and in digital media claim to be impartial, but there have been scandals exposing them to be not. It’s not bad to have an opinion, but it’s bad to market it as objective news.

Millennial journalist blogs are on the rise and give people a fresh view from individuals who care about the future of our country and planet. It is exactly what we need to maintain freedom of expression and freedom of information.

To improve their writing skills

Writing is like the lovely plants in your garden – You consistently care, and you nurture them to see them blossom. Similarly, to blossom into a great writer, you have to keep writing without being away from it for a long time.

Millennials love to blog because it gives them the freedom to specialize in a certain niche that they find attractive. School and college assignments didn’t do much to improve our writing skills, right? Certainly not, as many millennials were confined by formal educational conventions.

With blogging, all the rules and limitations disappear instantly. Blogging gives every person a chance to express themselves and write willingly and organically.

“Blogging is about the best writing practice you can get,” tells us William Rogers from BestEssay.com. “Nobody is forcing you to do anything and you can write about anything. However, there are also lessons you will learn through disappointment.

Blogging is a reality where you won’t become popular if you don’t promote your content or if you don’t write about something people care about. It’s an excellent first contact with the business world for most millennials.”

How exactly does improving your writing skills lead to your first business experiences? Blogging, to put it simply, is a game of popularity. There is supply and there is demand.

If you supply enough blog posts about a topic that interests people, your long content will be in demand. That’s how every service and product exists and coexists with customers, clients, and other services.

Millennials have a very pronounced entrepreneurial spirit within them. They want to explore and experience everything firsthand. Blogging refines key skills that are needed in almost every career. Students who start writing blogs in college see their assignment writing skills improve by a large margin.

Writing and creating often lead to education too. Successful bloggers get asked questions like “How do I rush my essay writing process?” or “How can I get inspiration for writing?”

By blogging, we connect with other people and find out more about them and their passions. While doing this, we adopt one of the most essential skills a person can have – the art of expression.

To express themselves and vent

Compared to the 1980s and 1990s, millennials are definitely under more pressure than ever. There is no more time for committing to one thing or niche. Most people in their 20s and early 30s have to work multiple jobs, juggle responsibilities and pay off debts.

There’s an enormous number of things to worry about, which can lead to neglecting personal well-being and mental stability. Humans need to share their emotions, thoughts, and fears. The modern lifestyle prevents us from doing so, but blogging has emerged as an unorthodox solution to this issue.

Even today, many millennials treat their blogs as personal diaries. They vent about their problems, frustrations, and dreams, as well. Writing has a profoundly therapeutic effect on our minds and how we handle the pressure of everyday life.

It also helps with critical thinking. When you write down your emotions, you get a chance to review the thought, again and again, something which is not entirely possible through thinking alone.

Just like when we talk, writing makes the thing we’ve written more real. By venting and expressing their opinions, millennials compensate for the lack of serious friendships and relationships in life. It’s not an ideal way of life by all means, but it’s an emergency solution that helps many people stay afloat during hard times.

Blogging is also a way for millennials to find like-minded people and share things and advice. People with similar problems and experiences can help one another. By writing blogs, you enter a network of individuals who are willing to embrace you and make you one of their own.

To make money

What are blog posts if not content? Almost every big business and brand needs content to support their existing marketing campaigns. It’s one of the ever-present and very profitable industries that have risen from nothing in the last 15 years. For millennials, blogging is a viable way of earning money for several important reasons.

• Flexible work hours. Whether you’re a freelancer or working for a company, all you need is a laptop and internet connection to do research and send you to work. You can work from anywhere and everywhere. No 9-5, getting up early and waiting for the bus/train.

• The more you work, the more you get paid. For millennials, money is a problem more often than not. One day, you can write one blog post, while the other day, you can write ten and earn as much as you work.

• You get to do what you love. By starting a blog, millennials usually promote their passions and interests. If their venture blows up, they could end up making money by doing something they truly adore. It’s a privilege not many people have.

Blogging only gets easier and you gain more experience. You will learn about tricks relating to SEO, content promotion and digital marketing. All those skills are invaluable in today’s business climate.

To build a portfolio

When you want to apply for a job, people won’t just look at your skills. They will take a close look at your portfolio and experience. Blogging is a self-sustainable way of boosting your portfolio without having to “work for someone.” How does this work?

Let’s say you want to get a job as a writer for a digital marketing blog. Instead of going on and on about your theoretical knowledge, you can just provide them with a list of your previous work related to the subject. Blog posts are proof of being skilled and know what you’re doing.

The more you write, the bigger your resume grows. Millennials find it notoriously difficult to balance skills and experience, which is further exacerbated by unrealistic expectations from employers.

Using blogging, they get free experience and end up training themselves in essential skills. And in recent years, more and more companies have started prioritizing blogging as an essential skill and form of experience.

Concluding thoughts

Millennials have found blogging to be the easiest and most accessible form of sharing their thoughts with the world. They either want to promote an idea, find those who are similar to them or promote their writing as a skill that sells. Most of them face oversaturation as the biggest obstacle, which ultimately leads to them quitting fairly early. With the further development of the blogosphere, things are only going to get more difficult.

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