Weekly Newsletter for The Freelancers: Here is the latest newsletter of the week starting on 8th October 2018.
If you are an elected representative of your community in Federal or State parliament in Australia and want to examine the evidence of the headline statement here is the link:
Upwork releases Q2 2018 Skills Index, ranking the 20 fastest-growing skills for freelancers.
This freelancing platform is not the largest in the world. That honor rests with the Australian freelancing platform Freelancer.com which has over 30 million global registered users and 14 million contracts underway.
Can you imagine that you live in a country town with 5,000 freelancing skills available?
This is competition for jobs because Australian businesses use global freelancers. This is the power of globalization at work, just like a free trade agreement. It is a new reality that has to be acknowledged and managed by Australia.
It is hard to believe the power of The The New Economy and The Future of Work can deliver so many self-employment opportunities to communities with good internet access, but it is true! However, it also delivers competition and we have to learn how to manage it.
The resources that are needed to train people in these competition management skills are beyond my resources, but what I can do is give you the facts to campaign for change with your local member of parliament.
For Australian readers, it requires activism by regional communities to make sure that their elected representatives understand the benefits and risks of the New Economy.
This is because every elected representative needs to understand the global New Economy. The Federal election is due within twelve months. Make sure your local member understands The New Economy.
Let us have a look at my background. I went to high school in the wheat growing area of the Wimmera and I know that during the drought years having non- farm income is a blessing for most families and often essential for many family farms.
This is not just a personal perception. This paper by the University of Wollongong published in the Australasian Accounting, Business, and Finance Journal: Succession Planning in Australian Farming said this,
“Family farming has also been confronted by the social change which has altered the expectations of farm family life. These changes include gender and intergenerational relationships and job and career opportunities away from farming, in particular, connected to the need for off-farm income for women married to farm men and children leaving school. These changes are part of the promotion of and rise in consumption in forms of a wider range of products and lifestyles, associated with increased levels of occupational, geographic and social mobility.”
(Page 8) You can read the full paper here.
This will not be the only paper produced on this subject over the past years and there will be more in the future. If you want to read more about The Fourth Industrial Revolution this is the book that I recommend:
My working background is banking, accounting, and financial planning from which I have retired. I can see that many people in regional Australia are going to need help and now is the time to be an activist for change to make sure it happens.
Motivate Yourself!
“No matter how much experience you have, how many
degrees you have, or how well known you have become —
there is always something new to learn. Don’t rest on your
past experiences. If you do nothing to improve your skills,
you won’t stay where you are.”
– Laura Spencer
Should You Be Motivated to Understand How the Global Freelancing Community Works?
Should you be motivated to understand how the global freelancing community works?
It does not matter in which country you live or work, the global revolution in the future of work is going to impact you, your workplace and your family as the freelancing competition hots up. This quote from Nikki Parker is right on target:
“The online work environment is changing dramatically as it
becomes more mainstream,”
said Nikki Parker, North American regional manager of freelance
marketplace Freelancer.com.
“Businesses around the world — whether it be a restaurant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; a multinational business in Paris; or a start-up in Buenos Aires — are recognizing that as more people gain access to broadband, they are able to connect, collaborate and get work done online like never before.”
The quote above was included in an article by Nicole Fallon entitled 5 ways to survive the changing freelance landscape which appeared in BusinessNewsDaily.com and you can read here. I would have added regional Australia since Freelancer.com is an Australian company that is operating internationally.
How do you compete in a global freelancing marketplace? You should be motivated to find out. We are committed in this newsletter to helping you. Nidhi Singh has written Top In-Demand Skills Freelancers Need to Stay Competitive in a Gig Economy for Entrpreneur.com and you can read here.
This article Future of Work: How to Avoid 7.5 Billion Freelancers Competing for Scraps? — Part 1 explains why we are being motivated to help you learn to compete in the global marketplace. It appears in TheMedium.com which you can read here.
This will not be the last of these segments about competing in the global freelancing marketplace.
Productivity Tip of the Week
Freelance Teams Can Collaborate Internationally To Increase Productivity
It is incredible how freelance flash teams can come together to work on a project that they would not be able to do individually. Often these teams are in different countries and time zones but still co-operate well to get a task done.
This ability to be a productive team that never meets, but collaborates well is made possible by freelancing platforms that span the globe. The platforms are facilitators of making international productive teams happen.
It takes a while to realize the potential for lifting your individual productivity by being a part of a freelancers’ flash team. You may be the initiator of the team or contribute your part of the international jigsaw that someone else has initiated.
A number of freelancing platforms have facilitators who will help you find members for your team. You usually have to pay a small fee for this, but they can increase your productivity and time management. In essence, it is about effectively outsourcing.
Sarah Karakaian has written Turn your freelance workers into engaged collaborators for Business.com which you can read here. You can read more about outsourcing in the eBook linked to below.
Work-Life Balance Tip of the Week
Do You Balance Your Work With The Time You Want To Spend With Your Family?
Have you often wondered how famous people who appear to be frantically busy meeting their global commitments manage to keep the work-life balance with their families? I have often wondered about what happens when they retire or even if they do.
This is going to become an increasingly important issue as many developed countries’ populations’ age and suddenly when you retire from work you realize that you could have another thirty years of life. It is then you realize the importance of relationships.
AARP is leading the world in re-imagining life, not necessarily on retirement, but possible even on career change or transitioning to volunteering or retiring part-time. It requires that you re-imagine your life. AARP even have Life Reimagined Ambassadors.
One of them is Emilio Estefan and this is his story here. If you are interested in the idea of life reimagined and you find yourself in a life transition, there is more information here.
If you would like to find out more, there is a book about it and you look inside it by clicking on the icon below:
Financial Tip of the Week
Freelancers Need To Have A Financial Planner If They Have A Housing Loan
It does not matter in which country you live if you own a home and have a housing loan you should have a financial planner to advise you on risk management. This is because of two reasons; one is that having a home is for most of us one of the most important assets that we will own in our lifetime.
The second reason is that the International Monetary Fund has expressed concern at the level of household debt in many countries. There is no secret about this because they issue public warnings when they are concerned.
In Canada the CTVNews.ca news item was IMF report warns of Canada’s high debt levels. However, the IMF has a global responsibility as shown by this Tom Kool article for USAToday.com Global debt now at $164 trillion, or 225% of GDP, International Monetary Fund warns which you can read here.
Financial planners have risk management tools to advise you what to do or will work with your lender to advise you. It is not something that you should disregard.
Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of The International Monetary Fund, is one of the leading financial thought leaders in the world and has a particular interest in this issue. Christine also correctly predicted wage stagnation and what to do about it, see here.
Drought News
There are now 5,000 skills in 90 categories that the digital economy can offer according to Upwork’s 2nd Quarter Skills Index for 2018, see here.
Articles now on our website that are relevant are listed here:
- https://www.freelance-work-guide.com/Drought-proof-your-farming-business.html
- https://www.freelance-work-guide.com/Freelance-Retirees.html
- https://www.freelance-work-guide.com/Millennials-freelancing-home-mortgage-save.html
- https://www.freelance-work-guide.com/Students-freelancing-student-loans.html
- https://www.freelance-work-guide.com/freelancing-repay-housing-negative-equity.html
- There will be more over the coming months.
There will be more over the coming months.
Amazon News
One of the realities that millennial families have to face is that managing work-life balance requires that you have to ask for help to get things done. Amazon has been quick to spot this as an opportunity and has introduced Amazon Home Services. You can watch a video about what they do here.
The weekly AWS news video link to acloud.guru is here. They are the leading trainers globally for AWS freelancers.
Amazon Associates Website Case Study
The latest article on bestsellershourly.com Amazon Case Study website is entitled Smart choices matter for millennial families – 15 reasons why! which you can read here.
We have stopped showing the links for new articles as we have discovered that it could be having adverse impacts on the search engine optimization of the website Best Sellers Hourly. We will advise you when new articles are added. They are currently being worked on.
By this time you can check our social media:
Freelancers And Cyber Security
Pinterest: In view of the recent hack of Reddit we have decided to link to the Australian Bankers Association fact sheet entitled Small Business – Protecting Your Business Information Online which you can access here. We urge you look at other Fact Sheets that are available from the Association as well related to business and personal security.
We have gained approval from Robert Siciliano to bring you extracts from his books related to cyber security for freelancers. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and consultant.
He also gives self defense and personal safety seminars. Robert provides safety and identity theft fraud prevention tips and advice on multimedia channels in the United States. We have his approval to bring you weekly extracts from his books:
Image Source: ROBERT SICILIANO
What is Criminal Identity Theft?
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