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.

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 to freelancing, consider the possibility of remote work. Let's take a closer look at each professional direction in freelancing.

According to research by 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 a diploma obtained in 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, this negatively affects the income of freelance lawyers focused on the Russian market, since their revenues are 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 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 specialists, SMM managers, social media advertising specialists, YouTube promotion specialists, contextual advertising specialists, brand managers, product managers, traffic managers - these professions make up the largest group in the field free and remote hiring.

Their incomes vary 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. It is much easier to find a job and orders in the marketing and sales industry than in other freelancing industries, 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 publishing books, as your humble servant does - the author of this book is a freelance marketing and business fundamentals teacher. 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 to do it regularly) organize remote group master classes, the hourly rate for which can reach $ 500.

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 of 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 on your own thanks to your creative imagination and a deep understanding of the mechanisms of operation of the industry you are interested in.

Ivan Petukhovsky Co-author of the book, entrepreneur.

We are writing this book today, and the next generations of freelancers will read it. When choosing a profession, it is important to remember the rule: "It is bad to be the first, bad to be the last." This means you don't have to chase all the latest technology. We need to wait, see how the technology will develop, what professions will emerge on its basis.

We have to wait for the business to find applied problems for the technology. Take blockchain, for example. What was the excitement around him! But at the present time, it must be admitted, there is no mass demand for this technology from business. I am sure that any profession can be monetary and does not necessarily have to be associated with the latest technological trends. There is no need to rush into all the fashion trends in the labor market.

If we talk about industries where you can count on an increase in the number of orders, then I have the following list: technology of augmented and virtual reality; big data processing technology; machine learning; gaming; Internet Marketing; information systems and technologies; design; project management.

A freelancer from any industry, especially in the process of managing his own project, operates with the same tools as any manager. Therefore, every freelancer should receive a management education. Best of all, if it is an MBA.

Summary

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

Buy the book "Fundamentals of Freelancing. Pros and cons of working for yourself "

In Freelance Basics, you'll learn how to build a personal brand and generate passive income. And also figure out what difficulties freelancers most often face and what mistakes they usually make.