Of #WeAreFreelancers Afriblocks

Of  #WeAreFreeLancers Afriblocks

The internet has turned almost every interneprener into a freelancer. You create a brand of yourself and market your skillsets instead of being tied down to a daily grind, well that and the fact in developing countries you might have to wait a long time to get a formal paying job in your area of expertise. There has also been  global trend, of corporates outsourcing some tasks to a remote pool of talent instead of having a dedicated staff.

At a Freelancer Workshop hosted by Afriblocks a Pan African Freelance platform which seeks to build a pool of African Freelancers I had the privilege to learn more not onlt about freelancing but also advantages of joining a platform such as Afriblocks (and networking)

Here’s a brief summary of my key takeaways:

Bukhosi Mhlanga on Freelancer Client Acquisition

• A price research is crucial. Find out how to price your services or products.
• You may need to start with a Penetrative Market Price… that is price for your market.
• Cut out unnecessary overheads (do you really need that office or the phyical meetings?)
• Yes some clients will have trust issues but you do not have to make it be an issue; deliver.
• Market, network and make use of referrals
• Use social media

Kudzanai Thondhlana on Branding for Freelancers

Brands and branding

“Your brand  is what people say about you when you are not in the room”

Your brand is how you want to be known and branding is how you achieve this

The key goals for any brand is to be:

• known,
• liked
• and trusted.

To achieve these you need to be consistent, authentic, relevant which are some of the elements of a good brand.

As a brand you must know when people are talking about you, have alert service such as Google Alerts to notify you when your brand comes up on the interweb

Nqobani Moyo on an introduction to Afriblocks platform

Afriblocks one the first freelancer platforms made by Africans for Africans has enjoyed a fair amount of success since its soft-launch in January 2019 and gearing up to launch officially by the end of the year.

 The advantage of joining a startup enterprise such as this is that its easy to position oneself and build a profile than for example trying to raise your rankings on the more established freelancer platforms.

In a few years Africa will have youngest and largest pool of professionals and this valuable resource will need a meeting point with the world, hence the importance of platforms such as these.

One of the questions I posed was in relations to currency in terms of payment and taxes and the answer is one I have been still processing in its relative simpleness “online work provides a foreign service and as such earns foreign currency”

I have been exporting my services without actively realising it, tapping into the global market makes me player in the export industry, how about that…..

To check the Afriblocks platform click below (its simple and free and they have no plans of charging freelancers to join the network although a service fee will be taken from the work you are paid for via the platform)

#connectingwithtalent

#connectingprofessionals

#WeAreFreelancers

~B