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Our database of 400+ European freelance resources is already so vast that we rarely find a new extensive one that we have overlooked. The Freelance Informer based in the UK is one of them. Just scroll down their homepage to see the huge number of items published! They’re already on our radar, so expect to see their best pieces in our carefully curated freelance news(letters).
The latest MBO State of Independence in America 2022 report confirms that the U.S. freelance economy is growing stronger and more populous. It’s one of the few quality reports that is statistically representative and clearly distinguishes between Full-Time, Part-Time, and Occasional independents (aka freelancers). Here are some highlights:
See the full PDF report for details.
Useme has published a dry-but-useful article for companies about hiring international freelancers. The whole process is far from simple. Employers may need to comply with the laws of both countries (their own and those of the freelancers they hire), follow privacy rules, fill out special tax reports, prevent misclassification, and follow labor guidelines:
“For example, in Spain, freelancers are entitled to benefits, such as yearly paid time off, if they work primarily for one client.”
One notable takeaway, however, is that truly independent professionals who work with multiple international clients are likely to be much easier to hire and work with than full-time freelance contractors.
Here’s a new testimonial from our member Ivana Strakosova Hruba, who is a English-Spanish-Czech translator:
“Freelancing.eu helps me reach out to foreign clients without having to pay for any PPC campaigns or having to compete with large companies.”
⭐ Are you a freelancer too? Join us and reach out to new clients.
If you’re a writer or creator-storyteller of any kind, there’s a fantastic book about narrative structures used in everything from marketing to movies to novels to nonfiction to self-help books.
Its author, Steven Pressfield, titled it Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t after a piece of advice he got as a novice marketing creative, but it’s actually full of kindly wisdom and hard-to-find knowledge about storytelling.
A little more niche than Steven’s bestseller The War of Art, this book is a real gem and a lot of fun to read 💩
One would think that everything is known about procrastination, but the science is still evolving.
In a new episode of his popular science podcast, Huberman Lab, called Leverage Dopamine to Overcome Procrastination & Optimize Effort, Stanford neurobiology professor Andrew Huberman summarizes the latest science from the last 5 years and explains how dopamine works, why it's closely related to procrastination, and how to combat it.
Unlike the topic of how to improve eyesight, we're not including a short summary this time because this episode is really better listened to in its entirety. It's available on Spotify and YouTube — and as Huberman says, listeners have been asking a lot about procrastination:
By the way, Huberman was recently a guest on the JRE podcast, and in an amazingly candid interview, he discussed topics related to productivity and health.
Over the past year, freelance creatives have been given AI tools to bring their ideas to life in photorealistic quality. Here's a demonstration of what the combination of two state-of-the-art AI tools, GPT-4 and Midjourney, can look like in practice, with breathtaking results:
Adobe is now on the move with its new AI product Adobe Firefly, which has generated a lot of excitement among designers.
Here’s a new testimonial from our member Pavel Lorenc, who’s an e-learning designer and consultant:
“Thanks to Robert Vlach and the online support he provided to a Czech freelance community that had grown around him, I have been able to find the necessary information, support, contacts and clients for growing my freelance business. Freelancing.eu scales all these benefits even further. It opens doors to international freelancing for me. I’m excited for any new opportunities that I meet thanks to Freelancing.eu.”
⭐ Are you a freelancer too? Join us and reach out to new clients.
As freelancers, we're part of the economy. So it's useful to have a basic understanding of economics, even if it's just for small talk with clients or reading the business media. The Economist has addressed this need with their free glossary of about 500 terms, The A to Z of economics, written in plain English. Check it out!
Note: Sadly, the term freelancer is not included.
Our editor Daniel Sacha writes from Japan:
This is news to me too.
I was going to write you about something else today, but on my way to a meeting at the train station in Mitaka (basically Tokyo), something caught my eye. Station Work. A room right on the platform that you can rent for quiet work. You have a desk, WiFi, a power outlet, and air conditioning. Somewhere even a monitor with HDMI connection or other services. The idea behind it? Use your time efficiently, for example when you're waiting for a transfer and don't want to leave the station. The price is about €1.9 for 15 minutes.
The smaller boxes are for one person, the larger ones can accommodate a small team, so you can have a joint work session or meeting, for example. You can also easily pay with the card you use for train travel, you just have to register in advance. Station Work website is in Japanese, but with a translator that won't be a problem.
On past trips to Japan, I've written a few articles at train stations (just waiting for the next connection), but the roar of the express trains doesn't help with concentration. Anyway, it looks like I have a nice alternative. I'll definitely give it a try! By the way, you can find them in other cities as well.