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Signal is not only one of the most secure messaging apps for work, praised among others by Edward Snowden and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey. It also has a desktop version for Windows, Mac, and Linux, enabling users to chat, make video calls, send voice messages and files from both their computer and mobile phone. That offers a substantial productivity boost without sharing mobile’s SMS messages — a good solution from a security point of view.
Note: To keep up with a high level of Signal’s security features, it goes without saying that the computer should also be secured by password, hard-drive encryption, etc.
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Have you ever heard the often-repeated claim that freelancers make up a third of the U.S. workforce? That’s a highly misleading statement based on a super-wide definition of freelance work.
Fiverr’s recent 2021 Freelance Economic Impact Report entitled Sizing the Top Markets for Skilled Freelancers in the U.S. dived into official stats compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau. Looking at over 20 million tax returns for non-employer entities with at least $1,000 in annual receipts, they came up with a wholly different number:
“We estimate that there were 6.1 million skilled independent workers in creative, technical, and professional services in the U.S. as of 2020. Altogether, these skilled independents are estimated to earn about 1.1% of the U.S.’s GDP in revenue and make up 3.8% of the civilian labor force.”
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This year’s European Freelancers Week is scheduled for October 18-24, with Freelance Business Month as the executive partner. Anyone can register their event, and the plan is to engage as many coworking places as possible, even though most of the events will happen online. Once again, we are proud to be supporting the event as a partner.
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Save the date month for the Freelance Business Month #2 — an online event designed for connecting international freelancers, scheduled for October 1-31 and organized by Elina Jutelyte.
Also, if you have anything to share with others, you can now join as a speaker.
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You can now pre-order the Slovak edition of The Freelance Way from Absynt as Na voľnej nohe. Absynt is arguably the best non-fiction publisher in Slovakia. Its founders, J. Koudela and F. Ostrowski, both went freelance to pursue their calling:
“The story of Absynt is also a freelance one. In the beginning, we decided to leave our jobs in a big corporation and do something meaningful, something that interests, fulfills and entertains both of us. A small company run from our living rooms moved to the office, and the dream of creating a workplace for the two of us morphed into a small startup for which freelancing is quite natural — after all, the vast majority of our closest colleagues and collaborators are freelancers too. If we had read Robert's book a few years ago, we might have avoided many of the beginner's mistakes that cost us a lot of energy and nerves to correct. And even though Absynt has been around for several years, we can still draw inspiration and knowledge about the rules of business from it. We are very pleased to bring the book in a Slovak translation, based on a revised edition for the global market. Get advice from the best — as we had!”
The Freelance Way has also been recently acquired by HarperCollins to be published in India and the whole Indian subcontinent in January 2022.
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Do you dream of owning a bed-and-breakfast place or a small hotel, perhaps? Read this brief 35-tweets-long analysis first to wise up a bit 🏨
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How to read less but get more out of it by Tomas Baranek is a must-read article for all freelance knowledge workers. It touches upon various forms of reading, taking (smart) notes, and even organizing your knowledge using the Zettelkasten system and apps like Roam Research.
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A geeky tip for individual stock-picking investors that will give you some Awwwwwwww moments: StockRover is an awesome-yet-paid stock screener chosen as #1 in 2021 for buy-and-hold investors by Investopedia. Best of all, you can have 2 weeks for free 🤓
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Little-known European Lindat translator based on Cubbitt models is one of the best in the world — beating both Google and DeepL AI translators, and even passing a “Turing translation test” where its results are indistinguishable from human translation. However, professional human translators are still much better at translating more complex texts.
You can try Lindat online for free to translate between 6 European languages: English, French, German, Russian, Polish, and Czech.
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Today, we have added 35 new items to our expanding list of 350 European freelance platforms, resources, communities, groups, marketplaces, and websites. If you know of any resource that is missing, let us know! The list is especially useful for freelancers looking to expand their professional network in Europe.
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