News and updates

SHOWING NEWS 631–640 OUT OF 687

STAR MEMBER: MARK MCGUINNESS

We’re proud to welcome our new star member: Mark McGuinness is a UK-based coach for creative professionals, author of four books for creatives, a contributor to two international bestsellers, and host of The 21st Century Creative podcast ⭐

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$100-MILLION PODCAST

One won’t expect independent professionals to sign $100-million exclusivity deals. Yet that’s precisely what happened with Joe Rogan and Spotify, binding the most famous podcaster to the largest streaming platform. Good for him, rather risky for Spotify 🤞

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COCONAT WORKATION RETREAT

Psst! Wanna tip for your next European trip? The Coconat Workation Retreat in the countryside near Berlin is one of the world’s cutest coworking/coliving spaces for freelancers and digital nomads. Its name stands for community and concentrated work in nature — and that’s exactly what it is.

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FREELANCE FORWARD 2020

A new study Freelance Forward 2020, sponsored by Upwork that traditionally defines US freelancers in broadest terms, has been released. The results are insightful as well as up-to-date. However, if you don’t have time to read the full results deck, here are our highlights:

• The proportion of full-time freelancers in US workforce has risen a bit, to 13%.
• Freelancers report a lower negative impact from COVID-19 compared to non-freelancers on their well-being, lifestyle, mental health, and finance.
• 65% of skilled freelancers who were freelancing pre and during COVID-19 say their hours have either stayed the same or increased since the onset of the pandemic.
• 58% of traditional workers who began working remotely after COVID-19 are considering freelancing in the future. Conversely, 12% of the US workforce began freelancing during the pandemic for the first time.
• Of those who quit their full-time job in order to freelance, 75% say they earn the same or more in pay than when they had a traditional employer.
• Freelancers contributed $1.2 trillion to the US economy in annual earnings, a 22% increase since 2019.
• On average, freelancers spent 25% of their working time on business-building activities, 23% on administrative tasks, and 52% on billable work for clients.
• 47% of freelancers view freelancing as a long-term career choice.
• 65% of freelancers age 55+ see freelancing as a good way to transition into retirement and are less likely to be concerned about saving for retirement than their non-freelancing counterparts.
• Full-time freelancers and those who do skilled work identify themselves as the freelance economy.
• 86% of freelancers say that the best days are ahead for freelancing 💙

Note: The report replaces past surveys Freelancing in America (2014-19) that were co-produced with Freelancers Union, and seem to be discontinued from this year on.

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EFWEEK PARTNERSHIP

5 months after launching Freelancing.eu, we’re proud to announce our partnership with the greatest European event for freelancers — European Freelancers Week. Save the date October 16–25, and we’ll bring you the highlights as soon as they release the event schedule.

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30 DAYS OF GENIUS

Do you know 30 Days of Genius? Well, if you’re a creative, a freelancer or a businessperson, you should. It’s one of the best series of business interviews, hosted by Chase Jarvis with star guests like Mark Cuban, Marie Forleo, Austin Kleon, Richard Branson, Tim Ferris, or Arianna Huffington (here’s a full YouTube playlist).

The series was produced by CreativeLive, a learning platform created by Chase to support creative professionals, and there are tons of other videos and tutorials to watch. If you like what he does, make sure to subscribe and listen to The Chase Jarvis Live Show podcast for ongoing conversations with brilliant people like Angela Duckworth, Adam Grant, Jason Fried, Sam Harris, or Daniel Pink.

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FREELANCE BUSINESS MONTH

Freelance Business Month (October 1–31) is poised to be a memorable online event for European freelancers. There are at least 15 authors of business books among 40+ speakers in a packed schedule, and the registration is free. The whole event is organized by Elina Jutelyte and her colleagues from the Belgian Freelance Business Community, and we’re proud to be supporting their effort as partners. Please join us — and get ready for a ride!

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WIN+V

Try it! If you are working in Windows 10, the WIN+V keyboard shortcut opens a popup with your recent clipboard history to paste from. (You can then also hold SHIFT to paste the text without formatting.) It’s truly one of the simplest yet powerful PC-productivity hacks out there.

If you are running an older version of Windows (8, Vista, XP) or you are looking for a more sophisticated solution, try Ditto Clipboard Manager freeware app or a more versatile FastKeys app that also includes text expander.

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CAFFEINE

Can you imagine doing your daily work without coffee or tea? As Michael Pollan explains in his insightful audiobook Caffeine, most of us can’t. He argues that these drinks “created the modern world” and we’re addicted to them, which affects our sleep. Naturally, there are upsides too… ☕ (The audiobook is unfortunately available only to Audible members, or on a CD from Amazon.)

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HOW MUCH DO FREELANCERS EARN?

Naturally, there’s an income gap between full-time, part-time and occasional freelancers, as well as countries. For example, MBO Partners State of Independence in America 2019 annual study revealed, that 20% of full-time U.S. freelancers earned more than $100,000 per year. According to MBO, the average income for full-time freelancers ($68,300) was higher than the median family household income in the U.S. ($59,039). Also, older freelancers tend to earn more ($84,000 per year for Boomers versus $52,200 for Millennials). See the full PDF report for details.

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