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#EFWEEK EVENTS

Breaking news: European Freelancers Week (October 16–25) has just released the first 20+ events on their website — while you can still register yours and have it promoted by them all over Europe 📢

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THE FUTURE OF AIRBNB

The Future of Airbnb seems to be more local and rural, based on short-distance longer-term rentals, according to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and The New York Times. Many hosts were upset by their recent refund policy siding with guests, but home rentals now outperform hotels.

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FREELANCE HEROES

Freelance Heroes is an outstanding community of 10,000+ UK-based freelancers. They run a members directory, organize a Freelancer Heroes Day on November 6, and have a blog as well as a podcast — its latest episode with Elina Jutelyte covered the now-running Freelance Business Month.

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#FREELANCEBUSINESSMONTH

Freelance Business Month, this year’s largest online event for freelancers, has just been launched. You can still register for free and learn from over 50 speakers from all over the world. It’s truly one of the few 2020’s positive highlights 🎯

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THE FREELANCERS MANIFESTO

The Freelancers Manifesto that has just been released by European Freelancers Week ahead of the main event is an excellent piece of policy change to be implemented. Please add your signature to support the good cause ✌ Here’s the abridged outline:

1. Recognition​ — Give us official status at all levels of government and legislation. Talk to our representative organisations and give us a seat at the table.
2. Definition​ — We are highly skilled self-employed workers without employees. We are fixed term contractors, we are the people innovating the models of work with new approaches. Realise that we’re not the same as small and medium size enterprises.​
3. Regulation — When you create policy about employment and industry, think about how it will specifically affect freelancers, the smallest among small businesses.​
4. Access​ — Make sure freelancers can access all government services, bid for official contracts, participate in training programs and qualify for funding. Design a welfare system more considerate to freelancers' needs.
5. Counting​ — Include freelancers in all official statistics, and better research our sector. Don’t put us together with other small business categories.
6. Coworking​ — Make Europe the best place to be a business by building world-class infrastructures for freelancers, making government contracts freelancer-friendly and incentivising the use of shared work spaces.

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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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