Let’s Bring Great Business Education To Every Freelancer: Here’s How

In past articles I’ve reminded freelance platform leaders that freelancers need ongoing educational support to build their business. 

For new-to-freelancing professionals, it’s a challenge to build a thriving business. Would-be solopreneurs, eager to start their part- or full-time freelance career, succeed or fail on how well they recognize that freelancing is a small business like any other, and develop the skills necessary for success: Building a brand, growing a client base, efficiently delivering product or service, allotting time to the right priorities, establishing good customer relations, and managing finances are as essential skills in freelancing as in any other commercial enterprise. Current and former full-time employees, used to working in a large organization, often lack the opportunity to develop these skills. As Google research and other studies point out, technical excellence is necessary but not sufficient. It’s soft skills that make-or-break success.

For professionals embarking on full-time freelancing the stakes are higher, the cost of failure greater, and gaining the knowledge and skill to grow their business is even more important. We know from our Global Survey on Freelancing that 60% of freelancers describe themselves as busy and satisfied with their financial performance, while four of ten freelancers were not so satisfied. Had this cohort access to good education, and perhaps a mentor or coach, frustrated freelancers might be significantly fewer.

Keep in mind the potential value of better freelance education. In the US alone, 60 million part- and full-time freelancers are generating more than a trillion dollars of value. The impact of improving freelancer success by just 5% is staggering.

Here’s the dilemma: Many freelance platforms operate as talent warehouses, not active and dynamic talent developers. Platform leaders often feel driven to focus more on talent quantity than quality. After all, demand significantly outstrips supply in many fields. It’s harder to find experienced talent, let alone top talent. Moreover, two-sided marketplaces are motivated to offer as deep and broad a bench possible to meet emerging or unexpected client needs. The result is lumpy opportunity. Experts in AI and fintech are in high demand; independent travel agents not so much at present. Freelancers in the Global Survey saw more opportunity resulting from Covid-19, but also more competition. While most freelancers benefit from their platform, they ought not depend on it as their only or primary source of steady work.  Business education and skill is essential.

Step one in freelancer education is setting up the business, and several platforms offer help. Companies like Wethos offer “business in a box” to successful independent freelancers in many areas as does Collective, a recent startup in the same space.  Honeybook is another, providing business setup help and ongoing support for direct source freelancers in areas like hair styling, fitness training, life coaching and therapy. But, while these platforms are of great help operationally, a continuing educational gap often remains: “Now that I am organized and able to serve clients, how do I get them, keep them, deliver the services that will delight them as efficiently as possible, as well as meet all of my financial requirements and legal compliances?”

As competition for good freelance talent continues to grow, platforms are increasingly investing in freelancer education.

For example, the community team at Contra have invested significantly in online education. Contra’s freelancers are often first timers, and the online program walks through the steps of becoming a successful solopreneur. Malt in the EU provides on-boarding support through monthly webinars for both new platform members and experienced freelancers looking for an educational boost. Ravenry, Singapore based, operates as an incubator of solopreneurs and future entrepreneurs, offering platform members online and video workshops that address the fundamentals of freelancing success.

While these platforms focus on early success, others invest more in continuing education. Toptal has a strong reputation for contributing to freelancers’ education through regular and ongoing workshops, opportunities to publish in Toptal’s well-read Engineering and Finance blogs, community meetups, and even scholarships in technical growth areas. Hoxby in the UK offers on-line and interactive education provided by Hoxbies in support of its “workstyle” philosophy of balancing work, family and other life interests, and has recently brought on board a director of “future-proofing” to lead technical and professional education.

Still other platforms encourage mentorship or coaching among interested freelancers. Weem.group, a French independent consulting platform, encourages mentoring relationships between younger and more experienced female consultants. Wethos offers a teaming-up service as part of its offer to members. Gigged.ai, the Scottish tech freelance platform, is just kicking off a mentorship program and Talmix, a UK based platform, has initiated a similar program. Coaching programs are also operating or in the planning stage. MBO Partners, based in the US, has, for some time, offered coaching to its high performing freelancers. Fiverr in Israel, and Malt in France, also offer growth coaching to their more successful platform members.

Yet another way platforms deliver education is through community engagement. Adeva, a tech platform located in Macedonia, holds monthly community meetings (“fireside chats”) on tech topics like “Laravel-at-scale”. Many other platforms, like Indielist.ie, in Ireland, offers regular virtual community meetings, as does Comatch and Vicoland in Germany, Workana and Seeds in Latam, and the Africa Foresight Group in Ghana. Freelancebusines.be devotes an entire month to continuing educating for its freelance members. Omdena.com, an AI platform, has created a freelance archipelago of over 60 chapters, each leading AI enabled social action projects e.g., “How to reduce family violence during periods of famine.” Chapter members work together to find sponsorship, raise funding, organize the team, and complete and present the chapter project to its sponsor. The process is itself a powerful educational experience for its volunteer freelancers.

This is all good news for the freelance revolution, but here’s the challenge: The support ecosystem for freelancing education is way behind. We can do better. Rather than rely on each freelance platform to make its own educational content, why not band together? Organizations like Europe’s Freelancebusiness.be and UK / US based Open-Assembly and its non-profit Center for the Transformation of Work (note. I’m a part-time Expert in Residence) might work with freelance platforms and communities to co-create a global utility for freelance business education, and perhaps work with universities to offer freelance business education at the undergraduate level. After all, platforms like Techintern and Parkerdewey already provide opportunity to student freelancers.  

Business education is the rising tide that lifts all freelance boats. Mckinsey estimates that platforms may eventually serve over 500,000,000 freelancers world-wide, and Gartner likewise anticipates continued, significant, freelance growth.  Let’s meet that challenge by organizing to provide high quality, low cost, education to every freelancer on every platform on the planet, and reduce the gap in educational support between well-funded platforms and others. We can provide the freelance revolution with helpful educational content at scale. We know best practice. Let’s make it available to every freelancer.

Viva la revolution!