What Freelancing Taught Me About Surviving the Pandemic
Year 2020! The biggest change that happened to everyone's life after World War II. From the richest person in the world to the poorest, everyone started to feel the change in their lives.
In just 3 months, the whole human civilization came under a global lockdown. When the news of a Chinese virus came to light in December 2019, my family members were just preparing for treatment in India.
6 months ago, things were different. I gave up my day job to start a new venture, started researching stock markets full time, and started another unfinished task- starting the complex and yearlong treatment of my family members.
So in January 2020, as we got our Indian Visas, we booked the air tickets with great fear. I searched for facemasks everywhere but found just one seller in the entire block.
We took the flight to Hyderabad at the end of January. Surprisingly, no one was wearing a mask. It’s just us with masks at the Airport. Yes, surprising right?
When we went to the Indian immigration, one officer laughed at my Mom, “Why a Mask? Are you afraid of the Chinese Virus?”
Fast forward to 2021, things are different now. This pandemic whether natural or man-made changed everything.
From Offline to the Online World
Before the pandemic started to make an impact on the world my entire life was offline. I worked offline, get paid offline, and hanged out with friends offline.
But I was curious about the online world. I heard friends earning, shopping, and sleeping online(not actually 😆). However, my curiosity and procrastination clashed for almost 10 years.
Yes, 10 years!! In 2009, I was first introduced to the online web development world. I failed to grab the online opportunity and started studying Finance and Music instead.
Unfortunately, I went for the traditional banking jobs whereas I had the skills to make small websites or work on SQL databases.
However, the first breakthrough came in 2019. I saw a newspaper article about a successful freelancer in Bangladesh.
I started researching her Youtube Channel “Joyeta Banerjee” and a few others in the freelancing community. After watching some videos here and there finally I decided to create my first Freelancing Account.
And, this is how my online journey started.
Two Million Americans and the Pandemic
A study conducted by Upwork found that around two million Americans joined the freelancing community at the time of the pandemic. For a year almost all Americans are living by paychecks. But how many Indians or Bangladeshis have the luxury to live in their government? Not close enough, right?
Most of the time, rich nation kids make the proper use of technology and start something their own. They quickly adopt new skills and charge higher dollar rates for their online work. But, people living in Asia and Africa mostly suffer since they have to work hard to get a job in the offline world.
I was really stressed after my graduation as my parents started to put pressure on me to get a job at any local place. They don’t have an issue with the position or the salary. They just wanted me to join an organization without thinking about the future.
But I hated everything about the job life. I worked in 3 organizations for around 5 years but never got the satisfaction I need to make myself useful to the company. This is the situation of millions of jobholders living in South Asia. They never feel satisfied but keep working their whole life in a cubicle to make their family happy.
Everything was okay till the Pandemic hit the Asian Market in 2020.
According to the International Labour Organization, around 8.8% of working hour loss was recorded in 2020 which accounted for a $3.7 trillion in income loss. The report published by ILO also claimed that Southern Asian countries had the most job loss during the pandemic.
Now, more and more Americans are recovering from job loss by working on freelancing platforms like Upwork or Fiverr. At the same time, thousands of Indians started small businesses near the streets.
So what about the people living in the small country - Bangladesh? What are they doing to survive this once in a historic calamity? I’ve no idea what’s going on!
How Freelancing Supported Me During the Pandemic?
We came back to Bangladesh just before the pandemic shook the world with a sudden rise in deaths. The start of Coronavirus was different from anything we saw in our lives.
Governments started to impose strict restrictions to keep the virus at the bay. Unfortunately, nothing stopped it from spreading globally. When the whole world was confused about what to do now I was successfully working on several online projects for my clients.
I already had 2–3 months of experience in Upwork and Freelancer. My small effort to open a freelancing account resulted in a better money-making opportunity. And of course, I was learning more from the international clients than I learned for years in the local jobs.
I loved everything about it! I waked up every day at 9 a.m. Then, I took some breakfast and jumped into my computer to write blogs for my clients. When there was no work available I used to study how to make a business out of freelancing. I read an entire book called The Freelancer’s Bible. I watched a lot of videos and read every blog possible to get more success. The month of August 2020 proved to be a great month for me.
I earned over a thousand dollars in the first six months. This is considered a good start for a new freelancer. Simultaneously, I got a badge from Upwork — Top Rated Freelancer in Writing. But this also means that I can survive the risky pandemic without going to a regular job.
Fortunately, I found the online earning opportunity just when I needed it most. Now I am reviewing, whether to give up a day job to start a new venture and work on financial research was a good decision. In my opinion, it was the best decision I made in my life.
After a year of hard work, I am expecting to start my own company this year. Also, I have the capacity to produce at least 2–3 journal papers and 5–10 whitepapers in a year.
I inspired 50–100 people about freelancing during the process. We have a solid academy with passionate team leaders working for my organization which I started from scratch in October 2020.
Conclusion
I know each person in this world has their own Pandemic story to tell. Some survived while others faced the cruelest days. But very few accepted the alternative approach like freelancing. I urge every young person looking for a job in Bangladesh to try learning a few skills and start working for international clients. Trust me, it will have a strong impact on your future.
When I was giving up my job for a better future I never thought that I will have to start by accepting a digital career to survive. But I am happy that I made it possible. It opened so many doors for me that I could never imagine. But I would like to conclude with a question — what’s your pandemic story and what you did to survive it?
Get my free ebook on freelancing right here. It’ll teach you how to start your journey as a freelancer. :)
For more interesting articles on freelancing, finance, lifestyle, and many more topics you can check out some of my other articles below:
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