No one has ever traveled the road of success without walking past the streets of failure. God has not promised us an easy journey, but a blissful destination.

No one has ever succeeded without failing. Well, in most cases, yes! Hence, failure should not stop you from doing anything worthwhile. We have all read and heard stories of failure and how people succeeded even after failing multiple times. Hence, we are well versed in how it works, right?

In a freelancing career, as well, you will indifferently face the failure of various categories and degrees. Some may be as small as a power failure in your area while you are working on an urgent delivery or as high as losing one of the biggest contracts that you have worked on for a long time. But you will have to be strong, get up, and try again. Right? YES!

Convert your failure to learning experiences and opportunities to perform better and produce more success. This is something that only you can do and no one can teach you how to. Keep your mind open. Think positively about any situation and try to find out what you can take away as learning points from any incident or adversary that has taken place.

There are a lot of things that happen around you and as a freelance service provider, you may not be able to control those. What you can control, though, are your thoughts and actions. You can control how you think about the situation and the incidence ad what you want to take away as a learning point. One who uses these happenings and learns from them is the one who succeeds in the long run. This is not only true in freelancing, but also in real life.

Read the complete article on TheIndianFreelancer.com

The mind is everything.

We think all the time, don’t we? Even when we are sleeping, our subconscious mind keeps thinking about things we see, feel, or experience when we are awake. This is when we dream – happy, pleasant, and calm. But we often see nightmares as well, which are the results of the negative thoughts, feelings, or experiences. To avoid these and to have only pleasant dreams, we need to experience only the good things in life and you know for sure that is it not the case every time. We cannot control what we experience from the outer world. But we certainly can control what we want our minds to be busy with, inside us. We would want to think about the right and positive things rather than the negatives and wrongs.

Freelancing is a way of life and you need to be prepared both mentally and physically to take up the challenge and fall into the new lifestyle which may be little unknown and mysterious to you.

Read the full article on TheIndianFreelancer.com

Well, today I am going to talk about the very basic reason behind this blog and our YouTube Channel – Freelancing in India. Why is freelancing a challenge in India and what are the various roadblocks? We will see those today, in detail.

Freelancing in India is not a new thing and neither it is unknown to the Indian online fraternity. There are many around the country who have been freelancing for years and some of them have even taken up freelancing as a full-time source of income. However, it is still done in a very haphazard way and there exists a peculiar phobia of getting started. Even after starting, very few are actually able to continue or make it big while doing online freelancing in India. Most of the freelancing careers in India cease after a couple of months or years of starting or they end up being a mediocre, irregular, and insignificant source of income.

Read the entire article on TheIndianFreelancer.com.

Ever wanted to know how to choose between offline and online freelancing? Well, it is not as easy as it looks like from the outside. Offline or physical freelancing and online or digital freelancing as I call them, have different positives and negatives and one should choose based on her abilities or skillsets, desires or aspirations, and feasibility. Not everyone can get online, hit the apply button and start working! Similarly, it may not be feasible for everyone to walk up to the client in her office and talk to her directly for a job. One might seem very simple than the other to you, but many are enjoying full-time employment doing the other one! Right?

To start with, I can tell you that choosing between offline and online freelancing is largely dependent on the three things we just saw:

Skillset:

The most important thing that decides whether you should work offline or online is your skillset. Your skillset will decide whether you CAN work offline or online. There are few skill sets that need to be showcased physically – remember the person who plucks the coconuts from your trees? In his domain, he has to work physically. He has to come to your house, climb up the tree and get those nuts down for you. His skillset is that – and it is hence, restricting him to working offline. He cannot offer such a skill to anyone online. Similarly, a plumber, a carpenter, an electrician or a gardener has to work only offline as their skillsets won’t allow them to offer those kinds of services online (Yes, they can teach their skill to others using online videos and live video sessions, but we are talking about direct service providers here). Correspondingly, a web researcher who provides web insights to his clients has to work online as all the material he needs to search is only available online. He can go to his clients’ office only to maybe pick up his paycheck or have a cup of tea together. But the main crux of his work has to be done and delivered online.

Can you think of a few other service providers like this who have to work online because they are bound by the limitations of their skillset? Do write to me in your comments.

We can say that skillset is a major (probably number 1) attribute of a freelancer who wants to choose between offline and online freelancing.

Aspirations:

This point is more like ‘aspirations of the workplace.’ Few people, right from their childhood develop some aspirations towards their place of work and the environment that they want to work in when they grow up. 

Online freelancing can also be done in a group, sitting in an office, under common supervision – but the moment this happens, it rather becomes a corporate scenario. Don’t you think so?

Feasibility:

Now, the third attribute is feasibility. Even if you have the right skill set and the correct aspirations, it may not be always feasible to choose one of these two formats of work – offline and online. Let me give you an example.

Suppose you are an expert in Microsoft Excel and you work as a freelance consultant or analyst and help the local firms with their finances. You work offline and visit the clients’ offices to build and deliver your work. All of a sudden, if you need to help someone sitting in a distant country with a quick problem in one of his Excel Workbooks, can you work offline? NO! You probably cannot physically go to that person’s place and help him solve the minute problem that he has. It has to be done Online!

What are you going to do? Offline or Online Freelancing? 

Let me know in your messages!

How to start? Do you need to hire a trainer, or join an agency? What all do you need to start your freelancing career?

"Don't go to any training agency - it is absolutely not needed. Spend 6 to 12 months in learning things as below, in order. You can learn all these on YouTube or online, for free. Don't waste money on learning institutes.

I am sure you all have heard the word FREELANCING by now.

One who works is called a freelancer, a self-employed contractor or a seller (as she sells her services and skills) and the one for whom the freelancer works is called a supplier, a buyer (as she buys those skills and services) or even an employer (as she hires the services). The concept is the same as of a buyer with a requirement and a seller with a solution. Wherever the buyer and the seller meet and interact (or transact), is called a marketplace. We will talk more about a marketplace later on. Let’s first talk about the concept of freelancing - and let me tell you that it is not a new one!

Hi, welcome to TiF Podcast, where I talk about Freelancing, Online Entrepreneurship, and everything that is relevant to the freelancers of today's digital world - the gen Zee!

My name is Tan and I am your host and the owner of The Indian Freelancer. Don't forget to check out my YouTube channel that goes by the same name, and my blog The Indian Freelancer.com.

Let's get started with today's episode, on TiF Podcast. Thank you for tuning in.

Namaste! Welcome my friend, welcome to TiF Podcast. 

Every one of us wants to do something in life. Every one of us wants to make it big - hmmm, one day! 

Every one of us wants to be out there, spoken about, praised, applauded, known! And yes, every one of us wants to be happy.

Well, so do I. The only difference may be, is that I want to do everything and closely experience whatever comes my way.

I do not want to specialize. Truly, I am a proud jack of all trades. I know I will not be known for that one thing that I do. So be it!

In the quest of doing many things, I am starting this podcast as well. I hope to carry it on till I can. 

I promise to give it my best, but then I am not too sure for how long I will be making podcast episodes in the future. So, as long as I am here, be with me and listen to every single episode that I publish on TiF Podcast.

You never know when I am gone, right? Well, I'll be around. Don't worry.

TiF Podcast is designed to talk about the freelancer in me. I have been freelancing for more than a decade now and for the last few years, it has been a full-time engagement.

Over the years, I have faced a lot of situations and have learned a lot from those too. I am going to share those learnings with you.

If you are a freelancer or a wannabe, this podcast is for you. Subscribe and tune in to it every time I publish a new episode!

The world of freelancing is very dynamic. You need to keep updating yourself with the ever-evolving tech all the time. I will talk about the new technologies, techniques, and tools that will help you as a freelancer.

A lot of avenues of earning money online came up in the last decade and a lot many shut themselves too. But in the world of freelancing, when one door closes, 3 different ones open up.

I would want to talk about all these newer options to make money online as a freelancer. My topics of podcasts will revolve around new and existing freelancing marketplaces, growing strong quickly in existing ones, and finding your feet on the new portals.

There is nothing in this world without a good lifestyle and mental health. Freelancers who often work alone, in silos, need a lot of self-care, self-motivation, and good lifestyle habits to keep up the fight.

On TiF Podcast, I hope to talk about these topics from time to time as well.

So, overall, you can see that there is a lot to be talked about and I am just starting. It is going to be a lot of fun if nothing else.

Stick around and tune in at the right times and you will not be disappointed. 

There is money to be made. And freelancing is the way!

Thanks a lot for listening to this episode of TiF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe, and don't forget to share this with your friends and family.

My name is Tan, your host, and the owner of The Indian Freelancer. Don't forget to check out my YouTube channel that goes by the same name, and my blog The Indian Freelancer.com.

I will be back with another episode, on TiF Podcast. Till then, be safe, take care, and don't forget to fly! Bye Bye...