I don’t talk politics a lot in here…
Not because I’m not political (although, I’m really not anymore) but more because it’s infected virtually every other part of our lives… this is kind of a safe haven from all that noise — for both ME and you… but me, most importantly. 😉
However, business people need to pay attention.
Political winds can fill your sails…
Or blow your house down.
A big one that’s relevant to us freelancers is the labor shortage. If you’ve not heard, here’s some of what’s going on in the labor market:
- 10.4 million job openings in August whereas the number of people leaving their jobs (the so-called “quits rate”) rose to 4.3 million, the highest level seen on records dating back to Dec. 2000.
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were roughly 1.7 million job openings in the leisure and hospitality sector.
- A majority of small firms (51%) say that they have job openings they are unable to fill, according to a September survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.
This is all good news for freelancers — because as companies struggle to find workers, they become a lot more open-minded about who and how they hire. We saw this through the Coronavirus pandemic. From Upwork’s 2020 freelancer survey:
- 36% of freelancers do so full time — an 8% point increase from 2019.
- 75% of those who left an employer to freelance say they make the same or more income than they did in their traditional job.
- Freelancers report lower rates of negative impact of COVID-19 on their overall wellbeing and financial health.
- 58% of traditional workers who began working remotely after COVID-19 are now considering freelancing
And I believe this is just going to keep growing — as internet access becomes more ubiquitous and speeds increase, more and more people are going to choose to work from home and more and more businesses are going to forego the cost of a traditional office and traditional wage workers.
Ultimately, if you’re freelancing, you’re in a good spot.
If you’re considering it, now is a great time to get started.
You might even be able to talk with your current employer and switch from a traditional employee role to working for them as a freelancer — which will likely free up a bunch of time and allow you to take other clients and earn even more.
In any case, some things to consider as the world swirls around you.
That’s one of the things about my Beginner’s Guide to Freelance course… it’s heavily focused on getting clients. Specifically, building systems from bringing in new clients that run 24/7/365 — through recessions and pandemics and whatever else the world throws at you.
So, you can survive the bad times.
And capitalize on the good ones.
Worth a watch if you haven’t yet.
Because the course is up on Skillshare, you can get it essentially free. That’s because, as a teacher there, I can get you an exclusive 1-month free trial of the site.
With that, you get full access to all 30,000+ courses.
And, if you cancel before the month is up, you never pay a penny.
Anyway, I created a page that explains all that here: https://johnmorrisonline.com/skillshare
Later,
John
