Candibox offers guidance for junior and mid-level creatives who are considering freelance or contract roles.
The creative business climate is changing rapidly, and freelancing is becoming a popular option. Freelancers can take advantage of flexible and remote opportunities to work on short-term or long-term contracts.
Candibox prioritise external contracts that secure freelancers with well-structured employment agreements that provide benefits such as health insurance, pension schemes, and paid vacation and sick days, but solo freelancers often sacrifice these perks for project variety and life experiences.
Short-term contracts involve generating design assets, upscaling content, training for a client's brand, or consulting on a campaign.
Long-term contracts evolve from business development and often include regular tasks for clients with a flexible contract that will roll as projects develop. Candibox encourages freelancers to safeguard themselves legally and avoid negative outcomes at the end of contracts by checking the details in their employment contract, signing and recording the contract, confirming and securing the rights to intellectual property, and ongoing review to forming a business entity.
Candibox also advises freelancers to define their services by creating a relationship with their clients, creating target audiences, breaking down their pricing structure, evolving their portfolio with recent content, and updating their skills as new platforms and tools enter mainstream. Freelance opportunities are more apparent when the hiring market stagnates, and start-ups and micro-businesses are more likely to require freelancers due to budget restrictions or bootstrap approaches. The prime hiring periods are in waves, with the first hiring wave in Jan-Feb, the second in Mar-May, the third in Sept-Oct, with a natural reduction in hiring periods from Jun - Aug & Nov-Dec.
In-demand freelance and digital contractor skills are flexible across digital, but roles that are often provided by freelancers are UX Design, Product Design, Product Management, User Research, Website Design, Copywriting, SEO, Graphic Design, Social Media Marketing, Website Development, Data Analytics, Content Creation inc. Blogging/Vlogging, Digital Trainer, Customer Support, Animation, Video Creation, Digital Content Writing, Programming, Coding, and VR & AR Design.
Freelancers can find paid creative work on platforms such as: LinkedIn, Fiverr, Upwork, YunoJuno, Jooble, and Guru.
Building a creative designer portfolio? See our in-depth portfolio guide, including free templates for creating a Graphic Design Portfolio here,
Building a UX Designer portfolio? see our in-depth guide, including free templates for creating a Product / UX Design Portfolio here.
