Bad news always makes the front page, top of the crease news. This is unfortunate that the sensationalism of death, destruction, despair, war, and a down economy are far more often reported than events demonstrating good news. Reading up on the current status of worldwide markets is enough to make even the most optimistic person a pessimist. Not, to mention the dire statistics about drops in Gross National Product (GDP) and warnings about the global economy.
IMF reports poor economic outlook
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported earlier this year that the global economy will continue to slow down before it picks back up next year. Additionally, the IMF estimated growth in the US will slow to a paltry 1.4% this year. Americans are not alone. Europe is expected to achieve just at 0.7% growth rate this year. Nine of the ten advanced economies will decline also.
But, here is a news flash from us!
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Just because the global economy representing macroeconomic trends is taking a nose dive, it doesn’t mean that your individual microeconomy ( as a remote worker, remote freelancer or digital nomad working from home or working from anywhere) that you experience with your family, household budget, small business, and freelance gig work dives off the cliff too!
In fact, the opposite could happen when we take the right approach and adopt the success mindset.
Dire economy entice people to try network marketing
Entrepreneur published an article on the opportunities for promoting network marketing during a recession and argued these points:
- economic downturns force people into thinking for ways to earn more money,
- people who were previously more confident in their ability to earn money in the traditional way (get a steady job with a major employer) are more likely to start looking for new and out of the box financial opportunities,
- people will be more interested in hearing more about how to start side hustles and how to start a business that doesn’t require a lot of capital, and
- people will be intrigued about opportunities that allows them to set heir own hours and offers rewards that can grow faster than capital or labor requirements.
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7 reasons why a freelance remote job may be optimal
Setting up your remote freelancing gig
These are the reasons to look up! Maybe before the economic downturn, your buddies probably joked, asking you to slow down and stop working so hard. They may have said, “isn’t one job enough?” Your significant other may have even threatened divorce because of your penchant for working on your side hustle and, “not spending enough time with the family.”
Businesses less reluctant to use remote freelancers
But, your time as a remote freelancer working from home has arrived. The hard work as well as your foresightedness to refuse to depend upon just one income stream may finally payoff now.
During economic downturns, it’s not just everyday people, college students, recent college graduates and retirees looking for work that are feeling the pinch and looking for ways to make extra money. Employers are feeling the pain, too. As costs rise, they have to cut corners. That means cutting out bonuses, cutting pay, and getting rid of the more experienced, higher salaried workers in favor of those who will work for half the pay and will settle for no bonuses.
Yet, the ones who fill in at half pay often don’t have the experience or the knowledge to competently get the job done. So what many employers have started doing is hiring people to work from home. and allowing remote working arrangements.
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The benefits of hiring a remote workforce
By doing this, employers slice their expenses in many ways. Employers don’t have to furnish an office, and they don’t have to provide the same benefits. The cost of hiring a remote freelancer as needed versus keeping a full-time employee saves time and increases profit.
By choosing those who work from home, and work remote, there’s no vacation pay, no accumulative sick day pay for the employer to shell out – and by choosing to use freelancers, there’s often not the cost of other company-associated perks.
The employer can simply use the freelancer’s services when needed. Which works out really great for the employer. But not so much if you’re the one hoping to get work from that employer on a regular basis. However, the ability to control your employment life is in your hands. You don’t have to sit around and wait for someone to hire you. And you can have multiple clients at one time.
Evidence of successful uses of networking by leading entrepreneurs
You can start your own business online – all you need is a computer and the ability to fill a need. The possible businesses you can start online are so numerous and so easy to start, that you can begin immediately. But you need to sale yourself on the idea first. So, we present research-based evidence from the University of Chicago Booth Review to push your toward your goal of financial independence.
Entrepreneurs have:
- two times the average number of online network connections than non-entrepreneurs,
- an MIT study of successful business owners found that university-educated entrepreneurs with access to large, active alumni networks were more successful than those without,
- 99% of successful entrepreneurs participating in the University of Chicago survey used these three top tools to network: LinkedIn, Facebook, and WhatsApp (US-based and international alumni).
Traditional advantages of networking for business growth
The more intriguing aspect of networking practices by successful business entrepreneurs were they ways in which networking was utilized. Forbes explains that networking is used as a forum to:
- exchange ideas
- become more noticeable in the marketplace
- open opportunities otherwise not available
- conduct a comparative analysis of the interests, skills and abilities of key competitors
- share ideas through debate and dialogue thereby improving creative skills
- build a library of resources
- grow in status and build self confidence
- develop long lasting relationships
But, if you are reading this article solely for the purposes of ‘showing me the money,’ let us go back to our premise, how do we network for success while working from home?
Effective networking as applied by successful entrepreneurs
Successful entrepreneurs use networking on the internet to:
- 42% do due diligence on a market or opportunity
- 41% get management advice
- 38% learn about a new industry
- 37% search and find professional service providers and
- 37% identify best practices
Conclusion
Did you miss it? Let’s repeat. Take a look at the fourth line. Successful entrepreneurs use networking (in person and on the internet) to SEARCH AND FIND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDERS.
Case closed.
