Who doesn't want to sleep as long as you want or only work when you feel like it? Well, everybody dreams of that. But the question is: What can you do to have that financial freedom? The secret to this: be a freelancer. Living in a remote country like Nepal you might be wondering at which platform I can be the one? There are few websites that allow Nepalese freelancers to do freelance, and today we are talking about upwork.
What is upwork?
Upwork Global Inc., formerly Elance-oDesk, is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Santa Clara and San Francisco, California. The company was formed in 2013 as Elance-oDesk, after the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. The merged company subsequently rebranded to Upwork in 2015.(Source: Wikipedia).
So it is a marketplace for freelancer and employer, exchanging their skills and services with remuneration. Overall, it's a worldwide marketplace for freelancers to provide their products or services to the clients, based on needs and requirements of the project.
To get started with upwork in nepal the following steps need to follow to to get started with your freelancing journey with upwork:
- Profile setup
- Choose a plan
- Search for work
- Set your rate and start working
- Get paid
1. Profile setup
The first thing you need to do is create a profile. It should be professional and honest about your skills, which serves like a general resume to your future clients. Keeping your resume real is a must because if you can't do your gigs in the future, your account could be put on hold or closed.
Then you need a photo which has a clean background and looks professional, it's not a necessary step but having a great photo impacts your profile.
Following that, Keeping your educational records that are relating to your services makes your profile reliable to the clients. Fill how many hours you can do work, from where and your preferred rate. Submit a profile after filling necessary items. Mostly in 24 hours, Upwork approves your profile based on the information you provide.
2. Choose a plan
The next step is to choose your plan. Upwork offers 2 types of plan: basic and plus.
In the basic plan you don't have to make payments for using upwork. But you will be paying connects for each project you might be doing. But if someone reaches out to you, you don't need to spend connects. This plan gives 10 connects each month without any cost, if this isn't sufficient for you you can buy additional connects which come in options of 10, 20, 40, 60 & 80.
In plus plan,it costs $14.99 per month. It has everything that the basic plan gives. In addition to this, it gives 80 connects per month and helps to keep a visible profile to clients even if you are not active. Furthermore, it can keep your earnings confidential from others and can use customized URLs for your profile.
3. Search for work
Now your profile is up, you can search for gigs that are related to your skills. The upworks shows projects based on the category and skill that you listed. Otherwise you can conduct a search by putting a targeted keyword in a search box for the advanced search.
Before applying for any gigs, look for employers' reputation. Upwork has a rating system that helps to understand the company's general position of hiring history. Even if there is Hourly payments protection exists, you need to be careful choosing the legitimate employer.
4. Set your rate and start working
Working as a fresher, you might want to start with a low rate, it might give employers the impression of novice and not fit for the job. So even if you're a beginner don't lower your rate. For reference, you can check how much other freelancers are charging for the same work, and don't apply for the job that is below your rate.
For each project you do, Upwork takes a certain percentage of your income.
For first billing of $500, 20% fee
For billing of $500.01-$10000, 10% fee
For billing $10000+, 5% fee
It shows that if you're doing long term work with one client, it's advantageous to you. If you're doing a job that is $20 you get only $16. And if you're doing the job that is $600 you get $540. So if you can impress the client and manage to get a job for a longer term, you will pay the lowest fee to Upwork. Getting payment.
5. Get paid
In other countries, there are plenty of options to get the payment. But for Nepalese citizens to get the payment there is an option of LFT(local fund transfer service). For this, you need to have an account with a local bank, it needs to link with an upwork account. You have to fill up the necessary information and upon confirmation Upwork approves your bank account, which costs $1.99. For one time withdrawal, it's free but it costs an additional $5 for transfer fee.
Being a freelancer might seem hard in Nepal's scenario, but upwork has made it easy to be one. You can do what you are passionate about, work whenever and do as much as you want. By 2028, freelancers are estimated to reach 50% of the workforce worldwide. So, it's time to start your freelancing career, get started today.