Today’s employment market is a harsh one. With increasing running costs and consumers rushing to find the lowest prices, many businesses are taking the tough choice to reduce their workforce – putting many skilled and long-serving employees out of work and with few prospects for new employment.
But the fact is, with this trend of in-office downsizing, the freelance scene is more prosperous than ever. In fact, according to Forbes, the freelance economy in the US increased from 3.7 million freelancers to a staggering 56.7 million Americans in 2018. That accounts for close to a third of the US workforce, so it's clear that the rising popularity of self-employment isn’t going anywhere soon.
So for salespeople who have recently been made redundant, or feel that their job is at risk, there’s an entirely new opportunity to grasp in the form of working from home. One of a salesperson’s best strengths is in their list of contacts, and they can leverage this invaluable information to bring in a dependable flow of income.
In this post, we’ll analyse the pros and cons of turning to the life of a freelance sales rep, and outline the potential benefits as well as the challenges you could face, and how to overcome them.
This one is music to the ears of anyone feeling concerned about taking the leap into freelance sales. By becoming your own boss, you get to take home all of the money you make directly (tax aside), instead of it going into the pocket of your manager. And this also means that the more time, effort and skill you can put into your endeavours, the more you stand to make. There’s no fixed limit like there would be with a salary.
Another sizeable benefit is that as a freelance sales rep, you can pick and choose your clients. You’ll have the autonomy to research your potential clients, and only work with those you believe to be reputable and worth your time. That’s not to say that there won’t be some unpleasant experiences, but it does make it much more likely that you’ll be working with a great selection of clients that you enjoy.
And last on the list of the key positives, you’ll have the freedom to work how, when and where you like. For many freelancers in sales this means more time with the family or with passion projects, and also lower commuting costs without the need to trek into the office every day. And as an extra bonus, no-one is going to care if you choose to spend the workday in your pyjamas.
So, on to the pitfalls. As a freelancer, you won’t have access to the same dedicated onboarding or lead generation team that a large company would. Instead, it’s all down to you to go out, research the market, chase leads, and seal the deal. This means that a large amount of your working time needs to be spent doing these things, in order for you to have proper work to do.
But as we mentioned before, one of your greatest strengths is in your list of contacts. You can leverage the client relationships you’ve built over your career to your advantage, and use the people you know to build a strong network of reliable sales opportunities.
Without a comfortable salary to depend on, the income situation for a lot of freelancers (especially those just starting out) comes in ebbs and flows, with some months bringing in a huge flow of work, and others slowing to a drip. It’s important to remember that these dips aren’t necessarily a sign that you’re doing something wrong, but as with any business, there are different times of the year in which the work simply comes in slower.
The benefit of being a freelance sales rep is that you can use these calm periods to network and grow your list of leads, so that you’ll soon have a new influx of sales opportunities to close.
As we’ve seen, unpredictability is a common theme in freelance sales, and nothing is as unforeseeable as falling ill at the wrong time. And as with the lack of a set salary, it’s obvious that any time you’re not actively working, you won’t be getting paid. To mitigate this, many freelancers have multiple revenue streams from things like investments and other passive forms of income, so that if you fancy a holiday or get the flu, you’re not going to be hit quite so hard.
In our opinion, absolutely. The greatest risks typically come in at the start of your journey into freelance sales, however the ability to earn much more than a typical sales job salary, and the added benefit of having your own freedom and flexibility, can make this shift in career a very lucrative one.
If you’re looking to enter self-employment in sales but aren’t sure what to sell, Exceeders offer top-tier business software and technology to large organizations, and we’re looking for talented salespeople like yourself to join our network.
You’ll be able to use the contacts you’ve nurtured throughout your career to pitch them our partners’ services, and you have the option to either pass us the leads directly, or close the deal yourself.
And for every completed sale, you’ll earn a generous incentive of up to 12% of the transaction. Our partner products vary in price from $30,000 - $300,000, so you could stand to earn up to $36,000 from just a single successful deal.
Interested in working with us? Check out our job openings.
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Working remotely is not a new concept, at least for some employees, who must have practiced it at least once in a while. However, with the recent state of COVID-19, many companies have instructed their employees to start working remotely until further notice. This unexpected extended duration has imposed challenges for some employees, especially the ones trying to work from home for the first time.
As employees, most of us are kept focused on work while at the office because of external conditions that restrict our freedom or levels of distraction. For example, attendance systems force the start and end of our work day, meetings force us to be available on certain schedules, sitting on our desks limit our involvement with non-work-related activities, and finally, seeing our managers around, watching us, keeps our distractions to the minimum.
Missing those conditions while working from home might leave many employees vulnerable to distractions and unable to maintain the required levels of productivity and dedication to work. Although conditions of work at home differ from one employee to another, there are a few tips that could generally help overcoming low productivity and increase concentration and dedication to work.
Tip 1- Go to Work, even if You Are at Home
To set your brain to the work mode, adhere to some practices that will help you feel you have actually gone to work. For example, don’t just wake up, open your laptop and start working, as this will keep you in the sleeping mode and may get you to fall asleep again very quickly. Make sure you get out of bed, change your pajamas, have your coffee, check out your social media, etc. Just do anything you were used to do as a routine before going to work.
Tip 2- List Your Tasks
Even if you are performing the daily routine work tasks, make sure you have them listed clearly instead of just having them in your head. Being able to see your tasks and crossing them off will give you a sense of achievement, and let you know that you are making progress. This will help you stay more organized, productive and motivated to work.
Tip 3- Plan Your Day
A planned day is always a more effective one. Ensure your calendar is fully booked with all your meetings and tasks. You can as well include your breaks and home-related chores that you will need to attend to during the day. This will help you stay focused on completing all the planned tasks within their allotted time and will minimize interruptions and wasted time in between. Once you’ve set your schedule, share it with your team mates. This will help them know what you are working on, when you are reachable for a call, available for a meeting or blocked out for some personal matters.
Tip 4- Avoid Distractions
Distractions are the most common direct causes of reduced productivity when working at home. Typically, when working at home, it is very easy to get distracted by a crying child, a favorite TV show, a basket full of laundry or a comfortable bed calling for a nap. To keep your brain in the right mode, avoid, or at least minimize distractions around you. For example, don’t work in the kitchen if you think you will be distracted by a sink full of dishes calling you to wash them! If possible, try to find yourself a dedicated workspace. This will help your brain recognize that this is the place where you will work productively. It will also help family members understand that you should not be interrupted while in that area because you are doing some work.
Tip 5- Stay Connected with Your Coworkers
One of challenges most remote-workers face is the social isolation. Although social interaction in the office might be distracting sometimes, it is still one of the most important factors of keeping everyone motivated and engaged. While working from home, make sure to establish or maintain the connection with your coworkers by setting more frequent video calls, arranging some online activities on break times, or simply picking up the phone to check on some one.
Tip 6- Take Regular Breaks
By breaks, we don’t mean checking your WhatsApp or Instagram, or navigating the web to read some news. To stay productive, you need to take an actual break by getting up and moving away from your laptop or desk. Have a chat with a family member, go to the kitchen to grab a snack or just stand by the window for some fresh air. Taking breaks while working from home is very important, especially if you have little interruptions at home since you might find yourself have worked continuously for extended hours without any break, which will be very exhausting and demotivating on the long run.
Having read this, which of those tips do you already apply, and what other tips are you following that help you stay productive while working from home?
Share your feedback with us. We’ll be happy to hear from you.
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COVID-19 has become the most circulated word in 2020. This pandemic has already impacted the way organisations operate and will continue to fundamentally change them in the foreseeable future.
As this continues to impact our lives, remote working is our new reality. So, how do leaders, managers, & employees make this abrupt shift with minimal dips in efficiency?
Since we have been implementing remote working since 2014, we have come up with some guidelines on how you & your employees can effectively transition into remote working.
Any sudden change in the work environment is enough to disrupt operations if the business is not prepared or if it has not anticipated such a change. And this is exactly what is happening with most businesses today. In order to adjust to this new - hopefully temporary - “normal”, leaders should first prepare their employees mentally & should get the appropriate infrastructure to support remote working.
These are some of many things to consider during a transition like this.
We have listed below some pointers that have proven effective over our 6 years of implementing remote working:
Aside from the operational side of things, leaders must ensure that their employees are ready to handle their new lifestyle. COMMUNICATE. Have a group conversation with employees assuring them that there is certainty in the midst of all their uncertainty. Team members should constantly feel like they know what’s going on.
“This is a different time for us. We don’t know how long this will last but we are here to support each other and lift each other up. We will make sure you have what you need to continue your work as “normally” as possible.”
This type of assurance will help ease employees into this lifestyle and give them confidence that it will work. It is also imperative to set recurring meetings just so there is clarity on things and so the “teamwork” vibes are sustained. Frequency of contact should be maintained to keep the connections people had at the office.
It can be quite a shock to the human being to go from one way of life to another in a short period of time. Psychologically, employees need to be ready. That’s why it is advised to encourage employees to develop disciplined rituals so that they can stay on top of their tasks and remain productive:
As for infrastructure requirements, we compiled a list of the most crucial systems you need to thrive today.
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Cloud computing is an exponentially growing market. According to a study by Forbes, the public cloud computing market, including cloud applications (SaaS), development and data platforms (PaaS), and infrastructure (IaaS) services combined is expected to grow to $299.4 billion.
With new businesses rapidly adopting cloud-based apps, these solutions have become mainstream in the industry as well as personal life. From our daily emails to phone storage, practically everything is stored and managed by cloud computing apps.
However, the uses of cloud computing are not just limited to personal emails or storage. With cloud computing services firms can avoid the upfront cost and complexity of owning and maintaining their own IT infrastructure, and instead simply pay for what they use, when they use it.
In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive.
According to Microsoft,
“....cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. You typically pay only for cloud services you use, helping you lower your operating costs, run your infrastructure more efficiently, and scale as your business needs change...”
Let's see the top five ways business are using cloud computing in their day to day operations.
The cloud allows users to enjoy network-based access to communication tools like emails and calendars. Most of the messaging and calling apps like Skype and WhatsApp are also based on cloud infrastructure. All your messages and information are stored on the service provider’s hardware rather than on your personal device. This allows you access your information from anywhere via the internet.
VEGA Messenger and iDenedi are our very own communication app that allow remote teams to work and collaborate from anywhere in the world - in a very safe and secure way.
The modern computing power and capacity of the cloud lets businesses to store information about user behaviour. This can be used to develop customised solutions, messages and products based on the preferences of customers.
Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant - all are cloud-based natural-language intelligent bots. These chatbots leverage the computing capabilities of the cloud to provide personalised context-relevant customer experiences.
Read More: How AI is Helping Businesses improve Customer Experience
When organisations choose cloud for data storage the responsibility of their data also lies with the service provider. This saves business the cost of infrastructure and maintenance. The cloud service provider is responsible for securing data and meeting legal and compliance requirements.
The cloud also provides more flexibility in the sense that you can enjoy large storage and on-demand backups.
Recovery is also performed faster in the cloud because the data is stored over a network of physical servers rather than at one on-site data centre. Dropbox, Google Drive and Amazon S3 are popular examples of cloud backup solutions.
Read More: Check Out Our Managed Cyber Security Platform - ASPIDA
Whether a business develops application for web or mobile or even games, cloud computing services prove to be a reliable solution. Using the cloud, you can easily create scalable cross-platform experiences for your users.
Many of these services include many pre-coded tools and libraries — like directory services, search and security. Some will also offer full end to end service from strategy, consultancy, UX/UI, Development, QA and support. This can speed up and simplify the development process.
Learn More About Our Partner Knowarth and how they help enterprises build apps.
Many business management applications like customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) are also based on a cloud service provider. Software as a Service (SAAS) has become a popular method for deploying enterprise-level software.
It ensures hassle-free management, maintenance and security of your organisation’s critical business resources and allows you to access these applications conveniently via a web browser.
Here is a use case of our partner, iSystems
As a busy distributor, iSystem's client, Oxford University Press needed a sophisticated solution to optimise its distribution and customer service operations.
Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is a cloud-based business application platform that combines components of customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP), along with productivity applications and artificial intelligence tools.
iSystems supported Oxford University Press with a full integration between all the departments improved service by making current data available to all and streamlined order processing, saving OUP time and money.
Learn More About iSystems
Cloud computing services are still at a relatively early stage of adoption, despite their success stories. Many companies are still contemplating which apps to adopt and when.
However, their usage is only likely to go up as enterprises get more comfortable with the idea of their data being somewhere other than an expensive server in the basement.
Working remotely is not a new concept, at least for some employees, who must have practiced it at least once in a while. However, with the recent state of COVID-19, many companies have instructed their employees to start working remotely until further notice. This unexpected extended duration has imposed challenges for some employees, especially the ones trying to work from home for the first time.
COVID-19 has become the most circulated word in 2020. This pandemic has already impacted the way organisations operate and will continue to fundamentally change them in the foreseeable future.
When speaking of performance management, many think of the annual performance review process. But the annual performance review or appraisal is only a small component of employee performance management.