What Is the Scope of Freelancing in India?

November 23, 2015 by Jessee R

With the current Indian economy bullish and poised towards fast-paced growth, new and rising business models are increasingly cementing there position in the market.

For instance, E-commerce in India has already spread across numerous sectors like clothing, sports and nutrition, healthcare and food & beverage to name a few. Portals like Zomato and Flipkart have successfully exploited the Indian online markets and transformed into globally competitive firms with large scale expansion and rapid growth being their agenda.

India’s e-commerce market was worth about $3.8 billion in 2009, it went up to $12.6 billion in 2013. India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30%. This has been the driving force of this e-commerce growth in India.

Such growth and opportunity has created a platform for newer business models to enter the Indian online arena like the Freelance Model of Business. Start-ups like Truelancer have created a platform where a new kind of worker is emerging i.e. Freelancers.

These goal-driven people take control of their lives by shunning the rigid corporate structure in hope of finding a fair chance to showcase their talent, do quality work on their own terms and get good remuneration.

With the Freelance Model still in its nascent stages all across the globe, the basic question which arises is that what is the scope of Freelancing in India as a whole?

What is freelancing exactly?

Suppose you need some kind of work done for you let’s say a logo made for a venture you are planning to start. Now this is a one time work and hiring a full time employee with general skills can be both, costlier as well as ineffective for the business as a whole. Instead, you log on to a freelancing website like Truelancer.com and search for people who can make the logo for you. You post your requirement and the people with the right skills contact you by sending proposals; mentioning their skills and price at which they are willing to do your job. Now, you decide whom to award your Project considering in mind the Price at which they are ready to work, their previous projects/portfolios, feedbacks left on their profiles by their previous Employers (Truelancer asks each Employer to leave a Feedback after completion of a Project). It certainly provides you with a lot of options and you can research and choose the perfect freelancer for your job.

Must Read 7 Ways to Promote Your Truelancer Profile and Boost Your Freelancing Career

The Employer is required to make a payment (which may be equal to the total Project cost or a part of it) as soon as he accepts a Proposal of a Freelancer after discussing the Project with him. Truelancer doesn’t releases these funds to the Freelancers unless the work is done and reviewed by the Employer. This ensures security for both, Freelancers as well as Employers.

Demand and supply of talent maintains an equilibrium here which is slightly demand-oriented. The supply of talent pool is so vast that all its effects on the equation are almost nullified.

Truelancer alone reported that more than 40000 freelancers signed-up in the first three months, since the company incepted. That is an impressive growth by a startup.

Forbes’s research says that approximately 40 % of USA’s population will be freelancing by 2020. This is bound to have a global impact as well.

Hence, there is no doubt that this informal yet professional virtual corporate juncture where employers and employees seldom meet, is a globally rising trend and thus entering into it at such nascent stages will provide an immense opportunity of growth, hence extending the scope of freelancing in India.

What can you do as a freelancer?

There is absolutely no limit to the range of work you can do as a freelancer. There is more general stuff like Website Development, Content Writing, SEO marketing, Graphic Design etc.

And then there is rare stuff too like app and web development, music and sound creation and editing and niche jobs like translation to name a few.

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But there are certain trends which have been visible over the years.

The highest numbers of freelancing gigs occur in:

Writing
Marketing
Web Designing
Accounting
Translation

Forbes enlists the following choices as the best freelance careers

Marketing
Business Project Management
Web Development
Writing
Accounting
Insurance Inspection
Teaching and Tutoring
Social Media
Graphic Design
Administrative Assistance

Checkout The highest paying freelancing jobs

Clearly there’s a lot to choose from. If you have the right talent and the right mind set, there is a lot of opportunity for you out there.

What is the expected career graph for a freelancer?

It is the very basic question every freelancer wants answers to. Growth in freelancing requires a proper mix of social networking strategies which help you get noticed and build your reputation.

But as it is elsewhere, only your work will do the trick for you and more so in freelancing as you have no personal modes of communication to leave an impression. Your quality of work, experience, global networking, portfolios and past projects are your marketing mix.

Taking care of these things will help you create a good career out of freelancing. I stress on ‘career’ as the opportunities in this arena hold great potential for success. These are undoubtedly attractive enough to make a full time career out of freelancing. But mind you, reaching these awesome numbers takes time and effort.

What does the future hold for freelancing?

When asked about their life as a freelancer here is what people had to say

This survey shows an increased inclination in favour of the freelancing model of business.

Must Read Rising Freelance trends in India

More and more people are attracted to it not because of the money but other factors like increased satisfaction, increased feeling of security provided by trusted platforms which leads to a happier lifestyle where you are your own boss and live and grow on your terms and get paid for stuff you like doing.

This obviously points towards a more organized and prosperous future for freelancing as a whole and with the corporate structure already penetrating India at an exponential rate, it can be predicted that in time more and more people will move away from its rigid structure and limitations and begin to embrace freelancing as part of their lives.

All in all, I can say that the future looks bright for freelancing with a wide, diversified and positive scope of growth.