Freelance Business Month – THE event for the freelance ecosystem

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The Freelance Business Month (FBM), taking place each October, is an initiative designed to unite the freelance ecosystem and show the power of growing independent businesses.

The event will last the entire month of October and will be the epicentre of cultivating ideas, knowledge, skills sharing and learning about the freelance ecosystem.

Learn more:

What is Freelance Business Month? 

FBM started from an idea by the founder of the Freelance Business Community, Elina Jutelyté, to connect with fellow freelancers around the world and learn how they run their businesses.

Apart from having business-related topics she wanted to cover subjects beyond freelancing and give a broader overview of freelancing, where it is heading, what are the issues and how communities and organisations can help freelancing.

The purpose of the event is to provide freelancers with education and opportunities to connect.

The founder of the FBC, Elina, is by profession an event producer working with large corporations, helping them to create their events and she was always inspired by hearing speakers sharing their stories.

She wanted to build something like this for the freelance industry where freelance ecosystem players could get inspired and motivated to continue their independent business and find ideas and business connections.

“With this event, our goal is also to show the growing power of freelancing that is spreading across the globe. We advocate for better work-life balance, for more satisfaction from work and we believe freelancing is the way to achieve that.” – shared Elina.

It is the only global event for the freelance ecosystem that lasts for an entire month and brings such a variety of topics and expertise.

💡 Reserve your seat at the biggest event for freelancers in 2022! Book your ticket here: freelancebusinessmonth.com

FBM Founder’s takeaways from Past Events

#1 Freelancing is like dating

Why? Alison Grade, the author of the Freelance Bible, explained that the very first impression counts (having a professional photo matters!)

You need to believe in yourself, your skills and your expertise. Both parties are looking for a long-term relationship and they want to cooperate with someone who they feel comfortable around.

Alison’s advice: “Just like you start a date, start low key, do your best and see where it goes. Build lasting relationships step by step.”

#2 Remember why it all started and keep your focus

Luk Smeyers shared his thoughts on one of the best things about being independent: freelancing allows you to have the life you want!

He highlighted a common mistake that freelancers usually make, that they work on too many projects in parallel and spread themselves with all the incoming jobs that are not addressing that initial goal.

What can you do instead? Build authority around your expertise, that will sell your services. Therefore, his advice is to always incorporate visibility time in your work schedule.

He shared his special formula for work, which he used to shorten his workweek to 4 days:

  • Reduce client facing time to 70%
  • Increased visibility and trust development time to 30%
  • and Lastly, increase pricing: upstream work to 2,5x of market

He reminded us that being a freelancer means having the life you want and to stop being an order taker.

#3 Workplace, Employment and Skills revolution

Denise Brouder defined 3 main points of the Future of Work:

  • Workplace Revolution – moving from offices to flexible working conditions
  • Employment Revolution – moving from employees to flexible workers
  • Skills Revolution – Denise revealed that the gap between the required skills and skills available on the market is growing and freelancers are there to close this gap (fast and reliable)

Apart from the expertise skills that workers need to have, it is important that freelancers develop human skills such as empathy, problem-solving and adaptability.

#4 Freelancing will shape the workplace

Matt Mottola, co-founder of Venture L and Matt Coatney, C-Level Technology Executive, Award-Winning Author and TED Speaker, both are authors of The Human Cloud, explored how freelancing will be one of the biggest factors in shaping the workplace of tomorrow.

They say forward-thinking leaders are already taking a stance on hiring freelancers and that the practice will only become more and more commonplace in the future.

They added that the main struggle for clients will be to choose between freelancers and agencies, but since independent professionals are often faster and more flexible, they have an advantage.

#5 Niche and personal brand

In freelancing, is all about your offering and how you sell yourself to potential clients.

Jean-François Bodart, a business development expert, explained that to find your niche you should simply answer these questions:

  • What’s your ideal client?
  • What are their challenges?
  • What is the solution that you can offer?
  • Why should they choose you?

Another question that you should be able to answer is: How do you make a difference?

According to Geraldine Huybrechts, a personal branding expert and visibility coach, this question will be key when defining your personal brand. Find out what your talent is and introduce it to the world.

📅 Join this year’s event to learn what experts in the niche recommend this year
> Get your FREE ticket until Oct, 30
(A donation ticket option is also available)

Freelance Business Month 2022: Details and Schedule

Freelance Business Month is back between 1-31 October 2022 with 80+ Speakers and Sessions filled with learning, inspiration, networking and support for the freelance community.

What can you expect? It has 5 chapters and covers:

  1. The Future of Freelance
  2. Starting Freelancing
  3. Growing Freelancing
  4. European Freelance Ecosystem
  5. Freelancing in the Future of work

Invited speakers and experts are business owners, CEOs, TED/TEDx speakers, book authors, key opinion leaders in the freelance economy, renowned consultants and advisers, who work or have worked with brands such as MBO, Airbus, Open Assembly, World Employment Confederation, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, BBC, Samsung as well as successful independent professionals.

Besides listening to the presentations, you can participate in a number of practical skills workshops, connect with attendees via powerful AI matchmaking, and learn about the freelance ecosystem. We guarantee you a dose of fun too!

If you are a freelancer, aspiring freelancer, a business targeting freelancers, a policy-maker or someone who is hiring (or looking to hire) freelancers, this event is for you.

Natalia Campana

Natalia is part of the international team at freelancermap. She loves the digital world, social media and meeting different cultures. Before she moved to Germany and joined the freelancermap team she worked in the US, UK and her home country Spain. Now she focuses on helping freelancers and IT professionals to find jobs and clients worldwide at www.freelancermap.com

By Natalia Campana

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