This week’s freelancer interview is with Anibal, an SAP Consultant from Buenos Aires, Argentina. In this chat, we cover how and why Anibal started freelancing, his best marketing tips, and some advice and tricks he’d give to freelancers starting out!
1) Hello Anibal, thanks for the interview. Firstly, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what are you up to right now?
I’m Anibal Mourelle, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m an SAP MM & PS consultant, mainly working in Procure to Pay. I began to work in SAP since 1999 and 6 years ago I became a freelancer.
2) What was your inspiration and when did you actually decide to become a freelancer?
I had been working for 12 years in different SAP consultancies before I became a freelancer, and I felt that I had enough experience to try a freelance life. I wanted to have more independence to make decisions about the projects or jobs to face.
3) Was it difficult for you to start on your own? Could you share with our readers the most important lessons that you have learned on the way?
The main challenge when you start as a freelancer is the continuity of jobs. To achieve that, it is important to have a good portfolio of clients and for this you need to meet the deliverables in quality and time. I prefer to diversify my work. I try to have a long-term project and, when I can, to work on a remote support to solve some incident or improvement. In my opinion, it is a good combination to have a continuous income and maintain the relationship with different customers.
“The main challenge when you start as a freelancer is the continuity…it is important to have a good portfolio…for this “
4) What kind of services do your clients ask you more often to provide? Is there any particular project that you are especially proud of?
I participated in important projects in different countries, but I like when a client asks me to help solve an incident that causes problems. Sometimes the issue is important but the solution is simple, although you must know what to do and how.
5) Do you use other freelancers or outsource tasks that you don’t enjoy that much doing (accounting, taxes, etc.)?
Yes, I do. When a job involves knowledge of several profiles, I try to contact other freelancers or colleagues who I usually know from previous projects. Also, I have an accountant to settling my taxes.
6) Now tell us, how do you find new clients that are interested in your services? What about freelancermap.com? Can you tell us a little bit about your experience with our IT-network?
I usually look for jobs in the consulting webpages if there is any interesting job for my profile. But the main tool I have is keeping in touch with my contacts in the previous clients. Also, I have set up my project agent in freelancermap and I receive an email every day with the new projects.
7) How do you set yourself apart from your competitors? What makes you special?
The best marketing tool is to be responsible and work with high-quality. No one is exempt from making a mistake but it is important to take control and find the best solution. It is essential for me to be reliable and gain the trust of my clients.
“The best marketing tool is to be responsible and work with high-quality.“
8) What is a typical day like for you? How do you manage to balance work and life? Do you use any apps or software to help you organizing yourself?
Sometimes I work in my client’s offices and sometimes I organized myself to work remotely from my home. This allows me to break the routine and have more free time to spend with my family when I don´t need to commute to the office.
9) You have been working in SAP for 17 years. How has the market evolved in this time? Is it easier for SAP consultants now than it was before or the other way around?
The market evolution was huge. Imagine that when I started with SAP the internet wasn´t so developed and to find any help or documentation was very difficult. In addition, we didn´t use social networks or chats to talk to colleagues for some questions. All this made working harder.
10) Last but not least, is being your own boss what you expected? Do you ever think to go back to a full-time job?
After many years working for companies, I’m glad to be freelance. For now, it is not the time to go back.
Freestyle! Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?
I could just say, be responsible, offer a good service and meet the delivery dates to the clients and they will always call you. Keep in mind what you want in life and combine work with free time so you will never be overwhelmed with your job, this will make you work better and have a balanced life.
You can find Anibal here:
Anibal Mourelle on freelancermap.com
LinkedIn
Skype: amourelle2
