Hello, everyone. Uh My name is Lisa and today I'll be talking about why freelancing is the future and how you can start your career as a freelancer. But before I start, um let me tell you a little bit about myself.So I've completed my bachelor's in computer science and information technology last year as a silver medalist from one of the top industries of my country, completed my series of internship and now working as a software engineer at one of the most highly rated software houses of Pakistan according to classroom.

But for a lot of people who look at me right now, I presume I have, I have my life all work out uh from the side plan, but this never had been this easy for me. So I'll tell you why I've come over from a very conventional and traditional society where a woman working from a 9 to 5 in a corporate firm was never encouraged. So growing up, I had to choose my field of career very thoughtfully. So um let's say a doctor. So not allowed to work overnight shift and late sitting in case of an emergency. And then my second option, which was char content or a business. So, wouldn't be allowed to travel from cities to cities for training or job posting. Um, my third career choice was a civil or a mechanical engineer. Again, a male dominated field with a lot of credits and cy work required. So inevitably I've always felt a sense of threat to my career. So there have been a lot of cliche breaks that happened and just, you know, well, I'll tell you why I'm actually bringing all this up. So bear with me for a while. So let's start with the uh fourth industrial revolution. Today, the rise of fourth industrial revolution has assured a new era of economic disruption for us where we are facing a range of new technologies that combine our physical digital and biological worlds altogether, which will inevitably impact all disciplines, economies and industries and even challenges our ideas about what it means to be a human.

All thanks to technology. Today, we stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live work and relate to one another that being said to the Smithsonian Science Education Center, 2.4 million stem jobs went unfilled in the US in 2018.

At the same time, it is estimated that the rise in unemployment in the general population to be around 24.7 million worldwide as a result of COVID-19. But does this has to be this way at this point in time where millions of people are being laid off due to COVID-19. A new economic boom is being observed affecting our big economy and this is our future offer. There's a thing going around these days that future work is now but into the overdrive by the pandemic that suddenly transformed millions into virtual workers. But the COVID has also has rated a major shift to freelancing that's serving a ties between companies and employees.

A factor where job always stays on right now. About 2 million Americans have started freelancing in the past 12 months according to a new study from her work, which is a freelance job platform. And that has increased the proportion of the worker that perform freelance work to 36%.

And there's actually a lot of reasons that's encouraging freelancers to carve their own path. Freelancing for months provides a lot of flex flexibility and control to the individual. Most freelancer choose their own working hours, the work that they do and the clients they work with and wherever they want to work it from all over the world. And this is not actually limited to us or UK but rather this is below them. So how can I help you? Let me tell you a little bit. Uh Let me take you back to my story first. Ok. So after realizing I don't have a lot of range of options laid out in front of me as a carrier I decided to move my own path. I started participating in different webinars, hackathons and communities and inevitably freelancing as well. This for me had been the ultimate that helped me shutter out that prebuilt image of a working woman we had, I was able to work out on the skills I wanted to pursue upscale my skill and build on a stro strong plan from all over the world. All the while I had a complete control of my, I do gradually, this helped me build enough confidence within my society that I'm able to well handle a professional work.

And with the support of my family, I was able to stand up as a first working woman within my ancestry and help others to come along. So uh who is a freelancer, a freelancer is someone who worked as an independent company rather than an employee by someone else. Freelancer are self-employed, often referred to as independent contractors. Freelancing is also a form of entrepreneurship, which means the freelancer has total control of their earning potential. Freelancer are locked into a salary so they can earn as much as they are able to build from their client.

As a freelancer. You are your own boss. According to a study by upper and in 2019, the median freelance income is around 20 to $28 per hour. Of course, with so many different freelancing jobs available, that number can vary quite a bit. For example, um a transcription service may only earn around dollar 5 to 10 per hour while software engineering roles may earn you around $75 or even hundreds of dollars per hour. So, um, are you wondering now how it works? Let's have a look. So freelancing, accepts payment in return for providing some sort of service agreement is back. Or for example, if I hired a photographer to take a few headshots of me, I would pay a freelancer for that session and that would be the end of it. Here's how you can start freelancing in for three simple steps start by creating proposals for the type of projects that you want to build on. For that. You could use different sites, emails, link, link or uh even through reference of your previous clients receive their specific requirements and set up a deadline for your task, complete that work and check out your fee. So it's as simple as that sometimes people pay freelancers who work a set number of hours per week or per month. That agreement is often referred to as retainer. Uh retainer refers uh refers to when you retain the service or write to someone's time.

A lot of legal professionals work on retainer every month. They bill a set of amount of time to the client regardless of whether that full time is used or not. That's really one of the simplest and most pure form of entrepreneurship. That great answer provides a specific service or also and the buyer pays them fee directly. So um what's the best time to be a freelancer? Well, of course, this is the best time you could ever imagine to be a freelancer in this world where 4 billion people on the planet use mobile phone while 3.5 billion use a toothbrush. It has been never been the best time to start re where now more than 30% of the global population now uses social media platform to connect, learn and share information in an ideal world where interactions would provide an opportunity for cross cultural understanding and cohesion.

And however, they can also create and propagate unrealistic expectations. So as as to what constitutes success for an individual or as well as offer opportunities for extreme ideas and ideologies to spread, it's affordable to start. If you already have the skills and equipment to do the job, you can start quickly as soon as you find a client, you can start getting paid to freelance. Uh It's allow, it allows for the greater independence over a job. It's often flexible, allowing you to work part time or doing off hours of business hours. So now the question is, when will you uh be, will you be filling up those millions of open position and stem jobs or not? Thank you.