FREELANCER OF THE MONTH: NAVEED AHMED, CREATIVE CONSULTANT & TOP RATED FREELANCER

Our pick for our first ever freelancer of the month is?Mr. Naveed Ahmed. He is a well-known name in the freelancing industry now, but he had very humble beginnings. He comes from a small South Punjab town called Chishtian Mandi, where his father worked at a petrol pump to support his family. Naveed went to government school, college and university and had no generational wealth, no special privileges but his father had a faith in education. His father sent him to The Islamia University of Bahawalpur walnagar campus for his bachelor’s degree where Naveed started his freelancing journey during his undergrad education.

Freelancer of the Month

Naveed has been freelancing since 2014 and has built a huge international clientele over the years. He now works as an Independent Creative Consultant with big names in the world like Loadsmart, 51Talk, Superlegal, and Swift Beauty. He is a top-rated freelancer on Fiverr as well with more than one thousand five-star reviews. He runs his own remote first design studio where he has a global team of people mainly from Pakistan but also from Bangladesh, Dubai and India.

He also has been working with the e-Rozgaar Program of PITB for more than 5 years to train the unemployed youth in freelancing and digital skills and has trained thousands of young freelancers who are bringing in the much-needed foreign exchange to the country.

He briefly worked at ITU as a Teaching Assistant for the courses of “Design Lab” and “Science Fiction in The Contemporary World” and voluntarily mentored with TCF for 2 years!

Awarded as Top Freelancer of Pakistan

He was recently awarded one of the Top Freelancer and Most Accomplished Professionals of South Punjab awards by Tech Nation Digital Conference. He was also awarded as one of the Top 10 Freelancers of Pakistan by PAFLA!

Having spoken at prestigious events like Connected Pakistan Conference, Young Leaders Conference, Future Fest, TechNation Conference, Digital South Punjab Roadshow, Taaleem or Hunnar Sath Sath, Freelance Fest, Pakistan Innovation Roadshow and big universities like BNU, UET, UMT, BZU, IUB and PU, Naveed has vast public speaking experience.

In a recent story on his Instagram account, Naveed shared how he used to travel in Lahore on a shared rickshaw because he could not even afford to rent a dedicated rickshaw, he then was able to buy a decade old motorcycle, then a new motorcycle, then an old Sedan car but now he drives a new crossover Car.

Connected Pakistan is very proud of Naveed’s achievements and takes pride to celebrate local success stories who defied all odds, did not believe in becoming a product of their circumstances but made them a product of their choices.

Why did you decide to become a freelancer?

I started freelancing during my undergrad to finance my education and bear my own expenses. My only motivation back then was just to earn the bare minimum amount so I could pay my university and hostel expenses. I, later on, turned into a proper profession when I realized its full potential of it.

What are the things that make you happy as a Freelancer?

Being able to travel and work from anywhere makes me super happy about the freelance lifestyle. As challenging as it sounds, it is liberating to be able to work from airports, hotel lobbies, hospital rooms, and motorway rest areas. Moreover, it is not less than a blessing to earn in dollars since one can not only earn a very handsome income for them but also contribute positively to the economy of the country.

What were/are the most challenging things in freelancing as a Pakistani Freelancer?

The biggest challenge I face working from a small city in Pakistan is the availability of good internet. I have the best possible option of internet service installed in my home office but I still sometimes struggle with voice/video quality issues while having online meetings with my clients or any other live sessions on social media. The second biggest challenge was to hire good resources locally because good resources usually move to bigger cities, but I was able to sort this challenge but shifting to all-remote work and it has been great since then. I can hire resources from anywhere in the world but still, most of my team is from Pakistan. The most talked about challenge by most Pakistani freelancers is the availability of PayPal but I honestly face this very rarely. Payoneer and Wise have been working great for me, while PayPal would be a big plus but not having it does not stop me from doing things.

How could Pakistani Government can support you, What do you suggest?

The government can work on improving the infrastructure of the internet so it can work in good speed all around the country. It will help everyone to work easily on the go and people will not have to move to bigger cities just for getting good internet. This will in turn create more opportunities in the smaller cities and reduce the population load on bigger cities.

The government should also look into creating IT parks in smaller cities or at least second-tier cities so SMBs like me can afford to have good offices at subsidized rates with good internet and electricity.

Do you prefer working on a Freelancing platform or direct? What are the reasons for choosing any?

I have a famous saying that I tell my students all the time. It goes like this: “Direct clients Allah ki nemat hain, unki qadar kren”. I cannot emphasize this enough. While having a great freelancing profile with new clients coming regularly is a huge blessing, this system can collapse anytime and any small algorithmic or policy change can affect your profile badly. Therefore, I recommend thriving for repeat/direct clients who can give you work regularly. I do not recommend trying to bring every client out of the platforms because if you are ever caught doing so, you can get your profile banned. By direct clients, I mean to say the clients you can win from LinkedIn, Facebook, and personal or professional connections. A good clientele is ideally a mixture of platform clients and direct clients because as they say, “Never put all your eggs in one basket” Similarly relying on just one channel of clients is not a good approach.

What is your strategy in managing a client's dispute?

Dispute management is a very important skill and it helps you save a lot of projects and save a lot of headaches too sometimes. I believe in the power of communication and always prefer trying to talk to my client and sort the problem by mutual understanding. First, I try to get into a video meeting with the client whenever a conflict or dispute arises. The face-to-face interaction works like magic and helps you and your client to get the human perspective of the problem. The written communication can sometimes create unwanted misunderstanding because your client cannot see your facial expressions and they may take very normal words of yours offensively. I always refund my clients if the mistake is on my end and they are not ready to allow more time to fix it. One should have a big heart to admit their mistakes and payback for them. However, sometimes, the client is wrong and they are not ready to listen, in that case, I always reach out to customer care and explain the whole scenario. I can say for sure that we feel reluctant in going to customer care because we think they always side with the client. I do not believe in this because I have been compensated by the platform fully or partially multiple times.

Did you have any training to get your Freelancing journey easier? Your thoughts on this?

When I started freelancing, there were no institutes providing freelance training. YouTube was banned in Pakistan and even though we were able to access it through proxies, the speed was super slow and a 10-minute video took an hour to buffer.?There were no GFXmentors and Hisham Sarwars of the world making great content on YouTube. However, platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and Udacity were a big help. I took a lot of online courses but couldn’t afford to pay for the certification so I would just take the whole course, do the assignments, and skip the certification because I believe in my skills. Today, there is great content everywhere and especially on YouTube. It is easier than ever to learn a skill now so if somebody complains about the opportunities or their circumstance, it does not make sense. The Internet has leveled the playing field for everyone and it is a true equal opportunity platform for everyone regardless of their nationality, color, gender, or cast.

How did you scale up your Freelancing Business, Was it Easy?

I worked solo for many years and always thought that nobody can handle my clients better than me and if I give work to someone, I will end up losing the clients. It was a big misconception. I started building my team in 2019 and it has been great since then. I saw new heights of growth and liberty. I was able to travel, meet new people, learn new things, all while making a good income. There’s a spiritual side to this too because I believe when you associate someone’s rizq with you, Allah Ta’ala starts giving you more because the other person’s rizq has to go through you. It is not easy to experiment the outsourcing or getting things done by a team, it comes with its own challenges, so sometimes I had to do all the work by myself on the last day but if I kept working alone, I would have never seen the growth that I was able to see.

What does it take to be a successful Freelancer?

It takes commitment. It takes a lot of other things but commitment more than anything else. If you are committed, you will be consistent, dedicated, and self-motivated. You will not get tired. Setbacks will not be able to set you back. Hurdles will not stop you but give you more strength and a hardworking attitude. Once you start working hard, it is addictive. You cannot stop. It gives you the dopamine releases like nothing else. This commitment, hunger for learning, growing, and reaching new heights will eventually make you a successful freelancer.