Refresh, Renew and Refire your career, at 60.

The 2020 Freelancer Payoneer Report from over 7000 Freelancers cross 150 countries has just been released.

I love this report and read with interest every year. It provides insights into the world of freelancers, their motivations and business.

My own insights are added as I reflect on my own 10-year freelancing business and my transition from the 9-5 for flexibility and earning more in less time.

Here is a snapshot of the report.

The Gender Pay Gap

One of the more optimistic findings from the report is that women’s participation in the freelance workforce has been gaining momentum and the average wage for females is leaps and bounds ahead of the greater workforce.

Freelancing’s popularity is attributed to the potential for greater job opportunities, independence, higher incomes and a promising move in the direction of wage equality.

It’s also about choice. You will have as little or as much went you want.

You work where you want to. Form home, from a client’s office, from a café, at the beach or vacation.  

Best of all you take jobs you want to and work with those you choose to.

While the report focuses on the young, I believe freelancing is the salvation for the mature worker.

Freelancing for the Mature Workforce

When you have at least a couple of decades of education and work experience, you have a lot of skills people are wanting to buy.

In addition to my own freelancing, I work with mature clients wanting to start freelancing

Sadly, I see it’s older workers, say over 40 years, downplay the number of skills they really have, this was also me when I started.

If you are an older worker, you may have experienced your wisdom and capacity being overlooked at work.

This is how I felt after trying to get back into work after a short maternity leave at 50 years ( yes I was a very old first-time mother)  and moving from the city. Not being able to find a suitable job was a shock, I felt hopeless.

I applied for 25 jobs and received 19 interviews with one job offer for one day a week!!

If you have experienced this, I’m sorry. You can turn it around and never look back.

If the 9-5 is no longer an option, if you’re are tired, or the passion for work has gone. I’m sorry. Maybe you can see your job role disappearing soon.

Older workers can feel at the end of their careers. Well, it’s not over and you can renew and re-fire your working life.

Mature workers have skills people are wanting to buy in the online business, learning and creative world. This is called freelancing.

It’s the skills we often forget that can provide the pathway to taking back control of your working life and doing more.

It’s the pathway to sustaining yourself if you are over with 9-5, with more to give and more to do. Your career is not over yet.

This 2020 Freelancer report says older generations find freelancing a way to stay relevant and to keep their skills sharp in a world where technology trends and tools change in the blink of an eye. I absolutely agree.

Finding your best skills to freelance?

After searching 70 online job boards, I’ve found the top 200 skills people are wanting to buy.

People are looking for freelancers and you may have many of these skills. This is a new way to work and is not just for the young.

The technology is not hard to learn either, it really is as easy as sending an email or posting on social media.

If you are over 40, 50, 60, 70 years with the expertise to share, do it online to a global audience.

With emerging technologies and work shrinking becoming a freelancer on the side or to fulltime will ensure you remain in control of your future.

Think of how many skills you have but don’t use.

Are you an accountant? My guess is you are also a project manager, business analyst, an administrator.

In your job need do you to write reports? My guess is you can also edit, proofread or write reports across many subject areas.

These are all freelance skills.

Are you a teacher? You can freelance as an online tutor, coach or mentor.

People are seeking subject-specific tutors for students at school to university. Others are seeking support to gain a scholarship or pass an entrance exam. 

What if you were advised into a career because you didn’t know what else to do? You went with the flow and now want to put more focus into your favorite hobby. After all, your hobby is your passion rather than your job. In this instance, think about the skills you need for your hobby and freelance these.

Maybe a small change is needed. If you write work reports consider creative writing, become a ghostwriter or create children’s books.

Do you love art but it was a subject considered “too soft” for a real career. Give your creativity a re-birth and become a freelance illustrator, web developer or graphic designer. There are many software programs to help your creative skills online. I use canva.com for my own work and don’t have a creative flair at all. 

Sharing and getting paid well for what you know is freelancing.

It gives you a new start, and who would have thought this possible. From redundant to refreshed and renewed with you in control. People are searching for what you have lived and learned and want to do.

You can freelance where ever you live, whether you are a morning person or night owl and the best is thing is you choose when and where you work.

I work on the farm, 3 hours southwest of Melbourne, Australia at the foot of the Grampians National Park. My clients are from all over Australia and NZ. We talk on the phone and connect with ZOOM for face to face. I take my work with me where ever I go, all I need is my laptop and an internet connection.

The Bright Young Future for Freelancers

The 2020 Payoneer report goes on to say, the freelance workforce is overall very young, with nearly 70 percent of freelancers surveyed being under the age of 35, and 21 percent are under the age of 25. This youth movement is even more pronounced in Asia where 82 percent of respondents are under 35, compared to North America where the number is still high but closer to 47 percent.

Across the board, workers at the beginning and end of their careers are most likely to be exclusively freelancing, whereas the promise of a stable paycheck and the sense of security that comes with it seems to drive workers to seek a company job while raising a family.

For the older worker who feels at the end of their career, freelancing is the opportunity to renew and refire.

My experience turning rejection from the workforce to renewal.

You can create your own job, on your terms for as long as you wish.

Being placed on the work and career trash heap as you age is real. It was my experience, and I turned it around.

This was me a few years ago.

I wanted to use my skills and continue to earn, for my family. We live on a farm in rural Australia, my cash flow is absolutely essential. Whether its for feeding animals during periods of drought, planting more trees, developing better water systems. I wasn’t ready for the 7th generation family farm to be lost on our watch.

Life is about thriving and not just surviving.

Applying for 25 jobs, getting 19 interviews and only one offer for one day a week was a shock. I remember the day, feeling terrified for my future.

It seemed decades of studying and working meant nothing. People with much less experience were making decisions for the life that I was going to lead. They were making a decision affecting my life. I either had the job or didn’t. I’m so pleased now they said “Thanks but no thanks”.

Despite wanting to give up, a path was needed to create a job no one could ever take from me. Ever.

I looked at my skills in health, management, and government and found some local casual writing jobs. Trying to find work face to face wasn’t enough. Doing the long commute wasn’t an option, and I needed a bigger audience.

Online freelancing was my answer.

I found people in the Australian and global marketplace who wanted to buy my skills.

I used a skill we all have, and that’s searching the internet.

Working out the skills people buy, where to find work and great clients.

Freelancing gives so much more than consistent cash flow

For older and younger workers, it’s often not just about the money. Freelancing is a way to use your skills and feel valued in the work you want to do. You can contribute to others developing a business, fulfilling a social purpose, helping others around the world with your skills.

You’ll be a round peg in a round hole again, for me at 60 years, freelancing is a great fit and I wished I had started when I was 40.

For me, the feeling of being valued, after so many job interviews were unbelievable. It’s like finding your mid-life and older work tribe and finding the best fit for your age, aspirations and work-life balance.

Along with freedom and increased income you will have the joy of interesting projects you would never have had the opportunity for in the 9-5.

Well, that’s been my experience.

I have had the privilege of raising over 42+ million dollars for my clients for projects that help to start a business, fulfill a social purpose such as in education and employment, building safer roads, growing tourism and more. I am making such a value contribution to communities with my skills and getting well paid for it.

This is what the Payoneer report says about “How Job Satisfaction is Unlocked with Income Opportunity”

While freelancers find value in freedom and flexibility, of being their own boss, happiness is most tightly correlated with income earned.

I am not sure I agree with this however we all need money to live well.

The report says the worldwide average hourly rate charged by freelancers is $21, higher than the $19 average rate reported in Payoneer’s 2018 survey and significantly higher than the average salaries in many of the countries surveyed.

The Payoneer report is global, for developed countries, it is my experience to earn an hourly rate of five times these very low rates as a writer. In my opinion, the rate of about $20 per hour is not a reflection of the rate received by freelancers in Australia, the USA, New Zealand, and Canada.

The report goes on to say…

Those individuals who work exclusively in freelancing earn a higher hourly rate and are more satisfied with their lifestyle compared to those who split their time working for a company. While freelancers are earning more, businesses are also benefitting by being able to source top-talent without concern for location or overhead costs, increasing satisfaction on both sides of the relationship.

Would you like to talk about the skills you could use the freelance? Send me a message on Linkedin,  I’m happy to chat and share my experiences.

You can schedule a call with me at Savvy Experts Online, no strings attached and if you want more I do have more if this is the direction you choose.

Please note, I use the Payoneer platform in my own business and I share this report with my own insights added without any “kickback from” Payoneer”

For the full report, please download: The 2020 Freelancer Income Report.

I'm pleased to have been able to share this report and my insights today. However, it's back to work as I have four deadlines for health clients, all not for profits and another job for a client in the multi-cultural and disability sector.