Ultimate guide for beginners to start freelancing in Bangladeh

Freelancing in Bangladesh

Abstract of freelancing in Bangladesh

A large part of the population of Bangladesh is now young. And young people can change the face of a country's economy. The number of people aged 18 to 35 is now higher, which is about 32 percent of the population (source: CIA - The World Factbook). Between 2021and 2022, it will increase to 60 percent. When the proportion of young people in a country is the highest, it is called Demographic Dividend or Demographic Bonus. This condition is also called Windows of Opportunity. This can open the door for the development of any country. And if they are not used properly at the right time, it will be a burden and a serious danger for any country. One of the most effective solutions is to build these highly educated and working people in Bangladesh as qualified for online outsourcing work or as freelancers.Freelancing is the work of an organization and not with the help of an outside organization or person. This work can be part of a special project or an entire project. Freelancing is when a person works for different organizations or individuals on a contract basis without working for a specific organization. Just as a freelancer has the freedom to choose the type of work he has, so does the freedom to work whenever he wants. Freelancers are not restricted to the usual office hours. Companies usually outsource to reduce production costs. Many times outsourcing is also done due to lack of adequate time, labor or technology. Basically IT based jobs (eg - Web Development, Software Development, Writing & Content, Design, Multimedia & Architecture, SEO / SEM / SMM, Data Entry etc.) is outsourced. Notable among the countries providing such services are India, Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Russia, Pakistan, Panama, Nepal, Bangladesh, Romania, Malaysia, Egypt and many more.

History of Freelancing

The history of freelancing in Bangladesh is not very old. This profession has gained a lot of popularity in the last three-four years. But the idea of ​​freelancing was already there in other countries of the world. It was started in 1997. "GURU" - the first freelancing marketplace founded in 1997.  Following in the footsteps of popularity, many more marketplaces including fiverr.com, upwork.com, freelancer.com,  Limeexchange.com were established. Freelancing is gaining popularity day by day due to the spread of internet.

What’s Freelancing?

The first thing that you should have a clear idea is freelancing. Learn what freelancing is. Then you could have a great understanding of it.

Freelancing is a type of work that’s often done remotely. Suppose that a person from the USA wants to make his/her business card designed. If he hires a worker from Bangladesh for $10 to do the design, then the worker who’ll do the job is freelancing the designing job.

 

There are many working areas of freelancing. So in the world of freelancing, you won’t have to think about work flexibility.

The way freelancing works

If an organization or person (Employer) wants to outsource any of his work, he comes to the freelancing marketplace and invites bids from freelancers for that work. In a bid, a freelancer specifies how many days he will be able to complete the work and how much he will be paid. In this way, the Employer selects the most suitable and convenient bid out of the number of bids for a job. He then contacted the freelancer and discussed the work in detail. Payments are made in a variety of ways at the end of the work, which is described in detail in the "How to Raise Money" section.

How much money can be earned from freelancing in Bangladesh

It depends totally on your skills. You can make $0 to $10,000 working alone per month even living in Bangladesh. You know that $1000 is considered to be a decent income here. So there’s a huge opportunity in freelancing in Bangladesh.

 

When I started freelancing, I would make $200 – $300 per month. But after a few months of working, it reached around $1000. And then, the income was gradually increasing day by day.

 

I also started blogging which was another great decision in my life. I’ll tell you about that later.

Precondition for freelancing

It is important to have skills in one area to start freelancing. You also need to have a good knowledge of internet usage. However, if you have skills in more than one computer, then naturally you can work on a large scale. Most of your clients will be non-Bengali, so you need to communicate with them in English. They can interview you via Skype or other messenger services. So it is very important to have a good command of English.

Introduction to Freelance Jobs

How to get started

A client will only hire you when he or she is satisfied with your profile, and will appreciate the amount you bid. So first of all you need to create a beautiful and tidy profile that will make anyone interested in working with you. At the same time you visit different marketplaces, learn about their needs and build your profile accordingly.All you need to do to create a good profile is:

• Make yourself proficient in a particular task. You will get the most help from search engines (such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) and various video tutorials. There are also many training centers in the country, from which you can take some basic training. But you don't just have to rely on training centers, you have to learn a lot about yourself to move forward.
• Create some work according to your skills. For example, if you are good at web designing, create some web pages, show them in your marketplace profile. Again, if you are good at writing or photography, put some samples of them in your profile.
• Proficiency test can be given in freelancing marketplace like Upwork.com ,  Freelancer.com ,  fiverr.com etc. It is important to give these. The more tests you take, the more likely you are to get a job.
• Share your profile and skills only in places other than the ( such as friends, social networking sites, blogging sites or forums.

The way freelancing works

If an organization or person (Employer) wants to outsource any of his work, he comes to the freelancing marketplace and invites bids from freelancers for that work. In a bid, a freelancer specifies how many days he will be able to complete the work and how much he will be paid. In this way, the Employer selects the most suitable and convenient bid out of the number of bids for a job. He then contacted the freelancer and discussed the work in detail. Payments are made in a variety of ways at the end of the work, which is described in detail in the "How to Raise Money" section.

How to get clients

One study found that freelancers get the most jobs through someone else's references. If you don't know someone who can refer you, create a nice profile, set the right money bid / hourly rate and wait patiently. Getting the first job often depends on luck. You can get a job in 3 days, and it can take up to 3 months. This is a big test of your patience.Once you get the job done, complete it with the mind within the allotted time. The client will be happy to give you good feedback. Later you can get new job from this client.

What to do

You can get different jobs depending on your skills and experience in the freelancing marketplace. Easy tasks include Search Engine Optimization, Article writing, Data Entry, etc. Naturally, since the tasks are easy, bidding is most common in these and it is difficult to get them suddenly. A little harder than these is Web Development, Product Development, Software Development, Graphics Designing, etc. Hard work pays more than easy work.What you do depends on what you feel comfortable doing and what the market needs. Always try to balance these two things.Rates are determined based on how complex your task is, how long it will take to complete, and experience. Fixed payment operations range from 30 to 1,000 or more.

How to bid on freelancing marketplace

There are two main types of bidding

• Project Fee: When a project is offered in the marketplace, you can bid on how much it will cost to complete the entire project.
• Hourly Rate: In this method you can bid on how much you will be paid per hour to work for a project.

• Fields of freelancing

• In freelancing, there’s a wide variety of choices for working. Tons of fields are ready where employers are wanting talented people to work for them.

   

  Have a look at the freelancing job categories –

  • Designing
  1. Logo design
  2. Graphic design
  3. Animation
  4. Presentations
  5. Illustration
  6. Photography etc

   

  • Audio & video production

   

  • Writing
  1. Article & blog post writing
  2. Website content writing
  3. Academic writing
  4. Creative writing
  5. Copywriting
  6. Resume (CV) & cover letter writing
  7. grant writing
  8. Technical writing
  9. Business plan writing
  10. Admin jobs
  11. Data entry
  12. Virtual assistance
  13. Web research
  14. Transcription
  15. Project management etc

   

  • Web designing & software ( for mobile & desktop) development
  • IT & networking
  • Engineering & architecture
  • Data science & analytics
  • Customer service
  • Translation
  • Consultation & accounting.
  • Sales & marketing

• Withdraw Money from Freelance Work

  

  
  

  How to withdraw money

  • Bank-to-Bank Wire Transfer: You can bring money directly to your bank account from some marketplaces. But not all marketplaces can do this, In that case you can use different money transaction services online. In this method, your money will first be credited to your account in the marketplace in dollars. After receiving the money, you can transfer it to the account of Skrill (former Moneybookers) or any such money service. In this case you may have to pay transfer fee depending on the marketplace. Then you can bring that money from Skrill to any bank account in your country. At this stage the bank may deduct another transfer fee from you. In this case you have to keep in mind that the bank must have a SWIFT Code. Otherwise your money will not be transferred from Skrill. The whole process takes about a month for the first transaction. Subsequent transactions take place within seven days. You can see the following link to get the SWIFT Code of the banks of Bangladesh: http://www.theswiftcodes.com/bangladesh/
  • Payoneer Card:  You can get a card to withdraw money from your marketplace at any time for a certain amount of money. It's like a debit card. With this card you can withdraw money deposited in your marketplace at any time through ATM from anywhere in the world. With this card you can withdraw money as well as shop online. It will even allow any of your relatives or friends abroad to send you money from their MasterCard or Visa card.
  • Direct transfer from the client: When someone becomes your regular client, you no longer have to go to the marketplace to get projects from them. He will contact you directly by e-mail or any other means to give the project and transfer the payment of the project directly to your bank account.

  • Outsourcing & Freelancing - Freelance Marketplace & Challenges

  • 

  Challenges of Freelancers

  • When it comes to working with freelancing, there are endless possibilities as well as some challenges. E.g.

    • There is no set time to work, the client has to show the progress of the work whenever he wants. It can affect your daily personal life.
    • The monthly income of those who are new to freelancing can fluctuate considerably.
    • Not all clients have the same promise, even if the work is finished, some people pay the full payment later than the promised time.
    • In Bangladesh, this profession has not yet received much social recognition. But people's attitudes are rapidly changing.

  Some exceptional marketplaces

  • • 99designs.com: This  graphic design based site is awarded prizes through competition. And the prize money of this site is much better than any other site. Here the client will give the job description as per his demand, you don't have to make any application to get the job. You will design according to the needs described by him and upload it on the competition page. The client will see your design. Many more designers like you will upload their own designs to the client. He will choose the design that the client will like and in the end will give the prize or project money to the perfect designer.
    • themeforest.net:  Themeforest is a popular site for graphics designing work. Graphic designers can sell their design templates here and developers can sell HTML and CSS coding as well as design. Themes are sold in ThemeForest, and Graphicriver for selling graphics, CodeCanyon for selling code, Photodion for selling stock photography, and 3Dation for selling 3D animation are quite popular marketplaces.

    Three other such exceptional but popular marketplaces are  upwork.com,  designcrowd.com  and  fiverr.com

  Considerations

  • • A large part of the freelancing projects come from western countries, our time difference with them is 5 to 12 hours. Bidding starts almost as soon as simple projects are posted. So you need to bid at night at the beginning of your freelancing career.
    • To understand whether the work is genuine, first of all, take a good look at the account of the person who posted the project. Check out others' feedback about him. See if the payment is verified. When you get the project after bidding, ask him how he wants to pay, when he can pay.
    • Try to retain good clients. You will not get the same usage from all the clients, try your best to retain the one whose use is better. In the future, you can get a good project with his hands.
    • If you have Escrow service in the marketplace where you are working, make maximum use of it. Escrow is a money deposit service in the marketplace that ensures you get paid at the end of the day. When talking about a project, you can ask the client to deposit the entire amount of the fee in Escrow. Once the money is deposited in Escrow, the client cannot take it back. When the project is over, he will discharge the money from Escrow to your account. If your client does not pay, you can claim your dues from the appropriate authority through this Escrow service.
    • Employee interviews are arranged for some projects. It is better not to bid for the projects for which the interview has already started, because since the interview has already started, the chances of getting work from them are much less.
    • Learn to handle work stress. The workload in the freelancing profession is not always the same. Controlling yourself when the pressure is too much is a big challenge. Develop a good eating habit as a preparation for this. Maintain punctuality.
    • Keep an eye on modern technological advances. Try to improve the quality of your work all the time. This will help you maintain a good profile.
    • Without accepting any project proposal suddenly, think about whether you can complete the work 100 percent.
    • You have to give a cover letter while bidding in some marketplaces. In this case, the cover letter must be relevant. Do not use the same template in all cover letters. Try to make all your cover letters yourself, it will show your creativity.
    • Always keep your workplace clean and tidy. Be sure to take a break in between work. You can keep a small notebook with you to remember your daily activities.
    • Maintain professional dress and manners during any communication with the client or during audio / video interviews.
    • Be sure to ask the client if you like your work. You can learn a lot from client feedback.

    • Outsourcing and Freelancing - Outsourcing in Bangladesh

    • 

  Bangladesh in outsourcing

  • • The three most popular marketplaces among Bangladeshi freelancers are Upwork.com, Freelancer.com, fiverr.com. Bangladesh is in a very good position in these three sites.Upwork is the largest outsourcing company. Bangladesh now ranks 3rd in this largest marketplace for freelancing. There are currently 6,000 active Bangladeshi freelancers in Upwork and the participation of Bangladeshis is increasing day by day. For this reason, Upwork has organized 'Contractors Appreciation Day (2012) in Bangladesh and all the top officials of Upwork have visited Bangladesh on several occasions on behalf of Upwork. In 2009, Bangladeshi freelancers did 2 percent of Upwork's total work. By 2012, that stood at 12 percent. In the quarter of 2012, Bangladeshi freelancers worked 620,000 hours at Upwork.Freelancer.com has more than 25,000 registered freelancers. The position of Bangladeshis is also satisfactory in the second popular site freelancer.com. Bangladeshis do a lot of social media marketing and search engine optimization work on this site. Many Bangladeshi programmers have now started working on Freelancer.com as the latest Striplans.com site was bought by a freelancer.Bangladesh is also in the forefront of other popular online marketplace Alliance. In a recent report, AIlians authorities named the top 25 countries in the Contractor by Geography category. This list contains the name of Bangladesh. The United States is in the top position and India is in the second position. According to the published information, the site currently has 39,195 Bangladeshi registered freelancers (as of April 7, 2013). The average work cost of Bangladeshis here is 9 per hour. So far, Bangladeshi freelancers have earned US 4.9 million from this site.Bangladeshis mainly work on Data Entry and SEO / SEM / SMM. In addition, the amount of other work including Web Development, Software Development, Writing & Content, Design, and Multimedia & Architecture. Web development or software development projects cost more. Bangladeshi freelancers need to be more involved in such activities. It can be seen that a Bangladeshi search engine optimizer works for 3 to 5 dollars per hour while a web developer in the United States charges 30 to 100 dollars per hour. It is only because of his skill that he is able to charge such a huge amount of money. In this case, Bangladeshi freelancers need to acquire more skills.

  The contribution of philanthropy to the economy of Bangladesh

  • • Import-dependent A large part of the foreign exchange reserves we need in this country comes from expatriate Bangladeshis. In 2012, Bangladeshi workers abroad sent about 14 billion (Source: World Bank). Assuming it grows at a rate of 10 percent per year, by 2015 it will be close to US 19 billion.Let's move on to the outsourcing industry. Freelancers in Bangladesh have earned more than 365 crore in 2012. In 2015, a total of  443 billion will be outsourced. If we could take 10% of this market share, it would be about 45 billion US dollars, and if we could take 5% of the market share, it would be about 23 billion US dollars, which would exceed the current largest sector of our foreign exchange earnings.About 50 percent of our country is women. And a large part of these women affect the national economy - they rarely do such work. But if you want a large part of them, if you spend 3-4 hours a day at home, you can earn at least 3-4 dollars a day by freelancing as 1 dollar per hour. If the total number of working people is 6 crore, then there are 3.5 crore women. Of these, if educated young women and women are half a crore and it is possible to develop them as freelancers, then the income from this field will be 1.5 crore per day. This amount of income will stand at 500 crore dollars per year.

  Gratitude

  • • • Md. Shafiul Alam, Trainer (Web Development), BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services)
      • Md. Raufuzzaman Anik, CEO, ENCODELABS INC, winner of BASIS Outsourcing Award 2012
      • Questioners on the Facebook fan page

  Formula

  • • • "CIA - The World Factbook." Central Intelligence Agency. Np, nd Web. 6 May 2013. .
      • Babauta, Leo. "46 Must-Read Productivity Tips for Freelancers." FreelanceSwitch | Freelance Jobs, Freelance Forum & Directory. Np, nd Web. 8 May 2013. .
      • Torbjornsen, Hilde. "25 Awesome Tips to Become a Successful Freelancer." 1stWebDesigner: A place where you will become a better web designer. Np, nd Web. 8 May 2013. .
      • Kabir, Al-amin. Freelance career. Dhaka: DevsTeam Institute, 2012. Print.
      • Chowdhury, Zakaria. "The Beginning of Freelance Outsourcing | Dear Tech." Dear Tech | Technology in Bengali. Np, nd Web. 6 May 2013.