What’s the biggest freelance opportunity?

I am a big fan of freelancing. I think it’s a great opportunity to either start off on your own if you’re leaving corporate or a means to fund a business. In other words, it’s a great side hustle that you can put together for yourself.

It’s the way the world is going, the so called ‘gig economy.’ What I wanted to talk about here is what’s the biggest freelance opportunity out there.

Some may say writing, consulting, but I am going to argue that the biggest one is project management. For this article I am not going to bore you with extensive stats — that comes next.

Freelancing opportunity

You can turn any profession into freelancing. If you do marketing, writing, consulting, or even construction, you can make into freelance. The way to start out is having some industry experience and clients, right? If you’ve spent time in the industry then you already have that knowledge. Finding clients may be more tricky, but building a network on LinkedIn is a great way to start that.

Now, back to the question i the title.

Project Management

Everyone has a project. If you think about it pretty much everything we do is a project. Whether we are moving, bringing in a new client, starting a new business, it all is a project in some way or another. The industry specifics are different and the context is different, but project management principles don’t change.

Once you have those basics, you can always learn the industry specifics. It’s really that simple. Having said that some industries may be more difficult than others. An example of that may be the heritage sector. I have seen various tenders for the UK&I for restoration of cultural sites projects. These projects are tenders meaning available to the public and are requiring project management — downside is having that heritage knowledge.

You can use the project management skills anywhere. It’s for this reason that you can get yourself a project management contract somewhere for the duration of the project. What’s more is that you can rely on those industry experts who can provide you the expertise you need to make an informed decision.

Remember, your job is to mange the project, not to be an industry subject matter expert. It’s that simple.

Why not start now?

Starting taking a look at what’s out there. If you’re doing freelance, that’s great. If you’re getting into project management, it’s even better! You don’t want to miss out!

Final Thoughts

Freelancing is here to stay. it’s becoming the mainstream thing. You need to figure out how to harness it. A big opportunity is project management — it’s the way you can get in and stay in. It’s one of the few areas that may beat automation.

Stay tuned for more stats and reasons on project management’s potential and how it concerns you!