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Self-employment comes with many perks, but for all its advantages — setting your hours, saying no to work you don't want to do — it makes some things more challenging. Getting or refinancing a mortgage is one of those things. Simply put, it's a headache. And while we can't hand you a glass of water and a couple of Tylenol, we can help you understand what to expect. Before you start picking out paint colors for that dedicated home office space, read up on financial basics and tips that will make the process of getting a mortgage or refinancing your existing mortgage easier. Can you get a mortgage as a freelancer?Yes. I'm not going to lie; it's hard to get a mortgage as a freelancer, but it's not impossible. I bought a home six years ago as a freelancer and found the process overwhelming, frustrating, and full of a whole lot of hurrying up and waiting. And in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, an already tricky process is now more challenging. When I refinanced my mortgage in 2020, it took nearly 10 months. This time, the bank required far more additional required proof of income documents — an ordeal that, if I'm honest, I found a tad insulting to the successful career I've worked hard to build. "Mortgage lenders see freelancers as a higher risk than W-2 workers because of their irregular income," says Andrew Latham, certified personal finance counselor and the managing editor of SuperMoney.com. "You need to have all your ducks in a row before you apply." What you'll need for a mortgage as a freelancerTo successfully get a mortgage as a freelancer, you're going to need to provide lots and lots of documentation. "The challenge is establishing your self-employed income to the lender, which is a little more complex than just reporting your pay stubs if you're employed full-time," says Clearsurance.com mortgage expert Imani Francies. As most lenders want to see paystubs from a reputable employer, as a freelancer, you'll need to be able to show your mortgage lender where your income is coming from and what your expenses are each month. You'll need to have at least two years of tax returns on file, and maybe even three, bank statements potentially 3 to 5 months worth, a profit and loss statement for at least the current year, and if you're refinancing with a different lender you'll also need your current mortgage statement and proof of up to date payments for at least three months. Depending on the lender, other things may be required, including a business license, letters from clients that confirm your past work, and a signed CPA letter stating you are still in business. How can you prepare to get a mortgage as a freelancer?Time is your biggest ally when it comes to getting a mortgage as a freelancer. Because you're going to likely need two years of tax returns, it helps to plan ahead. "As a freelancer, writing off business expenses keeps your tax bill low, but beware, depressing your income will also reduce the loan amount you can qualify for," says real estate industry professional and founder of General Referral Joel Neuenhaus. That's because, typically, your adjusted gross income is what lenders use to run your figures for your pre-approval amount, so you'll want to be careful about what you write off on your taxes. With time and advance planning, you can also make yourself appear as less of a risk. As freelance income can vary from month to month, you can build your lender's confidence in your ability to repay the loan by lowering your credit utilization rate and increasing your credit score. Pay off credit card debt and don't take on any new loans. Check your credit score. It is essential for freelancers to be able to show that they have great credit when looking for a mortgage. You want your credit utilization to be around 1-10%. When you are ready to buy a home, find a lender that specializes in self-employed individuals. "An experienced lender can make a big difference. By asking the right questions, they will give you a much better idea on what loan products you might ultimately be approved for and will ensure you are counting all of your eligible income," says Neuenhaus, who, as a freelancer, obtained mortgage financing for a primary residence and investment property. Some final tipsIf you're married and your partner is not a freelancer, applying to buy a home with them will make the process easier. If you're single or married to another freelancer, some lenders will let you use a co-signer or a guarantor that may make you a more desirable client. With persistence, preparation and a little bit of luck, you'll be settling into your new home. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2021/07/15/how-to-get-or-refinance-a-mortgage-as-a-freelancer/
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Calling all artists! Freelancers Union is seeking designers, illustrators, and photographers to share their work on the Freelancers Union blog. We want to spice up this space while highlighting the amazing talents of our freelance community. The Freelancers Union blog is already an opportunity for freelance writers to share their genius - now it’s time for our artist members to share the stage, and get $1,000 at the same time! Today, we are launching a two-week search for our first-ever group of in-house artists, whose work will be prominently featured right here on the Freelancers Union blog. The selected artists will each be profiled in a blog post, as well as on Instagram, and will be credited every time one of their images is used. At the end of the year, the artists will have their work displayed in an in-person group exhibit in NYC sponsored by Freelancers Union. The submission process is now open, and will close on July 31. All image-makers are invited to submit their work for review, regardless of medium or style. A small group of artists will be selected after the submission period ends, and the inaugural artist lineup will run from August 2021 to July 2022. If this sounds like you, get your submission in today! The fine print: If selected, artists will grant Freelancers Union a one-year nonexclusive license to use a selection of at least 20 digital images to accompany blog posts on topics like freelance finances, work-life balance, and career-building. Artists will designate a selection of images that are available for use by Freelancers Union and are not under license to any other entity. Freelancers Union will pay each artist a one-time fee of $1,000, and will orchestrate an in-person showing of all participating artists’ work in New York City at the end of the license period. In addition to having their previously created work featured on the blog, there may also be separate opportunities for paid commissions by Freelancers Union over the course of the year. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2021/07/14/our-first-ever-artist-search-starts-now/
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Earlier this year, entrepreneur and hair stylist Rubi Jones started SALON CARE, a project focused on the role that hairdressers play in society. Her first campaign, #Beauty4PaidLeave, unites beauty professionals and their clients in support of national paid family and medical leave for all. As an advocate and expert focused on paid leave professionally, I'm inspired by Rubi’s campaign because it is motivated by passion, personal experience, altruism, and outrage. I’m hopeful that Rubi’s courage will inspire other independent workers to get involved in the fight to win paid leave for all. Freelancers Overwhelmingly Lack Paid Family and Medical LeaveLike most workers, Rubi did not have paid leave when she became a parent. As she told Vogue earlier this summer, Rubi worked while pregnant until she was nearly at her due date and returned to work just four weeks after giving birth. She found her return to work physically impossible and pulled back for a few more months. In her words, “Hairdressers can take time off to care for a new child, our loved ones, or ourselves when ill, and we can do the math of how many haircuts we need to do when we return to get back on our feet. This is invisible labor that we don’t need to be doing.” She is right. The United States is the only high-wealth country that does not guarantee any form of paid leave. Rubi’s research uncovered the sobering statistic that 99.4% of all salon workers are excluded even from the unpaid leave protections provided by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. Nationwide, across all professions, at least 44% of traditional employees, including those in small companies, those who work part-time or less, and those who are newer to their jobs lack any employment protections under the FMLA. With the exception of the soon-to-expire Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and the ability to buy into paid leave programs in a few U.S. states, freelancers have no income protections when a serious family or medical need arises. Without job protection or pay, millions of people across the United States return to work before they or their child are ready. Nearly one in four mothers return to work within two weeks after giving birth. At the other end of the family care spectrum, family members too often miss a parent’s last days or the ability to help a loved one through treatments and recovery for serious health issues because they do not have paid or even unpaid leave. Congress is Considering Comprehensive, Permanent National Paid Family and Medical LeaveRubi is one of 57 million workers in this country who are independent contractors, freelance business owners or temporary workers. Rubi and freelancers everywhere have an important role to play this summer and fall as Congress crafts and works to pass a jobs and families package that should – that must – include paid family and medical leave for all. A national paid family and medical leave plan is part of a large federal jobs and families bill that Congress is developing now. The President and Rep. Richard Neal, the powerful chairman of the U.S. House Ways & Means committee, have put forward proposals modeled on successful state programs. Enacting one of these plans would be historic and touch nearly every household in America. Congress will likely vote on the package this fall. Both the President’s plan and the Neal plan propose a new, publicly funded benefit that contractors and freelancers – alongside all full-time and part-time workers – with requisite earnings and work history would have access to. They would guarantee all workers of all genders up to 12 weeks of paid time away from their jobs to care for a newborn or newly adopted child; to care for a seriously ill, injured, or disabled loved one; or to treat or recover from their own serious health issue. The paid leave plans would also cover leave for certain military caregiving purposes. Workers would receive up to 85% of their usual wages, based on their recent earnings history. For freelancers and others without a traditional “boss,” wage replacement would be based on recent earnings. Access would be universal across the country and not dependent on geography, job, or employer. Make Your Voice and Freelancers’ Needs Known in the Fight to Win Paid Leave for AllAlthough paid leave is closer to becoming a reality than ever before, there are many details yet to define and political hurdles to overcome. Freelancers’ voices and stories are needed now ensure that paid leave is prioritized in a final jobs and families package and that freelancers’ needs and experiences are reflected in the details of a final policy. Take action today by reaching out to your member of Congress and U.S. Senators to ask them to prioritize paid leave in the jobs and families bill. If you’ve ever needed paid leave, tell them your story – whether you had it or not and what impact or effects your experiences had on you, your family and your work. If you’re inclined to go deeper, ask your representative for a policy that fits your needs, including: · Program eligibility rules that work for freelancers, so that your earnings and work history are counted and entitle you to access paid leave. · Coverage of all serious health and family care reasons, so that you can use your national paid leave benefit to care for a new child, a loved one with a serious health issue, or yourself. Freelancers’ average age is 40, right around the median age of people nationwide caring both for young children and older adults. According to Freelancers Union data, 46% of freelancers are already caregivers to a loved one, and half are younger than 38, potentially considering or about to start trying to have children. Covering the full spectrum of care needs is a crucial element of a paid leave plan built to serve workers’ needs. · A meaningful number of weeks or months so that you can deal with your serious personal or family need and then get back to your job or your work. · Wage replacement that minimizes your hardship and risk, with benefits based on a substantial share of your recent earnings and self-employment income. · Resources and attention to efficient and transparent program administration so that you know where to apply for benefits and when you will receive them. Stay tuned for more ways to work with the Freelancers Union and other freelancers like you to get involved in the fight to guarantee paid leave for all. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2021/07/13/freelancers-should-unite-for-national-paid-family-and-medical-leave/
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Your brand’s content marketing strategy plays a huge role in your overall marketing ROI. And a great way to get the most out of each piece of content is to promote it via email marketing. Email marketing is still effective today (and will continue to be for years to come). In this article, you’ll learn how you can use email marketing to improve your content marketing strategy to drive synergistic results from both channels. What is content marketing?Before we dive into how to improve your content marketing with email, let’s do a quick recap of what content marketing is. Content marketing is a type of marketing that consists of strategically creating, publishing, and distributing content that’s valuable and relevant to a defined target audience. Typically, the content produced does not explicitly promote a company, and rather, is meant to generate interest in its products or services. Do your content strategy and planning right, and content marketing has tremendous ROI. The content you put out can continue to pay dividends (in terms of more brand awareness, engagement, traffic, leads, and even revenue) for years to come. Effective content distribution is a vital pillar of successful content marketing, and email is one of the most potent channels of content distribution. Why email marketing is integral to content marketingEmail marketing has an average ROI of $38 for every $1 invested. What’s more, when it comes to B2B, email newsletters are the most-used type of content marketing for 81% of B2B marketers, and 31% of businesses consider newsletters as their highest-performing lead generation tactic, per CMI’s 2020 B2B Content Marketing Report. Email marketing helps you build relationships with your subscribers who have voluntarily signed up to hear what you have to say and offer, unlike other marketing channels. Email lets you remind your audience of the value your company brings to the table without being overbearing. Email marketing is a great tool for improving your content marketing, but getting it right can be more of an art than a science. Here are three strategies to help you improve your content marketing through email marketing. 1. Determine which content you want to promoteThe people who sign up for your email list essentially give your company a chance to prove its value. They found your blog posts helpful, educational, entertaining, and subscribed to get your best content delivered straight to their inbox. So do your best not to disappoint them. How? By picking the right content that catches their attention the moment they open your email. It should be super relevant to their interests and be beneficial to them in some clear way. Long story short, be sure to determine which content you want to send out to your subscribers and at what frequency, as sending the right content consistently will prove the value your company provides, retain subscribers, and ultimately turn them into customers. 2. Know what your audience wantsYou have defined your target audience. But it’s broad. When you dig deeper, you’ll see your audience is composed of several cohorts of individuals with buyer characteristics. Naturally, your email marketing will be the most effective when you tailor your content to each cohort. So, how do you personalize your emails? Divide your email marketing strategies by cohort and target each cohort with a specific campaign. Your cohorts could be YouTube subscribers, past customers, new customers, or website conversion customers. When you develop relevant email marketing content for each audience cohort, your subscribers will respond substantially better in terms of email open rates, click-through rates, and content engagement. 3. Offer value, not just promotionA crucial factor in successful email marketing is to do more than simply promote your company. Your audience is already surrounded by (and fed up with) countless overly self-promoting brands offering little value. So if you wish to stand out in this noise, don’t be one of those excessively promotional brands. Your audience wants — and expects — more from your email content marketing than mere ads about your latest and greatest products. They signed up to receive sublime content, and if all they receive is promotions, it won’t take long for them to unsubscribe. Rather than just sending promotions, use your email content marketing to provide helpful and actionable content that helps people solve their problems. If you sell skincare products, for instance, you can use your email newsletter to share quick and easy daily skincare tips. Your audience will appreciate how your emails are more than mere ads for your brand. And the more valuable your content is, the more loyal your subscribers will remain to your company. So, how do you offer value with your email marketing? Here are a few content ideas that your audience might find value in:
Based on the email content that’s well-received — say, curated articles on a particular subject — you can pivot your overall content marketing strategy to meet your audience’s needs better. Put simply — to better create email content that’s valuable and not salesy, develop your content marketing strategy with a customer-first focus and not a profit-first focus. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2021/07/12/3-tips-for-better-content-marketing-via-email/
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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in spring 2020 and many businesses were required to close locations, some were hit harder than others. Restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues were impacted most seriously of all, because aside from delivery services, they couldn’t work remotely as professional services businesses could. Congress enacted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act at the end of March 2020, with a variety of business and individual tax credits, loans, deductions and deferrals intended to ease the burden on these businesses and help them make it through the roughest months. One of the biggest tax provisions was the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), a refundable credit for businesses that incentivizes small businesses to keep their employees on their payroll, even if sales volume has fallen below what they would normally require to keep that staff. In early 2021, as the pandemic continued but the promise of vaccines was starting to emerge, Congress extended the ERC for wages paid through the end of 2021, and increased the amount of the credit, expanded which employers are eligible, and made other changes. Under the latest version of the ERC, employers can now claim tax credits for up to 70% of qualified wages paid (applied on wages of up to $10,000 per employee per quarter) for employees in 2021. This can result in a credit of up to $28,000 for the calendar year 2021. For wages paid in 2020, the previous version of the ERC allowed a credit of up to 50% on wages of up to $5,000 per employee. Prior tax credits can be claimed retroactively. LLC Owners and Self-Employed Freelancers are Not Eligible for the ERC Qualified wages include salaries and hourly pay, including qualified health care plans and employment taxes. This means that self-employed workers (Schedule C and LLC) do not receive qualified wages. LLC owners are not considered employees and don’t receive wages because, as sole proprietors, they simply draw funds from the expected profits of the business. These are not paychecks, and no taxes or FICA are withheld. While an LLC has some tax benefits for owners, this is a major drawback with regard to the Employee Retention Credit. If the LLC has other employees, the wages paid to those workers is eligible, but not the owner. So, if the LLC owner/self-employed individual is the only worker associated with the business, it can not claim the tax credit. S-Corps and C-Corps Self-Employed Are Eligible The owners (shareholders) of S-Corps and C-Corps can be eligible for the ERC because income earned by the business is reported and taxed on their individual income tax returns. To be eligible, shareholders must perform significant work for the business and be on the business’ payroll (subject to regular withholding). Eligible Employers Employers can qualify for the credit if they meet either of the following conditions: 1. Operations were partly or completely halted as a result of a COVID-19 shutdown order by a local or state government; or 2. Gross receipts declined by 50 percent or more compared to the same quarter in 2019; the qualifying period ends when sales recover to 80% or more of the same quarter in 2019. 3. Tribal governments and entities are eligible for the credit. However, state, federal, and local government entities, or private entities acting as a government entity, are not eligible. 4. Tax-exempt organizations are eligible if they meet either of the criteria in numbers 1 or 2 above. And – The employer must have kept the employee/s on payroll during this period, if they are using those employee’s pay when calculating the ERC. ERC & PPP Loans Initially, the ERC was not available to employers that had received a PPP loan. However, with the March 2021 passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, some employers may be eligible for both, including retroactively into 2020. Employers cannot calculate an employee retention credit based on wages it has previously used to receive a PPP loan. For employers who have received a PPP loan, if they included more payroll costs than necessary on the application, the payroll costs that were excluded, along with other eligible expenses, may be used as qualifying costs when determining their ERC. As an example, if an employer with a $150,000 PPP loan actually reported $200,000 in payroll costs on their PPP application, there would be an excess of $50,000 in payroll costs that may be used as qualifying ERC expenses. With regard to calculating PPP loans, at least 60% of the entity’s qualified expenditures had to relate to qualified payroll. This often results in non-utilized qualified payroll and related expenses that can qualify for the ERC. IRS Notice 2021-20 provides more detail and several examples of the interaction between the ERC and PPP loans. Advance Payment of Credit Small businesses, defined as having less than 500 employees, can receive an advance payment of credits, with some limitations, using IRS Form 7200. Larger employers are not eligible for advance credit payments. Professional Assistance The Employee Retention Credit and other COVID-19 tax scenarios can be very complicated. A tax professional, such as a CPA, has the expertise to help freelancers take full advantage of current tax laws and develop strategies for future tax obligations. Jonathan Medows is a New York City-based CPA who specializes in taxes and business issues for freelancers and self-employed individuals across the country. He provides tax, accounting and business articles for freelancers on his website, http://www.cpaforfreelancers.com, which also features a blog and a free monthly newsletter. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2021/07/08/can-freelancers-get-the-employee-retention-tax-credit/
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If you’re a tech worker, you’ve probably spent the past year looking for ways to thrive as a freelancer during the pandemic rather than letting it hold you back. And there’s no better way to do this than staying abreast of industry trends to ensure your skills are marketable. Along with skills like data extraction and deep learning, an increasing demand for freelancers who can understand and apply blockchain technology has been one of the most significant tech trends lately. Companies are in the market for everything from crypto trading advice to smart contracts for their businesses, and they are increasingly looking to freelancers to fill their needs. That means there are numerous opportunities to pivot from other areas of tech and integrate your existing skills with new learning. Let’s explore why blockchain is in demand and how you, as a freelancer, can brush up on your blockchain skills and get involved in this booming field. What is blockchain?Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a way of storing information across many different “nodes.” Each node in a ledger maintains a copy of the information and updates their copy whenever a change is approved. For blockchains specifically, information is stored in cryptographic hashes where each subsequent “block” contains a hash of the previous one, chaining them together. We‘d be hard-pressed to talk about blockchain without using Bitcoin as an example, easily the most well-known application of blockchain tech. Bitcoin (BTC) is also the most valuable cryptocurrency on the market. In a Bitcoin ledger, the blocks are financial transactions sent from one digital wallet to another with no centralized bank or authority. Because of the way blockchains operate, the currency is considered to be unhackable. It would be nearly impossible to change the hash of an already approved transaction without overtaking more than half the network - an extremely expensive and highly unlikely feat. While Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are certainly a popular application of blockchain tech, they are just that: one application. Blockchain is actually much broader than many people think, which is a primary reason for its growing popularity. Trending blockchain jobs for tech freelancersOne of the reasons why the demand for blockchain tech skills has increased is because of the many diverse uses of the technology. This also means you may already have some of the skills required, making it a promising way to pivot into a new field as a freelancer. If you are currently employed in anything from software development to finance, there is a market for your skills in combination with blockchain expertise. Computer engineering: blockchain back-endThe demand for blockchain engineers is soaring, and if you already have programming and database management experience, you are well on your way. Blockchain engineers must be able to build and maintain blockchain data infrastructure, and they are usually responsible for data-processing pipeline management. If you’re a back-end architecture or SQL person, consider exploring some blockchain APIs to integrate your existing skills into blockchain applications. Software development: smart contractsIf you have any software development and testing experience, pivoting into blockchain tech shouldn’t be too difficult. Developers should be able to build and test tools that interact with smart contracts and integrate blockchain tech with back-end systems and user interfaces. The most common languages for smart contract development are C++, Solidity, and JavaScript, so if you regularly use these, you’re nearly there. You probably haven't used Solidity if you’re not involved with blockchain, but fortunately, developers usually say it looks similar to Python, C++, and JavaScript. Project management and consulting: DeFiFans of cryptocurrencies like to say that decentralized, anonymous, and immutable P2P payment is democratizing and revolutionizing finance, among other fields. There is no doubt that fintech and digital banking are growing in popularity, and a lot of the back-ends of these applications are blockchains. You need not be able to build the blockchain to get involved. Plenty of companies already have engineers, but they need someone who understands decentralized finance to plan, coordinate, and market their solutions. If you have finance or PM expertise, read up on DeFi and cryptocurrencies so you can pivot into blockchain. Additional applicationsSome other promising applications of blockchain technology include:
If you have experience in any of these fields, brushing up on blockchain could be useful for you too. How freelancers can get involvedSo how can you get in on the action? Like so many others, you may have taken advantage of quarantine to forward your education or learn a new skill. Freelancing is a great way to apply these skills, and blockchain technology is a good place to start. Read up on NFTsNon-fungible token (NFT) is a fancy term for something that can’t be replaced by something else. Most NFTs are built on the Ethereum blockchain, another cryptocurrency that adds extra information to their blocks to assert digital uniqueness. NFTs can really be anything that is a digital asset, like music, videos, or memes. Blockchain technology can be used to protect creative work and prove your ownership, which is hopefully something you’re already thinking about as a freelancer. Whether or not you believe NFTs are the future of digital art is your business, the fact is, they are very popular right now. If you are a freelancer involved in software dev, graphic design, marketing and sales, etc., becoming an expert in all things NFT will be a great resume boost. Move from theory to practiceIf all this NFT talk sounds a bit convoluted, consider starting with the basics, and read the famous Satoshi Nakomoto paper that got it all started. And while it’s certainly necessary to understand blockchain theory, in order to get hired, you’ll need to know how to use it in practice. Get started by writing a simple smart contract as a first step on your blockchain journey. Also, explore the different existing blockchains like the systems on which the different cryptocurrencies are built. The beauty of these systems is that they’re open source, so you can engage with the community and even contribute to the project. Use the technologyThere’s no better way to understand a product than to use it yourself. As a freelancer, you are hopefully already using financial tools to plan for your future by saving and investing your money. If you are interested in working with blockchain, why not consider experimenting with crypto trading? Consider trading in small amounts to see how it works. Cryptocurrencies are volatile, meaning they change in value a lot and are not as stable as some other investments. For example, Bitcoin famously hit $50k for one BTC at one point before plummeting to $30k (it’s currently around $32k). But fortunately, you can purchase fractions of coins, so you can start small. If you don’t actually want to use your money, at least monitor crypto exchanges and learn how they operate. Crypto is different from a lot of trading in that it does not rely on a traditional brokerage. According to industry expert Alex Williams of Hosting Data, online trading exchanges are a form of discount broker that are readily available to everyday people: “We give the name “discount brokers” to anybody who brokers online. They don't give you advice or personally message you to inform you of fluctuations in the market,” Williams explains. “All of the information you receive is done through apps. In many cases, you are charged nothing to place a trade.” In the case of crypto, the currency exchange site is the “broker,” but this is much more direct and hands-on. This can be an exciting way to get to know blockchain and increase your expertise so you can get paid for it later. Get started todayThere is no doubt that blockchain technology will be around for years to come, and there are many ways to brush up this technology in both theory and practice. There are also a lot of communities to help you get involved in the industry. Learning about blockchain technology will be a great career boost for any tech freelancers looking for consistent work in 2021. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2021/07/07/blockchain-101-for-tech-freelancers/
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There are many benefits to being a freelancer. You get to choose your work schedule, create your own pay rates, and work from anywhere. However, if you are not careful, that freedom can come at a price. As a mobile worker, you likely have volumes of client data on your work computer, and that information is a goldmine to cybercriminals, so caution is of the absolute essence. As a freelancer, you will likely be targeted by online criminals, so you have to respect yourself and your clients by taking the proper precautions to avoid a costly data breach. To help you understand the risks and issues, let’s talk about the problem of cybercrime and what you can do to avoid becoming a victim. Why Freelancers Are at RiskAs a freelancer who does most of their work online, you are constantly creating and compiling data, sometimes without even realizing it. For instance, when you are visiting websites to research your current project, the companies who own those websites are constantly collecting data through cookies and browser fingerprinting. Hackers understand this process and they can extract that data for malicious use. Criminals can also study your digital movements to try and hack into your system, and from there, they can steal the data of your clients. It is important to understand that just about any piece of personal information obtained by hackers can be used to harm the owner. Social security and credit card numbers can be used to make fraudulent purchases and even take out home loans without the victim realizing it. Even email addresses can be used to send out phishing messages in an attempt to steal data from others. Many freelancers may not even realize that they are a primary target of hackers because they assume that they are a tiny entity and cybercriminals only go after large corporations, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Hackers love to go after small businesses because they realize that smaller organizations may not have the resources to secure their data, but rest assured that even though you may have less of it, the data on your system is just as valuable to hackers on the black market. Avoid Common ScamsAnother reason that hackers target freelancers is that there are more opportunities to hack into their systems using common scams. For instance, many freelancers like to do their work in public places like coffee shops and libraries, but by connecting to the wrong Wi-Fi network, you could easily become the victim of a man-in-the-middle attack. This is essentially a fake network set up by a hacker that appears to be free or matches closely to the legitimate Wi-Fi network at the business. However, when you connect, you are really attaching yourself directly to the hacker, and from there, they have easy access to your data. Hackers also realize that freelancers frequently meet new clients, and being more open to new connections means that hackers can try to disguise themselves as a legitimate entity. Cybercriminals often do this by sending a phishing email with a link that may appear to go to their website, but if you click, you are creating a doorway between you and the hacker and your data is immediately at risk. After you’ve added new clients to your portfolio, it’s important to take the time to validate them before getting further into business with them. Ask for a down payment upfront or complete a background check. At the absolute minimum, research them online and use your peer network to see if others have worked with this client and whether they are the real deal. Keep in mind that cybercriminals don’t always need fancy tech tricks to steal your data. They can take advantage of you in person too. It just takes a few moments for a thief to glance over your shoulder at the coffee shop and steal a few email addresses. And if you leave your phone or laptop unattended, they can just pick it up and take it without issue. This is why you must always stay with your equipment, never plug a USB drive into your computer that you are unfamiliar with, and put privacy screens on your computer so nobody can see your work but you. Protecting Data on a Daily BasisEven as freelancing superstars, we are still human, so it is important to implement standard security procedures into our everyday lives so we don’t end up falling for one of those common scams. Start with smart passwords. They should have a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters, and they should be changed frequently. On top of your password, consider two-factor authentication on your phone. This would be an additional security measure like a biometric thumb or eye scan that is unique only to you, so hackers cannot get in even if they guess your password. It is also a smart idea to install a virtual private network (VPN) on your computer and phone. Enabling this software will ensure that your data is automatically encrypted, and it will disguise your location so hackers cannot find you, even if they are sitting right next to you. Of course, you should also have antivirus software installed which must be updated whenever a new version becomes available. As a final precaution, you should regularly back up all of your data onto an external device. Not only is this a smart practice if your computer crashes, but hackers can sometimes install ransomware which gives them control of your computer until you pay them money. If you don’t want to play into their game, backup your data, and you can get what you need and then alert the authorities. By understanding common cyber scams and taking the right precautions, you can keep your clients protected and coming back for more. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2021/07/06/heads-up-freelancers-are-a-prime-target-for-cybercriminals/ |
AuthorI have 5+ years experience working as a medical transcriptionist. When I am not working, I enjoy sports like playing basketball or judo. I love making friends and connections. Archives
April 2023
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