CPP023: From English Teacher to Freelance Web Developer : A Bumpy Path to Freelance Success With Tom Bisciglia

In today´s episode of “The Creatively Paid Podcast”,  host Kasey Reid talks with guest Tom Bisciglia, Former English Teacher and currently a Freelance Web Developer and Owner at ‘TechSharp Consulting’. Tom offers ways to find space in the Freelancing world and dives into his experiences and trials & errors across his journey in the Freelancing domain.

Episode Highlights: 

·       Tom Bisciglia introduces himself and gives insights on his professional journey.

·       He reveals that while he was looking for a job he was actually hired as a Technical Recruiter.

·       Initially he also did freelancing for guru.com and elance.com, which is now Upwork.

·       Kasey mentions that if you are new to the freelancing space, it takes a lot of repeated good work for you to become a great freelancer.

·       Tom quotes a gentleman named Taylor Pearson who mentions that to be a Freelancer you should know how to differentiate yourself from all the other people who have either got huge experience or are undercutting you like crazy on an hourly rate perspective.

·       Tom says that as a freelancer it's about knowing your audience and knowing what you offer.

·       He had a client that hired him for Drupal work and then turned out they had a problem with their API that was written in Python.

·       As per Tom, it’s always good to push yourself to try your hands on anything new and challenging however at the same time there are limitations to it.

·       Kasey asks about the things Tom observes when he has to hire & bring another creative onboard.

·       Tom expresses that the one thing he has learned is that networking is the best way to find someone.

·       It is great to build a solid network so that you're able to reach out to people you already know because it is pretty hard to work with someone that you've never met, reiterates Kasey.

·       Tom stresses that one way he will sell his service at a higher rate is by emphasizing on starting small, by initially getting hired for just two or three hours to show how he works.

·       Kasey asks Tom, “As a freelancer, would you see yourself as a Business Owner and what are the lessons you've of learned with working for yourself, as opposed to working for someone else?”

·       Tom points out that like any Business Owner you have to tell yourself that – “I have some unique skills that others don't have and at the same time, there are some skills that I need to improve”.

·       In Kasey’s view, when we are in a freelancing space it’s very easy to only rely on the skills that we have and not take into consideration the business side of it.

·       Kasey expresses his happiness and pleasure that Tom shared his experiences as a Freelancer.

·       “One of the biggest things is to find a definition of success that means something to you.” suggests Tom.

3 Key Points:

1. Being new in the freelancing space, it's easy to get very impatient with where you are because you see these great freelancers already doing some stunning stuff. But it requires a lot of practice and constant amazing work to reach at that level.
2. To able to get into the Freelancing space, differentiate yourself with the existing cutting-edge Freelancers by presenting yourself in a way that doesn't feel like everyone else, because everyone is unique and everyone has their way of doing things.
3. As per Tom, as a Freelancer, you should clearly know about your clients and yourself as well as repres