This is my second article on “freelance web designer”. In the first one I had gone into the advantages and scope of freelance web designer and how to become and establish yourself as a freelance web designer. In this article I deal with the future market and opportunities of a freelance web designer in India.
Freelancing is being a growing hot trend among Indian professionals especially youth. According to a recent data from Truelancer, an online marketplace for freelancers, around 58 per cent Indian freelancers are less than 30 years old. Companies right from start-ups to big and large corporates are now rethinking on their HR policies and reaching out to freelancers to undertake their various projects and initiatives.
What drives this population to freelancing is the independence they get in their job as they can work from wherever, whenever and whatever they want. They are their own boss as they not need to answer anybody and are free to work on their own terms and conditions.
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Freelance Market in India
Freelancing is a growing market in India now. According to a 2016 report from Truelancer, India is just after US in freelancing population with more than15 million freelancers working in various sectors like IT and programming, finance, sales and marketing, designing, animation, videography, content and academic writing etc.
The report adds that India accounts $1 billion of $2-3 billion worth global market of freelancers and the global market has been growing at 14 per cent a year for the past few years. As the start-up economy in India is getting strong, freelancers are in now high demand.
Freelancers in India have got the interest of corporate baggies as well. A recent survey revealed that 20% of freelance talent demand is driven by large corporates. Chandrika Pasricha, CEO of ‘Flexing It’, an online marketplace for skilled and curated independent workforce which has 1500 companies registered on its platform, stated in an interview for The Times of India:
“With the world becoming networked, organisations of any size and scale can attract the best talent from across the globe. Startups can put a cap on crucial overheads with the help of independent specialists, while there is a growing need for large companies to adopt flexibility/flexible engagement models as a core strategy to retain high-performing talent”.
Freelance Web Designer in India
‘Freelance web designer’ is among the top paying freelance jobs in India. A career in freelance web designing in India is not just confined with layout of the website rather it stretches from graphics to animations. You can possibly earn a lot of money sitting in the comfort of your own home.
How much money you can earn depends on how much time and effort you invest in your work. There are freelance web designers who make INR 10000 per month and ones who earn INR 3,00,000. If you put more you make more. In fact work-at-home guys make more than those who have a regular nine-to-five job.
Freelance web designing is a promising career option for those who have a good sense in designing and creativity. The biggest reason to choose this as career in India is that the web designing has become an integral part of today’s IT industry or the software industry and the demand for websites will never come down in the near future as the number of people using internet is increasing day by day in the country.
Since the web designing industry is having good growth rate in India according to recent stats analysis, being a freelance web designer is never a bad option. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics report, in the web design field jobs are expected to grow 27% by 2020.
What You Need to Become a Freelance Web Designer
Freelance web designing career needs some planning and preparation. In the previous article I had discussed some steps to become a freelance web designer. Here I deal with some skills and requirements that you need for the job.
Firstly, you need to acquire some skills that every web designer must have. Your earnings from the freelance project would depend upon your patience as it may takes few months even to get some potential projects, your communication skill, expertise in the domain you are working on, and knowledge and understanding about graphics and layouts.
Freelance web designer in India can get a lot of different job opportunities. He/she can work as web designer, interactive web designer, WordPress theme designer, etc. Freelance web designer needs to be well versed in programming and coding, including the basic HTML, XHTML, PHP, and CSS and familiar with WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver and graphic editors like Adobe Photoshop and also with the common tools used for interactivity such as Flash, Java, CSS Animation, JavaScript, and jQuery.
As a freelance web designer, you should make some preparations as well before you start with the career. The preparation include (a) having a home office that is free from distractions, (b) getting all required hardware and software, (c) setting up a high-speed internet connection, (d) making a business plan, (e) designing your marketing strategies, (f) building your own website, etc.
Top Sites for Freelance Web Designer in India
There are a lot of useful websites that really help freelance web designers in India get new clients and projects. The top 10 among these websites include
- Truelancer.com
- WorknHire.com
- Freelanceindia.com
- UpWork
- HiFreelancer
- Guru.com
- VentureHire.in
- Designhill
- Oncontract.com
- Youth4Work.com.
In short, being a freelance web designer is a promising career opportunity in India for many reasons. What you have to do is to have a proper action plan that will guide you to the goal.