Escaping the Shadow of the Freelance Flag

Do you know what the most important thing in freelancing is?

You think you do, but you don’t. It’s not your portfolio, the number of your reviews, the set of skills, or availability.

The First Class Freelancers From the Third World Countries

The small icon of your national flag next to your profile is the most powerful thing in our freelance universe. You will be judged, selected, and paid based on your flag’s colors, first and foremost.

Your flag determines whether you’re a freelancer from the first or the third-world country. The classification process based on freelance flags is brutal and biased. It all comes down to limiting your freelance hourly rate.

You may, and you’ll probably say, but hey, there are exceptions. I will reply, yes, there are. I’ve seen some with my own freelance eyes. There’s a fellow freelance writer from India with a $50 hourly rate. He’s a natural-born writer with a prestigious national degree in English language and literature. I also saw a US-born-and-raised freelance writer who’s perfectly happy with five bucks per hour.

But, let me ask you, what’s the percentage of these exceptions that (don’t) prove the rule of the freelance flag?

WTF — You’re Stuck?!

So, what can you do about your freelancer’s flag pricing limitations? Well, I can think of three options:

Option #1 — You can relocate and change your freelance flag. There’s just one thing, though. Be aware that not only your hourly rate will increase, but your cost of living, as well.

Option #2 — You can hack the system by hacking the planet. How? I know a freelancer who did some cyber-hocus-pocus, and he presents himself as a successful translator based in the UK. He’s living and working on the other side of the globe, but to the best of my knowledge, he’s always one step ahead of the support teams and algorithms. How? I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.

Option #3 — You can decide to defy your freelance odds and corporate “gods.” Back in my younger, but not necessarily naive freelance days, one of my clients wanted to impress and limit me with his awareness of my local economic situation:

Client: You’re asking too much. Do you know what’s the average salary in your country?

Me: Average hourly rates are for the average freelancers.

To be honest, our negotiations hit a dead end, but I stood my freelance ground. I’m a freelancer from the third world country according to every single economic and political criterion. So what? Does it mean that I can’t be the first-class freelancer?

Love Your Flag — Respect Your Freelance Price Tag

Who’s to blame that we can’t eradicate the prejudice and discrimination in the freelance industry? Well, this may come as a shock and surprise to you, but the freelancers have only themselves to blame for this situation.

You lose your freelance prize the moment you accept to compromise.

If you want to get freelance juice — fight the prejudice, right here and now!

Vote for this and my other freelance-related stories in Noonies 2022 category:

HACKERNOON CONTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR- FREELANCING. Thank you!

Also published here.