Perspectives on the Future of Work: August 15

Upwork’s weekly column brings you the latest news on hiring and working with freelancers, freelancing, and the future of work.

Forbes | 7 Steps To Scaling Your Freelance Business

Freelance professionals look after every aspect of their business: Finding and interacting with clients, keeping the backend of their business in order, networking, professional development—and doing the work.

This hands-on passion for what you do is what helps your business thrive. It’s also very difficult to scale.

Entrepreneur and writer Abdullahi Muhammed says there’s a process to follow if you plan to grow your business. To start, he says, you need to understand your brand. “What makes what you’re doing stand out?” He asked. “Why should they choose you over others doing similar work?”

Then, to rev up the number of opportunities coming your way, he recommends branching out—and doing so on a regular basis. “You want to constantly be looking for new ways to find clients and get your business in front of a wider audience,” he said.

Muhammed explains why growing your networking, finding other people to help with business admin, and creating systems to automate and simplify your business processes are all part of a successful and sustainable business.

Business Insider | How to Drastically Simplify Your Workflow and Get More Done

If you’re ready to consider a new way to get things done, writer Aaron Orendorff makes a case for simplifying the way you work.

“With so many conveniences at our digital fingertips, life should be getting easier,” he said. “And yet, if we’re honest, our workflows are anything but simple.”

How can you adopt a more minimalist approach? Orendorff suggests a four-step strategy:

• Be clear and focused on your vision—know exactly what you want
• Watch for roadblocks, what Orendorff describes as “friction”
• Set a regular routine for yourself
• Walk away from new ideas that can distract you from your vision

“Simplicity is a battle,” he admitted. “But following these four steps will give you a fighting chance.”

HBR | How to Use Stress to Your Advantage

Feeling stressed out about all the things you need to do to streamline your business and prime it for growth?

Business author and advisor Susan David says you should embrace that stress and turn it to your advantage. “In my work on ‘emotional agility,’ I’ve found the attempting to get rid of stress can actually make you MORE stressed.”

Instead, she points out that stress is an evolutionary response that helps us “run faster, jump higher, see better, and think quicker.”

To harness your stress for good, David recommends trying a few techniques:

• Change the way you think about stress. “Thinking of your stress as a built-in pump-up mechanism, one that prepares you for challenging situations, can help you move forward rather than get bogged down.”
• “Unhook” yourself from the idea that you’re stressed. “When we identify strongly with an emotion, it can become our definition of self, a terrifying reality that we must face every day.”
• Figure out why you feel stress and analyze how you respond to it.

Relieving stress isn’t easy, David says, so instead find ways to change the way you process it and respond to the world.

What changes have you noticed in the way we get things done? Tell us about them in the comments below!

The post Perspectives on the Future of Work: August 15 appeared first on Upwork Blog.

from Upwork Blog http://ift.tt/2aUmLin