Intro:
As a gig worker, it’s in your best interest to use technology to help you do the best job possible, save time, and cut expenses on projects.
This is especially true if you’re running a one-person show! (i.e., a one-person business.)
One of the great things about being a freelancer in the modern gig economy is that there are a plethora of online and offline technology-driven tools to help you get work done faster, more efficiently, and with greater attention to detail.
But here’s the issue.
Oftentimes, gig workers and freelancers get held up in their processes by not quite understanding the best methods for integrating technology into their day-to-day processes.
So in this post, you’re going to learn how to use technology to your advantage as a gig worker and make it work for you on a long-term, beneficial basis.
These steps will help you to find the best technology for your line of work and utilize it to leverage huge benefits that will pay you dividends down the line.
Let’s dive into it.
1. Understand Your Process
As a seasoned gig worker or freelancer, you likely have a process for work that you’ve lined out and perfected over the years.
You might even have a list of policies, procedures, or plans for how specific tasks get dealt with and completed.
This is awesome.
Understanding your process from the beginning to the end can help you to gain a better understanding of where technology could fit into those processes to help you move forward at a faster, more efficient pace.
With that being said, if you haven’t quite nailed down a line of processes that work for you, now would be the time to do it.
Put together some standard protocols for how you generally accomplish work.
This will really help you in organizing new technology and leveraging it for your business.
2. Start Doing Research
One of the biggest reasons why gig workers and freelancers don’t use new tools or technology in their business is quite simply because they may not be aware that it exists and/or how useful it is.
Therefore, to help you discover what you may not have discovered yet, it’s in your best interest to start doing some research.
For example, if you’re a freelance writer, you could do an internet search for the term “most useful online tools for freelance writers.”
Such a search will quickly bring up tools like Grammarly, Canva, and more.
Of course, this could apply to any industry—and you don’t just have to look for online tools.
However, online tools do tend to be really useful for gig workers.
This is especially true in the creative gig spaces.
You can also research how other gig workers in your industry perform their processes and get work done within their companies.
You can do this kind of research on Google, on YouTube, or even by reaching out to other professionals on social media and just picking their brains about the technology they tend to use.
For example:
Just 20 or so years ago, there were very few options available that would allow freelancers to design, print, and/or order their own business cards.
But nowadays, there are a ton of options for this—and this gives gig workers more options for marketing than ever before.
3. Make A Budget For It
Sometimes, when you’re just getting started as a gig worker, it can feel counterintuitive to spend more money on tools to help you get work done.
But here’s the issue.
Yes, tools and technology might be expensive at first—but when you factor in how much money they save you, and how much quality they bring to your projects, you’ll quickly find (generally speaking) that they tend to more than makeup for the investment in the long term.
Of course, sometimes this isn’t true either.
This is why it’s important to make sure to research the tool and to understand your processes—so that you can have a pretty good idea of how much effort or time this tool may save you so that you can then make a cost-benefit analysis before purchasing it.
Hot Tip: Look for tools and technologies that offer a free trial.
This way, you can actually try it out before jumping all-in with a purchase.
You can also wait for special promotions (like black Friday deals) to save even more.
Sometimes, a bit of timing and patience can save you quite a bit of cash!
This is especially helpful for new gig workers who are trying to build their business from the ground up.
4. Test It Out
At the end of the day, sometimes the only way to know for sure if a tool will actually work for you or not is to just test it and see.
Sometimes, tests yield awesome results. But sometimes, they turn out to be lackluster at best.
But the only way to know for sure is to give the tool a trial run, to see how it may fit into your important business processes.
It’s also true that not all tools will fit into your processes like you imagined they might.
Therefore, getting creative and doing different things with different tools may also be of value.
You may discover a secret use for a tool that you never would have imagined using it for before, all due to your willingness to really test it out and be creative with it!
This is especially true with free versions of online tools and apps.
Conclusion
There you have it.
These four steps, when taken intentionally, can really help you to level up your business and succeed at a greater level as a freelancer or gig worker.
Of course, all that’s left now is to get out there and get to work.
You’ve got this—and we believe in you!
Now get out there and make it happen.
