My name is Sehrish Gohar Ali and I am currently enrolled as a Ph.D. Scholar in Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad. When I was 9 years old, I heard my parents talking about one of my eldest female cousins earning a huge amount through online work. At that moment, I had this small dream of earning online and becoming financially independent. But I had NO GUIDANCE at all.
My school didn’t even have a well-trained computer teacher. All I learned from my computer classes was to change the date and time through the command prompt.
As a kid in her 4th grade, I decided to learn it myself and asked my father to buy me a computer. Started from learning to TURN ON/OFF the computer to repeatedly failing in setting up a dial-up connection, and finding the right platform for online work all by myself, it took me 14 years to finally reach the word “freelancing”.
How did I Start Freelancing?
So, here’s my story…
In 2016, when I first came to know about “Freelancing” as a source of income without leaving home, I instantly thought to give it a try. I remember it was 22 April 2016 when I attended Sir Hisham Sarwar’s first lecture on “Introduction to Freelancing” at Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad.
At that time, I was a student of M.Sc. and only had some knowledge about writing/typing on MS word & PowerPoint presentations. No other skill. I chose content writing for freelancing and immediately rushed to pick some free online courses for polishing my English Writing Skills. It took me a few weeks to learn some basics of creative content writing.
Then within a month, I was able to sign up on Fiverr as a freelance content writer and also joined some Facebook groups to look for Freelance work to create my portfolio. I had to work for hours to search every step of the process and learn new aspects of freelancing.
My activities of the first month of learning include:
1) Polishing my current skill (content writing) through different platforms.
2) Creating my portfolio for the Freelance platforms by practicing/working for local freelancers through Facebook groups (at cheap rates/almost free).
3) Signing up on Different freelancing platforms (started with Fiverr).
My first fully paid order was $8, for which I also received an appreciation certificate from my department and Sir Hisham Sarwar as our department announced it as a competition to earn at least $1 after that “Introduction to Freelancing” session. The features picture is when I received the award from him.
All this effort not only gave me the confidence of working for international clients but also made me able to create my own virtual software house. I built a team of more than 20 people aspiring to become freelancers. All of us earned good during this practice and almost every member of my team created their own online freelancing profile after few months.
The special Joys:
It’s been more than 5 years now since my first try and I’ve not only made myself financially independent but also trained 100+ people (both in family & social circle) for online earning.
And how much did I earn from Freelance work?
Well, I’ll not boast off thousands of dollars as my FREELANCE EARNING. Although I’ve worked on both Fiverr, Upwork, and with some other local and international clients, I’ve always been a part-time freelancer because of my commitment to research in Biology. I couldn’t achieve any top-most freelancer badge on any of these platforms (except the level 1 seller on Fiverr in the first month), but I’m happy that this freelancing has helped me a great deal in my educational journey from M.Sc. to Ph.D.
Learning New Skills:
My journey of exploring freelancing never stopped. Started from content writing, I also learned skills like outsourcing, blogging, website designing, graphics designing, video editing, and digital marketing through Sir Hisham’s YouTube Videos and some other resources. I know here some people criticize multitasking but trust me it helps a lot. Although I am not an expert in all these skills, today I can easily manage all my tasks related to these skills, or at least I know how to get them done by the right person. So, to fulfill your dreams, there’s no harm in being Jack of all Traits but you should be Master of at least ONE.
Freelance Teaching:
Now coming back to my journey, I also had a thirst for teaching since childhood but never liked the low-paid long hours teaching jobs. So, I thought why not try Freelance Teaching? I started exploring this in 2020, just a few months before the Covid-19 Edu-lockdown and it turned out to be a great blessing as I was earning $$$ through online teaching when every other teacher was afraid of pay-cuts due to the pandemic. I am still learning more about Freelance Teaching and decided to share all my knowledge through my Facebook Page with other teachers to help them earn online.
Conclusion:
For the last 5 years, I have been making my dream of online earning and financial independence come true every day. All this was possible just because of that “Introduction to Freelancing” session by Sir Hisham Sarwar and more guidance from him in every online difficulty.
The purpose of sharing my story was to motivate everyone here to just take their first step towards online earning. Believe me, this world of Freelancing is entirely different from the regular 9-5 jobs.
YOU MUST EXPLORE IT!
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