The Freelance Finder was born to solve an existing need, the future of freelance women.
We know how difficult it is, even after a successful academic career and various contracts with major global corporations, to find the perfect job for us, in which we feel valued. The competition is high and every year it gets even more and more complicated. On the other hand, experiencing a feeling of disheartenment for a job that perhaps does not reflect our worth, or for a salary so low that it forces us to give up the little things that make us happy, is a common pattern. Does this ring the bell? Furthermore, 2020, the year of a global pandemic, does not reassure us about our future.
It is estimated that by the end of this year the unemployed will be 397,000 more compared to the end of 2019, with a total of 12.9 million, while 486,000 people will simply stop looking for work due to the tight lockdown or due to major forces such as having to take care of a family affected by the virus. The youth unemployment rate has risen almost one point, from 16.2% to 17%, which means that 2.9 million young Europeans are in a state of unemployment even if actively seeking for work. By 2021 the number of unemployed young people could reach 4 million, which is somewhat alarming.
Last year’s Grattan Institute report said today’s young people are in danger of being the first generation in memory to have lower living standards than their parents. As if that were not enough, even this data shows a disproportionate gender representation, in fact the female unemployment rate among young Europeans has gone from 7.3% to 7.8% in just 3 months, precisely from may to July 2020 while the male one is stable. Low wages are leaving many unable to afford the basics. When the bus to work, or an hour’s childcare, cost more than an hours’ wages, it’s no wonder so many young workers are falling into debt.
So with this panorama, The Freelance Finder (from now onwards TFF) was created to help towards fixing all of these issues.
«We wanted to help our generation but while we were studying to create the platform we realised there was another big problem, the underrepresentation of women in many fields we tend to think as male industries/fields. So we started focusing our platform mostly towards women of the 24-35 age group», explains Giorgia Agugiaro, founder of The Freelance Finder during our interview.
What’s The Freelance Finder?
We are a fresh and brand-new job matchmaking platform that focuses on empowering and highlighting the top female freelancers in the industry.
To help young women showcase their talent and be discovered by companies, small and big, who are looking for the right person for the job. A platform that brings freelancers and companies together, in order to create a perfect synergy and collaboration.
Why do you say that you are the pioneers in creating a job search platform? What makes you different?
First and foremost, our platform isn’t just a place where freelancers and young professionals can find work, we go above and beyond. We want to be a support system to our generation’s workforce, and a learning hub, where professionals of all ages can learn, share, teach etc… What makes us different? We don’t just want you to find work, we want you to find a community that you can network with, learn from, and rely on when in need.
First thing, TFF doesn’t want to tax the Freelancer’s work so it’s totally free for them, no upfront costs and no subscription. There are however premium packages that give the user access to featured open-positions from companies.
Second of all we want to maintain a perfect balance between freelancers and open positions in TFF in order to avoid creating the external ecosystem of fierce competition and, we implemented a vetting system to guarantee businesses the best professionals.
Moreover is an intuitive platform where you can not only search projects but even part time and full time jobs; you can apply with one click, upload all the material you think it’s necessary to make the client or the business understand your style and it’s highly responsive so you can use it from your favorite device.
Last but absolutely not least TFF isn’t just a platform to find work and workers on. We want to be a strong community, a guide, a source of information, advice, videos, interviews, weekly webinars and masterclass, articles, courses (like the Digital Coolhunting online course you offer on this site) and studies on everything that can help young freelancers (or soon-to-be freelancers) gaining the knowledge and confidence to get out there. So freelancers will be guided in every step and we will never leave them.
Do you think that in general the professional world is tending more and more to <<specialization>> and therefore to the creation of new companies like yours?
For sure there is a specialization right now impossible to find before. New jobs arise, the internet allows people to work from anywhere with everyone, and the more we are connected between each other the more we can understand what people want and need, so specialized platforms, brands, companies etc will never stop arising.
But what I think it was a fundamental step for TFF to be born was the necessity my partner William Patrick and I had to change our lifestyle. Find a better balance between private and work life, have the wage we deserve, stop being stuck in the 9-5 routine; something that we have in common with all the other freelancers in the world; in europe the number of freelancers is growing every year and in America it’s already the 70% of the workforce. There must be a reason, don’t you think?
Why should a female freelance entrepreneur be interested in being part of The Freelance Finder?
Right now TFFs’ demographic is professional women between the ages of 22 to 3 (we even have some men, as we said we are 100% inclusive). Also the amount of positive feedback we received was mostly because of the community we manage to create.
People don’t want to sign up to a platform, pay a subscription fee and just be abandoned like many cases out there. People, especially during these isolating and restrictive lockdown times, want to talk,, improve their skills, and find professionals like them with whom they can share success, stories, advice, their latest projects. We even offer a service of webinars focused on topics both for freelancers and the female business world.
What does it take to join The Freelance Finder? Which is the inscription process?
Freelancers can always find us and request to be part of the platform. In this case on top of the 4 requisites we ask, we will ask for a quick text where they can showcase their skills and values. We review any individual application, and although it’s the slow way we know it’s the best one. After that we will have a discussion with the freelancer to finalize the process. We want our community to share our same values and be satisfied with our way of working.
But at TFF we are also constantly seeking talents for our companies, we want to provide them the best candidates. for those who are connected by us they just have to sign up with their username, email, password, phone number and category they use or want to work.
Is The Freelance Finder just for remote work? Or is just for a specific field?
Absolutely not just for remote work. We are perfectly aware that, even if we love remote work and everything related to that, there are jobs that can’t be done remotely so TFF has a geolocalisation filter available for those who need it.
And not, it is not just for a specific field, we are searching for the best candidates for a variety of fields, it’s not important if you are a UX developer, a fashion designer, a photographer, a motivator, a pharmacist, an architect, etc.
So, what does The Freelance Finder offer companies?
We guarantee the best candidates on the market in every field to the business thanks even to the most accurate algorithm for the match. We even have an hyper personalized way of approaching business so there is a strong study behind before we get in touch with one. As we want to have the best freelancers, at the same time we want to give our members the best place of work, the best environments and the best and most interesting companies.
And before ending, what’s the near future for The Freelance Finder?
In a years time we would love to be more than a matchmaking platform to find work but we would love to be a guide and a reference in the business world, we would love to be a platform that provide courses and online masters to improve our member’s skills; for sure we will be creating jobs because we want to use our workforce for every needs we will have in the future. Go to The Freelance Finder site. Interview by Clara De Nadal Trias, founder of CoolhuntingLab.