DEAR READERS,

In this issue, we will publish our recent study on the hourly rates of freelancers in New Zealand. The rate charged by freelancers for their work varies greatly, ranging from $15 to $250 NZD. The analysis of the 18 most important service categories shows that an hourly rate comparison is a worthwhile one to make. This is because the hourly rates do not depend only on the service and the service providers. Other factors also play a role, such as the sex and age of the service provider. Surprisingly, even the hourly rates of comparable freelancers differ by a factor of more than two and some freelancers even invoice very different hourly rates depending on the customer or the project.

In addition, I am happy to announce our support for the upcoming event 'Negotiation Deep Dive' by the Workshop Auckland Coworking and Shared Office. This will take place on October 23rd in Auckland, New Zealand.

Moreover, we will discuss the success formula of bestselling author Alan Weiss, which promotes the concept of improving your life by just one per cent each day. And our popular guest article will deal with barriers that prevent you from living a successful life.

Later on, our freelancer article will define how an already successful coaching process can be enhanced and perfected, and our freelancer joke at the end compares the work ethic of employees and freelancers.

I wish you a lot of fun reading and of course, as always, good business!

Rainer Kurz

The current hourly rate analysis of freelancers from 14 different categories listed on Zealancer has just been released. And the conclusion? An hourly rate comparison is actually always worthwhile!

On average, a freelance service provider costs $64.60 NZD per hour. A comparison of different service providers is always worthwhile, when deciding who to work with. This is due to the fact that the hourly rates do not only depend on the service and the service provider’s qualification. Other factors also play a role, such as gender and the age of the service provider, amongst others.

Surprisingly, even the hourly rates of comparable freelancers can differ by more than a factor of two. Additionally some freelancers even charge different hourly rates depending on the client and the scope of the project or their personal interest. The selection amongst equally qualified service providers can therefore save an average of 30 per cent in costs.

Let´s discuss the influencing factors on the hourly rate and examine them in more detail.

As expected, remuneration depends strongly on the type of the service. On average, a freelancer in the Secretary/Admin category charges $28.20 NZD per hour while a consultant charges $129.90 NZD per hour. Predictably, services requiring academic qualifications are better remunerated. Interestingly enough, the ability to deal with people is paid at a higher rate than pure professional knowledge. Thus engineers at average charge $65 NZD, while it is $69.70 NZD per hour for trainers.

The age of the service provider also plays a role. Older service providers are generally more experienced and are, on average, three times as expensive as young people. The average 18 to 29 year olds, charge a rate of $24.60 NZD, while for those over 50 the average is $76.00 NZD.

Gender has only a small influence on the requested hourly rates. Although men demand an average $65 NZD, which is more than women ($54.80 NZD), this could be due to the fact that women are more strongly represented in the less well-paid services. For example, 80 per cent of all secretary/admin providers are female, while business consultants have only a female share of 23 per cent.

Within a service category, the differences in remuneration are therefore small. For example; male graphic designers at an average of 28 NZD, are slightly below the from female graphic designers charge (average of $33 NZD).

Pricing on the basis of clear market criteria is only a partially happening in New Zealand. For example, very different prices are paid for comparable services without there being any qualitative reason for the disparity. We found that hourly rates vary widely within a type of service - there are IT experts, for example, from $15 NZD to $150 NZD per hour. Interestingly, this range also applies to comparable qualifications and experiences. Thus, when we compare IT experts with 10 years of experience and similar skills, the hourly rates can spread between $50 to $100 NZD.

A lack of market transparency can be contributing factor for the large spread of hourly rates. Both suppliers and customers are often poorly informed because they know only a few market participants. With the growing importance of electronic marketplaces in New Zealand, however, the information deficit is shrinking. Thus the service providers listed at Zealancer often orient themselves according to the hourly rates of fellow providers. A flexibility in determining the hourly rate is surprisingly high for many freelancers. If service providers discover that they are rarely selected, they often reduce their prices by up to 30 percent. Likewise, service providers who are in high demand in the marketplace often increase their hourly rates significantly as a result.

However, there is often more than just one hourly rate for a specific expert. Depending on the customer and sales channel, some specialists charge different hourly rates. In individual cases, the hourly rates that can be found on the freelancer´s website are twice as high as those listed on Zealancer.nz

It is therefore worthwhile for companies to compare the skills and hourly rates of freelancers. As our statistically selected samples showed, one saves on average, 30 percent if the cheapest service provider is selected out of five instead of resorting to the first available one. In addition, a larger pool often leads to the discovery of the most suitable expert. The classical way to compare providers is to ask for quotes from several service providers. While this process is time consuming for both requesters and providers, this selection can now take place in a few minutes thanks to the existing internet marketplaces. Therefore, there is no longer any reason to not compare the freelancers and their offers.

Zealancer is proud to announce that we are a media partner at the 'Negotiation Deep Dive: Advanced Techniques to Succeed in Business' event. This will be taking place on 23rd October in The Workshop Auckland Coworking and Shared Office in the Auckland suburb of Ponsonby.

Entrepreneurs, contractors, freelancers, team builders, self-employed individuals and game changers can benefit from this workshop. You will learn negotiation techniques while getting experience honing your new strategies with real life scenarios and role play. In this workshop, the instructors will build on the foundations of a negotiation strategy by using a negotiator´s mindset, understanding your counterpart, and practicing purposeful empathy to further develop a more refined set of tactics.

In Deep Dive, participants will learn to get serious and up their game. They will be giving 1:1 support, real life role plays and coaching to help them implement these tools confidently. This approach to negotiation focuses on building relationships, communication, empathy and understanding others. According to the organiser, these tactics will help you answer the questions below:

What would your business and life be like if you were confident and powerful in any negotiation?

How much more money would you make this year?

How much more quickly would you reach your goals?

How much more would you love your life and business?

If you would like to attend to this upcoming event, feel free to use the discount code 'ZEALANCER' for %15 discount.

Defining goals and successfully implementing them is usually easier said than done! One of the reasons for this could be that your goals have not been well documented or concretely formulated. Lack of discipline can also be an important factor in the implementation of the success in your planned goals.

The bestselling author Alan Weiss proposes the iconic 'One-Percent-Rule'. With this approach he encourages readers to aim to be better every day by simply just one per cent. Purely mathematically, your own abilities will double itself every 70 days. Imagine if you could build up such a clear advantage in your business! You are probably asking yourself how to do something like this. Well, you must be open to learning, and use every opportunity to experience something new. This can be done in different ways, for example, an article in a trade magazine, a tip from a colleague, an important note in a blog or newly acquired skills from a seminar. The possibilities are practically endless, you simply have to be attentive and take every opportunity to learn something new or innovative and try it out.

In addition to your actual subject area, there are many other areas where you can improve further. Just think about how you could better negotiate agreements with your customers, how you could make presentations more successful or how you could stay motivated every day despite setbacks and stress. Or perhaps it is how to optimally prepare for customer meetings, how to develop your leadership skills, or how to improve your innovation skills? The list can be continued indefinitely and there are infinite ways we can improve our business expertise and knowledge.

The 'one per cent approach' helps you to continuously improve and stay one step ahead of the competition. This can also lead to innovative product and sales ideas. For example, freelancer Amor Daouadi offers his customers a 10 per cent discount if they pay the total amount at the beginning of the project, and he guarantees professional and high-quality consulting work. This way, he is able to achieve a completion rate of 75 percent. This method is particularly successful with large companies, as many department heads and managers know that their project could no longer be overturned by any cost savings.

From Amor Daouadi

Every success story starts with a thought or an idea. In order to achieve the hoped-for success, the idea helps very little if the thought is not followed by action, inspiration, enthusiasm, passion, sacrifice or devotion.

I recently read an inspiring, motivating and excellent speech that I recommend to anyone who has set themselves special goals in their lives. This speech is over 100 years old and was given by Theodore Roosevelt in Paris. It is titled 'The Man in the Arena' and reads:

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.'

I advise you to read this text, again and again, every day if you have to. You can draw many parallels between 'The Man in the Arena' and any other person who goes his own way, into a better life and a better future.

I am interested in this speech from the freelancer´s point of view, who has to fight his way through every day – against difficult customers, difficult working conditions, new competitors or new technologies. But the freelancer´s biggest battle is against his critics and his inner soul, which prevent him from developing and testing new and better methods.

If you want to achieve something special, you also have to do and perform much more than most in your field. Even if you don´t have a lot of talent, resources, or relationships, your most important path to success is to go the ways others don´t dare. You will certainly suffer failures, but that is also part of your success because through setbacks you learn what is not possible and you can refine your skills, expertise and working methods. But it is important not to doubt yourself and to get up again and continue fighting.

Because top athletes are my favourites, I also like to take examples from the field of sports for such comparisons. I remember the gifted and brilliant Cristiano Ronaldo. He wouldn´t have become the multiple world football player of the year if he hadn´t walked thousands of kilometres, spent thousands of hours in the gym, tried thousands of free kicks or practiced thousands of dribbling techniques.

Only through perseverance, hard work and failure can you achieve top results. You simply have to have the courage to go your own way with all consequences.

As some of you know, registered service providers can present themselves with a short article in the Zealancer-News. In this issue, we present a multiple book author with a doctorate who has almost 20 years of first and second level management and leadership experience in medium-sized corporations.
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Coaching is a process clarification aimed at reviewing existing activities, behaviours and assessments in the client´s field of work. During the coaching interview, it is decided if adaptations of existing activities are necessary or if completely new activities emerge as more productive. Following from this, it is then found out together how this can best be done. In principle, the various components of the situation and its implementation should, therefore, be analysed, evaluated and solved.

The to-do lists summarise the coaching session and contain a future picture of the activities and the expected results. A to-do list is designed in such a way that future situations can be dealt with successfully and the client can go into her reality in a stabilised way. The to-do list also includes the objective in the sense of a personal agreement on objectives, the description of the strategies and measures for achieving the objective, the persons involved and the underlying business or action processes.
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'Do you believe in life after death?' A freelance project manager asks his employee. 'Yes?', he answers in a bewildered manner.

'That explains everything! Soon after you went to your father ́s funeral yesterday, he came here and asked where you were!”