Dear Readers,

The modern contractor is now totally mobile with laptops visible in many coffee shops, hotel business centres, trains, buses and on occasion the beer garden. Virtual offices are common with virtual project meetings via the internet being the norm for many contractors. This month’s news letter provides discussion on what our client’s think, the future trend in self employment in Europe, an article by a contractor on the importance of sales training and of course the obligatory bad joke. I wish you every success. Cheers Bert

Like any customer-oriented company we want to learn from our customers. Accordingly, last May we interviewed 38 active customers with valuable feedback being received. Typical suggestions for improvement include better assignment of contractor categories, better contractor qualification review and improving the user-friendliness of the search functions.

Among other things, we asked the question as to whether they planned to use the service again in the future with 35 answering yes. The 3 who said they would not use the service again did so as they had no future requirements.

We aim to continually improve the Freelance-Market service. Your suggestions or comments are therefore very welcome. Simply mail them to info@australiafreelancemarket.com.au or call directly on 61 2 9454 7736.

According to a thesis by Christoph Becker of the University of Pforzheim, working in cooperation with the Freelance-Market.de, it emerged that the number of self-employed workers continues to steadily rise. In 1992 only about half a million workers were self-employed whereas by 2007, this number doubled to just under one million. Within the group of self-employed the number of freelance contractors has greatly increased. A good example of the increased demand is the IT industry where according to Becker in February 2007 some 20,000 positions were not able to be filled or were filled after a considerable delay. Contractors therefore filled the gap. Researchers, such as Michael Horx, looking at future employment patterns, assume that the labour market is continuing to move in the direction of the flexible workforce and thus in the direction of independence contractors. In the Spiegel interview, he said: 'Presumably, if this trend continues, by the year 2050 30/40 percent of all workers will self-employed.' This trend is also supported by taxation trend. For example, the taxes for self employed have decreased 6% since the early 90’s whereas full time employees have only received a 3% reduction. In Germany, full time employees pay an average of 26% of their income in tax. The self-employed on the other hand are paying an average of 15% on their total income.

Registered contractors are encouraged to provide a short article for publication in this newsletter. In this issue we present an article by our provider No. 2147 (category 'trainer', $AU75/h). --- Sales training with a difference! – I provide analysis services, sales consulting, project management and practical training. These services are individually adapted for the specific needs of the sales and service companies and directly contribute to increased sales success. I leverage my 12 years sales experience and my 7 years work as a life coach. I train in the field and support sale personnel with phone techniques and client visit training activities. My services include a preliminary review including an analysis of previous sales activities.

A project manager who has just successfully completed a long project is still totally stressed. He decides that the best thing would be to spend a month alone on a farm away from it all. After two days of relaxation on the farm with long walks by the forest and through the meadows he is starting to get bored so he asks the local farmer whether there is any simple work for him to do. The farmer invites him to sort potatoes. After an hour, the farmer sees the manager again and notices that the he’s nearly having a nervous breakdown. 'What’s the problem?' Asks the farmer with surprise, 'This is a very light work, the large potatoes go to the left and the small to the right....' 'This is a lot more stressful than my profession,' says the manager, 'In my job I make many choices, but not every second.'

www.australiafreelancemarket.com.au, Postal address: 49 Frenchs Forest Rd, Frenchs Forest NSW 2086, Australia

Freelance-Market does not guarantee for the correctness of the statements or opinions stated in this newsletter. Please feel free to send us your comments or contributions to info@australiafreelancemarket.com.au.

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AustraliaFreelanceMarket.com.au is a on-line contractor marketing portal for professional freelancers facilitating direct contracts between the contractor and client. Skills available include management consultants, security advisors, IT professionals, business analysts, marketing consultants, graphic artists and administration personnel.

Benefits for clients and contractors:
• No agency involved; direct contracts between the contractor and client.
• Client costs are reduced in that they are not paying the 10-40% agent fee.
• Contractors optimize their billing as there is no agent cutting in to their hourly rate.
• Searches and Introductions are free to the client
• Registration and online marketing is free to contractor
• Contractors incur only a small fee per introduction based on their hourly rate
• High quality contractor database to choose from
• Contractors have improved utilization rate
• Client and contractor are free to work together as often as they like at no cost
• Immediate notification of introduction by e-mail and SMS.
• Broad range of free documentation, including contracts, NDA and general interest articles.