Meet Hisham Sarwar, A Freelancer With Over $1 Million in Earnings

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Meet Hisham Sarwar, A Freelancer With Over $1 Million in Earnings

Freelancing as a career has really taken off in Pakistan. Most people in development, designing, content and countless other fields augment their monthly earnings with freelancing.

The reasons are quite apparent. Its working on what you choose at your own schedule and that too for fair recompense. However, you still dont run into people whove earned more than $1 million in freelancing. Today, we get to meet Hisham Sarwar, whos done exactly that.Hishams story is also interesting because hes managed to successfully translate his earnings into a successful entrepreneurial career.Starting out with a regular job at a US based company, Hisham quickly found out that as a creative designer, he badly wanted freedom and space. And that wasnt possible with average 9 to 5 job.

So he started freelancing on the side in 2007 and soon went solo to provide web design/development services to clients on freelance marketplaces like Elance, Freelancer and Guru.In my opinion, if you can monetize your passion, it is far better than a full time job and working for someone, said Hisham in an interview with ProPakistani.In the last 5 years though, he has narrowed his focus to only Guru and its proven to be a good decision. In a very short space of time, hes earned more than $1 million in profile sales and been given exclusive coverage in testimonial on front page of

Guru.com. Hes also among the top 10 freelancers on the portal.Right now, Hisham employs 20 people and provides services in the web development, graphic design and mobile application domain.Giving Back to Community

Hisham is also a digital philanthropist who provides solutions for social issues. !important]Konbola is a free mobile app (Android version already in Play Store, iOS to come) which helps people reach out to their closed ones in trouble. Something thats very relevant to local needs.

Whats promising to be his biggest venture is a silicon valley based partnership for !important]Truedrops, which will connect hospitals with donors within a few specified KMs.Hisham is also running Pakistans first freelance marketplace !important]Rozgar Pakistan), Currently in beta, its expected to go live in February but already has over 10,000 freelancers from Pakistan on board.Freelancing As A Viable Career Option

While we are always !important]talking about the benefits of freelancing, !important]its not for everyone. Theres also the fact that if you arent IT literate or have been doing an office job for a long while, it can seem daunting. Heres what Hisham has to say to those thinking about taking the plunge:[/COLOR]

Offer something of value to your clients when you bid. For example alongside showing your portfolio, tell them you are willing to talk to them over phone/Skype and that is where you nail it. Bidding requires a lot of patience, persistence and one who is resolute wins eventually.

You could earn anywhere from $100 to $10,000 per month and people are realistically earning these numbers. So approach it with absolute seriousness.


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Industry Academia Gap in Pakistan

Most industry people we talk to are of the opinion that Pakistan isnt producing as many quality graduates as it can. While the number of grads is very high, the industry ready among them are a small percentage. Hishams opinion on the matter is:

Pakistani graduates lack hands on knowledge. Bookish knowledge is good but it has to be practiced and best time to do that is while kids are still in school. I have always felt the ones who are hands on practically are far better the toppers of their batch who only share book knowledge.


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While attitudes towards anyone not doing a nine to five job have ranged from bewilderment to downright derision in recent times, thats changing for the better and people like Hisham are the reason why. More people are realizing that a poor job market (locally) does not mean that their skills are going to be wasted.

There are always employers (who can be anywhere in the world) out there looking for talented people and the prevalence of the internet is making those opportunities available to millions of Pakistanis.With potential to reduce unemployment, boost the service sector and exports, freelancing could be the solution to a host of issues plaguing Pakistan and its high time people realize that.

Source

 

[Admiral]

Freelancing is a very good option for youngsters, who have less financial burden (to support their families).
This type of career is risky for those who definitely have to support their families, in any case, regularly.

 

[alicekim]

Service based industries have pushed Pakistan a 100 years back ! We don't need anymore service people like doctors, MBAs, lawyers, and somewhat engineers as well, we need farmers, cattle producers, growers, industrialists, small-medium business industries (read how Shan Masala guy started out).

We, in Pakistan, do not produce any commodity or ingenuine technology, and in today's world you need these two together to move forward. We must implement taxation laws, Intellectual Property laws, provide funds for startups, subsidies on commodity/agricultural/livestock businesses, government must build mega projects like seaports or kalabagh dam, highways, and then only we can start seeing a considerable lasting development.

 

[ahaseeb]

Service industries are very good for Pakistan because they create highest revenue per capita. Knowledge based industries are very powerful and should be promoted since they are providing services to international clients