7 Characteristics to Make a Great Logo

Characteristics to Make Logo

If you had a thousand words to elucidate how great your company is, what would you say? Fortunately, that’s exactly what your logo characteristics do every day. So, the big question is: What does one want your logo to say?

Logos explain who you’re, what you are doing and the way your brand feels—all in only a moment. Colours, shapes, fonts and other design elements all influence how your audience experiences your brand. When you roll in the hay right, customers fall crazy with your initial sight.

Your logo which appears on all of your most vital marketing tools like your product packaging, stationery, leaflets, business cards, your website, and your social media accounts is your unique mark of ownership. As customers begin to note your logo everywhere, they start to associate your logo together with your products and services.

Even if customers forget the name of your business, company or organization, they’re likely to recollect your logo, after all, the human brain processes visual data sixty thousand-fold faster than text. Your logo design should give your products and services a brand recall value such when people see your logo, they will remember their experience together with your products and services.

It is something that customers can use to differentiate you from others who offer equivalent services or products. Sometimes, an efficient logo design also helps you to catch people’s attention and thus, it provides an excellent help in getting you an honest share of the market especially if you’ve got a logo that outshines that of your competition.

Your logo should be easy to read. That is, it must communicate something at a glance. Of course, it’s possible for your logo to possess many hidden messages, however, it’s important that it sends a message that everybody can understand quickly and describe to others if needed. For example, Apple’s logo design is very much simple yet customers are unlikely to forget it.

So how do you do it right? We’re here to tell you 7 logo characteristics all great logos have in common.

A great logo has the following characteristics…

1. The Right Shape

Graphic design is all about visual communication. The art of making a logo entails both knowing what you would like to mention and which visuals can say that. Certain emotions and feelings come to mind by certain images and even the form of the brand itself.

2. The Right Business Cues

Logos communicate need-to-know information about your brand. They achieve during a second what press releases, product descriptions and about pages do with paragraph after paragraph of copy.

Design cues that relate to your business can help convey information fast, which they will range from easy-to-miss subtle to smack-on-the-head bluntness.

3. The Right Colors

Just like shapes, each color has its own emotional implication. Often these meanings are fairly universal because they’re supported things we see within the world . Red, the color of blood, evokes feelings of urgency and application . Brown, the color of trees and wood, summon nature and land. And it’s a reasonably safe bet that folks everywhere the planet associate yellow with the heat of sunshine.

4. The Right Tone

There’s a reason cereal uses mascot for logos and law firms don’t. An confirmation from a cartoon tiger doesn’t go very far with alleged felons.

To beneficially optimize your logo, outline a solid brand strategy and identify your audience .

5. The Right Typography

All visuals can influence the vibe and mood of your logo. While that’s obvious for the pictures during a logo, it also applies to the typography. How your text looks can affect people’s perception of your brand even as very much like what it says.

Typography encompasses all visual choices in text: name your font and text size, but also details like serifs, boldness, weight, format, texture and therefore the way you extend the lowest of an L and use it to underline the rest of a word.

6. The Right Trends

You can also bring the newest logo trends into your design to speak that your brand is contemporary and relevant. Trends believe repeated usage and recognition to be effective, and that they change per annum , so smart designers stay top of what’s hot and what’s not.

7. The Right Sizes

Not size, but sizes—plural. In recent years, advertisers and marketers are coming around to the thought that having multiple versions of your logo is the best thanks to go, referred to as a responsive logo. That way, you’ll optimize your logo’s size to wherever it appears, whether a small in-app advertisement to a huge highway billboard.

The seven items in particular add up to making more memorable logos, which in-turn makes more memorable brands. And when an individual is deciding what to shop for or whom to try to do business with, you’ll be glad once they consider you.

Simplest Guide to GST for Freelancers in India

Guide to GST for Freelancers

When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was started in July 2017, it replaced the VAT & Service Tax. While it brought in uniform tax laws for giant and little businesses alike, most businesses struggled with deciding if they needed GST registration. Today, much of the mist has lifted and most businesses have some measure of clarity.

As a freelancer in India, who has not registered under a business name, you’ll wonder why you would like to stress about GST. However, GST does apply to service providers. It’s an honest idea therefore to gauge if you would like to pay the GST on freelancers.

GST Registration for Freelancers

If you’re a freelancer whose turnover during a fiscal year crosses the edge limit of Rs. 20 lakhs, you’d be required to pay GST.

If you’re a freelancer who lives and functions from any of the North-eastern States, you’d cross the edge limit at Rs.10 lakhs and would therefore need to choose GST.

If you’re a freelancer exporting services over Rs. 20 lakhs, you’d need to pay GST. For example, if you’re designing an internet site for a US-based company and therefore the foreign currency you receive as payment exceeds Rs. 20 lakhs, you’d need to register for GST.

Irrespective of the mixture turnover, if you’re receiving payment for services under OIDAR (Online Information and Database Access and Retrieval), GST registration is mandatory.

What are OIDAR services?

Under the GST Act, OIDAR services includes:

1. Advertising on internet

2. Providing cloud service

3. Provision of e-books, music, movie, software via the internet

4. Providing information, retrieval or otherwise to any person in electronic form through a computer network

5. Online gaming

Which GST rates are applicable to freelancers?

The GST rates applicable to freelancers are 0%, 5%,12%, 18% and 28% counting on the sort of service provided. If there’s no specified rate for the service provided, you’ll need to charge 18% GST from your clients.

Documents required for GST registration

Your photograph
Copy of your PAN and Aadhaar card
Identity and address proof
Latest bank account statement or cancelled cheque
Your digital signature
Electricity or telephone bill
The rental agreement for office premises
No objection certificates

What are the invoicing rules for freelancers?

Any invoice lifted by a freelancer India should be GST-compliant. The invoice should contain all the required information like name, address, GSTIN of the service provider also because the recipient, SAC of services, date, the worth of service provided and so on.

How the GST Affects your Income

The GST on freelancers affects the customer and not the freelancer or service provider. This means that you simply charge the additional amount to your client. While it’s possible that some clients will choose a provider who doesn’t charge GST, most of them tend to look at GST registration as an indicator of your credibility.

How many GST returns does a freelancer need to file?

A freelancer will need to file 25 GST returns during a year if he’s registered as a traditional taxable person.

Is a freelancer eligible to say input tax credit?

The Indian freelancers, like any other taxpayer under the GST, are allowed to take the input tax credit of the services used by him for the motive of rendering service. For example, he could also be employing a laptop, electricity, telephone etc to supply taxable service. Further, the tax being charged by the freelancer also can be taken as input by the recipient of service. Therefore, we will conclude that the burden of GST doesn’t fall on the freelancer nor will his fee be reduced as he is going to be collecting the additional tax amount from the customers.

Default can Result in Penalty

Since all accounts are Aadhar and PAN linked, the government can more easily track your income through TDS deductions and payments made to your bank. Defaults may result in penalties and damage your credibility.

Voluntary Registration—the good and the bad

Even if your annual turnover is a smaller amount than Rs. 20 lakhs you can opt for voluntary registration. This would allow you to welcome projects from foreign clients, without worrying about possible defaults.

GST Filing

Once you receive your GST number, you would like to file regularly, regardless of your annual turnover. Delays in depositing GST would attract interest.

All payments will need to be made online. If your payments exceed Rs. 10000, the GST must be deposited with the govt on a quarterly or monthly basis. Annually, a complete of 37 returns would wish to be filed—three monthly returns and one annual return.

Clients who don’t want to pay for GST charges you have to explain to them that they can get a tax credit for it when they file for taxes. So, the clients who wouldn’t want to pay for GST charges are the ones who aren’t paying taxes or also aren’t interested in paying you.

To conclude, there are certain conditions under which GST is useful. Our suggestion would be to wait and watch before deciding if you need to register.

Top 5 tips for Mobile-Friendly Website Design

Tips for Mobile Friendly Website Design

A mobile-friendly website design is one that prioritizes the mobile surfing experience instead of treating it like an afterthought to the desktop version.

This approach has become extremely important within the last decade. According to research by Statista, just over half all-website traffic now occurs on a mobile device which includes roughly 45% of all online shopping. Considering that smartphones have only been around the last ten years, these numbers are only expected to travel up as mobile website browsing becomes even more ingrained and therefore the designs more intuitive.

This is why websites that fail to form a sincere, strategic effort to deliver a top-quality mobile experience risk falling drastically behind their competitors. In order to assist you retain up, we’ve put together this guide to a number of the foremost common but effective tips and tricks to designing the friendliest mobile-friendly websites.

1. Make Mobile-First Approach:

With mobile website browsing having almost surpassed desktop, designers have had to maneuver far away from considering the desktop site the “main” version. This is why the mobile-first approach—designing the mobile website first before the desktop version—has been a commonly held effective practice for years now.

By centring the artistic direction round the mobile experience, designers are encouraged to reign in design decisions by virtue of the restrictions. Not only are there size constraints, mobile users often interact with one hand and input beyond tapping and swiping tends to be more cumbersome than it might be on a desktop.

As a result, mobile-first design tends to stress simplicity and simple use right from the start. Keep in mind this approach doesn’t doom desktop versions to minimalist sparsity. On the contrary, it’s easier to expand on an easy layout than to simplify a posh one.

2. Work on Recommended Size Dimensions:

On a handheld device, space can feel more limited than in the other design context. But taking size constraints into consideration at the beginning of your project is the best thanks to avoiding conflicts afterward.

Mobile screen resolutions will vary by device, but as of immediately the foremost commonly used is 360×640 (aspect ratio 9:16) consistent with research conducted by stat counter. Google Analytics can tell you which of them specific devices your users’ favour, and you ought to confirm your website design is responsive enough to accommodate variations.

When it involves font size for mobile design, a minimum of 16px is suggested for body copy. This can also vary counting on the typefaces used (based on their construction, some fonts are going to be less legible at 16px than others).

There is no standard size for headline fonts, but the goal is to determine a transparent typographical hierarchy through contrast in size, weight and elegance. But when unsure, simply test the font sizes on a mobile device for yourself.

Last but not least, button size is extremely important in mobile-friendly website design. It gives touch screens much less reliable at learning user input than a mouse and keyboard. Research showed that elderly mobile users recommend touch screen buttons between 42 and 72 px for optimal accessibility.

3. Optimize for Portrait Orientation:

Although mobile websites can technically be utilized in landscape mode with the device turned on its side. Portrait mode is overwhelmingly more common. The Blackberry popularized the two-handed mobile hold within the 2000s, but this has been a thoroughly phased call at the increase of the smartphone, with users favoring a one-handed portrait mode.

The narrowness of portrait mode is ideal for single column layouts. This style contains site elements placed sequentially from top to bottom. Although a center alignment for content tends to be common. Alternating left and right justification can create visual interest and therefore the illusion of a two-column layout. In addition, smaller elements like icons and photos are often presented during a grid, while image carousels can hack vertical scrolling with horizontal swiping.

4. Collapse Secondary Content:

Desktop websites often have space for in-depth body copy, product specs and other content. But as mobile sites require information to be to the purpose, designers must eliminate or shorten all non-essential content. This is where collapsible/expandable sections come in handy.

Collapsing content involves making explanatory information optional with an icon like a triangle or sign that expands or reveals the hidden content. While hiding your content might sound sort of a bad thing, the gains of simplified browsing strengthened by persuasive headlines far outweigh the potential for missed information. The micro-interaction of toggling is additionally yet one more invitation for the user to interact with the page as against passively reading.

5. Minimize the menu:

Navigation is another area which will quickly become difficult counting on the number of destinations and options a user is given. While desktop websites tend to possess a full header navigation bar with multiple main menus and sub menus. It’s become standard to contain all of this within the straightforward, recognizable hamburger icon. As a result, most of the mobile website headers tend to be reduced thereto icon and therefore the logo.

Depending on how complex your menu is, each menu option may contain more nested menus, or a sub menu. When the user clicks into one among these sub menus, it’s best to possess the new list of options to replace the prevailing menu so as to stay the list short.

Closure:

While the ideas during this article will offer you a baseline for practical solutions to mobile-friendly website design challenges. It takes tons of care and practice to master them. In order to urge a mobile website that’s a help and not a hindrance to your users, consider connecting with a talented website designer.

Is Your Profile Complete on Rockerstop?

Suggestions to Improve your Profile:

Freelance platforms are great in order to find freelance work, but after you register, you shouldn’t do a rush-job on your profile. believe it: you’re one of many Indian freelancers registered on various websites. If your profile is not complete, uneasy to read, or poorly laid out, then potential clients will just advance to subsequent freelancers.

The potential for locating work on an internet freelance platform like Rockerstop is way above other channels. Consequently, there’s also a much bigger pool of competition on the platform looking to hire freelancers online India. With numerous Freelancers offering freelance professional services, it’s imperative that your Profile effectively communicates your qualifications and capabilities to prospective Employers trying to seek out talent on our site.

With the most recent update on Rockerstop, we’ve redefined the content experience on Profiles to provide more information to potential Employers. You’ll convey your unique identity on your Profile and encourage Employers to attach with you.

Here are the key elements of a Profile on Rockerstop and suggestions on how you’ll best make those work to your advantage.

1. Your Profile Picture –

The first thing an approaching client will see on your Profile is your picture. Your Profile photo helps clients to acknowledge you and develop the right impression of you. When adding a picture, keep it simple and ensure you’re smiling. If you’re at your workplace, you’ll also add your brand logo.

2. Your Profile Cover Photo –

Think of the Profile cover photo as a knowledgeable banner ad promoting your freelance business. Ask yourself what you’d include if you were to advertise your services. Then create a cover ad that describes your core offering and upload it on your Profile.

3. About us –

Use the About section of your Profile to elucidate who you’re, your interests, education, qualifications, awards, certifications, and publications. This is often your opportunity to impress upon Employers that you simply possess the right experience and background for providing the services you promote.

4. Your Portfolios –

Use portfolios to authenticate your services. Portfolios indicate what quiet work you’ve finished other Employers and thus the standard of labor that you simply provide. Portfolios also assist you differentiate your service from similar services offered by other Freelancers in India on Rockerstop. So, for each skill you add, share samples of your best work by creating portfolios.

Don’t forget to review your work before adding it to your portfolio. Confirm that there aren’t any sloppy errors or typos. If you’re showing work that has been published online, share it as a PDF or similar format instead of an internet link so it can’t be changed later by a client who edits your work for his or her needs.

If you don’t have any relevant work experience (in other words, you’re a newbie freelancer), you’ll include other work you’ve done and explain how it’s relevant to your current field.

5. Your Skills –

Your services describe what you’ll offer Employers. They play an integral role in getting you hired and helping you discover jobs on Rockerstop that are best fitted to you.

Make sure your services accurately describe your abilities. When creating each service, keep the subsequent pointers in mind:

• Include the core skill/deliverable you offer within the title. Your title attracts clients to know more and click on there.

• When writing each service description, clearly describe what you’ll offer Employers.

• Describe your skills, qualifications, and knowledge within the maximum amount of detail as possible to convince prospective Employers to hire you.

• provides a minimum of three good reasons why you (and not someone else) should be hired for the work.

• Create as many services as you’d like, ensuring each is well defined and specific. This makes it easier for Employers to understand what you’re doing so well.

6. Your Website –

Remember that your profile is often quite just text. You’ll enhance your profile with a video and/or a link to a knowledgeable portfolio website, which provides you more room to display your samples, certifications, and more.

Provide a link to your website and gain the freedom to serve content in your way. Your website opens new and unlimited possibilities for convincing potential Employers because they need to rent you. You’ll also add links to your social channels (Facebook & LinkedIn) on the Profile.

A Profile with properly presented capabilities and an authenticated work clearly a winning combination for securing work. But this type of labour history takes time to make. This is not what any Freelancer from India has on their Profile on the first day. The more you’re employed on Rockerstop, the stronger your Profile becomes.

To start with, you would like to feature detailed and complete information on your Profile so that potential Employers are encouraged to connect with you.

Additional Tips –

Search Profiles of other rewarding freelancers through the Find Freelancers tool. Observe their pages and obtain inspiration. Then build your Profile that makes your unique identity.

Remember to be professional, authentic, and showcase the only of what you’ve to provide.

Rockerstop may be a web freelance marketplace that helps Freelancers India and Employers to urge work done securely, flexibly, and cost-effectively. If you are a Freelancer, you will find freelance jobs that match your skills on Rockerstop.

If you’re just stepping out, consider offering free consultations or sample products. As an example, a graphic designer could offer five free logos to urge some positive reviews and increase her portfolio.

How Freelancers from India can Improve Productivity using Tools

10 Tools used by Freelancers to Improve productivity-

One of the simplest perks of being a freelancer is flexibility. You don’t get to report back to figure on a specific time or clock in x number of hours. While this may be extremely liberating, it also comes with a risk—you are solely responsible for managing a while.

As a Indian freelancer, you’ve the facility to dictate your schedule. You’ll work whenever you see fit; be it regular business hours, early hours of the morning or late into the night. Setting your own working hours not only allows you to figure to the only of your efficiency, but also makes ample time for things like hobbies that otherwise fall by the wayside when you’re restricted to a nine-to-five schedule. Women have particularly benefited from this model as they have not got to quit their jobs because of social factors and family obligations. Forty-eight percent of women’s from India consider it a preferable career choice.

Thankfully, there are numerous productivity tools out there today to help you improve your management skill. Here are Ten kinds of productivity tools to help you manage your projects better:

1. Time Trackers Tools:

Time trackers can assist you analyse how you’re spending a while. While it does require discipline from your end to input the start and end time of a selected activity and maybe even clock in interruptions, you’ll begin to notice order over a period of time—both healthy and unhealthy ones. You’ll even be ready to estimate the time taken for a specific task more accurately, comb out time stealers and plan your days better. A number of the simplest tools for freelancers in India, in terms of their time tracking capabilities are Hub staff, Harvest, RescueTime, StayFocusd, Toggl, Timeneye.

2. Note Takers Tools:

While an honest old notepad is typically handy to jot quick notes, a note taker could find yourself to be more useful within the top of the day. As an example, if you’d wish to compute the quantity of a client you scrawled down in your notepad a year ago, chances are that you’ll never find it because you’ve trashed your old notepad.

A virtual note taker on the opposite hand usually stores old notes in trash. Some are cloud-based or have archive features that assist you retrieve old notes. These are often synced across multiple devices and you will even share notes alongside your contacts.

3. Calendars/Schedulers Tools:

Though most smartphones accompany in-built calendars or schedulers, they’re mostly underutilized. Try planning out your entire week beforehand on a calendar. You’ll be very much surprised by how some simple reminders raise your productivity. You’ll be able to set reminders for professional and personal tasks, schedule appointments and be more deliberate about slotting in time for those important but non-urgent tasks like updating your skills. A number of the simplest tools to stay in mind are Google, Calendar and Calendly.

4. Cloud Storage Tools:

Cloud storage has made it easier to store, access, share, and even collaborate on files in real-time: from anywhere within the world with an online connection. Because of these useful features, a cloud storage solution is important for freelancers India who collaborate remotely with clients and contractors from everywhere the planet

Using cloud storage tools also can function a backup storage solution, especially since hard drives are susceptible to viruses and wear. By working within the cloud, you don’t need to worry about a few sudden computer shutdowns and lost work—your work is automatically saved as you type! Best tools are Dropbox and Spinback.

5. Proposal Tools:

If your dreams include making six-figures to be a top freelancer in India , you’ll have to add “business development” to your list of everyday roles.

It’s not enough to use for available job postings or seek opportunities solely through job boards because usually, these lead sources involve more competition and lower pay. If you’re just starting out, these job opportunities are often good for building your portfolio, but when you’ve gained more experience, you shouldn’t accept low-paying jobs. Best Tools are Draftsend, Prospero, Proposify etc.

6. Finance Tools:

Whether they want to or not, freelancers need to look out of their own finances: from managing their budgets, to receiving payments (and chasing down late invoices), and handling their taxes. The best tools for freelancers make this part of the job a little easier are PayPal, Square, Mint, FreshBooks, QuickBooks and many more.

7. Invoicing assistants Tools:

Invoicing software does tons of quite granting you access to some professional templates. It can help save some time by automatically following abreast of payment with clients, calculate your tax and balance your book of accounts. Most of those solutions also can be synced together with your checking account.

8. Design Tools:

Several hired Indian freelancers who offer marketing services get dragged into graphic design—even if they create it clear that it isn’t really their strong point ! Luckily, there are many free and affordable graphic design tools for freelancers that you simply can use to supply visual content that clients will love.

list of the best tools for freelancers who do design for their clients are Canva, InVision, Behance, Adobe Creative Cloud, Affinity Designer and Photo.

9. Task and Project Managers Tools:

Depending on the scope of your work, you’ll want to use either a task or project manager. While the latter is typically used for giant projects involving multiple people, task managers are used for smaller teams and individuals. Both allow you to allocate tasks/activities, find out milestones, share boards, add comments and even perform team discussions. You can even grant different levels of access to different members supporting their roles.

While each of these tools can enhance your productivity, do remember that ultimately, they’re only ‘assistants’. As a freelancer, you continue to try to do what you’re keen on best—be your own boss. Best tools are Asana, Trello and Basecamp.

10. Writing Tools:

One of the foremost in-demand skills to do freelancing in India Online is content writing. If this is often a contract service you’d wish to offer, check in for Kaleigh Moore’s newsletter to find out from the master (or inspect the Creative Class podcast she co-hosts).

It has been found that content marketing is effective in driving conversions and purchases, which is why many websites have a gentle need for content (especially SEO-optimized content). Whether you’re doing content marketing for a client or your own brand, these are some of the best tools for freelancers like Hemingway, Yoast SEO, Grammarly, KWFinder, Evernote etc.

Kickstart your freelancing career today and use these tools to improve your productivity.

8 Ways to Build a Culture in a Remote Team

Ways How to Build a Culture in a Remote Team

Many researches have shown that working remotely has valuable effects on employee productivity, happiness and general well being.

Company culture is vital because it affects how your employees and customers perceive you—and this greatly determines how successful your business is going to be. Since remote teams are physically distanced, building a culture may be a bigger challenge, but the necessity is even greater without in-person interactions to create culture.

When an organization lives up to its core values, its culture will transform employees into advocates, enrich their well being, and confirm the corporate retains its top talent. And with the Covid-19 pandemic shifting much of the planet to performing from home overnight.

Add to this another element of the unknown—a freelance remote worker— and it seems that the bulk companies simply accept that a freelancer in India can never meld with their company’s culture. As a result, most companies tend to treat freelancers with a degree of professionalism and courtesy that’s almost impersonal. While this might help get the work done, winning the loyalty of a freelancer is like winning the loyalty of a full-time worker—they perform better, retention rates are going to be more and freelancer attrition rates will be less.

If you’ve got a foreign team, here are a couple of ways to create camaraderie and acquaint them together with your company culture:

1. Onboard your freelancers:

While several companies have a procedure to onboard full-time employees, they distribute this practice for Indian freelancers. Give freelancers a small look at your company and its culture. Convey the personality of your company and permit them to understand what the company values. Communicating your long-term visions and goals help remote workers feel a neighbourhood of a team that’s working together to understand something larger than themselves.

2. Be explicit about your work policy:

“Flexible” or “remote” work can mean various things to different people—are employees expected to be online a particular number of hours each day? Will they have to visit HQ on a daily basis? Put those specific expectations in your job descriptions, so the candidate is 100% clear about what they’re signing up for.

3. Schedule some face time:

It’s always great to place a face to the person you’re working with. Whenever feasible, schedule video meetings to debate the project. Introduce members of the team that the freelancer from India is perhaps getting to figure with via video. You’ll even ‘show them around the office.’ This provides your company an identity within the freelancer’s mind and builds how of loyalty and solidarity alongside your company. It’ll also reflect within the keenness with which they approach your projects.

4. Keep communication lines open:

If there are important events happening at your office do let your freelancers know. Perhaps you’re moving buildings or you’re refurbishing the office space. While the event in itself may make no difference to your remote workers, keeping them within the loop helps them feel valued.

5. Include them within the brainstorming process:

Most top freelancers in India are brought on board after decisions are taken. This approach could work with a replacement freelancer that you’re engaging. However, if there are regular freelancers that you simply work with, include them within the ideation process.

Many freelancers report that they miss the joys of bouncing off ideas with team mates. You’ll also invite to contribute towards regular group meetings. Technologies today support remote working and there are several group meetings tools that allow freelancers to network with the core team and with each other. Besides building rapport, this is often ready to cause valuable perspectives from specialists in various fields.

6. Appreciate them permanently work:

Most of the freelancer’s dearth a feedback system that indicates how they’re progressing in their careers. There aren’t any appraisals and promotions to recognize efforts. While companies offer year-on-year hikes—a freelancer cannot ask for this from a client with whom he/she has an ongoing relationship.

Take the primary step and supply financial incentives if you actually expect the freelancer to continue onboard. Not only will this confirm that they priorities your project over others, but they’ll feel how of loyalty which can be no but that of your full-timer.

7. Create mentorship programs:

One of the foremost important aspects of building trust and a way of belonging during a remote team helps people grow and learn from their peers. Incorporate rituals which will help everyone grow individually also as a group: discuss each person’s goal at a performance review and set a metric to live progress, host a workshop on giving feedback, or start time weekly for normal lunch and learns.

8. Prioritize health and wellness as a part of corporate culture:

When working with remote teams, it’s easy to assume that employees have a far better time of finding work-life balance. But dodging the daily commute and dealing in their slippers features a darker side.

Many remote workers feel awkward about taking leave, with 55% taking fewer than 15 vacation days annually. Overall, most remote employees find that employment disbalances their personal lives more easily, and that they have a harder time making healthy choices.

Unfortunately, your remote team can’t win championships if all its members aren’t physically fit.

That’s why you would like to form health and wellness a high priority when building corporate culture for remote teams.

Regular one-on-one health and wellness check-ins are an honest start. Take time to debate and understand employees’ challenges – some may have specific reasons to figure remotely that need sensitivity and a nuanced approach. Try to find out what resists employees from taking leave, and work toward solutions so that they can get some rest and relaxation.

7 Ways to Manage Freelancers in India Effectively

Ways to Manage Freelancers

According to the State of Remote Work 2018,1 which collected data from 1900 remote workers around the world, 35% of companies have a workforce made from remote workers. With businesses beginning to use the advantages of the gig economy to their advantage, it becomes important to find out the way to effectively manage freelancers in India.

Freelance employee management, however, employs completely different management strategies as against managing your usual full-time employees. The reason being, you’ll get to manage people you haven’t met face-to-face and manage them from a distance. Managing Indian freelancers becomes simple once you develop the proper strategy to fit your business needs.

1. Recruiting the right freelancer:

Considering that we’ve concluded that the simplest thanks to work with freelancers is to figure with reliable and trustworthy freelancers, the foremost important tread on your road to raised freelance management is ensuring you hire the proper freelancers.

Here’s where you’ll find freelancers in India, and the way you’ll confirm they’re the proper people to ascertain the work through.

Hiring freelancers in India require different tactics from recruiting full-time employees. Be sure to seem for the below factors to assist you shortlist and recruit the proper freelancer.

Reviews on their website

Previous work samples

Freelancing platforms that display freelancer’s experience levels consistent with the amount of completed projects

Social media for verification

Some of the best freelance websites allow freelancers to contact you directly by sending their CVs, work samples, and get in touch with information. Others allow freelancers to send you their bids, estimates, and project proposals, so you simply pick the only one and then decide who you want to contact.

2. Insist on signing a freelancer contract:

Managing freelancers is simpler once you have clearly outlined the scope of services expected, deliverables, and payment terms, alongside refund and cancellation policies. Go over the small print of the contract together with your freelancers to make sure of mutual clarity. Additionally, signing a non-disclosure agreement together with your remote workers will make sure that all sensitive information about your business remains confidential.

3. Provide adequate details of your company:

Briefing your gig workers about your company’s primary competitors, the key stakeholders and therefore the final approver of the projects helps establish a business context. Similar to the induction process of a full-time employee, this may help in better management of your freelancers as they’re clear about the industry also as your organization’s goals and objectives.

4. Contour the objectives of the project:

Productive management of your Indian freelancer will ultimately determine the success of your project and your organization. Therefore, it’s important that you simply list out all objectives that describe the general purpose and expectations of the project. Make sure that you hired freelancers which exactly understand project requirements, deliverables, deadlines and meeting agendas. This will prevent misunderstanding and promote smooth functioning till project completion.

5. Build a relationship with the freelancer:

Last but not least, once you’ve hired your ideal, dependable personnel, explained everything they have to understand about the project, and made it a habit to use the proper software on a day to day, you ought to build an optimal relationship with the freelancer, and confirm he or she finds you a trustworthy and reliable leader.

Show that you simply care about the freelancers’ careers – supply them with quality projects, and not just something your team simply doesn’t desire doing.

6. Work out the cost:

Successful freelance management should also include costs. It is knowing to create an annual freelance budget than to affect budgeting whenever you would like to rent someone. Work out if it’s in your best interest to pay your freelancer via a long-term contract, an hourly/weekly rate or a project-based rate supporting the scope of your project.

7. Manage without Controlling:

The whole idea of working in autonomy is the first reason why freelancers choose doing gigs rather than full-time jobs. Furthermore, freelancers might be working with multiple clients. Therefore, it’s vital that you simply don’t micromanage them but give them adequate time and space to try to do their work effectively. Trusting your workforce to efficiently complete projects, without micromanaging, also helps to create and maintain a long-term relationship with them.

While all of the above methods can assist you effectively manage your freelancers, a contract platform helps you streamline the way you manage your remote workers. From recruiting, taking onboard, and assigning projects to tracking invoices and paying your hired freelancers, a contract platform makes freelance management smarter and faster.

Now you know how to manage your freelancers. You know the way to cash in on the various freelance markets to rent skilled and dedicated laborers without all the headaches.

Closure –

Freelancers will bring prosperity to your start-up as you narrow down on overhead costs and grow your market. If freelance labour doesn’t initially sound sort of a promising route for your business, I encourage you to require a re-evaluation.

Don’t be afraid to require freelance management a step at a time. Follow the guide above, build a routine for managing freelancers in your start-up, and begin discovering what the freelance market has got to offer for your start-up.

What do Rockerstop mean by Payment Guarantee?

What is Payment Guarantee?

One of the foremost wide-spread complaints freelancers in India have is to chase down payments once a project is completed. It is awkward and embarrassing having to constantly remind someone to pay you, and you are feeling it’d be putting a strain on what might be a long-term account. Of course, with new clients you run the danger of not getting paid in the least.

If you’re reading this text, then you’re presumably one among these two sorts of people: You’ve already faced this problem of freelancer payment, or the fear of this problem is one among the items that’s keeping you from freelancing. Well, you’ve called out for change and we’ve heard you loud and clear.

If you work then you will get paid. That’s our promise to you. No terms and conditions, no take-backs. The amount you agreed to figure for will hit your checking account on the date it had been promised (Please note that the ‘promised date’ is 15 days after the end of the milestone). So, whether preparing to require an investment, let that assurance of cash come to you calm those jittery nerves.

Let us tell you how the mechanism works.

Once you and therefore the business has prescribed the worth and milestones (using Team Up), the business sends you a suggestion which you want to accept. After you’ve accepted the offer the business must onboard you and now that the project will move under the “Payment Guaranteed” window. It is only after projects are moved here that the Rockerstop Payment Guarantee comes into effect.

Any contract that’s haunted on Rockerstop comes with the Payment Guarantee and works during a similar manner to a post-dated cheque; there’s no way for a client to change his mind or attempt to delay the payment. So now you’ll stop worrying about getting paid and consider what you ought to be concentrating on. Producing masterful work.

That’s the method during a nutshell but we realize the complexities of a working relationship are never quite that straightforward. So, we’ve inbuilt a few features and safeguards to form sure that this mechanism helps augment work and not inhibit it.

While we feel that simply getting paid on time are some things that’s not negotiable, businesses also require how to form sure they get the work that they need. That’s why they give ratings to you after every project. Your rating and ranking are some things you ought to be very careful about because it not only shows on your public profile and may help swing a replacement client’s opinion of you, but it’s also directly fed into our match-making engine and your visibility takes success with every bad rating and review you receive. So, confirm that you simply keep a client happy, or it could find yourself costing you tons, quite only one payment.

Of course, while working there’s always an opportunity of unexpected turns and delays being thrown up, and you would possibly need some overtime to finish that specific milestone in your agreement. Well, that’s exactly why we inbuilt a provision for you to request that the milestone be extended. Sometimes just that tiny little bit of extra work can make a world of difference and keep you within the business’ good books.

In a perfect work scenario, you’d have accepted a suggestion from a client, with predefined milestones also because the dates those milestones are due. You do all the work, the client is happy, you get paid, rated, reviewed, and therefore the project ends. However, things don’t always work out so smoothly.

If you are feeling you’ve not done ok work and don’t want to require a negative rating and review, you’ll ask the business on team and figure out if there’s how you’ll fix it or whether or not they would really like a refund.

That decision is completely in your hands. It’s how our payment guarantee is structured to fit your needs. If you are feeling you’ve got done good work and deserve the payment, then you get paid, simple as that.

Suggestion –

One of the simplest mistakes to form is to mention, “I’ll remember,” when it involves keeping track of freelance payments. But as you extend your freelance business, you’ll have more clients and more projects that you won’t be able to keep it all in your head.

Use a spreadsheet or other finance apps to assist you retain track of your income. While there are many options which will assist you keep your books so as, tracking invoices doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need something that helps you retain track of which invoices you sent and to whom, the quantity owed, the maturity, and who has or has not paid.

Why working remotely from home is profitable for both the employee and the business.

Benefits of Working Remotely from home –

The pandemic-induced lock down which began in March 2020 was sudden and Utopian and literally brought the whole world to a standstill. The virility and mutative nature of the virus spread fear, forcing people to remain indoors. This meant the whole Indian workforce, organized and unorganized sectors alike were also placed on halt. However, like how mankind has always managed to seek out alternatives and thrive, the concept of ‘work remotely from home’ arose.

Working remotely from home or popularly mentioned as work from home is a kind of labor culture where the worker can perform his/her day-to-day work from home without having to be physically present in the office. Reports say that 90% of the Indian IT industry employees were performing from home during the lock down, out of which Tier 1 cities contributed 65% and Tier 2 cities 35%. Companies that provide work from home and other people seeking remote jobs online jumped dramatically within the past two quarters. People performing from home have found the model largely beneficial and have reportedly achieved good work-life balance. In this article, we further elucidate why working remotely from home has proven to be beneficial for both the employer and therefore the employee.

Working Remotely from Home – the perfect business model for businesses

The WFH model abbreviated as work from home has reportedly been an enormous hit for businesses especially the IT industry due to huge savings on employee expenditure without compromising on the quality and speed of the work. Listed below are a number of the points on how businesses capitalized the ‘Work from Home’ model.

1. Cutting down office space cost:

The heavy expense of running an office space is often partially or completely hamper as performing from headquarters was hip and didn’t require employees to return to the office. In fact, various companies during the lock down period gave up their office spaces temporarily as huge cost-cutting measures, until the foreseeable future when their employees would be required to return.

2. Saving travelling time for employees:

Jumping out of bed early within the morning only to urge through an hour of grueling traffic within the car, bus or crowded trains to succeed in the office was a norm in the past. Companies that provide work from home can waive off this trouble and save the travelling time and expenses for workers. This time saved can reflect more within the productivity of the day. Some offices also cover employees’ transportation expenses, which may be huge savings while employees are performing from headquarters.

3. Operational costs:

Right from paying huge electricity bills for the air-conditioning and computers; to water systems, everyday cleaning and straightforward office supplies like copy machines and stocking paper comes under operational costs that are borne by the business. Depending on the dimensions and industry of the business, the operational costs can range anywhere from thousands to lakhs on a day to day. This entire amount is often saved by companies that provide work from home.

4. No geographical barriers for hiring talent:

Normally, an individual in Amritsar wouldn’t apply for employment in Tamil Nadu or the other way around albeit he/she is perfectly qualified and suits the role requirements, for the simple reason of shifting to another city. Many people hesitate to require up jobs in another city because the cost of moving to and living in another city far away from family could be expensive logistically as well as emotionally. However, now with working remotely from home and geographical lines being blurred, companies are more hospitable hiring remote employees and Indian freelancers fitting their business domain. Due to this reason, companies providing remote jobs online increased by 200% during the lockdown.

5. Increase in productivity:

Reports have proven that folks performing from home have shown higher levels of productivity as they’re performing from the comfort of their home, saving tons of your time and having a good work-life balance. Businesses can leverage this productivity to reinforce their performance and position themselves better within the market. They can also use the quantity of cash saved from operational costs to offer incentives, send gift packages to employees to point out appreciation, thereby increasing the loyalty of the worker. Employees also are less likely to require sick leaves while working remotely from home which can end in more working days and eventually boosts productivity. It is simply a win-win!

WFH – the solution to work-life balance

Despite many losing their jobs during the pandemic, the concept of performing from home has presented a plethora of opportunities to freelancers from India and has also had an enormous positive impact on employees. Listed below are a number of the explanations why people performing from home prefer it to getting to the office.

1. Great work-life balance:

Working from the peace and luxury of your home not only sharpens you specialize in a project but also helps maintain a disciplined time period and luxuriate in quality time with family.

2. Huge money savings:

You can save an excellent deal of cash by performing from home as your expenses on petrol, transportation, tea, and snacks during breaks, eating out for lunch, spending on work clothes, etc are cut out.

In Conclusion

The pandemic has thrown open different work opportunities and options like hiring remote employees not just for business but also for people. Many of us have abandon their routine 9-5 jobs during the lockdown and are testing with different freelancing career options. A study suggests that many people have turned to freelancing and contract working because it gave them more autonomy, flexibility, and freedom to settle on the projects they work on.

Being the second largest freelance workforce within the country, approximately 15 million people are gig workers within the country. Now that the pandemic has brought down the traditional office-going culture, more and more companies in several sectors are looking to trap the freelancing talent tailored to suit their projects. However, since the gig sector is essentially unorganized, a medium to collude job-seekers and job-givers is imperative. Rockerstop is one such platform that acts as that bridge between companies seeking to hire freelancers online and gig workers finding work from home. Companies can build a project, define its specifics and post it. they will further shortlist profiles from over 65,000 freelancers who have registered and custom make contracts for them. Gain more insights, tips and trends for business also as employees from our blog on everything associated with the gig industry.

Time Management Tips Every Freelancer in India Must Know

Tips for Time Management

Not having enough time on important tasks can cause you to rush things until the deadline, which could leave space for errors. Spend less non-billable time and determine the way to dismiss or affect distractions while working.

As a freelancer, you’re essentially, your own boss. If you don’t stay top of your deadlines and keep open lines of communication alongside your clients, it can get messy really quick and even be the highest risk of your freelancing company.

Time management for freelancers is more important than for normal employees because they have nobody to account to accept themselves. If you’ve been wanting to improve your management skills, here are a few of your time management tips from freelancers themselves.

1. Create a routine:

While working in a routine could seem to run counter to a freelancer’s desire for flexibility, it can cut down plenty of stress and helps you stay productive. You don’t have a hard and fast time, you simply can follow a day , schedule your day the previous evening, prioritizing your tasks and tackling the primary item on your list at the start .

2. Track your time:

Time tracking for freelancers in India is typically something that’s overlooked, especially creatives. It is often easy to get sucked into working on one project all day until it’s done, although meaning staying up until you see the sunrise the very next day.

Use a time tracking tool like one of those mentioned above, or even use the stopwatch on your phone if you’d wish to urge on top of some time management for freelancers.

This is pertinent because then you will see if you’re actually spending an excessive amount of your time on a project that you simply simply won’t be getting a whole lot of money for. Or, if you’re simply taking too long to end a task.

3. Set yourself a deadline:

If you discover yourself getting frazzled and stressed at work because you’re not getting your tasks done on time, you’d wish to be organized and manage a while better. Although your work days are never the same , you’ll still organize your days and manage your tasks which can assist you complete everything on time—and thoroughly.

Make an inventory of your goals for the week. Write down any goal you’d wish to realize , whether it’s work-related or not. Then organize your work-related goals into large and tiny goals. Create a daily checklist so you’ll cross off the goals you’ve accomplished. A checklist will help with work management and cause you to be more productive. It’ll also feel good to cross off the goals you’ve achieved for the day, no matter how small.

3. Try Time-Blocking:

Time-blocking could also be an honest thanks to undertake managing a while as a freelancer. Each morning, sit at your desk and open up an app like Google Calendar and block out increments of your time for the various tasks that you simply need to complete every day .

Try to persist with the times that you simply assign yourself to determine what proportion you’ll truly get through in each of those time blocks. This is often the proper way to see what proportion of time a project really takes, and also helps to remain the ball rolling on all of the tasks that you simply have due.

4. Don’t Overbook Yourself:

I think every freelancer’s India goes through this a minimum of once. You think that you’ll handle much more clients than you initially thought, which can be hard to remain up with. You’ll lack sleep, your social life, and maybe you even start to hate being a freelancer.

5. Minimize distractions from social media and email:

To be honest— we’ve all been distracted by social media. It’s either the constant notifications that turn us back to scrolling through Instagram or a peek into Facebook on our laptop. And it’s getting to surprise you that even your inbox is often distracting!

Many folks are always available on our inbox, instant at replying to new emails. This way, you land up pausing your more important work to need care of a little , trivial task.

Avoid distractions by installing smart extensions like StayFocusd on your browser to keep you away from Facebook and other social media sites. You’ll get an app that blocks social media apps on your phone for specific hours. When it involves your inbox, set two timings that you simply plan to check your emails and reply to any new messages.

At last, not the least some tricks to manage some time to reach clients deadlines-

1. Awaken early – counting on whether your productive peak hours are within the morning or not, you’ll use this point to figure on the foremost important tasks for the day, or ease into the day with some exercises and fewer important errands.

2. Have breakfast before engaging in any serious work.

3. Specialise in your most vital task of the day.

4. Leave your less productive hours for running errands, that specialize in smaller assignments, communicating with clients, managing your inbox.

5. Choose the time when you’ll officially finish your work day – you’ll follow a routine from 9 a.m.to 5 p.m., but considering you’re not bound by such rules, you’ll parse your day differently and be more flexible.