These former freelancers struck gold on their own. Now they want to help others get there

Pakistan has a thriving and vibrant freelance community. Online marketplace Freelancer.com estimates that there are approximately 240,000 users on their portal hailing from the country, making Pakistan its third-largest user base after the United States and India. The trend is maintained when analyzing all freelance marketplaces, including the likes of Elance, oDesk, and Guru. These statistics indicate that there is a steady stream of qualified talent in the country, able to compete with people from across the world, and win contracts from a variety of fields such as web design, blogging, and software development.

The potential that freelancing offers for increasing labor force participation as well as urban socioeconomic progress has also been recognized by the World Bank. The international development agency is looking to promote this sector and has partnered with organizations such as the Women’s Digital League and Empower Pakistan to bring more awareness to the opportunities offered in the online realm as well as to help leverage technology for income generation. The upcoming Digital Youth Summit, co-hosted by the World Bank, is also part of an initiative to explore the potential of e-lancing.

For Salma Jafri, the meteoric growth of the freelancing community comes as no surprise. “Pakistanis are determined, have a strong work ethic, and diverse skill sets. These are critical requirements for employers,” she tells Tech in Asia

Jafri – a highly successful freelancer in her own right – is also trying to give something back to the community by helping a new wave of entrepreneurs in establishing themselves. She teaches an online course on Udemy where she instructs freelancers on how to better market and position themselves to appeal to a wider segment of employers. Around 650 students have signed up for her current batch.

While Jafri is confident that the Pakistani freelancing community is likely to continue its steady growth rate, the one area where she feels that they can improve is their marketing skills. If freelancers learn how to better project themselves to an international audience, then they could easily win more lucrative projects, a need which she aims to address.

Jafri’s belief in the power of leveraging freelancing to discover your true potential is mirrored in her own story. After graduating from a business school in Karachi with a degree in marketing, she took up a job with Deloitte & Touche as a consultant. Her next venture was with a software development company, and later, as a content manager for an e-learning firm based in the US. “I formed a confluence of interests due to my exposure in marketing, technology, and the online ecosphere, compelling me to explore this space further,” she adds.

Switching to be an online entrepreneur

After Jafri had a baby in 2007, she realized that she could no longer do a traditional 9-to-5 job. Coupled with her desire to do something different, and not “follow the herd,” she delved into the world of online marketing. It gave her the opportunity to work from home, have flexible hours, and only accept projects that she was interested in. Initially, she bid for projects on Elance in fields such as marketing, writing, sales, and video tutorials. Her breakthrough moment came when she won a Elance-sponsored competition, which put her in direct contact with CEO Fabio Rosati. “Lots of doors opened for me after that,” she says.

Rosati offered her the opportunity to work as an evangelist on behalf of Elance – concentrating specifically on Pakistan. The company also used Jafri’s video tutorials as part of their own repository of information for freelancers – giving her immense publicity and establishing her as a thought leader.

While ordinarily such developments would have encouraged people to continue freelancing and bidding for more lucrative projects, Jafri had higher aspirations. “If I could do it for them, why couldn’t I do it for myself?” she says. Sensing an opportunity to start her own consulting services, Jafri dived straight in.

Salma Jafri