Business Analysts mostly analyze the business parameters of organizations. As a Business Analyst, you will hold an important say in the effectiveness of business initiatives. Credit may be the only elasticity commerce offers, but business jobs are often rigid when it comes to the work style, pun not intended. The issue here is how to turn freelance fulltime and make similar kinds of money that you make at the office.
To say that there is a dearth of money in a financial analyst’s life would constitute a contradiction. However, the important thing to note is that by money, we mean money in the bank. Some of you work for recognized organizations and sometimes take up other projects by the side. Some others like you freelance fulltime and still manage to make enough money than your corporate counterparts. The latter group’s numbers continue to rise, as the opportunities and attractive pay scales offer a more viable and lucrative option to office work. Business analysis is one of the top-paying freelance jobs in the market today.
Freelance Business Analyst Job Duties
As a Freelance Business analyst, you will analyze products, services and create reports on competitors. Business analysts collate and regulate data. They analyze the organization’s growth and offer insights into how to better business. In fact, you would be required to perform many roles as a business analyst, and though most of them would be interesting; there are obvious run-of-the-mill tasks that you would need to fill in for, tasks that may not have you jumping out of your seat.
To elucidate, a business analyst should be able to:
- Assist with the business case.
- Plan, execute and monitor strategies
- Elicit requirements and increase awareness
- Organize requirements
- Understand and succinctly present requirements.
- Manage requirements and communication.
- Requirements analysis
- Review test cases, process change requests, and manage a project’s scope, acceptance, installation, and deployment.
Freelance Business Analyst Skills
There are certain skills that you must develop and hone to be successful in the field. Let’s have a look at some of these skills.
- Communication skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Documentation and Specification skills
- Visual Modelling skills
- Facilitation and Elicitation skills
- Technical skills
- Relationship building skills
- Self-management skills
You can learn new skills and sharpen existing ones, through many resources like experts, Analyst Coach, Watermark Learning and Universal Class.
Freelance Business Analyst Career Opportunities
A business analyst must be well versed and well qualified to be successful. In the world of freelance work, you need some additional skills to ensure success, as it will be your work and the recognition you have which may well determine your success and failure. Thus, it is important to take certain steps, as:
- Be sociable
- Build up recommendations
- Advertise your services on social media platforms
- Network with people, leverage your network to find work
- Be able to develop a good working relationship with employers
- Be good at what you do
- Have good interpersonal skills
- Being an algorithmic, analytical thinker
Freelance Business Analyst Pay Scale
How much money can you earn as a financial analyst who freelances full time? Financial analysis is a well-paid and respected job option. It is also a decent freelance option and is possibly one of the top-paying freelance jobs.
Usually, freelance portals offer two generic kinds of payment models to freelancers. Fixed-price, where the price is usually pre-determined and a budget is sanctioned which you can bid for, and the hourly payment model where the employer decides on hourly pay. Usually, a fixed price model may range from $50-1000 upwards, while you have to pitch for hourly projects, which usually range from $15-40 an hour, with average payments at $30 per hour. (1)
Finding Work
Finding work as a freelance business analyst is possibly unheard of and scoffed at by conservatives. However, the new-age BA must be able to leverage his network to get the best possible option. There are many portals where you can look for work and it is a reasonably well-paid job with thousands of opportunities for prospective analysts like you.
Peopleperhour, Odesk, Elance, and Freelancer offers many job opportunities for freelance BAs, both locally and internationally.
