Society and our working life is changing faster and faster and for more and more people it is important that they are able to earn their living independently. In this video I explain how I did it in the past and how you can do the same. Hi, my name is Melchior from Kontist Steuerberatung and I usually publish videos on this channel about taxes, accounting and finance for the self-employed.
The whole series of videos that will be released in the next few days is an exception. We also work with Ukrainian freelancers, so war is very present. This also makes me realise how difficult it is for some people to find new clients online and make money online as a freelancer, even if you actually have the perfect freelance job. So you don't have to worry now, I'm not going to be the next online guru who will explain to you how you can quickly and easily get rich online without working. I won't explain that. But in this video I want to show you what I've been up to for the last ten years. I have also been self-employed for over ten years and have earned my living on freelance platforms for a number of years. I just want to show you how I did it and how you can do it yourself. My goal with this video is to reach as many freelancers as possible, ideally also Ukrainian freelancers who had to leave their homeland, to show them how to acquire customers in Germany and Europe and what is important for them when they work here as self-employed people.
So that I can really reach a lot of people, these videos are also available in English and Ukrainian. You will find links to the respective videos below in the video description. Basically, we can see that the type of work, i.e. how we work, has changed significantly in recent years. It started with the Covid-19 pandemic, when we realised that offices weren't that important anymore. Maybe the company I work for isn't that important anymore and is somehow interchangeable if I'm always at home on my laptop anyway. In the invasion of Ukraine, it is now the case that many millions of people have had to leave their homes including people who are used to simply earning a living with their laptop and smartphone.
It is now becoming clear that the country I live in is perhaps not so important, that it is possible to earn money online, regardless of the office, company and country. If you have the right skills, you can also do it online for your customers. And that's exactly what we want to take a closer look at in this video series. If you can master skills that are in demand by companies online and that you can practice online on a laptop or computer, you have one thing – and that is freedom. Then you can work from anywhere in the world and earn your living from anywhere in the world.
I did it myself for many years and also earned my living exclusively through freelancer platforms for a few years. And I would be happy to show you my Upwork profile here. I made over 50,000 € in sales in just a year with this profile and was able to earn a living. I'd be happy to put a link to the profile below in the video description for you. Check out the profile and if you think I got a few points right, feel free to take whatever you want as a template and use it yourself. But what is important at this point is that I really did it and in this video or in the next videos I will really show you knowledge that has been tried and tested in practice and will show you one-on-one how I did it myself. This means that I'm not going to give you huge false promises and I won't tell you anything that I've read somewhere, where I've watched videos or what companies tell you in their advertising promises, but I'll really show you how I did it with 100 % transparency.
And you are welcome to use everything I show you in this video for yourself. Now you might be wondering what these skills are. So what skills are actually in demand online and what skills can you use to earn a living online? Honestly, it's all the things you can do online with your laptop. If you are a programmer or designer or have a clue about social media marketing, content marketing or copywriting, or if you can advise companies in general or would like to work as a virtual assistant, these are all jobs where you will always find customers online and with which you will be able to almost immediately get started.
It is important at this point, of course, that this list is not exhaustive. Basically everything that can be done online can be done online. A very common question I get is how much money can you make on the internet. The question makes just as much sense as asking how much I can earn offline. In the end, self-employment, where you work online and acquire customers, isn't really any different than an activity that you do offline on-site, only that your sales channels and your type of work are different.
Just as on-site work has large fluctuations in income, this is of course also the case with online work. When I look at freelance platforms, I find hourly rates ranging from 2 € to 500 € and both groups also find their clients if the clients feel it is worth the work. So you don't have to worry about whether you can earn enough to cover your living expenses. You can definitely make enough money online. I personally made around 4,000 € per month. Sometimes it was maybe 2,000 €, then it was 8,000 €. On average, however, I was able to earn around 4,000 € a month online for several years, but I rarely worked 40 hours a week to do so. That means you too should be able to make a living online.
I hope that I could help you a bit with this little introductory video. Of course, this is just the first small step in a whole series of videos. So you can expect some more videos on the whole topic in the next few days. And we will go through the whole process step-by-step together. If you already have questions about “freelancing on platforms”, please write us a comment. Then we can possibly go into it in the next videos. Basically, we always publish videos on this channel on the subject of finance, accounting and taxes for the self-employed in Germany. So if the topic is relevant to you, please subscribe to the channel. At this point I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that we have also built a website on which we have links to a great deal of information. You can find the link to it in the video description below.
I have also put a link to our Telegram group. Feel free to come in if you need feedback for your profile on freelance platforms, for example, or if you have any questions about your cover letter. And then you will find help in this group. Otherwise you can now find a link to the English and the Ukrainian video here again..
