Naman Sarawagi

Naman is the founder of Refrens. As a freelancer, he discovered various problems in the ecosystem, right from invoices and payments to networking and finding new clients. He shares insights of the freelance industry.

Should You Use ChatGPT as a Freelance Writer?

Since OpenAI launched the beta version of ChatGPT in November 2022, people have been talking about it. With the proper prompt, the AI chatbot provides seemingly credible responses to almost any query. Many businesses rushed to leverage the tool, but it hasn’t always panned out. Closer inspection would reveal inaccuracies, sometimes downright inventions. While OpenAI …

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How To Add New Users, Manage Roles, And Control Access Levels?

Refrens become significantly more effective when your accountant, sales team, and all team members use the same account. This unified approach streamlines collaboration, allowing for efficient tracking of team activities. It also greatly reduces the time spent manually sharing documents and reports among the team members. (Businesses incorporating their accountants into their Refrens usage have …

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Freelancers: 5 Pros to Hire an Accountant

Here’s a question: Would 2018 you believe it if someone told you that working from home completely, hybrid work, or transitioning to freelancing is the norm come 2019? Probably not, because traditional employment methods have conditioned us to believe that working in the office is the only way to be productive, right? Freelancing, in particular, …

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Are Freelancers Happier Or Is The Grass Just Greener – A Study

The late great Dostoevsky once wrote: “If one wanted to crush and destroy a person entirely, all one would have to do would be to make them do work that was completely devoid of usefulness and meaning”. This search for meaning and happiness – isn’t what we all seek? Don’t we universally aspire to be …

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Outsourced CFO Services Vs. In-House CFO: Which is Best for Your Business?

As your small business grows, financing and accounting capabilities stretch to meet the growing demands. This increases the frequency of financial errors, omissions, and inconsistencies, which point to the need for experienced financial leadership, specifically hiring or replacing your CFO. The Chief Financial Officer steers your business’s finances. They are responsible for all financial records …

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The Future Of Work: Hybrid Workplace Model

As technology keeps shaping our lives and redefining how we communicate and collaborate, the way we work is undergoing a transformative shift. Professionals no longer want traditional office settings, as a new approach has emerged—the hybrid workplace model. It combines the best of both remote work and in-person collaboration and paves the way for a …

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Designing Your Narrative: Portfolio Inspiration From Top Professionals

Whether you’re an established professional or just starting out on your career path, having an exceptional portfolio is essential. A portfolio serves as a powerful tool to showcase your talents, skills, experiences, and unique vision to potential clients, employers, or collaborators. It’s not just about displaying your best work; it’s about telling your story, conveying …

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A Freelancer’s Guide To Increasing Rates – Succeed Or Perish

Every entrepreneur dreams of earning more money, whether they own a business or work as a freelancer. But if you’re already an experienced professional, raising your rates can be challenging. It requires skillful negotiation, good communication, and the right timing. If you are looking for a comprehensive strategy to increase rates as a freelancer, this guide …

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Hiring In-House vs. Freelancer Or Agency Engagement – Making The Best Choice

In an ideal scenario, your workforce comprises a dedicated team of in-house professionals who are fully invested in realizing your vision flawlessly. However, in the practical world, you often find yourself in the constant balancing act of determining what tasks and responsibilities can be effectively outsourced and to whom they should be entrusted. When it …

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A Beginner’s Guide on How to Become a Web Designer

The digital world has swept us off our feet, and websites have become our primary interface with this realm. They have transformed into essential platforms for businesses, educational institutions, and even individuals. This has exponentially expanded the need for talented web designers. You might be thinking, “How do I become a web designer?” This is …

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How To Excel At Self-Promotion As A Freelancer?

In a world full of self-promotion gurus and marketing experts, how do you, a freelancer, stand out? Fear not, our friend! We’ve got the inside scoop on mastering self-promotion techniques in business meetings. Also since, these meetings serve as a gateway to potential projects.  We understand the challenge of finding the right balance between promoting …

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Why You Should Conduct A Shopify Exit Survey

As an ecommerce business owner, you will agree that it is a mandate to continuously improve your Shopify store’s performance.  From increasing sales to improving customer satisfaction, there are many factors that contribute to the success of your business. Here, one key factor that you may be overlooking is the exit survey. What Is A …

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Outsourcing Nightmares: 3 Problems Freelancers and Agencies Should Avoid

Gone are the days of being limited by geography or time zones. Now, businesses can collaborate with freelancers and agencies from different countries and time zones, allowing them to work around the clock. Whether it’s reducing costs, accessing specialized skills, or improving efficiency, outsourcing can be the magic lamp that unlocks a business’s full potential! …

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How To Become A UI Designer – A Beginner’s Guide 

Have you ever stumbled upon a website or an app that left you so content that you felt compelled to use it repeatedly, even without a specific purpose or intention? In a world with countless websites, apps, and online platforms, it can be challenging to maintain users’ interest and engagement on your platform. Businesses often …

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Basic Finance Terms Every Small Business Owner Should Know

Hey, fellow freelancers! It’s time to get your vocabulary game on point! However, let’s be honest, even the most seasoned of us can feel a bit bamboozled by those financial terms. Don’t fret though, in this article, we’ll tackle them together and spend some time comprehending each of those terms! What are Financial Terms?  Finance …

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How Much Should I Charge As A Freelance Writer?

Listen up, future entrepreneurs and career climbers! If you’re gearing up to start a new gig, there are plenty of factors to mull over. But don’t forget about the most crucial one: setting a price that won’t scare off your clients. And if you’re planning on freelancing, pay extra attention, because that market’s about to …

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Micromarketing Unpacked: What it Means, How it Works, and Real-World Cases

“Marketing that actually works shouldn’t require a PhD in astrophysics! – according to Allen Gannett.  However, nowadays it feels like a cosmic challenge with newfangled tech, fickle customers, and diverse demographics. This forces companies to step up their game and experiment with fresh and funky approaches to snag customers’ interest.  Traditional marketing still has its …

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The Ultimate Guide to Effective Guest Blogging in 2023

If you’ve only recently added guest blogging as a content marketing strategy for your website, you’re entering the most competitive search engine market ever. Guest blogging can make a huge difference to a website’s search engine rankings.  Your business won’t get on page 1 of Google if you just put 500 words on your site …

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5 Practical Ways To Deal With Unhappy Clients

“Satisfied customers are the most valuable form of promotion that cannot be purchased with money!” However, not all freelance clients are always satisfied with your services. As a freelancer, you may have faced instances where you had to handle disgruntled clients, which can be a difficult and nerve-wracking situation. But it also presents a chance …

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The Ultimate Guide on How to Hire a Shopify Developer?

Not certain on how to locate the appropriate Shopify developer for your project? This guide will provide you with the necessary information. In recent years, every company selling tangible goods is expected to also operate an online store as part of their overall growth strategy and to have a strong digital presence. But, starting an …

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7 Tips For Juggling Multiple Freelance Clients/Projects

We’ve been playing with AI-powered text generators, and we’ve been amazed-both by what they can do and what they can’t. Unfortunately, for now, it can’t help us deal with clients. But, well, is that time too far? We hope not! Being able to handle multiple clients as a freelancer is a dream come true. It …

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How To Receive International Payments As A Freelancer – A Tax Guide

As a freelancer, the bullseye hit is often getting that first client, and for some it is closing a deal with an international client. Freelancers often find that while starting out is simple, as they begin to earn income, things become complicated due to the added responsibilities of tracking and filing taxes, especially if they’re …

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6 Reasons Why Clients Don’t Pay On Time And How To Deal With It

As a freelancer or small business owner, one of the most frustrating experiences can be clients not paying on time. Late payments can cause cash flow problems and put a strain on your business, and it can be challenging to know why clients are not paying as agreed.  However, by understanding the common reasons why …

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Front-end Developer Portfolio Examples From Top Developers

Are you tired of applying for projects, and freelance positions & face a wall of recurrent rejections?  Here’s what you might be doing wrong!  Lack of Attachments!  Yes! You read that right. Every freelance posting has mentions of certain attachments. These can be resumes, cover letters, and portfolios. These explain to the employers why and …

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5 Digital Marketing Skills You Must Have – 2023

Did you know that 95% of consumers read online reviews before buying a product? The need of the hour is to go phygital. More and more businesses are leveraging online presence to establish good brand credibility. However, maintaining an effective digital marketing presence can be difficult – especially if you don’t have the time or …

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8 Reasons Why Having a Refrens Profile is Better than Having a Website

For any business of any size or sector, it is important to have an online presence. And the popular way is having a website. But what most people forget is, a website is just the first step.  To get more leads, your website needs to rank higher on Google. And for that, you need to …

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9 Unique Design Portfolio With Examples

Are you a Graphic Design freelancer? Is getting clients a serious headache for you? Is representing your work the most overwhelming task for you? For freelancers, struggling to get clients is an everyday riot! While there can be strenuous challenges to crack the deal with the first freelance client, onboarding successive clients are equally tough! …

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4 Most Profitable Niche In Graphic Designing

People thought freelancers were less capable than full-time workers for a long time. But those days are quickly changing as more freelancers are becoming evident. One of the many popular niches is graphic design, logo design, brand packaging, brochures, flyers, and many more! Even though the pandemic has caused a lot of emotional and financial …

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The Ultimate Guide: How to Become An SEO Freelancer In 10 Steps

An SEO freelancer is a specialist whose goal is to optimize a website to ensure it brings organic traffic with the help of search engines. Becoming a freelance specialist may cause some stress and lead to many questions. Whether you’ve worked on the team and want to switch to the SEO freelancing business or do …

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4 Easy Ways To Handle Stress At Work

Staying productive and managing stress as a professional takes solid intend and careful self-examination. It is very easy to get lost otherwise! From making the most of your peak energy hours to knowing where to focus your time to strike a work-life balance that’s just right, you’ve got your work cut out for you.  But all …

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High Paying & Most In Demand Freelance Jobs For 2024

It is generally accepted that by the time journalists publish a “hot news” cover story, its novelty has already touched the skies in the real world. A good example? Freelancing. According to Statista, the number of freelancers in the United States was 57.3 million in 2017, which rose to a whopping 70.4 million in 2022 …

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How To Get International Clients As A Freelancer

You want to invest in your creative skill. You want to better your professional touch but sometimes a full-time job can become a bottle-neck to your growth. The reasons here can be diverse – work pressure, insufficient pay, lack of challenges, poor work culture, and so forth! That’s where freelancing comes into the picture. It …

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Beginners Guide: For Successful Freelance Career

For many people, a freelance career seems like a dream job. It’s flexible, allows for creativity and there is no office drama involved! It also comes with some serious perks, including more freedom and control over your life! However, it can be difficult to break into this type of work so get tips from this …

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3 Must-Have Software Tools To Run your Freelance or Agency Business Efficiently

The main reason why people start freelancing or an agency is independence. But this independence means that you have to manage everything on your own, whether it’s about establishing your online presence, finding new clients, keeping track of all your leads, managing existing clients, collecting payments on time, handling accounting & bookkeeping, or keeping up …

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15 Freelance Tools to Increase Your Productivity

As a freelancer, you wear many hats. Not only are you responsible for finding and pitching clients, but you also have to handle the nitty-gritty details of running your business. That includes everything from creating invoices and bookkeeping to marketing and sales. And if you’re not careful, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.  So, to make …

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Freelancing Vs Self Employment: A Detailed Comparison

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” -Jim Rohn.  People often use the term freelancing and self-employed interchangeably. However, both are entirely different concepts of working. The only similarity between these two is- Freedom to work on your own terms.  Nevertheless, distinguishing between freelancing and …

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19 Best Tools For Graphic Designers

Brands of all types and sizes need a graphic designer who can translate their thoughts & textual context to visual content. According to a recent survey, more than 80% of digital marketers use visual media when creating social media marketing solutions. This is because visual assets used in social media posts bring in 650% higher …

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Freelancers: 8 Tips For Choosing The Best Payment Gateway

If you’re a freelance writer, designer, or developer, you’re likely looking for a payment gateway to help you accept payments from your clients, be they national or International. These payment platforms help you receive money safely and efficiently, without having to set up your own storefronts and merchant accounts, which can be time-consuming and expensive.  …

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Ultimate Guide To Becoming A Freelance Web Developer

Are you seeking to enter the fiercely competitive industry of freelance web developing? You’re at the right spot. One legit way to make money with coding is through freelancing, but for most beginners, knowing where to begin can be intimidating and daunting. So, how do you start a freelance web development business? We’ll take you …

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Freelancer’s Guide To Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using someone’s words in your content without consent. It is an intellectual theft of someone’s thoughts, even if the law treats it as illegal and unethical.  Even though you may believe you understand plagiarism and wouldn’t engage in it, it might sometimes be so subtle to even notice. Knowing what plagiarism is by …

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8 Invoicing Tips For E-Commerce Businesses

E-commerce businesses are flourishing like never before as more and more people are getting accustomed to online shopping mode.  Approximately there are 12 million – 24 million eCommerce websites across the globe!  (Well, that’s an enormous number!)  As an e-commerce business owner, you already know the significance of the invoice you send across to your …

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