Freelancing and side hustles are becoming increasingly popular as workers look to stay remote and earn higher income. (Symbolic image) Shutterstock / Artie Medvedev
Jacqueline DeStefano-Tangorra left her corporate job to strike out on her own and build her own technology company.
DeStefano-Tangorra used AI, including ChatGPT, to streamline her work and grow her business.
She advises freelancers to leverage their transferable skills and embrace new technologies.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor.
Jacqueline DeStefano-Tangorra worked as an auditor at PwC. Then she started her own business and a few years later the 30-year-old became CEO of her own company. When the pandemic hit, DeStefano-Tangorra joined the freelance platform Upwork and pursued technology and data analytics projects there. In 2021, as her client base grew, she founded Omni Business Intelligence Solutions. Soon after, she quit her job at the company. This allowed her to work full-time with clients on their data and intelligence strategy.
“I always knew I wanted to do something where I either had my own business or was in a leadership position,” she told Business Insider. “When my business started to take off on the Upwork platform, I decided it should no longer be a side hustle,” she adds. In the three and a half years that OBIS has been operating, the company has recorded 131 new contracts and almost $470,000 in revenue on Upwork. This emerges from documents reviewed by Business Insider. DeStefano-Tangorra also makes money from clients outside of the freelancing platform, but declined to disclose that income. Side hustles and freelancing have gained traction since the pandemic.
More and more people are looking for ways to work outside of the traditional 9-to-5 job and earn a higher income. Last year, there were 64 million Americans who earned all or part of their income from freelance work. That makes up 38 percent of the U.S. workforce, according to Upwork data. That’s up from two percent in 2020. For other professionals thinking about a career change, DeStefano-Tangorra advises leaning into freelance work and new technologies.
Identify your transferable skills
DeStefano-Tangorra said her background in accounting transfers well to her new career in data analysis. She already had the skills that helped her build her OBIS portfolio – analyzing data and developing insights. “I was always looking for anomalies,” she says of her previous career at PwC. “My mind was trained for this,” she adds. She advises other freelancers to think about what industry knowledge they already have. Additionally, you should consider how you could transfer these skills into a part-time job or a full-time job. By leaning on skills she already knew well, DeStefano-Tangorra gained the momentum she needed to succeed in freelancing. Career changes can be daunting, she said, so it’s important to choose a field you already have an interest in.
Use technology to your advantage
Building a business in the technology industry brought DeStefano-Tangorra to the forefront of tools like ChatGPT. And experience with generative AI has given OBIS a competitive advantage, she says. New technologies have the potential to disrupt businesses and the job market, but DeStefano-Tangorra said they can also lead to opportunities for entrepreneurs. “My mindset is, ‘How can we make this work for us?'” she said. DeStefano-Tangorra said she “wears so many hats” as a founder and that leveraging technology has helped her grow her business. She has already used AI to organize complex data, write blog posts, and market her business. “I don’t just do one thing for one company,” she says. “I am a salesperson, marketer, accountant and technology consultant.”
Build your network
DeStefano-Tangorra said she initially valued profile growth and positive customer reviews on Upwork more than money. As she started taking on more clients, her income naturally grew. Freelancing in technology and artificial intelligence should not only produce high-quality work, but also be open to how the field evolves, she said. She has taken advantage of opportunities to attend and speak at events and is constantly learning how her industry is changing, she says. “Build a network of people and resources that you can lean on and keep you informed,” she said. “If you’re in the tech industry – especially now – the pace of change is so fast that it takes everything you have to keep up with it,” she adds.
Have you left your traditional 9-to-5 job for a part-time job or freelance work? Are you ready to share how you make and spend your money? Turn and us.
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