The Freelance Life, part of Gigabites, is a series of short interviews with top Rafiki freelancers in Africa. We recently caught up with Dan Lun, Rafki's Senior Frontend Developer, to hear about his journey into freelancing, favourite plugins or freelance tools, and any freelance trends he's noticing in 2024.
Why did you decide to become a freelancer?
Independence and autonomy are high on my values list. I wanted the flexibility of being part of my family life and working on my own terms. If I have an idea I want to explore it. Freelancing helps me to achieve a lot of that. With my son being born less than 2 months ago, I’m even more grateful that I’m a freelancer.
What’s been the hardest part of freelancing, or something you’ve found really difficult?
Learning how to say no, whether it’s more work or shiny objects. A close second is learning how to sell.
What’s currently your favourite plugin or tool? Why?
Relume - Since using Relume, the speed of my workflow and Webflow builds have increase by multiples. A total game changer to my business.
What’s a trend you’re seeing amongst other freelancers, or a prediction for the year?
Freelancers are replacing VC funding. More and more startups are bootstrapped, and are turning to freelancers to make that happen. People are starting to realise the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing to freelancers vs. hiring full-time employees.
We believe the killer-teams of tomorrow will integrate in-house talent with fractional freelancers on a granular, skill-specific basis, empowering companies to move quickly, efficiently scaling resources up or down as and when required to drive growth. Our goal is to streamline the use of time, money, and human capital across the freelance economy.
Our flexible approach to working with teams by integrating fractional talent into in-house teams, or building from the ground up, saves time, money, and derisks operations substantially. Brand design, custom Webflow development, and growth marketing specialists.
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