As creatives ourselves, we know it's not always easy to make a living from creative work. Although there are tons of websites for freelancers out there, none of them are designed specifically for creatives. No offence to existing freelancing platforms, but we simply felt they weren’t understanding the complexity of a creative practice, nor the love we creatives have for what we do.
So we designed a platform dedicated to creative freelancing, to make it easier and more profitable. The need for a dedicated creative freelance platform adapted to the creative process is obvious, as we freelancers spend a stupid amount of time on repetitive admin tasks instead of truly focusing on our creative practices.
We'll send you jobs that match your freelancing profile and preferences
Before we even start talking about managing your admin, you need to find jobs. And finding clients can be frustrating to say the least. So we created SSSHAKE to automatically match you with all freelance jobs you have the right expertise for: just fill in the creative services you can offer, and receive relevant freelance job opportunities straight to your inbox. Our project matching system works by combining your roles, creative services and location to provide you with relevant opportunities to your specific freelance practice. As you receive opportunities, you'll be able to decide on a case by case basis which ones you want to apply to. Every brief will have been manually approved before you receive it, to ensure that it's thorough and fair. But we're constantly working hard to make this matching process more precise, so you only receive the opportunities that are right for you - and it's thanks to your help and feedback that we'll continue to improve and refine our matching system, so please do let us know if you feel you've received an opportunity that doesn't seem right!
We know creatives wear many hats
We aren’t LinkedIn and we'll never ask you to put yourself in a box. Creativity flows when unrestricted and we want to encourage you to develop cross-disciplinary skills. You can add as many roles and creative services to your profile as you wish, and they're all user-generated, because it's important for us to allow you to define your practice as you see fit. You can learn more about roles and creative services, here.
No need to upload your portfolio to yet another platform
With SSSHAKE, you don’t need to upload your portfolio to your profile: just add links to your existing one(s). We're sure you've had enough of uploading your portfolio to yet another online platform, so instead, in every application to a freelance opportunity, we'll ask you to add up to three relevant portfolio examples that relate to the brief, to show the client how you might interpret their needs. Your portfolio links, saved to your SSSHAKE profile, are automatically added to your application details. It means that you never have to worry about keeping your SSSHAKE profile up-to-date, just your existing portfolio! If you don’t have a portfolio, check out this article where we listed some free website builders where you can host it.
We're all human at the end of the day
Working well with someone often depends, not only on their expertise, but also on getting along with them personally, so we wanted to add a more personal touch to your SSSHAKE profile. You can answer different personality questions, like what your dream collaboration would be, to add your own twist to your profile. It's not mandatory, but we encourage you to choose questions that you feel would give your prospective clients and fellow SSSHAKE members a better understanding of you, your creative aspirations, and inspirations!
It’s not just about business
Collaboration is part of our DNA, and we believe it's important for creatives to work with other creatives on projects in order to learn from each other, expand their skills, and develop their practices. Our very first event was all about networking to foster unexpected collaborations, and so was our first app. So, it was only natural for us to include and encourage collaboration on our new platform by allowing creatives to ask for help from other creatives, as long as the project in question has no direct commercial intent. We'll do our best to only approve unpaid collaboration briefs that follow our house rules, but please do get in touch if you feel a collaboration opportunity you receive doesn't follow these guidelines.
As we provide both paid freelance job opportunities, as well as collaboration requests, you have the choice to opt-out from receiving specific kinds of opportunities, to give you the flexibility to focus on your goals. You can opt back in at any time, as your practice changes.
You can find more info about how our platform woks here.
What’s next?
Through our experience freelancing in the creative industries, we came to the conclusion that while freelancing has so many benefits, in terms of freedom and flexibility, it's genuinely a complicated and intricate process. Not only do you have to focus on your creative practice, but you also have to be your own manager. And being your own manager is tiring and time-consuming. You end up having to take care of a whole range of tasks that have nothing to do with your art - from finance, to CRM, and more.
We are working hard to release new features that include contracts, invoicing, account management and much more. Keep an eye out for that, and if you want to become a beta tester, get in touch!
As creatives ourselves, we know it's not always easy to make a living from creative work. Although there are tons of websites for freelancers out there, none of them are designed specifically for creatives. No offence to existing freelancing platforms, but we simply felt they weren’t understanding the complexity of a creative practice, nor the love we creatives have for what we do.
So we designed a platform dedicated to creative freelancing, to make it easier and more profitable. The need for a dedicated creative freelance platform adapted to the creative process is obvious, as we freelancers spend a stupid amount of time on repetitive admin tasks instead of truly focusing on our creative practices.
We'll send you jobs that match your freelancing profile and preferences
Before we even start talking about managing your admin, you need to find jobs. And finding clients can be frustrating to say the least. So we created SSSHAKE to automatically match you with all freelance jobs you have the right expertise for: just fill in the creative services you can offer, and receive relevant freelance job opportunities straight to your inbox. Our project matching system works by combining your roles, creative services and location to provide you with relevant opportunities to your specific freelance practice. As you receive opportunities, you'll be able to decide on a case by case basis which ones you want to apply to. Every brief will have been manually approved before you receive it, to ensure that it's thorough and fair. But we're constantly working hard to make this matching process more precise, so you only receive the opportunities that are right for you - and it's thanks to your help and feedback that we'll continue to improve and refine our matching system, so please do let us know if you feel you've received an opportunity that doesn't seem right!
We know creatives wear many hats
We aren’t LinkedIn and we'll never ask you to put yourself in a box. Creativity flows when unrestricted and we want to encourage you to develop cross-disciplinary skills. You can add as many roles and creative services to your profile as you wish, and they're all user-generated, because it's important for us to allow you to define your practice as you see fit. You can learn more about roles and creative services, here.
No need to upload your portfolio to yet another platform
With SSSHAKE, you don’t need to upload your portfolio to your profile: just add links to your existing one(s). We're sure you've had enough of uploading your portfolio to yet another online platform, so instead, in every application to a freelance opportunity, we'll ask you to add up to three relevant portfolio examples that relate to the brief, to show the client how you might interpret their needs. Your portfolio links, saved to your SSSHAKE profile, are automatically added to your application details. It means that you never have to worry about keeping your SSSHAKE profile up-to-date, just your existing portfolio! If you don’t have a portfolio, check out this article where we listed some free website builders where you can host it.
We're all human at the end of the day
Working well with someone often depends, not only on their expertise, but also on getting along with them personally, so we wanted to add a more personal touch to your SSSHAKE profile. You can answer different personality questions, like what your dream collaboration would be, to add your own twist to your profile. It's not mandatory, but we encourage you to choose questions that you feel would give your prospective clients and fellow SSSHAKE members a better understanding of you, your creative aspirations, and inspirations!
It’s not just about business
Collaboration is part of our DNA, and we believe it's important for creatives to work with other creatives on projects in order to learn from each other, expand their skills, and develop their practices. Our very first event was all about networking to foster unexpected collaborations, and so was our first app. So, it was only natural for us to include and encourage collaboration on our new platform by allowing creatives to ask for help from other creatives, as long as the project in question has no direct commercial intent. We'll do our best to only approve unpaid collaboration briefs that follow our house rules, but please do get in touch if you feel a collaboration opportunity you receive doesn't follow these guidelines.
As we provide both paid freelance job opportunities, as well as collaboration requests, you have the choice to opt-out from receiving specific kinds of opportunities, to give you the flexibility to focus on your goals. You can opt back in at any time, as your practice changes.
You can find more info about how our platform woks here.
What’s next?
Through our experience freelancing in the creative industries, we came to the conclusion that while freelancing has so many benefits, in terms of freedom and flexibility, it's genuinely a complicated and intricate process. Not only do you have to focus on your creative practice, but you also have to be your own manager. And being your own manager is tiring and time-consuming. You end up having to take care of a whole range of tasks that have nothing to do with your art - from finance, to CRM, and more.
We are working hard to release new features that include contracts, invoicing, account management and much more. Keep an eye out for that, and if you want to become a beta tester, get in touch!