In this blog, we explore the journeys of 10 successful freelancers, along with their thriving careers. Reviewing their portfolios and achievements, we try to show you what’s possible in the freelance world and inspire you to take the leap if freelancing feels right for you!
10 Successful Freelancers
Here are ten successful freelancers and what they do. Such freelancers have made a name for themselves as gurus in their field, with excellent track records-many even work with the biggest companies in the world!
1. Scott Luscombe – Graphic Designer / Shopify Expert / Website Developer / Copywriter – Canada
Scott Luscombe is an independent graphic designer, Shopify expert, web developer, and copywriter. He resides in Uxbridge, Canada. His graduation was in Illustration from Sheridan College, while he holds a marketing degree from the University of Toronto.
Scott is one of the most successful freelancers, who had the majority part of his professional working career on Upwork. Over $500k earned with Upwork, completed 311 jobs and 10,956 hours!
His works encompass graphic design and branding, illustration and icons, copywriting, web design and development, UX/UI and printing and packaging. Scott is also freelancing as a coach and consultant. Top Rated Upwork Freelancer Scott is currently starting from $99 per hour in diverse creative gigs.
Some of the most impressive achievements Scott has made include designing for Coca-Cola, the Canadian Cancer Society, Nickelodeon, and Wallet Ninja, among others.
2. Kathy Edens – Marketing Consultant / Freelance Copywriter – United States
Kathy Edens is a Top Rated Upwork Freelancer with over $300k platform earnings! Based in Ohio, United States, Kathy has spent almost ten years as a self-employed marketing consultant and freelance copywriter. Her experience was built from her home office.
She boasts a Bachelor of Science in Professional Writing and Psychology from Oregon State University, she says “.helps me understand how to reach your target audience with words.”
Kathy is a ghost writer for several non-fiction books on topics including social entrepreneurship, healthcare, real estate investing, and the cannabis industry, among others. She is another freelance web content and sales page writer, where she offers email marketing content, case studies, white papers, brochures, press releases, and many more. Kathy charges minimum rates at $86 an hour for her writing and marketing services.
3. Koen van Oeveren – UX designer – Netherlands
Koen van Oeveren is an independent UI & UX designer from North Brabant, Netherlands. He has nearly ten years of experience in the profession. He works for various design agencies throughout the Netherlands and designs applications, websites, and e-commerce experiences for several international brands.
Koen had his BAAS in Communication and Multimedia Design from Avans University in the Netherlands. His academic background highly contributes to making him a person who acquires all these qualities in such a field. Koen’s portfolio website, Koenvo, won 2021 awwwards Award nominator.
4. Pascal Strasche – Product / UX designer – Germany
Pascal Strasche is a UX and product designer with over ten years of experience out of Germany. He obtained his Master’s degree in Interaction Design and a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
For almost a year over 2020/2021, Pascal was the only product designer at Con Cubo responsible for developing their SaaS tool that helps complex organizations visualize and manage teams. He has also collaborated with German steel giant XOM Materials to find product solutions to digitalize Germany’s steel industry. .
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In 2019, Pascal founded Product Design Resources, a growing archive of 800+ design resources, weekly updated for the design community.
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5. Paul Hunkin – Developer – New Zealand
Paul Hunkin is a Tauranga-based freelance software consultant and developer who hails from New Zealand, but currently lives in Portugal.
He has over ten years of experience and a very long record of work. Paul has worked for some of the worlds’ most recognized companies: Google, NASA, InfoSys, and COMAC, which stands for the leading company in the Chinese aerospace industry. He has worked on a number of early-stage startups, designing everything from high-performance big-data systems to complex web applications and 3D rendering engines and much more, building a lot of foundational code for independent games on Android.
Paul Paul is a Top Rated Upwork Freelancer with more than $400k in platform earnings. His rates begin at $120 per hour for software development. Check out Paul’s website for more about his impressive portfolio and work history.
6. Jana Galat – Writer / Brand Strategist – Canada
Jana Galat is a copywriter and brand strategist living in Toronto, Ontario Canada. She has graduated with a Bachelor’s of Management and Organizational Studies from King’s University College and completed Honors Business Administration at Western University.
Jana has written hundreds of landing pages, hundreds of email campaigns, hundreds of social media ads, and hundreds of pages of print materials, she says, “I’m obsessed with creating copy that sells.”
She became a freelance worker in 2019 after 20 years of professional working life and immediately attained the position of Top Rated Upwork Freelancer. Jana already has earned more than $70k on the platform. Jana’s services start at $100 per hour with copywriting and brand consulting.
7. Kate H. – Logo Designer / Branding Expert – United States
Kate is a freelance professional from Maryland, US. She specializes in logo design and branding and comes up with the most precise quality services to her clients. Concurrently, she also owned a green wedding brand that she successfully sold to mywedding.com in 2014. Currently, she helps small businesses come to terms with what they want and who they are and translate that into design. A creative professional with considerable experience and training in a wide range of design fields. Ambitious, motivated self-starter, proven accomplishment for interior design, web and graphic design, web development, sales, and marketing. Corporate and non-profit experience.
She holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale School of The Environment, as well as a J.D. in environmental law from Pace Law School.
Kate is particularly good at maturing material to be restyled to become readably conversational, building cohesive brand for a low base, like a logo, and creating customized logos, all guaranteed for success.
Kate is Top Rated Upwork Freelancer and can charge up to $225 an hour. For more about Kate, go to Kate’s Upwork profile.
8. Marcos Rezende – UX designer – Canada
Marcos Rezende is one of the top freelancers; he is a UX Designer from Ontario, Canada, with 13 years of experience. He has experience of more than 30 industries sectors in work with multinational organizations in the USA, Canada, Germany, and Brazil.
Some of the main works Marcos has been a part of include apps like Ontario’s COVID-19 dashboard, Urban Master Planning collaboration platform, and Reaction (kid’s e-learning app), among many others. Marc is one person to talk to when it comes to sharing his experience in the field. He regularly writes for the top UX publication, Career Foundry. Total recognizes Marc as one of its “Top 3% global freelancers”- a title given to elite freelancers in their specific field.
We don’t have Marcos’ rates, but a good UX designer on Upwork gets paid above $100 an hour. As a Top 3% freelancer at Toptal, Marcos probably charges in the region of $200-$300 an hour.
Marcos Rezende’s website was shortlisted for the prestigious awwwards. in 2021.
9. Tanya Litvinova – UX/UI Designer – United States
Among the best freelance workers today is Tanya Litvinova. She is based in New York City and works as a UI designer. Her education background follows from the course she pursued at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she managed to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Advertising Design/Communication Design.
Tanya specialises in product, mobile, and web design as well as user experience flow, research, and validation.
“I have a passion to make the complex simple, shape behavior, design, plan, and strategize. Aiming for the best user experience, all the while balancing the needs of business and technology to create engaging, habit-forming digital products.”
Tanya is a data scientist with the added value of being an upskilled developer. She has worked with Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, with a portfolio of business-transforming, data-driven analytics, responsive BI dashboards, enterprise web apps, and management systems. These include KOCH Industries, BlackRock Financial, BCG Group, FireEye, among many more.
Tanya is a Top Rated Upwork Freelancer with over $200k platform earnings and has a current rate starting at $162.50 per hour.
10. Guangming Lang – Data Scientist – United States
Guangming Lang is a freelance data scientist based in Michigan. Besides that, he has a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, New College of Florida. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan. Therefore, his educational background is appropriate for being a good data scientist. Guangming has also completed courses in data science and machine learning via Coursera.
Since 2013, Guangming has been freelancing in multiple industries, such as finance and investing, trading, medicine, biotech, advertising, and HR. Being the Top Rated Upwork Freelancer, he did not only raise more than $400k on the platform, but also, as a result, he built a strong reputation within his field. His vast experience and great income eventually made him stand as one of the key figures of freelance workers.
Guangming now has 216 jobs on Upwork and has logged in total 3,805 hours. He can charge as high as $200 per hour. His rates are properly justified by his several years of experience and his successful portfolio.
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