Anita ventured into freelancing when she and her husband moved to the province. She really had a hard time looking for a job given the limited job opportunities, language barrier, and provincial rate.

Little did she know that online freelancing will be the best suitable work set-up for her as she went through a little sensitive pregnancy plus it granted her a 3-month pause contract so she can focus on transitioning to be a new mother.

In this #JasSuccess interview with Anita Caipang, we tackled a lot, including:

✅ How changes in life circumstances directed Anita to venture into freelancing
✅ Why her hardships in looking for a job in the province became a blessing in disguise
✅ The benefits of freelancing to mothers

and much much more...

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Notable Quotes:

• For me take advantage of the digital age. Freelancing is a different world, know more about it.
•  Join the FB community of FLIP. You can learn from other freelancers even if you're just a silent reader. 
• Watch lessons on Youtube. 
• Also, enroll in the course and learn at your own time and pace.
• Also, identify your non- negotiable terms like I mentioned I will not take the night shift. Negotiate on flexible hours and do not compromise. 
• Pray and commit everything to the one who knows the beginning till the end because God knows the bigger picture.
• While your baby is sleeping you can search in Google and join the online community of freelancers because you can learn a lot from their posts.  
• Feel free to ask questions, it will help a lot.

Anita Caipang’s Journey to Freelancing

• One time while I’m scrolling in FB, I saw the advertisement of Work From Home Roadmap and I got curious. So I join the group and read a lot.  I was a silent member.
• It was really helpful, all the "Q and A's" there, I’ve learned a lot. I took the free course. Also I saw the VA booth Camp and it looks very promising but I need to pay, so I was really thinking about it because I have no source of income that time. But then when I saw about the money back guarantee I talked to my husband. We pray about it and so I go ahead with course to try it. I have fully paid the VA Booth camp and I start making account in upwork, create an account, build a portfolio.
• Every lesson and chapter that I learned I apply immediately and I received email from Jason asking how’s everything going and I appreciated it. Then I realized, yes this is real, it’s not like only the money that they want and I thought Jason is really sincere. He really wanted to help freelancers .
• So there, continue learning, continue applying and doing my due diligence also. After few weeks another Email from Jason inviting me to be part of trial of Certification program. Back then there’s no coaching like now that Ana’s been doing. By the way I like it so much because in FB group, it’s like a community that helps a lot, a community that i can ask everything that i want to know about freelancing .
• So about the certification, it was a great privilege and so I took it, it’s like an OJT, application, interview and doing a small job. It helps  me a lot because it gives me self assessment in some area that I thought I was already okay but then because of certification I discover that I should learn more.
• Certification program helps me a lot in my profile. The winner side is the feedback from Jason as a client so since then, I am not just applying but the client started inviting me to apply in to their job. So now I have a client when I started until now, I worked 40 hour per week at my flexible time anytime that I want to do it.
• The time when I got the job, I got pregnant so "double blessing" I was so happy. Was so great timing I can pay my SSS for maternity benefit.  Also was really great because I thought in my work if I am not able to do it okey done, goodbye, find another job, another client, but my client is so kind I can do even less 40 hours per week.
• During my pregnancy freelancing such a good timing for me because my pregnancy becomes sensitive I have spotting and bringing me to hospital. I was advice bed rest but then I can still work. Imagine if I should still to travel going work maybe I don’t have kids right now.
• With the rate it’s not so high but still significant compare what I can get here in Iloilo if I work physically. I started working January, now is November and twice I got increased with my rate. In employment(traditional), there’s no such thing like that in a year.

Lightning round

A couple of question just answer what comes first into your mind. If your able to master a skill in one day what skill will you choose and why?

Right now, top of mind is to understand baby talk, baby language.

Are you a cat or a dog person?

Cat

Any good books you have read recently that you can recommend?

Recently, What to expect when you’re expecting.

If you can have a superpower what you would choose and why?

Ability na mala-google, google girl.

What is your weird habit?

In drinking coke, half coke half water. My father trained me like that to make it not strong.

Q&A Highlights

What are you doing before?

My husband and I relocated to Iloilo. I'm an Education Graduate. I teach and did homeschool. I'm also an Academic Consultant and Church Admin. 

So in Iloilo, I was thinking what kind of Job I can do. My plan A is to do teaching and plan B is a tutorial and Office work. Salary in Iloilo is lower compared to Manila rates. Then I came up with the idea of teaching in a Public School. But apparently, all my plans didn't work because of Language barrier and Provincial salary rate.

One day in church they're discussing about working online and was introduced to online freelancing but I don’t know how to do it.  When I got home I created an account in onlinejob.ph, then I took some tests to increase my ID proof. Every day I'm searching for jobs online and it can get tiring and my morale day by day decreases. So finally, I decided to apply in ESL jobs since I have a good internet connection and a laptop. I was hired as a ESL teacher, it helps augment our expenses but it’s not sustainable. Newbies in ESL always have difficulties in choosing a slot so eventually, I stopped working in ESL. 

When did you start looking for job in Freelancing?

I started boot camp November, and I got my first client December just after a month.

From the viewer: Is your client kind to you?

Yes, very kind.

What is your work to your client na mabait?

Research and Data Entry .

How many times have you felt disappointed and defeated, and what have you done to get your strength back to get fights?

From September to December was really decreasing moral because client was so hard to find. What inspired me is our plan to have baby it really gives me strength.Then when I started the course in bootcamp, it was not difficult anymore because there I have guidance I was enjoying really, it was exciting and entertaining.

Who is your first client?

My first client is Jason Dulay.

Are you still getting invites work from Upwork?

Yes, and that makes me happy.

What was your first hourly rate?

$3 per hour. actually, I put, 7 in my profile but it’s like in Divisoria may tawad pa. but I got increased twice already.

So as a teacher , where can you hear that twice in one year actually not yet one year right ? A few more months before one year, but have already twice increases.

Before I take my break I got two increases already, my first increase just after 2 months only.