Freelance IT Market in Belgium Wallace Espindola Senior Software Engineer Freelancer/Business Owner

● IT market movement and numbers ● Advantages and disadvantages ● Where are the opportunities ● Business areas to target ● Top technologies searched ● Revenues and rates ● Types of work/company ● How to start ● Tricks and threats Schedule

Main learning takeaways 1) Discover the IT Freelance Market; 2) Step-by-step on how to start and how to succeed; 3) Where and how to focus on the IT market.

DISCLAIMER All of these slides are based on personal experiences and opinions, IT colleagues experiences, and some statistics. Advice from an experienced local market accountant or lawyer is always recommended.

About me ● Brazilian from Rio de Janeiro ● 17 years of career in IT ● Experiences in many industries: Government, Oil&Gas, Banking, Telecom, Defense, Education, BioTech. ● In Belgium since 2017, 4 years as employee, 2 years as freelancer ● Profile: SW development & architecture ● Stack: Back-end / Java / Web

Global Market Budget in 2021 Source: https://www.comptia.org/content/research/it-industry-trends-analysis-2021

Revenue: Belgium x Europe Source: https://www.ibisworld.com/belgium/industry-statistics/software-development/3595/ >> Population (2020): 83.2 million >> Population (2020): 11.5 million

Belgium No. 8 in population numbers Source: https://statbel.fgov.be/sites/default/files/files/documents/F_Kerncijfers_web_v2.pdf Population (2020): 83.2 million Population (2020): 11.5 million 8 : 1 :

Over the European average in digital economy Source: https://economie.fgov.be/sites/default/files/Files/Publications/files/Barometre-de-la-societe-de-l-information-2019.pdf # 9

Tech industry Turnover in Belgium Source: https://www.agoria.be COVID COVID

IT market revenue constantly growing Source: https://www.statista.com/forecasts/961401/it-revenue-in-belgium

Belgium job vacancies Source: https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/work-training/labour-market/job-vacancy 29.066 184.756 About 15% of market is temporary/contract in 2022

Job vacancy per region Source: https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/work-training/labour-market/job-vacancy ~57.8% ~10.6% ~31.6% Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/517196/population-of-belgium-by-region/

High demand: So true nowadays! Why? Reason:

Difficulties of the market Source: https://www.comptia.org/content/research/it-industry-trends-analysis-2021

Stack Overflow statistics

Desired levels for profiles Source: https://www.comptia.org/content/research/it-industry-trends-analysis-2021

Diversity of profiles for IT Developers Engineers Mathematicians Physics Administration Business Economy Professors Geeks English French Dutch …

Many different profiles in IT Source: https://itprofessionalism.org/about-it-professionalism/competences/ict-profiles/

Business areas to target ● Government (European Commission & local governments of Flanders and Wallonia) ● Banks, Payments & Fintechs ● Pharmaceutics & BioTech ● Manufacturing / Industry ● Automobilistic & Aviation ● Telecom & Network ● Services providers ● IoT & Automation

Many open positions for contract/freelancer

Accenture Adecco AlmavivA de Belgique Alten Belgium Amaris IS&D Artemis ARΗS Developments Atos Belgium Barco Capgemini Belgium Cegeka Groep CGI Belgium CRI Computer Resources Intl. Cronos International Dekimo European Dynamics Everis Belgium Fujitsu Technology G2 Recuiting Gazelle Global Gentis Tergos Thaleria TMC Trasys International Unisys Belgium Unisystems Vibe Group Vivid Sourcing Volt Westpole Xplore Group Harvey Nash IT Hays Huxley Indra Infosys Intrasoft IRIS Solutions Jefferson Frank Recruit Koda Staff NFI Nigel Frank Intl. NTT Data Belgique Oliver James OneSource Consulting Optimus Search Ordina Belgium Parallel Consulting Serco Belgium Sopra Steria Benelux Spilberg Recruitment Sword Technologies Synergie Belgium Teksystems Some frequent players contracting freelancers

Rates in the Belgium market and around ● Focus on mid to long term contracts ● Business to business ● Focus on projects ● Participate in teams ● Experienced profiles ● Mid to senior preferred ● Experts 300 €/day 800 €/day *The rates are normally defined per day of work (or rate per hour, 8hs)

Taxation https://www.tradutec-belgium.com/blog/les-impots-en-belgique-sont-ils-vraiment-favorables-aux-societes/ https://finances.belgium.be/fr/entreprises/impot_des_societes/declaration

The rule of the game In fact: Revenue - business expenses = taxable base Then: Taxable base - taxes = profit Rule:

Business expenses examples ● Account and other services ● Telecom and Energy bills ● Devices that you need to work ● Fuel and transportation/commuting costs ● Company car, smartphone, laptop, devices ● Office furniture and cleaning ● Everything for your office needs ● No VAT

Employee x Freelancer/Contract EMPLOYEES ● Monthly Salary ● Pension contribution ● Yearly vacation payment ● Yearly end of year extra payment ● Sick days covered ● Meal vouchers ● Optional: medical insurance, phone, company car, gym, etc… FREELANCERS ● Monthly revenue in your company - and you decide your personal salary ● Lower pension than employee ● No ● No ● No ● No ● … ● But you manage the budget of your company as you wish

Freelancer: Independent x Company As INDEPENDENT ● One man company ● you and the company are the same entity ● Single and simple direct taxation, but higher As a COMPANY ● You are the manager / director ● You may have employees or associates if you wish ● You have normal taxation on your salary, and taxed dividends later on ● Your company has taxation, after business expenses (including your salary)

How the contracts look ● Fixed term contracts or by assignment/project ● 3, 6, or 12 months ● Normally renewable ● Rate per day or per hour ● Payment every month ● Payment terms: 7 to 30 days after monthly work ● Average 1-2 days/week onsite, the rest home-office

How much money to start and some initial costs ● Around 3000 EUR to open company type SRL (limited liability) ● Less money if company type is SComm (no notary) ● Accountant from 150 to 300 EUR / month ● Around 800 EUR for pension funds initially (per trimester) ● For some contractors: First money in 60 days ● For others: money 7 days after end of month (so ~37 days)

Step by step to start 1. Talk to recruiters and contractors, find job, quit… 2. Contact a local accountant, get advice 3. Open a business bank account 4. Register VAT (type: independent, SRL, SComm, …) 5. Declare pension status as independent (not employee) 6. +/- 1 month to start operating

Market: Huge number of technologies

Some statistics on programming languages

Tiobe: Top programming languages compared

Top most actives on GitHub

Technologies in high demand now

How to evaluate yourself and your CV? ↑ Number of experiences + ↑ Number of Trainings/Courses + Certifications + Years of Experience

Improve your skills, you are owner of your career

Indicators: Are you updating/progressing?

Certifications: add value to your CV

Share your knowledge and be noticed ● Participate in groups / communities ● Contribute to Open Source Projects ● Write technical articles to Blogs ● Share knowledge on LinkedIn / Twitter ● Presence in Meetups & Conferences ● Answers questions in Stack Overflow ● Trainings or courses given ● Contribute on Github

As smart Freelancer you should… (Tricks and Threats) ● Find a local good and experienced accountant ● Have a good mobile and internet connection subscription ● Save in a pension plan or multiple ones ● Have all necessary insurances and juridic assistance ● Buy good and reliable equipment for your work ● If you use it, have a good company car and fuel card ● Or if it is your case, the public transportation subscriptions ● Have all necessary gadgets that save you time (and money) ● Pay all the productivity and security software licenses ● Pay with your company all courses and training needed ● Save for the taxes (yours and the company ones) ● Avoid the immediate taxation, go long term and pay yourself a small salary (dividends 1st year 30% - 4th year 15%) ● Benefit from intellectual property rights (copyrights) on what you produce (10-15%) (immediate lower taxation -> 7.5 to 15%)

Questions, insights, ideas

My contacts LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wallaceespindola/ GitHub: https://github.com/wallaceespindola E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @wsespindola Thank you!!!