A HUSBAND-and-wife couple are hoping to improve the sometimes lonely life of the freelance worker with the launch of two online platforms.

Mark and Anharad Reynolds devised Buddieup.co.uk as a way for self-employed people to organise get-togethers and feel less isolated.

They followed it with FreelanceHubs.com, which enables freelancers to find more work with what they say will be the quickest, most friction-free location-based platform on the market.

Mark, a digital product designer who went to Arts University Bournemouth, said Buddieup was devised after the couple went for a break to Bath for their wedding anniversary.

“We started to talk about my career and being freelance and we started talking about how lonely I was as a freelance,” he said.

“I didn’t have connections around, didn’t know how to connect with others. I started to talk about that and researched what people were feeling like.

“There were a lot of self-employed people and freelances that were essentially really lonely.”

Research suggests 40 per cent of self-employed people report feeling loneliness, he said.

The idea of Buddieup is that people can hold get-togethers at open locations such as coffee shops.

Users can search for events near them, or arrange them on their own initiative. Buddieup events are limited to four people.

As well as getting social contact, people can share ideas and experience and find help, Mark said.

Meanwhile, FreelanceHubs has almost 150 people signed up to show their profiles to potential clients.

“We were trying to make a lot easier for freelances to promote themselves and what they do,” said Mark.

He added: “As we started to talk with more and more freelancers we realised there was also the need for a new, simple, friction-free platform to help freelancers find work far more easily.

“When we started to design the platform, there were some really obvious things that needed to be addressed such as the ability to show a freelancer’s availability. We also found out that businesses simply want to find good quality freelancers in their location and do not want to go through a lengthy process to find who they are looking for

“This is when it dawned on us to create a platform where you can find freelancers in your location within a matter of seconds.”

Both services are free at the outset. Buddieup could eventually make money from venue discounts, job opportunities, advertising or a small monthly subscription.

Freelance Hub could charge businesses to advertise opportunities, or for freelances to have a higher profile.