Many people have turned to freelance careers for the freedom and flexibility being a freelancer offers. However, they also wrongly assume that freelancing is a “simple” career that is easy to adopt as long as you’re willing to practice your skills and find clients. There’s a lot to freelancing and, sadly, it’s often more difficult than actually working a stable job. In many cases, you won’t even earn a fraction of what your current wage is.
There are many harsh realities when it comes to freelancing but there are also many benefits to it. As described in this article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-advantages-disadvantages-becoming-freelancer-faten-amin, you’ll come across many ups and downs when freelancing and you need to understand this career choice before you delve head-first into it and potentially ruin your career.
So without further ado, let’s examine some of the realities of life as a freelancer.
You’ll be distracted every single day
Every time you sit down and start your work, something is going to distract you. Whether it’s your kids, the phone or even your own procrastination, something will prevent you from doing your work.
You’ll be chasing invoices more than you work
Thanks to www.invoicefinancingaustralia.com.au/invoice-finance-factoring/ it’s becoming easier to chase invoices, but you’re still going to spend far too much time chasing people down in order to get paid. If you don’t like pestering people for money, then freelancing might not be a good choice for you.
Some people will think you’re making a horrible decision
To some people, being a freelancer is an irresponsible choice. This article at http://dianepenelope.com/going-freelance-courageous-irresponsible/ is the perfect post to look through if you’re still having doubts about becoming a freelancer and how you can justify the career change.
You need to be incredibly disciplined
You need to stick to your schedule and you need to never deviate from it or else you’ll end up working at 4 AM in the morning trying to hit a deadline.
A freelancer needs to be a salesperson as well
You can’t sell your skills if you don’t know how to market them. Many freelancers will have experience in sales to help them advertise their skills.
As a freelancers, there’s no easy way to find clients
You’re going to need to search high and low just to find clients. You’ll have to register yourself on freelancing websites and you’ll need to explore social media to help you find clients.
Final words for the freelancer
Hopefully, this article hasn’t scared you off the idea of becoming a freelancer. It’s a wonderful career choice even if it has its problems (but then again, what career choice doesn’t have its own problems?) and the freedom it gives you can be liberating if you know how to manage it properly.
In short, being a freelancer comes with many responsibilities and it’s important to consider them before making the switch, but as long as you’re willing to face these challenges, it can become an incredibly lucrative career choice.
