5 Reasons to Begin Your Freelancing Career
For many people, the opportunity to work on freelance is just a fairy tale. Imagine no early rises at 7 a.m. to get to the office in time to start the workday. There are no annoying bosses constantly monitoring the progress of your work.
There is no need to take the subway at rush hour or stand in traffic for hours – as you can be work at home. In general, the picture is positive: freelancers are not late for work and do not complain that there is no time for personal life.
Flexible Work Schedule
Freelancer gets the task and the deadlines (sometimes those can be set by a specialist), but when and how much to work, a person decides on one’s own.
Someone is more comfortable to sleep until lunch and work until midnight – a freelancer can afford this. However, the common belief that freelancers have a lot of free time is a delusion.
Many remote specialists work the same hours as a normal nine-to-five office, sometimes even more. Take freelance writers for instance; there will always be undergrads in need of help with their custom essay – and there should be a pro able to finish the work asap.
Managing Your Value
Freelancer is a financially independent specialist. One cannot be stripped of a salary or fined for any violation, as it often happens in enterprises.
A remote specialist always knows what one is paid for and is sure that this sum is in line with the abilities and skills.
No Geographical Restrictions
When you work via the Internet and everything is done online, you can afford to work from any place in the world.
For example, you can buy a ticket to, say, Thailand, and live there for a couple of months without disrupting your workflow. It is a great opportunity for a change of environment “on the job.”
Satisfaction with the Job
Freelancers are looking for their customers and can choose the projects they are interested in. This is a definite advantage, as a specialist can do the work not only for the sake of earnings.
An office worker, on the other hand, can rarely afford to give up a task assigned. A freelancer is never forced to do something the person doesn’t want to do.
The Client Base
You do not have to work with those customers that you do not like or who cause a lot of extra trouble. When you are on a freelance basis, you can terminate your contract or, once you have completed a particular project, stop cooperation with a certain company.
With office jobs, there is no such possibility: you have to work and give the result regardless of whether you like to do the assigned tasks or not.
How to Prepare for Freelance
The ideal decision to move to freelance should be balanced, and the transition to this work format should be gradual.
- Grow your professionalism. Your income directly depends on your professional development. Intensives, master classes, online courses should be chosen carefully. Select those that are valued in the expert community. Concentrate on gaining new skills and knowledge from any channel you can get.
- Make contacts. Go to conferences, read thematic communities on social networks, meet the creators of potentially interesting projects. Each networking event can convert into future orders and successful collaborations.
- Explore the tools you need. Think over the process of interaction with clients. How will you communicate, transfer the results to them? Where will you store the work done, how will you protect yourself from the sudden whims of technics, viruses, and other issues? You may need to learn new programs, find the right cloud storage, and tools for planning tasks.
- Start with a part-time job. Start taking your first orders before you leave the office. This way, you will get clients in advance and, at the same time, feel what freelance is.
Freelancer’s Useful Habits
Finally, a few simple tips to help you organize freelance work with maximum efficiency and reduce the risk of burnout.
- Try not to work in places that are not designed for this purpose, such as the bed or kitchen. Arrange for yourself a separate workspace. Make it a rule to keep it clean.
- Set the boundaries of your working day, for example from 9 to 18 or from 12 to 21, as you would do on a normal eight-hour day in an office. Warn colleagues and customers that your workday is limited to these hours. True, there are freelancers that deliberately broadcast to the client that they can communicate 24/7. This is an advantage, of course, but sticking to it is quite difficult. Still, it’s up to you.
- Do not forget and never hesitate to fix all agreements with customers. Working on trust is good, of course, but you risk doing something for free.
- Take breaks from work. Go to the store, stroll, or walk the dog. Let yourself take a break from business. This “reboot” will allow the brain to recover. Besides, during a walk, while your brain is working “in the background,” the solution to some problem you may face can come by itself.
Usually the first year is the most difficult, but do not panic. Search for clients, determine your working schedule, and you will soon enjoy the convenience and comfort of freelancing.
