The freelance market is booming, and the internet is full of articles telling you why you should join it. Over one-third of the world’s workforce are freelancers, and 75 percent of freelancers say they wouldn’t trade their freelancing job for another type of work. So why shouldn’t you become a freelancer?
What is a freelancer?
The definition of a freelance worker is an independent laborer who earns wages on a per-job or per-task basis. This typically means they create a contract with another party to complete a project for a designated amount of compensation.
This sounds simple, but the reality is there is usually much more to freelance work. Freelance workers are actually small business owners. That is why it is good to evaluate the pros and cons of freelancing before making major changes in your work life.
Pros
Control is the biggest advantage freelance work gives you. It gives you control over nearly every part of your work, including the ability to work when you want, where you want, on what you want, with whom you want. This adds a level of flexibility and diversity to your job that is not able to be found at a standard employer.
- Schedule: Most freelance work involves projects instead of hourly work. I prefer this type of work because it rewards me for being efficient. If I complete the project before the expected time, I don’t need to stay until my “shift” ends. I can just leave. And if I prefer to work in the evening or only work half days, I can make that choice. No one else is approving or rejecting my request.
- Location: If you prefer to work at home or a coffee shop, you don’t need to get this approved by your superior. Find the location where you are most productive and work there. Coffee shops or libraries tend to be the best locations for me, so I spend most of my workday at one of these. And if you’d like to leave your city and travel, no one will be preventing you. Work in a beach town during the winter, take an RV on the road, or visit friends. You can do most freelance work anywhere as long as you have a decent WiFi signal.
- Clients and coworkers: The clients I take on are clients I agree to work with, not clients who are assigned to me by someone else. This can especially be an advantage if you have felt mistreated or maligned by some of your clients. Or if you just dislike the work given to you by some clients. If you don’t want to work with a client anymore, you don’t have to. You can end your contract with them.
This is the same with coworkers. If you have a partner or another freelancer who you don’t want to work with anymore, you have the ability to end your agreement. - Workload: The most common complaint I hear right now is employees being overworked because of understaffing. Being overworked is something that can be avoided in freelance work by simply saying “no” to a job. If you don’t have the time or energy to complete a job, don’t take it. No one is going to put too much work on you or add unscheduled hours to your workweek except you. When you start to feel overworked, you can ease back on your workload and find the balance of work that is best for you.
- Income: You never have to ask someone else for a raise, because you give yourself raises. If you want more money, you have two options: raise your prices or take on more projects.
- Diversity of work: If your work is becoming boring, you don’t have to look for a new job. Simply learn new skills to market or add new clients. You’re not locked into one role. You can adapt your business however you’d like.
- Displaying your skills: At many jobs, you are never given the chance to market your work on social media or show it to potential clients because your employer (or their client) owns the final product. This isn’t the case with most freelance work. If you are proud of your work, you can show it wherever you’d like. This will need to be built into your agreement with your client, but it is a standard part of an agreement that most clients won’t have any problem with.
Cons
Despite all the advantages freelance work offers, there are still some major disadvantages that must be assessed before entering the freelance workforce.
- Managing your own finances: Not everyone will look at this as a disadvantage, because some people enjoy it. But it is something you usually won’t be doing at a W2 position. It means you are going to have to track your income and expenses, manage your own taxes, and determine your own prices for your services.
Determining your own prices is the most challenging part. You need to be charging enough to make a good income after expenses, but have low enough prices that clients aren’t scared away. But the prices shouldn’t be too low, making the client discount the value of your services. It is a complex balancing act that takes a lot of practice. - Providing your own benefits: In addition to being the accounting department, you are also the human resources department. If you are freelancing full time, you will have to provide your own health insurance, manage your own retirement savings, and schedule your own vacations without PTO. Open market health insurance can be extremely expensive, even with ACA insurance, although there are some alternatives such as healthshares. For retirement savings, you will need to set up SEP and IRA accounts and manage them yourself.
- Being isolated: Most freelance work is completed alone. You may be working in a public environment like a coffee shop, but you generally won’t have coworkers to bounce ideas off of or just talk about life with. You likely won’t be part of a team or be able to have someone else help you clean up any problems. There are ways around this, such as renting a coworking space or finding freelance positions that involve working in teams, but you will have to go out of your way to find your own mentors or coworkers.
- Promoting yourself: This isn’t a downside for everyone, but for most introverts like myself, promoting my skills is not a strength. Every time you are pitching your skills to a new client, it can feel like interviewing for a new job.
The final point is both a pro and a con of freelancing, depending how your adventure goes. If you fail, you will have no one else to blame but yourself. But this means if you succeed—whatever your definition of success is—it will feel really good. You will have no one else to credit for the success but yourself.
