For the longest time, the only real career option out there for a lot of people was to find somewhere to work and try to carve out a career within someone else’s organisation. Sure, there were always other potential options but they often presented something of a serious risk that not everyone was willing or able to take. However, in the internet age, all of that has changed. Now, the chance to be able to take your career into your own hands is something that more and more people are able to do. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it is an easy choice. With that in mind, here are some tips and things to consider when you are deciding whether or not to embrace the life of a self employed freelancer.
Finding Work
When you first strike out as a freelancer, one of the hardest things is going to be actually getting any work at all. After all, what you earn is suddenly much more up in the air than if you were an employee. As a freelancer, if you are not working, you are not earning. That means you need to start putting yourself out there as aggressively as possible. It may also be wise to actually start promoting yourself and getting work before you leave your regular employment.
You need to have a great looking website, a strong social media presence, a portfolio of work, and a whole lot more if you want to start getting the attention of potential clients and customers. Research your competitors and discover their price points for similar work you too will be offering. To make yourself stand out from the crowd it is often wise to be a specialist in one or two areas rather than be a jack of all trades.
Getting Things Done
One of the most enticing things about working for yourself as a freelancer is the fact that you are not going to have your boss breathing down your neck every minute of the day. However, it is important to remember that, without your boss breathing down your neck, it is up to you to make sure that you get things done.
It is far easier than you might think to fall into the trap of thinking you have a lot more time to get things done that you actually do. If that happens you could find yourself trying to get everything done right at the last minute which is not only going to reduce the quality of the work you do, but it’s going to cause you far more stress than is necessary as well.
Being organised and employing time management skills is going to be something you have to do. Not doing so will result in you failing as a freelancer.
Getting Paid
Of course, once you get the work done, you need to make sure that you are getting paid for it. The first thing you need is to be able to provide professional invoices to your clients. Luckily, there are things like this Nutemplates blank invoice template available online. Make sure that you are sending out your invoices as soon as possible. Clients can sometimes be frustratingly slow when it comes to paying you and the last thing you want is to be stuck waiting for your payment to come through for weeks or even months at a time.
My best advice is to to actually draw up a contract of work before actually doing any work. This contract should state the time frame in which you expect to be paid once the work is completed. You should also include this date on the invoice too.
Final Thoughts
The truth is that being a freelancer isn’t really any better or worse than working for someone else. Instead, the important thing is whether or not it’s right for you.
You really need to think about everything from your financial circumstances to your personal circumstances to what it is that you really want to get out of a career. However, having more options available to you is always going to be a good thing. It means that you are able to embrace more potential career paths than ever before.
If you decide that working as a freelancer is for you, I wish you every success. Maybe one day I will be employing your services.
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