For most of us, freelancing full time seems like a dream come true. We can be our own boss, work at our own times, and be responsible for our own success. While it all sounds great, it's not always true. Some freelancers fare well, but others find it more difficult than they think in many ways. Here's 10 things you should know about freelancing.
1. It can get off to a slow start. When you quit your full-time job to freelancing, you'll likely have one or two clients. However, you will need more customers to survive and that can be difficult and time consuming.
2. Freelancing is done alone so it can get quite lonely. If you find it annoying to stay at home alone, you can consider working in a coffee shop or renting a creative office space.
3. You are responsible yourself. Full-time freelancing means that you are responsible for yourself and your work. There's no one around to check how much work you're getting done or whether you're meeting your goals.
4. You need discipline. It can be tempting to work long nights, but that will keep you from getting up in the morning. In the end, instead of in the morning, you work at night. Not only is that unhealthy, you will continue to work all the hours that you are awake.
5. You need money on hand. With freelancing you depend on clients and if you don't have enough, you can't pay your fixed costs. In addition, customers do not always pay on time. There may be months when you don't earn enough to live on, so it's helpful to have some cash on hand.
6. There are resources to help you. If you have no idea where to get clients from, there are several freelancer websites where you can sign up. Making contact with successful freelancers is also recommended, because then you can learn from their successes and failures.
7. You must learn to negotiate. With a full-time job, you get a fixed salary, paid leave and other perks every month. With freelancing, your income is directly dependent on your rates and there are no extras. To succeed you must be able to negotiate reasonable rates for yourself. There's nothing wrong with starting with low rates – as long as you increase them steadily.
8. You need to know what the trends are. As a freelancer, you need to stay on top of the trends in your industry to stay ahead of the competition. That means reading and exploring.
9. You get more done in a day than you think. Without ringing phones, coworkers dumping more work at you, needing your help or chatting, you get so much more done in a day than you would with your full-time job.
10. You need a sixth sense for people. You will be dealing with different types of customers, some nice, some not. And you don't have to be friends with them, but if after a meeting, phone call, or email exchange with someone, you feel like you're not necessarily happy with the prospect of working with that person, you can better not start. If you are not sure about a person, do some research about them and their company. You may find reviews from customers or other companies that can be of great help to you.
