Does Freelancing Really Offer Freedom?

Does Freelancing Really Offer Freedom?

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By Careers Desk

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Thursday, June 8, 2017.

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One of the most enticing career choices for the modern day worker is the option of going freelance. With the internet being so accessible and cloud software being so flexible, it’s opened up countless new career choices that weren’t possible in the past. Thanks to this new freeform way of working, it’s given us more freedom in how we choose our work and how much work we can take on. However, there are some common misconceptions and even lies about freelancing that are spread far too often, and they need to be debunked.

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Freelancing doesn’t mean you can work anywhere

One of the big draws to freelancing is the ability to work from virtually anywhere. However, that does NOT mean you can simply move to another country and continue working. There are complicated things that require immigration lawyers to help you with. For instance, what country do you pay taxes to and what benefits are you offered? Remember that being freelance means that you have to set up your own business, and that itself can come with a lot of complications.

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Freelancing doesn’t mean you work your own hours

Contrary to popular belief, freelancing doesn’t mean you can work whatever hours you like. You are paid for the work you do, meaning you’re essentially paid by the hour. If you’re paid by the hour, then it means you need to work a specific amount of hours each week to sustain your way of life, and this ends up translating into set work days. In addition, spreading out your work all across the week because you’re a freelancer just means you won’t be focused when you actually have to do work. You’ll constantly miss deadlines, you’ll lose clients, and you’ll be shunned in the freelancing community for being irresponsible.

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Freelancing doesn’t mean you do less work

Let’s face it, freelancing doesn’t mean doing less work for more pay. As mentioned before, you are a business and that comes with many different responsibilities. For instance, you have to pay your own taxes, do your own accounting and even advertise yourself. While you probably spend a little less time doing actual work, you spend far more time maintaining your business that you’ll end up “working” longer hours.

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Freelancing doesn’t mean you can market anything

Freelancing is fantastic because it allows you to market many different skills. From drawing to writing to even music production, there’s almost always a demand for creative skills. However, you can’t expect to market everything and anything. Your skills need to be relevant to various businesses and you need to be flexible with your approach. Make sure you pitch ideas to large companies and ensure you constantly improve your set of skills to reach a wider audience.

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Freelancing doesn’t require a degree

Freelancing doesn’t care much for your professional qualifications, all it requires is experience. This can be both a plus and a negative depending on your situation. It means that even if you didn’t attend university, you can still make a living from freelancing assuming that you’re dedicated enough to work hard (occasionally for free) and build up a portfolio. This offers you a lot of freedom because even if you’ve studied a subject that is completely different to your chosen freelancing career, you can still make a living from it.