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Freelance Work From Home : Pros and Cons of Being Self Employed

 

What is a freelancer?

First of all we need to know what a freelancer is and what “freelancing” means?

A freelancer is self-employed and not committed to any one company or firm. Often, those who are freelance work from home. A freelancer contracts their services to other businesses and receives money for the work they do. This means that, as a freelancer you can work at home, any time, with hours to suit you and your family or circumstances.

Sounds great doesn’t it? But in reality, nothing is perfect, even in the world of freelancing. Although freelancing can be a positive experience for many, there are drawbacks to consider before quitting your job.

Freelancing isn’t easy. You have to find your own clients and be very disciplined. But the pay off’s are great if you succeed. However, the work you produce needs be perfect to impress future clients and gain more work. You work on your schedule, but the task you have usually has a deadline, which in most cases is yesterday. A freelancer needs a multitude of both personal and industry specific skills, being a jack of all trades and a MASTER of some usually helps. If you’re unfamiliar with freelancing, you might be surprised at what skills freelancers actually use to run their businesses. What skills a freelancer needs is in my post : How to Freelance : What skills does a freelancer need?

This article however discusses the pros and cons of being self-employed as a freelancer.  So let’s discuss the pros and cons of being self-employed freelance working from home:

 

Self Employed Benefits

Organise your own schedule to suit family and personal circumstances

  • Travelling to and from an office everyday is time you could be spending with your family. As a freelancer you can work around school runs and family commitments and you don’t have to worry about asking for time off to go to a doctor’s appointment for you or a child.
  • Are you a morning person that wants to stop working at lunchtime or do you come to life after tea? As a freelancer you can work when you want. As long as you get the work done, you can work at 3am if you choose. When you freelance, you get to choose when you work or at least be more flexible with your schedule. You aren’t stuck to 9-5 hours if you don’t want to be.
  • Freelancers have great work life balance and flexibility of work schedule is the best thing about being a freelancer with most freelancers reporting they are happier than before they went self employed.

Work from home or from wherever you choose

  • You can choose where you do your freelancing work. Whether it’s at home, a cafe, a library or your own office, it doesn’t matter, as you get the work done then it doesn’t matter where you’re located.  As long as you have an Internet connection, power source and a phone you decide where you work.

Choose What You Work On

  • When you are a freelancer, you find your own clients and projects and if lucky enough to have the choice you can select your preferred projects.
  • You might not want to be too selective though, money is money after-all. However, if you work as a freelancer you have more leverage to choose projects that you want, instead of working for a company who picks them for you.
  • There are a lot of opportunities to find freelance work on the web these days so finding work isn’t a hard as it used to be.

Potentially Make More Money

  • You’re potential earnings are not tied to a salary or overtime availability of working for another company. Your holidays are of your own choosing. You’ll also be able to set your own pricing structure and because you’re picking what clients you want to work for. You can work 80 hours a week should you choose to. The Average freelancer makes more than your normal company tied worker.

You can’t be laid off or fired and you can fire bad clients

  • With freelancing, each client is a separate source of income. So if you come across a bad client, you can end the project or negotiate better terms. You also don’t risk being laid off or fired and even if you are you can find other work fairly quickly if you are determined enough.

 

Disadvantages of Being Self Employed

Work Isn’t Guaranteed

  • When working for a company, you’re pretty much guaranteed monthly income and the security that goes with it, as long as it doesn’t go under, but there is usually forewarning of that so you can take proper action. As a freelancer, you’re finding your own work and it’s never guaranteed.
  • Sometimes opportunities can be plentiful, and other times there could be less. At worst project availability can be very sporadic, at best too many projects with deadlines can come along at once and you may find yourself having to decline work a you can’t fit it all in, which can be frustrating.

Inconsistent Monthly Income

  • Some months you can be rolling in a steady stream of quality work. Other months your clients might not need you, or you don’t find enough new work.
  • Some people will feel very uncomfortable with this especially if you’re supporting a family.

Potentially Make Less Money

  • Although there is the potential to earn more than being employed by a company, if you aren’t finding quality clients, you could potentially make less money.
  • If you aren’t a self-motivating type and need someone else to push you along, then with freelancing you could potentially be making less money than being employed by a company and earning a monthly salary.

You Have to Find New Work On Your Own

  • You don’t just spend time being creative and doing the thing you like, you also need to spend time finding new clients and work.  This means you’ll need to find marketing strategies and perform other business responsibilities to gain new clients.

You Have to Do Your Own Accounting

  • Since you are your own company, you need to handle your own accounting. If you don’t like numbers you will probably have to pay someone to do your tax returns and national insurance.
  • You still have monthly bills to pay so making sure your accounts have money available is more difficult given the other disadvantages mentioned above.

You will become bored of your home

  • If you choose to work from home, in the front room, in the home office, you might get sick of being there so it’s important to make sure you take regular breaks away.
  • Maintaining work life balance is much harder than being employed. You are in your work place all the time and it’s tempting to always be switched on, answering clients calls at 10pm or sitting at the computer instead of taking time out to play with the kids.

Yours schedule and the clients deadlines are often different

  • Managing time, to fit in a project within a deadline can be difficult. Often, you have to be available for the client you are working for outside a normal 9-5 if you want to be successful. Even though you have more flexibility to work this can reduced by client demands or a flurry of work which you need to take advantage of.

Clients can always choose another freelancer

  • You usually have to work harder than being employed to please clients who can expect far more from a freelancer than they would from a company. Clients know you are dependant on them for work and thus can negotiate hard for your labour and if you don’t please them enough, or your price is too high, they can simply look for another freelancer to take over.

Pensions, holiday pay and time off sick

  • No holiday pay – you have to account for this luxury time off
  • No company pension supplement
  • No company sick pay – if you are sick you will usually no have the luxury of taking time off

 

Still Want to Become a Freelancer?

So is freelancing worth it? Yes. If you’re considering it, and you have the skills mentioned in my post : How to Freelance : What skills does a freelancer need?  then, yes, you should freelance.

However, you have to be driven, confident, and independent. You should be willing to take matters into your own hands. But the benefits far outweigh the cons if you are.

 

 

Hope you have enjoyed reading this freelance work from home article, what do you think? Do you freelance? Is it better than working for a company? Would you recommend freelancing to others? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below, with any tips for readers.

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