Is it better to have a stable source of income or be in a field where your next meal hangs on fate finding you a client?

The question of whether freelancing is better than a job has existed for ages

Luckily, it has an answer.

Before that, let’s answer the question:

What Is Freelancing?

Now If you already know what it is, you can skip to the next header

Let me explain Freelancing this way:

If you’ve ever been to a school, there are cleaners who keep the halls tidy everyday.

They have a fixed salary and work month to month. That’s a job

However, when the bushes in a farm need clearing.

Your parents pay people to clear it.

These people do the work and disappear. You may not see them again.

That’s freelancing (yes, it’s not limited to the online space)

Now, why would people choose something so rocky to a more stable pay?

It’s because freelancing has advantages.

Advantages Like ‘Autonomy’, ‘flexibility’ and ‘increased growth potential’.

Let’s look at it in details:

Key Advantages Of Freelancing:

1 Freedom and Flexibility:

There are two parts to this.

First, the freedom to control your work schedule and location.

In a traditional working environment, you go to work by 8 and return by 5. Your time is fixed

The time range doesn’t care if you achieve maximum output in 2 hours. You must be there at work.

9/10 people are basically paid for time instead of the product of the work they do.

Let’s not forget you must come to the office.

However, as a freelancer you decide your working hours and the time of work.

You’ve heard stories of programmers attending meetings on underwear and writers working in cafes. They are real.

This is because freelancers are paid for the work they do

Second, the freedom to work at places that align with your interests 

Picture this, you love monkeys and you’re a strong ambassador for no animal cruelty

Suddenly, the company you work for decides on a partnership with a laboratory that prides itself on using monkeys as lab rats.

Scary right,

You’d feel like a fraud writing those emails. Even if you wanted to resign, you’d need to give them a “heads up”

As a freelancer, you have the freedom to not initiate projects with companies that go against things you stand for

2 Financial Control:

This is more worrisome than you think. Let me paint a scene

You get a job in January and work 6 months with that company. If you’re half serious with your life, by the end of those 6 months you would be more skilled.

Now, it’s July. You’re 7x better than you were when you joined and you’re still getting paid the salary of an inexperienced worker.

Make it make sense.

Yet that’s the problem in a corporate institute. Things such as salary increments take time to consider.

There’s an entire finance department who really doesn’t want to pay you more.

On the other side of the world, as a freelancer. You do a job, get experience and become more confident.

Confidence to charge higher of course.

As your portfolio increases, the value of clients you attract increases.

I’m 6 months old, you’re 7x more skilled and commanding more than you would.

It’s easy to see why people consider the route of Freelancing right?

3 Building Your Skills and Portfolio

Imagine you’re a graphic designer.

Your first job as a freelancer may be a church who needs flyers. While your next job is at a pet company.

In a year, you’ll discover you have worked in the fashion niche, health niche, fitness niche and more…

The confidence and knowledge that comes with such diversity is terrifying.

Now, while you’ll have to niche down. It’s pleasant to know that you can find clients across the board.

However, as a designer for a food and drinks restaurant. You’ll find out that after a year of hard work. You’re an authority in the food sector.

Now, this is splendid.

But you could be so much more knowledgeable.

The freelancer route offers the chance to be more skilled.

 

4 Be Your Own Boss

This is so underrated.

While I was a freelancer for a company(I was in charge of email marketing). Some workers were getting fined for missing general meetings.

Now, these meetings were not related to their departments and work. They were “general”

I was not fined. This was because I was not working for the company, I was working with it.

My job was to deliver a certain result and go (or hopefully come back and be paid again).

Being your own boss is an underrated advantage.

Yet, life doesn’t happen to be a bed of roses. There’s always the good and bad

Potential Challenges of Freelancing

1 Income Fluctuation and Client Finding

The talk of earning more faster sounds beautiful until you realize that’s one side of the coin.

For you to have a non-steady income, it only makes sense that sometimes pay will be much less than usual.

Or even worse, you don’t find another employer and stay jobless for months.

It happens more than you think.

To tackle this, I’d recommend treating each pay as a delicate meal when starting. Until you find yourself a steady stream of clients.

2 Self-Discipline and Time Management.

Let’s face it.

You have to

• wake up by yourself
• At your own time
• Plan your working hours

All without any supervision.

Most people mess this up and become lazy. This leads to bad reviews

And that’s just the easy part.

At the initial stages of freelancing, you’ll have to pull off endless reach outs without results.

You most likely will not see results of the work you do.

The discouragement from this is very common.

This becomes worse than a lack of motivation. Every attempt that fails makes you want to work less.

It’s initially a constant state of “demotivation”

There’s no advice to help with the inevitable lack of motivation. All I can say is you have to do the work.

Remember, freelancing is the solution to traditional jobs. It has unimaginable advantages such as

• Freedom and Flexibility
• Financial Control
• Building Skills and portfolio
• Becoming generally more knowledgeable.

Yet it comes at a cost, you’ll initially have to endure:

• Income fluctuation
• Lack of clients
• High levels of self discipline
• Constant demotivation.

However, in the end it’s worth it. Freelancing is a stepping stone to refining your business acumen. It should be taken advantage of.

I wish you best of luck