Consuelo Meux, Ph.D.

Greetings to all,

It’s a beautiful time on the Central Coast of California as far as the weather goes.  And even with challenging economic times, a freelancer can still find ways to move ahead. I’m so glad you stopped by for an update.

Consuelo

The Pluses and Minuses of Freelancing

It’s easy to think that life would be so much better if we didn’t have to go into work each day. If we could stay at home and earn some money while looking after the family, or catching up on a bit of sleep when they’re out of the house. But is it really as good as it sounds? Do the people who freelance and get to stay at home and laugh at those who have to head out on cold, wet, windy days to go to work? Let’s have a look at some of the benefits and drawbacks the freelancer really has to look forward to.

 

Drawbacks: Freelancing can turnout to be quite a perilous adventure for anyone who needs to have a fixed income each month. You’re never really guaranteed to have a steady income, even if you become quite established, so balancing the books and keeping the household bills inline can be a tricky business.

 

When you first start out you may have to accept lower paid projects so as to get yourself established as a good, reliable, hard working freelancer. One problem, however, is that a lot of other new freelancers may be fighting it out for the same projects, and if someone who has experience and feedback comes along your efforts might all be in vain.

 

You have to have your wits about you when agreeing to a contract that a potential employer is offering you. The company taking you on will often be able to rely on some form of legal advice, so they can make sure that they get the best possible deal that they can from a contract, so you have to know what you’re looking at and be able to quickly see if there’s anything that may be to your disadvantage. Make sure the contract is realistic for the work you’re able to do, if you promise too much, and then can’t deliver, it may go against you if you try to renegotiate the contract.

 

You really need to be able to set aside some area in your home where you can lock yourself off from the rest of the family. Because you’re still at home family life will be going on a round you and it can be very difficult not to get involved when you should be working.

 

You may, at times, feel a little isolated working as a freelancer. The reason for that is you won’t have any co-workers around you during the day, so you won’t have any excuses for stopping for a few minutes to catch up on the latest office gossip.

 

Benefits: It’s not all doom and gloom though, there’s a lot of benefits to had from becoming a freelancer.

 

You’re going to be your own boss – no more having someone to answer to! You decide when you want to start and when you want to finish your working day. If you want to take one, two, or even three hours for lunch you can.

 

If you’re working from home you can be there for all of the important events you may have otherwise missed out on. No more having to miss out on little Johnny or Jane’s school play because you’ve been stuck in traffic for an hour – of course that could just as easily go in the drawbacks section if you aren’t an enthusiastic watcher of school plays!

 

No more working long hours to make a pittance each week. When you’ve worked your way up to the position of established freelancer you’ll be able to pick and choose the projects you go for, in fact, potential employers will even invite you to submit a bid on a project. Some people, and you can actually see this next to their names when they’re bidding on projects, have made well over $100,000 by freelancing on websites! Get it right and the earning potential is unlimited.

 

Wet, windy, snowing, you can watch it all as it happen through the window as you’re sipping coffee in your cosy little office. Of course, in summertime you can sit outside and do all of your projects while ‘working’ on your tan.

 

You will have deadlines in which to complete the project, or milestone, that you’re working on, but, they will be deadlines that you’ve previously agreed on, so make sure you factor in enough time and you’ll easily be able to meet them.

 

So, while it’s not always going to be plain sailing if you decide to go it alone and become a freelancer, it has significant benefits for you and your family if you take the time to figure out how to do it right and then go out and do it. If you’re worried about going from having a stable job to the relative insecurity of first starting out as a freelancer, there’s nothing to say that you can’t do both for a short time – until you start earning more in a month as a freelancer than you do in a year as an office drone.