Freelance, Careers, Social Media

Is Freelancer the Right Path for You?

Things to think about before you decide to become a freelancer

A freelance seems to become a good option right now, especially for you who want to escape from a 9–5 office job. Perhaps everyone can be a freelancer but that doesn’t mean everyone is suitable for it.

However, freelancers have different pattern, lifestyle, and workflow that probably just fits some particular people. In fact, many people only see the bright side without really knowing what the risks are like.

Both full-time and freelance have their good and bad. The thing is working as a freelancer is not for everyone. Some elements you need to recognize before you make decisions for the long term.

The Purpose

Apart from earning money, what is your goal in working? Do you need flexible hours or a stable income? What portfolio do you want to create?

Do you want to fill it with various brands and projects or do you need a high position level to enhance your resume to achieve your dream? Are you more productive working alone or with a team?

Before knowing your purpose, it could be that your desire is only limited to curiosity or burnout if you are working full time right now.

Learn to listen to your needs so that your decisions are not biased.

Skills

In fact, not all skills can be converted to freelance work. However, with the advancement of the era, there are more job choices that we can choose, no matter what basic skills we have.

As far as I know, majors such as engineering or science are still more likely to work in certain industries, especially if they want practical work.

There are many expensive instruments needed and impossible to own them as an individual. Not to mention the licensing, SOP, and other policies that still can only be met by company standards. All of them have not really had the opportunity to be done on a freelance basis yet.

Still, you can look for other jobs that match your skills above, for example being an online teacher, private teacher, freelance auditor, freelance researcher, etc. Find out what your expertise is and try to find a field of work that can indeed be used as a freelancer.

If you don’t find a job that matches your formal degree, there are many other skills you can actually self-learn like graphic design, editing video, photography, etc. Especially with the existence of a profession as a content creator, you can still be creative no matter what your background is.

Although there are still other skills that you must learn to maximize your content.

Basic Question

Many people are so excited to become a freelancer in the first place, but failed after 1–2 years then eventually they come back to the traditional job.

Being a freelancer is like taking the role of CEO and employee at the same time. You need to conceptualize, strategize, build branding, build a portfolio, and of course lead yourself to keep on track like CEOs do, but you did on a smaller scale.

However, you still get paid by clients like the employee to pay your bills while the real CEO should have to think about the salary of his employees.

It looks like a freelancer is really a fantastic job, but actually, every job has its own challenges. Here are some basic questions you need to ask yourself before choosing a career as a freelancer

1. Are you excellent at managing your time?

Outsiders see freelancers as having free time to work. That’s true but oftentimes they also work 24/7. Especially for those of you who have a habit of procrastinating, you need to consider it carefully before becoming a freelancer.

In contrast to people who work full time in companies that have a fixed amount of earnings every month.

Freelancers know they have to work otherwise they won’t get any money. The good news is that you can take as much and as long time off as you want and return to work whenever you feel ready to return.

2. Can you wear many hats?

Having a team to work with, means you don’t have to be responsible for solving all the issues alone.

It’s different when you become a freelancer when you should find out the solution by yourself.

Becoming a freelancer requires you to become a multi-talent person. Besides technical skills, another most important skill is communication. If in the company there is a public relations role that can represent you to communicate.

But as a freelancer, you must have the curiosity and willingness to keep learning if you don’t want your career to end.

3. Do you mind working alone?

One of the reasons my long-term goal is to be a freelancer in my career is that I love to spend my time alone.

Anyway, if you are easy to feel lonely, I think a freelancer is not for you. Because loneliness is really not good for your mental health.

Even those of us who enjoy being alone have felt lonely. But we can handle this instead of draining energy because we are surrounded by people.

My mood is indeed easy to change, but if I have to be surrounded by co-workers it makes it even more difficult to control it.

Moreover, as employees, there are times when we have to adjust our time with our superiors. There are unreasonable deadlines and an outrageous workload. The things above make me really drained of energy when working. For me dealing with drama because of other people are really tiring.

Meanwhile, if I become a freelancer, I only need to control myself which is my job. After all, if I really need help, I can still find answers via the internet, online friends, or other friends without having to attach too deeply to them.

4. How do you manage your emotion?

The world of work cannot be separated from drama. Maybe one of your clients is clingy and annoying. There are netizens who bully your work, or anything that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Since you have control over your life, you can easily procrastinate or take the same time off. But don’t get used to doing this for things that don’t really mean much. Instead, try to learn mood management at least not to make you totally out of work.

But try to give triggers to raise your mood such as ordering some comfort food, tidying your desk, cooking, or other activities but remember to keep it fits your budget.

5. Can you self-motivate yourself?

Working as a freelancer means that you are ready to be a result-oriented person. Clients will not care whether you need research time or need to learn certain tools because what they see is output from your work.

It’s another thing if you work full time at the company, we can improve the system, propose certain facilities that are also carried out by the team, not just you.

6. Are you comfortable enough with uncertainty and risks?

Freedom means uncertainty in the freelancer dictionary. This month you can earn 3 times as much as last month, but next month it is possible that your income will decline by more than half.

For me, this uncertainty actually makes me spend less than having a fixed income per month which actually makes me impulsive in buying. Maybe I feel safe because I already know for sure how much will be in my account next month.

Saving

It will take a long time before the time comes for you to shine as a freelancer.

However, there are ongoing needs, there are bills to pay, and there are families that we should take care of.

Even though you are a hard worker, you will still struggle a lot, especially in the early stages.

Not only have you not been able to charge a large fee, but even finding clients who want to use your services is a really painful struggle. Passion is important but being realistic is a must too.

If your savings are still not enough to cover your initial difficult times, you can freelance as a side hustle first and keep working full time at the same time.

You may be exhausted at this time but if you are passionate about what you are doing, the results are going to be worth it.

Burnout

Freelancer burnout too. They can’t even rest in peace when they’re sick because everything has consequences.

Besides that, it takes quite a long time until you finally have sufficient income.

In the early days, you will spend a lot of time on research, building portfolios, and training skills until you are even willing to be paid very minimally at the beginning for all of that.

Bottom line

It would be better if you taste both before you decide. But if you’ve just tried one of these and are already comfortable with it, congratulations it means you’ve found your way.

Actually, freelancing is definitely a fantastic choice especially when you are so passionate about the job you want to be paid for.

Shout out to Jordan Gross. Such nice info about Micro Activities You Should Do for Your Brain.

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