What is a freelancer? A freelancer is a person who is self-employed and works in one or more of a number of professions. The most common freelance professions are writing, editing, photography, web design, graphic arts, and computer programming. Instead of being an employee of a company, freelancers sell or contract their work to their clients. This article looks at the challenges freelancers face and helps you make the decision of whether or not freelancing is for you.

Freelancing sounds like the ideal opportunity: flexible hours, good pay, the chance to fit your career around your other commitments (and not the other way around, as is often the case). But there are considerations that you should take into account before making the decision to go freelance.

Why work as a freelancer? Most of us have thought at some point that being self-employed would be a great opportunity, usually on a cold and wet Monday morning. Don’t ride a crowded bus to work or sit in traffic; no boss yelling in your ear telling you what to do; in fact, you don’t have to get off the couch until noon. Freelancing comes with a host of benefits, but it’s not an easy option. You should consider why you want to be a freelancer.

Good reasons to freelance include: Family commitment – if you are caring for someone else, such as a child or elderly relatives, which makes it impossible to work a regular schedule, freelancing will save you the commute to and from part-time work and allow you to be flexible with your time .

extra income – if you already have a job but it doesn’t pay well and you have at least 3-4 hours a week that you could spend earning extra money, freelancing will allow you to earn that extra income while keeping your current job.

In addition to looking at your reasons, you may want to consider the following issues: Tax breaks As a self-employed person, you’ll be self-employed, and so working from home means you can claim a fair share of expenses against any tax liability. For example, if you use a room in your house, you may be able to claim a portion of the cleaning costs, mortgage interest, council tax, and home insurance against your tax bill, as long as an area of ​​the house is dedicated solely to Commercial use. for a significant time.

flexible work

If you already have a job and you are in the UK, your employer may be required to consider allowing you to work flextime (however, they do not have to grant this request).

Discipline

Is it easy for you to focus on a project? Or are you quickly distracted by chatter, TV, magazines, children, or other things around you? Self-employment from home requires discipline – the ability to remove all distractions and focus on the job at hand. If you’re not particularly disciplined, you’ll find that in the absence of your boss to keep an eye on you, your attention is diverted by the constant stream of tasks and distractions that keep you away from the computer.

Loneliness

If you enjoy the company of your associates at work, freelancing at home can be a bit of a shock to you. Freelancers don’t have the chatter and bustle of a busy office, which can be an advantage, in terms of concentration, but can also make existence quite lonely during working hours. If you love the company you get at work and need to have people around you, then self-employment may not be for you.

If you’re still considering freelancing, think about how you can replace the interaction you’d get from work in your life. If you have a partner, don’t rely on them to be your entire social network when you get home from work each day—you’ll have no experiences to share and little to talk about. Join a gym, class, or group to have the circle of friends you would have had as an employee.

Space

Don’t be fooled into thinking you can work at home in the living room if you have two lively toddlers around you during the day. A cold garage, a windowless attic or a messy storage room are also not a good environment to work at home. You need a tidy, well-lit, comfortably heated room in which you can organize your belongings, free from (most) interruptions. Okay, if you don’t have that space, you may have to improvise, but the important thing is that you have a space for yourself that is comfortable, practical, and enough for you to organize your books, journals, and notes without getting them covered. on coffee stains or used for drawing paper. It is also highly recommended not to use a bedroom or living room because you will have nowhere to relax when you are done and you will end up feeling like you are at work every minute of the day.

Time management

One of the most difficult aspects of freelancing at home is time management. Freelancers often choose to work at home so they can fit their work into their life, but this itself makes freelancing challenging. It is necessary to draw a line between work time and free time, reserving certain parts of the day to work and certain parts to deal with other commitments. If you don’t draw a line, you’ll find little errands: ‘packing a snack for the kids’, ‘running to the shops’, ‘checking your emails’, take up a large part of the day. The answer is to create a routine for your freelance work: set aside the same parts of the day for work, plan reasonable breaks, and stick to your planned completion time. Turn off your cell phone if you can, or have a separate number for work and private calls. Don’t forget that you need to take regular breaks from your screen for the sake of your health.

Support team

While you may be considering freelancing so that you can support others, having your own support team is vital to the success of your lifestyle choice. First, family and friends need to understand your decision and know that you are not always available for a chat or lunch. Second, you need to appreciate that freelancing at home is still a job and if your kids get sick and you don’t have help, you’ll have to sacrifice your work time for your other commitments. Like any other job, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. So consider creating a ‘support team’ in advance: people who can help when things go wrong. It’s especially helpful as a parent if you have backup people to pick up kids from school or take care of them when they’re sick. The better your support team is as a working parent or carer, the better chance you have of this being successful.

No work? A final, but vital, consideration for those considering full-time freelancing. Can you afford to support yourself if there is no work available? Many freelance opportunities are seasonal and during off-peak hours, work may be scarce. If you need a regular and reliable income, you are better off freelancing part-time and working part-time or full-time.