Is Freelance Work For You?

I’m going to be honest with you: Freelancing isn’t for everyone. Some people find the unstructured nature of this lifestyle scary; others embrace it. So today I want to cover some of the freelancing pros and cons.

First the pros…

First of all, you get to set your own hours. If you’re a morning person and like to get up early, you can. Likewise, if you’re a night owl and want to work late into the night, that’s fine too. Similarly, if you need to fit your working day around dropping the kids off at school in the morning and picking them up in the afternoon, you can.

Of course, the biggest attraction is you have no boss.

Actually, that statement’s not exactly true. You do have a boss: YOU – and you’ll never have a harder taskmaster. Nevertheless, you don’t have to ask for a day off and can work whenever/wherever you want. You can even become a digital nomad and travel the world making a living via your laptop – well maybe not right now, but when travel restrictions end and life returns to normal you should be able to.

Now the cons…

One of the biggest downsides is there is no sick pay or paid vacations. You’ll need to put money aside for when you’re not working, and it’s difficult to make plans a long way in advance. Another downside is that freelance work isn’t constant. Often, it’s either feast or famine – work all hours then worry that everything has dried up.

You might find yourself in a situation where you haven’t worked for a couple of months, your bank account is empty, your credit cards are full, and the rent or mortgage is due. You’ll need to think of something that will bring in some cash fast.

Can you handle all this? If not, freelancing might not be for you.

What Can You Do?

What skills do you have that would translate easily to your own freelance business?

The most popular (and easiest to get into) freelance occupation is writing. If you’ve got a good grasp of English (or any other language – you can freelance worldwide), and have a computer and e-mail address, you can make a living as a professional wordsmith. There’s article writing, blog post writing, copywriting, ghost-writing – the list goes on and on.

Photography is another popular freelance occupation. Again, there is an almost limitless list of photographic opportunities out there. The great news is: All you really need is your phone, a good eye, and some basic photography skills.

The same goes for videos. Everything is digital now and you can download some pretty decent editing software for free. 

Graphics are another lucrative angle to pursue. Professional high-end graphics packages like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects are available to everyone. They’re not cheap, but they do produce industry-standard results. 

For print graphics and stuff like designing business cards, letterheads and logos you can download open-source software like LibreOffice Draw and Gimp and achieve great results.

Finally, there’s coding – probably the most in-demand skill out there at the moment. If your skills are good, you can get hired to create apps, websites, WordPress themes, and software packages.

My advice is to pick the thing you’re best at and most passionate about, then after you’ve got yourself established, pick a specialist, in-demand section of the market and concentrate on that. Become the go-to guy or gal in your niche and you’ve got it made.

PS. If you CAN handle this, and freelancing is for you, you’ll find my freelance business course a goldmine of useful information. Find out more here!

Carlos Batista

Business Transformation Specialist

BusinessCoachingHub.co.za