What Are The Pros and Cons Of Freelancing? (Everything You Need To Know)

Freelancing allows people to take control of their careers, giving them the freedom to choose where they work and who they work with. Being a freelancer is very rewarding as it allows you to make your own decisions, however, it does come with barriers.

In this article, we’re going to discuss whether freelancing is right for you and if so what are the best routes to getting started. We’re also going to discuss the pros and cons of being a freelancer.

The Pros Of Freelancing

The first thing we’re going to do is discuss the pros of Freelancing.

Making Your Own Decisions

The main benefit of being a freelancer is that you are in control, you are your boss. You can decide where you work, how much you work, and who you work with. This means you can take more time off during the year, decide how long your lunch breaks are and take holidays whenever you want. The freedom to work on the projects you choose is another benefit that freelancers have as it allows them to say no, or yes, based on what they feel comfortable with at that given moment in time.

Being Your Own Boss

Another huge benefit of freelancing is that you are your own boss. You can set your hours and work as much as you like, there is no one to tell you what to do or how to do it. Being a freelancer means that you don’t have to deal with the typical 9-5 days which means less time spent at work. You can choose when you start and finish your day, which means you can get up whenever you like and relax on the weekends.

It’s Rewarding

Being a freelancer gives you an immense sense of satisfaction. Being able to set out on your own and follow your dreams is extremely rewarding in itself. It can be daunting at first but once you get started it becomes easier to deal with.

Getting To Follow Your Passion

A lot of times in full-time jobs you’re not really doing tasks you love. With freelancing, you get to follow your heart and do the things that you love. Freelancing also allows you to expand and learn more things which will make you better at what you do.

Cutting Costs

Working a full-time job you may need to buy lunch more often and also commute. All these different things can cost you a lot of money. If you’re a freelancer though you’re able to cut costs by making your lunch and of course you don’t have to even leave the house so the commute costs are eliminated too.

You’re In Control When It Comes To How Much You Get Paid

Certain skills earn more than others. If you can simply learn the higher-paid skills, you will be in control of how much you make. If you were working in an office, for example, the company could view you as ‘expendable’, meaning your salary would be lower than what it could potentially be and it would only go up every so often.

Some of the highest-earning skills with Freelancing are graphic design, web development and writing. If you can invest time into mastering one or more of these skills then your earning potential is endless. This allows you to have control over the amount of money you make, which is also rewarding in itself.

When going into freelancing keep this in mind and diversify your skills.

Cons Of Being a freelancer

Although there are a lot of pros when it comes to being a freelancer, there are also some cons that you need to be aware of.

Being A Lone Wolf

One of the first things people think about before deciding to become a freelancer is whether they can handle being their own boss. Sometimes it can be really tough working by yourself, not having anyone around to bounce ideas off or even have coffee with can make you feel isolated.

Working 24/7

A lot of times, especially when you’re just getting started you’ll be working 24/7 trying to figure things out. This can be exhausting and really affect your productivity. It will take time before you feel comfortable with the amount of work you have on your plate, it’s important to keep this in mind before quitting your job.

Eventually, you will be able to leverage the amount of work you’ve done and charge higher amounts of money. However, in the beginning, it can be really tough.

You Can’t Procrastinate

A lot of times in a full-time job you can find little ways to procrastinate. This is much harder to do when you’re your own boss because you don’t have anyone else telling you what needs to be done and at what time. This means no more browsing the internet for hours on end, in fact, distractions of any kind can make you lose out of money.

You’re Not Guaranteed To Get Paid

If you’re working for someone else you are usually guaranteed a paycheck at the end of the week. In the freelancing world this is not the case, you only get paid when people need your services. There could be times when you’ve done all your work and you don’t receive any money for it.

For example, you could get a writing job and the writing not be up to par according to the client, they can choose to not pay you even though they made use of your services.

That leads to another con.

You Might Get Stuck With A Bad Client

Bad clients are another con that will come with being a freelancer. There’s no way to fully avoid this but you can certainly mitigate the risk of it happening. This might be from working with people who have unreasonable expectations or even people who don’t pay on time.

Conclusion:

We hope this blog post has helped you understand the pros and cons of freelancing. If this is something that excites you then go ahead and follow your heart. Give it some time before quitting your full-time job though, give yourself a few months or even just weeks to see if this lifestyle is for you.

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What Are The Pros and Cons Of Freelancing? (Everything You Need To Know)