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Five Fast Facts About Freelancing

Posted July 31, 2011 in Getting Started, Inspiration

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You’re thinking about becoming a freelancer. Or, maybe you’ve already started your own freelancing business.

Good for you!

This means you’re doing something positive about your dreams. You’re taking action (or about to take action). Taking action is a very good thing.

Freelancing can provide a wonderful life. But freelancing also has its ups and downs–the downside just doesn’t get mentioned very often.

In this post, you’ll learn a few fast facts about freelancing that you may not have realized before.

This post lists some of the difficult truths about freelancing that no one really wants to talk about. However, really understanding these fast facts will put you ahead of the game as a freelancer.

Fast Freelancing Facts

Here are some freelancing facts to help you get ahead in your freelancing business. If you adjust your business for these rarely mentioned factors, your business should have a definite advantage:

1. Many new freelance businesses will ultimately fail. Naturally, most freelancing gurus won’t mention this fact. Of course, a high failure rate is not limited to freelancing businesses. Statistics show that many other types of new businesses fail in their first few years. That high failure rate is why it’s important to learn everything you can about freelancing and running a business in order to beat the statistics.
2. Freelancing isn’t “free,” or easy either, for that matter. Despite what you might think of when you hear the word “freelancing,” there are some definite costs associated with becoming a freelancer. Plus, while some people may enter freelancing thinking that it’s easy money, most successful freelancers who I know of worked very hard to achieve their success. Freelancing is not for slackers.
3. If you had problems as an employee, you’ll likely also have problems as a freelancer. You may not like to hear this, but if you’re going to succeed you need to know it. If your skills were not up to snuff when you were an employee, what makes you think they’ll be better when you freelance? Also, if you had trouble getting along with people then, you’ll probably have trouble getting along with clients as a freelancer.
4. Freelancing demands that you stay up to date. It’s no good sitting on your laurels and relishing your past accomplishments. As a freelancer, you must keep up in order to remain competitive. This means keeping your skills up to date, updating your freelancing website, and keeping abreast of social media changes and trends. You may need additional training and you’ll certainly need to upgrade your tools regularly.
5. There are more freelancers now than ever before. It’s true. In just the past ten years, freelancing has really taken off. When I started, there were very few freelancers. In fact, many people didn’t even know what a freelancer was. Now freelancing is more mainstream. Nearly every week I read more about how freelancing is on the rise. One article even predicted that most workers would be freelancers in the future.

Now that you’ve learned these fast facts, it’s time to think about what to do about them.

Why This Is Important to New and Old Freelancers

Simply put, knowing these things allows you to freelance with your eyes wide open.

Too many freelancers get started without really thinking their business through. They have an idealized and largely unrealistic picture of what means to be a freelancer.

Thankfully, now that you’ve read this post you’re not one of those freelancers. You know what you’re up against, which is half the battle won already.

Seriously, none of these fast facts should be a showstopper. None of them is insurmountable–except when you are unaware of them.

So, now you can plan to succeed by taking the following steps:

• Plan to work hard.
• Plan to spend money and time on your business.
• Plan to take an honest inventory of your skills. (Be sure to list any problems you are aware of.)
• Plan for regular training.
• Plan for regular software upgrades.
• Plan to brand your business so that it stands out from other freelancing businesses.

Your Turn

Can you think of any “uncomfortable” freelancing facts that I missed? Have you overcome any of these freelancing facts in your own freelancing business?

Share your answers and tips in the comments.

Image by Laughlin Elkind

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