Taurai Minodawafa
Over the past few years, freelancing has become a more and more popular way of making money for many people around the world. In fact, more than one-third of people have pursued a freelance career. As a freelancer, you are your own boss. You choose when you work and when you don’t. There are also more benefits to committing to the freelance lifestyle. Here are six advantages of being a freelancer.
- Freedom
Freelancing affords you much more freedom than working for someone else. You’re pretty much running your own business, and you decide your hourly rates, the hours you work, and which clients you take on.
- Flexibility
Besides pay, the ability to set your hours may be the most attractive aspect of freelancing. If you’re a parent, you can choose to work while your children are at school or in bed. If you want to push off some work from Tuesday to Saturday because the weather is nice, you are free to do that. As long as your clients’ projects are finished by the date you’ve set, you can work whenever you want.
You can also be flexible in where you work. You can choose to live where you want and work as you travel should you choose. You can find clients wherever you go. Additionally, most freelance work is digital, so you don’t necessarily have to be in the same locale as your clients.
- Self-management
Again, you are your own boss as a freelancer. You select your schedule, workload, dress code, and everything else about your operation. Don’t get it confused, though. Freelancing is not a vacation. It’s your job to keep clients satisfied, negotiate rates, keep track of the budget and find new clients. However, it’s all up to you, and you don’t have to deal with the micromanaging that can come with working for someone else.
- Control your compensation
You don’t need to ask your boss for a raise as a freelancer because you set your rates and how much work you take on. However, to a point, rates and workload are dictated by market forces. You can’t ask for really high compensation rates without reducing your list of prospective clients. As you do more work and gain a reputation, you can raise your price.
- Upskilling
As a freelancer, you will be taking on numerous projects from different clients, and each project presents the opportunity to improve your skillset as you learn as you go. A traditional full-time job doesn’t always offer you the chance to constantly learn new things. As a freelancer, you have the freedom to learn on the fly and add to your resume. You may also choose to diversify your repertoire on your own. Forget about scheduled annual corporate training. As a freelancer, you decide when and where to learn new things. There are many resources online to help you upskill, and you can take advantage as you see fit.
- Ability to test a small business or startup concept
Freelancing permits individuals to build their client bases and grow their businesses. You can experiment with different offerings and services as a freelancer to see what brings you the most success, however you define that.
