Freelancing and being self-employed are not as glamorous as most people make them out to be. It comes with both advantages and disadvantages. If you’re thinking about getting started in freelancing or going back to a day job after struggling with freelancing, give this post a read for a list of the pros and cons of being self-employed. Hopefully, I can help you make a decision.
What are the advantages of being self-employed?
If you’ve seen pictures of digital nomads traveling around the world living a laptop lifestyle. Or Facebook posts saying freelancing is a lonely road. Let me reassure you, it’s all true.
Freelancing comes with many benefits and also downsides. However, I see it as a healthy balance of both. It’s certainly much better than the downsides of working at a day job. Here’s why.
Also read: 5 Steps To Create Freelance Services and Makes it Easier for Clients to Hire You
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Being Self-Employed
#1 Never Having To Answer To A Boss
Before starting freelancing I worked at 3 different day jobs. Even though it was a terrible time full of depressing moments, I’m thankful for the experience. Because it allowed me to see the benefits of freelancing and truly appreciate being able to be my own boss. You can never do great work while working at a day job.
How can you even do any work, when there’s a boss hovering over your shoulder every few minutes, criticizing your work, not appreciating your creativity, never listening to your ideas, and making you feel anxious. Being self-employed, you won’t have to worry about any of that. Your clients will welcome your ideas, respect your thoughts, and give you the freedom to do work however you like.
But, You Have To Answer To Clients; of course, when you’re working with clients, you’ll still have to deliver work on time, meet deadlines, receive constructive criticism from clients, and do revisions. But, don’t confuse your clients for a boss. As a freelancer, you are your own boss!
If you feel like a client is using you, manipulating you, or making you feel depressed, you can fire them. And find another client. It’s as simple as that. Also, read Freelancers – 7 Common Errors to Avoid.
#2 You’ll Earn A Lot More Money
At the moment, I’m actually earning 20X more than the salary I was earning at my day job. My parents are still wondering if I’m running some kind of an illegal drug distribution system or something. They have no idea how it’s even possible. It may take you a while to get there (took me 4 years of hard work), but you will earn a lot more doing freelance work than any other day job you can think of. As long as you don’t get comfortable and keep learning new skills and improving your services, you will eventually earn more money being self-employed. I guarantee that.
But, No Guaranteed Monthly Paychecks; unless you land a full-time freelancing gig at a startup or a remote team, there won’t be a guaranteed paycheck when freelancing. In my first 4 years, I lived on the client to client. After finishing one project, I went on to look for another. This is the case for most freelancers. There’s always a risk of not landing a client in time. But, you can fix this by working with long-term clients and projects. It’s how I managed to fix my problem. Once I worked with the same 3 clients for over 2 years.
#3 Ability To Work Flexible Hours
Waking up at 10 AM and starting work at 1 PM is one of the biggest benefits of being self-employed. I’m not a morning person and I always hated waking up in the morning. It took me a while a realize that I’m a night owl. I do my best work at night. As a freelancer, I can work any time I want. I don’t have to worry about being late to work and coming up with a fake story to explain to my boss why I was late.
Come to think of it, I think having to wake up in the morning is probably one of the reasons why I always hated my day job.
But, You’ll Have To Work Much Harder; being your own boss comes with a lot of responsibilities. You have to finish specific tasks every day, manage different clients, update clients on progress, issue invoices, manage expenses, and much more. So, you will probably end up working more hours than a 9 to 5 job. In fact, there are days I work until 12-1 AM. But, I don’t consider it work because I truly enjoy what I’m doing.
#4 Future-Proof Your Career
With the recent pandemic situation, more and more businesses are now switching to 100% remote work systems. This means all their employees now work from home or they hire remote workers from foreign countries. This is great news for freelancers as it will open more remote positions and job openings for remote workers from around the world. In the next few years, we will surely see a rise in the number of freelance workers and jobs available in the industry.
But, You’ll Be Stuck At Home; of course, as a remote worker, you won’t be able to take a trip to the office and spend time with your colleagues and friends. For introverts, this is an ideal situation. But extroverts will have a hard time adjusting to this change. But if you survived the lockdowns in the pandemic, switching to a remote position won’t be too difficult.
One More Reason To Consider
Although, none of these pros or cons aren’t as important as your happiness. The joy and the happiness you get from working comfortably from home and doing work you love is something that you can never put a price on. You don’t have to sacrifice your own happiness to provide for yourself or your family. You can live a happy life being self-employed.
Also read: Top 10 Freelance Websites and Marketplaces in Nigeria for Freelancers
