What Is It Like to Be a Freelancer?

One of the most favoured ways of working nowadays is freelancing. People are quitting their 9 to 5 jobs to enjoy the perks of being a freelancer. It wouldn't be wrong to say that freelancing is the new trend in business. Apart from people opting for freelancing, businesses are also turning their interests into freelancers.

If you were in a full-time job and a beginner just setting your foot in the freelancing business, you must be already in awe of the kind of lifestyle freelancing offers. Working from home, efficient hours, flexible schedule, and best of all, no boss to wander around your desk every morning complaining about your work style, what is there not to love, right? Well, maybe not. You see, what motivates thousands of people to quit their jobs and switch to freelance, are just the perks that come along with the real challenges. Sure, you are your own boss and yes, you get to choose what project you undertake and which client you work with. Yet, you can’t exactly be sure if freelancing is indeed the right choice for you.

In this article, we will talk about what it is like to be a freelancer, we also found freelancers who shed some light on their freelancing and what it is like to be one So, without any further ado, let's get started.

Having Freedom
Getting The Value of Your Work
Work Anytime and Anywhere
Effort and Courage Is Mandatory
No Stable Income
Hard to Find Work at Times

Having Freedom

Freedom is the most valuable aspect of a freelancer’s lifestyle. Not everyone can manage to fit into the 9 to 5 mold or appreciate the impending sense of monotony that follows along. One can work whenever they want and however they want, you are not bound to do your work in an unchangeable way.

"As a freelancer, I don’t write status reports, I don’t attend meetings for the sake of it, I don’t do self-appraisal and have debates every quarter or so with a random person called the manager when I know nothing is going to improve. I can use that time to upskill, teach, write a book, make YouTube videos, launch apps, build and enhance my website, own a non-IT startup, collaborate with like-minded people, and launch a real estate project for employed NRIs." - Imtiaz Mohammad, Freelancer and DS & Algo trainer

While freelancing, one of the perks is that you are being allowed to maintain an independent mindset, and also getting a chance to explore any work genre you want. The sense of freedom catches up with you and it freedom is what everyone craves for.

Getting The Value of Your Work

An irregular paycheck is sure a challenge as you struggle to keep up with those monthly bills. But getting paid for your project’s worth is a valuable experience just as well. With the increasing popularity of freelancing in India, the market today is ripe and open for the freelancer community and there are plenty of excellent opportunities to grab and get along with.

"There are freelancers in India who are earning more than 1 lac per month. We have successful bloggers, web content writers, and others who are working day in and day out and earning a lot of money." - Anshu Choudhury, Counselor/Assistant Professor at Indira Gandhi National Open University and a fellow freelancer

Work Anytime and Anywhere

One of the biggest advantages you can take from being a freelancer is that work from anywhere and anytime you want and get paid for your work’s worth. You can work on a project that is given by a company that is from another part of the world while staying or being in a totally other parts of the world. There is independence, a flexible work schedule, and a good return value.

"Perks of being a freelancer is that you can work over a boat as long as your mobile has a hotspot and laptop has enough charge. You need to take a faithful leap once you are sure that you can go along very well with freelancing.’ People are choosing this field as a full-time career because of freedom. You can travel anywhere in the world and enjoy the food of different countries, meet new people and most importantly earn loads of money." - Amit Ghosh, CEO of aeron7.com and a featured freelancer

Effort and Courage Is Mandatory

Despite all its merits, freelancing in India is a tough business with immense competition to sail through and immense fellow competitors to learn from. The problem here is as a freelancer, your workflow tends to get extremely erratic, from loaded work hours to dismal bank statements. The key is to stay put and keep trying, to learn, gain clients, or land gigs.

"I would often end up on sites with black backgrounds reading a brand new technique and then another, and another. The more I learned, the more work there was for me to do – and every new technique I learned usually resulted in more and more work, with little to no money in returns." - Subhash Chandra, Co-Founder RiseMetric and a successful freelancer

Setting up your working style and staying confident of your methods is one of the best things you have to learn, while living your life as a freelancer. Only that it doesn't come so easy. It is earned through years of practice and passionate eccentricity.

No Stable Income

You won't get fixed income while working as a freelancer, especially in India. Because sometimes you will get too much work and suddenly there will be no work at all. It's not like a full-time job where you can get a monthly paycheck. Here everything depends upon your work and how you handle your existing clients.

If you maintain a good relationship with your clients, you will get regular work. But in many cases, you have to save a lot of money for your survival. Though there are so many new opportunities coming in the market that offers regular work and for long-term, but to get those types of work you have to establish yourself as a successful freelancer.

Hard to Find Work at Times

One of the toughest challenges one faces while making a living as a freelancer is the lack of a regular workflow. Being a beginner with little experience of the freelancing environment simply makes things harder.

"The first customer is the hardest to get, so better make sure you do your best with your first." - Anubhav Yadav, a freelancer from Pune

There might be times when you are decked up with multiple projects and times when your hours run free at a miserable stretch. The point is, given the randomness of hiring candidates from the pool and the nature of the business, that is almost normal. Nearly every seasoned freelancer has had his or her brush with the ‘empty desk syndrome’ and each one will advise you to stick it on.

Conclusion

Freelancing is definitely one of the most popular ways of working and earning money nowadays. There 31.4.5 of the total workforce in the world are freelancers At the rate, that it is increasing, in a few years it might become the majority way of working. Just like everything freelancing has its advantages and disadvantages, one needs to check all the pros and cons and then opt for it.

FAQs

How many freelancers are there in the world?

As of now, 1.1 billion freelancers are there in the world.

Is freelancing safe in India?

Freelancing is one of the safest ways of working and earning money in India.

Are freelancers happier?

76% of workers feel happier while freelancing instead of doing a traditional job.