I've freelanced for the last 10 years and I feel a lot of the points made there are scraping the barrel somewhat. You learn how to best deal with most of it in less than a year.
Strictly budgeting yourself should be on there, as it's very much a case of feast and famine when you're starting out.
However, the single most difficult thing about freelancing to this day, for me at least, is staying motivated. My best tip to avoid creative blocks is to choose your clients wisely to allow your focus to shift around as diverse an array of briefs within your field as you can manage so you remain fresh and full of good ideas.
It's good to point out the negatives to freelancing. I just started freelancing last month after being laid off, and there are definitely positives and negatives. While I do have a much more relaxed schedule and I do make more money, it sucks not having much work/life separation.
For instance, last week I had a few friends over for some beers and I had to work the whole time because the client had an important demo the night before. Because of the rate I was getting, I had to choose between $X/hr and hanging out with my friends. Sadly, the $X/hr won.
It is also hard to convince my Fiancee that I need to carve out 8 hours a day to do work. Yes, I'm at home all the time. Yes, I physically can go visit her mother today. However, I need time to work, and if I'm running errands all day there isn't time to ever get work done. It's hard to strike this balance and to stay hard line on "When my office door is closed, pretend I'm downtown and at work."
Overall, though, I prefer freelancing. After awhile I'm sure the lack of structure, instability and lack of benefits will cause me to jump to another full-time gig. Until then, I'm happy doing what I'm doing.
If you can and this continues to be a problem find a small office nearby. Just a single room with a door that you can lock would be enough.
Clarity helps a lot too, setting a simple rule that will not be broken (Monday through Friday, from 8:30 am to 17:30 pm I'm at work, and not available, sorry), goes a long way to forestalling such push-and-pull situations.
Being unclear can be a source of great frustration, to both parties.
edit: one thing you could do that might help to greasing the wheels a bit is to make sure you lunch together on workdays.
Agreed. I don't freelance, but I work remotely a few days a week, generally from home. Where my wife homeschools our sons. We have ground rules, though, that help both of us manage:
1. I walk to the cafe from 9:00-12:00-ish while she does the bulk of the work with the kids. The local cafe is quiet, so it's not a problem for me to work there, and get a lot done in that time.
2. If I can't be distracted once I'm back home, I simply close the door to our office.
3. If my wife is working with the kids, I stay out of that area of the house.
4. On days that I spend some time with the kids, it's understood that I'll need to "make up" that time in the evening after the kids are asleep.
No, that doesn't work - all the time - but occasionally, you get to work really really hard and then you can slacken off for a bit, take it easy. If you are the kind of person that is 100% productive all the time this may not be a benefit to you, but I'm not all that regular and I definitely have my productive and less productive phases.
So the fact that I don't have to get up at a set hour and report to a boss really helps. In fact, if I know I have to get up early that usually spoils my rest completely because I can't sleep.
2> freelancing will make you rich
It probably won't make you rich, but it will definitely make you more money than what you'd make doing the same job for a boss. After all the taxes are paid and you've been doing it for two to three years you can expect roughly double the amount left after paying taxes and so on compared to what you'd make working a 'regular' job.
And if you use whatever time you have left over to work on a pet project or two then you might even be able to do better.
>3 you hate working with people
That's a tricky one. If you really hate working with people you have a problem regardless. If you just hate working with certain people, the kick-down lick-up type and the ones that have floated to the top through a lack of substance then as a freelancer you have more control over the situation than as an employee.
After all, you don't have to work with everybody, you can choose with which companies you do business. Four or five good customers that pay on time and that you can work with is really all you need. More is better. But you'll never be forced to sit opposite from 'joe', your jerk co-worker that always tries to find a way to get under your skin when the boss isn't looking.
>4 to spend the day with your kids
I don't understand what the writer is trying to get at here. Maybe the ability to mix a healthy amount of private life with business life is hard to come by, but in general it is doable.
You don't need to be super grouchy, and to train everybody around you to walk like ghosts, conversely your family will have to support you when you are in need of some time to work on stuff that needs doing. After all, a regular job takes you out of the house 40 hours per week + commute.
Also, there are plenty of freelance jobs where you will be out of the house. And if you're even moderately successful a simple office with a phone line and internet connection doesn't have to cost the world.
I've had two occasions in the past where a large customer suggested I have an office in their building, at their cost, or seriously discounted.
>5 you can charge whatever you want.
No, that's obviously not true, you can't charge whatever you want.
But on the other hand it's not the union determining what you can make either. If a job is high pressure, short time to deadline and you're the linchpin, then you can pretty much write your own ticket, within reason. If it's a job that anybody could be plugged in to then it's obviously a different matter. Finding out where there is room is part of the skills you will (need to) develop.
>6 freelancing is an easy job
Freelancing is definitely not the hardest job out there. The hardest jobs are selected for people that have little to no education and that have very few options in life. Go work in a harbour, a slaughterhouse or a cleaning company for a couple of months.
Freelancing is a walk in the park by comparison.
It's not as easy as most office jobs, but then again, you can't be fired any more, you have a lot of control that you'd never have as a wage earner. You also don't have any of the (relative) security that comes with that.
If you need to track down 'late payments' you're doing something very wrong, late payments should be extremely rare if you have a good relationship with your customers.
You can even avoid late payments completely by being completely up front about your financial situation, setting a decent price and demanding half up front and half on delivery, or some scheme like that.
>7 to keep up with the household chores
Clean stuff up right after you use it and that problem goes away easily enough. It's not like 'household chores' are going to take you the whole day, 20 minutes per day is for a single person more than enough to keep their life in order, if you're with a family of four then it may be a bit more work, but then there are also more hands to help.
>8 work will just come to you
Not initially, no. But after a while, and if you're good that will start to happen. And at some point you may even have to raise your price just to slow down the influx of new work.
That's how you convert a reputation in to $.
>9 no boss
That's a tough one, self motivation is - for some people - really really hard. If you are not looking at the company where you are working with a continuous eye to how you could and would do better and what you would do if you were more free then freelancing is probably not for you.
10> you'll save lots of money
Actually, you will save lots of money. They're called 'deductibles', and when you play your cards right you will find that you will probably pay less taxes as a freelancer compared to being a wage earner, at the same income level.
>11 you'll have more free time
If you are smart about it, and you keep accurate hours and you get good at budgeting jobs then you will eventually have more free time. But the first 2 to 3 years, which is how long it will take you to establish a reputation you will actually be working a lot harder than before.
This is fine, as long as you like your work.
>12 your family will respect you more
If you work either as a wage earner or as a freelancer in order to earn other peoples' respect then you're on the wrong road, regardless of which of the two you choose.
You work because it gives you satisfaction, food on the table and the level of security that suits you best.
If you feel undervalued as a wage earner then you can boost that satisfaction level - and your self confidence - by 'going solo'. It is also a good introduction in managing money, handling taxes, legal affairs and a whole pile of other useful skills.
Think of it as a very good preparation to running a larger business.
Re (7), I've found that freelancing has actually been really good for keeping up with housework. I can't work 8 hrs straight through in a day no matter the location or job, but when I'm at home, I can spend one of my little breaks taking 5 minutes to clean up the kitchen. Little incremental chores like that keep you from developing an intimidatingly large backlog.
I find freelancing perfect around uni, sure most of the downfalls are valid but what other job could I do that got me more experience in the field while being able to navigate around changing uni commitments.
Also depending on how demanding your clients are you can afford to have a slow week where you don't get much done if you don't really need the money, then ramp it up again when things aren't so busy in your life.
I loved freelancing when I had a ton of work on, because it basically meant I could code and get paid better for it than I otherwise would.
I hated freelancing when I didn't have a ton of work on, because it meant I had to do stuff that felt "dirty" to begin with, and then boring later on, like marketing, sales etc.
I'm now moving to a completely different country (with a far lower cost of living and tax rate) so I have more time to work on my own projects without worrying about needing to do the whole sales and marketing song and dance. I'm still not entirely sure if I want to focus on being an employee or being a freelancer over there though, Even after almost ten years going it solo, the sales part still scares me.
Strictly budgeting yourself should be on there, as it's very much a case of feast and famine when you're starting out.
However, the single most difficult thing about freelancing to this day, for me at least, is staying motivated. My best tip to avoid creative blocks is to choose your clients wisely to allow your focus to shift around as diverse an array of briefs within your field as you can manage so you remain fresh and full of good ideas.
Oh boy, did I ever learn that the hard way.