You may be at that point where you want to quit your full-time job and try your luck at entrepreneurship. This maybe a new area to you completely especially if you are venturing into a freelancing career. This is a life changing decision which may impact you either in a positive or negative way. Let us look at the Pros and Cons of being a freelancer.
You are not under the management of anyone other than yourself and your clients. You are responsible for all the tough decisions. To say the least, you are in control.
You can work whenever you want. You get to choose your own hours-the working hours don’t have to be the regular business hours.
You collect and Keep all the cash from various Jobs – You have no restrictions when it comes to collecting the payments whether the projects are big or small. You can allocate or keep all the profits from your large and small projects and clients. This gives you the freedom to decide how to use the money on either improving yourself or expanding the business.
You are no longer stuck in an office or even in your home. You have the freedom to find a place that you can work best from.
Being a freelancer gives you the freedom of choosing who you would like to work with unlike in fixed job, in some cases you will have to work with unprofessional or rude clients.
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Health benefits are expensive. Depending on your current health, switching to a freelance lifestyle might not be in your best interest. Besides, starting your own freelance business means you no longer have paid sick days or vacation time to use. Each day you don’t work is a day you won’t get paid.
Freelancing may mean unstable income and workload that is inconsistent. In most cases you won’t be able to depend on any regular project, client or profit whereas in normal full-time job, you are sure of a salary.
You are in charge of finding all your own clients and projects. In a traditional job, you might get projects or clients being handed to you. This means that, you do everything by yourself.
Being a freelancer also means that you run the risk of not getting paid or pushing people to pay you. Their maybe ways to protect yourself from non-paying clients, but sometimes you may not realize the risk until it is too late.
Being a freelancer, gives you the freedom to be your own boss and even work from home, this may make it difficult for you to distinguish between your work time and your personal life.
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Freelancing means having the freedom to decide which work to do and who to work with but it also means instability. You have to evaluate all these, and decide if it is worth you leaving the traditional 9-5 job.
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Yes this is exactly a great list of pros and cons of being a freelancer. I have tried having an 8-5 job and I prefer being a work at home mom.
Thanks for your feedback Chelle.
I love your bottom line, it really is a trade off between freedom and security. If you are brave enough to take the freedom it can be great.
True! Thanks for visiting.
Great post a lot to take in. I’d love the flexible hours but I’d be wary of missing out on the employee benefits
Thanks for your insights.
All of these are true, especially the lack of work benefits like you would receive with a typical 9-5 job position.
Yeah, that is why we need to know the facts before we make the informed decision of pursing Freelancing full time. I would advice one keeping a day job and doing freelancing on the side.
I love being a freelancer and find the drawbacks to be minimal.
Thanks for the feedback.
Very balanced post. It's so important to keep all sides of a decision to freelance in mind.
Hi Kat, thanks again for dropping by. Looking on both sides enables one to make an informed decision.
I agree on both, the pros and the cons, and it's a big step to take. However, if you want to win you have to risk something. Risk assessment would be a good idea. If you can't afford to loose, than it's to risky to invest (meaning quitting your job and so on)
Hi Lena, true but if you have a permanent job, it is advisable to keep the job while you embark on your side hustles or freelancing work. If you succeed in establishing your career as a freelancer then you can quit your day job, that way you have nothing to lose.
Smart advice... There's one major thing that I think is very important to figure out when thinking about freelancing, is the concept of concentration on tasks. For some people, working independently is great, they can move ahead without directions and feel comfortable having to figure things out on their own. But that's not for everyone - neither is the discipline of working focused on work, rather than all the other things that calls upon us in life. Self-focused and driven work is great for some, not for everyone. And the key is to really know ourselves to understand this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts
Hi Hanes, am more than grateful for those insightful comments. I agree with you, that we need to weigh the options to see what works for us, while considering everything on both sides before we make that crucial decision with regard to freelancing.
Awesome post. Thanks for giving the real picture when it comes to freelancing. That is very important
Hi, thanks for dropping by.
Those cons are very true!
That's the reason I fear leaving the Higher Ed industry to take up Real Estate and Blogging. I'm not sure I will have the income security.
Good breakdown.
Hi, yes, it is always good to weigh the options, and settle for what works well for you. Thanks for visiting.