Stress Test: Can You Handle Freelancing?
May 9, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Jobs
When I explain to people what I do for a living, often their reaction is that my life must be really stressful. And they’re right. For those of you who haven’t taken the plunge yet, let me drive one point into your brain: FREELANCING IS INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL. Even those who’ve been doing it for decades know that this career path is much more stressful than many 9-to-5 jobs.
Image: sxc.hu
Why is it so stressful?
- You have to carefully plan your schedule, and even the best planners have days when they’ve overbooked themselves.
- Often, a single bad job can ruin your reputation, making it hard to find more jobs.
- Even if you have a long-term gig, it could disappear at any time. You can put all of your eggs in one basket, and you have to have a back-up plan so you can pay your bills.
- Clients often put off paying you by a few days or weeks because you aren’t face-to-face with them, demanding your money. Even a strongly worded email or legal threats will phase some people, since to them, paying their mortgage is more important. You can wait a week. But then, who will pay YOUR mortgage?
- If your internet goes down or your computer crashes, you’re toast.
- You’re running a small business, so you have to understand the legalities behind that.
I’m sure I’m missing other stress-realted characteristics of freelancing. The point is this: you have to work well under pressure if you want to be a full-time freelancer. Often, people who get into freelancing think it is going to be an easy stay-at-home job, but it isn’t. Freelancing is VERY rewarding, but it isn’t for everyone.
A little planning and some common sense can eliminate most of these stresses.
1.) Always give yourself more time than you need, and don’t be afraid to turn away work. If you think a project might take you a week, quote two. If you can’t do the project, keep a list of referrals and give the client some names. Clients will be happy if you underpromise and overdeliver.
2.) So don’t do a bad job. Always do your best.
3.) Don’t get complacent and always be marketing. Don’t stop even if you’re booked for months.
4.) Keep a cushion in savings. Several months of living expenses preferably.
5.) Have more than one computer and make backups. Local backups through a backup hard drive and online backups. At least one of your computers should be a laptop. That way if your internet goes out, you can go to a wifi hotspot.
6.) There are plenty of resources both offline and online for the legaleese of running small businesses.
Any job is going to be stressful in some way or another. At least when you freelance, you have control over those stresses.
@Hesster Yeah but you definitely should have an extra comp at home or some other backup, especially if you have deadlines.
@Allison I totally understand! A lot of the members on the Vois.com site say, they are worried that they will not get paid by the Buyers. Freelancers should always make the buyer pay in small increments while bits and pieces of the project are getting completed. We actually have a milestones option so that when part of the project is completed the Buyer must pay them.