When to consider a profession as a freelancer?

Freelancing promises independence, financial freedom and flexibility. Freelancers have a strong potential to earn good amount of money. Freelancing gives you complete control over your work and this stimulates your creativity and bolsters the effort that you put into your work. You perform better when you know that you alone are responsible and accountable for your work-outcome and achievement.

Most people are unsure whether they would succeed as freelancers but here is another question – when to really consider this profession?

A stable job has its benefits. When you are working in a company, a lot of things are taken care of by the organization’s administration. These may include your leaves, pay, policies, procedures etc. There are a structure and system in place. You are expected to focus on your work and performance accordingly.

Therefore, when you switch to a freelancing role, make sure it pays off in the right way for you. We shall cover some points that will help you answer the burning question.

• Pros and Cons: Pick up a piece of paper and list it all out. This is an effective and simple technique. Take some time off and write on both aspects – freelancer and your present situation (whatever it may be). This will give a good perspective on where you stand now and what you can do about it. Be practical and honest with yourself.

• Goals: Whether you are considering being a freelancer or choosing any other profession, ask yourself – ‘does this agree with my goals?’, ‘Does it fit in with the big picture?’ When you have a vision about how your life must be, then you can easily make this decision. If you want to read more on how to properly set goals, read https://medium.com/accelerated-intelligence/if-you-want-to-be-massively-successful-do-not-set-ambitious-goals-according-to-studies-affa9cd39f5d

• Prepare: Being a freelancer means you must do everything. Yes, you can delegate, but everything revolves around you. Therefore, make a list of the things you require (from stationery to workspace). Don’t stress too much on it. The reason to do this is that you will get a sense of layout. You must also do some fundamental market research and understand what the present scenario or situation is.

• Learning: If your present job no longer motivates you, then you are not learning. When you don’t learn, you don’t grow and as a result, you get affected by stagnancy. A freelancing career continues to keep you on the move, nudging you out of the comfort zone and making you learn new things. With learning, you are more confident and your value increases. This paves the way for more exciting opportunities.

• Skillset: Before jumping into freelancing, evaluate whether you have the required vast skillset to capitalize on this earning opportunity. If you are an expert at something, it will be easy for you to manage and deliver. Thereby, you can handle more clients. Don’t be discouraged if you are already a freelancer and novice. Find time to learn, experiment, and do better. You can get better at an already existing idea or work. You can find additional information at: https://jamesclear.com/first-principles.

These points will give you a fairly good idea about the freelancing scenario and guide you accordingly. Please do note that there are more factors that weigh in on the final decision. You can experiment for a short period of time and see whether this dimension of profession suits you.

Thanks for reading.

Good Luck.