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Five things you should know before going freelance

Career Tips
 Freelancing allows  control over your own career (Photo: Shutterstock)

Freelancing is basically self-employment. This is someone who isn’t bound to any long-term contracts with companies and that gives them room for a freer and more flexible schedule to work with.

In current times, many people would love to go freelance and gain the freedom that comes with it. You get to be your own boss and no longer have to be confined to someone else’s schedule all the time.

The thought of having control over your own career is interesting but before you dive deep into the world of freelancing, you need to know a couple of things about it.

It’s not as easy as you think 

It may seem very glamorous to join the freelancing community. I mean, you get to customize your days and while everyone else is rushing to work early in the morning you can actually afford to stay in bed for one more hour. To be honest, this is a dream come true.

However, there is a lot that goes into a freelance career. There will be so many ups and downs, sleepless nights and a lot of sacrifices.

There will probably be days where you won’t even make any cash so you really have to be patient enough to get through the rainy days, especially in the starting years.

It’s not super hard either

I could have scared you with the first point but here I’m delivering good news. There are so many people who have branched out into freelancing and have become successful. In fact a lot of the success depends on how you plan.

You could take care of the major areas like getting yourself registered, getting tax information sorted or even saving beforehand so that you have the option of not taking a huge loan.

In addition, things have become a lot easier with the help of technology so you can reach customers easily instead of having to go door to door.

 Have good systems in place and set boundaries when dealing with clients (Photo: Shutterstock)

You should think twice before quitting your job

Although the world likes to hate on the 9-5 careers, there are so many benefits that come with them. In most cases, you have a steady income and you don’t have to struggle to look for clients yourself. Also, that work environment gives you a chance to interact with others so you don’t get bored or lonely.

Calculate your risks and really assess whether you’re truly ready to jump into freelancing right away. If you have no sustainable backup plan in place, you should probably wait for a while.

Training is necessary

Being your own boss comes with a lot of responsibilities. You should start training in areas like proper time management, effective communication techniques and other basics of being a good, effective leader.

There is a lot to learn and it’s better to start preparing yourself early. This is especially important if you’ve never been in a leadership position before.

You should also remember to adjust yourself mentally and emotionally for the journey ahead of you.

Stubborn clients will come your way

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to freelance is clients who don’t pay enough and those who don’t pay at all. And this is demoralizing because you can easily get stressed and give up when you’re not getting good results for work done.

As you venture into freelancing, you need to have good systems in place and set boundaries when dealing with clients.

Create some steps to take so you can secure any projects you’re working on without dealing with all the stress.

One technique you can use to maintain professionalism is requesting your client to send an email or have some form of recording for customer interactions so that if any legal issue arises, you’re on the safe side.

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