The Flexible Freelancer

Do you have what it takes?

You’ve ditched the 9 to 5.

You’ve got all your paperwork sorted out.

You even have a comfy chair to work in.

From now on, life is going to be hunky dory; work when you fancy, days off when you don’t.

No more working to someone else’s timetable.

Don’t you believe it oh fledgling freelancer, now more than ever you will be subject to someone else’s calendar.

It’s a hard fact of life that unless you have clients who will work around YOU, you are going to have to work around THEM. It’s not all doom and gloom, but it’s something that every freelancer-to-be has to take into account. Before you make that step into freelancery, sit yourself down and look at a few work related issues.

• If you cannot feel secure without a rigid timetable/calendar…freelancing may not give you this security.

• If you cannot juggle more than one job at a time…freelancing may give you migraines.

• If you cannot say no every now and then…freelancing may set your nerves on edge.

• If you cannot deal with days or even weeks of no paid work…freelancing is going to give you nightmares.

• If you cannot see the funny side of life…freelancing will probably break you.

But…

• If you love doing a different thing every day… freelancing will deliver.

• If you can cope with working on more than one thing at once… freelancing may bring you many projects to juggle.

• If you are secure enough to know that you are the one in control, and can easily say no to the odd job… freelancing may hit the spot.

• If you love the fact that you may have a “rest” week every now and then… freelancing will give you “project” time.

• If you laugh with the world and are a free spirit… freelancing will bring you plenty of smiles.

So if you can cope with fluctuating timetables; if you can cope with the occasional rest week and being inundated at others; if you can say no when you need to and let the world know how fabulous you are while staying true to yourself, then the freelancing life can be a good one.

In fact… once you’ve taken the plunge into freelancing you will probably wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.