Regular hours… Regular income… Regular work… Regular benefits… A promotion now and then…

A Regular Life…

These are the things most of us expect from our professional life after school. We want a life with no unpleasant surprises. We want some sort of security.

Most of us have a dream job and we work hard to get there. Even if we don’t make it to that job we never stop dreaming about it.

We want a great carreer. We want to be the best in our field.

Well everybody knows about having regular jobs, most of us have worked at a regular job for some time in our lives, and we have an impression of what a life a regular job generates.

What about freelancing or being an independent contracter? Why do so many people prefer to work outside of the regular terms mentioned above? With the help of the internet the freelancing population is growing vastly by number every day. It isn’t easy to understand, is it? What makes freelancing so attractive? Let’s have a look at the PROS and CONS of this popular trend.

PROS

Choose who you work with!

When you have a regular job you work for your boss with your colleages, whom you have no power in choosing, unless you are not extremely lucky to be in a position to hire your own coworkers. You have to get along with your coworkers and be efficient at your job at the same time. However, when you go freelance you have the power to choose your employer. If you don’t like to work with a certain firm or person(s) you just don’t work with them or for them.

Choose what you work on!

Having no choice but to work on a given project may turn our lives into a nightmare. What we do for a living is one of the main reasons we get up in the morning. A job we love to do is one of the best sources of personal motivation. What if we hate our jobs, or the work we are supposed to accomplish? It can make us quit our jobs and run as far away as possible. Freelancing gives us the opportunity to do the short or long term projects we wish to do. We can easily say “no” to the jobs that we know would turn our lives into hell. You never “have to” do a given job when you are a freelancer, unlike when you are a regular employee.

Work from home, or better work from anywhere you please!

What is better than getting up in the morning and not having to go to work experiencing heavy morning traffic? Are you fed up of going to the office, day in day out, and wish for the weekend to come so you can spend some home time even on Monday morning? Working as a freelancer may be the cure to these problems. You get to work from home or you can temporarily participate in an office job as an independent contracter. You don’t have to spend anymore hours in the traffic, wasting your time and your nerves. Instead use this time on something more beneficial such as reading, relaxing, pursuing a healthy life, socializing, or shortly just having fun. Even better if you can produce and submit your work over the internet, you can work wherever you like, even work on the beach with your notebook in front of you and a fruit cocktail by your side. It sounds wonderful doesn’t it?

Schedule your work time yourself!

Isn’t it frustrating  not being able to take time off when you have accomplished your task at hand? being able to organize your own timetable is a great advantage to being a freelancer. You can work early and end your work day at noon, or work at night as you wish. You can take a week off when you need it, or visit your aunt in the countryside in the middle of the week. This sounds lovely, however there is a catch. In the middle of a vacation, you may receive a call for an urgent job that you really don’t want to miss. This can be upsetting, but it is still up to you to make a choice between accepting the job and continuing on the vacation.

The impossibility of losing your job…

You can never lose your job! How wonderful a thought is that? Have you ever heard of a self – employed person firing him/herself? Well you can quit freelancing and go do something else but that isn’t quite like getting fired is it? You can freelance and be self – employed as long as you want, just let the employers reach you and hire you for new jobs. This notion is very relieving since globally there is a recession and many firms are down-sizing. No one can take your job away from you, since you are your own boss.

CONS

What about social benefits?

Unfortunately freelancing automatically deprives you of the social benefits such as public healthcare and pension funds. If you are a freelancer it means you are self – employed, so you have to meet your interests yourself. However, according to which country you live in, you may be able to make up to this important void by paying for these benefits voluntarily. Or you may go to private insurance policies of somekind, that cover your health insurance and/or pension.

When you are out of new jobs…

This can be one of the main stressing aspects of freelancing. Deciding to go freelancing and not being able to get any jobs can make you detour and quit your self – employed job. Nowadays, especially with the global recession, getting any kind of job has become very difficult. However, you can find other ways of generating income in your free time. Using your works that stand on the shelf or in a storage unit, is possible for some passive income to relieve your financial problems in the long run. You can find further reading on this subject here:

Methods of Making Money for Freelancers 1 About promoting your public profile.

Methods of Making Money for Freelancers 2 About selling microstock.

Methods of Making Money for Freelancers 3 A Review of Microstock sites.

Irregular Work Schedule

Having an irregular work schedule can drive you insane and deprive you of your health. You may have to work over time in some periods to meet your deadlines, and on the other hand you may be free for much longer than you had anticipated. In my opinion, it’s better to have free time than to do too much over time. I know it sounds better said than done, but you can try balancing your schedule by keeping your prices high enough to compensate for your free time. It’s O.K. to say no to a job that doesn’t pay enough. Avoid working yourself out, it’s your life and you have no other.

Can Freelancing be a Career?

Why not? It totally depends on what you want to do with YOUR LIFE. What do you want to become, and how do you wish to get there? If you want to become a project manager or cardiologist then freelancing is surely not the way. But if your wish is to be self – employed then I’d say follow your dreams. I wish you a happy ride on your journey.Â