Pros and Cons of ‘going freelance’

Don’t worry! We know it can be a scary prospect going freelance, you are making a jump into the great unknown… it’s a place where you won’t be reporting to your boss, where you will find yourself doing different jobs you may never have done before… being a sales person, your own marketing department, the decision maker, and the grafter… but is it worth it? Let’s balance the pros and cons of working as a freelancer, and look at some of the things you might want to consider…

Pros:

You never have to ask for a pay rise again.

Think you deserve a rise? Go for it! Ask the boss? You are the boss. Deserve a pat on the back for hard work? Pat that back!

Flexible working hours.

Sun shining outside? Cut off early and spend time with your family and friends, or enjoy a little peace, quiet and down time. Do you do your best work at the weekends? In the evenings? At 2am? You decide your working hours and many of our clients love this flexibility.

Working location.

Sick of working in a grey office? Anywhere can be your place of work! The park, the beach, your kitchen, the coffee shop! You have the flexibility of working anywhere that suits you.

How you work, and who you work with.

You have the benefit of being able to collaborate with whoever you want, you can team up on projects with fellow self employed freelancers, and you can have the control on these projects. You don’t have to report to a boss. There’s no one to tell you how long you can spend on social media, or how loudly you crank the radio up to.

Cons:

Cashflow

If you are not bringing in the level of business, and cash, you need to keep comfortable, you need to fix it. You need to tender for work, find it, network (online and offline). You need to find ways to market your personal brand – who are you? Why are you better than the rest? Why should someone invest their business funds with you? If there’s no work coming in, there are no fancy holidays or new shoes – simple as that.

It’s your business, and it’s tricky sometimes to switch off.

There’s nothing to stop you working all the hours under the sun, there’s no staffing guidelines to prevent you from doing so, and you don’t follow the lead of your fellow employees – there’s a reason people work 9-5 – your brain can only work a certain amount of hours in a day before burning out.

You have to pay the electricity bill.

At the end of the day, all electricity bills, plus the office furniture, coffee, cleaners, office space…. the list goes on, it’s all coming out of your pocket. Money out of the business is profit you can’t utilise.

Self motivation.

Some people are self motivated, and some motivated by others – which are you? Without a boss cracking the whip, would you manage to get everything done in a day? You are the boss, and you are the grafter, you need to keep focused.

And Loneliness

Do you enjoy work place banter? Do you like to have a gossip about who won the Olympics or who is doing well in Xfactor? You need company. This is a tough part about working on your own. However, there are always networking events to attend, twitter to make friends on, and you can meet people for a coffee whenever you want.

At QAccounting we help self employed Freelancers and Contractors realise their ambition of taking control of their earning potential, the job satisfaction involved with being their own boss, and follow their dreams in becoming successful self employed professionals.

We help freelancers and contractors in the following sectors: Graphic Design, Media, Management Consultancy, Oil and Gas, Renewables, Interim Management, Consultancy, Design, Art,  I.T,  Energy, and much more, contact us today if you want to find out more. You Count, We Count.