10 Surefire Ways to Know Freelance Won’t Kill You

The Social and Emotional Benefits of Playing Online Games
Guest Author: Erica Sunarjo
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While freelancing has been around for years, it’s still considered a new model of self-employment. Freelancers all over the world work for individuals or companies miles away from them. From the comfort of their own home, they manage their schedule and set their conditions. But, is freelancing always better than having a regular job?

If you’re not sure what it takes to be a great freelancer and how it differs from having a regular 9 to 5 job, just keep reading. Here are 10 things you need as a freelancer to make sure you have a successful career.

1. Time-Management

When you have a regular job, you also have set, regular work hours. When you’re a freelancer, things are a bit different.

They usually go like this:

• you accept a new project
• you make a deal on the deadline for finishing it
• the rest is up to you

The person that hired you has nothing to do with your work hours. That means you set your work hours.

To do this you need:

• time-management skills
• organization skills
• time-tracking tools

It’s essential if you want to get things done and advance as a freelancer.

2. Payment

When you have a regular job, you know exactly how much you earn each month. You receive your paycheck at a steady pace, and you always know how much money to expect.

But, as a freelancer, you don’t have this luxury:

• your monthly earning vary depending on the amount of work you find and take on
• you bill each project differently
• employers have different preferences on how to do the payment

“As a freelancer, you simply need more negotiation and detailed deals. What you also need is to record your billable time,” says Mariah Fiber, a freelance writer and editor at Best Essay Education.

Most freelancers use a time-tracker to record how many hours they’ve spent on a project, especially if they work on an hourly rate.

3. Home Office

Most freelancers struggle to find some privacy in their homes, especially if they have a larger family. When you’re living with your parents, partner, or children, it might be hard for you to focus on your job.

This is because you need a home office in order to work in peace. But, not all homes have a spare room for you to use.

In that case, you need to make a deal with your family:

• set up a desk and your computer in a selected room
• ask your family to respect your work schedule
• ask them not to bother you while you’re working

They need to pretend like you’re not home or like they’re entering a real-life office when they want to talk to you.

4. Socialization

When you work in an office whit your colleagues, you get a chance to socialize and exchange ideas. However, as a freelancer, you’re all alone.

• This can be a benefit:
• no distractions
• you make all the calls

However, sometimes it’s a downside:

• you have no one to consult
• you can’t brainstorm with colleagues
• no one to give you a professional opinion

To surpass this obstacle, you can use team collaboration tools such as Trello, or online groups such as Meetup, and Facebook Groups to communicate with other freelancers from your industry.

5. Training & Education

Every professional should have the goal of professional improvement.

That includes:

• acquiring new skills
• mastering new tools
• adopting fresh information

While a regular full-time job usually includes seminars and professional training organized by the company you work for, freelancers are on their own.

However, they can manage just fine on their own:

• join online professional webinars
• take online courses
• attend professional events nearby

There’s always something happening and it’s your job as a freelancer to track it and participate.

6. Stress & Pressure

As a freelancer, you are leading a stress-free life.

This is thanks to:

• flexible work hours
• being able to control all your decisions
• lack of superiors
• lack of unrealistic deadlines

You do only what you want to do, and accept the jobs you like.

7. Networking

Freelancers have a constant need for expanding their professional contacts and finding new ways of getting hired by great clients.

That means they constantly need to network. Luckily, they have tons of opportunities to do so:

• LinkedIn
• sending professional emails
• attending online webinars

Networking is important and freelancers get to do it online, with no trouble at all.

8. Instability

As a freelancer, you’re constantly afraid of the following:

• not finding enough clients
• not sealing enough new deals

Instability can be a problem for freelancers since they never know which client they might lose or what will happen the next month.

However, you can get fired from your full-time job as well. And freelancers have learned to quickly get back on their feet and find a new project, which is an advantage.

9. Benefits

As a freelancer, you have to plan your own:

• health insurance
• retirement fund
• holidays and sick leaves

While this may seem frightening at first, all it takes is some extra effort and you’ll be able to organize your life and all the benefits that people with regular jobs have.

You’ll once again be in control, so don’t look at it as a downside.

10. Written Communication

Since freelancers are working online, they have to take care of their written communication skills.

They have to write:

• professional emails
• job proposals
• motivational letters

It’s essential that you proofread and edit everything to perfection. Luckily, there are tools and services such as Hemingway or Grammarly that will take care of this for you.

Final Thoughts
As you can see, freelancing is an opportunity that allows you to control your own life. If you manage it properly, you won’t have any trouble leading a quality, stress-free life.
Use the tips we’ve listed above to enhance your freelance lifestyle. Don’t be afraid to take things into your own hands and just go for it.

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Author Bio:

Erica Sunarjo is a professional content creator working with some of the best essay writing sites such as TrustMyPaper, GrabMyEssay and Studicus. She’s on the mission to help blogs get more traffic by helping with creating engaging articles, guides, reports, and infographics. A writer by day and reader by night, she is constantly looking for exciting writing projects to share with her audiences.