Top Threatening Symptoms That You Aren’t Cut Out for Freelancing
You will hear the word “freelancing” frequently when you talk to anyone seeking work today. By reading this article, you already have a general understanding of what freelancing is. As a freelancer, working from home is not uncommon today.
Research conducted by Forbes revealed that by 2020, almost 50% of the US workforce would become freelancers.
Freelancing will become more attractive in the coming days than it is today. More and more people worldwide are moving towards self-employment, and it is unlikely that the number of independent workforces will stop increasing anytime soon. So, it is safe to say that getting into freelancing early on is a SMART move.
Do you think freelancing is for you? Because the conjecture that surrounds freelancing is vastly different than the reality of freelancing. Here are seven warning signs that freelancing is NOT for you.
Table of Contents
Idealistic Expectations
Finding mentors when you want to get into freelancing is an excellent idea. But if you have searched for mentors, chances are you have heard that a few months’ classes can give you access to jobs that pay more than $400 or $500 per month. Or, you can have any job to your liking, and you would be swimming in many clients. If these are what you expect, then you would do better without getting into freelancing, Period.
These classic advertisement tactics lure you to take classes that would set you up for disappointment. Manage your expectations before you get into something you don’t know about because only then can you have a future in freelancing.
The primary source of Income or an Alternative???
Before you start to freelance, you should first understand the reality of freelancing. If you are a student and need a day to day money for little expenses, then, by all means, freelancing can be a good source of income. But, if you require a real job, then starting to freelance will not be the best of ideas.
Don’t get me wrong, though, and there is a lot of money in freelancing. But that will not be the case when you begin to freelance. In the first couple of months, be ready to do jobs that pay very little if you are in it for the long run. The long hours of hard work will pay off in the future. This will be the case if you have a safety net.
You will see that people with prior knowledge about freelancing have enough money to cover a few months of expenses to start their freelancing career. The low-earning jobs will not help you cover costs, especially if you have a family to support. In short, the starting months would see you working much more than you usually would as an employee but earning a lot less.
Your Self-Confidence
Being assertive will take you a long way when freelancing. So, freelancing is not for you if you are not self-confident. There are several reasons for this: you must constantly be in contact with your clients and pick up calls from strangers, you cannot be discouraged when you get low-paying jobs, and more importantly, you have to be able to say NO.
Being a people-pleaser will not help you at all. If you keep saying yes to all the offers you receive, you will eventually wear down. This will cause the quality of your work to decrease considerably, and your reputation will take a hit.
You also have to be very confident in your skills; clients can easily spot your insecurity a mile away. It will show in how you communicate and speak, and write. Think like a client; would you want a job done by someone who is not confident in his skills? It may just be that the person is shy, but it also can be because he is insecure. After all, the job is not within his skill set.
Then there is the fact that you will face moments when your clients leave you. If this happens, you will need to find new clients, which is never easy. You will also have clients who will be unwilling to pay on time, and in those cases, you need to be assertive and ask for your payment. All these require a lot of self-confidence that you cannot do without.
Ever question your dedication?
Self-discipline is paramount if you get into freelancing, though it is also healthy to be so all the time. If you take a job, you CAN NOT be late in completing it, as that is a huge negative point on your plate. It would be best if you got your work done. Being late can happen for several reasons.
Being self-employed is a significant factor here. When you can choose your working hours, you get a massive advantage in determining when to do the work. Still, you also get all the distractions of your home life; being in a working environment and at home will affect your mood differently; it is easy to be dedicated to an office where your seniors constantly evaluate you.
At home, you have a relaxed environment where no one is there to pressure you to work, so it is easy to lose yourself to the less important stuff, which is more fun than a task. So, if you are not dedicated, you will not get your work done in time.
Your willingness to diversify
Everyone has something they do very well and prefers to do only those they excel at. If this is you, then freelancing is most certainly not for you. You need to be willing to do multiple tasks to become a freelancer, and if this frustrates you, you are just not cut out for it.
Remember, freelancing means that you are self-employed. While under someone else’s employment, you do a specific part of a big job, but you do the entire thing as a freelancer. This requires you to interact with your clients, keep track of other assignments and their deadlines, pay the order of the job done, and, of course, revise all the works you have completed. Many people relish being tasked with a single position, while many prefer a more diverse approach. What kind are you?
The Curse of Fear
You will find that a successful freelancer is highly driven by commitment. They do not give in to fear and frustration in every person but in different amounts. Your ability to overcome your fears is key to success, it is common to be scared of starting something that you have never done before, but it is another thing to let fear win and not be able to do anything. This way, you will never succeed, as fear will never allow you to progress.
You are Not an Expert at Anything
Establishing yourself as a freelancer will require you to fix yourself a subject for which people will find you. Being an expert will increase your appeal a lot and will bring in a lot of clients. You will see that every successful freelancer has one theme: they excel at writing, translating, or being an expert in a programming language.
These people spend a lot of time honing their skills, which is precisely why every work they do becomes gold. This allows them to set a very high hourly wage and not lose clients. M. Gladwell, in his best-selling book, “Outliers,” argues that it requires approximately 10,000 hours on a person’s part to be an expert in any field. That is a very long time. Remember, being an expert on a particular topic is better than being a jack of all trades and master of none, as clients require nothing less than mastery from you.
What do you think?
These are seven significant factors you need to consider before starting to freelance. Because if you have problems with the points mentioned above, freelancing will bring about much suffering. How so? Because a lot of freelancers have already faced all these issues in one way or another. But they did overcome all of them. So, in the end, you must decide whether you are strong enough to overcome your shortcomings or give in to them.