My journey as a freelancer has given me so many advantages and I love it! Although it wasn’t something I set out to pursue from the start, I wouldn’t want my career journey to take any other path. These are 7 benefits of being a freelancer:
1. Flexibility
This is a major advantage of freelancing! You can be much more flexible with your schedule. Things like being able to go shopping at off-peak hours, or running errands around a time that suits you, has been super helpful for me! I treasure things like this!
Avoiding rush hour is also another thing I am super grateful for with the flexibility. There is less pressure to work rigidly and you can work at times that you feel are you work more productively.
2. Choose Who And What You Want To Work On
This is especially great and makes you really feel like you are your own boss. You can choose to turn down projects or accept or even create projects you would like to work on!
It’s an amazing feeling when you are working on projects you are passionate about. It makes the process of working much easier and doesn’t feel much like you are working at all! You get to make your passion your paycheque.
3. Set Your Own Prices
This is a massive bonus! Unlike 9-5 jobs, there is no cap on how much you can make when you are a freelancer and self-employed.
You can put more value on the service you offer and not feel like you are being cheated as much by working and not being rewarded justly for the work you are putting in.
4. Experiment With Your Craft
By being able to choose what you want to work on, you have the option to also dabble and try out different things in your craft.
There’s no restriction on what you can and can’t work on. You can be creative with projects and naturally, there’s an element of consultation that comes when working with clients. You can explore more with freelancing with what works best for you!
5. Develop Self-Motivation
Resilience and self-motivation are key characteristics of being self-employed and more specifically, a freelancer!
You have to ave the passion to fuel you to keep putting yourself forward and offering your service as a freelancer. If self-motivation is not a trait you naturally have, you will surely learn it to become a successful freelancer.
6. More Exposure
The very nature of freelancing allows you to work with multiple clients. This naturally means you will have the opportunity to be exposed to different brands and companies.
This allows more opportunity to grow your portfolio faster than if you were in one single 9-5 job for example.
7. Independence
The independence of freelancing separates you from the rigid 9-5 life. You don’t have the sense of having to work full time for a boss. And when you do work with your clients, you still have more control over how flexible the work will be, compared to a full-time role. It’s a great benefit of being a freelancer.
8. Work Remotely
Often when people think of working remotely, they think of working from home predominantly. But being a freelancer means you can work wherever you want. So that means, you can choose to work in a co-working space with other businesses, or if you prefer working alone, you can choose even choose to travel and work abroad at the same time. The beauty of remote work allows you to be location-independent when working! All you need is your laptop and wi-fi for a lot of freelancers!
9. No Set Hours
There’s no clock in and clock out time, as a freelancer. This means you have the ability to choose how often you would like to work. If you work a lot one week, you can choose to create a schedule so that the next week you don’t work as much.
10. Multiple Income Sources
Since the 2020 pandemic, many people are seeing the benefits of having multiple income streams. By default, being a freelancer means having several clients and therefore several sources of income.
This comes in handy in situations that may be unpredictable as you have different sources to rely on if one fails for some reason. Diversifying your income can help sustain your financial life in the long term and freelancing is a great way of doing this.
11. Reward Yourself
You don’t have to rely on work programmes for rewards in order to be promoted or recognised for your hard work. Instead, as a freelancer, you can choose to reward yourself for all the hard work you do! You don’t have to wait for someone to do it for you.
12. Control Over Your Breaks
You don’t have to stick to the standard lunch breaks like in a 9 to 5 job. If you want to have two lunch breaks- you can! You can create your own work schedule to what works best for you. No more enduring belly rumbles until lunchtime. You can eat whenever you want!
13. Connect With Creatives More
The flexibility in freelancing affords you to be more flexible with collaboration! You get to experiment and collab with other creative freelancers like you. Not just for business purposes, but also on a friendship level too to connect! You are more than welcome to join my Freelance Creatives Biz Building Group to meet other freelance creatives like yourself.
I hope these benefits of being a freelancer have helped you a better understanding of why it is so attractive! If you are considering going freelance or in the beginning stages of freelancing, feel free to check out my Beginner Freelancer E-course.
