As I write this article, I have been freelancing as a writer for almost 2 years now. I’ve shared before on this blog that freelancing is something I slipped into, but have loved the journey so far! I have found there are so many things freelancing has taught me about life generally, and so I thought I’d share 7 things freelancing has taught me in my first year of freelancing.
Resilience
So you may be thinking, why have I chosen to use the above photo for this point? Well, funny story.. this is actually an accidental shot taken on my self-timer when I was doing a photoshoot to collect some stock photos for my content. I thought the self-timer had finished but, evidently, it had not! Haha!
Nonetheless, I’m glad it didn’t, as this is a real-life illustration of what it is often like to be a freelancer. It often means doing everything in your business alone. To do this, you need resilience to change different roles. From admin to fulfilling the actual service you are offering your client base, you need to continuously work at your craft and be prepared for the unexpected.
My work ethic has definitely increased since becoming a freelancer. I understand better the importance of time blocking to ensure I get things done.
I also know that resilience comes with the job title of being a freelancer and if you work hard enough at something you want, you can achieve it.
Self-motivation
By nature, I like to think of myself as someone who is quite self-motivated. If I really want something, I don’t need much motivation from anyone else to see it through. This has particularly been the case, career wise, as I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer and have taken opportunities to pursue this career path.
However, unlike being on an internship or working in a school, where you may be micromanaged, freelancing really requires you to be solely on top of your upcoming deadlines and assessing how much time is needed to fulfill a task.
As a result, my sense of self-motivation has developed even further through being a freelancer.
Freelancing Taught Me Value In My Work
Being a freelancer means you are also promoting your work and therefore need to believe in the service you are offering.
In my first year of freelancing, I have been haggled a few times. But throughout the journey and developing my skills, I have learned the value that my service has, and therefore towards the end of my first freelance year, I increased the price of my services, as found I was undercharging in some areas.
I know that my rates are fair via research and experience working with clients that respect my prices. I, therefore, view prospects or clients who haggle as a warning sign of what could be a bad working relationship.
God Provides
The journey of how I became a freelancer and sustained this role has shown me so much more of how God provides. I will write a full blog post diving deeper into how much this has been true in my freelance journey.
But I will share one example here. Through the majority of my first year of freelancing, I had one contracted client, who wasn’t a reliable income source in holiday seasons.
However, in those very seasons, I would always get some form of substitute income that would still allow me to fulfill financial responsibilities. This was often without me having to actively seek much for gigs.
I could share so many examples of where God has clearly provided, because of the way it came about.
God has marked my freelance journey from the beginning and has been sustaining me throughout it. I am super grateful for this.
Freelancing Taught Me To Be Creative
When starting out as a freelancer, I didn’t actually count myself as much of a creative person.
I often struggled to come up with concepts or ideas.
However, in the early stages of my freelance career, I explored areas like video editing, photography, and social media managing for clients.
These clients were fairly open to allowing me to have creative freedom and consulting ideas for their content.
I am thankful for this, as this allowed me to work more on my creativity and I am now much better and quicker at coming up with creative concepts and brainstorming ideas for content.
Money Management
This is another area that I am naturally more good at.
But again, freelancing has enhanced my discipline here too.
There is an element of instability in freelance life in some seasons. Therefore, you tend to save in advance for periods where you may not be getting as many freelance gigs.
It has taught me to spend more wisely and distribute my money better for the future. It has also taught me the power of investing in equipment that will help me long term.
Penfold is a handy self-employed pension app I came across in my first freelance year. You can get £25 when you make your first deposit with my affiliate link here.
Freelancing Taught Me Boundaries
This is one of the biggest lessons I have learned from freelancing.
From having a client that would often phone at unreasonable times like 11 pm expecting a call back at that unreasonable time, to clients asking me to complete tasks last minute that require a more time to have a thorough look, I have learned the importance of setting boundaries between work and your personal time.
Now, when discussing work with clients, I give an idea of when I can realistically get it done by. I also mention when I will not be doing work.
At the end of the day, you want the work you produce for your clients to be of high quality. Doing this at times that will make you rush or less focused doesn’t benefit you or your client.
So it is in both of your interests if work expectations are set from the beginning of your working relationship.
I hope this list of 7 things freelancing has taught me, will help you on your freelance journey too. If you are a beginner freelancer looking for guidance, I offer a Beginner Freelancer E-course specifically designed for this.
