Thinking of taking your career into your own hands? If you’re toying with the idea of becoming a contractor or freelancer, there are a few things that are useful to know before you start. Read on below and see if it’s still the career for you!
You actually don’t need much money to start
To start freelancing you don’t need a whole load of money, but you do need bags of passion and enough time to invest in your new business. Time has to be spent on building yourself a presence and being driven enough to submit proposal after proposal, even when you get knocked back time and time again.
Passion certainly conquers all in this game and if you’re doing what you love, it’ll keep you interested and motivated to always do better.
You’ll understand the true value of money
If you think you were careful with money when you had a steady job, that’s nothing until you’ve worked for yourself. You’ll realise that you can survive with a lot less money than you thought you needed! When you think about buying something nonessential, you’ll start picturing all these items as jobs. For example, you’d equate a new television to the cost of two hours freelancing work. You certainly start re-evaluating the importance of items you felt you couldn’t live without before – earning your own money helps you truly appreciate the value of it.
You have to get organised, fast
Organisation is key to working smarter and more efficiently. Knowing how much of your time is taken up each week is crucial. If you don’t know how many hours you have spare each week or each month then how can you effectively pitch for new work? You need to be careful not to burn out. The way to ensure this doesn’t happen? Get yourself organised.
Keeping track how many hours you’ve worked for each client helps you confidently manage your workload.
You can easily become isolated
You’ve gone from working in an office full of people to working by yourself all day. Even though you might have the odd meeting or Skype call here and there, it won’t be the same interaction you were used to in the hustle and bustle of a busy office environment.
Although you might be thankful for the lack of distractions colleagues can bring to your work day, it’s still important that you get out of your house a few times a week. Being cooped up all day isn’t good for your productivity and you’re unlikely to be moving as much as you did before.
Think about walking to your local coffee shop for a break, or make the effort to meet up with friends on your days off. Whatever you decide to do, don’t become a hermit!
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