Thinking of Working as a Freelancer?

Flexible work hours,flexible work location, constant improvement of skills, no uniforms and being in charge. Wow, that would be life at it’s best. Wouldn’t it be great if you can just fire your boss and call it ‘quits’?

Freelancing is defined as selling a service to clients without an employment contract. Most of the jobs are short term arrangements.

Freelancing has recently boomed in cyberspace giving birth to blogs and sites namely, freelanceswitch and freelancefolder. Both teach and guide freelancers on pricing, attitude, and everything about the business that is freelancing.

It has been so popular recently that almost everyone I know is doing freelancing on the side. I, myself, started freelancing while in college, developing websites and applications for a few companies.

Doing freelancer on the side is easy. With just a little time management you could easily put it off. But what if you want to live the freelance life. No full-time job and no ‘boss’.

You’ll need a lot more than time management to pull this off.

Technical Skills – You should be skilled in the area you want to specialize in. It’s a requirement if you want to be a freelancer.

Negotiation Skills – You should learn to negotiate your price. Pricing is very important. Since you’re trading your skills and time for money and your livelihood could depend on it, you’d better have the guts to say what your time is worth.

Time Management Skills – You can choose to work when you want as long as you meet deadlines. Just beware of Murphy.

Communication Skills – You should be able to get the right information from your client no matter what. Remember that you want to deliver what they want.

Freelancing is a really good alternative to office work but there’s much to be considered. You may find that you like the so-called financial security that an 9-6 job gives.You may also find that you miss your company’s health benefits and a lot more.

Freelancing is not for everyone. If you ever think of working freelance, test the waters first by doing it as a side business instead of doing it full-time.

Photo by redshift27

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