Freelancing is a great path to more time freedom, financial freedom, and faster skill development, but it also has downsides.
In this post, I’ll explore the Pros and Cons of Freelancing and give you a better idea what to expect if you’re just starting out.
Pros
Freedom to do what you want
Just like owning a business, freelancing gives you ultimate freedom to decide what work you want to do or not, how you want to spend your time, and where to invest to grow.
Freelancing is (usually) full remote, you can stop working whenever you want, you can take a vacation, you’re basically in the driver’s seat in terms of how to manage your time.
Now, don’t get me wrong – once you have clients, they will expect you to be reliable and finish work on time. There’s really no escaping this, and at times it can feel like a far cry from freedom.
But ultimately, you decide as a freelancer which clients to work with and how you want to run your business.
No limit on your success and earnings potential
Unlike with full-time work, where your salary is pretty much set (until you get a promotion or find a new job), with freelancing if you work more and at a higher rate, you make more money overall.
This of course, can also be a major downside (when you’re not working, you’re not making money), but the upside is that the sky’s the limit.
There’s no one else putting limits on what you can do – if you can find a good, in-demand niche that pays a good rate and you get enough clients and work hard, you can make really, really good money.
Learning and upskilling
Freelancing is amazing about teaching you way more, way faster, than you would ever learn in a full time job.
The reason is when you work a full-time job, you’re only exposed to the people, tools and business lines/business model of that one company. When you freelance, you work for many different clients, and you get to see all different kinds of businesses and working with all kinds of different people.
Another crucial aspect to this is, since you’ll be looking for jobs and interviewing often as a freelancer, it teaches you how to market your services and sell yourself, and how to talk to clients.
This is a really important skill, and if you take it seriously and focus on improving in this area, it will help you no matter what you choose to do down the road.
It’s a lot of fun (in my opinion)
Ok, this one’s a bit subjective…
But in my opinion, freelancing is amazingly fun!
You learn really fast, get to try new things, get to meet people, and overall your experience will vary a lot day to day and rarely be boring. If you like any of this stuff, I think you’ll enjoy it most of the time.
Sure, there are some stressful and tiring days, but overall it’s an amazing experience that I would recommend highly.
Cons
Hard to find stability
The downside to the ultimate freedom that freelancing provides is that it’s harder to find stability.
Sure, you can work on whatever you want, but if you’re not actively working on something, you’re not making money. It can be hard – especially at first – to get enough clients to make sure you always have work.
Also, since there’s usually not any benefits offered like with a full-time job, if you need to take a break for whatever reason, you can but you won’t make any money during that time.
One option is to still work full-time but do freelancing as a side gig to lower your risk.
Another approach to help with this is to diversify your services. For example, you can offer your freelancing services but also run a blog and/or sell online courses or other digital assets. You probably won’t make as much money on these (unless you really invest time and effort in them), but they can help bring in some extra money if you hit a dry period for freelancing.
Stressful and unpredictable
Stress can come from a number of places as a freelancer. For example, some times that job you thought you would easily get suddenly evaporates. Or the client runs out of budget, goes in another direction or for whatever reason suddenly terminates your long-term contract.
The best hedge against this is to always have several clients, so you always have something to work on.
Careful not to overdo it though – you’ll risk burnout and a lower standard of service for your clients.
Hard to stay organized and maintain structure
If you’re someone who struggles to stay organized and manage your time effectively, freelancing will be hard for you.
The ultimate freedom means you need to be able to focus on the right things, minimize distractions, and manage your time well, all on your own without someone else telling you what to do.
This can be hard at first, but once you find a system that works for you, stick to it and avoid getting de-railed as much as possible.
There’s no guarantee you’ll be successful
Just like anything else worth doing, freelancing is not easy. You’ll hit bumps in the road, and some days you’ll question why you chose freelancing and want to give up.
Just know that we’ve all been there – my best recommendation is to stick with it, and keep at it. It’s not easy – but if you work hard at it and work on the right things, there’s a good chance of success. Plus you’ll learn a lot along the way.
Wrapping up
Overall, I really enjoy freelancing and think it’s a great way to earn money while learning fast and growing personally and professionally.
You’ll learn a wide array of transferrable skills, and if you keep at it and stay consistent, I’m confident you’ll do amazing things!
