10 Pros and Cons of Freelancing | Is It Worth It?

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There are many pros and cons of freelancing. So is freelancing really worth it? Or should you stick to working as an employee? This is a quandary many people go through when deciding whether or not they should stick to the day job or try freelancing.

Is freelancing really worth it? Here’s the top 10 pros and cons of why freelancing is the future.

10 Pros and Cons of Freelancing

After over 10 years of freelancing, here’s my thoughts about freelancing and its pros and cons.

What are the advantages and disadvantages are of being a freelancer?

5 Advantages of Freelancing

There are many benefits of freelancing.

Not only are you your own boss but you can also control how much you get paid per task you do.

If you want to start freelancing or need help to progress in your freelancing career, check out these resources.

Freedom

You wake up in the morning, get yourself together, and then you see a list of tasks you need to do at work.

A list of tasks to do after you’ve done the rat race. You’ve got to get in the office and complete the tasks by a set time. 

With freelancing you’ve got freedom. Freedom from the rat race and having a boss breathing down your neck.

Yes you’ll still have to get tasks done by a specific time, but you can do it more chilled. Chilled working whilst you’re in comfortable clothes, listening to music of your choice, and taking breaks as and when you need them. 

As long as you get the task done by your client, that’s all they care about. They don’t care about your process and how productive you are in the day.

I know freelancers to work from their

  • Kitchen table
  • Sofa
  • Local coffee shop

It’s 100% up to you where you work. Plus you can choose the time of day you work. Perfect if you’re a night owl, early riser, or can only work during school hours.

You’ve got total autonomy as a freelancer. 

The choice is truly yours as to when you want to do your work. But be careful. Some freelance jobs will require you to work specific days and times.

Take on freelance jobs that fit in with the schedule you want to do and can be truly happy doing, not resentful of the client.

Control Your Workload

With freelancing, you can work as much or as little you want.

This is a great benefit to freelancing especially if you’ve got a health condition and need to reduce the number of hours you work each week. Or you have a caring responsibility for young children, an older person, or someone with a health condition.

Being able to control how much work you get in each week can be a great benefit.

The only downside is that you might find yourself rejecting work from what would have been a great client. Getting really great clients can sometimes feel like winning the lottery and so rarely happens.

Don’t feel guilty and keep thinking ‘what if’ if you ever reject a client. Focus on the work you’re doing right now and control the workload that’s coming in. Having this control over your workload will leave you feeling happy and not overwhelmed being a freelancer.

Exposure

When you start freelancing, you become part of the freelance community. As part of this community, you’ll get more exposure to brands and increase your own personal brand awareness.

Plus, you can do freelance jobs for other freelancers you partner with. Freelancers can sometimes just take on too much work and want help with their workload.

So they reach out in the community and ask for help. If the connection is new on social media then send them a message introducign yourself and what you do.

Becoming part of the freelancing community will get you exposure, leads for future work, and learn from other freelancers. Don’t think that you need x amount of experience to be welcomed into the community. Even if you’re brand spanking new to the world of freelancing, you’ll be welcomed into the crowd.

Flexibility

Freelancing is completely flexible. Flexible to choose your clients, flexible to choose when and where you’re going to work. Freelancing is also flexible to take your freelance business and add extra streams of income.

Once you’ve grown your freelance business, you can scale your freelancing business into an agency. Alternatively, you can become a consultant and charge high fees to go into a business to help them solve a problem.

Ultimately, you’ve got the flexibility to turn your freelancing business into whatever form you want it to. As a freelancer, I had many requests for coaching. Therefore I created coaching programs and digital products that’ll help my clients.

Some people what a done for you service or they want to do it themselves. Whichever they want, they’ve got one thing in common. They need your knowledge and skills.

Take a look at your business and clients then think ‘how can I add extra streams of income whilst serving my clients?’.

Building Skills

As part of freelancing, you’ll take on projects that you’re skilled to do. But then there will be projects where you have to learn a whole new skill. This new skill can end up opening new opportunities and a new income source.

For example, early in my freelancing career, I was offered the opportunity to work on a webinar for a client I’d work with long-term. This opportunity to work on a webinar opened up a whole host of new clients as I could offer a whole new service range.

10 years later, that client exposed me to this new opportunity. Leading me to build valuable skills that I’ve continued to sell to more clients.

This is another reason why I love freelancing and the exposure you get. When in my office job, I just turned up and did the same tasks day in day out without many opportunities for growth.

Yet with freelancing, I have met a world of new people. People who inspire me as a freelancer and work with people I never thought possible before. With meeting these new people my personal and professional development has had accelerated growth.

If you’re serious about freelancing but don’t know where to start getting clients. I highly recommend this 2 day workshop from my own mentor. To learn more about the workshop, hit the button below in the image, you won’t regret it.

Pros and Cons of Freelancing get clients workshop

5 Disadvantages Of Freelancing

Taxes

Freelancers have a responsibility to pay their own taxes. You don’t have an employer handing over the money to the taxman themselves.

You don’t have an employer, you’re self-employed. Clients aren’t responsible as they aren’t your employer, you’re responsible for paying your taxes.

The amount of tax you should be paying as a freelancer varies. Varies from country to country. Ask your accountant to help you understand what taxes you need to be paying for your freelance business.

If the idea of hiring an accountant for this scares you, we use this best accounting software that helps you with your taxes and finances. This best accounting software is used worldwide (not UK specific).

Using this accounting software you’ll be able too

  • Organize your receipts
  • Get your taxes right
  • Invoice your clients

After you’ve been using the accounting software, you’ll be left confident in doing your accounting and doing taxes. Grab a 3-month free trial here and learn more about the best accounting software.

No Employee Benefits

Being an employee comes with many benefits including holiday pay, sick pay, maternity pay, amongst other benefits. Freelancers never get any of these benefits. Literally, when you’re not working you’re not earning.

Freelancers are constantly having to weigh up whether or not they can really afford that holiday or can take time off sick even if they really need to.

Although if you put in some extra income streams in the form of passive income, then you’ll still be generating money even whilst you’re taking much-needed time off. If you don’t take time off from work, you’ll end up making yourself sick. Ending up in a much worse state not having any money.

Stop having this worry and start thinking of passive income ideas you can use. Here are 5 passive income ideas to get you started.

Take a look at all of the different ways people are generating a passive income and get inspired. Create a plan of action so that you take a piece of this pie.

Sporadic

There are many highs and lows to freelancing. The main thing that people say when they start freelancing is that they get caught in a ‘famine and feast’ cycle.

Famine when you’re hardly getting any work, then you get tons of work and your feasting. Then you go back to famine and struggling to find freelance jobs. And so the never-ending cycle continues.Don’t worry though, as you get used to marketing your freelance business, you’ll get out of the cycle.

You’ll learn what marketing strategy works for you and what doesn’t. It really can be about trial and error.Though whilst you’re learning what works, you need to give it your all and be consistent.

Consistency shows whether or not your marketing ideas really does work for you.

Clients Not Paying

Yes, this is a real problem.

You get the ideal client, complete the task, then disaster strikes. The client doesn’t pay. Protect yourself by keeping copies of emails and messages of the conversation that had taken place.By keeping this record you can show that the work you delivered did meet what was requested.

Whether you’ve got to tell the owner of the job board about the dispute. Or take the client to the small claims court, you have these records as proof.

Unfortunately, clients not paying freelancers is a real problem. It’s a problem that all freelancers have to face at some time in their freelance career. This is why it’s important you build a support network around you (refer back to exposure to learn more about being part of the freelancing community).

A freelancing community that you can get advice from or just to be able to tell someone who gets it. Gets the frustration that you’re feeling. Don’t let this disadvantage of freelancing put you off.

Yes, it does happen at some point in your freelancing career. But not all clients are like this. Remember, you just need a handful of good clients to make a full-time income from freelancing.

You just need to get resilience whilst you weed through the good and the bad clients.

Isolation

Freelancing can be a very lonely experience. Lonely especially is you’re choosing to work from your home. But freelancing doesn’t mean you have to be in isolation.

Here are 3 ways in which you can get out of isolation and not suffer from loneliness.

  • Participate in Twitter chats
  • Go to business networking events
  • Go to events in your community or start a hobby that’s part of a group of people

Making time for these things reminds you of enjoying life freelancing. Let’s you interact with other people who could actually help your business.

More importantly it can give you space to have time away from working on projects.

In A Nutshell,

There are many pros and cons of freelancing, but ultimately freelancing gives you freedom. Freedom to have control over your life. Plus it opens up so many opportunities that being an employee doesn’t. Ultimately, as a freelancer, you become part of a whole new community and get a different outlook on your life but there are pros and cons you need to be aware of. If you’re wanting to start a freelancing career check out this 2-day workshop so you get your first clients fast

About Post Author

Alison Wolf

Helping you to build an online business so you have an extra stream of income or quit the day job. Don't forget to follow me on social media using the handle @heyalisonwolf