Making the financial decision to freelance
Choosing a career in freelancing is something that requires an awful lot of thought. For many it just may not be a financially viable way of living. If you have an expensive mortgage or maybe young children then the instability of freelancing may not be for you. Below I have listed the main things that I think you should consider before you give up your current job and take the plunge into freelancing.
Work out how much you need to live
This is the first big thing I had to consider when I decided that I wanted to start freelancing. Could I actually survive? To do this I had to ascertain exactly how much money I would need to comfortably pay my mortgage and bills etc. I think that it is also important to be able to put a little aside each month too for emergencies. For me and I am sure for many others, changing to a freelance career is going to involve a sharp cut in wages, so I urge you to really think about this first. One of the main things that I noticed was that developing your new career can take time so be prepared to cut back on your luxuries until you find your feet.
When I first started out freelancing, I found that often I had to take whatever work I could get and sometimes this was a little below the going rate. Although I have found this to be quite normal it is important to make sure that you are still being paid a fair wage and not being taken advantage of. I would think very hard about taking a job that involves a lot of work for little money.
One thing that I think many do not really appreciate is that building a successful freelance career is based upon feedback and recommendations. At the beginning of your career you will not have this and you need to work out if you have the time and money to be able to survive whilst building up your profile. I can say now that this often means long hours and tireless job applications for no money.
Work cannot always be guaranteed
I spoke to other freelancers when I was still new and the one thing I was repeatedly told was that work can initially be hard to find. I have found this to be completely true. You may find to start with that you apply for many, many jobs but are not always successful. I think that the hardest part to get used to is that freelancing is an extremely competitive business and sometimes you can go for several weeks, if not longer, without work.
Other factors that you should consider
When I started freelancing I made sure that I contacted the necessary people to register as self employed. You need to make sure that you can afford to put money aside every month in order to pay your National Insurance contributions and tax.
I chose to work at home as this limits the overheads for me, but I know for some you will need to perhaps hire an office or other equipment. In this case it would be advisable to gather accurate costings prior to your decision.