The Cons of Freelancing

I'm a freelance training developer, and you're probably either currently a freelancer, or someone exploring the freelance life.

Trouble is, a lot of freelancers tend to pay attention to mainly people just like ourselves. We read their blogs, exchange ideas on various fora, get ideas for growing our businesses from people who are doing what we're doing.

Nick Usborne recently reminded us that there's nothing special, or more virtuous, or worthier, about being a freelancer. It's a matter of fit, and an awful lot of that fit has less to do with skills and abilities, and more to do with lifestyle and execution.

Nick runs a site called Freelance Writing Success, and puts out a newsletter that mostly goes to freelancers and freelancer wannabes. He recently posted his thoughts, heretical as they may be, on "Is the Freelance Writing Life for You?" (Note: although Nick talks to his audience as writers, most of what he has to say applied to freelance content developers of any kind, including people in the training and employee communications field.)

Besides busting the myth that freelancers are automatically better at what they do than are employees, he actually suggested that freelancing might not be for everyone!

His article lists both pros and cons of the freelance life. But if you're looking at going freelance, you've probably seen lots of the pros. In addition to Nick's cons, I'd highlight the following as the biggest challenges, what I see in people who aren't happy out on their own:

• It's a lot of work. A Lot! Think of all the things that someone else handles for you in a large corporation (phone and internet service, tax withholding, a lot of marketing and contact management, "billing" for your services), and then do them all yourself.
• It can be lonely. Some people never realize how much they miss bumping into people around the office, those random conversations outside of formal meetings.
• It's scary. There aren't too many things that will get you fired from a "real" job, but there are lots of ways you can end up with few customers, and little income, on your own.
• Marketing is a major challenge for most of us. Taking the initiative to identify prospects and ask them for business is something that just isn't second nature to most people. That's why good salespeople should be rightly respected as specialists, but every freelancer has to do sales.

My main piece of advice for the wannabe freelancer, or the freelancer who is unhappy with his/her situation? Freelance conditions aren't either-or. You don't have to either be lonely or be in an office, you don't have to either work for a large company, or handle all the billing details yourself.

In my next post, I'll suggest some ways to keep the pros in your freelancing and overcome these cons.