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Going freelance
By Sarah-Jane North
Being a freelance worker is very different from being an employee. It’s riskier, but also has the potential to bring a great many rewards. Freelancing means working for somebody else under a fixed term contract, usually to complete a project.
Freelancers sell their time and skills to a client, who will pay either by the hour or a fixed fee for project completion. Most have gone out on their own having established a career, contacts and a reputation in their chosen field.
Companies employ freelance staff for a variety of reasons, but mainly to bring skills to a project that aren’t available in-house.
Freelancing appeals for many reasons, including:
- You can be your own boss.
- Often it's more financially rewarding.
- You have the option to choose who to work with and what projects to work on.
If it were the easiest and safest way to work, we’d all be doing it – but freelancing does have it’s downsides:
- Some skills are not suitable for freelancing.
- Freelances do not have the same employment rights as employees.
- There is no guarantee of more work.
- As your own boss, you are responsible for everything – lining up new work, chasing leads, sending out invoices, chasing payment, filing, accounting and so on.
- Freelancing can be lonely as you do not have the instant network of colleagues .
- If you aren’t working, you aren’t earning – there’s no sick or holiday pay .
Working freelance does not suit everyone, so before you take the plunge think carefully about what you want to achieve by working for yourself. Here are the key personality traits of a successful freelancer:
- Natural leader
- Self-motivator
- Risk taker
- Thrives on variety
- Communicable
- Entrepreneur
- Organised
Before you start, do plenty of research and make sure there is a market for your skills. Contact specialist freelance agencies in your field to gauge the demand and speak to other freelances about the work they are getting and the state of the market. You should also ask contacts whether they would be interested in employing you on a freelance basis.
Overall you need to consider these points:
- Be clear about what you want to achieve from this new working style – assess how much time and money you are willing to devote to your new business and what returns you are looking for.
- Set targets – what sort of work do you want? How much do you want to earn? How much time do you want to spend working and how much on other interests and commitments?
- Be realistic – how long can you survive if work takes time to come through or dries up?
- Assess your finances – do you have enough funds to set up your business (business costs, equipment etc)? Do you have any savings to keep you afloat until you start being paid for work?
- Seek advice on paying tax, national insurance (NI) and other financial concerns – you will need to register with the Inland Revenue as self-employed within three months of starting your new venture; you must still pay NI contributions, either monthly or quarterly.
- Make sure you have a suitable place from which to operate your business – if you will be mainly working from home, make sure you can dedicate a space to your work .
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