The freelance lifestyle
The life of the freelancer is often one that is misunderstood by those outside of the profession, the typical image of the freelancer being a guy/lady of leisure who chooses their own working hours, takes seven holidays per year, gets the opportunity to travel to luxury locations for work and gets paid lots of money.
Whereas this lifestyle can be the case for the lucky few, the reality is that the freelance lifestyle typically requires a higher level of commitment, discipline, and knowledge of business than the equivalent employed position. Most freelancers don't work 9 to 5, but more likely whenever to whenever, which usually means longer overall working hours. Holidays are usually restricted to fit with the work and cash flow situation, meaning that work will always dictate when it is best to take a holiday and not when a freelancer feels like it—and there is no holiday or sick pay either!
Not all is as tough as it may sound, especially if you enjoy your work and manage your finances well. Pay is typically significantly better than the equivalent employed position on a per hour worked basis, which can be good for your bank balance if you are able to secure the volume of work, whether it be from a longer term project or several smaller projects. A word of caution regarding evaluation of finances is that unlike being employed, the amount as a freelancer will vary each month depending on how much work you are able to secure—so make sure you have enough saved for months to cover where you have little or no work! This is especially the case when working on more demanding projects in which there will a time lapse between completion of the project and finding the next work source.
As a freelancer, expect to work in a wide range of places, from being invited to travel around the country or overseas, to more 'unique' places such as the company basement.
Providers of freelance projects will offer different levels of luxury to freelancers, the best often being the bigger well-known companies who have bigger budgets to spend—so if you're wanting to get involved with projects that take you to sunny places instead of the company basement, these are the companies that you want to freelance/contract with. The only issue is that these types of opportunities are much more difficult to win and you are likely to have to start at the bottom of the freelance work chain—building your portfolio and freelance experience with many smaller and usually less prestigious projects before you are even considered to be considered as a candidate by one of the bigger luxury organizations. In addition to your portfolio, you should consider looking at how you can build your network of contacts in the right places, allowing you to be recommended for the types of opportunities you desire, as they open.
