What is freelancing?

I’ve always wanted to know what freelancing exactly is. What are the pros and cons of becoming a freelancer? Also does becoming a freelancer give more opportunities in any field?
Do freelancers get to work with more than one client?

Freelancer of six years here. Freelancing means being self-employed. Instead of working in a company, you need to find your own clients, determine your own pricing, provide services, and invoice them. Like everything else, it comes with upsides and downsides.

Pros:

  • You can choose your own work schedule, work wherever you want and don’t have to be in an office during a determined time. You can also choose when you take time off, go on holiday, etc.
  • Your income is only limited by your time and the prices you negotiate. It’s not a fixed fee as it is when you work for someone and have a contract.
  • At a certain level, you are able to choose the projects you work on so you can do what is most interesting to you
  • You don’t work for someone, you work with clients

Cons

  • No guaranteed income. If you don’t have clients, you don’t get paid.
  • You are responsible for everything, from marketing over communication to pricing, invoicing, chasing down payments, taxes, paying into retirement, legal requirements, everything. Unless you have the income to outsource some of that stuff.
  • You need to be disciplined. Nobody will tell you when you have to work, what work needs to be done, etc. It’s all on you.

In the end, as a freelancer, creating opportunities is up to you. You can work with as many or as few clients as you want. Not everyone is cut out for this kind of lifestyle, however, not everyone is cut out to be an employee either. You need to figure out which is the best way for you.

Let me know if you have anymore questions. I’d be happy to answer them.

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I’m not the OP but my hope is to do small freelancing jobs in the future.

Do you have any suggestions on how to find clients, beyond doing some freebie stuff for people you know?

I know about the freelancing sites, but most of the stuff I hear online is that only the big fish make money and just stay away from them

I would agree about the freelancing sites, for the most part. It can be pretty difficult to get your foot int he door to gain reputation, and a lot of the sites will turn off your profile for dormancy after only a little time.

One of the best ways I know of to get jobs is the tried and true business card. Create a good portfolio online, get some cards printed with the portfolio link, and whenever you’re in a local business that might need your services, give them a card and offer them a consultation.

It might be pretty slow at first, but most of the freelancers I know started out with this method and it has really worked out for them. Shaking hands and seeing your face helps to develop a trust with the business owner, and can make it easier to sell them on what you can do for them.

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If we think about Business in a broader, more general and abstract way,
there are three fields:

  • Product Creation: creating value, that someone needs and putting it into a product/service
  • Marketing: letting people, that need that value, know, that you can provide this valuable product/service
  • Sales: connecting the value (= product/service) with people interested in it & aware of it

If you are employed as a software developer, your job is to do Product Creation
Other people in the company do Marketing and Sales.

If you are a freelancer, your job is to do Product Creation, Marketing and Sales.

With this broader approach to business,
I think you can think about pro and cons on your own.

I don’t think its much tough to understand freelancing. A person who is worked as self-employed and find his clients his own is known as freelancer. In freelancing you can work with any of your core competency. Likewise, if you are good at making apps then just find a person who is looking for a person for app development etc. Yes, you can work with clients of your own choice and numbers. There are many freelancing sites from where you would find freelancing projects.

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Oh that’s awesome @nshep but I have another question,Is it worth doing freelancing ?