Beyond the Rhetoric

Ever since I embarked on this little journey of mine, not once have I regretted my decision to become a freelance writer. There are certainly disadvantages to taking this career choice, but for me, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. That’s not to say that freelance writing — or freelance web design, coding, or whatever else — is for everyone.

Before you decide to give freelance writing a try, you may want to consider some of the questions that I outline below.

1. Do you have enough savings to endure your growing pains?
The reality is that you will not be making a full-time income right from the get-go unless you happen to be both really talented and really lucky. It can take several months, or even a year, before you secure enough contracts and clients to make up what you believe to be a regular full-time income. People won’t know who you are and you wouldn’t have established yourself as a niche freelance writer yet, so be prepared to dip into your savings for the first little while. Also be aware that you’ll need to survive the ebb and flow of your income, unlike the steady stream you get from a salaried position. Are you prepared for this?

2. Are you organized, motivated, and self-driven?
Because you won’t really have a set working schedule or a boss breathing down your neck, motivation becomes a huge factor in your success. It’s far too easy to slack off and not get your work done in the best and most timely manner possible. Furthermore, staying organized is of critical importance. Keeping accurate records, remembering which projects for which clients are due when, and staying on top of all the other menial tasks can be a challenge. You may think you’re motivated and organized, but that tune may change after a few months of working for yourself.

3. Are you comfortable with all the other roles you’ll have?
You may be an exceptional writer, but how are you with accounting? Customer service? Sales? When you run your own freelance writing business, you’ll be wearing a lot of different hats. In addition to the actual writing, you’ll need to keep track of all your customer’s invoices and payments (accounting), appease unhappy clients (customer service), and solicit new customers on a regular basis (sales). And then there are all sorts of administrative things to do too. By contrast, when you work for a big company, you typically get pigeon-holed into a few select tasks. With freelance writing, you do it all (unless you can afford to outsource).

4. Can you find a healthy life-work balance?
As mentioned above, motivation can become an issue, but so can finding a healthy life-work balance. Because you can make money at any hour of the day, you could feel like you should be making money every hour of the day. I don’t know about you, but an intense feeling of guilt can sometimes rear its ugly head when I’m not working. The laptop is right there. I could be making money. Don’t forget to take breaks (but not too many) and enjoy life, while staying as productive as possible. Burnout is really easy, so be careful.

5. Do you really love writing?
This sounds obvious enough, but you’d be surprised how many potential freelancers realize that they don’t like writing as much as they thought they would. When you’re blogging for fun, writing comes easy. When you’re producing countless articles on a daily basis, the task can get pretty exhausting. To be a successful freelance writer, you’ll really want to enjoy writing, because you’ll be doing a lot of it. If you can manage to update your blog on at least a daily basis, you might be able to handle the load of a freelancer.

These questions are by no means exhaustive, but I hope I offered a glimpse into what you should think about before considering a career as a freelance writer. It’s not for everyone, but those who love it, love it a lot.

Filed under Freelance Writing.