Freelance Career: Only Do What I Want?
July 20th, 2010 by Michael Kwan
In an ideal world, yes, one of the big perks of being a freelancer (as opposed to someone employed only by one specific company) is that I have greater choice in terms of projects and assignments. In an ideal world, the clients would come pouring in with requests and then I have the simple task of picking and choosing exactly which I want to do. Sounds great, right?
Well, it doesn’t quite work that way. There are bills that need to be paid and a living that has to be made. As a result, there are going to be times when I take on projects that are less than captivating. Yes, I still get to write on many of the subjects that interest me — technology, social media, video games — but there are also topics that aren’t as interesting, at least to me. Some keyword articles, for example, can be somewhat tedious to write.
Even when I work on projects that well within my realm of interest, I still have to deal with the business side of the equation. Accounting, taxes, customer service… these tasks take time and they can sometimes be less than pleasant. There are some freedoms, but it’s not like I’m completely shackle-free either. This is still work, even if it has its share of fun moments.
At the same time, it is through my freelance career that I have been able to explore some topic areas that I may not have otherwise explored. From asbestos poisoning to green home standards, these subjects certainly hold their merit as well. I’m not in school anymore, but I still aim to learn something new (almost) every day.
Moving forward, it makes sense to shift from services to products, though that can open a really big can of responsibilities and challenges as well. It’s an entirely different world when you are marketing your own product, rather than writing articles for a client. If successful, however, it could prove both more lucrative and more time-efficient. We’ll see.
Tags: finding work, freedom, work at home
Filed under Freelance Writing.
Your right about the fact everyone thinks we have all this time to lay around and do fun stuff. Working for yourself is hard and when you move into new areas it doesn’t get any easier.
Doing all that work on subjects that may not fully interest you; in fact, broadens you and you definitely learn new things.
Just the process of doing research for your subjects can teach you new things that you can apply towards researching the subjects that you love to talk about.
I believe that people are rewarded based on the effort that they put into things If you give 110% you’ll get 120% back!
Well said. It’s important never to stop learning and tackling different subjects is a great way to gain some new knowledge.
[...] wherein the parts you love far outweigh the parts that you don’t. You won’t only be doing what you want, but the parts that you love will make your choice worth it. Do I enjoy dealing with the accounting [...]
Tochduwon! That’s a really cool way of putting it!