Freelance jobs are now taking the market by storm. More people are becoming freelancers every day. Freelancing has a sea full of opportunities and its pros and cons. However, there are also some myths or misconceptions about the profession. In this article, we will talk about the biggest misconceptions that people have when they hear that you are a freelancer.
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Making a good living out of freelancing is impossible
Some people believe that making a good profit from your own business is not possible. Such people are the ones who keep spreading such misconceptions. As per some people, freelancers cannot save money from their earnings because they earn very less. All of these are just meaningless concepts.
Freelancing is a very realistic and modern way of earning money. You can make a good living doing freelancing. It requires all the experience, skill, time, research and discipline as any other work that you will do full time. There are just a few basic differences between a full- time work and freelancing that do not make freelancers earn lesser in any way.
People become freelancers when they cannot get a good job
It is not at all true that freelancers choose this option because they are incapable of landing a great job. Some people were laid-off and some people choose this career option by themselves. It is a choice that you have to make.
It is up to you if you want to be self-employed and take the risk of doing something different. As we have discussed earlier, freelancing needs all those qualities that you will require when you for any other job interview. Freelancers are just a little more independent than others.
A freelancer is helpless when it comes to negotiation
Every entrepreneur or a self-employed person may indeed face financial difficulty at a point in time. However, believing that freelancers bid for low rates because they are in dire need of business is certainly not true. We evolve slowly in whatever we do and so do freelancers. As a freelancer, you have to start from a reasonable fair rate with a low percentage of profit.
Gradually you achieve expertise in what you do and you can bid for more. Some people have done freelancing for quite some time now and only work at comfortable rates. They only choose clients who can pay them as per their rates.
Freelancers work without any rules and regulations
Do you think freelancing means you are free to work in any way that you want? You are so wrong in that case. As freelancers, we have a lot of deadlines and overlapping of work all the time. It is wrong if people have the misconception that freelancers only relax at home. Freelancers can indeed choose to work during convenient hours of the day but not always.
However, if you do not work during the day time means you will have to sacrifice sleep at night. Not following deadlines means you will have to keep working during odd hours of the day. as a conclusion, it is a misconception that freelancers have a lot of free time. The truth is we also have workload and clients to satisfy.
Freelancers work without contracts
This is a very foolish misconception people have about freelancers. Well, a contract is important irrespective of the work we do. If we are working in a company, they give us an appointment letter that contains rules and regulations along with remuneration details. Similarly, there are contracts between freelancers and their clients. These contracts have all details about the project we are working on and the payment details. Although it does not mention specific dates of payment usually, it is anyway useful to maintain contracts.
Clients hire freelancers only when they cannot hire people from big companies
Some clients offer bulk projects that are a burden for a single person and so they want agencies. However, the same client may want to work with you as an individual for some other contract. The choice mainly depends on the volume of work and the expertise required. Some clients prefer freelancers over agencies and organizations at any time. Freelancers are more reliable as clients can get work within deadlines. They also do not have to follow-up with a lot of people. Working with one person means the responsiveness and the comfort level is much more.
Freelancers never learn new skills
There is a never-ending scope when you want to learn new things. None of us are experts in all niches. If we want to keep our A-game going, we need to keep learning new skills. This is going to increase our marketability as freelancers. We will also be able to expand our range of services and hence pitch for newer and better clients.
Freelancing is less stressful than doing full-time jobs
The truth is being a freelancer can be more stressful at times when you have several clients to cater at the same time. Not only that but you also have to handle all departments single-handedly. There are no separate accountants and managers to do the rest of the work. As a freelancer, you have to achieve deadlines, satisfy clients, manage invoices, track payments and do all that together. Do you still feel it is a lesser job to work as a freelancer?
Freelancing is more suitable for introverts
The key to increasing your marketability is through effective communication. You have to communicate and build good relations with the client. Now your clients are going to be happy, you will be able to retain them and also expand your services and goodwill. If you have a healthy relationship with your client, he will refer you to other clients also.
You cannot balance freelancing with your full-time job
You must know that you can do freelancing either part-time or full time as per your convenience. You can always do some extra work beside your daily job to learn new things and earn some extra bucks.
Final thoughts
Freelancing is a newer concept and it will take time for people to understand what it is completely. Till then it is the responsibility to freelancers to clear misconceptions. People only believe in misconceptions when they are unaware of the real scenario. We need to be patient and wait for everyone to understand the role of freelancers better.
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