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Top 4 Reasons Why People Become Freelancers

I don’t know about you, but for all the talk about freelancers not having steady paychecks, the risk is all worth it. That is, if you know how to market yourself well, because marketing ensures you have a steady stream of work.

But I’m not going to talk about marketing your services today. Let me talk about the reasons why freelancers choose to become, well, freelancers.

Here are the top 4 reasons for this.

1. You Are Your Own Boss

This may be the most classic reason that a freelancer will have in choosing this way of life, if I may put it that way. But clichéd as it may sound, it still remains true today.

Nothing beats working for yourself and without a boss hovering around your desk several times every day.

And it’s also a big responsibility. Since you’re your own boss, you decide your own fate, whether you’ll succeed or fail. That’s where the exciting part lies.

2. Your Time is Flexible

One of the things that burned me out after almost two years in my 9-5 job was the predictability of things.

I leave the house at 7am, commute to work, then clock in at around 8:30. I have lunch at 12, and then go home at 6. Imagine doing that everyday for two years and you’ll see what I mean.

But when you’re a freelancer, you are in control of your time. If you want to free up your schedule for tomorrow, you can just do an all-nighter and do all your work today. Then you can do whatever you want tomorrow.

And since your time is flexible, you can even have the time for a quick nap after lunch. I do that, and it never fails to keep me recharged so I can work again in the afternoon.

3. Your Work is Varied

I handled a variety of work in my day job. I began as a junior writer, became a news editor and then an editor in chief for one of the company’s websites.

But things were still somehow predictable because I only worked on the company’s websites. And though it helped me worked a bit faster the longer I worked on them, I also eventually got bored with it.

Now as a freelancer, I’ve had the opportunity to work with clients in different industries. The research part is fantastic especially if you’re not really familiar with the topic yet. I worked with clients in the web development, fashion, medical and insurance industries to name a few. It’s diverse and it’s interesting.

I know I will have to focus on a certain niche eventually. But even if I focus on a niche, different clients will always have different needs and expectations, so it’s still going to be exciting that way.

4. It Pays Well

Freelancing pays a lot better than my day job, that’s for sure. And it can also happen to you if you know where to find the right clients, and know where to let your target clients find you.

How about you, what do you think are the top reasons why people become freelancers? Feel free to share them on the comment box below!

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I was Featured at Entrepreneur Digital

Just thought I’d share with you an interview of yours truly at Entrepreneur Magazine Philippines’ website.

That’s where I discuss a few things about becoming a freelance copywriter in the Philippines. Some of the topics include learning how to market your services, how to stop getting scammed by online clients, and being always at the top of the freelancing game.

So if you want to find out how you can get started working at home, and earning money without getting stuck in a 9-5 job, I suggest you read this article.

By the way, thanks to Karmina de Ungria for featuring me on the site.

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Bo Sanchez of Kerygma: What You can Learn from Him about Writing

First, an introduction. For those of you who do not know Bo Sanchez, he is a Filipino preacher, founder of several organizations, and an author of several books on religion and business. If you want to know more about him, I suggest you check out Bo Sanchez’ online bio first.

That out of the way, let’s talk about what you can learn about writing from Bo Sanchez.

I first recognized Bo as a preacher because my mother’s a subscriber of Kerygma magazine, which he founded. But as I went on reading his pieces on the magazine and getting forwarded emails of his blog posts, I couldn’t help but notice how well he wrote. I became a fan boy of sorts soon enough.

And because I believe in becoming a better writer by reading works of good writers, let me show you what you can learn from Bo Sanchez about writing:
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Why Outline Writing is Important

While I was still in University, most of my professors told me and my classmates to write an outline before actually writing our piece, especially for opinion pieces and features.

Of course, the lazy ass that I was refused to follow their advice. After all, it’s much easier to just sit down, write and print. Especially if your deadline’s almost up!

The results? Let’s just say that it’s the opposite of spectacular. Good thing my professors weren’t evil enough to flunk me. And good thing there’s a time to revise your work.

But if you really want to save time on your writing, if you want to make it tight and the structure clear right from the first draft, then I would strongly recommend you to write an outline first.

Why?

Let me count the ways.

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Looking for Freelance Jobs

So how do you look for work if you don’t have clients yet? There are several ways to do it. For one, spread the word about what you do to your friends, former employers and colleagues. Tell them that you are already in the freelancing business and that you’re ready to help them if they need your expertise. Email that to them or whatever available avenue you have. Just don’t spam them, meaning, don’t bombard them with the same message in the same avenue like email, mobile phones, etc.

Another thing you should try is cold contacting. This is where you contact businesses and offer them your services. But more than just sending emails to businesses at random, you must take a careful look at each business that you want to contact. Find if there’s something in their business where they can use your area of expertise.
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Marketing Your Freelancing Business

Marketing deals with everything about selling your services. Whether you’re a freelance writer or graphic artist, you need to market your services in order to get clients.

So how do you sell your services? You can simply say that you are a writer or a graphic artist, but not a lot of people would care about that. After all, there are already a lot of other freelance writers and graphic artists out there. So you should tell them why they should choose you.
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Running a Freelancing Business

Wait, freelancing is a business? Yes, freelancing is pretty much a business because you have to market it and you have to deal with the pricing of your services and other stuff that other businesses do.

But to keep things simple, I’ll be focusing on the marketing, finding work, and pricing your services in this series.

Here’s an outline that discusses this topic:

• Marketing Your Freelancing Business
• Looking for Freelance Jobs
• Pricing Your Work

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How do You become a Freelancer?

There are no hard and fast rules to becoming a freelancer. Every freelancer had his/her own way of making the jump into the world of freelancing.

But there are some considerations all freelancers had to make before becoming what they are now. A number of the items on the list below may apply to you:

1. Do you have enough money to survive the first several months of your freelancing career?

This is one important consideration you have to make if you’re going to decide to become a full-time freelancer from scratch. Because you see, your first few months as a freelancer are the hardest because this is the point where you’re struggling to get clients (lucky for you if you already have potential clients before you make the jump) and establish your freelancing career.

So make sure you have enough money to help you get through these lean months. Financial experts advise you to have at least 6 months’ worth of your monthly expenses in the bank just to be safe.

2. Do you have the sufficient skills to be a freelancer in your chosen field?

If you want to be a freelancer in your chosen field, you must have at least a working idea of how to do your job. For example, if you want to be a freelance writer, you must at least know the basic concepts of grammar, spelling, etc. Or if you’re going to be a freelance graphic designer, you must know how to work with graphics software, be familiar with concepts and terms used in the business, etc.

3. Do you have the tools of the trade?

It’s also important that you have even the most basic tools that you need to become a freelancer. These basic tools include a phone, computer, decent internet connection, and the software that you need to get your job done. These tools will help you do your job faster and more efficiently. Imagine hand drawing a study of a logo and faxing it to your client who’s based in another country. See what I mean?

I know these things involve a significant amount of money and time. But I hope these things won’t discourage you in pursuing your quest to become a freelancer.

Remember, freelancers don’t have the steady pay checks that office employees have. They may also have to work longer hours than people with day jobs. But if you persist and succeed in this business, I’m pretty sure you won’t miss your old day job.

If you’re unsure about becoming a full-time freelancer right now, I suggest you do it on the side first and see if that’s something you like to do full-time.

If you want to learn more about becoming a freelancer let’s talk about, “Running a Freelancing Business”.

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What’s a Freelancer?

Now let’s go to the meat of the series. Let’s begin by defining what a freelancer is. And I’ll do that by checking Google and telling you the first definition I’ll come across with. Here it is. According to wordnetweb.princeton.edu, a freelancer is,

“A writer or artist who sells services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them.”

While that pretty much paints a basic picture of what freelancers are, let me give you a three-dimensional image of a freelancer by showing you some of the basic qualities they have:
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Freelancing 101

The idea for this series came from friends who were interested in becoming freelancers but didn’t know how. And since I’m probably the only freelancer friend they know, I’m the one they ask for tips on how to go about the freelancing business.

So I wrote this give them a quick guide on freelancing – and so that they’d stop bugging me with the same questions from now on.

I also wrote this for other Pinoy* freelancers (or those thinking of becoming freelancers and who aren’t necessarily Pinoy) who might not have the resources to buy books or read blogs about freelancing, or those who might not have the time to explore what freelancing is all about.

Let’s get started. Here’s what we’re going to talk about in this series:

• What is a Freelancer?
• How do You become a Freelancer?

* – slang term referring to Filipinos

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