Baptism of fire for freelancers

Despite it all, freelancing is still the greatest job you’ll ever not have…

One of the biggest career decisions you’ll ever make is to become a freelancer or set up your own small consultancy or business. It’s a defining moment. It’s liberating. It’s rewarding. So, what’s stopping us all from doing it?

The obvious answer is that it’s also precarious. And never more so than right now, as many freelancers continue to reel from the impacts of Covid-19. For journalism and the comms world, the perils of freelancing were manifest as the pandemic ripped through the sector and many of its feeders including the live events industry.

At the height of the first wave of the disease in April the New York Times reported some 36,000 workers at news companies in the US alone had been laid off, furloughed or forced to take haircuts. “The news media business was shaky before the coronavirus started spreading,” the article noted, while many ad-based publications shut down altogether.

To make matters worse, according to Poynter, these figures only offer a partial picture of the devastation wrought on the industry, “because they fail to account for freelance journalists, many of whom have seen their livelihoods vanish overnight, and who do not have unemployment and other protections”.

It begs the question, Why would anyone want to be a vulnerable player in a vulnerable industry under possibly the most vulnerable period in modern history? A tough one to answer.

Silver linings, anyone?

Journalism sounds dire enough, and freelancing verges into the realms of masochism. But it’s really not all bad! For many people Covid-19 retrenchments and furloughs were the push they needed to make some drastic changes. There are others who were afraid to take the plunge into working from home or working for themselves, but realised after lockdown that they like the freedom and the hours, and they don’t miss the commute, the constant distractions and especially not the office politics!

According to a recent story in UK Tech News, “If you find yourself being either furloughed or sent to work from home, now is the time to seriously explore freelancing as a viable option.” As businesses look for ways to hunker down and survive these tough economic times, hiring freelancers and outsourcing can be a cost-effective solution, they contend.

“In many ways, this process was already underway before the pandemic hit. So, rather than panicking or bewailing your financial plight start thinking strategically. We are seeing a flush of new small businesses emerging, mostly run by home and promoted exclusively via social media.”

It all sounds like the greatest opportunity you never asked for, so there must be a catch. Newcomers to this world may need some help navigating the swirling waters of ‘independent’ work. As someone who has been a freelancer for coming on five years (this time), I’ve picked up a few lesser-known tricks that I’m happy to share here on Bruscript Media’s ‘The Business’ blog. (I won’t go into the most obvious practical things a new freelancer needs to get started, which can be found everywhere online.)

Handy hats and bosses everywhere

1) The primal watchword of freelancing, and small businesses in general, is cashflow. You need some marquis (regular) clients and to nail down fair prices for your labour (discounted for volume of work and any guarantees they can offer). Keep on top of your invoicing and don’t be afraid to follow up slow payers.

2) Forget any notions that you are your own boss. Your clients have expectations, deadlines and often unreasonable demands. (Sound familiar?) Yes, you are working for yourself, but you are also working for three, four, five … ten clients who don’t know and probably don’t care how much work you have on at any given time when they commission you.

3) You can say no to a job and feel the power tipping back in your direction. But as someone who has worked on the other side of the table as a commissioning editor for many years, being told ‘sorry, too busy’ more than a couple of times does not go down very well. All clients think they should be your number 1 priority. Sure, you can say ‘no’ every now and then, but you first have to earn a reputation as a ‘trusted’ freelancer. Explain why you can’t take the job. Too much on, not your specialty, out of town, on holidays (see later) … you can find a plausible reason. You can also team up with fellow freelancers to back each other up, but nail down some conditions of the cooperation (foremost that they don’t poach your client; an infraction that earns an instant red card in the very tight freelancer community!)

4) You’re not just dealing with multiple clients, you also have tax authorities, social-insurance-pension managers, bank managers, probably lawyers or notaries and all manner of trade associations that may also want a piece of you in one form or another. The back-office side of being a freelancer should never be underestimated!

5) You need to set aside much larger amounts of your ‘hard-earned’ fees than you could ever imagine (in some countries up to 50%). In some places you may need to incorporate and hire lawyers to set it up. Unless you are really good with numbers or have more than a vague recollection of your ‘double-entry’ book-keeping lessons from school, you probably need an accountant who can also help with many of the other set-up processes.

6) Downtimes are inevitable. Don’t panic! Use the time to improve your business presence online, expand your network, and reach out to potential clients. Develop templates for writing and refine your back-office setup. Or if you already have all that down, brush up on your languages, reshape your CV, and write stuff. Anything. Keep your 'thinking hat' handy and hone your skills. Writing is like golf or chess, the more you do it the stronger your performance.

7) Don’t believe the rubbish that freelancers are never off the clock. You can (and should) take holidays. Sure, you can keep an eye on essential emails but your main clients should even be asking you about availability during holiday seasons. If they don’t, let them know. And while you clearly can’t say ‘out of office’ any more, you can say that you’re ‘off the clock’.

That question again

So, coming back to that unanswered question, Why do it?

Anyone considering or just starting out on the freelance path needs to keep in mind that for every pain point there is probably a sweet spot lurking behind it; some missing link in the delicate work-life balance that busy people are trying to master. And it all goes back to what sort of person you are, how you view risk. Because one person’s uncertainty is someone else’s freedom.

If you’re up for a challenge, a self-starter who enjoys freedom above all things, then taking the freelance path is worth serious consideration. It could even be a saviour if Covid-19 has already dealt you one of those hands.

I hope I’ve offered some good ideas and even peace of mind to people currently going through this baptism of freelance fire. I’d be happy to update this piece with off-road tips from other seasoned freelancers (or better still write a piece and I’ll consider posting it as a guest contribution to the ‘The Business’ blog).