Pine Turns 4: The Highs and Lows of Being a Freelancer

It’s been 4 years since I stopped working for a design agency and started working for myself as a freelance designer. It was one of the biggest decisions that I’ve made in terms of my working life, but strangely at the time it didn’t seem too daunting.

After working as an employee in the design industry for 6 years I knew that I wanted out. I was sick of working really hard for someone else’s gain and the stresses of commuting up to 4 hours per day were something that I wouldn’t wish for anyone to experience.

Like many of us in the creative industries, I felt under-appreciated when working as an employee. We’re taught to work hard and churn out results even if we’re not feeling inspired to do so. We’re often overworked and made to stay at work after hours in order to meet deadlines that we have no control over for no extra remuneration. And when we create outstanding results, our bosses usually take a huge amount of the glory.  

I thought I could go it alone and do things better myself. So I packed in the 9-5 employee work day and started the unpredictable life as a freelancer.

So what’s it been like to work for yourself for the past 4 years?

Hard.

Ok, but what’s it really been like?

It’s been incredibly rewarding at times. When you’re busy and you’re hustling and everything seems to be going in a positive direction then there’s no finer feeling than working for yourself.

But when things (or a series of things) go wrong, and you’ve got no colleagues to turn to for help, it can feel like a heavy weight is crushing you. I can't count the number of times I've almost given up! But don't let that deter you.

Let’s break it down into some Highs and Lows:

Highs:

• When you’re working hard and there are projects in the pipeline then there’s no greater feeling than working for yourself.
• Winning my first pitch for a project gave me so much more confidence in myself as a freelancer.
• Just doing things yourself, and not relying on a ‘boss’ to give you orders is liberating. If you trust yourself to do things off your own back then you’ll love freelancing.
• The flexibility that freelancing brings is great. Want to take Thursday afternoon off to go for a hike in the sunshine. Sure, go for it.

Lows:

• Money is always a constant worry. Unless you have a string of retainer based clients, then money and cash-flow can be a real burden.
• Finding your ideal hourly rate or fee is so hard! It’s taken me a long time to work out fees and rates for work.
• Because you’re freelance, clients can assume that you work all hours of the day, or even weekends. Be strict about your working hours!
• No project is guaranteed. I’ve found this too many times.