Is Freelancing Worth it in 2022? Answered for Beginners + (Pros and Cons).

What Is Freelancing?

Freelancing is a contract-based profession where instead of being recruited in an organisation, the person uses his skills and experience to provide services to a number of clients.

In simple terms, freelancing is when people use their skills, education, and experience to work with multiple clients without committing to a single employer. The number of jobs a person can take depends on their efficiency in completing the jobs.

Freelancing usually involves jobs sometimes called “gigs” that make it possible for people to work-from-home.

Who Is A Freelancer?

A freelancer or freelance worker is a self-employed person who earns money by providing services to multiple clients. These services relate to the person’s skills and are not necessarily provided to just businesses. Freelancers usully post gigs on freelancing sites like fiverr and upwork inorder to get employed

The Pros of freelancing.

Freelancing offers a lot of benefits, some of which aren't present in your normal 9-5 job. So let's take a look at the pros of starting a career as a freelancer.

Freedom.

Working as a freelancer means having to choose when and where to work. What’s great about freelancing is your ability to create your own schedule and choose your own hours. 

This is one of the biggest advantages of working as a freelancer.

Revenue Control.

Freelancers not only have full control of their working hours, they also control how much money they make. A freelancer can choose to either work more or less maximising and minimising their income stream as they like. This is something that most people don't have control of when working on a salary job.

Remote Work.

With freelancing, you have the luxury of working wherever you like be it from home or in any location whatsoever. This gives you more time to focus on your work and enables you to work without leaving your comfort zone. Believe it or not, remote work can actually boost productivity levels, drive efficiency, decrease stress and increase motivation. When you don’t have to worry about catching an hour train to work, sitting in an uncomfortable chair for 8+ hours, or office distractions, it makes work really enjoyable.

Experience and Networking.

This is one thing a lot of people don't normally talk about. By working as a freelancer you'll be able to gain more experience in your area of specialty, gaining more experience and building your portfolio. As a freelancer you'll also build strong relationships with high paying employers as well as other freelancers in your niche.

The Cons of Freelancing.

Where there are advantages there are definitely bound to be disadvantages so let's go through the cons of freelancing.

Financial Instability.

While freelancers have the ability to choose how much work they have to do, This comes with a major disadvantage because the nature of freelancing means that if you don’t work, you won't make money. Salary earners have the chance of going on a vacation or a maternity leave but freelancers don't.

Plus, a freelancer doesn't have the full benefits of a salary earner, for example pension etc.

Finally, freelance income is by definition uncertain. As a freelancer there's no guarantee that you'll get xyz amount of money per month. 

There are huge fluctuations in the amount of money a freelancer can make. It can go down as well as up. Having regular clients is one way to keep a steady flow of predictable income, but even this is not guaranteed. Clients can choose to drop you or cut back on the amount of work they want from you. 

If having an income that fluctuates from month to month sounds stressful to you, then freelancing might not be the career for you.

Inconsistent work schedule.

Even though a freelancer gets to choose when to work it doesn't mean they don't still follow orders. In fact, a freelancer is still at the mercy of the employer because they get to decide when the work will be done and they can terminate the contract at any time.

Freelancers are always looking for their next gig, this is the major cause of financial instability as stated earlier. It becomes a very big problem when they can’t find a job and it begins to impact their income and quality of life. 

If you’re a freelancer, you have to be proactive in your hunt for projects and new clients to build a relationship with. That is an enormous amount of responsibility on the shoulders of a freelancer.

Freelance jobs aren't long term.

As a freelancer the jobs you'll get won't be long term especially if you're just starting out. Without having a long term job then there is no way you'd be able to sustain yourself especially if you have added responsibility like a child or financial crisis.

Competition.

Freelance sites are very competitive in fact as a beginner it'll be hard for you to see any progress as most times employers usually return to former freelancers that they've worked with in the past.

Is Freelancing Worth It?

Well the answer to that question depends on you. In my opinion I think freelancing isn't really worth it in the long run. It can take months before you see any progress and the money you'll make won't be something to write home about. I think you'd be better off creating a solid income stream by starting an online business like a blog or even a youtube channel.

I'm not saying you shouldn't try freelancing in fact, I think you should. After all you don't have anything to lose Right? I'm just saying that you shouldn't rely on it. It's a good idea to diversify your income stream or do it as a side hustle.