Freelancing

Introduction

Freelancing is both exciting and daunting, because on the one hand you have freedom to find projects that you’re interested in working on and gain the financial reward from a job well done. On the other hand, freelancing can be very up-and-down and you are never sure of if there will be enough clients.

Reasons to Freelance

Relatively low cost

If you don’t choose to spend money on advertising, being a freelancer can be low cost and something you can do while currently employed. You can work on projects in your spare time, and if things are going well and you’re getting lots of work and enjoying it, you can look to transition to a full-time freelancer.

Location

Depending on your location you might find it difficult getting into a big city to work in a company, in which case freelancing becomes an especially attractive option.

You can work from anywhere and this makes your life much more flexible.

Effort-reward

If you are self-motivated, freelancing might suit you well as you are able to directly see the benefits of the efforts you put in.

Build a Portfolio of Work

As you come out of your studies, freelancing is a great way of building a portfolio of real-world clients and gaining experience as a front-end developer. It’s important to set the expectations of your clients and what you can do and where you’re at in your career.

Opportunities might come through friends and family connections. Be careful not to hurt any relationships with these projects, but they can be a good way of getting you started on your journey as a freelancer.

Setting Boundaries

When you only have a few clients, it’s easy to say yes to projects and try and take on as much as you can, but do be careful to set boundaries for yourself and manage your time. That can mean not doing freelancing work after a specific time, or making sure you have breaks between projects. Freelancing comes in waves and sometimes you will be very busy while at other times you won’t be. It’s good to make sure you are looking after yourself, as well as making sure you are financially covered for lean periods when you don’t have as many clients.

Lesson Task

Goal

To analyse your networks and find potential freelance clients.

Level 1

• Think about your personal network and whether there are people you know who have businesses that might websites made or updated.

• Consider businesses that you interact with regularly and whether you might be able to do something for them. You can send them an email to find out if they need some work done. It’s especially useful if you can say something like “I saw your website isn’t mobile responsive, I could update that for you”