The reality of working for yourself
May 12th, 2007 | Posted in Development, Freelancing | 25 Comments
I enjoy working for myself. Being my own boss and making decisions on pretty much all aspects of running a self employed business.
Being around my family and actually being able to see first hand my little boy grow up. When I was in full time employment I literally saw very little of him during the week and so would only hear what he had done that day after I got back from work, which quite often was half an hour before his bedtime.
Fortunately, I am now in a position to be able to pick and choose my projects, decide on which direction I would like to head in and have the energy to concentrate on my own pet projects in parallel.
Despite this rosy picture, there is a side which takes some getting used to. It is something which in hindsight seems really obvious, firstly…
YOUR HOME IS NOW YOUR OFFICE
Quite often, despite the nice set up, you will have off days. When projects have taken longer than you expected, or when invoices haven’t been paid. This is when you become a right ol’ grump. In the office you would bite your lip and simply get on with it. Whereas at home it is the ones around you that bear the brunt of your grouchiness. It takes a long time to be able to separate home from work. But it is possible, like anything you need to learn to walk away from your home based office and leave all the problems for the next morning. Make a prioritised list and leave it on your desk for you to tackle first thing.
WHEN DOES YOUR DAY END?
In a typical employment contract, that would normally be around 5.30pm, I say contract as this would quite often not be the case, as a result of project delays with impending deadlines. At home, you lose sight of when you are working and when you are not. That line separating the two becomes blurry and you exist in a state of "working". Even when you think you are relaxing at home, your mind is a mix of tasks that need completing, emails that need replying to, a solution to a problem that you have been grappling with all day. This is all work related, so therefore you are still at work. I haven’t managed to come up with a way of separating the two. Instead, I have learnt to live with it without it affecting the people around me.
21 DAYS A YEAR HOLIDAY?
Only if you are lucky. The fear that drives all freelancers is having work dry up. You plan your projects one after the other so you seamlessly have a steady supply of work. As a result, it can take months till you have a day which you can call a day off. More often than not you end up working weekends to meet theirs as well as your deadlines to reduce the risk of a knock on effect. So be prepared for a long haul with few breaks.
CLIENTS NOW KNOW YOU WORK FROM HOME
As an employee when the clock ticked to 5.30pm(ish), you would put your coat on, say bye to the people you got on with and leave the building. The only way you would know if a client had called would be a post-it note stuck to your screen for you to action the next morning. Guess what? You don’t have the luxury of being able to walk away. If the phone rings at 7pm, you would instinctively answer it and the precedent would have been set… you take calls well into the evening. Even with a second line, there is always your mobile phone. This was the case when I started out. Fortunately, all my clients are brilliant in that respect and will instead either send an email or call the next morning.
YOUR OFFICE BECOMES YOUR HOME
When I decided to freelance, I wanted a dedicated office. Many years later the office is in its fifth makeover. Originally, it was an orgy of MDF and wood glue. One of my few DIY power tool purchases was a jigsaw, so it was inevitable that everything would have a fashionable nice curve. As the business grew, more space was required so began the cycle of trying to make an office I felt comfortable in and could accommodate the mass of papers, books and technical equipment. Due to the size of the room, I was unable to purchase a ready made desk so opted to build my own out of planks of wood, nails and chrome desk legs. Surprisingly, I managed to come up with an office that I can call home. The cost cutting exercise of building the furniture myself allowed me to purchase a nice, comfortable office chair which is a must since you will plonk your arse on it for a large part of your working day, i.e. do not skimp. So now my office consist of an IKEA wardrobe for storage, IKEA planks of wood for the desk and shelves with neatly tucked away computers and peripherals.
YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF YOU
Leaving the comfort of a salary means leaving the comfort of having someone tell you what your to-do list is. Working alone means you have to be the project manager, account handler and then the developer. So if you forget to complete a task, you can no longer cower behind your line manager, instead you have to face the music alone. What is required is a system of managing tasks, per client and per project. I have used many web based systems such as activCollab and Basecamp but found them difficult to maintain and update. My solution was to purchase a small whiteboard and to blutack it to the side of my wardrobe. Every day I scribble on new tasks, once they are complete I write them into my diary along with supporting information and rub them off the board. For me, this works brilliantly. This will not suit everyone since we are all different, some prefer the online solutions, I wanted a way to quickly scribble then forget till it was time to work on them. The more of my day using online systems to manage tasks took, the less I would be inclined to bother with them.
YOU ARE A ONE MAN THINK TANK
Working as part of a team allowed you to bounce ideas around. Through this you would see potential issues in your ideas and see things from a different angle and come up with alternative solutions to problems. Working alone now means you no longer have the comfort of colleagues to fall back onto. You are the R&D department. This means you have to now think out of the box more than ever. Quite often you will be presented with a problem which requires a unique solution, normally you would spin round in your chair and put it to your team… not anymore. You need to step up your planning process to take into account every possible eventuality to minify any future problems. You cannot prevent all problems, sufficient planning will reduce the time required for bug fixing and re-development. Fortunately, I have friends and colleagues that I can call upon to brainstorm with which does help.
YOU MANAGE YOUR I.T.
You are the IT support department. This means when things break, you have to fix them. Either through calling a repair company or tackling it yourself. You manage your backup procedure. So you have to make sure you have a sufficient data storage and retrieval system in place and that you regularly run backups. Remember, you have to deal with all I.T tasks, from printers running out of ink to losing your internet connection. A wise move would be to learn the basics of PC repair and network maintenance to minimise any down time. Run a separate drive for backup and one as a file server and have them networked through a router and NAS device. So if your PC does die on you, you could continue to work on a second PC since your working files are on the networked drive.
YOU PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK
Hearing positive feedback is always nice. Having spent weeks, if not months on one piece of work and not hearing anything other than a few minor bugs does weigh down on you over time. As a result, you need to treat yourself to something which marks the end of a project. Purchase something you like or take the next few days off.
YOU MANAGE YOUR FINANCES
You can always get an accountant and let them deal with all financial matters. Alternatively, to keep cost down, you could tackle them yourself. Fortunately, my wife seems to enjoy managing my finances and keeping track of how much I earn… who’d have thunk it.
This article doesn’t attempt to cover everything, I haven’t even touched on what you need to do to find work and maintain that working relationship with existing clients.
Hopefully, this will give some insight into what its like to freelance and all the day to day issues you may face.
If you want to ask anything then leave a comment. Ok, best get back to it. :)
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All of these ring true. My wife runs her own business out of our house. I would only add one additional facet: socialization. As the spouse of someone working out of the house, I think I get to play surrogate office co-worker to fill the gap of water cooler types of conversations that she no longer has. Make sure you have a supportive spouse; it makes everything easier.
Great Post !!!
When did you decide that you wanted to work for yourself? What brought you to that decision? I was let go form my current employer not to long ago and I am deciding basic what I should do. The one positive aspect of my current situation is that I recently finished a masters program (MAIT - Masters in Instructional Technology) and I will continue to receive a pay check for quite a few moths. I have applied for a positions (Temporary 12 month) close to home but I’m looking to do something more whit my Ideas and knowledge. So I have this under my belt. To be honest with you I’m very thinking about how I can turn this (http://pyschool.robj.webfactional.com/) into something down the road that will help me start my own web biz. I have a lot of Ideas as to where i can go whit this website but I am going to take some quality time to try an has out a plan.
Any advice you can give me about working for your self or turning an Idea into a business would great.
@Chris
Totally forgot about office banter. Isn’t quite the same through MSN, there are only so many LOL before it gets :boring. You definitely need that chat about the game last night or who is going out with who. So its important, despite the long hours, to squeeze out some time for R&R with old friends. To get around this there are a lot of coworker groups springing up. Basically, its where fellow freelancers hire an office and share the cost, so as well as it being a low cost solution you also get back the office banter and brainstorming. Check out if there is something similar in your area.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/27/coworking_facilities.html
@RobJ
I decided after working for several years for an agency. Things had changed to the point where the company was no longer the company I started out with. That combined with a burning desire to freelance, so on a trip to see Lemon Jelly in concert I decided to take a chance and leave. Not too sure how you can turn pyschool into a business, there are so many tutorials as well as books. Personally I would keep it free and make it your niche area and let it get you work as a python developer. Just a thought….
As for working for yourself, read as much as you can, take all the advice offered, then bin it. :) I remember all the advice I was given, and how little of it helped. You learn through doing, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes and just get stuck in. I planned far too much, and now realise it was a waste of time. One thing that did help, was having a small pot of money to fall back onto. So save up a small amount to have as backup when work dries up, takes the pressure off.
Personally, I don’t live the attitude of working by my clients’ schedules all the time. When I plan a vacation I tell them. Either they can live with it, or they can’t.
I think it’s important to learn to live with that fear without letting it drive your decisions and to accept the fact that there will be dry times, and to learn how to fill these dryspells in a useful way, e.g. by learning, finishing own projects, etc. These dryspells will happen eventually, whether you’re working your ass off right now or not.
Otherwise, great post!
I for my part haven’t regretted becoming self-employed. The freedom is all worth the effort, work and time I put in.
Very true, for the past few years I have started dictating when I will take time off. I think initially though, when starting out, no matter how many times you get told, you will succumb to the fear of losing a client and or work and live by their timetable. Its all part of the learning and confidence building process. I wouldn’t swap being self employed for anything, well, maybe being lead guitarist in a successful, stadium filling rock band. :)
Hi Fiaz. Great post mate. I’m on the cusp of doing something like this myself, and it’s great to get these insights and snippets of advice (which, based on your post, I will throw away ;) ) before I take the plunge.
Thanks for the article.
OJ.
Thanks OJ. (and take the plunge, you won’t regret it!)
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Really interesting read. I’ve just graduated from uni where I studied Graphic Design, I’m looking for a job now, but also seriously considering setting up on my own or with a mate. Sometimes I’m really tempted to go for it, just that initial foot in the door to get work seems to be the hardest part.
Fiaz, thanks for sharing your experience through this article…
Six months back, I took the plunge into full time freelancing and have never regretted the decision. It was one of the toughest decisions of my life and like Mathias wrote above “The freedom is all worth the effort, work and time I put in.”
For me 21 days of annual leave was not enough to fulfill my hunger for travel. And that was the major reason i got out of full time job. And since i started off, I’ve always shared this with my important clients. So when i go off on vacations they never complain.
I personally believe, that work is a important but small part of your our lives. And i don’t intend to become a millionaire. So i work hard, enough to save money for my travel (& my home loan). And at the end of the day, what really matters is if you are happy in life… isn’t it :-)
Cheers!
Sanjeev
Well said. I’m in full agreement having spent 10+ years in an “office” career and the last two out of my home/truck. Though, I wouldn’t call myself a freelancer I do parallel many of the characteristics.
I would just add that along with being your own I.T. department you are also your own janitorial staff, receptionist, possibly even plant waterer and so forth. Tasks that can sometimes occupy more time than you would have previously considered, can’t be ignored, and can’t be delegated.
@Phil - With regards to getting work. I read a lot about what to do , what you shouldn’t do etc. The only piece of advice i can give is to be yourself. Clients can see if you are putting up a facade of being bigger than you are or pretending that there are several of you.
@Sanjeev - I totally agree. How was the bike trip? ;)
@Chris - Yes, out of the list, i would say that being a receptionist takes more time than you think. Why? Because having a business line is an invitation for mindless, pointless cold calls from everyone and anyone to waste your time.
Basically, if you have worked for a web agency and are aware of the various roles people play, roles such as marketing, sales, caretaker, it support etc,etc. YOU have to be all of them.
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I am a freelancer, too. I like your article because it is simple, narrative and realistic.
Its all good!
Cheers!
Raman
One of the best pieces of advice I got many, many years ago was not to charge too little. It seems to me that the more I charge for a project the more seriously my skills are taken by clients. This is not to say I would recommend ripping anyone off, far from it. Just don’t undervalue yourself.
I would second that Mark. I have seen so many agencies struggle financially as a result succumbing to the fear of not winning projects therefore charging less. Then when it comes to outsourcing to people like us they expect us to also drop our prices.
Fiaz,
This is definitely true of freelancing/working for yourself, thanks for the great post.
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I just have a question for those who are freelancers. Are you able to keep up the same amount of pay that you might earn at a regular job? More? Less?
I currently work for an agency and am learning a lot & gathering ideas for when I go freelance (mainly because I will want to be around a lot more when my fiance & I start having children). But I must say, I currently make a good amount at work and am worried I won’t be able to continue on that salary when I turn to freelancing.
Hi Jennifer
There is no real answer, or way of being able to say “freelancing will allow you to earn x amount”. Basically, when freelancing, you are in control of how much you earn. Either through doing the work yourself or having other freelancers/contractors taking on the work.
Since you have to take charge of everything, you therefore dictate how much you will earn. If you feel you aren’t earning enough, identify why you think that is and make changes.
With a salary, no matter how hard you try and how good you are, you will only be paid the market rate.
I left work with a 6 month old child, mortgage etc. I was a little scared, i had no idea how i was going to bring money in. Fortunately, i had already done work prior to leaving so had clients with work ready from day one. The single biggest piece of advice i can give, one which without i probably would have really struggled, is to have work/clients in place before you leave, and have a pot of money to fall back onto during quiet periods.
HTH
Fantastic article, thanks Fiaz. I linked to it over on my art blog, Up All Night Again, because I thought it was so applicable to artists as well. We often don’t get treated like freelance professionals but that’s essentially what we are. I think it comes as quite a shock to a lot of art students when they realise that to be a professional artist, they also need to be an accountant, designer, receptionist, researcher, writer, salary negotiator and PR person as well as finding studio time.
Realy it is inspiring for a new freelancer as me. But my problem is where to find clients? Second thing is that I am a Flash Action scriptor but I am not very good in graphic designing so how can I find work on the basis of action scripting if anyone knows where to find client Please help me.
If any one have work for me in flash action scripting please mail me on bhushangholve2006@rediffmail.com
Thanks in advance………
Bhushan