What four years of freelancing has taught me

— Reading Time: 7 mins —

March 2024 officially marks my fourth year in the wonderful world of freelance. Four years ago, I was a fresh-faced Masters student that had just finished a trainee programme for an academic publisher and I couldn’t wait to get my first taste of trade. On my first day at a book marketing agency, I was introduced to the concept of keeping a timesheet and how to format an invoice at the end of my two-week internship. Little did I know, this would be the very beginning of my freelance career.

So, freelancing — what is it really? As someone who “fell into” this often thought to be precarious and haphazard career path with no prior knowledge or experience, you can bet I learned everything through trial and error, entirely on the job. Recently, I felt a sense of calm for the first time and was able to stop and think “hey, I’m finally getting the hang of this freelancing thing”. Of course, there’s still mountains to learn, but these four years have taught me some important lessons on solo working and self-employment that I would love to share in hopes it will help anyone at the beginning of their freelance journey or is currently considering it as a career option.

Without further ado, here’s what I’ve learnt from four years of freelancing…

1. Getting to know yourself is key

Freelancing is hands-down a crash course in self-discipline and time management, any freelancer will tell you that. What’s not often expressed is that the more you know yourself, the less you’ll struggle. The reason why a lot of productivity advice out there fails in practise is precisely because it’s not tailored to you. Now imagine if someone who knows you inside out, your strengths and weaknesses, and what makes you tick, gave you advice — now we’re onto something. Make that person yourself and you’ll have the key to productivity. Self-discipline and time management becomes a lot simpler if you know what time of day your energy levels peak and wain, what constitutes your optimal working environment, which coaxing and rewarding methods actually work on you, and which distractions you should absolutely avoid during working hours. In short, soul-searching really pays off!

 2. You are selling a service

As a one-person-show, it’s very easy to take pride in your work and let it define you. In my early freelance days, I took my work very seriously and the perfectionist in me always aimed to deliver what I thought was my very best. This can become problematic in different ways. Firstly, particularly with creatives, when you identify too much with your work, you can lose the distance that’s needed in order to critically assess your own work. This means that you may end up having a hard time processing feedback (but it’s perfect? What more could they want?) and taking client remarks personally (I’m a failure of a designer!). This will not only hinder your projects, strain your working relationships, but also hold you back from making progress on your craft. Always remember, you are selling a service. The client is paying you to enact their vision and help them reach their goals. If they are set on the ugly yellow colour, then the ugly yellow colour it is.

 3. Your network is your most important asset

Those who find the mere notion of self-marketing anxiety-inducing can rejoice! (Just me?) In the four years I’ve been freelancing, I have only started focusing on marketing and pitching to new clients in my third year and I have been in a very lucky position to have never gone without work. Granted, my experience is probably an outlier amongst other freelancers, but the only reason why I’ve had steady work these past four years is because I was lucky enough to have formed the best network of freelance friends, colleagues, and mentors to whom I owe so much. Whether it’s referring me to new clients, championing my services, forwarding me LinkedIn job listings, skill-trading, advice-giving, or lending an ear to my freelance woes — my network is my most valued asset and yours will be too!

 4. You are your own boss

Being your own boss is a lot of responsibility, it means making sure that your one employee is meeting client deadlines but also not working themselves to death. It means making sure your employee is getting paid on time the amount they deserve, it means creating and maintaining processes and systems that will let your employee work at their best, it means having the awkward conversations and making the tough decisions. Being your own boss can be a wonderful thing, but when you work for yourself, it’s easy to get sucked into your work and throw boundaries to the winds. When the inevitable burn out hits, the boss you’ll be resenting is ultimately yourself. Will you be a kind, compassionate, and nurturing boss? Or will you be a cold, tyrannic, and merciless boss? This is a question I ask myself daily keep myself accountable.

These are the top four lessons I’ve learnt in the past four years. Did any resonate with you? If you’re a fellow freelancer, what are the most important lessons that you’ve picked up along the way? Let me know by leaving a comment below. For those who love self-development books like me, I’ve left a reading list below of the books I’ve found most helpful in my freelance journey so far. I hope they’ll help you too!