The Reality of Freelancing

A freedom everyone longs for yet clueless about

People think freelancers have it all: the abundance of free time, an active social life and a steady income to go with it. What a cool lifestyle to live by… almost like the perceptions placed on rock stars in the music industry – carefree, liberating and elusive. Sadly, just like the shaky, unpredictable and tempestuous life of a rock star, that is merely the surface of a freelancer’s reality. Simply put, a misconception of a perception in itself.

Don’t get me wrong, freelancing is an ideal job, especially for those in the creative industry. You could work from home, a café or any place for that matter and at whatever time as long as you meet the deadline. Who wouldn’t want to have such an unbridled lifestyle? After a short stint at it, I realized freelancing was a struggling lifestyle with deadlines you could easily miss and bills you almost cant afford. The hardest part? Working harder.

Firstly, how do you begin as a freelancer? Having a particular set of skills and being exceptional at it is the crucial component. You need to walk the talk and you are a walking business product offering nothing short of what you’re good at and convincing others to give you a shot. And for that, you also need thick skin.

How do freelancers differs greatly from being a full-timer? Comparatively, a full-timer has more security in his job. Never short of a workload, they also receive company benefits, such as medical, dental, a parking bay, with enough to calculate for savings. However, these so-called perks come with corporate ethics, company policies and annual appraisals to keep you in check with your empoyer’s expectations and parallel with your key performance indicators (KPI).

The freelancer, on the other hand, has none of the benefits save for what he carves for his own in the form of a flexible schedule and the power and control to choose what he doesn’t want as much as what he is willing to do. While a company decides what they expect from you, a freelancer has to chisel that for himself and ultimately sell that package.

Even though they have the freedom of choice, a freelancer’s concern comes in the threat of security, a steady flow of income and time management. If they don’t go seeking for opportunities, they will falter and wither away.

“With freedom comes responsibility,” the great voice of Nelson Mandela once said, and after going through the struggles of being a freelancer, that quote may as well be your rallying cry. As you freelance, you face the difficulty of juggling between jobs, meeting deadlines that are close to one another. Due to this, a freelancer may even suffer from sleep deprivation, as they seek to entertain a number of clients simultaneously.

I see my freelancing friends – or “stringers” as the media world sometimes call them – and at times, what I see is a debacle. A struggle for survival to make ends meet, to stay relevant, and to be part of a larger community dominated by full-time employers.  They often wrestle the time to meet deadlines, scuffle with worry over financial security and brawl with their inner fear that great opportunities might slip through their fingers.

As much as opportunities are abound, there is one important note to mention: before you could even consider to be a freelancer, you need to build a reputation that can guarantee a variety of jobs landing on your lap. The freelancer can be a creative genius, but if he has no name for himself, no one would trust his capabilities, as the saying goes, “You are as good as your word”. Thus the need of a portfolio is a top priority to being a freelancer. The more people you’ve worked for, the wider your social circle. Keep all the name cards you receive and try to keep up with where they travel within the industry. Their current designation may not be much help, but their future position could. And let’s not forget the series of exposure you would have received through each gig.

But no, you don’t need to be out every night pushing the limits of your liver in order to leave an impression. Advertising through word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool, essentially when it comes to credibility. Once the word spreads through the grapevine, offers will come piling unto a resepctable freelancer.

Y-Kin Ng, 23, a freelance cinematographer and video editor, knows best when it comes to building a foundation. Learning the tricks and trades of the industry since the age of 13, he generated a massive list of contacts just through his friends. A man who is always on the go, he has developed a reputation for getting tipped as the man to go to among production houses should they require an extra pair of hands.

“The challenge is to offer the best price while producing quality work as people want the cheapest option and quality that precedes it,” he states matter-of-factly. “And never forget that there are many freelances competing for the same opportunities as you.”

The uncertainty of the future remains the curse of a freelancer. Even with a set of skills, hard times lurk in the shadows – for as time change, you have to be like water – adaptable. Requirements change as time passes by and different people do things differently and may just ask you to do things out of your boundaries. For example, you may be exceptional at writing poignant pieces, but when it comes to humorous write-ups, you fail incredibly.

Know that I’m not demystifying your dreams but simply laying out the reality of it all. Freelancing is no easier than being a full-timer, maybe even harder. Liberty is the beauty of freelancing and loyalty is the essence of a full-timer.  Whichever the poetry, hard work remains the inescapable reality everyone has to face.