Ideas & Opportunities

Every once in a while, you come across people who owe their allegiance to no single employer and observe no strict office hours. They work at their own pace and don’t get regular compensation. Yet they flourish, operating outside the safety nets granted to career professionals. These individuals are known as freelancers, and you can be one, too, if you have the discipline and the drive to navigate this way of life.

Understand the industry
“Freelancer” is derived from “free-lance,” a term coined by Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott to describe a mercenary warrior. They swore their lances or weapons to no single lord, and as such, they could serve whomever they wished. Most businesses use the more formal term “independent contractors” when identifying freelancers in legal paperwork.

Freelancing means you’ll be taking on several jobs. Maybe not all at once, and very likely not according to regular office hours, but you’ll need to invest a sizable amount of time and energy in a variety of tasks. Depending on the scope of your expertise and self-management abilities, you’ll probably work on projects that have similar or different requirements.

Since you work on a per-project basis, you should expect to go through a lot of beginnings and endings. Freelancing isn’t the kind of thing you do if you want a quiet, regular pace. The only thing predictable and constant about it is the amount of juggling you’ll have to do all the time.

Decide on your field
As with any profession, you can’t work unless you actually decide on what it is you want to do. If you are a regular employee, it usually means your job description is relatively static and determined by your employer. If you’re a freelancer, your job description relies entirely on what you want to do, and how you go about it.

Freelancing usually falls into two broad categories: creative development and direct service. The former is where writers, artists, designers and musicians belong, while the latter includes lawyers, plumbers, planners and other procedural professions. People who provide direct service can be further divided into white-collar and blue-collar freelancers. Taken all together, there’s as much potential variety in freelancing as there is in the rest of the business landscape.

If you’re undecided on what path to take, examine your professional and educational history to see what it is you’re good at, and then start from there. Successful freelancers may not necessarily love what they do, but they must be good at it. If you’re torn between going with your passion or your skill set, pick the latter. You may love the idea of painting, for example, but if you’re much better at baking, you may want to build on that instead.

Like all businesses, freelancing is meant to be a profitable venture. Don’t pick a field that isn’t going to make money for you; otherwise, you’ll just be wasting your time. Freelancing doesn’t give you license to do whatever you please; it’s a framework that lets you do what you must, in the way that suits you.

“Part of the decision to work freelance is the realization that there are many different directions in which your professional growth can go,” says Rej Layug-Rosero, a freelance media consultant and project manager. “You have the freedom to choose whom you work for, and whom you take orders from, if you take orders from anyone at all.”

Build your portfolio
All professional entities, large and small, have a portfolio: a history of their greatest hits, so to speak. It should highlight their best achievements, products and services, and is the primary tool used in courting potential clients. Independent contractors are no different; in fact, having a portfolio is probably more important for them than for a big business because it’s proof that you can deliver your clients’ needs. Prospective customers will rely on it more than on your resumé for decision-making, because a portfolio shows how well you do your work.

Most freelancers don’t have a strong brand name to encourage client interest, so a strong portfolio can make all the difference between being hired and being passed over for another with a better track record. You may actually be a better choice than the next person, but unless you can demonstrate that fact, someone else will get the job. So whether you use a clear binder with photographs or clippings of your articles, or a flash drive with scanned materials, make sure you always have your portfolio and calling cards on hand.

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