Why I go to freelancing rather than job
There are a few key differences between being a freelancer and being an employee of a larger company. Here are some pros and cons to consider:
- There are many advantages and disadvantages of freelancing, and many may depend on your industry or line of work.
- It’s hard to find a freelance job with benefits, so what we list below mostly goes under the assumption that freelancers are not provided with the benefits that full-time workers tend to see.
- Freelance vs full-time employee salaries tend to differ all around the world and all around the country, but things are changing fast as more and more professionals work remotely.
Many pros and cons in terms of freelancers vs. full-time employees may also differ by country, so what we list below is based on our experiences as Americans freelancing for mostly US clients.
That should just about do it! What we’re talking about below comes from our own experiences having freelanced in a variety of capacities over the last decade or so.
As you know, changes in the world of work happen faster than we can even fathom, so we’ll do the best we can to list out the advantages and disadvantages, weighing the pros and cons, of freelancing as a professional.
Pro: You may get the opportunity to work with diverse types of clients.
In one year alone, I worked with various clients in my freelance business, ranging from a small tech startup to a small food industry startup to a lifestyle brand to a real estate client. The variety kept things interesting!
If you work full-time, you may be pigeon-holed into one line of work, or into one industry, and it also may be more difficult or challenging to diversify how your skills are used, especially in a large company that has a lot of bureaucracy.
Pro: You will often be considered an expert in your line of work.
If a company brings in a freelancer, they have probably weighed the pros and cons of hiring freelancers, and decided to bring in an expert.
Freelancers are considered experts in their trades; after all, most freelancers offer a service, and in order to get hired, they have to be really good at it!
So, if a company is looking for an expert graphic designer, especially for a 6-month period of time, their goal will be to hire a freelancer. If they foresaw longer infinite needs, they’d hire a full-time employee, and that is ultimately the difference between a freelancer vs. employee hire.
Pro: You can control and choose your schedule as a freelancer.
As a freelancer, I would pick and choose what my remote work schedule should look like.
Some days, I would work on my own projects — like building this website — and get to my client work later in the day. If I procrastinated (oops), I would finish up my client work at night, or on weekends, or when my schedule permitted, as long as I never missed deadlines.
This was one of the biggest differences when transitioning from working full-time as an employee, to freelancing full-time.
If I wanted, some days I would go to the nearby park and sit in my lawn chair to write articles on my laptop! It was a great way to soak up Vitamin D and get some steps in, or rather, one of the ways to weave fitness into your day when you work from home.
Pro: There’s a broader opportunity to increase your income.
There seems to be a weird and unwarranted perception that freelancers are poor and always strapped for cash. This could be true, but some freelancers are experienced, run sound businesses, know what they’re doing when it comes to money and offer their services at astonishingly high rates.
As you may be aware, working from home can save you a ton of money, and helps freelancers keep costs and time spent efficiently by scrapping the commute and leading balanced work-from-home lives.
But I’m sure you want to know if you can get rich from freelancing, or if freelancing is a good way to go if you want to make some money fast. What I will say is that it ALL depends on your line of work and how you market yourself.
You have to be prepared for all the challenges (which I list below in the second section, “Cons”), but the bottom line is that a corporate or full-time salary is rather set, with some room for bonuses, or overtime, or annual raises, and a freelance salary essentially has no rules. You could be scraping the bottom of the barrel when you begin, but you could be absolutely rolling in dough only a few years later if you choose your path correctly.
Pro: Freelancing allows you to be flexible.
Have you ever taken an interview before, and said you were flexible?
Freelancing takes flexibility to a whole new level. In fact, freelancing gave me the most flexibility I’ve ever had!
From offering to my client that I would work nights and weekends in order to take a week-long hiking trip with Dan, to working remotely overseas in Taiwan and Vietnam, freelancing gave me boundaries I never knew I could break, as a professional.
Freelancing also allowed me to envision my ideal home office for working remotely, which is something I never pictured myself doing when I worked full-time in a corporate office.
Maybe you’re interested in making working remotely and traveling a reality, or maybe you want to try freelancing while working full-time for a company. Both are possible, and it’s what makes freelancing one of the most flexible ways to work as a professional with a promising career.
Pro: Freelancers can get creative and pivot more easily.
If you know anything about our story, we started as a travel blog and pivoted into writing about remote work as we gained experience in this area.
Freelancing allows you to change and pivot more easily, in terms of your personal brand, how you market yourself and the services you offer.
Maybe you’re a marketing consultant, and maybe a client asks you to handle their social media only; however, another client may request your full suite of services, from brand consulting to running paid campaigns and running partnerships with external agencies. You could accept both clients, and hone your skills in both areas, thereby having better offerings for the future!
The wonderful thing about freelancing is that networking can also happen effortlessly if you play your cards right. You may be looking for a client one day, but the next, a client will find you!
See one of our top freelancer guides for more on how to find more freelance clients today.
