Each year I guest-lecture to the Algonquin College Technical Writing Program students, giving them my take on being a freelancer (aka consultant, contractor, self-employed person who rows her own boat instead of someone else’s).
The students always want to know if/how freelancing is better than having a fulltime job for someone else. It’s “better” only if it makes you happier. And unless this career path is foist upon you—there are no fulltime positions available and you really do prefer to eat occasionally—it’s a lifestyle choice.
To help determine if this is a lifestyle you might enjoy, I’ve put together the following mini-questionnaire.
- Do you deal well with uncertainty?
- Are you very self-disciplined?
- Are you willing to work nights, weekends—whatever it takes—to get the job done?
- Do you love to learn new things?
- Can you learn really, really fast?
- Are you really good at time management?
- Do you play well with others and also work well independently?
- Do you enjoy job interviews?
- Are you good at math—or at least willing to get good enough at it to do your invoicing, bookkeeping, tax prep, etc.
There are no right or wrong answers, but if you said “No” to many of these questions, you might not be suited to a freelance lifestyle.
If you have other questions that you think should be added—or if you think any of the questions on my list should be changed or deleted—please share your thoughts in the Comments section of this blog.
Can you be alone without getting lonely? I found when managing contract freelance writers that some seemed to thrive on remote work while others dreaded it.
O.k., Peter, now you’re frightening me! I published that post about a nano-second ago!
Excellent point re. the isolation. When I started working from my home office, I quickly developed a network of other remote workers who I could call when I wanted to bounce an idea off someone–or when I just needed some human contact.
And thanks for “being there” as I find my way in the blogosphere.
I get email notifications when you post or people comment on your blog. Realistically, I should probably not choose to get personal email notifications whe I am at work, but I do think about work when I am at home, so I think it evens out. Maybe there’s a post on remote freelancing vs. onsite freelancing. Might change up the order of the questions a bit.
Hey, Peter, just because you get notifications, I didn’t necessarily expect you to pay any attention to them. So, thanks!
Perhaps these are better questions:
1) Is the idea of going into business for yourself just that, or a genuine opportunity for you?
2) Do you have the necessary capital to sustain you until your business can sustain you?
3) Is there a market for your business idea?
4) Do you have the necessary expertise to succeed at your business idea?
All good questions–from a business perspective. And valid. My questions were from the lifestyle/personality perspective, and already assumed “yes” answers to your questions.
My previous comment to your blog doesn’t seem to have uploaded. So in light of the above comment being the only comment appearing, please don’t think I’m meaning my questions are better than yours. I only meant that the questions from my second response are better than MY first response.
I wonder if we have a technical glitch.
No worries. I always welcome feedback and different perspectives.
No, I think I logged out before I pressed “Post Comment” but I think my previous questions were along the lines of: are you a networker, and if not do you have a budget to float you, etc. Still rather business oriented. I learned those things the hard way, as I already possessed the personality attributes. So those question are always upper most in my mind.