Fed up of 9 to 5 job? Sick and tired of confronting your domineering Boss? Definitely freelancing comes as an escape for you. But, BEWARE!!! If you are planning to surrender yourself from your routine job and switch to freelancing, you need to consider few facts. Let’s see what are they?
Quitting 9 to 5 job to take up freelancing career can be a wise as well as tricky decision. The positive aspects of self-employment have encouraged many employees to resign their daily job and switch to freelancing job. Earlier, self-employment was looked upon as an uncertain career idea but with myriads of freelancing choices available, it has currently become a fruitful profession.
The pay scale may not be fixed, as you may either get paid high or low but apart from this, you can enjoy its boundless advantages and take pleasure of tension-free work environment as you will be your own boss. “A rolling stone gathers no moss”, you cannot just blindly quit your job and rush to freelancing because if it fails, you will be left jobless. Thus you have to be watchful and do appropriate pre planning.
Here are some facts which you need to know before you kick off freelancing career:
Keep a financial plan ready before leaving the routine job:
Aspiring freelancers often tend to forget that financial aspect play an important role before commencing any business of your own. Remember, as you are the sole proprietor, you have to bare all the financial needs.
- As a fresher, you may not understand the budget requirement for per day hence you have to plan your finance well
- You have to differentiate between your professional requirements and personal financial needs
- At the beginning, you do not know how much you may earn or how much funds you may require thus it is advisable to keep at least your 6 months’ salary on side so that you can use at the time of emergency
Being boss is not as amazing as it seems:
One of the most alluring aspects of freelance job is to be your own boss but it is not as easy as it seems.
- With powers come responsibilities, thus if you are the person in charge then you have to manage all the official work efficiently
- In office environment, the work can be distributed or assigned to other employees but in freelancing job, you are working single-handedly, so you have to manage all the tasks, right from communicating with clients to negotiating, managing time to problem-solving, you have to do everything on your own
- Celebrating on success will help you to recognize the goals completed and motivate you to work better
Get skilled in billing and invoicing:
Billing and invoicing is significant and most complicated task of freelancers.
- Since you were an employee, you may not be well-versed with the invoicing process but as a freelancer it is very essential to be familiar with the accounting process or else you will find it difficult to quote the clients and get accurately paid for the work
- You should make a habit to call and inquire about your payment with the client or else you may suffer in business
- There are various invoicing apps available on web among which you can choose that suits the best for your business
- Billing software assists you in accounting process and makes your work much easier
Turn your home into office:
Home is the best environment for working comfortably.
- You can work as per your convenient time and however you want, nobody is there to rebuke or restrict you but this can work as a disadvantage too as you can become lazy and work leniently
- Even if you work from home, you need to set some rules, so that you get productive results
- Eliminate distraction like mobile, television, door bells, telephones, emails etc. to concentrate in your work properly. Do not entertain your family or friends during your working hours
- Even if you are working from home, create an office environment so that you get maximum productivity
Whatever is your profession choice under freelancing, you should always try to learn something new to upgrade yourself as a freelancer. You should keep abreast of latest technology to stay ahead of the competition. It is crucial as a freelancer to relentlessly amplify your proficiency and efficiency to be successful.
