The Freelance Decision

You want to be a freelancer? This has always been among the American workers toughest decisions. That's right; I said "always", for freelance work is certainly not new. The dilemma is that the selection carries with it the same old warnings as it ever did.

Not that some caution isn't appropriate. Freelancing is still a game for the dreamers -- an opinion held quietly in the hearts of many of us. I'm not even sure that most people would say so out loud-- but never the less, this is true.

How would YOU feel if your daughter came to you and announced her plan to become a professional singer?  Even if she were an adequate songstress, could you really encourage her to take her life  down such a path ?

As another example, how would you respond if your son wanted to become an actor? The lad might have chops, but acting? I mean, might not the boy have chosen something offering a bit more security?  In short, neither of these  options would witness an over enthusiastic show of support-- am I right?  

Freelance work at ALL levels still has something of a "pie in the sky" mystique about it. Well, just watch the faces of your colleagues at the corporate water fountain when you announce to them that you are trading in the safe position where all of you have grown fat together, for seat-of-the-pants work that can't be quantified, or guaranteed. 

Freelance work, however, is not a death sentence though-- far from it. The advantages are many-- and the decreased stress levels just might offer you a longer life in which to cruise away your retirement years.

You will do the work you love to do, no staff meetings to endure, no focal reviews, no politics-- just hard work-- and the monetary benefits derived thereof.

Yes, there are difficulties, as with any business. The print shop will run short of the stock paper that you needed, the cat you were planning to use in the PR campaign caught a cold, and your client-- after driving you like a Buick-- won't pay you.

Despite these  difficulties, freelancers will tell you, almost to the last man (or woman) that they  favor the freelance life-- hands down. You'll  need to know what you are doing. You'll  have to understand that you are running a business. You'll need to be disciplined enough to put up a Herculean fight when your bed whispers the song of the sirens to lure you back between the sheets-- after the alarm clock has sounded. Yes, you will  want to take freelancing seriously.  But that understood--  what reason is there not to go for it.  

 What about you?  Are you kidding yourself-- or are you ready? What's your plan-- to go forward-- or to back out? What drives this decision? 

Drop a comment to the blog at The Freelancers Nest (www.freelancersnest.com) and speak your piece. As you may have heard-- "inquiring minds want to know".

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