Pros and Cons of Freelancing

In this post, I discuss the pros and cons of freelancing according to my experience. I believe every freelancer has a unique story. Some people started freelancing because they wanted to move out of the 9 – 5 traditional jobs. For others, they’d lost their jobs.

Others started freelancing because they wanted to make an extra money besides their monthly paycheck. I know a couple of people who started freelancing because they were intrigued by the idea of working remotely.

For me, all I wanted was to figure out a way to money online and work at home. I was always searching for online income. In fact, I was a freelancer before I even knew what freelancing was all about.

Just like any other business, there are pros and cons of freelancing. You will need to weigh these pros and cons of freelancing and decide if freelancing will work to you.

Here are the pros and cons of freelancing.

Pros of freelancing

• Whatever your skill is, you can make money. Even if you can only use Facebook. Individuals and businesses need help from very simple tasks like posting on Facebook to advanced tasks like software development.

• There is a high degree of setting up your own working hours. Most people say freelancing gives you the opportunity to set your own working hours, but that is not entirely true. When you do freelance work, you still have a boss and sometimes they can dictate when they need your help. The good thing is that this doesn’t happen all the time so, you have a high degree of setting up your own working hours.

• You don’t need to spend on office space. If you don’t have a home office you can even start working from your bed. That is how cheap this thing is.

• Free to start the business. All you need is a service or skill to offer, a working computer and internet connection. A friend said, “C’mon Vince, it's not free! I use money to buy a computer and internet bundles.” I know you have to spend money on a computer, internet bundles, and even learning a skill. But look, you probably have all these already.

• Guaranteed way of making a stable income online. One of the best pros of freelancing is that once you set up your profiles right, and know how to place winning proposals, you are guaranteed to earn.

• Ability to acquire lifetime clients/employers. You should understand that it is a hassle for clients to get the right freelancers for their projects. So once you get a client, make sure you make them satisfied with your service that whenever they have a task to complete, they think about you. Trust me, they will work with you as long as they are in business.

• You get to learn a lot for FREE. Each client is different and they do things differently. This mainly applies to clients who need virtual assistance; they will teach you how to do the job they want to give you. –That is 100% FREE education.

Cons of Freelancing

• The stable income doesn’t come quick. The reason is when you are just starting, clients kind of gamble with you; because they are not sure whether you will deliver the job as they want. Once you meet their needs, you will attract good reviews. The more positive reviews, the more projects you will get and the more stable your income becomes.

• You constantly have to beat deadlines. Even though you get to set your own working hours, once in a while you will find yourself working late –beating deadlines.

• Growing Competition. You have to bid and impress the client before you get the job. The number of bidders is continuously growing meaning the competition is also rising. According to ‘The Freelancer's Union,  40% of Americans will be freelancing by 2020. Imagine the kind of competition that will create.

There you go. Weigh these pros and cons of freelancing and decide whether freelancing is for you. For my case, the pros outweighed the cons.
Do you have any other pros and cons of freelancing? I would like to know in the comments section below.