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There has always been this romantic idea that working for oneself is liberating. You have control over your hours and workday and, surely, the money will come streaming in!!
But reality soon rears it's ugly head when you realise that money only appears when you have work and the work is completed on time.
You quickly become aquainted with learning self discipline - that all important awareness that has to be practised every day.
However, you are in good company. Its important to realise that freelancing is growing rapidly as a career choice and corporations are also beginning to realise that using a freelancer's service is often more cost-effective than employing someone permanently. The employer has a motivated, eager person who has an interest in providing the best service to him or her whereas an employee has benefits that need to be paid even when work is scarce. Employees have the benefit of completing the tasks of the day and then get to go home to family or a social life - a privilege not readily available to the self-employed freelancer.
When working from home, several challenges arise that are not always evident before deciding to persue this work path.
Let us discuss some of these challenges and some possible solutions:
1. Loneliness
I, personally, have come to realise how important social interaction can be. When a freelancer is working, he or she is alone and, to be effective, a creative freelancer has to shut out interruptions and work behind closed doors. Often there are interruptions for tasks within the home that have to be completed. Phone calls are also an interruption that can often have nothing to do with your line of business. The temptation for long chats with your neighbours and family is also a distraction that needs decisive, disciplined control.
2. Finances are not predictable
Unless you have put some money away, finances soon become a stressful monthly challenge to keep bills paid and looking after your household expenses.
Don't count on money that isn't in your bank account. There is a temptation to budget with money that you will be getting on an upcoming job. Clients can pay late or drag payment if there is a dispute.
Make a habit of keeping aside money on every payment. About 10% is a good rule of thumb. This can accumulate rapidly if done with self-discipline.
Always calculate how soon money will be returned on investment in equipment. I invested $2000 in a Wacom Cintiq 22HD tablet that quickly paid for itself in a few months.
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Obviously, there is no better place to invest time and energy than in the Steemit Community. Work hard to produce quality posts and participate and interact within the community. Not only can you get solid, positive input and suggestions, but you make money doing so.
3. The creative blank
This is a familiar monster to all creative people. Often, the work is there but can be bewildering. Having a portfolio career and juggling several projects and still honing your skills in a working day can lead to blanks in creative thinking as the mind copes with stress.
Setting goals with deadlines and action steps for three monthly, one month, weekly and daily will help you to prioritise the most important tasks as soon as you wake up in the morning.
Seek Inspiration elsewhere. Try and schedule trips to art galleries or libraries or the internet and see what others in your field are doing. Learn from the masters and see what they do. Many have their own websites and share their creative processes and offer tutorials.
4. Finding work and marketing
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In corporations, creatives are left to do what they know best - create. There is a marketing department taking care of finding business and new clients. As a freelancer, you are the marketing department!
Get comfortable with self-promotion. Market yourself through a website, email newsletters, Facebook and Twitter and, especially, through the Steemit Community. Word of mouth and networking are valuable tools to consider.
5. Finding time to run your business
It is imperative to make business planning, marketing and other tasks just as important as client projects. Ilise Benun, founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and co-founder of the Creative Freelancer Conference had this to say: "Projects and daily tasks represent the present. Your bookkeeping and marketing represents the future. If you're not taking care of your future, you'll get there and you'll be scrambling."
Set aside one day a week or an hour a day for these tasks depending on what works for you.
3. Knowing when to stop
As mentioned earlier, the flexibility of working for yourself is that you choose when to work, you can work from anywhere, you can take vacation whenever you want. But It becomes hard to let go at the end of the day. A creative freelancer is always trying to self-improve and tackle the next dealine.
Regular breaks while you’re working are crucial to remain focussed and energised. Reward yourself with a social break regularly. There you will meet new people and make business contacts as well
6. Learning to say NO
You want to please clients, but "yes" isn't always the right answer for your business. Sometimes deadlines are just impossible and attempting to meet them can be risky.
7. Finding Direction
A mission statement in most corporate environments becomes well known to its employees. You are provided with a clearly defined role with a list of responsibilities.
In freelancing, your company’s focus and your individual duties are completely up to you. Before setting out on your venture, clearly define your mission and direction, the customers you will work for, and precisely how you will do so.
8. Staying Motivated
As a self-employed person, motivation is easy because you make money. Its the other, non-billable, tasks that requires self-motivation.
Plan your daily activities into time-periods during your day and even set your cellphone's alarm to prompt you when time's up. Stick to this and you cannot go wrong.
I strongly recommend David Allen's courses on Getting Things Done.
He has helpful ideas on organising your environment and time and dispells some of the bad habits we are inclined to develop. More stuff here.
I hope this proves to be helpful to someone out there and please feel free to comment on some of your challenges!
Thanks for reading and Happy Freelancing!!