This article is about the advantages and disadvantages of being a freelancer at your early 20's, particularly freelance web developers. You're either a fresh graduate or a college student.
Note: This is my personal opinion as a 21-year-old freelancer.
Cons
1. Difficult to support the client. As a fresh grad, you're probably still inexperienced, unless you are an achiever, attended a lot of conference events, and already had a face-to-face conversation with professionals.
While starting to enter the freelancing world, you'll find it very stressful to support the client. You are unprepared and inexperienced when it comes to dealing with them.
Clients are very demanding, and clingier than your partner. They will always chat or email you anytime. And of course, you have to respond within a minute and fix whatever the problem they found out.
2. You will work on your own, nobody will manage you. From project meetings, project management, project development, and invoicing.
Plus you have to pay your own tax, insurance, etc. Isn't it overwhelming to work for all of these knowing that you're just a fresh grad?
3. Working environment. You will work in the corner of your room. No social life such as daily face-to-face conversations with other professionals. Or you can go to a co-working space where you can hang out and work with other developers. But the co-working space is surely expensive.
4. Nobody will support you. As developers, we need a team and of course, a team leader. Having them is the easiest way to learn, you can ask them and they can help you anytime. But as a freelancer, you will work on a project on your own. You make a mistake or have an issue, you find a solution, and you solve the problem.
5. Overdue payment. If your client is a company, expect that they are busy and barely have time to review the invoice you sent. It may take two weeks to one month before you can get the payment.
They ensure that the progress is worth the pay and their money is not just going out of the window without getting in return. And if you are using PayPal to get the payment, it's another hassle. It will take 3 to 5 business days to transfer the payment from PayPal to your Bank Account.
Pros
1. Very rewarding when it comes to payment, especially if you're in the Philippines. Let's say your rate is $5 per hour and you will work 7 hours a day, and 5 days a week. The average equivalent of 1 USD is 50 Pesos so you will have more or less 35,000 Pesos gross income a month. It's not bad for an entry-level developer in the Philippines.
2. Flexible time. You can work any time of the day as long as you meet the deadlines. I sometimes worked 10 hours a day and I will charge them for 8 hours, so there's a 2-hours discount. And I sometimes work for only 6 hours.
But this not applicable to all clients, some clients may request you to work based on their working hours. Even though you have to follow their working hours, at least nobody will stand behind you to check if you're working efficiently.
3. Work from home, less hassle. No traffic congestion, no transportation problem, all you need to do is to wake up on time, take a bath, prepare your breakfast, and sit in your workplace.
4. Household chores immunity. This is only for those who are living with their parents. This is my favorite advantage of being a freelancer haha. Your family knows you're working and making money so they will do the chores for you!
5. Work anywhere. Since you are working remotely, you can work anywhere and travel as long as there's free and hi-speed wi-fi connection on the place.
I provided five advantages and five disadvantages. Perhaps you are confused whether you will still continue to become a freelancer or not.
Just go after what you want.
My Advice if you really want to become a freelancer: To make it easier, you should work in an office-based company for at least 6 months to 1-year before entering the freelancing world. And of course, you should be in a related position. Because you will learn a lot in your first job, and it will introduce you to how the web development industry works.
This blog post was written on August 11, 2017.
Images were captured and edited by the author.