A workforce full of freelancers - would the world be a better place?

When the WHO announced a global pandemic on the 11th of March 2020, governments across the world implemented different lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus among their citizens. 

Naturally, an epidemic threat of global magnitude would pose numerous considerable limitations for economic activity. Many people were compelled to work remotely and organize a workplace at home almost overnight. 

However, this wasn’t the case for everyone, as many people had already adopted the concept of working remotely long before the first cases of Covid-19 were ever reported. 

Advancements in ICT infrastructure have seen the rise of a freelancer community who have adopted remote work as a modern alternative to the traditional idea of a workplace.  

This article breaks down some of the factors that have made remote work so appealing to freelancers and why it can positively impact their productivity, efficiency, and overall physical and mental health.  

Everyone Works on their Own Time

We may not like to admit it, but many of us aren’t satisfied with our work-life balance, and it’s not hard to see why. The average American employee spends about an hour commuting alone. That’s a lot of time that could have been spent working or doing something constructive. 

There’s also the fact that you will have to sit at your desk for the entire day even if you don’t have anything meaningful to do at work on that specific day. That’s where freelancing comes in. Freelancing allows people to set their own work hours, which is a very alluring aspect of remote work. 

For instance, if you like taking Wednesdays off to step out of the house and do something fun, the decision will entirely be up to you. If you have children, you may choose to spend more time with them or work while they’re in school or sleeping. 

As long as you honor your deadlines, you’ll have complete control over how you spend your time. 

Anyone Can Work From Anywhere

Freelancers are not beholden to a single boss or company. This means they can choose to live anywhere, even on the road, as long as they continue working. 

Yes, there are some freelance jobs that may require freelancers to be close to your clients. But, it’s usually because the clients want to have in-person meetings from time to time to share ideas or discuss essential items like status reports. That said, you’ll find that most freelance work is done online, which means freelancers can work with clients from anywhere in the world while being fully remote.  

Manage Yourself and Follow Your Own Guidelines

As explained in the first point of this article, as a freelancer, you’ll get to be your own boss. You’ll get to manage yourself by choosing your schedule, how much work you take on, to even how you wear, among many other aspects of how you go about your work. 

However, working remotely as you travel the world doesn’t mean you’re on vacation. You need to make sure your current clients are more than satisfied with your work as you try and find new clients. You might find that some weeks will have you two or three times as busy as others. 

People Can Diversify Their Skill Set

The reality of working traditional full-time jobs is that not many will present employees with procedural learning and development opportunities. However, as a freelancer, you may have to take on various projects that will be demanding in different capacities. 

For you to effectively complete these tasks, you will have to expand your skill set so that you can present something concrete to your client. And even if the 9 to 5 job does allow you to enhance your skill set, the learning is, more often than not, controlled. As a freelancer, you won’t have to wait for annual corporate training. Instead, you’ll get to decide what you’re going to learn, including when and how. 

Freedom to Test a Business Idea or Startup

One of the perks of being your own boss as a freelancer is having the ability to try out different ideas and grow your revenue. 

Unfortunately, this freedom is very scarce in a regular day job since most people commit a lot of their energy to their jobs, so much so that when they get home in the evening, they’re often too tired to do anything else. 

But it’s important to note that there’s nothing wrong with that. Being a freelancer also does have its drawbacks, even though successful freelancers will admit that the pros outweigh the cons. At the end of the day, it’s all about what appeals the most to you.

That said, as a freelancer, you can dedicate some of your time to experimenting and trying different offerings to see what works for you. You can even try and learn more about your landscape to expand your client base even further. After all, the income and success of freelancers are directly proportional to the efforts they put into their work. 

You Get To Decide Who You Want to Work With

One unfortunate truth about working a full-time job is that even if you get the opportunity to work on various projects, you rarely get to choose which one to work on or who to work with. 

This means you may have to work on a project that goes against your moral or ethical opinions, or you’ll have no option but to work with a client who’s too aggressive or overly demanding. But working as a freelancer means that if a client approaches you to collaborate on a project but after a close assessment, you find that the proposal doesn’t fit you, you can always say no.  

The Future is Here and Now

Remote working is a hot topic and has been for quite some time now. The demand for remote working is very much there even as companies and governments try to navigate a course out of lockdown and back into normalcy. 

So, if you want to get into the world of freelancing, a good way of going about it is to do it on the side first if you’re still working a full-time job. Then slowly, make the transition to freelancing as you build a client database for yourself. You’ll soon find that freelancing offers unique advantages unique to other styles of working.