There’s a scary question for you.
Who IS the author of the story of your life and career as a freelancer?
It’s tempting to immediately answer, “It’s me, of course! I’m the author, protagonist and hero of my own story!”
But is that true?
Truly, honestly, I think most of us are secondary characters in other people’s stories.
I’m a big fan of the freelance life. I should be, because I have been freelancing for most of the last 32 years.
I have raised four sons. I am raising a daughter. I have lived in two different countries and, here in Canada, have lived in four different provinces. I have worked on the kinds of projects I choose and enjoy. I can’t be downsized. I can’t be fired. And I love what I do.
What’s not to like about being a freelancer?
Let’s look at 3 ways in which freelancing truly rocks.
As a freelancer, I can focus on what I do best.
This doesn’t often make the top 10 list of reasons to become a freelancer, but for me it’s huge.
Over the last couple of decades I have been an employee three times. Each time I lasted about 12 months before becoming a freelancer again. There was nothing wrong with those three companies, but in each case I ended up being asked to do work that was not central to my core skills.
I know a lot of freelancers, and I think it is fair to say that most of them don’t much like marketing themselves.
They enjoy their craft – writing or copywriting. But they don’t like promoting their services to prospective clients. In fact, the whole process of finding prospects and then trying to turn them into paying clients is the part of being a freelancer they like least.
I get that.
A few freelancers are natural salespeople. Many of these are extroverts, and happy to jump in front of a prospect and start selling.
But what about the rest of us?
Last year’s fashions look old. Last year’s smartphones look old. And last year’s websites look old.
OK, I’m exaggerating a little. Let’s make that 5 years.
Whatever the exact timeframe, there is no doubt that any given look and feel for a website eventually grows old.
As a freelancer, or for any business, you can’t allow that to happen. You can’t have a website that looks like it was last worked on back in 2005 or, even worse, 1998.
In some ways it’s odd that website design should be so susceptible to changes in fashion. If a particular look and feel works, why change it?